Chapter Text
Shepard chased Brie out the front door and through the flower garden. She let out her best roar, playing the part of a creature out of an asari fairy tale whose name she couldn’t pronounce. As far as she was concerned, it was a Thessian dragon. Brie played the fierce and fearless Commando Princess who slays the beast and saves the Republic from tyranny.
Brie suddenly changed directions. Shepard saw the girl bracing for takeoff and planted her feet. Brie jumped, a small burst of biotic energy propelling her into her father’s waiting arms. Shepard struggled to keep her balance when her bad knee threatened to give out. Brie pointed out at the eezo boats on the lake nearby. “Boat, daddy!”
“I see the boat,” Shepard said, grateful for the chance to catch her breath. Seven years out of the field and now she couldn’t keep up with one energetic five-year-old.
“Go lake, Daddy!” It wasn’t a question. The princess had decided. She wanted the lake. Shepard debated whether or not to give in. Liara had accused her of over-indulging the child, and she wasn’t wrong. But Liara would have centuries to fix any bad behavior in their daughter. Shepard would be lucky if she saw her daughter’s 100th birthday.
“I’ll tell you what, Bluebell. How about we go to the lake after lunch? Huh? We’ll drag Mommy out of her cave,” Shepard said.
Brie’s eyes lit up and she squirmed to get down. “Save Mommy!” she cried, running off into the yard. Shepard laughed and limped her way over to a bench in the garden, catching the heady scent of Liara’s caldera flowers. Brie raced around, spinning, jumping, and throwing tiny bursts of biotic energy as she practiced rescuing her mother from the depths of the Shadow Broker lair in the house. Suddenly, Brie stopped and pointed right at Shepard. “Daddy! Car!”
For one moment, Shepard wondered why she was now a car instead of a dragon. Then she heard the sound of a motor and turned to see a skycar landing in front of the house. A harried young asari leaped out and reached a hand in to assist the passenger in the back seat. Councilor Tevos emerged, nodding at Shepard. Brie, having successfully alerted her father to the intruder, went back to her game.
Tevos stopped next to Shepard. They watched Brie in silence for a moment. Shepard wasn’t going to prompt the Councilor. Home visits weren’t normal, and they both knew it. “I find myself utterly enchanted by our youth since the war. New life coming out of the wreckage,” the Councilor said.
“Ha! I’ll let that one slide,” Shepard said. Tevos flushed, realizing what she had said, remembering the reports of how badly injured Shepard had been. Tevos opened her mouth to speak, but Shepard shook her head with a smile. “I knew what you meant.”
They watched Brie run and leap with the kind of energy only a child could muster up. “Such enthusiasm.”
“Yep. She’s training to rescue Mommy from the lair of the computer demon so we can all go to the lake later,” Shepard said. Tevos let out one of the few genuine laughs Shepard had ever heard from the Councilor.
“Oh, my. She really takes after you, doesn’t she? If she took after Dr. T’Soni, she’s be digging up historical proof that the computer demons used to give their thralls time off to view lakes,” Tevos said.
“Shh! Don’t give her ideas. The last thing I need is a prothean dig site in my front yard,” Shepard stage-whispered.
Tevos chuckled. “My mistake.” They paused to watch Brie a little longer. “Shepard, I need to speak with you privately.”
“I’m retired, Tevos,” Shepard replied.
“I know. But I wouldn’t have come all this way if it wasn’t important,” Tevos said.
Shepard growled softly enough that the Councilor missed it. She stood up, dusting off the back of her pants. “Brie, honey! Come inside so Daddy can make lunch!” She looked at Tevos. “Come on, then. Bring your assistant.”
“She’s fine,” the Councilor said.
“Or we can have this conversation right here where my neighbors can hear it. I can tell you no just as easily in a lovely garden as I can anywhere else,” Shepard said. Tevos huffed but nodded at her assistant to join them. Brie ran inside, arms out and making ship noises. Shepard scooped the girl up as soon as they were inside, peppering her head with a dozen kisses. Brie squealed and squirmed until Shepard set her down. “Go play in your room until lunch is ready.”
She stepped into the kitchen and started pulling out the things she needed to make a fruit salad both Liara and Brie loved. It was a standard asari meal, so she figured it was safe enough for guests. It helped that it didn’t require actual cooking.
“Commander, I said privately,” Tevos said. “Don’t you have a secure office?”
“We’re indoors. The only people in the house are you, your assistant, my wife, my daughter, and me. I assume your assistant already knows. I’m going to tell my wife, if she doesn’t already know. And my five-year-old wouldn’t care even if she could understand what’s going on,” Shepard replied. “So, either talk or stop wasting my time. I have computer demons to slay and a lake to conquer.”
“You are still impossible, Shepard,” Tevos said with a small smile. “Janessa, wait in the dining room, please. Unlike you, Commander, I don’t share everything with my subordinates.”
“What, so you just keep her around for looks? I prefer my beauty to come with brains, but suit yourself,” Shepard said. She chuckled when Janessa flushed on her way out of the room.
“That was mean, Shepard,” Tevos said.
“Well, maybe she’ll learn to stand up for herself. Here,” Shepard replied, sliding a bowl toward the Councilor. She picked up two others and carried them to the dining room, calling for her daughter.
She took a bowl to Liara. Her wife was in full Shadow Broker mode and barely looked up from her reports. “What does Tevos want?” she asked.
“Not sure yet. I’m having too much fun testing her patience,” Shepard replied. She dropped a gentle kiss on the back of Liara’s neck but refrained from being too much of a distraction.
“And you do it so well. Have fun,” Liara said with a sly look. As she left Liara’s office, she noticed her wife switched on the camera in the kitchen.
She pulled her own lunch over and perched on a bar stool at the island. She noticed Tevos hadn’t touched her food. “Eat. We’ll make this a working lunch.”
Tevos sat down and took a few bites while she pulled up files on a datapad. She slid the pad over to Shepard. “We recently intercepted some transmissions that disturbed us. On the surface, they appear to be from slavers,” Tevos stated.
“Which would be bad enough. Do you think this is related to the slaver attack on Tali and Garrus five years ago?” Shepard asked.
“That is one possibility. We know we didn’t catch all of those radicals. But there are phrases embedded in the messages that are uncomfortably familiar, Commander. Please, read through them. I would appreciate your insight.”
At first glance, they were the internal communications of a slaver ring. Three colonies had been hit so far. All three were in the Attican Traverse but disturbingly close to Council space. They were newer colonies, formed after the war when species cooperation was at its peak due to the alliances she had formed to fight the Reapers. People of all species had been taken, but the messages made it clear the humans were the real targets. In fact, there was no mention of the humans being sold. Only the other races.
It could be any of the human-centric radical groups out there. God knows there’d been a few of them. But Tevos was right. The mentions of advancing humanity at any cost… She could hear the Illusive Man’s voice like he was standing right beside her.
“I see where you’re going with this,” Shepard said. “You think it’s Cerberus. But Cronos Station is a floating pile of rubble, and I killed the Illusive Man myself. Cerberus is gone, Councilor. I don’t know what you want from me.”
“Shepard, this involves missing citizens from five different races. That makes it a Council issue. We need a Spectre. Williams is on leave with her child,” Tevos said.
“There are other Spectres,” Shepard countered. She got up to put her bowl in the sink.
“Cerberus is a human organization,” Tevos replied. “Commander—“
“No. I am retired, Tevos,” Shepard said.
“But, Commander—“ Tevos tried.
“It’s not ‘commander’ anymore. I. Am. Retired. I belong here, with my family,” Shepard interrupted. “Thank you for stopping by. It was lovely to see you. We’re done here.” The two women stared at each other for a long time.
Finally, Tevos looked down. She slid the datapad across the counter at Shepard. The former soldier didn’t reach for it. She crossed her arms and leaned back against the counter. “Review the data. Talk to Dr. T’Soni. We really can’t spare anyone else for this right now. If you don’t take it, we may be forced to pull Spectre Williams off her leave to investigate.” The Councilor stood up. “Janessa! We’re leaving!”
Shepard didn’t move. Janessa brought her empty bowl in and set it on the counter. The two asari showed themselves out. Shepard stayed where she was, staring at the datapad until she heard the skycar take off.
She shook herself and looked up when Brie stuck her head in the kitchen and said, “Save Mommy now?”
She shoved the datapad away and smiled at her daughter. “Yeah, honey. Let’s go save Mommy.”
***
Shepard curled up on the couch, her datapad loaded with a cheesy murder mystery. The house was finally quiet with Brie asleep. They had extracted Liara from her Shadow Broker office and spent a couple of hours playing at the beach by the lake.
But something had Liara’s attention. Almost as soon as they home, she drifted back to her office. Shepard managed to waylay her long enough to discuss Tevos’ visit. Liara took the datapad, absently promising to review it when she had the chance.
Shepard wasn’t worried. Liara would talk when she was ready. For the past seven years, Liara had walked a delicate line with her bondmate. She didn’t want Shepard to feel like she was hiding things, but she respected Shepard’s desire to stay out of galactic politics. And as in all things, she did it beautifully. But nights like this, where something flying about the Shadow Broker network had Liara distracted and fretting, it was hard on Shepard.
A chime sounded from the computer in Shepard’s office, jerking her out of her thoughts. No one bothered to call her encrypted line since few of her calls these days involved anything of more dire importance than the Normandy’s latest gossip. After the visit from Tevos, receiving an encrypted call sent her pulse skyrocketing.
She scrambled up, moving her bad leg wrong and wincing. When she got to the room, she closed the door to activate the security suite. Liara had set it up when they first moved to Thessia, back when the Alliance was still trying to pull her into diplomatic work. Even after Shepard had finally convinced the Alliance to kindly fuck off, her Shadow Broker insisted she keep it installed “just in case”. These days, the office was little more than a trophy room, but she left the security measures to give her wife peace of mind.
Shepard dropped into her chair and activated her vidcom. Joker’s face appeared, looking scared. Shepard could see tear tracks down his face. Ice flooded Shepard’s veins and she sat up straighter. “Joker, what’s wrong?”
“Thank god. Shepard, something weird just happened and I need you to tell me I’m crazy,” the pilot said.
“Well, we always knew that, Joker,” Shepard quipped. Joker barely cracked a smile. “Okay, talk to me. What’s up?”
“With Ash and James on leave, we’ve been baby-sitting supply runs through dangerous territory. We’re out at the edge of the Traverse. I think that’s why I was able to pick up the transmission,” Joker said. “It’s— I— Well, here. Just listen.”
A burst of static. Words too faint to understand, like voices in the background, fading in and out with the bad connection. Then, “Jeff, can you— …lp me— …trapped— Cerber—“ followed by more static. Shepard’s heart raced; her breath froze in her lungs. She knew that voice.
EDI.
She looked at Joker with surprise. “I’m crazy, right? I mean, she’s dead. All the AI are. We can’t get them back. Right?” he asked.
“I— I don’t know. Maybe it’s an old transmission? Or a fake? Joker, I hate to say this, but it could be enemies targeting the Normandy,” Shepard said.
“Yeah. I guess that’s more likely. Except—“ Joker said. He stopped and looked down, fiddling with his ball cap.
“Except what?” Shepard prompted.
“Well, it came through on an encrypted channel EDI set up just for us. The two of us were the only ones who ever used it,” Joker said.
Shepard ran her hand through her hair and sighed. Cerber— Had EDI started to say Cerberus? What else could it be? Was it really EDI? “Have you told anyone else about this?”
“No. It really freaked me out. I guess I was hoping you’d have a better explanation than the nightmare scenario running through my head,” Joker said.
“I understand, Joker. You miss her. And the idea that she not only survived somehow, but that she’s now trapped with the enemy…,” Shepard said. The pilot nodded. “Tell you what. Send me a copy. I’ll ask the Shadow Broker to run it through her security protocols and see if we can unravel it. For all we know, it’s some old message that was stuck inside the Normandy’s logs this whole time and got corrupted.”
“Thanks, Commander. Should I— Do you think I should tell our commander?” Joker asked.
“No. There’s no need to involve someone who didn’t know her. But if you get any more, let me know, okay?”
“Yes, Commander. Will do. And, Shepard? Thanks for not just laughing at me,” Joker said.
“I would never laugh at you when it comes to EDI,” Shepard said. “One other thing. See if you can discreetly find out if Sam’s picked up any unusual chatter about kidnappings or a new slaver group in the area.”
“Um, okay. You think it might be connected?” Joker asked.
“Let’s just say this hasn’t been my only weird conversation today,” Shepard replied.
“Okay, sure. I’ll let you know if we hear anything,” Joker said.
They disconnected and Shepard sat back. The message light blinked, indicating Joker had sent the file. Her heart broke for him. After seven years, he had largely moved on. He still missed EDI, of course. But it wasn’t the crippling loss it had been after the war.
But because of his illness, Joker never had a lot of relationships. Too much chance he could get hurt if things turned physical. One of the best things about his relationship with EDI had been the lack of sexual pressure. Finding another understanding romantic partner was difficult.
Shepard knew the two years she’d been clinically dead had almost destroyed Liara. When Shepard came back, her nerdy little archaeologist was gone, replaced by a cold, calculating information broker. Watching Liara become the Shadow Broker had scared the hell out of her. How much worse would it have been after seven years?
She shook her head and opened the file. She loaded it into a decryption program and let it run again. At first, she just let it play. The message was degraded, like it had passed through too many comm buoys before the Normandy picked it up. The voice sounded like EDI, but she had a synthesized voice to begin with. It would be easy to recreate. Until she could hear this AI say something only EDI would know, she couldn’t be certain it was her. Even if it was, who knew when or where this had been recorded?
The door swished open as she listened to it for the fourth time. Liara’s steps slowed when she got closer to the desk. When the recording cut out, she said, “Was that EDI? Did she say Cerberus?”
“I think so,” Shepard said.
“Where did you get that?” Liara’s voice dropped into business mode. It was the same tone she used in committee meetings.
“Joker. It was sent directly to him. He’s pretty sure either he’s crazy or it’s a hoax, so he didn’t want to bother his XO with it,” Shepard replied.
“But why send it to you?” Liara sat in the study’s other chair, on the edge with her back straight. The only sign of her anxiety was the way she fiddled with the datapad in her hand. Shepard couldn’t help but remember the debriefings on the Normandy when they first met. Liara’s eyes were colder now, more calculating. But she still fidgeted. Shepard had to stop herself from smiling.
“I think he was just looking for someone else to review it and confirm that it’s bogus. So far, it sounds real. But I’m going to work on it,” Shepard said.
Liara looked down. Her hands stilled on the datapad. “What if it’s not? Bogus, I mean?” she asked quietly.
“Liara. Bellflower, Cerberus is gone. I killed the Illusive Man. Cut the head off the snake, you could say,” Shepard said.
“Yes, but was your mythical Cerberus not a three-headed dog? What if you only cut off one of the heads?” Liara asked. She handed Shepard the datapad. “I ran this through one of my best decryption programs. Click on a hyper-link. Any of them.”
Shepard scrolled through until she found a link. A password encrypted screen popped up. Liara input a hack to bypass it. The Cerberus logo flashed on screen before a secondary message appeared. It contained instructions on the treatment of both human and non-human prisoners— referred to as acquisitions and cattle, respectively. Shepard slowly set the datapad down. She looked up at her wife.
“Tevos wants me on this, Liara. She’s trying to pull me out of retirement,” Shepard said.
“She’s not the only one. I’ve intercepted several calls from Alliance High Command and the new human Councilor. I believe Tevos made the trip out here precisely because they could not reach you otherwise,” Liara said.
Shepard gave her a sad smile. “Thank you for protecting me, love.” She stood up, pacing the length of the room. “They’re threatening to pull Ash off maternity leave. What am I supposed to do, Liara?”
“As much as I hate to say this, perhaps it is time to dust off Commander Shepard and bring her back into the game,” Liara said.
“I can’t leave you and Brie,” Shepard said. Liara stood and intercepted her wife’s pacing. She ran her fingers through Shepard’s hair to rest her hands on the back of Shepard’s neck.
“I’ve been seeing the signs for weeks, Dana. We’re needed. Perhaps it is time to arrange that visit with Riala our daughter has been begging for,” Liara suggested.
Shepard sighed, resting her head against Liara’s. “I never wanted to do this again. Liara, what if I can’t keep up? I’m still considered disabled. I’m seven years out of practice. What if something goes wrong?”
Liara pushed away, rolling her eyes. “You’re only five years out of practice, Dana Shepard. I seem to recall you quite merrily throwing yourself into an unknown pirate raid a week before our daughter was born!” Liara said. She almost sounded mad, but Shepard saw a teasing smile on her lips.
“Those were extenuating circumstances! I couldn’t get home to you until it was resolved, five of our closest friends were in danger, and James was freaking out! What was I supposed to do?” she argued.
Liara smirked at her. “Admit it. You had fun,” she said.
Shepard crossed her arms and gave her wife a knowing glare. “You miss it. Admit it, T’Soni. You miss the hunt. You’re bored playing diplomat and Shadow Broker and you want back in the action!”
“What? That’s—“ Liara sputtered.
“You didn’t even try to fight this. I was counting on you to talk me out of it,” Shepard said. Liara looked away, guilt coloring her cheeks. Shepard felt a pit in her stomach. “What’s going on, Bellflower? Don’t you want to be here with Brie and me?”
“Of course, I do!” Liara exclaimed, looking up sharply. Tears brimmed in her eyes. Shepard wanted to kill Tevos for dropping this on them. “Oh, Dana. I love you and Brie more than I ever thought possible. But I am only a hundred and thirteen. Most asari my age are still out wandering, exploring the galaxy. I wouldn’t have sought out this kind of danger, but I’ve been feeling…”
“Stuck? Bored?” Shepard prompted.
“Of being at home, yes. Not of you or our daughter. The truth is, if this hadn’t fallen in our laps, I was going to suggest a trip. Visit the new developments on Rannoch, perhaps. Or the recovery on Tuchanka. Take you to some of my favorite places on Illium, maybe,” Liara said. “Just somewhere to get us off-world for a bit.”
“Okay, I get that. But how do you go from family vacation to dangerous hunt?” Shepard asked.
“It’s EDI, Dana! Do you want to take the chance that another Spectre might decide to destroy her?” Liara replied.
Shepard dropped her gaze. She ran a hand through her hair and sighed. “No. And I don’t want to risk the possibility Cerberus getting away. Again. I’m just… scared, Liara. We have so much more to lose now. And I’m not at my best.”
“So, we do what we’ve always done. Build the best team in the galaxy and go on the hunt,” Liara said.
“Alright. I’ll call Tevos,” Shepard said with a sigh.