Present: 217 Years Post War

"Good afternoon, Captain."

Melara and Daenys were standing on the veranda of a Presidium café, the false sunlight of the Citadel station as bright and cheerful as any summer Earth morning. It had been two days since the ceremony and funeral in New York, and this coming evening marked yet another ceremony on Shepard's behalf, here on the Citadel.

Two statues were set to be unveiled. Melara had seen the design schematics for both though had not yet laid eyes on the finished products. The first was to honor her father's status as the first human Spectre and savior of the Citadel. It portrayed Shepard in full hard-suit, looking all noble and dashing, of course. On her left shoulder, the symbol of the Spectres replaced the Alliance insignia. The base at her feet held a small plaque that described (in brief) her achievements, topped by four words: Devotion, Duty, Honor, Sacrifice.

The second statue was really part of a memorial wall that would stretch on a bridge path over the Presidium lake. The wall held the names of those who had died fighting in Hammer and Sword, and those who had perished on the Citadel when the Reapers had overtaken it. It was meant to be a symbol of the sacrifice all the species had made together in ending the war, and to signify the ongoing galactic unity borne out of Shepard's efforts to join them against a common foe. Along the wall at regular intervals were bronze cast reliefs of each species-krogan, hanar, drell, turian, elcor, volus, etc. For obvious reasons most were not life-sized. They were also generic, representing all of their kind. Only one had a real identity, a recognizable face.

Shepard stood at the right end of the wall, twice the size of the others and again dressed in an Alliance uniform. She looked as she had on the promotional posters the Alliance had put out after her 'death' when the first Normandy had been destroyed- noble, gallant, with a distant, determined look on her face.

The figure that flanked the far left of the wall- also twice the size for balance reasons- was there to represent the asari. Though it, too, was meant to be generic, in looking at the schematics Melara had been unable to help mentally placing her mother's features on the wise, almost wistfully serene face.

The unveilings were tonight. They would be filled with much pomp and circumstance and expansive crowds. Melara just wanted to get it over with so that they could go home…bid their true goodbyes to Del Shepard and mourn in peace, away from all the eyes, flash, and noise.

She had escaped with Daenys to this café to catch a few moments, try and center herself again. Liara was napping under the watchful eye of the others. It seemed to Mel that Liara napped far too often these days, but she could not blame her. At least in dreams Liara could still be in the arms of the one she loved.

That 'Good afternoon, Captain' had ruptured the warm bubble of escape she had been forming, and she scowled a little as she turned to face the volus who had spoken…before she realized who it was.

"Madame Councilor-"

"Evah," the volus corrected kindly, walking over and reaching up to take Melara's hands gently. "To you, child, it is always Evah."

"Evah," Melara replied with a nod. "It is good to see you again, but I imagine you are incredibly busy with all the goings-on?"

It was slightly amusing that Evah insisted on calling Melara 'child'. Melara was, of course, several decades her elder, but Evah was in high middle-age as far as her species considered things, whereas Melara was comparatively only a maiden still. Evah was a good family friend, as her mother Niveh had also been. Her grandfather, Yoh, had fought with Del and Liara both at the battle for the Citadel and on V-Day. Mel only vaguely remembered the old volus, and her father joking with her mother that it was astonishing he'd finally settled down with one of his own kind and not a human or a turian. Apparently, Ashley Williams had at one point broken his heart?

Evah Beiti had followed in her grandfather's footsteps, breaking most volus stereotypes and eventually becoming the volus representative on the Council. Her daughter, Villi, had taken things even further. Not ten years ago, she had become the first volus Spectre. She would stand with their number that night as they honored their fallen comrade at the unveiling of Shepard's statue.

"Yes, I am busy," Evah said. "And I wish I could say that I am here only to offer my condolences to an old friend, but it is not entirely true. I am here on business, as it were. I know that you have declined our invitation before but I urge you to reconsider, Melara. We want you as a Spectre."

"Evah, we have been over this. Is it me that you want, or is it my name?"

"Mel, sit with me a moment," Evah replied with a sigh, directing the asari over to a table. As they sat, she folded her hands in front of her. "I know that you are afraid that you are being offered this because of your father, may the Light ever hold her. It isn't true. You had top marks coming through the Junior Academy. You are the first asari ever to officially join the Alliance, to attain the rank of N7, and to command a ship as captain."

"I know, Evah, but I would never have gotten into the Academy, or the Alliance, if it weren't for my parents-"

"No, Mel. It's true, Del Shepard's name and contacts may have gotten you into the Academy, but everything from then on out was all you. You are the one that earned those marks, not your father. You are the one that endured grueling training, not your father. If anything, having Shepard's name made things harder on you, not easier. They expected more out of you, and you not only gave it to them, you exceeded their expectations. Your father was not on Fersi 4. Your father did not clear the pirate and slaver colonies along Balkensi's Front. You have earned every accolade and every stripe that has been given you, Melara. All things being equal, if you had any other name, any other parents, we would still be offering you a position as Spectre."

Daenys, who had been lingering nearby and politely remaining silent, reached out and put her hand on Mel's shoulder.

"It's true," she said. "You got yourself to where you are, Melara. At least think about Evah's offer?"

"I understand there is a lot going on right now," Evah said, not lacking compassion. "For as much noise and show as the rest of the galaxy makes over losing their hero…you lost your father. Take the time that you need, however long that you need. We can be patient. But if you turn it down please…turn it down because it is not what you want for yourself, and not because you are afraid it is poorly offered."

Mel inclined her head a little. "I will consider what you've said, Evah. Thank you."

"You are welcome, child. Now, I do have much to attend too. I will leave you for now. My heart is with you, Melara. Please, extend my deepest sympathies to your lovely mother."

"I will, thank you."

After Evah had gone, Mel and Dae left the café and headed down to the Presidium proper. Mel had the same dark, brooding expression on her face that Shepard used to wear when she found a thought particularly troublesome. Knowing there was nothing she could say to help ease her love's burden, Daenys only held her hand.

"I am sorry I'm such a mess lately, Dae," Melara suddenly said as they stopped by the lakeshore. The crowds were already growing thick, the Citadel hosting throngs of well-wishers and mourners from around the galaxy.

"If anyone has the right to be a mess, it is you right now, Melara," Daenys told her. "And you are not so much a mess as you think."

"I just…I miss her. She was always indestructible, you know? I just…." She sighed and shook her head. "And seeing Mother fading like she is…"

"Your mother is strong, Mel. Yes, she is suffering right now, and it will take its toll, but she is incredibly strong. She will go on, and in time she will learn how to love again. She knows that Shepard would not want her to let this destroy her, and for that alone, she will not let it."

Melara looked out over the lake, and Dae put her arm around her waist, leaning on her. "She was smiling and laughing a little last night," she reminded her love. "It was faint, and brief, but it was there."

"Yes, it was," Mel admitted, then looked at Dae with affection. "Thank you."

"Hey, par for the course when you are endlessly terrific and unbelievably amazing."

"Oh, is that so?" Mel smirked a little, before she leaned in and briefly kissed the other asari. Dae smiled, holding her close.

"Right on the Presidium," she tsked. "Scandalous, Captain. What will people think?"

"They'll think, 'how did someone as gorgeous and dashing as Captain Melara Shepard end up with such a dusty old-'"

The friendly barb died on her tongue as she happened to glance over Dae's shoulder, spotting a face through the shifting crowds. Instantly she stiffened, her hand dropping to the side arm at her waist as she stepped around Daenys, her strides firm and determined.

"Mel? What is it?" Dae followed her, confused.

Reaching the edge of a shop, Melara didn't hesitate, not even to wonder why Athena simply stood and waited for her. With an angry growl, Mel's hand wound in Athena's tunic and she hauled the other asari into the space between the two shops, out of direct sight, before slamming her against a wall.

"What do you want?" she growled furiously.

"Hello again to you too, Mel," Athena said gently. "Please loosen up, I would like to breathe."

She didn't have to ask. Athena could take Melara apart with barely a flick of her biotics, and Mel knew it. Stiffly, she released her grip but didn't step back.

"What do you want?" she demanded again. Dae, solemn and silent and watching them warily, lingered only a few feet away.

"I am here for the same reasons as everyone else. To pay my respects-"

"Respects? It was against my better judgment that I allowed Irie to bring you to Virmire, and what you did very likely caused my father's death-"

"Mel, you know better than that," Athena said. "The chances of your father surviving the night were incredibly slim as it was. You knew that. That's why you and Irie were even there in the first place. I had no want or desire to hurt her or to shorten her hours, believe me, but it was her choice, and she accepted it. Because she did, she may have saved even more lives in her last few hours than she did in her entire life prior!"

"You have proof of this? You found the proof you were looking for?"

"No, of course not. I have nothing concrete, I told you, and it will take me years to decode the nanite sample-"

"So you have nothing but your goddamn gut feeling to tell me that you didn't cut her hours short needlessly."

Athena let out a sound of frustration, then wiped a hand over her face, steeling herself before speaking again. "Mel, I am sorry. I have said it a thousand times and I will say it a thousand more. I am sorry. But hating me is not going to bring her back, and it is not going to change what I know in my heart to be true."

Mel scoffed and Athena grabbed her arm. "Look, you remember Orthrus? Your parents' friend Wilcher…that whole madness with the Red Queen?"

Mel stared at her. "I remember."

"Those creatures- the Queen and her kind-…your mother believed them contemporaries of the Reapers, that they were possibly the very hands that built this Citadel-"

"They were monsters, beasts. Mindless and raving-"

"Yes, they were…because they had been trapped for billions of years, Mel! There are signs and clues out there…they are tenuous as spider thread and incredibly rare but they are there. I am not paranoid or insane, no more than Shepard was when she tried to warn people about the Reapers-"

"Do not compare yourself to her! You are nothing like her!"

Athena's anger seemed to melt into hurt for a moment, before it solidified. "Fine. Fine, Mel. You do what you need to do, all right? I did not come here to fight and I did not come to convince you. I only came to pay my respects."

"You were nothing to her, Athena."

"Perhaps not, but she was something to me. Like it or not, Mel, she is the reason I have life…the reason any of us do. It is my galaxy too, and she is still the one that saved it so that I had the chance to be here. I will mourn her and her sacrifice whether or not you approve."

Mel glared at her, but when Athena made a motion to leave, she stepped back and did not stop her. Moments later, after the Shadow Broker had melted back into the crowd, Dae gently put a hand on her arm. Melara forced her clenched fists to relax, and closed her eyes.

Liara sat on the edge of the bed, the heavy, headachy weight of her unrefreshing nap resting stubbornly behind her eyes. Outside the room, she could hear the low murmurs of her family but for the moment she was alone.

Alone.

She had not felt alone in such a long time, not like this. When Del had gone, she had taken half of Liara's heart and soul with her, and left only a hollow ache in their place.

"There is no feeling quite like it, is there?" A soft voice asked from the corner of the room, near the closed balcony that overlooked the Presidium lake. Liara said nothing, and the owner of the voice straightened and looked outward onto the sunshine and green. "That loss. That absence. That horrible pain of being ripped in half, a vital part of you stolen away forever."

"You felt it far too young," Liara said softly. "It was a cruelty you should not have had to bear."

"No. But you are young, too, Liara. And I am so sorry for what you are feeling now."

Liara got to her feet and walked over to the door, looking outward as well. Despite her frequent naps, she looked worn and weary, as if she hadn't slept in days. "I was not expecting you here."

"You are still my sister, Liara."

"Yes," Liara whispered gently, then looked over at Eír. She did not ask how the other asari had gotten in. It didn't matter. Reaching over, Eír took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

They both looked out at the Presidium for a while in silence, before Liara spoke again. "Your daughter paid us a visit on Virmire."

"Yes, I know. I did not know she was planning to do so until she had already been and gone."

"She seems to think there is some greater danger out there than we realize, some threat. I do not want to believe her. It has been more than two hundred years since the Reapers were destroyed. Surely if a threat remained it would have appeared by now."

"You do not want to believe her…but you do, don't you?"

"Yes," Liara said sadly. "At least, I believe that she believes."

"Athena is smarter than I," Eír replied. "I know she has made her mistakes…that was my fault. I…was not the best mother. I did not even understand who I was, so I could not help her to know who she was."

"You regret her birth?"

"I regret the timing and the manner of it," Eír admitted. "I love my daughter, Liara. I always wanted to have children, but having her when I did…it was foolish. I was still lost, so angry and confused and desperate to find my purpose. I thought a daughter would give me that purpose. It was selfish and short-sighted of me."

Liara looked at her sister. They did not talk often, and she had never asked her exactly how Athena had come to be. She didn't know who her niece's father was. As the Broker she could have found that information eventually, but she had not tried to look.

"This pain that I feel," she said slowly. "I know that you felt it when you lost Shrive. I…I pray that you have not felt it again."

Eír smiled faintly. "Is that your tactful way of asking about Athena's father?" she asked lightly, then shook her head. "The questions that must have gone through your head. Did she find a new love? Was it just a one-time thing? Are they alive, are they not, are there more daughters than Athena…?"

"Are there?" Liara asked, lifting her brows.

"No. No, Athena is the only child I have and the only one I will. I cannot do to another daughter what I did to her-"

"You were young, Eír-"

"I may have matured and overcome the tragedies of my past, Li, but I can never overcome what I am…what my children will always be. Athena is not an asari, however she appears. She never will be. What happened with Melara proves that. She faces rejection, isolation, loneliness, because of the abomination of genes that she got from me, that I got from Gellian. I cannot pass this curse on to another, Liara."

Liara looked at her sadly, and Eír sighed, looking downward a moment. "It may surprise you to know that her father is another asari. Athena does not look pureblood, I know-though I suppose technically she isn't- but that is thanks to me and not her father. It may also surprise you to know that I did love her father…and that I still do. She is alive, but our situation is…complicated."

Liara felt relief, a hope for her sister. "I am glad that you love her, and that she lives. Does she love you as you do her?"

"Oh yes, without a doubt," Eír said softly.

"Then you do not need to fear this…'curse', as you call it," Liara said. "You can have more daughters, Eír. If your love bears them instead-"

"No. It doesn't work." Eír looked at her. "We tried. For some reason she is unable to map my DNA properly or…something. She has had three miscarriages. They do not last past the first few months and they are…deformed. Her body rejects them. After the third it was more than clear none would ever succeed. We stopped trying."

"Oh, Eír. I am so sorry…"

"This galaxy is an unfair place, Liara. You know that as well as anyone. It is hard, and cold, and incredibly unfair. But there is good in it, and light, and love, and hope. Your Del saw that. That is why she saved it. That is why Athena is trying to keep it saved, because she knows this as well."

Liara nodded, her eyes gloss though no tears fell. She had cried so much in the last few days, she wondered that she had any tears left within her at all. "I hope she is with you for the rest of your life, Eír- your love. I hope you never have to lose her, as you lost Shrive."

"That is my prayer, every day." Leaning over she kissed Liara's cheek gently. "You will never stop loving her, Liara. You will never stop missing her. Not a day goes by when I don't think of my beautiful Shrive and the love that we had. But I can promise you that it will get easier. I pray that someday you are able to find someone that makes that pain a little less, and reminds you of the joy and happiness that is still possible in this life."

Liara nodded, appreciating the sentiment even while her heart whispered that it was a lie. Her promise to Del rang through her mind, and she felt almost staggered under the weight of it. How could she find someone else? How could she ever love someone else? How could she be held by anyone and feel even a tenth of what she had felt with Shepard?

Eír left a short while later, and Liara stood in the afternoon shafts of sunlight, watching the distant tiny crowds and the vibrant colors as she tried to remind herself how to feel again.