Chapter 53

Medbay – SSV Normandy SR2

Shepard sat staring at the doctor, her thoughts swimming in her mind. Out of all of her shore party, she was the only one who made it out uninjured. Everyone else would be out of commission for at least a while because of what they had endured aboard the reaper. What she had planned to be a quick in and out mission turned into a fight for their lives, making her think that bringing a strike team was a mistake. She should have brought the whole damn crew and ripped that reaper core out of the ship.

"What's the damage, doc?" asked Shepard as she rested her chin on her interlaced fingers.

Doctor Chakwas let out a sigh as she looked over her datapad. "Mister Krios is on a ventilator. Due to his condition there's little more I can do. Overtaxing himself, especially his biotics while he suffers from Keprel's Syndrome? It can be lethal and he's lucky to not have suffocated on the way back here," she said as she flicked the screen up to the next file. "Ashley Williams has two puncture wounds through both of her infraspinati. I won't call them clean, but they'll heal just fine if she doesn't exert herself."

Shepard heard Ash's scream of pain in her head once again, the sound embedded into her mind. It was good to hear that she would heal again, but it didn't take away the feeling of failure she felt for having allowed it to happen in the first place. She knew that the crew would say she hadn't failed, but with three crew members hospitalized and one dead, she couldn't exactly call herself victorious. She pushed her thoughts away from Legion and nodded to the doctor. "Go on."

"Mister Vakarian has multiple hairline fractures along his colacticus… uh, his cowl," she said, motioning towards where the turian cowl was around the neck in case Shepard wasn't privy to turian anatomy. "That can heal on its own, but again, he can't exert himself or those fractures could turn into a break. Turians think their carapace is stronger than human bone, but they're not," ordered the doctor.

"Noted," said Shepard as she sat back in her chair.

"How about you?" asked Karin as she leaned forward. "I've taken care of the emergencies. But I also know that you exerted yourself quite a bit aboard that atrocity of a machine."

"I'm fine, doc. You don't have to-" started Shepard, but Chakwas stood and placed her gloved hands against Shepard's forehead. Shepard glared, allowing the doctor to do as she wanted. She knew that Chakwas' gloves were reading her temperature to the Kelvin.

"You have a fever of 37.7 degrees. You'll need a cooling pad at least," ordered the doctor as she fetched one from her table. Wrapping the band around the spectre's head, she activated it and immediately she could feel the cooling properties spread across her forehead. "This will monitor your temperature and react accordingly. If you get to dangerous levels of heat, it'll notify me. Understood?"

"Understood," grumbled Shepard as the door to the medbay opened. She looked over, her expression changing to one of surprise. "Legion?"

"Spectre Shepard," said the automaton as they stepped up to her. "We heard what happened aboard the destroyed reaper. We sacrificed ourselves?"

"You…" she started, confused by their question. "You're here alive, but don't remember?"

"Our bluebox is stored aboard the Normandy. In the case of the catastrophic destruction of one of our platforms, we can jump to the bluebox before destruction. However, if we are too far away, we can restore ourselves from this bluebox. But we do not have the memories we gained during the mission aboard the reaper," replied Legion firmly.

"If you like, I can share with you what happened," said EDI thoughtfully. "With permission of the spectre, of course."

"Go on," ordered Shepard as relief spread through her body. It wasn't the same Legion that was aboard the reaper, but he was still here and still with them.

After a few moments of EDI sharing data with the geth, the machine looked up to her. "We have consensus."

"Pardon?" she asked curiously.

"We took consensus on whether our actions aboard the reaper were correct. We have consensus. We would commit to these acts again should they be necessary," said the geth, almost proudly.

"I'm glad to hear it, just don't make a habit of blowing yourself up any time we're in danger. That was a very extreme circumstance," she said playfully.

"We do not wish to destroy ourselves. The loss of data is…" started the geth. She felt like they were about to say sad, or something along those lines. But instead, they just finished with, "Problematic."

"That's one way to put it," she said with a sigh. She noted that Legion's fighting body that had destroyed itself aboard the reaper was not the body that they frequented aboard the Normandy. They still had the platform with her armor welded into it. "Do you think the geth could send you another, bigger platform for next time?"

Their ocular light narrowed slightly. "We will ask."

Standing, the geth left the medbay and Shepard watched them go through one of the windows. She knew AI could sound human. Hell, EDI acted more human than Miranda most days. But there was a huge difference between EDI and Legion. It amazed her how, similar to organics, two different beings with different origins could both grow to be free in their own ways.

CIC – SSV Normandy SR2

She glared at the floating reaper corpse. This… thing was the culmination of everything she had been fighting for nearly the last three years. Even in its supposed death, it tried to indoctrinate or kill her. Once again, as she stared out the view screen at the floating leviathan, she could hear that skull rattling roar in her head. She hated it and the fear it inspired in others, and even in her.

Letting a sigh out through her nose, she activated the comm. "Are we ready?"

Garrus's voice sounded over the comm. "Yeah, we should be. Sorry, this is brand new so we don't know exactly how powerful it is."

Zannia could be heard in the background. "Should you be working right now?"

"I'm not going to overexert myself by pushing a button. Calm down," he snipped back at the woman. "Ready to test fire this thing, Shepard."

"EDI, do you have the schematics of the inside of that reaper?" asked Shepard, hopeful that the AI had thought ahead.

"I do, Shepard," said the AI as she popped up next to the galaxy map.

"Good. I want you to commit those to memory. If every reaper is built the same, then we know exactly where their brain is," she said with a smirk. "Send a targeting solution for that orb we saw to the fire team."

"Data sent," claimed EDI in her cheerful tone.

"Data received. Sending flight coordinates," said Garrus through the comm.

Joker then spoke through the comm from his place in the cockpit. "Received. Adjusting for fire," he said as the Normandy moved into place for the perfect shot. Shepard watched through the vidscreen as they drifted beneath the reaper into the area where all of its appendages lay lifeless. Her eyes hardened into a glare as the Normandy stopped its drift and hung in space. "In position," stated the pilot.

"Recording for posterity. Beginning test fire of the first Thanix Cannon. Firing in 3, 2, 1…" counted down the turian. As soon as the weapon fired, everyone on the Normandy was jolted. Shepard was sent back onto her behind at the bottom of her station at the galaxy map. The yeoman ended up face down next to her while the other crew members flew from their chairs. A wave of darkness washed over the cockpit before the lights came back on. Shepard got back to her feet and watched in awe as a beam of light, presumably the path that the weapon was fired, pierced through the core of the reaper and blasted an even bigger crater through its shell.

Debris from the blast scattered like grains of sand in a strong wind. The impact was so powerful, in fact, that the orbital path of the monstrosity had changed entirely. "Joker, do the math for me. Where will it end up?"

"Ugh…" groaned the pilot. No doubt the jarring of the ship against his safety harness left him bruised if not worse. "Current orbit will have the ship falling into Mnemosyne's core within the month."

"Any chance of someone coming by and pulling it out?" she asked with a stern stare at the abomination.

"Not without an indestructible tow cable and an engine powerful enough to move the Citadel," he responded with a chuckle. "Don't worry, Shepard. After what we just did to it, that thing isn't going to be screwing with anyone anymore. It'll reach crush depth within six months. So even if its brain survived our little fireworks display, it won't be going anywhere."

"Good," said Shepard as she stepped back up to the galaxy map. "Garrus?" she asked as she activated the comm to the fire team again.

"Mister Vakarian is out of commission for the moment as he decided to not take his doctor's advice and is now laying on the ground holding his cowl in pain," said Zannia in amusement as she sent the fire report. "We'll need to upgrade the ship's energy flow if we want to fire it again, but it worked like a dream. Unfortunately, due to its power, it needs a cooldown if you don't wanna damage the weapon. I'd say ten minutes between shots."

"Understood. Tell Garrus to report to the medbay to make sure he didn't break anything," she ordered with a smirk. Knowing that the monster was sinking into the planet's core sent a wave of peace over her. Nobody would ever fall prey to that abomination again. It was a rare moment for her, as she finally felt proud of herself and her squad. They managed to escape the monstrosity alive, if not injured. But the nightmarish things aboard that ship almost made the collectors look like stuffed animals.

Then again, the collectors and those creatures were more or less the same beings, just from different cycles. The dangling, faceless, puppet creatures with scythe blades at the end of each arm dragging itself with its upper body, the almost centaur-like spider creature that had attacked her, and the goliath with arms like columns that had smashed Garrus into the ground. They were all at least hundreds of thousands of years older than the collectors.

She shook her head as the image of her team popped back into her head. They held onto the transport cable that allowed them to travel in the low G environment, allowing it to pull them along as Shepard and Thane continuously blasted the enemy waves back with biotics. The long tubing that they were traveling through was shredded like paper as the creatures crawled on every surface, floor, walls, and even the ceiling to get to them.

Emptying her head of the thoughts, she entered the comm room and activated the console. She wasn't thrilled about reporting to him after what they had been through, but she'd rather get it over with now than have to deal with it later. As soon as he was visible again, he stared deep into her soul.

"I'm glad to see you're back. EDI told me that there was more than just Chandana's team aboard the reaper," he said solemnly. Despite noting his lack of smugness, she couldn't help but feel like his comment was meant to remind her that EDI reports everything to him. An agent outside of her control.

"A lot more. Alien species from several cycles had been reaperized," she said before taking a seat herself. She was tired, and if he didn't like it then he could fire her.

He looked like he was about to say something about her sitting, but instead he continued. "I'll assume that Doctor Chandana and the rest of his team was killed in action then?"

"In a manner of speaking," she said as he ashed his cigarette. "The reaper wasn't dead. That hole they put into it killed its body's ability to move. But the brain was still alive, and still indoctrinating people. Your team were put on spikes and reaperized…" she said as she drifted off. "Except for one at least."

"These things happen in the name of science. We'll have to take better precautions in the future," he said as he puffed and let out a cloud of smoke.

"Oh, there's no future. We dumped the rest of the reaper into the planet's core," she said, her words followed by the sound of glass shattering. She looked down to see that he had dropped his bourbon glass onto the floor. Looking back up, she saw sheer outrage in his holographic eyes.

"Are you out of your goddamned mind, Shepard!?" he asked incredulously.

"Yes actually. After what I just saw, you'd probably lose some sleep too," she said snidely, knowing her joke wouldn't go over well.

"We needed that reaper to study! We needed to learn from it! What in the nine hells made you think that destroying it was a good idea!?" he snapped at her as a little maintenance droid came to sweep up the broken glass. The man kicked it aside savagely.

"As I said, you didn't have to see what I saw," she said as she tapped her temple. "Half my crew almost died on that goddamn ship, and it had plans to indoctrinate me for its own purposes. If you think for a second I'd let you send more of your goons in there to get indoctrinated and reaperized, then you seriously misunderstand how devoted I am to destroying reapers."

"If we want to win the war with the reapers we need to study them! How do you expect me to study something that you keep destroying!?" he groaned as he leaned back in his chair and rubbed his head.

"No offense, but we don't need you in there doing one of your weird experiments in order to win the reaper war," she said as she crossed her legs with a glare.

"YOU were one of those weird experiments," he sniped back at her.

"Broken clock. You get the idea," she said waving him off. "Look, here's where we stand," she said as she leaned forward. "I have the IFF and a gun big enough to kill a reaper," she said, leaving out shield measurements. "We're going to win the reaper war, and we're going to do it without your sick experiments. Even if I have to drag you kicking and screaming into the new galaxy we make. Understand?"

"This isn't your operation, Shepard. You don't give me orders," he belted back angrily, finally losing the cool he'd been so well known for.

"It is my operation. See, all the stuff that's happened so far, it's been me doing it," she said as she pointed to herself. "Went to Freedom's Progress and retrieved injector insect carcasses, me. Trekked through literal battlefields to pick up the crew, me. Went to Horizon to stop the collectors from attacking, me. Boarded a collector vessel to get information on their relay protocols, me. Boarded a haunted fucking reaper…" she began shouting as she stood up again. "And nearly got half my crew killed searching for the IFF. That would be me!"

"Get to your point, Shepard," grumbled the man as he accepted a new glass of bourbon from a woman.

"My point is that you're not the boss here. The most you've done is give me information on crew members. You're an informant at best, and to be honest, not a very good one given how you got an entire science team killed for not taking precautions," she said as she crossed her arms and glared at him. "Now, I'm going to the Citadel to speak to the Council about everything I've just discovered about the reapers. Since you want to try and exert control again, you can get the info from sifting through their garbage like you're used to doing." She walked away and ended the conversation at the console before he even had a chance to respond.

When the holograph disappeared, she saw Miranda standing at the door with a look of shock on her face. Raising her eyebrow, she looked the XO up and down. Finally, the raven-haired woman spoke. "Sorry, I just caught the end there."

"And?" asked Shepard curiously.

"I don't want to say I'm proud of you. More like terrified," said the woman as she crossed her own arms. "I've been with Cerberus a long time. I've even been inside the Illusive Man's home base, though I still don't know where that is. And even then I couldn't imagine talking to him the way you do."

"I get where you're coming from, but that couldn't be me. The entire time I was searching for Saren I had my boss, Councilor Sparatus, breathing down my neck. He was waiting for me to screw up, waiting for his chance to revoke my status. But even with all that I still didn't take his nonsense," said Shepard with a shrug.

Miranda smiled and nodded to her. "That's because of what you bring to the table."

"What do you mean?" asked the spectre, confused at the statement.

"You can fight back because you're the best one for the job and they know that. They aren't going to fire you on a whim because you did your job and then some. And I'm assuming that's why the Illusive Man hasn't cut you off from information despite your insubordination. Because he knows he can't do what needs to be done without your help."

"Maybe…" said Shepard, her freckles now tinged slightly red.

"I suppose that's what I never had. The confidence to know that despite my attitude, he'd need me in the end," she said as she looked at the ground. "I was so hung up on needing to be needed that I just took the abuse."

"Not anymore," said Shepard with a grin.

Miranda looked up with a matching grin and nodded. "Not anymore." Finally she uncrossed her arms and nodded to the door. "That said, unlike the Council, I wouldn't expect the Illusive Man's benefit of the doubt to last forever. He can't revoke your status, but he can definitely put a target on your back."

"The moment he tries, he's putting one on himself too. Our partnership allows us to work together. The moment he terminates that, he and Cerberus are no longer off my shit list," said the spectre.

"Just remember who brought you back to life when that time comes," said Miranda playfully.

Captain's Quarters – SSV Normandy SR2

It had been a few hours since her conversation which was more than enough time to allow her head to cool. She even felt her fever break, making her take note to scream at the Illusive Man any time she was feeling sick. It apparently made her feel much better. Now, she sat on her bed staring at her electronic fish tank.

She glared at the tank momentarily. The reality behind the whole thing was that the fish weren't real, but still had a video game-like life cycle and still needed to be fed. But neither her yeoman or XO bothered to tell her, resulting in the floating bodies of her aquatic tank. She didn't know what kind of sadistic asshole decided to put even more on her shoulders by having her starve her own fish to death, but when she found them she was going to beat their ass.

Reaching up, she tapped the holographic interface, causing fish food to get dropped into the tank for the new fish squad. She sighed to herself as she watched them zoom around to try and get at the food, wondering if she should make a miniature plaque to commemorate her first fish. But any thoughts of the creatures vanished as she heard the door open. Turning, a smile lit her face as she saw the elegant figure of Liara holding the hand of her toddler who was now dragging a blanket behind her.

The young asari yawned wide and waved for Shepard, a motion she took to calling 'grabby hands.' Immediately the spectre zoomed in and picked her up. "My two favorite girls!" said Shepard with a grin. "I was wondering when you'd have the chance to stop by again."

"Well…" started Liara thoughtfully. "Telling me you've made a new discovery about the reapers was definitely going to get me on board," she said with a coy smile. "Of course, visiting you was a close second."

"Uh huh," said Shepard with a playful glare as she took the toddler over to her bed and laid her down. Young Lilly almost immediately fell asleep as she hugged her blanket. "Truth be told, we almost didn't make it off that reaper. So, I'm glad you're here regardless."

The asari woman sat on Shepard's bed and pulled the redhead down, laying her head in her lap as she used to do years ago. Gently, she stroked her fingers over Shepard's forehead, allowing small slivers of joy and love filter into the woman's thoughts. "But you did because you're you," said the doctor thoughtfully.

Shepard sighed and rolled her eyes. "Don't know how long my name is going to save me, but thanks anyway," she said as she closed her eyes and took in the soothing feeling until the woman finally stopped her ministrations.

"Now, onto the information you have," stated Liara, her urgency dictated by her profession. Her study of history, while it focused on the protheans, wasn't limited to just them by any means. She had become a learned scholar in many unknown species, including the reapers themselves. She'd even begun a hypothesis on the origin of the reapers, but was leagues away from publishing anything on it.

Shepard sat up in her bed and activated her omni-tool. "I saw inside the reaper. I saw what its core looked like," she said as she searched through her video files.

"That's interesting. But for you to get me, it must be something groundbreaking," said the doctor curiously. "The core of Sovereign was destroyed during the battle with the Citadel. The Destiny Ascension left almost nothing intact except…" she said thoughtfully, but was interrupted as the visual finally came up. Her eyes widened at the sight of the reaper brain.

"I give to you an honest to gods reaper brain. This was shot inside the core of a 37-million-year-old reaper," said Shepard as the glowing chromatic orb hovered in front of the asari.

"That… that can't be right," said Liara as she tilted her head gently. "But that would mean that the protheans own orbs were based entirely off of the reapers!"

"And you know what that means?" asked Shepard, leading to the question she had answered for herself hours ago.

"They're… part organic? How?" asked Liara as she shook her head. "The reapers are the pinnacle of machine evolution, or… the pinnacle that our galaxy has reached at least. So, how is it that they've managed to have and create organic brains?"

"I honestly don't know. We really don't know anything about their reproduction. All we really know is how old the dead ones are, and even that doesn't tell us much except how long this harvest thing has been going on," said Shepard as she closed the file and sighed to herself. "There's still so much we don't know about them. Hell, we don't even know why they're doing what they're doing and I've gotten three of the damn things monologuing," she said before pouting with her chin in her hand.

Liara chuckled and leaned her head onto Shepard's shoulder. "The frustration you feel now about not knowing something is what has driven my anthropological studies. As they say, now you know how I feel."

"Yeah yeah," said Shepard with a grin as she stroked the woman's back.

Suddenly, EDI's eye popped up by the door. "Spectre, Mr. Krios is here to see you."

"Thane? He should still be in the damn medical bay…" she groaned before getting to her feet. "I won't be long," she said to the asari who waved her off, then laid on the bed and snuggled the infant closer.

Shepard stepped up and opened the door to her room to find a wheezing drell standing on the outside. He had an oxygen mask over his face and was carrying the portable tank with him. "Spectre," he greeted her in his gravelly voice.

"Should you be up?" asked Shepard as she invited him in to her office area.

"I know my limits. I promise I won't die just yet," he said before looking over at the pair on the bed. "My apologies. I didn't mean to interrupt."

"You're not interrupting anything. And you wouldn't be up here with a portable oxygen tank unless you had something important to talk to me about," said Shepard with a grin.

"Perceptive," he retorted as he took the seat she offered him.

"So, out with it. What can I help you with?" she asked curiously.

"I… was not entirely honest with you the last time we spoke of my work," he said modestly as he sat straight in his chair, as rigid as he ever was. Shepard nodded for him to continue. "I told you that after the death of Zymnema, I worked for several other hanar of the Illuminated Primacy. While true, that wasn't the whole truth. I also found a family."

"A family is not an easy thing for an assassin to get or keep," she said as she crossed her arms.

"Indeed. I met Irikah, my wife, during a hit. She saw my targeting laser and jumped in front of it," he said before letting out a heavy cough. "From that moment, I knew nothing other than her. I refused to allow fate to carry us on separate trails."

"You sought her out?" asked Shepard with her brows high in shock. "Did she know it was you behind the laser?"

"Of course. I hid nothing from her. She eventually forgave me and later became my wife. I gave up my life as a seeker to be with her," he said as he looked at the ground. "We had a son together, Kolyat. I was truly living a life of happiness I never knew existed."

"The feeling is well known," said Shepard as Liara got up and sat with them as well.

"Apologies, I don't mean to intrude," said the asari politely.

Thane shook his head. "I am making myself comfortable in the privacy of your space, so please do not worry. You are both welcome to hear." The doctor nodded and he continued. "Anyway, my life had changed so much that I began to lose my edge. I grew sloppy."

Shepard flinched, knowing what was coming wasn't about to be a happy ending. "Love can do that."

"Indeed it can," he said before breathing deep through the mask. "One of my previous targets was a group of batarian slavers. They were survived by a lieutenant who bought my identity from the Shadow Broker and sought to put an end to me. Unfortunately, I was not home at the time. I had taken Kolyat out for the day. And when I returned, it was to find my wife's body hanging from the ceiling."

Despite knowing it was coming, she flinched again. "I'm sorry."

"So were they," he said as he looked between the pair. "I put my son in the care of some of Irikah's family and I hunted every last one of them down. Their organization was two hundred strong. I worked my way from the bottom up, knowing that the boss was directly responsible for her death. I wanted him to see what I was doing to his organization as I tore it apart from underneath him."

"Can't say we both wouldn't do the same," said Liara as she sat herself on the edge of the desk.

"Finally, after stacking nearly two hundred bodies at his door, I came for him. I did not make it gentle," he said as he let out a heavy sigh. "After I finished with the batarians, I could not face my son again. I left him in the care of her family and I returned to my battle sleep and began working again."

She knew how he felt. If Liara was ever killed, she'd make an example of the killer, and then hurl herself back into her work. Thinking of it was hard enough, but having to actually live it was something else entirely. She was thankful that most of her enemies were dead. "I get it. I mean, I don't, but I do," she said solemnly. "I can't say I'd handle grieving any better."

"I know I didn't," said Liara with a heavy sigh.

"Unfortunately, my son did not live his own life," said Thane as he also gave a sigh. His dark eyes locked on Shepard. "Somehow he's figured out what I've done and where I've been."

"Is there cause for alarm?" asked Shepard with her brow arched. "Because I'm all for being honest to your kid."

"If that were it, that'd be one thing. But he's apparently taken a dark path. He's on the Citadel right now and he's taken a job as an assassin," he said morosely. Then his eyes turned to Liara. "Thank you for the information."

"I hope it helps," said the asari before Shepard rubbed her head.

"So, we've got a drell kid who's about to assassinate someone on the Citadel? How did he even get the job?" she asked incredulously.

"I fear he may have dropped my name. Someone may have thought we were associated or that we share a skillset," he responded before inhaling some oxygen again. "How isn't as important as the when."

"He was given a deadline. Tomorrow night," said Liara as she handed Shepard the datapad.

Looking over the information, the spectre shook her head. "That's our window," she said as she looked up at Thane. "Assuming he hasn't already pulled the trigger, do you want to stop him?"

"I do. And I'd like your help," he stated firmly as he held his hand out to her. "Shepard, please…" She eyed his hand before reaching out and putting her own hand on his. He squeezed her hand gently. "I'm a failure of a father, of a husband. I do not know how my encounter with Kolyat will go. But I do know that it will not go well if I don't have you there with me."

"Why do you think I'll help?" she asked curiously, comforted by the gentle squeezing.

"Well, your spectre connections and authority aside, it's because I don't know how either of us will react. You are more than just a leader in battle, you're also a leader in spirit. I feel like your presence will guide me down the correct path," he said solemnly as he finally released her.

She lowered her hand and eyed him curiously. "As flattering as that is, I don't know how much help I'll be. But I'll do my best."

"This means more to me than you may realize," said the drell as he stood up and bowed his head politely. "I don't even know where to start on this situation, so I'll defer to you once we arrive at the Citadel."

"We'll talk to Captain Bailey first. He seems to have his ear to the ground. We'll go from there," she said as she stood as well.

"Spectre," he said bowing his head again. Then he turned to Liara. "Doctor." She bowed her head back and the drell left the room.

Zakera Port – Zakera Ward – Citadel

"So, Thane," started Tali as she strolled with the three of them. Shepard led the group through the Zakera Ward ports in order to get to the C-Sec station where Captain Bailey resided. "You seem to have taken this whole reaper thing rather well."

"We are small creatures in an incredibly huge galaxy. It was only a matter of time before we found something bigger than ourselves out there," said the drell thoughtfully.

This time Garrus piped up. "While I get having a terminal illness can give a unique perspective on mortality, I still think it's odd that you aren't more… perturbed."

"What do you wish from me?" asked the assassin curiously. "I am unimpressed with the reapers and their directive. They are little more than machines simple-mindedly following an order given eons ago."

"You aren't afraid this could be the end of times?" asked Tali curiously, notes of cheer in her voice as she questioned him.

"That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons even death may die," said the drell, getting a risen brow from Shepard.

"What's that mean?" asked Garrus curiously.

"It's a quote that I've grown to like from a human author, H.P. Lovecraft. It's read from the Necronomicon. What it truly means is up to interpretation, but I've taken it to heart. That which is not dead can eternal lie, meaning that we never truly die. Ideas, thoughts, people, they live on forever beyond death. And with strange aeons, even death may die. A quote that means to me that even something as inevitably deadly as the reapers can die. Nothing in the universe is eternal, not even them," he finished solemnly.

"Odd choice picking H.P. Lovecraft given our enemy are an army of giant, tentacled, mind-altering creatures that sleep for around fifty thousand years," said Shepard with a chuckle.

"I like your take on things," said Garrus as he clenched a fist tightly. "Like Shepard said back on Virmire. They're machines, that means they can be broken. This war isn't ending with us being harvested. It'll be us taking them apart and using their bones to rebuild our cities."

"That's the spirit!" said Tali as she patted the turian on the back. "In the meantime, let's make some more of those Thanix guns you made so we can turn them into scrap metal." Then she turned to Shepard. "Speaking of upgrades, Shepard. You should consider upgrading the Normandy as well. Cyclonic shielding is the new hotness these days, and upgrading our armor can't hurt."

"That'd practically double the weight of the Normandy," said Shepard with a grin as the quarian got bossy with her.

Tali planted her hands on her hips gently. "Why does that matter? We never land on planets anyways! We always use the shuttle!"

"I suppose you're right," said the spectre as she shook her head. "Alright fine. I guess if we're going to be duking it out with a collector vessel we'll need all the advantages we can get. On that note," she said, turning back to Tali. "How is the tachyon shield coming along."

"It's coming, but it's a lot harder to contain those particles than you realize. But slow progress is still progress," responded Tali. She said as she wriggled her fingers greedily. "By the time the Normandy is done with the collectors, we'll be the strongest ship in the galaxy!"

"You know that the armor and the guns are going to limit our maneuverability, which sinks our score in that department…" said Garrus matter-of-factly.

But Tali simply put a finger to his mouth. "Shhhhhh…"

"Whatever you decide to do, Tali, just make sure you are doing it for a reason. I don't wanna fire a weapon to find out you installed confetti cannons onto the ship. We're a combat ship at the end of the day," said Shepard firmly.

"I know, I know," said the quarian with a nod. "Don't worry, Shepard. I'm not going to do anything to the Normandy that isn't going to be a direct benefit to destroying the collectors and reapers."

"Good. Now I need you cartoon characters to pipe down while we're in here. We can't intimidate the police with you two nitpicking at each other," she said with a chuckle as she finally arrived at the door of the C-Sec station.

As soon as they entered, every eye in the station was on the three of them. Shepard guided Thane and Garrus through the station until she finally found the captain's office. The gruff man looked up at her and nodded. "Shepard."

Entering the office without invitation, she closed the door behind them and turned to the man. "Bailey."

He looked between the three of them almost nervous. "What's up, Shepard? Come to interrogate me?"

"Not quite, but I would appreciate if you could keep our conversation private," she said before activating the scrambler on her omni-tool. She flexed her jaw as it made her ears pop.

"That's a bold request from a C-Sec captain. But given you outrank me I can't really say no, can I?" he said as he pushed aside his terminal. "What can I do ya for?"

"My associate here is looking for his son," she said motioning to Thane. "We have reason to believe that he may have been hired into a criminal enterprise."

"That's not good," said Bailey as he pulled his terminal back and began typing away on it. "We don't have many drell on the station, so it shouldn't be hard to track him down."

"It would be best for everyone if we found him quickly," said the drell from his seat.

"I'm workin' on it," he grumbled before looking up to Shepard. "You know. With your credentials I could easily bypass the red tape needed to track down the security footage."

Shepard rolled her eyes and nodded, then stepped around the desk. She logged herself in through the C-Sec security site, then began scanning through the C-Sec data quickly. It took about a minute before a blue-tinted drell was spotted on the cameras. "Thane, is this him?"

The assassin got to his feet and looked at the camera footage before nodding. "That's him."

Shepard followed him through the cameras, tracking his movements. He stopped at a restaurant to eat, then visited a club for a little while. He kept looking at something on his omni-tool, but continued his day as if nothing was out of the ordinary. Then he flew to Zakera Ward on the transit and began slinking down an alleyway. It wasn't long before he stopped at a small café and sat at the table with a short young man with ratty brown hair.

"Mouse," grunted Bailey as he scratched his stubbled chin.

"Mouse?" asked Shepard curiously.

"A former duct rat turned into a middleman for all sorts of lowlifes. Everything from peddling drugs to information," said the captain with a sigh.

Growing up on a ship for most of her life, Shepard knew what a duct rat was. It was a colloquial term for kids in poverty who would sneak around through the air ducts of space stations. She'd seen more than enough bodies pulled from those same ducts to know that they didn't have a high life expectancy. So, for this Mouse to still be alive after that showed he was extremely lucky.

"What kind of trouble is Mouse in?" asked Shepard, knowing that they might need to grease some wheels in order to get Thane's son out of trouble.

"Oh, he's as clean as they come. Some minor charges for selling illegal and unlicensed VI personality software," said the man as he smirked at Shepard. "He even has one of you."

"Me?" she asked incredulously.

"Yeah," said the captain with a chuckle. "When it deleted a file it said 'I delete data like you on the way to real errors.'"

"That's pretty extreme, Shepard," said Garrus as he coughed to hide his laugh. Even Tali was giggling in the background.

"Keep laughing, Vakarian," she said with a playful glare.

"Buggy though. Kept shutting down any omni-tool it was put onto and deleting any new data added. Other than that though, Mouse is mostly the middleman for these operations. He hands out jobs to other people rather than doing them himself. It keeps him out of trouble and gets him a steady meal I suppose," finished the captain.

Shepard looked to Thane who nodded. It was likely Mouse who set up Kolyat with the person who needed the assassin, so it was likely Mouse they'd get any further answers from. "Appreciate the information, Captain. Care to tell me where this Mouse hangs out?"

The captain eyed the four of them. "I can, but whatever you do, take it easy on him. He's still just a kid."

"We're not going to shake him down, Bailey. We just need to ask some questions," said the spectre urgently.

"He usually hangs out near the Mobius Stripclub during closing hours. There's a food court and a library with free access to the extranet nearby, so it's a good spot for him to do business," he said as he passed the data along.

"Thank for the info," she said before turning to Thane. "Let's get going."

CODEX ENTRIES

Colacticus Anatomy Turian
While species like asari, humans, quarians, and batarians all have collar bones directly under their necks, the turian colacticus circles their neck, providing an extra layer of protection to their vital areas. This carapace structure has earned the colloquial name 'cowl' due to its appearance.