Chapter 22: Hey, BrotherAugust 21, 2183 CEMiranda LawsonThe Illusive Man's Office1300 hours
"Shepard did everything right. More than we could have hoped for." Miranda said, half to herself and half to the man sitting at the desk behind her as she stared out of a floor-to-ceiling window before her, her gaze fixed on a massive star.
"Commander Shepard uncovered the truth." The Illusive Man agreed. Miranda turned to face him at that, shaking her head.
"And still it's not enough." Miranda nearly spat.
"We're at war." The Illusive man said, tapping his lit cigarette into the ashtray nearby. "Nobody wants to admit it, but humanity is under attack."
"But they're sending him to fight geth. Geth!" She said, turning away from the view before her and stalking back towards his desk, her body phasing through one of the many display interfaces surrounding the Illusive Man's desk. "We both know they're not the real threat. The Reapers are still out there." She said, resting her hand on her hip as she stopped before his desk.
The Illusive Man took a drag of his cigarette before he responded. "And it's up to us to stop them." He said, blowing out the smoke as he exhaled.
"The Council will never trust Cerberus. They'll never accept our help." Miranda frowned. "Even after everything humanity has accomplished." She studied the man before her, then turned to one of the displays near The Illusive Man's desk, one that had John Shepard's face and military details displayed. "But Shepard… they'll follow him. He's a hero, a bloody icon. But he's just one man. If we lose Shepard, humanity might well follow." She said, shaking her head. The Illusive Man put his cigarette out before it was finished. Miranda detested such a disgusting habit, but she wasn't going to tell one of the richest men in the galaxy that he couldn't smoke in his own office.
"Then see to it that we don't lose him." He said, a note of finality in his voice that spoke of the man's power. His eyes glowed a cybernetic blue in the hazy room and Miranda returned her gaze to the sun. "Or his sister. If anything happens to the hero, maybe we can get some use out of the spare. I've had some….interesting reports about her."
August 21, 2183 CEMia ShepardNormandy Engineering Deck, The Attican Traverse1420 hours"Hey, brother, do you still believe in one another?"- Avicii, "Hey, Brother"
It had been a month since the Battle of the Citadel, and Mia was getting restless. She was flicking through a console absently, not really paying attention to the numbers she was supposed to be crunching. Her mind was on the Alliance, the Council, Anderson…
The Council had in fact been grateful to humanity, allowing a human to join their ranks on the Council. John had ensured that Anderson finally got some recognition in the galaxy, and Mia couldn't have been happier about that. Having two out of four Councilors on their side at any given time could prove useful for acquiring resources. And of course, Udina was less than happy about being snubbed, to Mia's amusement.
But then there was the Alliance. They were dismissing the Reaper threat entirely. Hackett was under the impression that there were bigger threats in the galaxy. Like geth attacking human colonies. They'd been in this sector for four days with no sign of geth activity, but three ships had gone missing here in the last month. Mia thought they were on a wild goose chase, personally.
Mia wasn't sure how to feel about the synthetics. She'd been destroying them for months at this point, but the longer she spent around them, the more guilt she felt for killing them. She knew part of that was due to Starchild's connection with them. Starchild saw the geth differently- like lost children. Mia had seen that side of them on Virmire, when Starchild overrode a geth prime to save her.
Starchild was on her mind a lot these days. Her conversations with the AI in her head always seemed like memories, vague, locked behind a wall in her head. She knew Starchild was trying to make communication easier, that much had come through, but she wasn't sure how to assist. She felt weak, like she was on the brink of failure. That anxiety had been building for weeks.
You are not a failure. It was Starchild. Don't talk about us like that.
"Us?" Mia said out loud, frowning down at her fingers frozen on the keyboard.
Us. You and I are one, Mia. We are the Shepard. Remember-
Starchild's voice cut out and Mia felt her body go weak all of a sudden, like she'd just landed on a planet with much stronger gravity than Earth. It was like her energy had been drained, and she had to catch herself on the console. Something was very wrong. She had to get to John, let him know-
Red lights began flashing, an alarm blaring through the engineering deck. Shit. She felt explosions rock the hull, and felt the ship swerve erratically. She stumbled to the door, punching the holo button to the elevator. The slow lift gave her a moment to get her bearings, but she was still feeling too slow. She stopped on the crew deck, where most of the escape pods were located, and saw Kaidan ushering crew members into pods. She took a moment to suit up, gathering her equipment and jamming her helmet on. John had been shouting orders to Kaidan from the back as he attempted to put out a fire in the main battery.
"Joker's not going to leave, John." Kaidan shouted.
"I'll get Joker. You get Mia and the crew." John shouted back, just as he turned and saw Mia.
"I'm not leaving without you," Mia told him defiantly. "Something's wrong. Starchild's… not here." She frowned.
"We have major hull breeches, Mia. We have to get out of here. Joker and I will take the pod in the cockpit. Go with Kaidan, please." John said, and before Mia could argue further, she felt strong arms sweep under her legs. Instinctively, she wrapped her arms around Garrus's neck as he carried her to the pod where Kaidan was waiting for them.
"We've got her, Shepard. Go get Joker and get out of here." Garrus told him, and Kaidan saluted John before closing the pod.
Mia curled into Garrus's chest still reeling from the weakness she was battling. A sharp pain in her head was starting now, and as the pods launched, Mia turned her attention to the windows, looking for John's pod. She watched anxiously as a pod did launch, just as the cruiser came around for another attack, ripping through the hull. Mia's heart froze as she saw her brother fly out of the cockpit. Her heart froze. He didn't make it on the pod. But he had his helmet on, plenty of air. His hardsuit could handle it until pickup-
She watched as he started to flail. His air hose had been cut. He was suffocating. Garrus pulled Mia away from the window.
Mia decided then that this would be her last mission for the Alliance.
September 1, 2183 CEMia ShepardThe Presidium, The Citadel1200 hours
It was the day of John's memorial. Mia was in her dress uniform, sitting in the courtyard of the Presidium, staring at the place where the miniature mass relay had been. She'd handed in her resignation papers to Hackett this morning, in person, just after he spoke at John's memorial. He'd seemed disappointed, but understanding. Mia had been tempted to skip the ceremony altogether- her brother's body had never been recovered, this was merely a show of good faith. But she knew he'd chew her out if it were anyone else.
Mia's strength had returned, and Starchild had come back online as soon as the crew were out of visual range of the cruiser that had killed her brother. Starchild's working theory was that the Reapers were using other proxies in the galaxy to try and bring them back. That ship was one of their proxies, and they had developed a signal that could disrupt the connection between their minds. Mia wasn't entirely sure she understood the connection between her and Starchild, but she'd explained it to her a bit in the days since she lost her brother.
Assimilation, she called it. The Reapers 'Indoctrinate', Starchild 'Assimilates'. And that made sense to Mia- everything she did was better with Starchild. She could barely walk when she was offline. It made her question herself, how effective she really was, and how much of her accomplishments had been Starchild over the years.
Mia wasn't sure why she had been the one Starchild chose to assimilate. It certainly didn't help her feeling like she was messing with fate. Every time she flirted with death, she got someone important killed.
It's why she was leaving the Alliance. She was getting as far from her friends as she physically could, planned to head out to the terminus systems, lay low for a while. At least there, anyone who ended up dead because of her probably deserved it.
Garrus had already gotten his job at C-Sec back. He'd been talking to his father, at her suggestion. He'd taken John's death harder than most, and like Mia, he'd been pulling away from the rest of the crew. Away from everyone but Mia, and for that she was grateful.
Liara had been heartbroken, and Mia felt sorry for her, despite their rocky relationship. Mia had brought her food that entire first week, made sure she ate. For John. It was always for John. She did a lot of things for John these days, despite him being gone for a month.
Tali had continued on her pilgrimage, researching geth tech. She'd made sure to show up for the memorial, but hadn't stayed long after, just long enough to talk to Mia.
Wrex stuck to his word to Tali and had already returned to Tuchanka with the goal of uniting the krogan. Mia smiled at the memory of the tiny quarian sitting next to the massive krogan at the memorial, her head resting on his shoulder as they mourned together. That friendship was still the most surprising to her of any in the crew, and it always warmed Mia's heart.
Kaidan had tried to get Mia to stay in the Alliance for him. That led to one argument after another, until Mia found herself doing shots with Joker in Chora's Den one night. He'd told her then and there that he thought she should leave the Alliance. Told her that he'd thought about it himself. That was all the encouragement she'd needed. She filled out the resignation papers the next day.
She bit her lip at the thought of Kaidan. Their last fight had been just before the memorial. He told her if she handed in her resignation papers, they would be over. Mia had laughed at that. It wasn't like they were much of a relationship, anyway.
She jumped as the sound of Garrus clearing his throat startled her. She looked up from her bench to the man in his C-Sec dress uniform, and she had to admit, he cleaned up nicely. She smiled up at him sadly, patting the spot next to her for him to sit down.
"Hey." Mia said softly.
"Hey." He returned, his voice gentle as he sat down on the bench beside her. "How are you holding up?"
"Like a wet paper bag." She chuckled, leaning her head on his shoulder. "You?"
"More like a cardboard shuttle. Everything is still working, but pieces are flying off everywhere." He told her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. Mia smiled at that, closing her eyes and just existing with her favorite person.
"I'm leaving in a few hours." she told him.
"Leaving? Got a new post?" Garrus asked. Mia hadn't told Garrus that she was leaving the Alliance. She figured it wouldn't take long for it to get back to him, anyway, but she wanted to be off the station before it happened. If anyone could convince her to stay with the Alliance, it was Garrus.
"Yeah. Not sure where I'm going, just yet." Mia lied smoothly.
"Send me a message when you land, yeah? Keep in touch." Garrus told her meaningfully. "I lost my captain. Don't make me lose you, too." He murmured.
Mia's heart clenched at that. She hated lying to Garrus. He was the one person that she never wanted to be dishonest with, and that made this so much harder. She was thankful, not for the first time, that she didn't have subvocals to worry about.
"Of course I will. Thank you for everything, Garrus. You're the best friend anyone could ask for." Mia told him with a small smile. When she looked up at him, though, his expression was sad, and she couldn't bear to look at him for long. She buried her head in his shoulder instead, trying to hide her face as much as she didn't want to see his. She knew where she was headed, and she knew that he'd gladly give up his cushy job at C-Sec to follow her into hell again. And she couldn't stand that thought. No, she had to keep him safe. No one else could die for her.
Garrus smiled down at her, and she could have sworn he wanted to say something. He took a deep breath, but just blew it out, shaking out his shoulders.
"You're my best friend, too, Mia Shepard. Don't go doing anything stupid, okay?"
Mia giggled at that. The man knew her too well. "I won't do anything you wouldn't do. How's that?"
Garrus grumbled for a moment, his subvocals sounding like grinding gravel. Mia giggled at him, but he finally relented.
"I suppose I can't be upset with that. If I don't hear from you, I'm coming after you." He warned her. She nodded, avoiding his eye for a moment.
"I know." She murmured, her hand slipping into his. She rested her head on his shoulder and sat there with him until her shuttle arrived, simply spending time with her best friend.