The Adventures of the Lucen: The VykurCorp Conspiracy

by General Rage

Liara T'Soni continued her mission to protect the Galaxy while Commander Shepard is in another dimension. She must stop the Covenant and the allies they've gathered from wreaking havoc in a Galaxy without it's greatest hero. While she's had some success, there's a gathering storm on the horizon and one of her crew of misfits will be forced to confront her past before it clears.

9. It's Them They Know, Not Me

Chapter Nine: It's Them they Know, Not Me

Han stood in front of Nel, not in the flesh perhaps, but as close as he could get without his former squadmate killing him. Although Nel wished he was here so she could strangle him. It was bad enough she had to deal with her father, but a former friend now working for terrorists was even worse. Truth be told, she wasn't sure what she hated more, that he was a Separatist or that his actions had forced her into this unwanted reunion. She could not say for certain, all she knew was that she had to listen to whatever bullshit he had to spout at her now.

She had no idea what his end goal was, save for maybe trying to convince her to switch sides. Like she'd ever work for terrorists. Well, knowingly at least, considering she had worked for the Blood Pack and Trox training Covies before she realized she had fucked up royally. That was beside the point, she was not going to turn around and join the Seppies after that shit.

He could just be trying to get her and Liara to surrender though. He did have a whole company of fellow traitors outside waiting for his go. Then again, why not just give the go? Why not just level this place with them inside? She quickly picked up the reason, all that ordinance. Han knew this place was armed to the teeth. If he leveled it, he lost valuable weapons meant for the big attack day. If he assaulted head on like a reckless idiot, it would be a slaughterhouse. He had always been smarter than that.

"When I saw you at the ruins, I suspected you had quite a few questions to ask," he began. "Well, here's your opportunity. You might not get another one."

"I'd like to know how you realized we were here," Liara informed him.

"I figured it out when I didn't receive some reports I was expecting and the radio operator claimed he had passed them off the a female recruit," he answered. "I guessed it was some kind of infiltration team coming to rescue the Colonel. I guessed right it seems, although I didn't suspect it was Nel until I caught her on the cameras without her helmet on."

Damn it, Nel thought, this was her screw up then. If that operator hadn't spotted her, there's no way Han would've been tipped off. Liara for her part didn't seem to blame her at least. She wondered if her father felt the same, as she caught him eyeing her.

"So you sicced your new friends on us," Nel cut in at that moment. "Or are they old friends? How long have you been a traitor, Hanilex? How long?"

"Not nearly as long as you might expect," Han claimed. "A few years after I got discharged, I found Xeltravius. Someone who taught me the truth, who knew what I always suspected. The Hierarchy is corrupt and it needs to die. To be cut down like a weed so something better can grow in its place."

"A haven for xenophobes and anarchists?" Nel laughed derisively. "Hardly an improvement."

Han grimaced at her.

"That would be so easy for you to accept wouldn't it?" He asked mockingly. "That me and so many of these other people are just racists and rebel rousers. That I'm in it because I'm angry about some old war that I never even cared about to begin with."

"When that makes up most of your ranks, it doesn't really matter what a few individual outliers believe," Nel countered. "You joined up with a group of terrorists. Bastards who blow up women and children. There is no excuse. Not with your background, Mr. Rich as Fuck Pretty Boy."

"The CLC are the only people willing to do what's right, even if its hard," Han screamed back. "The only ones taking a stand! As for my background, it hardly matters if my parents are rich. I abandoned their legacy long ago, along with their credits! What they forced on me tainted all of it!"

"Your biotics," Liara reasoned. "The ones you hid from everyone."

"Not exactly," Han claimed. "My biotics play a role, but not because I have them. It's because of what my father did to me for having them in the first place."

Nel's thoughts swam as she remembered Han's words to her. That she didn't know him at all. Now was her chance, as he had pointed out himself. It seemed, as expected, his biotics were the key to figuring this out.

"How'd you hide you were a biotic?" Nel asked him accusingly. "The Hierarchy has extensive medical records, impeccable genetic testing, not to mention physical qualifiers, urine tests and the necessity of implants to begin with to help you control them."

"All of which you can get around if you have a private physician and a father with enough credits to find workarounds at every angle," Han answered dutifully. "You're not the only one with a complicated relationship concerning their dad, Nel. When my mother was exposed to element zero in an accident during pregnancy, my father knew there was a high risk I'd be born a biotic. That I'd be ostracized for it, sent to a Cabal instead of the proper army. That I'd be looked upon with suspicion, doubt and fear. My prospects were grim. Worst of all, the family legacy was at stake. So he came up with a plan, hide my biotic potential from the world, at any cost."

Han's hand glowed with blue energy as he continued.

"Dear old dad had the family doctor perform the delivery and the genetic tests," he explained, his glower matching his disgusted tone. "Paid him to bury the results, forge the birth certificate and state that I was a healthy, happy normal child. They gave me an experimental prescription treatment to suppress my abilities, made me undergo gene therapies to keep my biotics from flaring up in general. My father saved all his urine for years, preserving it in cold storage and having its DNA makeup tampered with ever so slightly so as to pass it off as my samples when I got older. He pulled strings to get me around other tests, placed a secret implant underneath my fringe to prevent flare ups, to hide my potential and make sure I never looked different in front of anyone."

He suddenly closed his fist, his anger boiling as he eyes blazed with biotic power.

"He taught me to hate what I was and lock it away so I could continue the family legacy," he snarled in a low vicious rage. "So I could be like him. So I could achieve his standard of normal. He made me hate myself, Nel. And it worked for so long. Until a few years into my active service, when I started to consider the injustice of it all. The injustice every turian with biotics faces under Hierarchy rule."

"I don't see civil rights for biotics very high on the list of things Xeltravius cares about," Nel chided.

"It's nowhere to be found in the Hierarchy at all," Han claimed, bile and disdain flowing from his mouth as he spoke, snarling and spitting every other word. "They allow the legal ostracization and systemic oppression of biotics. If you have them, your employment options are hampered severely. Schools are segregated under the guise of teaching them control and keeping the other children 'safe'. That carries over to the military, where biotics are still pressed into service with every other turian who comes of age, but are forced to serve in the Cabal Regiments. It's little better than a Penal Battalion. Biotics are punished for crimes they never committed. Just by being born they are separated out from normal society while they tout such treatment as for the greater good of society as a whole. The group comes before the individual, especially if that individual is born with abilities that could raise him above the group."

Nel had to admit, it did sound unfair when you laid it all out like that. Hell, it kinda sounded like something Vik would say. She was sure it was at least one of the problems the quarian had with the Hierarchy. That still did not justify any of this and she knew that the Bucket wouldn't agree with helping the CLC to right such supposed wrongs.

"That stigma is from the very war these people lost," Nel argued. "Biotics were used as saboteurs and assassins by every colony and it made them all suspicious of them. You think if any of these bastards had their way it would be any better? That Xeltravius actually cares?"

"He cares more than a government that instituted a policy for a prejudice they helped to create," Han countered angrily. "As long as the Hierarchy is around, nothing can change. If it falls,if it fractures, at least there's a greater chance for biotics to come out ahead in the chaos that follows. Where's the hope now? The very thought of biotic enhancing drugs inspired your father and his bosses to create a countermeasure. The fear of my kind exists and always will under Hierarchy rule. A fear that taught me to hate myself since birth!"

Nel's father stepped forth suddenly, looking somewhat sympathetic.

"Hanilex, please, listen," he asked. "I understand your anger, but this isn't the way. You're right, I did create that drug out of fear, one I shared with my superiors. And in the end, that fear cost me more than I was prepared for. You may have always had your problems with authority, but you were a good soldier, Han. Helping Xeltravius won't get you what you wan-"

"Spare me, Colonel," Han cut in derisively. "I already know what you did to Nelanax, even after I left. Don't act like you suddenly care now. I'm not much of a fan of Decius or you, but at least he realized the benefits of our cause. You, however, are a very frustrating, very stubborn man. One who can't seem to understand the opportunity I'm offering because he's too blinded by loyalty to a government instead of the will of its people."

"The same people the CLC blows up?" Nel asked scowling. "We know what you're planning, Han. How many civilians are going to die in this attack? How many have already died because of your new best friend Xeltravius?"

"Unfortunate casualties," Hanilex claimed dismissively. "Ones I don't relish. As the old Hierarchy saying goes though, there are no civilians among turians. That's how they won the Unification War to begin with after all. I'm not the reason there's a target on their backs, the government put it there with the very rules it created for warfare so long ago. And if those same rules can bring about real change, then why not follow them?"

Nel couldn't believe this was the same squad leader she knew from back in the day. The same person she respected so much. How could he have fallen so far? To be willing to killing innocents to force his change. It just didn't make sense to her.

"Whatever your father did, whatever you were forced to do, doesn't matter," she declared. "You can't just betray everything we fought for over that."

"You betrayed more than I ever did when you got discharged yourself, Nel," Hanilex stated bluntly. "Decius told me all about the real reason you got kicked out. I already knew about how you became a mercenary and I suspected you couldn't give up the Juice. You loved it too much, more than anyone in the unit at least. I didn't take it all that much because it didn't give me any benefits, being a biotic and all. You though, ha, you couldn't get enough of the stuff."

Nel lowered her head, unable to look at Hanilex as he laid all out. She could feel his self satisfied grin all the same though.

"Heh, just as I thought," he reasoned. "Your face says it all, you kept taking it, didn't you? Strange, despite your differences with the old man, not only did he end up giving you something to achieve your dream, but you couldn't let it go when it all came crashing down."

"I'm clean now," Nel growled. "I'm off the juice."

"For how long? You've always had an addictive personality, Nel," Han reminded her. "Booze, crappy vids, men... heh, women too actually. So really, how long before you come crawling back to drugs to give you another high or two?"

Nel lurched her head up and stomped forward, staring at the hologram dead in the eyes.

"I don't need it to be the soldier I've always wanted to be," she claimed. "I'm beginning to realize that now. You're angry about a ton of shit because of your dad? Fine, I understand that. Believe me, I do."

She looked back at her father briefly, who still held something of a pained expression. She quickly turned back to Han's image.

"You're no less of a traitor though and helping these fuckers will not get you what you want," she declared. "I'm going to destroy this place and your drugs and Decius and then I'm coming after you and Xeltravius. Me, Liara and our team are going to stop you."

"Still playing action hero, huh, Nel?" Han laughed. "Well, sorry, but you're no Stalaxian. Heroics don't always lead to a better world. Change is more often than not messy, violent and not very nice. Sorry if that isn't what you want to hear, Nel, but this is reality. Not a vid."

"Doesn't matter," Nel informed him. "I'm still going to stop you."

"I wouldn't expect less," Han shrugged. "But not today. Here's my ultimatum. You stay in that station, you stay locked in the basement with your dad while throwing out all our high grade explosives and ammo mods. Everything we have locked away in there. Then, your dad gives us his formula for the original drug strain so Decius can improve upon it. You wait until we pack everything we have here up and then we leave and let you go. That's more than generous."

But Colonel Catonis just laughed.

"Ha! You really think Decius can get the drug working how you want all by himself?" He asked chortling.

"I could just ask for Nel to throw you out the door so I can take you with me..."

"Tempting, but no," Nel growled.

"Again, figured," Han sighed. "But I'm trying to be diplomatic here. If you want to make it difficult, I can just have my people bombard the structure and bury you under a ton of rubble. I'll lose the weapons inside, but I won't have to deal with you people anymore. Really, given the price on Liara's head Balak has set up I shouldn't even be giving you that much. I should just be demanding your surrender."

"We have no intention of surrendering to you," Liara declared. "Nor any more of the weapons and mods found inside this structure. The Colonel and all his knowledge will be leaving with us. The drugs Decius has helped you make will not be leaving here at all."

"Bold words, T'Soni, but it's not happening," Han informed her. "I'm going to give you half an hour to come to your senses. Otherwise my men are going to move in and take whatever of value they can out the door themselves before my armor simply blows you all to oblivion."

"Screw you, Hanilex," Nel scowled. "We're walking out of here, leaving your whole compound in flames when we do."

"I'd love to see that, Nel," Han laughed. "I really would. Enjoy your catch up time with daddy for the moment. You have thirty minutes... starting now."

Hanilex's image vanished and Nel screamed aloud in anger.

"Don't worry, Nel," Liara informed her. "We have options."

Liara was probably referring to Wrex and Kayap, they weren't inside. They were on overwatch. Liara couldn't say it out loud though. For all they knew, Han was listening. He had caught the tail end of their conversation. They'd have to fix that.

"Vik, can you cut any feeds audio or visual to the outside?" Liara asked the quarian. "We need privacy."

"Can do, ma'am," the quarian assured. "It's going to take me a minute."

Liara, in the meantime contacted Wrex via a text message. She soon got a reply. It read; "We're safe, overlooking bad guys. Tons of enemies. Waiting for your plan." At least that much was going in their favor.

"We don't have much time," Liara stated. "If we're going to get out of here alive, we need to come up with a plan."

"All I know is we can't let him get away with the samples Decius has created so far," said Colonel Catonis worryingly. "They're not perfect, but they've been cross engineered with some kind of biotics enhancing stimulant."

"Probably the Eclipse Sisters' new and improved Minagen X3 and whatever else they passed along," Nel surmised.

"Do you know its effect?" Liara asked the Colonel.

"Decius never was humble," the older turian answered. "He claimed he had eliminated mental strain and decreased normal power limitations. Says someone can use more attacks in quick succession as well as an increase in damage. It's safe to say it would give the CLC's biotic soldiers a considerable edge."

They already had enough Covenant plasma guns and experimental VykurCorp weapons to be a devastating threat on the battlefield. Not to mention their still gestating BioWeapons project and the horror they knew it could unleash. Super Biotic Shock Troops weren't something they needed to be added onto the pile right now.

"That won't happen," Liara assured the Colonel. "This place has considerable ordinance inside. We can use their own stockpile against them."

"Han is probably expecting us to do just that," Nel warned. "He wasn't one to leave much up to chance on missions. He always hated it when the brass pushed for a go ahead on an OP before he felt we were ready."

"So he's cautious?" Liara asked.

"To a point," Nel clarified. "He would bring the thunder when he felt he needed to. It made him an effective field commander, it's why I respected him. He knew what each of us could do and coordinated us appropriately. He also had more confidence in his squad and encouraged us to be all we could be."

She glared at her father as she spoke that last sentence, earning some of his ire.

"Is this really time?" He asked.

"No, but I'm still making a point." Nel argued. "He won't have a bunch of dumbass yokels up there as cannon fodder. It will be people he trusts, who he trained, who he knows. We want to beat him, we need every advantage we can think of."

"Do you have something in mind then?" Liara asked her.

"You know me, Liara, I'm not much for strategy," Nel admitted. "But I have a few ideas. As well as a place to start."

---

Nel forced open the door on the evidence locker, allowing Liara and her father inside.

"It sounded like the best stuff was in here," she explained as she walked inside.

"We'll look around then," Liara told her. "See what we can use."

"Go ahead," Nel replied, already staring at the Havoc Soldier Armor. "I already found what I need."

She grinned as she looked over the armor itself. Taking in its glory and raw power. If nothing else, it would good to be out of these traitor colors and into something far more fitting.

---

Colonel Catonis stood over Vik's shoulder, watching the camera feeds with the quarian as the Separatists scurried around into their positions. They had a tight perimeter on the area from the looks of it, their guns trained on the front door alongside the armored vehicles' cannons.

"Nel's old Commander doesn't kid around, does he?" Vik asked.

"He was always fairly competent, the best out of the whole unit in the program," the Colonel confessed. "My daughter is right about that much."

It wouldn't be long now before their deadline was up. Liara was already on the roof, preparing their strategy, Saya was somewhere, getting ready for the inevitable confrontation. They had come up with a good plan and Vik had managed to cut any outside feed so they could develop it in secret, but execution was always key. That was something Vik knew, all too well in fact. And he sensed the same fears in the Colonel.

"Do we have a chance?" He asked the old soldier.

"Well, you have Doctor T'Soni leading you all and the infamous Urdnot Wrex out there somewhere," the Colonel noted. "I say we have a good possibility of pulling this off, however stacked the odds are."

"What about your daughter?" Vik asked hesitantly.

The Colonel's lower mandible jaw, shifted slightly, as if he was miming biting his tongue.

"Nel... has her... capabilities," he confessed. "That much I know."

"She doesn't seem to think you do," Vik informed him.

"I... suppose not," the Colonel answered, sighing as he did. "Is she... really off the juice?"

"Not by choice initially," Vik confessed awkwardly. "Liara forced her into it, but... I do think she wants to be clean. She's trying to be at least. She... wants to be better."

Catonis shifted into a thoughtful stance, turning away from the cameras. Vik followed his distant gaze.

"It's hard not to feel responsible," the Colonel admitted. "I... I did make the drug. As much as I didn't want her to take it, I still inevitably let it go forward. They said I had to, that she was chosen as a potentially agreeable candidate, that I had to put my feelings as a father aside and do what was best for the Hierarchy, for the project."

"So is Nel right?" Vik asked, cautiously. "Were you... happy when she got discharged?"

The Colonel was quick to turn, aghast at the accusation.

"What? No! How... how could she think that?" He asked, horrified. "My drug turned her into a killer! How could I feel happy about doing that to her? How could any father feel happy or pleased with that happening to their child?"

"Then why didn't you show up at her hearing?" Vik asked curiously. "Why didn't you defend her?"

The Colonel couldn't answer, his throat seemingly clogging with his own words. Vik was disappointed to not get an answer, but he could feel the weight in Catonis' inability to say anything. After a moment or two, the old turian spoke again.

"She wasn't the easiest daughter to raise," he admitted. "Very... independent minded, she didn't listen often. I tried to talk to her about so many things, teach her some lessons she needed to learn. I won't deny I did a terrible job of it. I've had to live with that fact for a long time."

"Showing a kid pictures of the dead bodies of your friends isn't exactly my idea of parenting," Vik said rather casually.

"Hmm, she mentioned that," the Colonel replied, more or less admitting to it. "Yeah, that got me a tongue lashing from the wife. Surprised she didn't walk out on me after that. Another episode in my many failures as a father."

"Have you ever told her that?" Vik asked pressingly.

Catonis shook his head.

"I was never good at the apology game," he reluctant stated, struggling to speak. "Every time I tried I felt... this need to... reassert myself. I don't know if it was my training or my own father, but... I never could get past it."

Vik couldn't help but feel sorry for the old man. He had faults, Nel had more or less revealed them all beforehand. He didn't deny them though, something lesser people would've probably done in his position. The quarian couldn't understand the why of it all, but he could decipher the solution.

"I haven't always gotten along with Nelanax," he told the Colonel. "Our politics are different, we argue more often than not, our styles of combat clash a bit, she is incredibly inappropriate at times and our tastes in vids widely differs. But I do know when someone is hurting and she is. Badly."

"Because of me," the Colonel reasoned aloud.

"I don't mean to force myself into a situation that isn't my concern," Vik continued earnestly. "But, she is on my crew. She came here to find you, to save you. I think she's at least entitled to some honesty from you. I don't know what exactly went down between you two, but if you really do love her, then you need to talk to her. Not like a Colonel in the army or your father... but hers."

For what it was worth, the Colonel didn't seem to dismiss the idea. He nodded slightly, perhaps his lost in some of his own thoughts on the matter. It ended when Nel herself arrived, fully decked out in the Havoc Armor she had retrieved from the evidence locker.

"Time to get into position, dad," she told her father. "Wrex is reporting some activity. We need to get to the roof."

It hadn't been thirty minutes yet since Han offered his ultimatum. Any action now was suspicious, but perhaps Han thought he could hide it.

"Hmm, not good, but we expected as much," the Colonel said. "Get up there with Liara, I'll meet you there soon."

Nel nodded and turned to leave. As she did though, her father spoke up suddenly.

"You... you look good by the way," he said, his words somewhat fumbling. "That armor, it suits you."

Nel seemed a bit surprised by her father's statement, cocking her head slightly. She looked suspicious of the compliment, her scowl pondering how genuine it was. In the end, she seemed to brush it off.

"I was born to wear it," she insisted. "Always knew that. Even when others didn't."

She walked away without another word, the Colonel offering no words of protest. He had none to give. It was not the time to be defensive about it anyway. Especially when he had to concede she maybe had a point.

---

Liara kept watch on top of the station, watching as Separatists below moved about. Their armored vehicles kept their cannons trained on the building, but the foot soldiers were slowly moving about the courtyard. Evetually, Nelanax and her father joined her as the Separatists seemed to be lining up the breach the building.

"They were lying about the thirty minutes," Liara stated plainly. "Just as we discussed."

Nel knew Hanilex was just trying to mess with their heads before, make them complacent. They had half an hour to prepare, surely they'd get a little lax in said preparation. Attacking five minutes before their supposed time was up would catch them off guard. That had been his plan anyway. It would not turn out that way.

The Separatists suddenly moved ahead, the advance team moving towards the doors. They certainly behaved more like real soldiers than Nel had expected of them. Han's training had clearly taken root, as they covered each and stayed in formation before they stacked up against the doors. She had expected them to be well-trained, she hadn't expected THAT well trained. Most of them had to be ex-military, and by that she meant more than just one tour of duty.

"They're headed in," Colonel Catonis observed. "It's up to your Salarian friend now."

"Trust us, Colonel," Liara assured him. "He's more than ready for them."

---

The doors to the Police Station burst open and the Separatists began to filter inside. They stopped just short of the threshold to the lobby, eyeing the area carefully. There was no one on the turret on the bridge overlooking the lobby. No positions on the floor. No one seemed to be inside. Suspicious, but it did not deter them from the task at hand. The squad leader of the advance team signaled his people to fan out across the lobby, carefully covering their corners as they moved ahead.

The lobby floor wasn't entirely clear, there were some crates laid out around it. Possibly set there by their comrades before the enemy had infiltrated the building, possibly set up by said enemy to start with. One Separatist popped the top of it to see what was inside. Empty, if there had been weapons inside, they were gone now.

As the squad leader got to the center of the room, he felt his foot step in something strange and squishy. He looked down to his foot and saw a strange blobby, semi-hard substance under it. He backed off slightly, realizing too late what it was. That was when Saya flipped the switch on the Shiakala's hilt, activating the explosive foam blobs he had laid around the lobby floor, hidden behind the various objects had set up in advance. The same lobby floor the Seppies now populated.

The resulting explosions ripped through the squad, sending some up into the air and back down to the ground in a heap. Others were blasted into the decaying walls of the former law enforcement building. More still were sent tumbling over each other as the blasts knocked them off their feet. Before the smoke had even cleared, Saya had grabbed the machine gun turret, decloaking at long last. He activated his heat vision in his visor and opened up on what was left of the trap's survivors.

The squad leader was already dead, most of his subordinates crawled for cover or tried to run for the door. They didn't get far, as the shredder round mod Saya had installed into the turret was more than enough to rip through the enemies strewn about the lobby floor. After a few seconds of sustained fire, the advance squad was eliminated, save for one turian hiding behind a small crate. Saya stopped shooting and let soldier poke his head out. By the time he did though, the salarian had zeroed in on his head. He fired a single shot from his pistol, ripping through the turian's skull.

Phase one was complete and he could already hear Hanilex's people walking right into phase two.

---

The initial explosion and gunfire sent the Separatists outside into a frantic, enraged rush for action. They were listening to their friends dying and the officers tried to maintain unit cohesion. Others took action, one of the armored vehicles began to move up, along with an officer leading a unit to head inside the building itself and storm the lobby proper. They wouldn't get far.

"Now, Colonel," Liara told Nel's father.

Catonis nodded and grabbing the missile launcher he had liberated off his back. He opened fire on the armored transport as it inched towards the station. The resulting fireball stopped it dead in its tracks as the Separatists ran for cover. Many began opening fire on the station itself as the rest of the armored vehicles moved into attack positions. That was when Wrex and Kayap made their move.

Positioned on the roof of a building complex nearby, the krogan and unggoy opened fire. Wrex with a Grenade launcher and Kayap with a missile launcher of his own. Their attacks decimated the enemy armor before they could let off a shot, even causing one of the vehicles to flip onto its side from the sheer force of the explosions. The remaining turians and armored transports turned to fire on Wrex and Kayap's position. They retreated, of course, opening things up for Nel's part in the plan.

"My turn," she declared.

She stood on the ledge of the police station's roof now, her armor's propulsion pack already warming up. Taking a deep breath, she readied her assault rifle and eyed her targets below. She then blasted off the roof and into the sky, her propulsion jets spewing out flames as she rocketed out into the air. She began firing down on the Separatists below her, strafing them as she crested above them.

"Death from above, fuckers!" She screamed.

At last her jets let her fall and she rocketed down to the Earth. She aimed for one of the Seppies, pulling out her omni-blades as she crashed into him. She drove her blades hard into his sternum at the same time, his death cushioning her fall. She quickly brought her assault rifle back up again and began firing on whoever was left nearby.

"I hope Han is watching through your feeds, jackasses!" She screamed aloud. "It will be a nice preview of what's going to happen to him!"

She activated her jets again, launching herself at a pair of turians as they tried to pull back. Her blades sunk into each of them, the first with a downward thrusting stab, the second with an upward slash. She then jetted over to cover behind a rusting police shuttle close by, as the Separatists retaliated. Fortunately, she wasn't alone in this fight.

A few of the Separatists were shot down by sniper fire. Nel looked back up to the Station, suspecting it was likely her father's doing, he had picked out the sniper rifle after all. A few more were sent hurtling away by biotic throws or lifted by singularities. Liara's contribution to her forward thrust, obviously. Nel finished those guys off with her rifle shots.

When she felt the heat had been lifted from her a bit, she jetted over to the destroyed armored transport. She fired back on the Separatists, now bottled up in staging area. If she could just get in there, she could do some real damage. Her best option was not to attack directly, but to go up and over.

Using her propulsion pack, she jumped onto the top of the destroyed vehicle. It was still somewhat smoldering from the hit her father had landed on it. She raced off of it, launching herself forward with her jets. She screamed across the sky once more, her assault rifle chattering away at the enemies below. When she got close enough, she launched herself at one of the officers, impaling him on her omni-blade. She then used him as a shield, firing on his lackeys surrounding him in a rage.

Eventually, she discarded her shield, kicking the dead traitor off the omni-blade and into more Separatists. She then lunged forward, cutting down another of the Seppies with upward stab and then another with a sideways slash. She soon found herself staring down a nearby armored transport however, and quickly rushed to cover as its machine gun opened up on her. She ducked behind another of the destroyed transports and waited for her moment to move. That was when the attacking transport was hit by several grenades. It was Wrex and Kayap, they had come down to join the fighting on the ground.

"We got them on the run now," the krogan declared.

A random Separatist tried to rush the krogan, only to get backhanded away. Wrex then pulled out his Claymore again and began firing at the remaining hostiles. Nel clutched her talons into a fist and moved out to join them as they advanced through the staging area.

"Nice new gear," Wrex commented as she joined them.

"Yeah, it's as badass as I remember it," she informed him.

More Separatists moved up into the fray however, causing the trio to find cover. The hostile turians laid down a wall of fire as they kept behind a number of barricades they had already erected. Nel crowled under her breath as she returned fire alongside Wrex and Kayap.

"That suit have any other fancy attachments besides a jet pack?" He asked her.

"I think it has a few other installed combat apps," Nel replied, checking her omni-tool. She soon began to smile. "Oooh, I like this one."

She popped back up and launched a freezing blast of cryogenic gel. It struck the Separatist Officer among their foes, freezing him solid.

"Cryo Blast, nice," Wrex chuckled.

Kayap used the opportunity to chuck a plasma grenade at the frozen hostile. The resulting explosion, alongside the shattered remains of their CO, decimated Separatist squad. They retreated from the barricades, Nel, Wrex and Kayap close behind. Sure enough, their fellows soon followed and the siege of the police station was abandoned. The Separatists now ran back into the colony itself, firing on their would-be victims as they fled.

"Damn cowards," Nel growled. "Couldn't be bothered to stand and die like real turians."

"We'll get after them, but we should wait for the others," Wrex insisted. "We'll need the whole team working together to get to that clinic."

Nel didn't like holding off pursuit, but Wrex was right. They couldn't risk stretching themselves too thin. The Clinic wasn't far from here, but it was a good run through the colony's ruins. Hanilex probably had more than a few reserves lining the approaches to the building. He needed time to get the samples of the War Spirit's Blood Decius had helped make for him out of here after all.

"Alright, we'll hold position here," Nel said, contacting Liara herself. "Doc, we got Han's boys on the run. Get my dad and the others down here. We need to get after them before they bolt with the samples."

---

"Copy that, Nel, we'll be there shortly," Liara assured her.

The asari turned to Colonel Catonis, who was still looking out at the battlefield. Not at the carnage though, Liara could tell he was staring straight at one point in particular. Liara traced the line of sight, it was obviously Nel. Even this far away, you could pinpoint her distinctive new armor.

"She's... pretty capable as a soldier isn't she?" He asked Liara. "Even without the drug."

"Are you surprised by that?" She asked him.

"No, she's my daughter," the Colonel assured her. "I... I know what she's capable of. I'm just surprised to see her in combat without the War Spirit's Blood. She's... she's not as reckless as I remember. Still a bit brash, but the Nelanax I knew would've kept attacking. She was more independent. Not really a... team player most of the time."

Liara knew all too well what Nel used to be like. She also knew what she was becoming. Now, so did her father. However, the asari could not figure out if the Colonel was proud of that, disappointed by it or sad. She supposed it could be a combination of the three, but Catonis' tone and expression were distant and depressed. She couldn't really read him with absolute certainty.

"Your daughter has changed a lot," Liara informed him. "Not all of it has been easy for her."

"A lot of that is... my fault," he confessed solemnly.

"Because of the War Spirit's Blood?" Liara asked pressingly.

It took a moment for him to clarify, his lower mandible jaw quivering slightly.

"Because of a lot of things I think," he admitted. "I was... enraged when I found out she stole my research, my equipment. I knew what it meant, what she was going to do. Then I started asking myself why she had done it and, ultimately, I could never really blame anyone more than myself for it. I guess that's why I... never sent anyone out to find her. I had already done enough damage. And being a prisoner here, with all these old wounds from the past opening up at the same time... well, it's given me even more perspective."

Catonis looked directly at Liara now.

"I'm a terrible father, aren't I?" He asked with a sobering, melancholy look.

"Nel seems to think so," Liara informed him. "I can't really say myself. It's really her opinion that matters the most in the end on that subject."

Catonis could not disagree, nodding respectfully at the comment.

"You say you've done enough damage already," Liara soon added next. "But, considering how Nel feels, I think you've only done more by doing nothing up til now."

"You think it's too late?" the old Colonel asked.

"Only if you think it is," Liara replied. "And you won't really know until you confront each other about it."

Liara moved past him, heading for the door downstairs.

"Come on, Colonel," she insisted. "We need to get to that clinic and destroy those samples."

"Yes, you're right," he agreed. "One old wound at a time I guess."

They left the roof and headed down to the plaza below.

---

Hanilex watched the feeds of his men go dark while others scattered. His drone overseeing the entire operation watched everything fall apart. He had higher hopes for the siege, obviously he should've done more to recon the area. He hadn't expected T'Soni to leave some of her squad outside on overwatch. He had underestimated her, not being a soldier and all. An oversight on his part.

He also realized he should've given more credit to Nelanax. He hadn't expected her to be as capable without the Juice in her veins. Nor did he think she would be work well on a team of any size. Apparently though, she knew him well enough to figure out how things would go down. He kicked himself for that. At least he had already begun moving material to the shuttles for extraction and set up teams to guard the Clinic. It would hopefully slow them down a bit.

Still, the next part he was not going to like at all. He had to report in. He activated the QEC to call up Xeltravius directly, he needed to know. The old turian's image soon appeared moments after he flicked the switch.

"Sir, they've broken out of the station," he said regretfully. "I'm sorry, I should've anticipated Nelanax's capabilities and those of T'Soni."

"It's of little consequence," Xeltravius claimed. "We can make due with what Decius has already made and one lost staging and training area is a drop in the ocean of the forces we've amassed so far. Have you begun evacuation?"

"Yes, everything of value will be relocated soon," Hanilex assured. "I'm anticipating T'Soni calling for reinforcements, either from her own forces or nearby Hierarchy troops."

"Wipe everything from our logs then and see to Decius' extraction personally," Xeltravius ordered. "Even if the samples are somehow destroyed, we can use him to make more. It's not perfected, but every little bit helps."

"I'm heading to the clinic now, sir," Hanilex assured. "I'll be calling for a special shuttle to pick us up nearby."

"Good, and if T'Soni or Nelanax get in your way, kill them, all of them, including Colonel Catonis," Xeltravius ordered. "What he's seen of operations is dangerous enough as it is. We can't let the Hierarchy's military machine take advantage of this setback."

"I'll deal with it personally, I promise," Hanilex assured him.

"I'd understand if you couldn't," Xeltravius stated respectfully. "I know of your history with the Catonis family. Capturing her father is one thing but-"

"Nel has chosen her side, sir," Hanilex claimed. "As have I. This is war, there's no room for sentimentality."

Xeltravius nodded in agreement.

"You've learned well, Bodicus," he declared. "This will all pay off soon enough. You'll play a key role in it, I'll make sure of it and strike a blow against the Hierarchy that will echo throughout all of time."

"A blow in service of biotics everywhere," Hanilex clarified.

Xeltravius just nodded in response, cutting communications. Han then picked up his rifle next to the transmission base and headed out the door. It was time to meet his old squadmate face to face.

---

Within the ruins, Separatist gunners fired back on Liara's team, forcing them to take cover among the crumbling abandoned homes themselves. Saya fired back with his sniper rifle, but had to duck back down as enemy fire raked his own shields. Wrex at least managed to land a biotic throw that pushed one Separatist into a wall, but the others were fairly dug in.

"Are we sure this alleyway was the fastest way to that clinic?" Wrex asked.

"I'd suggest waiting for my Shadow Mercs to get here, but that will take time," Liara stated. "A luxury we do not have. We need to get around them."

Nel was scanning the buildings surrounding them for just such a purpose. It didn't take her long to spot a slightly larger crumbling structure overlooking the Separatists current position within the ruined building. A plan quickly began to form in her mind as she traced a path from said structure to their own position.

"My Havoc Armor can get me inside their position," she said. "I just need to get a little higher and I can flank them."

"We'll cover you then, but make it quick," Liara ordered. "We're on the clock here."

Nel agreed and moved to leave when her father grabbed her arm.

"You'll need backup out there," he said. "I can cover you."

"Yeah, better idea, stay down and stay safe," Nel informed him. "I didn't come all this way for you to get killed following me."

"Nel, don't argue with him," Liara barked at her suddenly. "Kayap, follow them and cover their rears."

Kayap nodded and waddled towards the two turians. Nel could only sigh at it all. She still didn't like being stuck with her dad, but at least now she had a friend to tag along with her. What was that human saying? Misery loves company?

"Fine," Nel relented. "Kay, stick close to my dad and keep him out of trouble."

Kayap saluted while Catonis looked on a bit perturbed. No doubt being entrusted to a small, seemingly hopeless looking creature like the unggoy didn't seem all that promising. Nel didn't care though. Kayap had proven his worth to her more than a few times. Her dad would just have to trust someone he felt looked too weak to achieve anything. She liked the serendipity of that. Poetic justice in her mind for all the shit he had given her.

---

They headed out on their flanking maneuver, first through the ground floor of a building off the side. She pushed through the doors, squeezing through the tight spaces as they worked their way around. She kept an eye open for Separatists, anticipating a few trying to do the very same thing she was attempting. Her father at least kept quiet as they navigated the dark halls.

She stopped a few feet from what she thought was light leading to an exit, when a trio of Separatists moved into their room. The bastards were moving a close knit pattern, trying to work their way around to position to attack Liara no doubt. She motioned her father at them and to her surprise, he nodded. He readied his gun alongside Kayap and waited for her move.

She acted quickly once the trio of traitors had turned their backs, activating her propulsion pack and lunging forward to stab one of the bastard's through the spine. When his compatriots turned and fired on her, Nel used the body as a shield. Her Father in the meantime shot a round right through on Separatist's skull while Kayap's plasma pistol decimated the final terrorist's shields. It was all Nel needed as she hit the Seppy with the corpse of his friend and gunned him down while he struggled to get up from the floor.

"Good work, Nel," her father complimented. "We caught them completely by surprise."

Nel couldn't help herself from grinning a bit at the praise. It was so rare to get anything like that from him. In the next second, however, he ruined the moment. Like he always did. His face turned into a frown and he coughed suddenly.

"You could've been faster though," he claimed. "I wouldn't have needed to shoot the other one if you had used your cryo blast for example to-"

"Oh shut up," Nel snarled. "Mission first, you can hand me your overly critical report card later."

She began to stomp off for the exit, her father close behind

"I'm just trying to make you think more critically," the old man stated. "You can always do better, learn from your mistakes."

"But I can never do good enough it seems," Nel chided back. "There's always something I do wrong. Always something I fuck up. Always something I missed. Nothing can just be a simple 'good job' it has to be a lecture about why I'll never measure up to whatever standards you've set for me. I always fail in your eyes, always have."

"That's not what I think," he tried to explain. "War is as much strategy as it is luck as it is skill. All I've done is try to teach you that. Show you how hard you have to work to perfect yourself."

Nel laughed aloud at that as if she hadn't heard that excuse before.

"Ha! So when we went to the woods to shoot and you made things progressively harder and harder for me, that was you telling me to be better?" She asked in a mocking sardonic tone. "When you goaded me, telling me it was going to be harder in boot, when you screamed in my face cause I missed one out of ten targets and claimed I was now dead, THAT was you making me better?"

"I was preparing you," he claimed. "I was giving you an education ahead of time."

"Bull," Nel growled, her gaze cold and unwavering. "I remember every damn word you said to me that day. 'Give up, Nel', 'You'll never be able to keep up, Nel', 'You're making me feel embarrassed, Nel.' Your little Drill Sergeant routine was a load of crap, dad. You wanted me to quit. You wanted me to admit I was a failure. You wanted me to drop out as soon as it got tough! That's all your lessons were ever about. Tell me I'm wrong."

The Colonel just stood there, unable to speak. Nel snorted through her nose in recognition. His silence and guilt ridden expression was all she needed, it was just as she had thought.

"We've wasted enough time already," Nel informed him. "Come on."

They soon exited the structure and spotted their intended target. The crumbling building overlooking the ruin. If they could get there, she could clear the way to the clinic. She ran across the open ground, using her pack to supplement her speed. However, as they neared the tower a stray shot grazed her shields. She ducked behind a bit of rock, as did her father and Kayap.

"Sniper," her dad said. "Somewhere in the windows above in our target building."

"Wonderful," Nel grumbled. "Can you spot him?"

The Colonel poked his head out long enough to eye the ruins, but ducked down quickly.

"He's relocated," he said. "We need to flush him out."

"I know a way," Kayap claimed, pulling out a plasma grenade. "What floor was he on?"

"Second up I think," the Colonel claimed.

Kayap activated the grenade, winded up his arm and flung it. The grenade landed in one of the windows, exploding suddenly. Blue flames jutted out of it, as Colonel Catonis spotted a shadow moving away from the blast.

"Got him!" He said, opening fire.

"Keep him pegged, I'm moving!" Nel shouted.

She vaulted over cover and ran for the building. When she got close enough, she kicked her propulsion pack into gear, launching herself up to the second floor window. She could see her father's fire chasing something along the wall. Which meant he was leading the sniper towards her. She heard the ragged breathing of someone closing in on her position. When she believed he was near, she pulled herself up and plunged her omni-blade into the sniper's chest. She flung him out the window, letting him fall to the ground below. She then pulled herself through the window completely, taking a moment to call down to her father and Kayap.

"Get up here, I'll clear the area!" She shouted down at them.

She turned, mindful of her corners. Snipers usually came in pairs after all. As expected, one rounded the corner, but he fired off a round first. Nel jumped into cover behind a half destroyed support pillar and readied herself to attack. The terrorist closed in on her position, but she rounded the corner as he approached. She got behind him and aimed her omni-tool at him.

"Freeze."

The Seppy turned just as the Cryo Blast hit him, covering him in ice. Nel went over to him and punched through his frozen body with her omni-blades.

"Good boy." She said, as she walked over the icy shards.

She came upon the open side of the crumbling building, now overlooking the very ruin that had pinned her team down. Her father and Kayap soon joined her, taking up positions nearby.

"I'll clear them out," she said. "Cover me from here."

"Just be careful," her dad warned. "I count at least five in there."

"There's gonna be a lot less in thirty seconds," Nel assured him. "Don't get attached."

She activated her Propulsion Pack and launched herself at one of Separatists below, slicing his arm off before stabbing him in the neck. She then opened fire on his partner nearby, killing him as well. Rushing to cover before the other Separatists could open fire on her, she readied her omni-tool and let off another Cryo Blast that froze another Seppy. She lunged at him with her blades, shattering him to pieces before firing on the next and cutting him down.

As she search for the fifth, he popped up from a corner, forcing Nel into cover. He kept firing as he advanced on her position and Nel prepared herself, waiting for his thermal clip to pop. Instead she heard sniper's shot and a body drop to the floor in quick succession. She looked up and saw her father holding his rifle.

"You had him," he assured her. "I was just watching your back is all."

"I suppose you had to start at some time," Nel responded casually.

Harsh, thankless, but she wasn't angry she had lost a kill to him. Her father was just doing what any good soldier would do. Being a good squadmate did not negate being a shit parent. He could take a little abuse, he was old enough to. Point was, the way to the clinic was clear and Liara was already moving into the ruin where Nel was with the rest of the team.

"Excellent work, Nel," she said. "You, Kay and your father."

"Sorry it took a little longer than I thought," Nel told her. "There were.. complications."

"It doesn't matter," Liara informed her. "We have a straight shot to the clinic now. We can't waste more time. Let's go."

She nodded, signaling her father to come down so they could move on. It was time to end this mission already.

---

The team reached the side door of the clinic, shooting down a pair of guards posted there. Vik worked frantically to bypass the lock on the door. As he did, they could hear hostiles on the other side. They were preparing for their breach. Vik, recognizing this set down one of his floating turrets in front of the door itself.

"Stand back," he warned.

Vik completed the bypass of the lock just as the rest of the squad pulled away. Sure enough, the door opened and gunfire erupted from it. The Vik's turret returned fire though, long enough for the quarian to ready a high explosive grenade and roll it inside. The turret was blown apart by the enemy's gunfire, but the Separatists experienced the same fate when Vik's grenade went off.

"Come on, they'll have heard the blast," Liara warned.

The team entered the clinic proper, rushing down the halls past the decimated remains of the Separatists. They came to the main lab, finding a number of Separatists in hazard gear, boxing up crates with vials inside. Of course, they stopped the second they saw Liara's team. They opened fire on them, forcing the squad to duck behind the various lab tables within the room.

"We need to destroy as many of those crates as we can," Colonel Catonis insisted. "We can't let them leave!"

"Vik, sic your Drone on them!" Liara ordered "Everyone else, fire at will!"

Vik's drone activated and quickly rushed into the fray, blasting at any enemies nearby. Vik assisted it, firing his shotgun at any of Seppies that were flushed from hiding, one of his stray shots destroying a crate of vials as well. Red liquid pooled on the ground and a number of Seppies made to attempts to secure the crates themselves.

Nel spotted one such Seppy doing just that and quickly filled him full of holes from her assault rifle. She vaulted over cover as the firefight continued, blasting at the crates and enemies alike. One tried to cut her with his own omni-blade. For his trouble, she grabbed a nearby crate and smashed it into his head. She then let loose a torrent of fire, blasting up the entire lab, blowing up more of the crates, smashing unpacked vials and decimating any equipment nearby.

The Seppies ran for cover as Wrex joined Nel. His shotgun was even more effective at wrecking the lab. One Separatist tried to shoot him, only to get punched in the nose and then thrown up into the ceiling by his neck. He crashed back down onto one of the lab tables as chunks of ceiling fell around him.

Before long, the lab was a mess of spilt War Spirit's Blood samples, actual Separatist blood and several sparking or smoking machines. Nel herself approached one of the still intact crates, pulling out the assorted vials. She placed them on the table as her father and Liara looked on.

"Weird looking at this stuff so differently now," she confessed solemnly. "It was such a big part of everything. My identity, my career, my life in general. Now... I'm destroying all of it. I wonder... what's that say about me?"

"It's not a part of you, Nel," Liara told her.

"Yeah, but it did give me what I wanted," the turian admitted. "At least, I thought it did at the time."

She pulled up her rifle and fired at the vials, shattering them to pieces.

"I don't need it to be what I want to be," she declared. "I never did."

She looked over at her father and saw, for once, a fairly approving stare. No lecture came, no words at all. He just stood there, seemingly proud of her. Her, of all people. It was a new experience, far from perfect, she would've preferred him to say something nice instead of nothing at all but, it wasn't unwelcome.

It didn't last, as someone's voice spoke up.

"Hello, Lieutenant."

Nel perked up her head and looked to see the face yellowish-green tattooed face of Decius Octasius, standing behind some glass in a closed off portion of the room. He was holding something in his hands, a large box, no doubt containing more samples.

"I see you finally made it here," he observed. "And your father is still alive. Surprising, I would've thought you'd have killed each other by now."

Nel pointed her rifle at him angrily firing at his knee to incapacitate him. The bullet bounced off the glass though. Decius could only laugh.

"Bulletproof, you really think I'd be stupid enough to walk out in front of any of you without protection?" He asked sardonically.

"I suppose not, given how you're a scum sucking traitorous coward," Nel snarled.

Decius seemed to take offense at that.

"I'm no traitor, the only traitors are the Hierarchy," he claimed. "The people who ruined my work. Our work, Tiveriux."

He looked over Nel's father directly now, who had walked up beside his daughter along with the rest of the squad. The Colonel looked at him in utter rage, sharing the same expression his daughter now had.

"How could you do this, Decius?" The Colonel asked. "We developed this drug to fight Separatists, now you're giving it to them? And modifying it?"

"How could YOU abandon all this work?" Decius asked in kind. "All the time spent, credits allocated, research and formulas, everything we built. You wanted it shuttered! And why? Because of what happened to the one soldier you didn't even want in the program to start with!"

The elder Catonis looked at the younger briefly, grimacing at the memory.

"We had no choice, the danger was clear," He stated plainly. "The drug was far too volatile. And it wasn't all for nothing anyway. Our research helped improve the stimulants our soldiers were already taking in the field."

"But it wasn't War Spirit's Blood they were taking," Decius reiterated. "It wasn't our work on the battlefield! If you had made a stronger case against your daughter at her damn hearing or appealed to the Primarchs, you could've saved the program! All it would've required would be throwing your insubordinate child under the shuttle bus and calling it even. Instead you didn't even show up! You let them shutter us!"

"None of that was ever an option," the Colonel roared at him. "If you honestly think I was going to sacrifice Nel for some damn prestige than you don't know me at all, Decius!"

Nel was shocked to hear that from her father. He could've saved the project and he didn't to keep her from getting in worse trouble. She supposed she could've been locked up for what happened, instead of shuttled out of the military. Still, he also could've showed up to help her... he didn't. It wasn't much of an excuse. Decius himself pointed it out.

"And look how she ended up regardless," he stated. "A mercenary, strung out on the bootleg version of our creation."

Nel hadn't realized Decius knew. She thought her father had kept it within the family. She turned to her dad, glaring at him.

"So you did snitch on me!" She declared.

"No, never," her father claimed. "I... I kept it secret. I knew what would happen if anyone else found out."

"Don't blame daddy for this one, Nel," Decius snorted. "I figured it out for myself. Your father was always tight lipped whenever I came around asking about the project. He said he didn't want to talk about it, that it 'cost me my only child.' His exact words, in fact. Given what I knew of your record and what Hanilex told me about what you had been doing since your discharge, it wasn't hard to put the pieces together. Han had figured it out for himself. He knew as well as I did how addicted you were to the 'juice' as you so lovingly referred to it."

Nel's mandibles lifted into a snarl as she glared back at Decius from behind her helmet.

"Regardless, it's all in the past," Decius insisted. "I now have people who appreciate my hard work and are actively helping me in not only recreating it, but perfecting it. We never really got to truly test the limits of War Spirit's Blood. The variants I've developed while here have been... immaculate works of art."

"You're dealing with a volatile substance and giving it to terrorists," Colonel Catonis bellowed angrily. "And you're justifying it by likening it to damn painting you're putting up on display? Because you're proud of it! It's not even really your work! You're basing most of this off MY research!"

"It's my research now," Decius declared. "Mine alone! I've perfected what you couldn't, Tiveriux. I made the damn thing work! I made it viable! Because I was finally free to go places you wouldn't let us!"

"I didn't let you because I knew the danger," Colonel Catonis argued back. "What happened to my daughter could've happened to more soldiers if we started playing around with the formula. Who knows what side effects these samples could have!"

"I'm well aware of the risks, but the rewards are valuable enough," Decius countered. "I should know better than anyone. I had to... fudge the rules here and there to even get results back in the original project."

That gave Nelanax pause. What did he mean fudge the rules? What had he done?

"Wait," she asked, her thoughts clicking into place. "Are you saying... you went behind my dad's back?"

"I did nothing directly," Decius claimed. "It was my job to oversee the project's many technician and laboratory teams. I simply informed them, from time to time, to test out the limits of our own... safety parameters during all stages of development. And it worked, we got increasing good results and were able to synthesize more of the drug in greater quantities. It was all worth the risk."

"Until, one of your teams went too far," Nel suddenly realized. "It was you! You're the reason I got that bad batch! You and your damn corner cutting teams in manufacturing!"

Decius shrugged, not denying the accusation at all.

"I admit, my directions may not have been clear, I probably should've checked their work myself," he confessed. "But it was your father who hired all of the engineers and scientists onto the project. I simply trusted their abilities more than he did."

"You're the reason I went psycho that day!" Nel screamed. "You're the reason I got discharged! The reason I... I..."

She grabbed her head in pain, rage boiling over in her mind as the memories flooded back. Of families screaming, of panicked people running for cover, of a squadmate dying in her arms from her own actions. Decius remained unsympathetic, even as Nel's father tried to comfort her. He shook his head as Colonel Catonis tried to soothe his daughter with his voice.

"Nel, it's okay, come back," he whispered. "Just come back. You're not there anymore. You're here. You're here."

Nel took some heavy breaths, eventually returning to her senses. She glared up at Decius, who shook his head.

"Oh don't blame me for your actions, Nelanax," he growled. "I didn't make the bad batch. I didn't give it to you. I didn't force you to inject it into yourself. Your father had growing concerns before the incident to start with, about your behavior, your attitude under fire, your increased violent outbursts while under the influence. Regardless of my role in things, you were holding the gun the whole time. Whatever blood is on my hands, is stained right along with your own."

Nel looked down at her talons, gripping them into a fist. This was usually the part she tried to deny something. Blame someone or something else. Her father, the drug, the scientists, the Separatists. Not anymore though, not today. Even when she had the biggest excuse, the best one yet, a person to point at... she couldn't.

"They are stained," she confessed, a sobering sound to her voice as she spoke low, distant and sorrowfully. "I killed the very people I swore to protect. I might not have been in my own mind. I might not have done it if some scientists were more careful. I still think what happened at my trial was unfair, but only because not more people were there taking the fall."

She tore away her look from her hand and back onto Decius.

"I did something horrible," she admitted, a new sense of resolve in her tone. "Not the drug, me. I did it. I can't deny that anymore. It was my fault and I paid for it. And I've been trying to make it right ever since, not always succeeding... but I've tried. I gotta live with what I did. You though, Decius? You still got some debts to pay."

Decius shook his head, rather bored by the threats.

"The only ones who are paying are all of you," he insisted. "I'm just waiting here until Commander Bodicus shows up. He has the codes to this little... air tight makeshift safe room if you will. And he'll be lining up squads to head in here and exterminate the lot of you. He'll more than likely be here any sec-"

Bursting through a door on the other side of the glass, Hanilex rushed up behind Decius and grabbed his arm.

"The hell are you doing?" He demanded to know. "I told you to wait by the damn escape route!"

"You were taking too long I-"

"Shut up, we need to go," he declared.

Hanilex looked out to see Nelanax who was already lining up a shot, preparing to shoot him.

"I have no time for this," he claimed. "We'll settle things another day."

"Oh no, fucker," Nelanax told him. "You're gonna make fucking time!"

She fired on the glass, useless as it was. The pair soon raced out of the door Hanilex had entered. Nel began banging on the glass, determined to get through it to the other side. Her omni-blade weren't doing the trick though, luckily they had another means.

"Gang way!"

Wrex's cry was just barely enough warning for Nel to get out of the way as the krogan crashed through the glass. Nel was quick to follow through the hole and track down Hanilex and Decius. She found an open door at the back of the room Hanilex has entered from, leading down below. A tunnel, of course. They were headed to an adjacent building.

"They're gonna escape, we gotta get after them!" She called out to Liara as she ran inside.

"Lead the way," she insisted. "We're right behind you."

Nel jumped into the hole and rushed through the darkened tunnel ahead.

---

The escape tunnel didn't take them far, as it led to the basement of an adjacent building. Climbing the steps to the top, they could see why Hanilex had been late. Although Nel imagined Liara had known beforehand. Her Shadow Mercs had arrived, thundering in from the skies in attack shuttles. They had destroyed the anti-air positions and were bombarding the compound itself now. Obviously, Han had gotten sidetracked in his attempts to reach his charge.

Climbing the steps they faced little opposition. Then they reached the third floor, the one below the roof, where there were a two squads blocking their forward progression. Camped out near said roof access door, they laid down fire on the team, keeping them from their prize. Even as Wrex and Liara hit back with their biotics and Saya began picking them off with his sniper rifle, Nel knew Hanilex was probably already on his over to his escape shuttle. She did not intend to leave it up to the Shadow Mercs to deal with him.

She eyed a window and came up with the only idea she could think off. Her father remained huddled behind one of the barricades, reloading his rifle with a fresh thermal clip.

"You stay down," she told him. "I need to stop Han and Decius."

"Nel, you can't go through all those soldiers," He exclaimed.

"I'm not going through them, I'm going around," Nel assured him. "I did bother to retain some of your lessons."

He just nodded in response, apparently resigned to fact she was going to do whatever it was she was about to. She boosted over to the window, gunfire trailing her as she did. She heard her father's rifle open up on the enemy as she neared her exit point. Jumping from the window, she turned hard and activated her pack. She propelled herself up onto the roof above them all, landing on it by tucking and rolling. She saw Han and Decius making a dash for an escape shuttle, two guards saw her, however, pointing her out.

Getting up from the ground, she fired on the Seppies, forcing Han to jump into cover and push Decius to the ground for his own protection. He yelled something about the samples in the box he was carrying, which refocused Nel's efforts. Pulling out of cover, she jump jetted across the roof, bounding about as she fired on Han's men. She took down one with a clean shot and fired her cryo blast at another, freezing him cold. After she shattered him with a few well placed hits, her focused turned to Decius.

The traitorous scientist tried to get up and hobble to the shuttle where Hanilex waited. He handed him the box with the samples and that was when Nel struck. She lunged forward with her omni-blades, slashing into Decius and tossing him aside. She grabbed for the box, trying to pull it away from Han's claws. The shuttle itself began to lift off, even as Nel kept holding on.

"Let go!" Han ordered.

"Fat fucking chance!" Nel replied.

With her free hand, she activated her omni-tool and cut through the box. Samples of the new and improved juice fell away, smashing onto the arid ground below. Nel herself fell, only saved by the jets on her back which helped her land safely back on the roof. She looked up to see Hanilex going for his rifle, causing her to scurry for cover as bullets began to rip into her shields.

"You can't stop this, Nel!" Han shouted down at her. "Juice or no, we're going to win this war! The Hierarchy is going to pay for how it treats Biotics! For how it marginalizes its own citizens!"

"You're only going to confirm their fears, idiot!" Nel shouted back. "I don't care what your dad did to you! None of it justifies this!"

"It was a good enough reason for you to justify everything you ever did, Nel!" Han shouted back. "I never painted you for a hypocrite, but I guess things change."

Han's fire stopped when his shuttle was rocked by fire as Shadow Merc teams flew by his craft. He grunted as he moved back inside the doors and shut them.

"We'll end this next time," he growled as the doors closed.

The shuttle raced off, Nel firing on it as it left. The other Shadow Mercs were too busy with everything else to pursue. She cursed Han aloud and threw her rifle on the ground. Her gaze fell upon Decius' body. He was already gone. Hopefully he had some intel on his omni-tool they could use. Other than that, the pools of broken War Spirit's Blood scattered around him were more than a fitting marking for the bastard's grave.

Eventually, Liara, her father and the rest of the team joined her on the roof.

"My teams have killed or captured what's left of the garrison," Liara claimed. "A number of shuttles got away, but we've taken the compound."

"And we've destroyed all of the War Spirit's Blood too it seems," Colonel Catonis noted. "Good, one less loose end."

He also noticed Decius, shaking his head.

"Shameful," he said. "To think, I once trusted him. Then he goes and does all this."

"I guess you can't read everyone," Nel observed aloud. "Like Han, who managed to get away by the by."

"We'll track him down eventually," Liara assured her. "His people didn't succeed in destroying all their data in time. My teams are already recovering some intel. Hopefully some of it is useful."

Colonel Catonis put a hand on his daughter's shoulder.

"I... I wanted to thank you for coming for me," he told her. "I... I know you'd preferred to not have bothered."

"Mom asked me to find you, I couldn't say no to her," Nel reiterated once more.

"Be that as it may," her father relented. "I'm still glad you came."

Nel turned to face him at last, still unsure of what to honestly say or do. A lot of stuff had happened today and yet the real issue, the thing she was dreading, was still to come. She removed her father's hand and looked him dead in the eye.

"We need to talk," she told him bluntly.

"Yeah," he agreed. "We really do."

---

After the mop up, Liara returned to the Lucen. They were going over the data now. Most of it was intel on other CLC installations, but it didn't seem like anything pertaining to their major attack was on the servers. Liara imagined that was the first thing Hanilex deleted. She took time from parsing the data to head over to Nelanax's room. Her father was in there last she checked. They were supposedly talking, but when she rounded the corner she could hear yelling from the other side of the door. Vik was there too, not looking rather distressed.

"They've been at this for a while," he warned. "I would not go in there."

Liara accepted the quarian's warning, but she entered the room all the same. The door swished open, revealing the two turians practically shouting at each amongst Nel's not so tidy living space. She doubted it was because of the mess though, although it could've started from that. Who knew for sure? It had devolved in any case, into one giant shouting match.

"You can never just admit it, can you?" Nel screamed. "You can never just outright say you hate me and get it the fuck over with!"

"I don't hate you!" Her father snarled. "But you stole my research! My equipment! To get high! You can't expect me to be just okay with that!"

"You didn't leave me a fucking choice! No one did!" Nel screeched at him. "They took my fucking dream away from me and you didn't fucking care! You were glad I was gone! You never wanted me! So why the fuck should I give a shit about what I stole from you?! It's not like you ever gave me anything!"

"I gave you everything I could!" The Colonel replied in a rage. "It's not my fault you never listened! It's not my fault you had to be the problem child! I was trying to reach you, Nelanax! But you were so wrapped up in those damn vids-"

"Oh sure, blame the fucking vids!" Nel snarled sardonically. "I've owned up to killing civies because of my stupid decisions! But everything in my life I fucked up? No, that wasn't your fault! You were undermined by a fucking action film! What does that say about your fathering skills that a fucking vid could undermine you? And you call me pathetic."

"I didn't say pathetic," the Colonel shot back. "I said petty!"

Nel kicked a small nightstand over in anger at remark.

"PETTY! I'm fucking petty! Mr. Can't Even Wish His Daughter Good Luck At Boot? The guy who felt the need to tell me I was gonna fail flat out as the last thing he said before I got on the bus? I'm the fucking petty one?! Are you fucking kidding me?!"

"You gave me the finger!" Her father shot back.

"After you had to shit talk me at the stop, asshole!" Nel reminded him. "You fucking deserved it!"

"ENOUGH! BOTH OF YOU!"

Liara's scream shut both turians down, finally ending the screeching match and the constant barrage of angry insults. Liara eyed them both with a cold glare, letting the silence sink in before speaking once more. They needed to resolve this, and they would one way or another.

"You are both going to act like adults and hash this out rationally," she told them grimacing. "You cannot keep acting like this and expect to get anywhere. I don't know what made things this bad, but I know neither of you want to keep it this way. You've said as much to me. Now, you're both going to be honest with each other and stop screaming and just talk. Alright?"

The two turians said nothing, allowing Liara to set the rules.

"Alright, Nel, I want you to start," she said. "Then you let your father respond and so on and so on until we've said all we need to say and got everything straight. Alright?"

Nel sighed, agreeing to the terms.

"Fine," she began stoically. "I'll say it right now. What I did was wrong. I stole your work to keep getting high. I admit it. There's no excuse. At the time, all I could think about was that my life was over and I was so certain I couldn't be the soldier I wanted to be anymore. So I did what seemed to be a good idea at the time. I stole the means to make more juice. It was a stupid decision, I hate myself for doing it. The whole thing robbed me of my potential to be better on my own merits. I relied on it too much and it stunted my skills. But at the time, I thought I needed it because of you, dad. Because you told me I'd never be enough for years, so is it any surprise I took it? Is it really?"

Her father stood there for a moment, finally letting his walls down.

"No, it's not," he admitted solemnly. "I can admit that. I spent so long trying to teach you the way my father did, the way my trainers did, I went overboard. I did it all when you were too young and I shouldn't have gone about it that way. So I shouldn't have been so surprised I drove you away. I was angry when you stole my work, but not even because you took it. I was angry because... I knew the part I played in it. I made the drug and I got you hooked on it. I saw what was happening to you and I should've done something to get you off it. I should've put my foot down, shuttered the project, but I didn't. I didn't because it was the only way to continue my other studies."

"I thought you were working on the juice exclusively," Nel recalled.

"I had personal projects, less combat stimulant related," her father clarified astutely. "I was working on them in my spare time. Vitamin supplements, new gene therapies, medicinal advances, that's what I wanted to really be working on. But if I shut down the work on the War Spirit's Blood, the funding from the military would've dried up too and none of that work would've gotten anywhere."

Nel looked a bit surprised, her glare softened slightly.

"I should've put you first, Nel and I didn't. I'm sorry for that," her father confessed sincerely. "Ultimately, it was why I chose not to tell anyone but your mother about it. I knew what would happen to you for stealing military secrets... and I... had already done enough."

Nel's features hardened slightly at that.

"Is that why you didn't show up to the hearing?" She asked grimly. "Because you felt you had done enough damage already? Was leaving me to the assholes looking for a scapegoat really the better option?"

"I didn't see what difference it would've made," he replied.

Nel snorted at that.

"Pft, typical," she growled under her throat as she turned away from him.

The Colonel sighed, rubbing the space between his eyes and pacing as he did.

"Okay, full truth," he relented. "It was a number of reasons. I didn't think you'd want to see me for one. I knew there was little I could do. Like you said, they wanted someone to blame and the project to be shuttered as classified. And... I guess part of me hoped this would be better for you."

"Better?" Nel growled. "You think losing my dream of being a soldier was better?"

"You had just killed several civilians and a squadmate, Nel!" Her father reminded her pleadingly. "Even under the influence of drugs I knew it had to have damaged you emotionally! Maybe me not showing up to support didn't help, but I believed being discharged would allow you to rethink, retool, find something better to do with your life. Something... something that wouldn't tear you up inside."

"See! It all comes back to this," Nel declared. "The fact you never wanted me to join your precious military. That you wanted me to do my year of service and drop out. You wanted me to quit as soon as possible. Because you didn't think I could cut it."

The Colonel shook his head.

"That's not true," he claimed. "I didn't want you making it your career, but I didn't want to you to quit because I believed you were any lesser than me. I never once believed you were a lesser soldier, not once."

"Bullshit, you wanted a boy," Nel snarled at him. "You don't think I didn't hear you mumble that shit now and then?"

"I was tried, stressed, I didn't mean it," he claimed defensively.

"Oh like you didn't mean it when you found out the truth, huh?" Nel asked, glaring daggers at him. "When you found out I played for both teams? When you realized I had a slightly higher predilection for girls as well as boys?"

The Colonel backed off for a moment, letting Nel continue. But his expression was one of obvious guilt.

"I remember clearly, just a year out from the big one five," she recalled with a biting angry tone. "I had discovered something about myself. That when I looked at female turians, I felt something. Something as strong if not stronger when I looked at boys. I felt the same way about asari, female quarians, krogan. I realized, I knew, I was different and I wanted to find out why. So... I experimented."

Nel walked over to the window looking out into space, her tone turned to one of wistfulness, brighter than before.

"It started with kissing of course, moved to touching," she explained. "I... I kept it secret because even in this day and age there's a stigma. Especially among the more conservative classmates. But, well, Naeteria was the head of the cheer squad. Tightest waist, the sexiest fringe... and she wanted me. ME!"

She lit up as she said that and smile growing on her face as she did.

"Someone... wanted me," she said happily. "She wanted to be with me! No boy had ever said that, I always said it to them but a lot of them recoiled at the pushy type. And here was this female turian, saying she wanted ME to be her first. And I was, as well as her second, and her third. And, damn... was she something. You never forget your high school sweetheart I guess."

Soon enough, Nel's smile faded, replaced once more with anger.

"And then the fourth time... when you busted into my room while I was with her," she snarled, tears welling up in her eyes as she did. "And you cussed me out. Said it was worse than finding me with a boy. Worse than anything you could've imagine. You screamed at me, belittled me, told me I was a disgusting tramp. Naeteria's parents sent her away to another school, made her break it off with me because you told them. You ruined something beautiful dad. Something that was mine. Maybe it would've lasted, maybe it wouldn't have, but it was fucking MINE. And you took it from me and made me feel like there was something wrong with me for ever liking it. You made me feel like shit. And you never, ever, apologized for that. Ever."

Even Liara had to glare at the Colonel for his actions, but he said nothing in his defense. At least not in terms of absolving himself.

"Nel, I was a fool back then, and an idiot," he confessed plainly and clearly. "I could blame my own father for it, but I said those things. I said all those horrible things and it was my fault. And I never apologized because it filtered into everything else. There's no question, what I did to you that night was deplorable and I don't expect you to ever forgive me. It... took me years to come to terms with what I had done and by then it was... too late. Nothing I say can ever make up for it now, but I'm sorry."

He paused for a moment, fighting back his own set of tears.

"I'm sorry I made you feel like you were made wrong," he said sadly. "You were being yourself, I shouldn't have made you hate that part of you. I should've embraced that, but like everything else I did... I pushed you away. And, it probably doesn't matter to you now, but I swear, that was never why I wanted you to leave the military after your tour and it was never about you being a woman either."

"I don't believe you," Nel said, still clearly angry from the terrible memory she had shared.

"That's fair, I never did explain myself," he said acceptingly. "Nel, all the things I did, trying to scare you out of the military, shut you down, force you into wanting to quit. It wasn't because I was embarrassed to have you, I just wanted... something more for you than the family legacy. I wanted you to make something for yourself."

Nel perched a brow, confused as to what he meant by that. He continued to explain.

"My father drilled it into me that a Catonis has to be the best," he stated stoically. "The best soldier he could be. I was always more interested in science, but, he wouldn't hear of it. He wanted me to train, to be ready, to be the best. To honor the family's legacy of heroes. All I ever wanted was to pursue my dream of being a scientist. There was a place for that in the military, but... in a limited role. And every time I tried to discharge, I thought of my father and what he would say, what the family would think of me. So I stayed until, well, until I couldn't think of a good enough reason to leave. I swore though, I wouldn't let that happen to you. I was going to break the cycle."

He sighed suddenly, grabbing at his fringe, a look of self-loathing creeping across his face.

"And in the end... I just did the same thing my father did to you," he confessed. "I tried to push you into what I wanted, instead of listening to you. Because I felt you were being forced to join by outside forces. All I wanted was for you do something else, something better. It's... it's not right, what the Hierarchy insists upon. Hanilex is right about there being things that need to change about our government. Individual will, desires, they shouldn't be discouraged as a danger to the group. They shouldn't be seen as something inherently selfish and wrong automatically. It's not right. Joining the military should be a choice, not an obligation. I... I had hoped to teach you there was another way."

Apparently Hanilex's father wasn't the only turian parent forcing something on their kid. It was something of a revelation to the female turian, to learn the real reason her father had actually been doing so many things to her. It didn't change much though. Nel's anger softened but didn't go away completely because of the confession.

"Dad, did it ever occur to you that this was what I wanted?" She asked pleadingly, her voice pained and full of hurt. "That it wasn't vids or propaganda that really convinced me to make this my life? That this was indeed how I truly wanted to spend my life. I wanted this, I wanted to be a soldier and it was stolen from me because of some lousy decisions I made. That a lot of people did. Maybe I deserved to get discharged for what I did, maybe I still would've if you had come to defend me, but more than anything else I just wanted you there. Deep down... I just wanted you there. It was the worse day of my life... and I faced it alone."

Nel approached her father now, her face sullen and downcast as she continued to speak.

"You know what really convinced me that I wanted to be a soldier?" She questioned him. "It wasn't the vids, it was you."

Her dad perked up suddenly at those words.

"All the stories of your adventures I heard about," Nel continued, her voice still strained through all the painful memories. "Everything you did, the lives you saved, the people you protected because you stood up and fought. It inspired me. Deep down, I just wanted to be like you. I wanted to do what you had done. I wanted to save lives. I wanted... to be someone's hero, like you were mine when I was small. And instead, at every opportunity you beat me down and told me no. I couldn't be what I wanted. I could never get what I wanted. And it killed me inside, to think the person I wanted to be like... hated me that much."

Colonel Catonis gripped his hand into a fist. He started biting his lower mandible as she whole body began to shake.

"I... I didn't want you to think that, Nel," the Colonel said, beginning to let the tears flow now. "I... I never wanted you to think I hated you. I'm... I'm so sorry. I... I just wanted to be a good teacher. I just wanted to give you a chance at a better life than mine."

"I didn't need that, I had a good life. All I wanted was a dad," Nel sniffled sadly. "That's... that's all I wanted. I just wanted someone to believe in me. I wanted YOU to believe in me."

It was then that the Colonel rushed across the room and hugged his daughter tightly. Nel was shocked by the show of affection and unsure of how to respond.

"I'm so sorry, Nel," he said sobbing. "I'm so sorry. I... I should've done better. I should've been better."

Nel slowly crept her hands up, until finally she returned the embrace.

"I... I want us to be better," she said sadly. "I don't want to hate you, dad. I tears me up to hate you. I... I know I'm not perfect. I know I fuck up a lot. I'm not easy to deal with, I know. But... I... I'm sorry for what I did, for thinking you felt that way about me, I-"

"There's enough blame to go around, I was wrong too," he sobbed. "About so much. I pushed you away and I made you hate me and I never tried to make it better. I don't hate you Nel, I never did. I swear! But I made you hate yourself, doubt yourself. That's my fault."

"I let it fester," Nel sobbed. "I... I just let it fester and eat at me and run my life. I should've come back on my own. I should've made amends. I'm sorry, dad. I'm... I'm just sorry."

Liara backed away, leaving the room as the two turians reconnected, hugging one another and sobbing into each other's shoulders. She saw Nel smile slightly, a warm sensation seeming to wash over her. An old wound, finally healed.

---

Nel sat in the common area, sitting alone with her plate of food. She wasn't eating though, too lost in thought. So much was on her mind. Her father was going to be leaving soon, a shuttle to take him back to see Mom on the Citadel was coming soon. She'd be there to wish him goodbye, even though so many emotions were swimmingly around in her stomach.

She wasn't alone for long, Vik soon sat down next to her. He was quiet at first, but that didn't last.

"Everything alright?" He asked.

She shrugged.

"They're not terrible," she admitted. "We... I want to see him again. He wants to keep in contact. We apologized for a ton of things we did. I'm still angry though, I'm just not resentful."

"It's not going to be easy," Vik assured her. "It takes time to heal from these things. And you have a lot of that do."

"Yeah, it's a start," she concurred. "Next step, I guess, is moving on now. Letting a lot of this go, dealing with the rest that you can't, coming to terms with the now. But, I want things to be better, he wants them to be better. We'll see what that means in time."

Vik nodded agreeable at that conclusion, turning to his own food. However, there was a new thought on Nel's mind she had to get out just then.

"Hey, Bucket," she began. "Thanks for... what you said before."

"About what?" Vik asked.

"That stuff I overheard you telling my dad," she explained. "I... didn't know you cared that much."

"Crew is family," Vik reminded her. "I didn't know you were listening."

Nel just shrugged.

"Guess I picked up being a nosy jerk from you," she laughed.

Vik shook his head laughing turning to his food, but Nel wasn't done yet.

"Vik," she spoke up again. "I think, you and your dad are going to be okay. I don't think he's going to be mad over you leaving. Not after you explain it."

"You... you think so?" He asked hopefully.

"I know you had a way better childhood than me," she said grinning. "And you left for... way less selfish reasons than me. He'll understand, I'm sure of it."

Vik took a moment to let that sink in, and finally his eyes brightened up.

"Thanks, Nel," he told her. "That means a lot."

Nel didn't respond, but she did join him in eating. Just letting the thoughts in her head settle as she shared her meal with a friend. No, not a friend... with family.

---

AN: This was an emotional chapter to write for personal reasons. While I'm not bi-sexual, at times I do wonder about how other people live and that includes sexual orientation. I wanted to get it right, I wanted it to make sense and not look stupid or anything. I wanted to be very careful and respectful and not sensationalise it. I just wanted Nel to tell her story and be seen more as a person than as anything else, a person who was hurt and deserved better. And a father who had recognized what he had done and wanted to make ammends, but because of the abuse he suffered, found it hard to do so. Two imperfect people, trying to become better.

I had wanted to sit on this more, but I needed to get another chapter out for one of the stories before the year ended and before Christmas dropped. So, here it is. I hope you enjoyed it and I await your thoughts and responses. As for further updates, don't worry, I'm still hard at work on future chapters. The holidays just cause a bit of a slow down honestly. With any luck, I'll be faster in the New Year as I get over some humps concerning difficult to write scenes and what not. See you all then and thank you once more for coming on this journey with me.