AN: Short chapter for you guys, but you got a decent sized one on Friday.

Next chapter will probably be Friday again. I might just bump the schedule up to two chapters a week. I kind of just want it finished...

Thanks to everyone who reads, with special thanks to everyone who follows/favs.

And super special thanks to 2kinds from DA for betaing for me!

Hope you guys enjoy!

Chapter Thirty Four - Ghosts

The Citadel - C-Sec Executor's Apartment

2253 - 57 Years After the End of the Reaper War

"Okay," Riina said, holding up her hand to halt the story. "That I did not need to hear."

"You're the one who wants a comprehensive telling of the end of the war."

"Yeah, I don't see how her sex life is relevant to me finding her."

"That's because I haven't gotten to that bit yet."

"Look, all I'm saying is that maybe a little bit of editing wouldn't go amiss."

"Riina, if you want me to cut out all of the aspects of the story that might upset you, I won't be left with much to tell you. In fact, we could just end things here."

Riina rolled her eyes, not even bothering to respond to his thinly veiled warning. "You know, for a guy with so many stories to tell, you sure don't have many pictures up around here. Or any, actually."

He shrugged at that. "And how many pictures do you have hanging up in your ship?"

"Touché…"

"I'll admit, I used to have a lot more but… I didn't really want constant reminders, you know?"

"Yeah, I know."

"I do have some still saved to my omnitool. Videos too." He brought up his 'tool and sent her the files.

Riina sighed but brought up her own 'tool and started up the first video on the list, just to humour him.

The video consisted of Sarah and Tiberius standing in the mess of the Normandy, at around the point Philip was at in his story. Sarah was standing with her hands on her hips, facing her bondmate as her subharmonics trilled with defiance. Tiberius' were simply trilling back amusement. Neither of them appeared to realise that they were being filmed.

"Don't you think this is overkill?" Sarah demanded.

"Nope," her bondmate replied simply, laughter evident in his voice.

"Come on… You don't have to place it out of my reach. I feel like a child who got caught stealing sweets… Don't you trust me?"

"Chakwas and Alice have given you very specific instructions and you have so far proven very bad at following them. You can't blame me for trying to make sure you follow this one."

She pouted a little but nodded. "Okay, okay. I guess we'd both better get used to being sensible…"

"I've always been sensible," her bondmate countered before leaning in close to her and pressing his browplate to hers.

"I know," she replied softly. "It's why I love you."

"And I probably wouldn't love you half so much as I do if you were sensible as well. Then we'd never have any fun…"

Sarah laughed at that before noticing the camera out of the corner of her eye. "Are you filming us?"

"Hey, someone's got to record some home movies for you two," the cameraman defended.

"You know that this is incredibly creepy, right?" the hybrid asked, rolling her eyes.

"He has a point," her bondmate reasoned. "I don't think there's a single video of us together."

The video ended as the cameraman seemed to decide to shut it off at that point.

Riina took a deep breath before lifting her eyes from the screen. Watching the video had been a bad idea. The last thing she needed was to have her target humanised. Or to be reminded that there were people who cared about her and would be upset by her demise.

"Cute," she finally said, "but, ultimately, pointless."

The Old Man raised an eyebrow to suggest that he didn't believe her, but otherwise didn't comment. He, instead, opted for simply continuing on with the story.

Citadel Docks - Civilian Transport Sector

2225 - 29 Years After the End of the Reaper War

Sarah was far from glad when the return shuttle brought them to the Citadel. The last few days of their holiday weren't as tainted with sorrow as she thought they might have been. Though, that had mostly been down to the fact that she and Tiberius had struggled to keep their hands off of each other.

"Back to the real world," Tiberius commented as they docked.

Sarah groaned in response. "Which means back to work…"

"You can't have anything pressing already," he ventured but Sarah shook her head in reply.

"I received a message from the quarian councillor a little while ago. She wants to see me," Sarah explained as they collected their bags and left the shuttle.

"Why?"

"Who knows… I just hope it's not bad news…"

"Is it likely to be bad news?"

"Yes."

Tiberius responded by simply taking her hand in his, squeezing gently.

"Will you be okay to take our stuff back to the Normandy if I go to meet her?"

"Of course," Tiberius replied. "You don't want me to come with?"

Sarah sighed. "I just… I need to know that, as soon as I'm done talking with her, we can just get straight back on the Normandy and leave with no fuss."

"Sounds like a plan," Tiberius agreed before briefly pressing his browplates to hers. "See you in a bit."

"See you," she responded as he headed off, leaving her to try to figure out how to get to the address the quarian councillor had given her.

After more than a little wandering cluelessly through the wards, Sarah eventually found the address she had been sent. She noted the two C-Sec guards, an asari and a turian, standing outside the door, trying not to draw attention to themselves.

"You look like cops," she told them as she approached.

The asari gave her a confused look but the turian snapped to attention.

"Dr Shepard-Vakarian, Ma'am, we apologise-"

"Don't apologise," she told him, a little sharply. "Just try not to look so much like someone stuck a rod up your ass. It screams 'C-Sec'."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Someone's in a bad mood," she heard a familiar voice say as she entered the room.

"Cee!" Sarah exclaimed as she turned to see her turian friend. "When did you get to the Citadel?"

"A few days ago. I got a new job here and, well, it seemed like a good idea for Evan. Earth is still the focal point for Cerberus activity…"

Sarah cringed away a little at that. "We're working as fast as we can to get them…"

"Hey, that wasn't a jab at you. We all know that you're giving your all to stopping them. And I, for one, couldn't possibly thank you enough."

"Neither could I," chimed in the quarian councillor, announcing her presence.

"Councillor," Sarah greeted, "you wanted to see me?"

"There's no need to look so frightened. I didn't call you here to give you bad news," the councillor assured her. "I just wanted to give you an update."

"An update?"

"I just received the official word. There are currently one hundred hybrids - excluding the Cerberus ones - alive in the galaxy today."

"I would have thought it would be more," Cee ventured.

"The important thing is how rapidly it's increasing," the councillor explained. "There were 56 born just in the last year."

Sarah didn't think one hundred was too few. She was used to the number just being one… She was used to being alone. And now, she could count five hybrids in the room, including herself. All of the others were children, of course, with only Evan really being beyond a toddler. She was no longer the only hybrid. It was… odd. And, also, freeing.

She let herself get so worked up over Cerberus, she often forgot that she was doing the right thing. That there was a reason for this fight.

Sarah frowned a little, as she looked around the room, realising just how many baby hybrids there were. Along with young children from every species. "Wait, what is this place?"

"Daycare," the quarian councillor explained. "This place used to cater exclusively to diplomats and the like. People who had real worries about their children being taken. The Council have extended their contract with them to include any hybrids currently on the Citadel."

"Which couldn't be more helpful," Cee told her.

At that, Evan toddled over to them, interrupting them. "Mummy, I'm hungry," he said, hiding behind Cee's leg a little as he realised that she was with other adults.

"Evan, do you remember Auntie Sarah?"

The young boy regarded the elder hybrid carefully before nodding enthusiastically. "You're the grown up hybrid."

"Yeah, I am," Sarah confirmed, smiling.

"You don't have to rush off, do you?" Cee asked.

"No," Sarah replied. "I've got a little bit of time."

"Who's the message from?" Philip asked his wife as they walked through the Citadel, back towards the Normandy.

"Tiberius. He and Sarah just made it back."

"Did they have a nice trip away?"

"He didn't say."

"You know," Philip ventured, "I was thinking, we should maybe get away for a while too. Maybe a second honeymoon."

"Sure," Tia agreed. "Just… not right now."

Philip groaned as he realised where she was going. "Tia, I thought we agreed that you wouldn't leave again for a while after that last mission for Liara."

"I know, but this is important. We think we've got a lead on the Cerberus leader."

"Then send another agent."

"I wouldn't trust them to do the job right."

"Not even Feron?"

"No. Philip, this is something I have to do myself. Please, just… can you understand that?"

"There isn't much to understand, Tia. It's the same thing every time and I can't help but feel… that it's just where you want to be."

"Philip…"

"No, Tia, I'm serious. You've spent the last five years saying that you don't want to return to that life but you spend more and more time on longer and longer missions."

"But, Philip, we are so close. And then, once Cerberus is dealt with, everything will calm down again."

Philip sighed. "Tia, that was consolation five years ago. I no longer believe that this fight will be finished soon."

"Is this the point at which you tell me that you've decided that you would prefer to return to C-Sec?" she joked, but her smile died before it ever evolved past a twitch of her lips as she realised that he was looking away, his gaze serious with a hint of sorrow.

"What if it was?" he asked her.

She looked away, shocked and upset. There was the crossroads. She knew that she had, in fact, gone the other way. Philip was right; she had liked working for Liara. To the point at which she would prefer to stay on with her, rather than returning to C-Sec. She'd tried that life and it had been a difficult fit. Not impossible, but difficult. By comparison, the last few years had been easy.

So, which of them would end up living a life that wasn't truly theirs? Or was it neither? That last option was the most terrifying to her, so she didn't even begin to approach it.

Before she could think any further on it, Philip spoke up once more. "It doesn't matter right now, anyway. I mean, it's not like Cerberus is going anywhere. Right?"

"Right. I mean, this mission of mine probably won't even pay off as much as we hope. I'll probably be back in less than a week."

"Yeah… Except, that's what you said last time and then you were gone for six months."

"Philip, I-"

She was cut off by Philip interrupting her. "I want to come with you."

"Wait… what? Weren't you just saying that you wanted to go back to C-Sec?"

Philip shrugged. "Look, I understand that this is going to happen, no matter what I say, but I don't want to go another six months without you."

Whatever direction she had been expecting the conversation to head in, it hadn't been that. "You don't have covert training." She said the first thing that came to her mind.

"Think of it as on the job training," her husband reasoned.

"I… Okay then. We can head out tomorrow if that's okay with you?"

"Sure," he agreed.

He moved to kiss her but was interrupted by the sound of a gunshot.

Everyone in the area reacted by running around like headless chickens, all moving for an exit. Philip responded by moving into action, drawing out his pistol and making sure his badge was visible. He didn't notice how Tia had frozen in fear at the sound of the gun.

His eyes scanned the area, but still he saw nothing. No one appeared to be injured and he couldn't obviously see the gunman.

Tia could do nothing but watch, helplessly frozen in place by her fear. She knew that sound. She knew that weapon. A Ghost sniper rifle. Just a little while after the end of the Reaper War, they had intercepted a shipment of weapons. Or, perhaps, hijacked would be a better word for it. Regardless, there were a lot of them, to the point at which the weapon had simply become a trademark of the gang. Which, of course, wasn't good when they didn't want to be tied to something. However, when they wanted to send a message, it was perfect.

Her past had finally caught up with her, just as she had always feared it would.

They had used the first shot to scatter the crowd, knowing that the only person who wouldn't run aimlessly would be C-Sec, drawing attention to her. Tia simply remained rooted to the spot, knowing that the next shot would be for her.

The next shot rang out and… nothing. Tia was unscathed. She looked around, surprised, just in time to see Philip fall to the ground.

That was enough to spring her back into action, quickly drawing her pistol and aiming up to where the sniper would be perched. She knew her old gang better than she thought she still would after all of these years, with enough of her shots landing to result in an asari gang member falling from the catwalks and landing hard.

Tia strode over to her, fuelled by pure rage. She straddled the asari, stopping her from getting up, before hitting her across the face.

"Why?!" Tia demanded, hitting her again. "Why now? After all these years?"

"Heh," the asari muttered, spitting blood, though aiming it away from Tia. "Because sometimes revenge is best served cold. You sold us out."

"If you're looking for remorse from me, you won't find it. Getting out was the best decision I ever made."

"We were glad to be rid of you. But then we began to hear rumours. You were showing up again in old haunts. I was sent to evaluate your threat level. None of us were stupid enough to think that we could take you out, or even really threaten you, but I found something much more delicious. I'm a pretty good shot, Tiala. I don't imagine your husband is getting up again."

"I swear, if any of you come near my family again-"

"I can deliver your message, though I doubt the others will listen."

Tia nodded, the image of Philip falling burned into her mind. "That's why you won't be delivering it. You are the message." Tia whipped a knife from her belt and drew it across the other asari's throat in one slick motion, no even noticing how her blood squirted upwards to coat her.

She dashed back over to Philip, the rage finally leaving her as shame took hold. She had completely ignored him in favour of vengeance.

"Fucking hell, this hurts," he muttered, trying to sit up, though he was hindered by a wound through his shoulder.

Tia gasped as relief flooded through her. "You're okay," she managed, a few tears of frantic relief escaping from her eyes.

"I'll be fine," he assured her. "I've had worse."

She simply responded by holding his face in her hand, a little surprised by how it trembled in the aftermath of heavy emotion, double checking that he was real with touch. The move left a blue smear across his cheek, prompting her to look down to see that her hands were soaked with blood.

"Are you okay?" Philip asked her, immediately checking her over for wounds.

She nodded, though she felt anything but okay. "Yeah. It's not my blood. Come on, let's get you back to the Normandy…"