Samara sat cross legged on a bench beside a potted tree, her eyes closed as she tuned in and out of the multitude of background noises. Filtering and identifying each in turn.

The whoosh of passing skycars. The regular crackle and dong of a tannoy system. Footsteps. Arguments. Sales pitches. Laughter. The background hum of electricals.

Various voices flowed past in a dozen different languages. Some she understood, others a meaningless medley, her translator turned off in her ear.

It had been over four centuries, closer to five, since she last stepped foot upon the Citadel.

Back then her family had been happy and whole. Falere, barely into double digits, glancing in all directions in abject wonder.

Rila, trying so hard to appear unaffected and aloof, her eyes betraying her awe.

Morinth, no... Mirala, constantly asking questions. Not yet a monster. Still her bright and promising daughter. Back then her insatiable thirst had been for knowledge. Not power or carnal pleasure.

There had been no humans back then.

No drell.

Quarians had mingled freely, their beauty on display for all to see, not yet suited and stigmatised.

Security hadn't been as tight back then either. Although she couldn't help noticing several flaws in the current system. C-Sec were too comfortable. Trusting their security to machines.

Still, she had elected to leave her weapons on the Normandy rather than risk someone making an attempt to disarm her. The code ensured it would have been their last mistake.

"Krios!" The familiar name from a fear laced voice was enough to break through her thoughts.

She opened her eyes in time to see a flicker of movement. A flash of green as two dark shapes withdrew from sight.

Curious and concerned, she flowed to her feet, biotics thrumming just below the surface as she left the main thoroughfare for the shadows. Reactivating her translator as she went.

"You gave instructions to another drell for an assassination. Who's the target?" Thane had a human pressed against the wall with one hand.

"I don't know, I didn't ask." The man was unarmed. If Thane killed him the code would insist on retribution.

The minutest movement of muscle signified the drell had sensed her presence. The human didn't seem to notice the change.

"I'd like to help you Krios. You always done right by us. But I ain't gonna die for you."

He seemed strangely sure that the assassin wouldn't kill him himself. Samara supposed that was a point in Thane's favour.

"Look, I thought I was doing you a favour, he said he was your son."

"He is."

Samara stayed silent. She was ready to spring into action the moment the code demanded it, but until then she was content to collect information and puzzle out the intricacies of the situation.

"Help me Mouse, my son is out there in the dark."

She'd never heard a drell beg. She wondered if this is what it sounded like.

The human finally became aware of her, eyes flicking sideways in hope of salvation.

"I'm sure the justicar would be interested in many things we each could say about one another." Thane stated without turning.

Apparently threats worked where pleading failed, the human paling significantly before the information flooded out of him.

That left Samara wondering what crimes this 'Mouse' had committed. Were they genuinely serious enough for her involvement? Or was it general human ignorance on how justicars truly operated that had him so afraid.

It was true that they were duty bound to punish the guilty, and witnessing a crime required an instant response. However Thane's word was not enough to dispense justice. Hearsay was to be investigated first.

Just because a justicar could not lie, did not mean they believed what they were told without question. Sentients seeking to wield a justicar as a weapon in a personal vendetta often found their schemes backfiring when the investigation revealed more than they planned.

People also forgot that some smaller crimes had lesser punishments. Condemning themselves to death by resisting or assaulting a justicar when they would only have been handed to the local law enforcement.

True, a justicar's testimony held up as absolute in an asari court of law, but a shoplifter could live.

Whatever the source of Mouse's sudden cooperativeness, he told them all they needed to know about the contract giver, Elias Kelham, and Thane let him scurry away unharmed.

That left the question of what Samara would do next.

The Third Oath of Subsumation supplanted the code with Shepard's will, but the spectre wasn't here to specify her preference.

Standing orders included bringing any transgressions of the code committed aboard the Normandy to Shepard to deal with, and protecting all squadmates on the battlefield regardless of what fate the code would normally decree for each individual's past.

This situation didn't quite fit either of those commands. She wasn't used to shades of grey. There was no ambiguity in the code's 5000 sutras.

Thane didn't strike her as the kind of person to cause civilian casualties, but a parent protecting a child was one of the most dangerous and unpredictable creatures in the galaxy. Regardless of species or even sentience.

Her own experiences and the actions of her bondmate were proof enough of that.

When they first found out Mirala had lost her virginity and accidentally become a killer in the process, they had both wanted to protect their daughter. To prevent her bright future from being extinguished.

They conveniently forgot that fire was also bright, but that uncontained it could result in a devastating display of death and destruction.

They hadn't known then that the seed of addiction had already taken root and started to grow. A bitterness fermenting in the once sweet soul.

Mirala ceased to exist long before Morinth was brought to justice.

Samara couldn't save her own daughter. But at least she could help another parent divert their child from a path of darkness.

Hopefully at least.

Thane's son had already accepted a contract. He teetered on the edge between being the innocent she must protect and the guilty she must punish.

She prayed they would find him in time.

The first step was finding Kelham. Word on the streets was that he ran the racketeering operations throughout Shin Akiba. Seemingly everyone knew it, but allegedly nobody could prove it.

Between her experience hunting criminals and Thane's skill in stalking targets, it took a mere forty minutes to track him down.

Her teammate was prepared to sneak his way in but Samara wasn't one for subtlety, barreling her way through the front door.

"Who the hell are you!?" The indignant greeting came from a human male with dark hair atop his head and around the mouth. He wore a stylish green and cream suit jacket. The suit pants however were missing, black undergarments covering his nether regions. Legs bare, well… hairy, but free from clothes.

"Elias Kelham?" The justicar checked.

The human nodded instinctively, frown farrowing his face a fraction of a second later. It was all the confirmation Samara needed though and she kept going before he could backtrack.

"You ordered a sentient's death. You're going to tell me who."

"Who the fuck do you think you are bitch!? You want me to confess to putting a contract on someone. You think I'm stupid? The only person I'm speaking to is my advocate."

That was an awful lot of words for someone planning to stay silent. Samara thought. She opened her mouth to reply, but Thane got there first.

"You apparently haven't noticed we're not C-Sec. No deals. No due process. No advocate."

Krios was wrong, the code insisted on due process. It was just a different process. Still, two out of three wasn't bad for someone who hadn't studied the sutras.

"What are you frog boy? Her little sidekick? You gonna bore me into confessing?"

"We have witnesses who'll swear you ordered the hit."

Witness. Singular. Samara silently corrected him in the sanctity of her head.

Mouse probably wouldn't do well on a witness stand either. Lawyers would pitch it as a former duct rat of dubious repute against a seemingly upstanding businessman. Facts never got in the way of a successful lawyer.

"It's a big station froggy. People disappear all the time."

The threat wouldn't hold up in court but, combined with the missing shock or declaration of innocence, it was enough of a crack for the code. Samara didn't smile, but she did step confidently forward as the man continued to rant.

"You two ain't shit. Come on, hit me. I dare you. Do you know what I'll do to you if you lay a hand on me?"

She didn't lower herself to punching him but she did trap him in a stasis.

"No, I'm not shit." She agreed, the human swearword tasting vulgar against her tongue. "I'm a justicar. Now, you hired an assassin. Tell me who the target is."

"You don't have any proof."

"Are you sure we don't? You want to bet the rest of your life on it?" Thane retorted.

The sweat beading on Kelham's forehead, along with the fact he was debating the existence of evidence rather than the validity of the claimed action, was all the proof she needed to justify escalation of interrogation methods.

A simple hand mnemonic and he screamed, all the pain of a full body reave concentrated into his left shoulder.

"The target's name?" Samara repeated. Voice unchanged from the last time she asked.

"Damn it, Joram Talid! He's a turian running for intendant of Zakera Ward."

"Where can we find him?"

"His apartment is in the 800 Blocks."

Citadel geography was not one of her strong suits, she glanced toward Thane.

"I know where it is." He confirmed and she nodded, returning her attention to Kelham. They were running out of time to save Thane's son and she didn't want to handicap herself in a fight by dragging around a prisoner.

"You will hand yourself in to the nearest C-Sec precinct and confess your crimes." She instructed, removing both the reave and stasis. "If you haven't done so by the time I track down the drell, I will return for you."

An asari would be grateful for such a reprieve, even a quarian, turian or salarian. Humans however were apparently stupid as he dove to the side declaring:

"Fuck that, I ain't going to jail for the tadpole." His hand disappeared behind a cabinet, reappearing with a pistol.

He didn't have time to aim.

The asari lifted his body biotically and flung him against the far wall, striding towards him in easy steps.

"May you find peace in the embrace of the goddess." She recited the familiar words as she executed her duty. Foot cracking down upon his neck.

It was as swift and merciful an ending as any asari criminal could hope for, and it seemed just as efficient on humans.

She experienced a brief flicker of uncertainty as she abruptly realised he was the first human she'd judged this way, and added:

"Or whatever deity you believe in."

Human theology was another area she lacked expertise.

She turned to leave, coming face to face with Thane.

"I'd hoped to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. Pure results come from pure methods."

Confusion swept her mind but not her face. It was a good philosophy but surely he'd seen the weapon? Self defence was permissible in nearly every culture in the galaxy. Perhaps he disapproved of her interrogation methods, but words had been getting them nowhere.

"He was in violation of the code, it was necessary." She wasn't going to apologise for killing a criminal, or getting one to confess. "Shall we? I'd prefer to find your son before he breaks the code."

After that the ride to the 800 Blocks was tense.

Samara spent the time studying photos of both Talid and Kolyat, she needed to be capable of picking them out from a crowd.

In the end Talid was easy to spot as he moved from street to street, campaigning for the election.

Samara kept watch, trailing him from above, while Thane continued to search for his son.

The longer she observed the turian, the less impressed she became. What started as a call to end crime and corruption ended with him committing crime and corruption, shaking down human run businesses.

Of course he stayed outside while his bodyguard did the dirty work, but still: 'both she who gives the order and she who obeys are equally guilty of the crime'.

"I see him." Thane's voice crackled in her comm piece. He didn't expand upon the fact. Didn't provide any details or direction.

Samara methodically searched the scene, eyes picking out a drell beside a skycar.

He stood as his target passed. Pistol already in hand.

They were out of time.

She launched herself off the gangway, using biotics to control her descent.

"Kolyat!"

He half turned. Noticed the threat and panicked. Pushing a human out the way as Talid and his bodyguard turned.

Bullets flew, struck the krogan who stumbled and reached for his own firearm. Kolyat's rounds had to be modded to have such a strong effect.

The krogan would live but there was enough orange blood for Samara to lock him in stasis.

Medicinal. She justified. To stop him bleeding out.

It was a weak argument.

It was true she was trying to prevent further tragedy though.

She aimed another stasis but Thane was suddenly in her way. Blocking her line of sight as he ran toward his son.

Talid had turned tail and fled, both drell in hot pursuit. She joined the foot race.

They came to a stop in Talid's apartment. The turian forced to kneel, a pistol to his head.

Talid pleaded for his life, making offers and promises. Some of the wordings, in a different context, could loosely be considered a bribe.

She'd watched him break both law and code today. At the very least he'd need to be handed to the authorities. But he had position, power, just enough plausible deniability for a lawyer to get him off. He would not be held to account by the authorities.

Making sure the guilty were punished was a core tenet of the code. Second only to protecting the innocent.

Her attention focused on Kolyat. His innocence was in tatters and yet, there remained a single unbroken thread.

He had pulled the trigger but he had not yet killed.

Had Krios Senior been given the contract, Talid would be a cooling corpse on the floor. The drell hidden among the ventilation ducts.

Instead Thane was currently imploring his son to see reason. The younger drell only getting angrier at his father's sudden reappearance in his life.

He was floundering. So very clearly out of his depth.

Samara could hear sirens. Footsteps on the stairs.

There were no innocents here. Only the guilty.

C-Sec could only be relied upon to punish one of them.

She pushed and pulled with her biotics. Same time. Different targets.

Talid hit the far wall with a crunch. His ribs shattered, bone fragments piercing his lungs.

Meanwhile Kolyat was forced into her grasp, her body still engaged in elegant motion as she caught his hand that held the pistol, thumb flicking the safety on as she maneuvered his arm to point it at his own head.

His eyes were wide as they watched blue blood froth in Talid's mouth. The turian's laboured breathing falling silent.

C-Sec breached the room with scattered shouts and she bathed both drell in a biotic barrier. Quickly identifying herself before anyone could make a fatal mistake.

Confusion reigned supreme before they were all bundled into the waiting squad cars.

A single day.

The code obliged her to cooperate with local authorities for a single day. After that…

Well… she was sure Shepard would take care of things before then.

…

Two and a half hours it took for Shepard to arrive.

C-sec had put her in an interrogation room but she was unrestrained, door unlocked. Food, water and a method to communicate should she want anything provided.

She was not, they were quick to assure, being contained. Merely being accommodated somewhere less distracting.

She took the opportunity to meditate and wonder how Thane was doing with his son. They were being detained in the same holding cell but separate from the rest of the precinct's arrests. Given a chance to catch up away from an audience.

When the commander finally entered, she just stood with her arms folded, watching her.

Samara was still learning the nuances of human body language and facial expressions but she didn't think she looked angry. More like resigned.

There was a full minute of silence before the spectre spoke.

"Do I want to know what this is about?"

Samara considered a second before deciding:

"Someone hired Thane's son for an assassination. He wanted to prevent him becoming a killer and following in his footsteps. We succeeded."

There was another moment's silence, this one shorter, as the commander clearly processed her words. Then her arms dropped to her sides with a sigh, eyes flicking to the left. Bizarrely it was the wall without the two way mirror.

"Yeah I'd probably go on a killing spree to protect my boy too."

Samara filed that information away. Fortunately they were merely talking hypotheticals so the code would not demand action when her oath ended.

"Two people is hardly a killing spree." She felt the need to point out.

"Two?" Shepard's retort was sharp. "Who the hell was the other one?"

"The contract giver. A career criminal named Elias Kelham. It was technically self defense."

The commander's face looked like she was sucking on something sour. Presumably over the use of the word 'technically'. Eventually she relinquished another deep sigh.

"Fine."

For a second Samara thought her translator had broken, then she remembered other times she'd heard that word aboard the Normandy. She wasn't convinced it meant the same in human as it did in Serrice.

"I assume both deaths were acceptable to the code?"

Samara nodded. Admittedly one was more acceptable than the other, but both were permissible.

"Fine, let's go. We best tell Bailey about Kelham so he doesn't waste man hours investigating a murder when the body gets reported."

Shepard spun on her heel, pushing the door open and striding out before Samara even finished flowing to her feet.

She lengthened her pace but still hadn't caught up when she heard a strange noise.

Rounding a corner, she nearly walked into the commander who had stopped, mouth gaping, as they took in the scene.

A lone turian sat working at a terminal in the corner. Every other C-Sec officer present was crowded in a circle around a single desk, many of the humans were repeatedly moving the palms of their hand toward and away again from their open mouths, resulting in the unusual sound.

She was debating whether to ask Shepard about the significance of the cultural ritual she was undoubtedly witnessing or to just look it up on the extranet later, when the commander finally snapped out of her daze.

"I can't leave him anywhere." She muttered before raising her voice: "You're not supposed to make kids want to spend their time in police custody."

The officers immediately fell silent, the circle parting to reveal a small human with black hair marching back and forth across the top of the desk. Hand still producing the cultural wail.

"Nicky, you causing trouble again?"

The toddler's warcry turned into a giggle as he turned to face them. Brown eyes landed on the commander before sliding to Samara. His arm lifted up to point at her as he proudly declared:

"Bwo!"

"Yes, yes, well done." Shepard praised in an exasperated tone. "Keep pointing it out and eventually you'll find an asari that takes offense. Now get over here."

It was a poorly worded command.

Instead of climbing safely down or asking for adult assistance, the child simply walked to the edge and jumped.

Several officers instinctively went to catch him but Samara got there first, encasing him in a gentle biotic bubble and safely floating him towards them.

The toddler chortled, clapping and waving in glee throughout the short journey. His parent was less impressed, leveling him with a reproachful glare.

"That is not what I meant Nicholas. We both better hope no-one tells your mother about this."

"Mama?"

"Yes mama." Shepard repeated before noting him turning his head searchingly. "No, she's not here. Just as well really or she'd be planning my second funeral. You're lucky you're cute."

The child's attention had already waned however as he started jumping up and down on the spot.

"What are you-" The spectre's bewildered query was cut off by a screeching cry of:

"Boon! Boon!"

Whatever he was saying, it wasn't close enough for Samara's omni-tool to even attempt translating. Shepard and the rest of the humans seemed equally confused.

"What's balloons got to do wi-" The commander faltered mid sentence once again. This time because Nicholas had stopped jumping and darted determinedly toward a chair.

"Get-" Shepard grabbed the collar of his shirt before he could climb any higher. Planting him firmly back on the ground. "Hand. Behave."

The sulky face was clear even to Samara as he dutifully took his parent's hand. However being tethered to a person didn't stop him from trying one last jump and desolate:

"Boon."

"It's not a balloon." Shepard explained with a sigh, having finally worked out what he was on about. "It's a biotic… bubble… thing. And it won't always save you when you do something stupid."

"Boon." The child remained fixated and the commander turned toward Samara with a sigh.

"I really do appreciate you saving him, but I'm starting to think the concussion might have been easier to deal with."

"I apologise. I wasn't thinking." The asari offered. It had been instinctive and she knew she'd do it again away.

Now she thought about it however, she remembered how enamoured her own children had been with floating in their preschool years.

They often convinced her bondmate and herself to float them in races around the garden. Mirala had even floated Falere a few times once she gained enough control over her developing biotics.

"I can always float him again if it'll help settle him." She offered, a yearning ache in her heart at the distant memories.

A flurry of thoughts flickered over the commander's face as Samara realised giving in to the child's demands probably wasn't the best idea long term. Eventually Shepard sighed.

"Fine. Knock yourself out. Just don't let him break anything. I gotta talk to Bailey and collect Thane anyway." She knelt down to her son's level. "Nicky, this is Samara, she controls the balloon. Be good for her or she'll make sure you never have fun ever again."

"Boon?"

"Yeah." Shepard ruffled his hair before standing. She nodded to Samara, an indecipherable look in her eyes before striding off. Leaving her son in the care of an asari who'd killed her own daughter.

Several C-Sec officers returned to work, but there was still a sizable audience as she glanced down into innocent brown eyes.

"Boon."

Instead of crouching to his level, she biotically lifted him to hers. A delighted screech and clap erupting from his tiny form the moment he left the ground.

"Where do you want to go?" She asked before remembering he didn't have a translator. Neither of them could understand a word the other said but that didn't stop them.

In no time at all the precinct was filled with childish laughter as Nicholas flew around the room, ordering the justicar about with his hands.

Author's note: Where has the time gone? Sorry for the delay but I'm sure you're aware the world was kinda crazy last year and it's not planning on changing any time soon just because we switched to a new calendar.

Thanks to everybody who's followed, faved and reviewed, it's a nice little mental boost every time I get a notification.

A guest asked about Torma, the batarian squadmate. I've not forgotten about him but you're right it has been awhile since we've seen him, no real reason other than the cast is huge in ME2 and it's hard to keep track of them all. I think there was even several chapters between Thane being recruited (by Garrus offscreen) and him actually appearing in a chapter as well.

Where possible I try to have logical reasons for why squadmates are chosen for a mission/team rather than just 'I haven't used them recently'. So for loyalty missions it's 'who does this person like/trust enough to take with them for this deeply personal situation' (or, in this chapter's case, 'who overheard and decided to get involved')

When Grunt was new, Shepard always had him on her team to make sure he was under control and not a loose canon. He'd accepted her as battlemaster but she wasn't sure if he'd follow the other team leaders or try to challenge them and endanger the mission. Now he's proven himself he's been in other squads and even started getting small team leadership roles and training to help progress his character to a point where making him leader of an entire company of krogan makes sense. Being the best fighter doesn't automatically make you a good leader.

Likewise Jack was stuck in Shepard's squad the first few missions for similar reasons, but with the addition of Samara in the squad in case she got out of hand and they needed a stronger biotic to take her down. During the fake kidnapping Jack was trusted enough to work with Garrus without the justicar watching over her so she's progressing. Shepard is never going to stick Jack on Miranda's team unless she has no other choice because she knows it will not be a cohesive unit. However she is getting to the point where she doesn't feel she has to keep as close an eye on her and can have more freedom with squad layouts again.

We have had small scenes with Grunt interacting with and looking out for both Torma and Jack separately, they're also the three youngest on the Normandy and Jack and Grunt share a deck so I imagine the three of them starting to hang out together a lot more, bond, and eventually become Grunt's team.

I'm afraid I'm not even going to attempt to promise or guess a timeframe for future chapters but all I can do is reaffirm that this will not be abandoned or forgotten, it's merely a matter of getting the holy trinity of time, energy and inspiration to write all at the same time.

Hope everyone's still enjoying the story and staying as safe as possible.