Tali wrapped her arms around herself as the Normandy tore through Earth's atmosphere in an attempt to escape the ongoing apocalypse below. Was this what it was like for her ancestors when they fled Rannoch? Her crewmates were not behaving as she had expected them to. She had expected them to weep for their lost home, as she did when she was banished from the Migrant Fleet. Instead, they were angry.
"Stow it, Litenaunt!" Shepard snapped. "You don't wanna be here? Fine. But this isn't a democracy. Hackett ordered us to Mars, so we are going to Mars. Am I clear?"
The behemoth of a soldier glowered at the Commander for a moment before finally looking downwards towards the ground. The words "Yes sir" sounded from between his gritted teeth. Ashley, meanwhile, eyed Shepard warily from across the cargo bay, a small scowl on her face.
Keelah, she couldn't possibly be giving into her delusional mistrust of Shepard, could she? She had just lost her home, and instead of focusing on the upcoming mission that could save it, she was obsessing over whatever crazy conspiracy theory going through her head. That bosh'tet! Great, now Tali was angry too.
Maybe that was just how humans worked. Where other species would get sad, they'd get angry like a Krogan. And now that same mentality was rubbing off on Tali. Instead of feeling sad for the woman she once considered the older sister she never had, she now felt nothing but resentment. Resentment for the fact that while Shepard risked his life to save the galaxy for a second time, she sat back and did nothing.
Tali pushed the thoughts in her head aside. She couldn't fully blame Ashley for doing what she did. She was suspicious of and hesitant to work with Cerberus in the beginning as well. But now that she was here, Ashley would realize that Shepard was only doing what he thought was best, just like Tali had done. Hopefully, they could all put this whole thing behind them.
The Quarian continuously tried to smother her anger towards Ashely with this hope on their route to Mars. The only thing it really seemed to do was bury it deeper into her mind, where it was away from her immediate awareness but not forgotten nor diminished. After landing and fighting a small battalion of Cerberus soldiers, Tali sincerely hoped that Ashley would just keep her mouth shut.
She did not.
Instead, Ashley accused Shepard of being in somehow on this attack, even when James pointed out Shepard had had no contact with the outside galaxy for the past six months. Still, Tali said nothing. She kept her cool and thankfully, her rage was once again buried, this time by the reunion with Liara. Tali had mixed feelings about the Asari, namely for giving Shepard's body to Cerberus. It was a crazy decision born solely out of the archaeologist's loveobsession with the man. Her obsession with Tali's boyfriend.
Great now, she was on a mission to recover data for a Prothean super weapon with her boyfriend, her boyfriend's stalker, and her pseudo-sister who hated her boyfriend. It shouldn't have been a surprise that Tali finally lost it when Ashley suggested that Shepard was one of the Cerberus husks they had been fighting.
"How could you compare me to that?" The hurt was evident in Shepard's voice at what his comrade, his friend, had just said about him. It pushed Tali over the edge.
"YOU BOSH'TET!" Tali's shriek of anger was like the wail of a banshee. A mythological creature whose scream meant instant death for anyone who heard it. An apt description for that of an angry Quarian girlfriend.
"How dare you talk to him like that! How dare you compare him to one of those things!" Tali ranted as she stomped out of the control room of the tram station and over to Ashley.
"Tali. We have no idea what the hell Cerberus stuffed into Shepard's body when they brought him back from the dead! For all we know, he could be a Cerberus sleeper agent!" Ashley said emphatically, pointing an accusatory finger at Shepard.
"For all we know? Let me ask you this Ash, what exactly do you know? You weren't there when Shepard was working with Cerberus. You weren't there when we went on the suicide mission through the Omega 4 relay. You weren't there when we cut ties with the Illusive Man. But I was! Shepard is the same person he's been since the beginning: a Hero!" Tali shot back, still walking forward.
"Heros don't work with terrorists Tali. Hell, I'm surprised you went along with all this! I heard the intelligence report on what happened to Idenna Tali. How could you work side by side with people who hate you?!" Ashely yelled, her own short fuse finally reaching its end.
"You are such a hypocrite, Ash. The only reason you're not with Cerberus is because you're just not as overt with your own racism. Or did you forget what you said back on the Citadel" Tali's voice lowered to that of a growl as she shoved her violet mask right into Ashley's face. "When you compared me to an animal?"
"ENOUGH!" Shepard roared. Both Tali and Ashley took an involuntary step away from each other and turned to face the Commander. His face was rigid with frustration, and his blue gaze icy. Despite being her boyfriend, Shepard was also Tali's Commander. Being raised by an Admiral, she knew well enough that duty came before family.
"Ashley, we are on a mission that could save not only Earth but the entire galaxy." Shepard pointed at her. "I won't tolerate any more insubordination. You saw Admiral Anderson throw me these dog tags. I am your Commander, whether you like it or not. I expect you to act more professionally, or I will speak with Admiral Hackett about having you demoted.
Shepard turned on Tali now. "Tali, I know you are trying to defend me, but that does not give you any right to insult a fellow soldier so blatantly. I don't know what problem you have with Ashley, but it ends here. Am I clear?"
"Yes, Commander." The two said in unison.
"Good." Shepard grunted at them.
The mission continued on, the tense air between the two women now 6one of awkwardness after their shared verbal lashing from the Commander. A tram ride and three dead platoons of Cerberus commandos later, they were at the Prothean data archive. Where they had a a visitor.
"Shepard." Tali had never heard the Illusive Man speak before. She had never talked with the Illusive Man before. Never seen The Illusive Man before. Whenever she talked about him with others, she assumed that he was a fanatic. A fanatic with a lot of money and a paramilitary group, but a fanatic nonetheless. She thought that was what made him dangerous. Now, when she turned to look at the hologram behind her, she saw just how wrong she was.
The moment she saw his eyes while he was addressing Shepard, she noticed the unnatural striations in the man's irises. They were cybernetically enhanced in a way she had never seen before in any species. The way they had an almost Quarian-like glow was not lost on her either. The way his face was almost perfectly shaped to the standards of male human beauty. The way he moved, the way he talked, the way he did anything was uncannily mechanically smooth. As if a machine had finally learned to imitate a human but was too perfect in doing so.
It was wrong.
It was all wrong.
He was wrong.
"The data! It's not here!" Tali was finally brought back to reality by Liara's voice. She heard the sound of assault rifle fire come from behind her, and the Tali spun to find Ashley being thrown across the room by Dr. Eva Cora. The Cerberus sleeper agent who had helped the terrorists gain access to the base. The Asari next to her called out again. "She's got the data!"
Shepard, Tali, and Liara all pulled out their respective weapons and opened fire. They aimed for the doctor's legs in hopes of incapacitating her, but her kinetic barrier proved to be too strong, even with their concentrated fire. When Dr. Cora reached the door, Shepard decided enough was enough and charged after her. The two aliens followed him and chased the woman to the roof of the complex. Tali caught up with Shepard just in time to see the woman board a Cerberus shuttle…
And just in time to hear James scream, "I got this one!" into the comm before slamming their own shuttle into Dr. Cora's. Their entire squad was forced to dive for cover in order to evade the crashing shuttle. Tali even saw her shields flare slightly as small pieces of shrapnel were deflected off of it.
Tali looked up to see Shepard scrambling to his feet and waving his hand in the direction of James' shuttle for him to land. The Alliance Kodiak somehow managed to touch down in one piece. James lumbered out of the abused vehicle and gave a short status update on the Normandy's location as Shepard motioned for Tali to inspect the integrity of the ship. Despite flying like a brick, Tali had to admit it could take a hit… or give one in this case.
Gunshots rang out on the other side of the shuttle. The Quarian raised her shotgun and followed Shepard around to the other side of the Kodiak. Her breath caught as she saw the android holding Ashley up by her neck. As they emerged from behind the vehicle the android rotated her torso, keeping Ashley in front of her as a human shield. Off to the side Liara was getting to her feet and drawing her pistol, a small biotic field being generated around her cracked breath mask to keep it from depressurizing.
"LET HER GO NOW!" Shepard shouted, his hands clenched tightly around his shotgun.
It didn't.
A fountain of blood erupted out of Ashley's back as a metallic fist punched through it. Tali screamed as she saw the android throw her arm out to the side and fling her friend to the ground like a worthless rag doll. Bits of intestines flew out of the woman's stomach as she fell. As soon as Ashley was finally out of their line of fire, they all emptied their magazines into the wretched machine.
The android finally hit the floor, dead. Tali barely registered Shepard ordering James to bring the thing with them as she rushed over to Ashley's unmoving form. Instinctually reached into one of her suit's pockets and pulled out an emergency enviro suit seal to repressurize the fist-sized hole in Ashley's abdomen, but Shepard stopped her.
"We need to get her onboard the ship. C'mon, help me!" He said, grabbing Ashley's legs. Tali likewise lifted the woman by her torso and helped Shepard carry her to the nearby landing Normandy. Blood poured from Ashley's wound like a fountain, drawn from her body by the low pressure of the planet's atmosphere. Behind the frigate, she could see the smaller Reaper destroyers making their landing. As soon as they were onboard, they rushed to the elevator which automatically took them up to the medbay courtesy of EDI. Meanwhile, the Normandy gunned its engines and fled from yet another lost world.
—-
Tali had spent the past couple of hours on the engineering deck helping show Engineer Adam the ropes of operating the drive core. She had come down here once they had stabilized Ashley to the best of their ability. If only Dr. Chakwas had been there, truth be told, Tali didn't know where she was. They had lost contact with her and many of the other Normandy crewmembers besides Joker when they turned themselves in to the Alliance. This meant that as of right now, the Normandy's medbay was without a doctor and being solely watched over by an AI who was also splitting her attention managing all of the other ship's systems. They had only escaped Earth with just over a dozen people to run the ship, with not all of them being fully trained to do so. At least during the suicide mission the ground team had a reasonably good idea of how the ship operated. Some of these people had never stepped foot on the Normandy before today, while others had only installed the equipment present and had no knowledge of how to actually operate it.
In essence, they were operating on less than a skeleton crew, with EDI and Joker being the sole reasons they were able to escape the Sol system. Tali wanted to do everything she could to help take as much strain as possible off the AI, in hopes that EDI could focus less on the engines and more on monitoring Ashley's life support. Tali shivered as she looked down at the flecks of red blood that had still stained her environment suit.
"Tali. Do you have a minute to talk?" Tali jumped in surprise at the intrusion of Shepard's voice. She turned to face her boyfriend. He was dressed in his crew outfit. He must have found time to change between talking with Admiral Hackett in the war room's new QEC and looking over the data they recovered from the android with Liara.
"Uhhh, sure. Do you think you can take it from here Adams?" Tali asked as she looked at the senior engineer.
"I'm all good Tali." Adams nodded. "You go and take a break."
Shepard gestured for Tali to follow him, and the two made their way to the elevator and went up to Shepard's captain's cabin. It was mostly unchanged except for the fact that the model ships and fish were gone, which, for some reason she couldn't figure out, made her sad. Shepard went and sat on the nearby bed before giving her a concerned look. "Anything you want to talk about?"
"Shepard, I should be asking you that question. We just had to flee your homeworld. I-I don't know what thats like personally. But my people know the pain of losing a home." Tali walked over and took a seat next to him before grabbing hold of his hands in hers. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm holding in there. But I'm concerned with how you must be feeling after…" Shepard trailed off hesitantly.
"After what?"
"After your fight with Ashley."
Tali's hands clenched. "W-Why would you be asking about that!?"
"Tali. That whole fight with Ashley was… not like you. You and Ashley are friends, and usually when friends have a fight like that right before… well, right before something bad happens, it can cause them a lot of hurt and regret." Shepard said delicately.
Tali was silent for several moments before finally whispering, "I… I don't know how I feel."
Tali got up and walked over to the fish tank. The blue, glowing tanks of water, while lacking any fish, still had their filters running which created an audible bubbling noise in the room. "I still care about her but… but I couldn't just let her talk about you like that!"
"Tali, I understand that you don't like seeing people talk to me like that. But I can fight my own battles-"
"BULLSHIT!" The Quarian whirled on her boyfriend. "You haven't fought any of them! You constantly let people like Ashley, like the media, like the Alliance slander and bully you!"
Shepard stood up from the bed to meet her accusation. "What do you expect me to do? Do you want me to cuss them all out like you did?"
"YES! They deserve it! You continuously give the Alliance everything you have, and they treat you like dogshit in return. You deserve better, and you need to start acting like it, and if you won't, then I will!" Tali yelled back. Her chest was heaving with frustration and anger. "And Ashley shouldn't have said those things to you! She's supposed to be our friend…"
Tali wrapped her arms around her chest and began to heave with sobs. "She was our friend… and now she's going to die."
Shepard walked over to her and hugged her, patting her back softly. "No, she won't. She'll be alright. And I know you're angry about what she said down in the Archives… It hurt me, too."
"I just don't know how she could forget about everything we've been through together. I don't know how she could just throw us away like that." Tali sobbed into the crook of Shepard's neck.
"This is about more than just Ashley, isn't it," Shepard said in the same gentle but knowing tone.
Tali's eyes narrowed, and she leaned back out of his embrace to look him in his blue eyes. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Granted, while this is only my opinion… it feels like the reason why you feel so strongly is because it's reminding you of your trial back on the Migrant Fleet."
Tali scoffed in indignation. "Really, Shepard? This again?"
"Tali, it's been seven months since your exile, and you still haven't talked about it. Not with me, not with James, not even with anyone qualified to help like a therapist. Not to mention it's kind of hard to ignore the similarities between these two situations." Shepard stated.
"Shepard, the two are not connected," Tali said, unfurling her arms from around her torso in an X motion. "You were branded as a scapegoat for no reason and decided to throw yourself to the wolves just because the Alliance asked you to. I chose to hide the evidence of what my father did for the good of the fleet."
"You're talking a lot about how I am being thrown away despite the fact I was given my ship and my rank back. I know that the Alliance has had to make hard decisions, but thats just the way the utilitarian calculus works out-" Shepard replied calmly.
"The way the calculus works out!" Tali shrieked. "Shepard, you can't just keep playing the noble sacrifice card. It's going to get you killed one of these days! Technically it ALREADY DID!"
"But isn't that what you did?" Shepard shot back. "Didn't you ask me to hide the evidence to protect your father's memory?"
Tali choked on her words for a second. "I-I-I did what I had to keep the Fleet together-"
"Would it really have split the Fleet anymore than it already is?" Shepard said, his voice rising slightly. "The admirals are still bickering over whether or not to go to war with the Geth. Nothing's been solved!"
"Well, why did you have to turn yourself in?" Tali retorted. "You didn't need to turn yourself in. We could have asked Liara to help us go into hiding while we looked for ways to beat the Reapers. Hell, we might have even found the Crucible plans months ago if we had been doing something and not just sitting around on Earth doing nothing!"
An awkward silence fell over them as Shepard struggled to find a response and while Tali tried to think of a way to disprove Shepard's assessment of Quarian politics. In the end the only voice that spoke was the continued bubbling of the aquarium's water.
"We're both hypocrites, aren't we?"
"Yup."
Both of them sighed and let their arms fall to their sides.
"We both have problems, huh," Shepard said lamely.
"Yeah…" Tali responded despondently.
"Do… do you really think we could have found the Crucible sooner if I hadn't turned myself in?" Shepard asked hesitantly.
"I… I don't know. Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe Liara would still have found it when she did, and we wouldn't have been on Earth to help her. The only thing that's certain is that the Normandy wouldn't have gotten her retrofits." Tali said.
"True," Shepard said before straightening up slightly. "Still, we are where we are now. And we can't let woulda-shoulda-coulda's get in the way."
"That didn't translate, but I've been on Earth long enough to pick up a little English, so I got the gist of it," Tali said before walking over and wrapping her arms around Shepard. "I think… we should just get dinner and head to bed for now. We've got a long day tomorrow with the Council."
A/N: I apologize for this chapter being a bit late. I have been busy recently. Also, I would like to take the time to credit Raksa from the Talimancer discord. He has been a big help with the development of this fanfic, and this story would be a lot worse off without his input.