The Unknown: Book 1

Home.

The Normandy still had a while to go until it reached Horizon, Gemma had spent most of the trip getting together as much information as she could on her parents and sent it all to Edi to get ready for the mission. She was sitting in the mess hall, a flask of coffee by her side, datapads were scattered around the table in front of her, she held her head in her hands, rubbing her temple with the end of her fingers.

Garrus was walking out of the forward battery when he stopped in his tracks to see Gemma sitting on the edge of her chair, crutches meters from her as if she had thrown them. He could see the frustration as she aggressively bounced her leg, he walked over to the end of her table, Gemma looked up. "Oh, hey. You okay?" She didn't keep the eye-contact for long and dropped her gaze back to her datapad, looking for pictures that clearly showed her parents' faces.

"I should be asking you that." Gemma looked up again, "you look like you're about to explode." He sat down across from her, moving some of the datapads to the side so he could place his arms on the table. Gemma didn't respond at first, she shrugged her shoulders. "I know you are worried, but they could have gone to Sanctuary to get help."

Gemma rubbed her forehead, she couldn't think straight anymore, "I highly doubt that, the last thing I saw before I passed out, was my mum being taken by a cannibal. If she did get away, she would most likely be injured and I have no idea where my dad could be." Garrus didn't know what to say. He sat back in his seat, he was never good at being supportive, Gemma copied his posture. "Let me ask you this: Tali told me about what happened to you and this guy who betrayed you. She never went into detail, but she mentioned how you were a different person and wanted nothing but revenge. How did you go from that to loving Shepard, if you don't mind me asking?"

Garrus sat forward and clicked his mandibles against his cheeks. Gemma could see he was annoyed and was about to apologize, but he held his talon up to stop her. "I'm not angry with you. I just... don't always like to talk about this." Gemma wouldn't mind if he dismissed this, she never liked herself to be pushed into an answer, so why should she do this to others. "I was betrayed by another Turian called Sidnois. He got my squad killed on Omega when we were trying to drop the crime rate that was going on. I was meant to die on my last day on Omega, but Shepard found me and saved my life when I got hit in the face by a rocket." He stopped to point out the healed skin and scarring on the side of his right mandible leading up to his cheek. "I told her about my need to kill him, she tried to talk me down more than once, but I never listened. I had to take the time to track him down. We went to Horizon when the Collectors attacked it and of course, Alenko got into that argument with Shepard. She changed after that mission, little missions she wouldn't go and sent me or Miranda to lead instead, she would only go if we were getting another squad member or helping with personal issues. She locked herself away and spent most of the time looking at Kaidan's picture Cerberus had placed in her cabin when she first got her ship."

Gemma tapped her fingers on her knees, she knew of the argument between Kaidan and Shepard, she felt angry at first when he told her, but she knew he did regret what he had said. "I never knew Shepard was that heartbroken by what happened between them." Garrus nodded as he clasped his talons into each other.

"Yeah, she was very depressed, she started to drink, but because of her implants she couldn't get drunk and that made her even more agitated, but I finally found out that Sidnois was hiding on the Citadel and going by a different name. When I went to tell Shepard the news, I found her huddled in a small ball on her bed, hugging a bottle of whiskey," Garrus sighed, remembering how Shepard looked at him, bags under her eyes, begging for help to get her life back on track. "So I told her, she woke up more when I went into more detail, she was bouncing about, wanting to kill him with me. I felt bad asking for her help, but I could not do it without her. We went to the Citadel and the more into the mission we got, Shepard was changing her attitude. She started to disagree with my idea on how to deal with Sidonis." He placed his talons calmly on the table, not wanting to slam the table in frustration, it still got to him nearly a year later.

"What was your idea on how to deal with him?" Garrus dropped his gaze and he knew he wanted to give Sidonis the most painful death he could think of, he lowered his head, even more, closing his eyes.

"I wanted to shoot him straight in the head with my sniper, he was lucky to have such a quick death. I got close to doing it, but." He looked back up, looking past Gemma and at the wall, not wanting to see her expression at his honesty of how much he wanted Sidonis dead. "I stood on the balcony, scope in hand. Shepard stood in my way and was talking to Sidonis. I told her to move to the side, but something clicked for her and she changed her mind. She saw the pain and regret that Sidonis had for what he did. She would not move and stopped me from killing him, I wouldn't dare shoot if there was a chance that I could get Shepard with the bullet." Gemma was sitting on the edge of her seat, getting more invested in the conversation. "I heard the pain in his voice, he did hate his life and it sounded like he was ready for death. I told him to leave before I changed my mind. Shepard tried to talk after, but my emotions were something I needed to sort out alone."

"I'm guessing Shepard was not too impressed by the fact that you would not talk to her?" Gemma could imagine Shepard was one to have little patience when it came to making sure her crew is okay after dealing with something so life-changing. Shepard knew how depressing it can be, definitely with what happened with Kaidan, she had never felt so depressed. Garrus had struggled with a lot, mentally.

"Yeah, she would hardly talk to me on the way back to the ship. She had to help Thane, so I went back to the ship and sent Grunt to take my place. After she got back, Joker warned me Shepard was on the way to see me, she was pissed off by the sounds of fear in his voice." He gave himself a little bit of humour in his voice. Even the biggest of Krogan would step to the side when Shepard was in a bad mood. "I carried on working on the forward cannon and the doors swung open and on the other side was one very angry Commander." He shook his head in humour. Gemma imagined that this was now a funny memory between them both. "She shouted right in my face, she wouldn't let me get a word in edgeways. She said how selfish I was because I couldn't see how she had helped me, many swearing words later, some I never even heard of before, she finally let me talk."

Gemma giggled at him, Garrus looked up, his mandible loosened and formed into a smile. "That sounds just like Shepard." Garrus knew Shepard was very pissed off at him after that mission. The way she went off on him, made him laugh in her face then argue back with her, Shepard had tried to hold back the smile her lips were trying to pull at his response.

"Well, I did laugh at first, she seemed to have calmed down with that. I did say sorry for how I reacted to her helping me, we sat down and talked for what seemed like days. It was late into the evening shift when she was nearly falling asleep on me." Gemma started to see the love he had for her in his eyes. Some of the crew had come into the mess hall but didn't stay long. "She changed after that, little parts of the old Shepard started to peel through, we spent most of the nights having fun and joking around. One night..." Garrus looked down at his legs, sitting back with a thud, "we had a few drinks and I was half drunk, of course, Shepard wasn't at all. We um... kissed. I was puzzled about what I was meant to do after, I never even kissed a human before."

"Please tell me, you didn't run off?" Garrus slowly nodded his head, "dammit, Garrus. Shepard isn't one to just kiss anyone" Garrus wouldn't make eye contact, he agreed with what Gemma was stating. Shepard had never been one for hook up and one night stands, but being with a human was just something that frightened him, he didn't even have much experience with his species.

"I know, I know, I hated myself so much for doing that, but I got scared. I had feelings for Shepard, but I was confused about what those feelings were. We avoided each other for days after that, she wouldn't take me on missions and when we all ate together, I would eat in the forward battery" Gemma never thought she could see Garrus as the one to hide from Shepard. Garrus crossed his legs under the table. "We finally talked after most of the crew had enough of us both acting weird and they locked us in Kasumi's room."

Gemma sat back in her seat, laughing, "guessing that was Kasumi's idea?" Gemma didn't know Kasumi very well, but from the party at Shepard's apartment, she got a clue of how sneaky the thief could be. Garrus nodded at her, that time they spent locked in the room was one of the most awkward moments of his life, he stumbled so much in that conversation, he was surprised Shepard didn't punch him.

"It was very... awkward. We did finally talk, I explained why I did what I did, she listened to me and finally understood that it wasn't something she did that had upset me." Garrus could still see the relief that came over Shepard as he told her. She was so upset and angry at herself because she thought she had done something to upset Garrus after they kissed. "We talked for hours, laid all our feelings onto the table." He kept his mandibles close to his face, "we then just went from where we left off."

"I imagine that was when you were close to defeating the Collectors?" Gemma only heard the stories of the fight with the Collectors, from the other crew members. Thane had told her the most. The battle was long and bloody. Gemma still wondered how the whole crew had made it out alive. Luck? Shepard leadership skills? The bond of the crew working together?

"Yeah, we started a proper relationship after that. Things were... complicated. I didn't know how to do a Turian/human relationship. Joker helped me with extranet sites, it was a slow process, but it got better each day. After the Collector attack, Shepard had to go to Earth for her tribunal, I went to Palavan to talk to my father." Garrus shook his head lightly, "I missed her so much, she found me six months later on Menea, Palavan's largest moon. I was helping coordinate the fight so we didn't lose the moon. It was bittersweet, but the war was still going on, we were too busy to talk about our relationship for about a week after I joined the Normandy again."

"I can imagine how hard it was for you to get some alone time for you both. Shepard is always still busy with reports and meetings, it must be hard for you." Garrus looked down at his feet as he nodded. During their Collector days, they spent as much time together as they could, before the suicide mission. They only had two weeks after defeating the Collectors until Shepard had to take herself and the Normandy back to Earth.

"She offered to drop the crew wherever they wanted to go, most went to the Citadel. I wanted to go back home. She dropped me there last. By the end, there were only a handful of us left, including Joker. He wanted to go back to Earth to protect Edi. We agreed she would pretend to be a VI and only work mostly with Joker around, saving his ass from being arrested. Chakwas was not arrested either since she was not technically with the Alliance when she joined Cerberus. The rest got an honourable discharge after being questioned for quite a while. Shepard told me all this and saw the pain the crew went through when they had to deal with being interrogated constantly." Thane and Kaidan walked in at that point. They were talking, but then stopped when they saw Garrus and Gemma, deep in conversation.

"Gemma seems quite tired, has she rested since returning from Thessia?" Thane asked, leaning over so the conversation wouldn't leave their little circle.

"No," Kaidan replied as he watched them at the table. Garrus was still talking and Gemma seemed to struggle to fully listen, the bags under her eyes were proof enough that she had not rested since they left Thessia. The medication Chakwas gave her must be making her tired, but Kaidan knew, this is not the first time Gemma had fought going to sleep. "I'm going to try and get her to sleep."

Kaidan walked over to the table, Thane following behind. Gemma looked up when she saw him, "Hey, you alright?" Kaidan placed his hand on her shoulder.

"You need to get some rest, you'll want to be awake and alert when we arrive." Gemma looked up at Thane, he gave her a slight nod, agreeing with Kaidan's words. The tiredness then hit her, she had been awake for hours, she had gotten enough information on her parents to be of some help.

"You're right, a few hours won't do me any harm." Garrus moved the datapads to the side, whilst Kaidan picked up her crutches. "Thank you for the chat, Garrus." He looked up from the datapads. Gemma had one hand on her crutch and the other on Kaidan's hand whilst he stood with the other crutch waiting for her, he loosened his mandibles into a smile and nodded at her.

Thane and Garrus watched them walk to the lift, Thane turned to see the mess on the table, "here, let me help you."

---

Shepard was in the shuttle bay, working on cleaning her guns and making sure her armour had not taken too much damage during the fight on Thessia. Tali joined her down there to do some suit repairs. "Everything okay with your suit?" Shepard continued to wipe her M-69 Mattock down.

Tali laid the cleaning tools and antibiotic creams she may need. "Yes, just a normal check. I think one of my filters has torn slightly." Shepard walked over to see what she was doing.

"You know, I've never seen you clean your suit before" Tali saw the curiosity in Shepard's face, she was watching Tali's every move. Tali continued to work on taking the filter out by her bicep.

"Not many people will see us do this, it is more of a personal moment to ourselves. Family and loved ones do sometimes watch or even help us. Our children will watch to get the idea of what they need to do for one day we will not be there to help them." Shepard backed away a little, realizing she had just overstepped. Tali caught her sudden change in body language, "don't worry, Shepard. You are one of my best friends, you are always welcome to watch me do this if you wish. I will talk you through it if you like." Shepard nodded in excitement, she felt like a kid in a candy store who had the chance to choose anything they wanted, so she now needed to check out each piece of candy to find the right one.

---

"Commander, we are nearing Horizon," Joker called through the comms. Gemma was in the cockpit, ready to get this mission over and done with. She wanted to pace, but her leg was hurting too much, waking up that morning with her knee bent to be more comfortable was a position she regretted.

Shepard soon arrived, nodding at Gemma as she walked up behind Joker's chair. Edi was ready and set, sitting in the co-pilot seat, checking comms, but everything was still the same, no comms had left or arrived at Sanctuary for over forty-eight hours. About the same time, the mission of Thessia had taken place. "How are we looking?" Joker brought up some visual holograms of Sanctuary.

"Well from this, it looks like somewhere refugees would go for protection, but it is... so quiet. Nothing is coming or going. We haven't even got stealth systems on and they haven't tried to make contact." Gemma looked at the scan, the building was tall, something that would be easily spotted when arriving into the lower planets atmosphere.

"Are there no signs of Cerberus? Or signs the Reapers have found this place. Horizon was hit months ago. How could this place not have been attacked by now?" Shepard could see Horizon through the Normandy's windows, they had ten minutes before they were due to deploy in the shuttle.

Joker sat back in his chair, placing his elbows on the arms of the chair, "no, nothing. No Reapers signals, no Cerberus, not even this shuttle that left Thessia." Shepard cocked her head to the side, she was confused on how this was even possible. Surely the Reapers would want to attack saying that they had been taking humans to produce husks. A refugee camp would be candy land for them to take humans to the camps they had set up as prisons.

"I just don't understand how this is possible?" Gemma said, standing at the back of the wall. "It feels more of a trap than anything else." Shepard nodded with her in agreement, it was either a trap or their lucky day, but nothing has gone to plan so far and this mission seemed too good to be true.

"We still need to go anyway, Kaidan and Garrus should be ready now. Tell Cortez to have the shuttle ready and be ready to leave in five." Shepard turned and walked off. Gemma decided to sit in the other co-pilot seat. She didn't know how to work the controls, so she started to look into the security side of Sanctuary, to see if there was anything that might give them an advantage if it does all turn to shit.

"Yes, Commander". Joker got onto the comms to Cortez. Edi stood up, said her goodbyes and left to catch up with Shepard. "Are you feeling okay?" Gemma turned to see Joker giving her a sympathetic smile.

"Look at you, asking sensible questions." Joker cracked a smile at her, still waiting for her to answer. Gemma leant her head back into the chair, "I'm okay, I'm just hoping we can find them or even a sign of them."

"I understand that, I've been trying to find out about my own family. My dad and sister are out there somewhere, but finding them is near impossible. The colony is so small and far-out, many don't even know it exists." Gemma could see the desperation in his eyes, she didn't know much about his personal life, but she could imagine he had such a harder time than her looking for her family, Horizon is one of the main colonies humanity has.

"I'm sure they are safe, just try your best to find them, that is the best we all can do." She placed her hands over his, Joker looked at it and smiled, "maybe after this, we can finally get back to normal life, as normal as we can." Joker pulled his hand away and started to work on Normandy's systems, determination pushing him forward, he wanted to get all this behind them.

---

Kaidan and Garrus were already on the shuttle, sitting down whilst they checked their gear. Shepard and Edi came out of the lift, Shepard went straight for the armour locker to get her armour on. "Cortez, are we ready to go?" Cortez was working on the back thruster of the shuttle.

"We are good to go, Commander. Just making sure all the systems are good." Edi walked off to join the rest on the shuttle. Steve did the last checks before getting ready to fire up the stealth systems and engines. "How are we looking down there then?"

Edi walked into the cockpit area of the shuttle, "we are unsure at the moment, the information is very dicey. We have no steady leads to help us, all I know is the objective is to find out why the Cerberus agent went to Horizon."

Kaidan popped his head around the corner, "and to find out if Gemma's parents came here for protection." He turned back around to help Garrus get his gun back together, he thought getting it calibrated before they left was a good idea, which it wasn't.

Shepard joined them on the shuttle. "Alright time to go, Cortez got us down there fast and quiet." Cortez gave her the thumbs up when the shuttle started to lift, as the shuttle doors swished closed. Shepard brought out her omni tool. "Okay, this is Gemma's parents. That is our second priority along with finding that asshole Kai Leng." She showed them pictures of her parents, her mum looked just like her, just older, her dad only had the same eyes and hair colour. "We find them alive or dead, they are coming back to Normandy, then Gemma can decide what she wants to do from there, everyone understands?" Everyone nodded in agreement with the plan.

---

The shuttle came into the upper atmosphere of Horizon. Kaidan was talking to Gemma on the comms about their location, he could tell Gemma was nervous about what they might find down there, but she also had to be realistic, if her parents are not there... then she may never find them until long after the war and the dead are finally counted.

"Commander, we have Reaper harvesters orbiting the sanctuary." Shepard looked through the visual windows on the shuttle, there were more than a dozen harvesters just continually flying around, no people to be seen in sight. "Wait there is also a message here, playing it now." Cortez brought up the static message, the words started as grumbled, stretched words, "this is.....Oriana Lawson... sta-y...away from Sanctuary. It is not as it seems." The whole crew other than Kaidan and Cortez knew who Oriana was.

"Dammit, that was Miranda's sister" Kaidan knew Miranda was part of the crew that helped Shepard with the Collectors. "We might be too late before we even get there! Land us there now!" Shepard commanded. Cortez obliged by diving the shuttle down as fast as its engines could, they landed a few clicks from the front of the building, it was high enough to reach the cloud bank, this building would be able to hold thousands of refugees.

As the shuttle doors opened, they all jumped out, guns at the ready. Cortez took the shuttle back to Normandy before Harvesters saw the shuttle and pursued him. The front of the building was nearly destroyed, shuttles, rubble and dust scattered everywhere. "Everyone keep an eye on our six and don't let Cerberus get the jump on us this time, this building is owned by them and god knows what the Illusive Man has happened here."

The courtyard had stairs leading towards the building, rubble made some of the stairs crack and cave through. They approached with caution, but it was still quiet. Static rang through their comms. "Commander, do you hear that?" Kaidan asked as they got in cover to see what the cause of the static was.

"It is our comms being blocked, we have now lost contact with the Normandy, it would explain why no comms are leaving the facility" Edi called out from behind a collapsed metal beam. Kaidan was agitated by this, he promised Gemma he would feed her reports as the mission progressed. They continued forward, as they walked up the stairs, they heard a scream from a Harvester overhead and then the sound of failing shuttle engines. Shepard was worried it was Cortez at first, but the white Cerberus-logoed shuttle crashed a few meters ahead of them. "Commander, watch out," Edi called out. Everyone stopped and looked up, the Harvester had landed on the side of the roof, looking down to see if the shuttle was still functioning, happy it wasn't, the Harvester pulled its wings out and flew off to attack more in the sky.

The shuttle doors opened, dazed Cerberus agents and phantoms appeared from inside, the moment they saw Shepard, they got their guns out and went on the attack. "Everyone get into cover and don't let them jump onto our level!" Shepard commanded.

---

Gemma tried just about everything to calm herself down, but her nerves were getting the better of her. She made Joker especially nervous when her biotics started to show, the light blue was making it difficult for him to concentrate when he feared Gemma would attack the ship out of frustration. "Please don't break anything," he said quietly, Gemma heard him and looked up.

She looked down at her hands, realizing her biotics had activated themselves again, "uh, sorry." She calmed herself down with a few deep breaths and her biotics responded by depleting around her skin, they sent a cold sensation down her spine, as if for a warning. "Don't worry, I could never hurt Normandy. This is my home for now and this is Edi's body, I would never forgive myself for hurting her." Joker looked over, relief fell over him.

"I'm glad to hear that." He looked back at the terminal when Cortez was calling through to him so only anyone on the bridge could hear him. "Hey Cortez, how is it going?" Gemma sat forward in her seat, waiting in anticipation.

"We got down there safely enough, but Harvesters are swarming the place." Joker didn't expect anything less. "The last thing I heard was Cerberus is there in strength and the Illusive Man seems to want to do something with the facility, after that the comms cut, they are being blocked. We have to wait for them to drop the jamming tool that is causing this problem. I'm coming into the dock in three minutes, Cortez out." Joker pushed the call application to the side to get the docking doors open for the shuttle to come in, as long as Reapers don't find Normandy they will be staying close to Horizon.

"Fuck! How are we meant to find out what's going on now?!" Gemma said aggressively, Joker sat back, rubbing his face and lifting his hat off his head for a moment of a cool breeze on his head. "I knew I should have gone."

Joker snorted at her, Gemma turned to look at him, brows furrowed, "oh come on," he said with a chuckle. "What were you going to do? Follow behind and bitch slap people with your crutches?" He placed his hat back on, giving Gemma a small smirk as he went back to work.

Gemma looked at him for a moment, then out at the window, she didn't know if she should slap him or laugh at him. "You think your fucking hilarious, don't you?" He didn't say anything, just turning and putting his thumbs up with a big goofy smile, Gemma scoffed and flinged his hat off his head with a small biotic field.

"Hey!" he shouted, he turned in his chair to try to pick it up off the floor, it was too far for him to reach without getting out of his seat. Gemma felt bad so she picked it up with a stasis bubble, lightly placing it into Joker's hand. "Thank you," he said, mockingly as he dusted it down and placed it back on his head.

---

Shepard and the crew fought through the soldiers and phantoms easily enough, walking through the main reception area, it looked like a processing area with a VI asking for all comm devices to be handed in at the reception before they went into the main building. Shepard looked around at the computers that had not been blown to bits, most of the data seemed to have been deleted for security measures.

The sound of shuttle engines filled the air, multiple Cerberus shuttles leaving the tower that stood before them. "Shepard, look," Kaidan pointed up, she looked up, three shuttles took off at high speeds to outrun the Harvesters.

"Well, that is where we are now heading." She continued to look through the terminals, trying to find any names or descriptions that match Gemma's parents.

"Shepard, there is another landing pad over here," Garrus called out. Kaidan and Edi came down from the stairs across from them, two shuttles that had crash-landed in front of them. Shepard walked closer whilst Edi checked the other.

"This one is empty," Edi called out, she walked back over to the one to her right which Shepard was looking inside. Kaidan knelt by a body with his omni-tool out. "He seems young," Edi said quietly, she had always accepted seeing the deaths of organisms, but younger people seemed to trouble her, they shouldn't die of such horrible causes.

"He is young, barely sixteen, he has broken ribs and it has caused his lungs to puncture and bleed internally." Kaidan stood up, angry that this kid died believing that he was coming to safety, the Reapers did this to this kid. "He has been dead a few hours, no way he could have been saved." Kaidan took a minute to look down at the body, he knew he couldn't leave him like that. Kaidan placed his gun in its holster and scooped the kid in his arms, finding a small soiled area that is meant for flowers to grow, Kaidan carried him over and gently placed him down, crossing his arms over his chest.

Shepard came back out of the shuttle, a few datapads in her hands. "These are messages that were meant to be sent to his family, Edi copy them and when we get back, try to track them down and if they are still alive then send them the news about their son and these messages, he would have wanted them to know his last minutes." Edi pulled her omni-tool out to copy the messages pinned to the datapads.

"Of course, Commander." They all got back to the task at hand, another office was behind them which ran under the one from upstairs. As they walked in, the bodies of both Cerberus and Rachni were found. They heard talking up ahead, Shepard got behind a metal structure and opened fire. The Cerberus soldiers were startled by the attack and they got taken out quickly, Garrus used a Concussive shock, the impact killed two troopers. Kaidan used his assault rifle and biotics to take two more off their balance with a small stasis bubble that pulled them to their knees. Edi used her decoy to distract the others and commanded it to shoot them along with Shepard.

They looked around, but as before, most of the terminals were destroyed and copies had been wiped. They found a door that was open leading to a smaller room which then led to a courtyard, a terminal was in front of them, showing a fuzzed picture and a vid on loop, but it was mostly full of static. "Give me a minute, let me see if I can get it working." Shepard pulled her gun to the side with her right arm as she typed with the left.

"This is Miranda Lawson. If you've been able to get this far, you must be desperate or stupid." The picture showed photos of Sanctuary, Shepard stepped back so everyone could see. "Listen to me, this is not a refugee camp, this is a Cerberus base run by my father, Henry Lawson. Turn back now. There is no help to be found here... all communication is being blocked from the central tower." There was silence for a couple of seconds, "sanctuary is a lie. Stay away!"

"Okay." Shepard took in a deep breath, "we have Cerberus, Gemma's parents, Reapers and Miranda's batshit crazy father. Does anyone knows how this all fits?" They all carried on to the smaller courtyard, water covered the area, Edi was able to find a console to flush the water out so they could find a side entrance into the building.

"If we get to the central tower. I can hack the terminal and leak all information about Sanctuary and then we can contact Normandy again." They all went down the ladders as the water flushed itself out of the filters. They walked carefully through the washed-up pond, a lot of technology seems to have been hidden here, Edi caught onto one particular panel, she stopped and brought her omni-tool out. "This is Reaper technology, Shepard." The rest of the crew joined her, the panel was different from the others, far more advanced than just some panels under a pond. "Cerberus has found a way to use this technology, I'm not sure why."

Shepard carried on towards the doors in front of them, "another question we need to find the answers for." They continued walking through two hallways, and most of the terminals were shut down. Shepard saw a darkened room at the end of the second hallway, they continued slowly, the room was some sort of control centre. "Look for a switch to get the power running again."

They split up around the room, Edi walked around to the upper controls, they were all shut down and using minimal power. "Commander, I have found the switch, just need a moment to bring power back online." Everyone joined Edi, the screens above their head started to come online, old CCTV footage playing.

"The hell?" Kaidan muttered as he looked at the screen closest to him, "those are the refugees." Everyone was watching, with disgust on their faces. The refugees were being processed into tubes, the flesh from their skin melted off, steam came off their bodies. Shepard dropped her mouth open in pure shock, the refugees dropped to their knees inside the tubes as they scraped at the window to try and get out, they were being processed into husks. "Shit, those are husks! They are making husks?" Kaidan's question was rhetorical.

"These are the same tubes that we found on the Collector ship, they nearly killed half my damn crew, but those turned them to flesh, not husks, this is Reaper tech," Shepard said in disgust. "Edi can you try and find a name log, see if you can find Gemma's parents." Edi sat down at the terminal to hack through their systems.

Shepard looked past the upper terminals, the windows in front of them were blacked out. Shepard and Garrus walked down to the lower area and turned the light on, the room on the other side was some sort of warehouse. Husks swamped the area, the light seemed to have made them startled, they all ran for the wall and pipes to get out of sight. Shepard stepped a little closer to the window, a husk threw its body into the window, Shepard stumbled into Garrus with a fright. "You okay?" Garrus turned her around, he saw the husk disappear above the window, he placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah.. yeah, I'm fine." She looked up at him, Garrus could see she was holding back the fear, three years on and seeing husks is something that not everyone can get used to. "Edi, have you found anything?" Edi was transferring some data over to her Omni-tool.

"Yes, I think her parents are here somewhere, they have different last names. Lynn and Daniel Robinson, they've been placed under as a married couple, something has caught my attention." Shepard walked over to Edi, as she brought up the information of a missing person's report. "Daniel reported Lynn as missing after their second week here." Shepard looked down at Edi's omni-tool, the picture showed Gemma's mother, her looks had changed slightly, her hair was shorter and dyed.

"Can you try and find anywhere that she might be?" Edi nodded, she put her omni-tool away and got her gun back out, "okay, let's get going." They all went out to the next door, towards the tower.

"Commander this doesn't make sense," Kaidan said, following close behind as they went through the next door, "there has to be more to this: Why does Cerberus want mindless husks for?" Shepard agreed with Kaidan, there was much more to the story than just mindless husks.

"Well it does explain why the Reapers want this place blown to bits, it is a threat to them." The doors led them to another small office, most of the terminals were shut down or running on emergency power. Shepard found another terminal, Miranda's voice could be heard in low static. "Hang on, there is another one here." Shepard fixed the terminal.

The video showed Miranda running up to the terminal and typing swiftly. "The Reaper forces have made a mess of the facility. I'm shutting down the power to the processing plant to lock them down, this should keep them out of the entrance as well." Miranda was seen walking away at a quick pace and the screen turned back to static. Shepard was about to walk away, but Edi stopped her.

"Commander, wait, the terminal is coming back on," Edi said. They all turned, the video turned to a security camera of Kai Leng walking into a comms room. "Ms Lawson does not know he is here," Edi informed them.

"Miranda Lawson has arrived sooner than expected, you want me to deal with her?" He talked into a terminal, swinging his sword around in eagerness. Shepard could only imagine he wanted to finish the fight he had with Miranda, she did warn Shepard about the fight she had with him a while back. Miranda barely made it out with her life, he was good and much faster from his fight with Anderson. Shepard could imagine that the fine upgrades from Cerberus gave him the confidence to think he can beat anyone.

"Only if she gets in your way, stay focused on getting the research data." Shepard instantly knew it was the Elusive man, "find it and get out." The terminal fell silent and shut itself off.

"We need to get moving, move out." The lower side of the doors turned green to give access, the second Shepard got through the door a husk tried to grab for her. She headshot it, falling to the floor in a pile in its blue blood. Kaidan used his biotics to throw the husks around, their bodies bounced off the walls, Edi used her decoy to lure some of the husks to it.

They fought through the hordes of them, Shepard killed the last one with her biotic punch. She walked down the stairs to more panels, she found a terminal that had an audio log saved. Edi pressed the play button and got ready to download the file if it was of importance. "I've spent the last week making small adjustments to increase processing efficiency." Shepard didn't know the voice, but the accident matched Mirandas.

"Edi, what is the name saved under that file?" Edi looked over the file.

"Henry Lawson, he seems to be the lead scientist for this facility." Shepard didn't know whether Henry was still at the facility, but she imagined that he was one of the first to be evacuated. Kaidan and Garrus went on ahead to make sure there were no more husks.

The recording continued, "we've confirmed the results of Cerberus experiments involving the husks creatures. A crude, but necessary, first step in deciding how the Reapers communicate." There was a short pause, "the key is how the Reaper signal interacts with the nanides implanted within the subject's body." Henry let out a small sigh, "it's early yet, but we are making progress."

"Commander, we have company," Garrus shouted. They all got into cover, Shepard saw two banshees coming their way, they disappeared for a moment and then reappeared even closer. Edi used her decoy to distract the banshee from the right. Garrus and Shepard both took on the banshee to their left, Shepard used her biotics to counteract the banshee's biotics. Garrus used his sniper with concussive rounds to shoot the weak points of the banshee's body.

Kaidan helped Edi take down the banshee that had destroyed Edi's decoy, Edi got out of cover and headshot the banshee, it fell to its knees, screaming the high sorrow which hurt Kaidan's ears. A ravager slowly walked around the corner, Garrus and Kaidan shot at its sacks, little swarmers poured out. Shepard used a shockwave, their bodies exploded into small puddles of dark blue blood, it wasn't far off the same as an Asari. Kaidan and Garrus went up the small set of stairs that the banshees and ravager came through.

Shepard and Edi went through the door on the lower level, they all led out of the same area, more computers and medical equipment were scattered around them. Marauders started to appear on the upper balconies, they all made quick work of them. The upper side of the room stretched out, large parts of equipment stuck out and extended back into the walls, they followed the room down to the end, it closed off into a small office, more computers and terminals. "Commander, there is another log here from Henry Lawson," Edi called out, she hacked the terminal to play the log, Kaidan and Garrus hung back to make sure no more Reapers ground forces appeared.

"The pursuit of efficiency has revealed an important fact. The Reaper's use of 'dragon's teeth to create husks is ingenious." Shepard knew the dragon's teeth were the long spikes she saw along her journey fighting the Reapers. The Geth used them the first time to create the husks from humans back on Eden Prime, the log continued, "the Reaper nanites attach themselves to the adrenaline and release a quick move through the body to speed conversion to the final husk stage."

"Edi, download this, we haven't been able to learn even this much in the time we have had to study husks." Edi acknowledged the command and started to download it to her omni-tool.

"What kind of monster would do this to people? I don't get it," Kaidan said as they joined them at the terminal. Edi finished the download, he walked over to the door they had to leave through, he saw another banshee, but it was trapped on the other side of the window. It tried to attack, but the window was too strong to break from its biotics. "Shepard, this has another log." They all joined him, Edi hacked it and started to download all the information, she didn't need Shepard's command to download, it was too important to leave behind.

She played the log. "Dr Nuri's legacy works with subject Paul Grayson provides a key element to our work here. Using the addictive drug 'red sand' to break down the will was inspired but proved unreliable for general application. We've proven that adrenalin and its cross-species equivalent is most effective and efficient." They all carried on towards the door, keeping a close eye on the banshee as they walked past.

The room led to another mix of office/equipment space, Shepard heard the terminal closest to the door playing another vid that Miranda had recorded. "This terminal is damaged, hang on." She holstered her weapon and pulled the panel off underneath the terminal that was playing the vid on loop and had a fuzzed-out picture.

"Maybe we will get more answers on why the Reapers want this place shut down," Kaidan said as he covered her six, Shepard dug through the wires to find the broken one and did a small patch fix on it.

"It doesn't make sense, I Thought Cerberus and the Reapers were getting along, something changed, but what?" She nearly mumbled it to herself. Kaidan just about picked up what she said, she heard the terminal come back to life. "Ah, there we go, we might find out now."

Miranda's voice started to play through the vid, "heading to the tower to disable the communication scrambler. I have to get the word out, some refugees have turned into husks." Miranda showed a picture of an experimental room with tubes that were used to turn the humans into husks. "Some are indoctrinated and shipped to the Illusive Man, whoever's left is used in experiments. The data indicates that my father is trying to figure out how Reaper indoctrination works."

Shepard closed the vid, "tricking refugees with food and shelter only to turn them into test subjects, and for what?" She said with a snarl, Garrus moved closer to her, he wanted to make sure she was okay, but he knew he still needed to act professionally for the rest of the crew.

"This is disgusting, this scale of all this..." he said, agreeing with Shepherd's disgust, Edi walked closer.

"Note that she said they are shipped to the Illusive Man, I can use that data to track him and find his current location." She got another alert on her omni-tool, "Commander," she said in a hurry. Shepard turned around in one full motion. "I have been scanning the area to see any life signs, other than Reapers. I have found one life sign not far from us, the room seems to be small and compact, it could be Gemma's mother hiding out." Shepard placed her hand on Edi's shoulder.

"And this is why you are with us, Edi, good catch, we will check that area on our way to the tower, that is where Miranda said she was heading." They readied up and got back into position with Shepard at the lead.

They quickly checked the area and found some data files with information on the tests they have run on subjects, the stairs led to the same room as before, equipment in the walls and on the other side, Reapers.

---

Back on the ship, Joker had little luck getting through to the ground team, all he could learn was the communication scrambler wasn't something even Edi could hack her way through, let alone the tech he had on the ship. Thane had arrived to help as he could. "Still nothing?" Gemma asked.

"Nope. I can't do anything, we have to hope that Shepard can find the source of the jamming tower and unlock it." Gemma banged her head against the neck rest of the seat in a huff, Thane stood behind her chair, placing his hands on her shoulders.

"Stay calm, Siha, we will find them." Gemma wanted to believe him, but she didn't have much hope.

"I want to believe you, Thane, but I feel as if we are just too late, it has been months since I last saw my mum being dragged away from me. I don't even know what happened to my dad." She blinked the tears away before they rolled down her face. "I think it's time to give up and just accept that they have gone." She stood up from her chair, Joker watched as Thane got ready to help her.

"Siha.." Gemma held her hand up and started to slowly hobble away.

"Please, Thane, don't, we did what we could, I'll be in my room if you need me." Thane wanted to follow, but he knew she needed her space, he watched as she walked off towards the lift. Joker couldn't look for too long without needing to check systems again.

"I really hope they find her parents, she only has Kaidan right now and it is not enough for her," Joker said as Thane sat in the seat previously occupied by Gemma.

"Indeed, it is something that would change the scale of her future. Is there anything I can assist you in?"

---

The Reapers were giving Shepard and the crew more resistance, the fight took much longer than before and ended with Garrus getting a bullet to the arm, nothing some medgi-gel couldn't fix. They searched the perimeter, they found another terminal that Miranda was talking from, Shepard activated the vid.

"Heavy resistance outside the tower, if you're receiving this. I've got evidence you can't ignore." She sounded more desperate this time, "confirmation that my father is working for the Illusive Man." Miranda changed the vid to another vid from a security camera, she was able to hack into.

It showed Henry looking at a hologram of the tubes used to convert the husks. "I have your report on the process, Mr Lawson. Cut to the point, can you do it?" Shepard instantly knew that was the voice of the Illusive Man.

Henry paced back and forth, placing his hand close to his mouth as he replied. "Theoretically, control is possible, yes. The Reaper subjects we converted are responding, but it's difficult to maintain." He stood back in front of the tube hologram.

"I thought that might be the case. Not to worry, Henry, with Sanctuary's help, we'll get it sorted." The vid ended.

"He is talking about controlling the Reaper ground forces? Is that.... even possible?" Kaidan asked, he couldn't take his eyes off the screen as it played just static.

Shepard looked over at him and back at the vidscreen. "I don't know, I'll play the rest." She played the next security camera footage, this time Henry was standing in front of a hologram of the tower.

"We have done it. We've found a way to co-opt their control signal." He turned around to face the camera, "as long as the Reaper troops remain near our signal, we can maintain control indefinitely." He stopped in front of the camera leaning over some terminal panels.

"Excellent news, and how could we extrapolate this technique to apply this to the Reaper's themselves?" The Illusive Man asked the camera panned out.

Henry dipped his head in disappointment, "that is a much bigger challenge." The vid turned back to static.

"No wonder why the Reaper's attacked this place," Shepard said quietly, it all made sense to her now. The Reaper's found out about Cerberus wanting to control them, so destroying this place was the only way to prevent it from happening. "The good news is, this is our main link to Cerberus." She typed on the terminal again to see if she could find anything else from the vid.

Another security camera came through, the video showed Miranda walking up to a terminal before Kai Leng dropped from the ceiling, using his biotics to break his fall. Miranda threw herself on the floor to miss the attack, Shepard dropped the access ladder, "dammit, let's hope she's ready for him."

"Wait, Commander! The location is close to here. it's in the next room over." Shepard wanted to get going, but she needed to make sure this was or wasn't Gemma's mum, Edi saw the door to their left, she needed a minute to hack through it.

"We need to be quick, if it is her and she's injured then Kaidan" She pointed at him, "you are going to have to stay with her until we can finish this." Edi hacked the door, the room was some sort of storage cupboard. "Edi scans the area, Garrus watches the door, Kaidan comes with me and looks around for any compartments that might show where she might be." They all split up to do their jobs. Garrus loaded his sniper and watched through his scope from the other side of the room, Kaidan and Shepard started from each side of the room together, Edi stood in the middle of the room and scanned.

A few minutes in, Edi got the scan done. "Commander, the room is by the far left, behind this terminal." Shepard ran over, the terminal was a slide moving terminal for better accessibility, the door on the other side was small and wasn't big enough to fit someone of Garrus or Kaidan size in, she was about to open the door when she heard whimpering, "please go away," a small voice cried out.

"Lynn? Is that you? It's Commander Shepard, Alliance Navy." The crying stopped, she heard movement on the other side of the door. "Please open the door. I'm here to help... your daughter is on my ship."

"Gem... Gemma? My Gemma?" The door unlocked from the inside, Lynn didn't push it open. Shepard heard the ruffling of her pulling herself back inside the room, Shepard looked up at Kaidan and Edi, who were also huddled around the door. Garrus took a peak now and then, but he didn't leave his post.

Shepard wrapped her gloved hand around the door and slowly pulled it open, they all moved as the door moved towards them, it was dark inside and full of dust and dirt. Shepard shined the light on her chest plate, and Kaidan tried to hold back the cough from the amount of dust that fell from the frame of the door.

There was a small tunnel and then a small room on the other side, not enough headspace to fully stand up. The line shined on the skinny legs of a woman huddled up, she held her hand in the air to block out the light from the torch, her eyes trying to adjust. "Sorry, can you come out and we will help you?" Lynn didn't reply at first, "please Lynn, we are here to help, Gemma is waiting for you." She saw Lynn get on her hands and knees as she scattered to the entrance of the door, Edi and Kaidan stood up straight and moved back to give her space.

Lynn poked her head out and looked around the room, she finally landed on Shepard who was knelt looking back at her, the stench coming from Lynn's body was enough to make Shepard hold her breath for a moment, she didn't show Lynn the change in her body language, not wanting to scare her away. "I know you."

"I know, I remember helping Horizon back then. Come on, we need to get you checked over. Kaidan?" Lynn shot her head to look at Kaidan as she took Shepard's hand to stand up fully, he walked over closer, he was the best medic on hand to help.

When Lynn fully stood up, she grunted in pain as they all heard the sound of her back cracking from being crouched for so long. They all looked at her, even Garrus, she was skin and bone, her clothes dirty and full of holes, her eyes and cheeks were sunken in and her hair was dirt brown with parts of it snapped off, mostly from malnutrition. "How long have you been in there?" Shepard asked as Kaidan got his omni-tool out to give her a full scan.

"Three days straight," She said with a struggle, "I need... water. " Kaidan finished his scan and started to apply medi-gel to her cuts and bruises. "Food, please food." They didn't have much other than protein bars.

Kaidan grabbed one from her belt, she snatched it from him, he let her do it and devoured the bar in one. "We need to get going, Kaidan, can you stay with her?" He nodded and got his water out to give to Lynn.

"Please, stay," Lynn said with a full mouth, she swayed a little. Edi grabbed a chair and placed it under her before she collapsed, she tried drinking the water in one, but Shepard stopped her.

"Slow down, you'll make yourself sick. I want to stay, but I have a few more things to do so we can all get out alive. Kaidan will stay with you and protect you, you'll wanna get to know him..." Kaidan held his hand out to her.

"Not the time, Shepard, just get going." Shepard gave him a lopsided smile and took off with Garrus and Edi, they locked the door behind them. Kaidan grabbed a chair and sat down in a huff with his gun on his lap, Lynn watched him and she drank her water.

---

Shepard, Edi and Garrus climbed the ladder, Shepard was worried about leaving Kaidan alone if the Reaper's came inforce...she just hoped that he could hold them off, she also hoped that the Reaper's would follow her the more she went towards the tower.

They got to the top of the ladder, Garrus was the last one up. Ravagers and marauders were already waiting for them at the other side of the warehouse. Shepard rolled across to the other side of the wall for cover, the bullets from the ravager barely missed her. Garrus got into position and used his rifle, making quick work with his multiple head-shots towards the marauders, their bodies dropped to the ground with the small amount of blood leaking from the bullet wound.

Edi used her decoy and sent it into the middle of the fighting, it didn't last long, but it caused the ravages to turn around. Shepard used her charge, knocking past two of them, forcing them to fall to their knees, she then powered her biotics into her hand, unleashing it with a nova, it didn't kill them, but it did throw them in opposite directions, she quickly ran back into cover before they got back to their feet.

Garrus looked up and saw a shield booster that worked to keep the Reaper forces shields up, he destroyed it before it used the shield booster on the Reaper forces, making a loud growling noise as it dropped to the floor. Shepard noticed and gave him a sharp nod, Edi moved up closer to Shepard, husks started to come out of the door from the other side, she shot them down before they got too close.

"Shepard, they aren't letting up," Garrus shouted from afar, they had nowhere to go to use for flanking measures, more ravagers came through, they all huddled closer together, Shepard had a plan.

"Edi, on my signal use a decoy just behind where the ravagers are. Garrus uses as many concussion shocks as you can." Edi and Garrus acknowledged their commands. Shepard knew this was gonna hurt more than just killing the ravagers, she got behind cover, crouching closer together, she concentrated on her biotics, building them up, this was a once used trick that she could barely do. "Edi, Garrus. Now!"

Edi sent her decoy behind from the ravagers, they all turned to shoot at it. Shepard stood out from behind cover, they had not noticed her, until the flash of blue around her body. They started to turn around, but it was too late. Shepard landed in the middle of them. Garrus had sent the third concussion shock. The ravager's bullets bounced off Shepard's barrier, it wouldn't last much longer, she had only one chance to do it.

She jumped into the air, bringing her arm above her head, she needed to get as much force as she could, landing with one leg bent for her knee to take the impact and the other to land on her foot, she let out all her biotic energy into a nova. Garrus had sent his fifth concussion shock, Edi was able to get her decoy recharged and let it off again, this time back from Shepherd's position. The ravagers had fallen, but it wouldn't be for long, all this was happening within seconds in Shepard's eyes, she had just moments to do her nova again before the biotic energy disappeared, she did the same stance as before. This nova was not as effective, but it was enough to kill them all. Edi and Garrus moved from cover to join her, Shepard needed a minute, but she couldn't stay out of cover, she rolled back across next to a wall beam. Garrus and Edi finished off the rest of the husks and marauders.

The fighting came to a stop and silence fell before them, Garrus went on ahead to the room at the end of the warehouse to make sure there weren't any more hostiles. Edi ran over to Shepard, omni-tool out and at the ready to scan her vitals and amp. "Are you well, Shepard?" Shepard held her finger up for the moment, requesting a second to catch her breath.

Edi did the scan and everything seemed fine, her heart rate was elevated, but nothing to be alarmed about. "Alright, I'm good, wish we didn't leave all the protein bars with Kaidan," She said panting. Shepard stood up straight, slowly walking with Edi at her side, Garrus had scoped their area and there were no signs of any more Reaper forces.

---

Lynn and Kaidan had sat in silence for the last ten minutes, Lynn had eaten three protein bars and drank nearly a litre of water, more slowly this time, she was more perked up and her wounds had stopped stinging from the help of the medgi-gel.

Kaidan looked at the floor most of the time, he couldn't imagine what Shepard and the crew were going through, trying to get to that tower, but Lynn needed someone to be with her and he was happy to help her. He looked down at his gun, wiping away the dirt and dust. "Is Gemma okay?" Kaidan looked up, Lynn looking back at him, her hands wrapped around the water bottle.

"She is doing okay, she is racking her head back on the ship, hoping we will find you and her father. May I ask you something?" Lynn put the bottle to her lips, nodding in the process. "Why did you go missing? I'm guessing you weren't forced into that small room?"

Lynn shook her head, "no. I knew something was not right the moment we landed. I tried to convince my husband to leave, but he said 'it was their best option'," she said using air quotes. "Then I heard them talking, the walls seemed to talk about the horrors of this place, so I tried to leave." Lynn looked down at the floor, "Daniel refused to leave and we got into a bad fight. I left without him, my main priority was to find Gemma, I didn't want to leave my husband, but I couldn't let my daughter live out there all alone, but the people here said they could not allow me to leave, for my protection. So I did some digging and found out that there were Cerberus." Kaidan lifted an eyebrow at her, "yes, I know. I've heard stories, I knew something was bad if they were letting just anyone come for free food, water and shelter, it sounded too good to be true."

"I can't imagine how you were able to deal with all this on your own, it must have been hard." Kaidan sat his gun on the floor, leaning it against the leg of his chair, Lynn looked at the room around her.

"I found this room after I nearly got caught by security, then the little room I found when I was searching the room for any more information that might help me understand everything. I was doing good at first, sneaking out during the night. I started to learn my way around and found the best hiding places. I tried to contact my husband, but I never found him, then before I knew it, this place was being attacked." She drank more of the water, then put some in her hands and washed her face, the days of dirt and grime need to be washed away.

"It's the Reapers, they want this place shut down. I can explain more once we get you checked over and cared for, we have an amazing doctor onboard." Lynn washed her face a bit more, then placed the bottle down, she looked at Kaidan, he looked familiar to her, then it clicked.....

"I know you, you were on Horizon last year," she said with a small smile. Kaidan nodded with her being correct. "I need to know, how did Gemma come to fight alongside Commander Shepard?" Kaidan smirked a little, it was quite the story, but the short version would be best for the time being.

"I found her on the Citadel, she was passed out on the floor. She woke up for a moment, freaked out when I told her where she was and passed out again, turns out her biotic amps had overheated so they had to be replaced. Then I let her stay with me until she had the all-clear, I was also sick after being attacked on Mars a couple of weeks before." Lynn had completely turned in her seat to listen to him, Kaidan stopped to look at the door every few minutes. "Then we found out some... interesting things about her biotics and soon the Alliance wanted her to be with me and train her. Shepard let us come aboard after a Citadel attack from Cerberus that could have gone a lot more south if Gemma wasn't there, she is now a Second Lieutenant of Normandy." Lynn opened her mouth but quickly closed it, she could not believe how far her daughter had come in the middle of a war. "She has, along the way, not stopped trying to search for you and her father, it was much luck that we got the signal to come here."

"When you say interesting information about her biotics, what did you exactly mean by that?" Kaidan didn't know how much he should say, this is a lot of information for Lynn to take in and he didn't want to upset her in any way, if it was her father they had found, Kaidan would have never had mentioned anything about biotics, knowing his views on the subject.

"I won't go into the complicated stuff about it, but Gemma is one of the strongest biotics the galaxy will probably ever see, she puts the biotics of an Asari out of the window." Lynn slumped in her chair, she knew the accident years ago would have been so much more in the years to come with how far Gemma went with her biotics compared to other biotic kids Lynn had met.

"This is all my fault, that crash on Thessia is what started all this. I have to say I'm sorry and hope she forgives me." Kaidan gave her a sympathetic smile., h knew the story from Thessia, this wasn't something that he could give an opinion on, that is something Gemma needs to talk to her mum about and hopefully her dad if they can find him, he did think that they should have found him by now. "Why is she not here now?" The question broke Kaidan's train of thought.

"Uhh... well... we got into a fight in Thessia with a Cerberus agent, he broke Gemma's leg." Lynn changed her facial expression very quickly, Kaidan held his hands up, "don't worry she is fine, just some crutches and out of duty for a couple of weeks." Lynn nodded slowly, she hated to think of what Gemma has gone through without her. "I'll see how Shepard is doing." Kaidan stood up and placed his index finger on his earpiece. He hoped that they were still nearby for him to be able to reach them. "Shepard? Are you there?" He waited and hoped for a response.

---

The crew walked through the many experimental rooms, most had dead husks inside that had not survived the process. Edi had caught the attention of one husk, it was still half-human. They all stood around it, looking at the name on the terminal next to the body. "Shepard? Are you there?" Shepard heard the crackling voice through her headpiece.

"Edi, can you make it clearer? Kaidan, how are things going?" Shepard heard some ruffling in the background, then the sound quality got better.

"Good, Lynn is feeling a lot better. How do things end?" Kaidan waited for a response, but nothing but static came through. "Shepard you there? Everything okay?" He waited.

Shepard didn't know how to respond, she was currently looking down at the body of Daniel, his body is half-human and half-husk. Blood poured from his mouth, internal injuries Edi got from scans. Garrus looked closer, one eye was a blue lifeless husk and the other was the brown human colour he saw from the pictures Gemma gave them. "We have... uhh.. found Gemma's father." She took a moment and Edi was still scanning his body, his skin was charcoal grey of burns with the blue of husk skin, flesh that had rotted shows he's been like this a few days, "he's gone, they tried to turn him into a husk, but the process failed."

Kaidan could hear the cracks and croaks coming from Shepard's voice as she spoke. "Fuck!" He looked over at Lynn, she was too busy drinking her water, to pay much attention to his conversation. "Well I'll keep it to myself, for now, I don't want to alarm her." Shepard agreed with him.

"It's the best choice, for now, we will bring his body back to Normandy with us. For now, sit tight, we are not far from Miranda's location, then we can drop the communication blocker, Shepard, out." She turned her comm off and stepped closer to Daniel's body, she could only imagine what he had felt in his last moments. She took her gloved hand and placed it gently on his head, there was no warmth left in him, just coldness, she pulled her hand down and closed his eyes, hopefully, he can now go at peace.

Garrus had looked around a little more, Shepard and Edi had taken the time to place his body down and laid him back down to the floor, placing his hands over his chest. Edi was taking scans of any relevance when Garrus and Shepard passed, joining him by a side door, he pointed at a sideways moving lift. "This will get us closer to the tower."

Edi joined them as Garrus hacked the controls to take them to the end upper platform, they all jumped to the platform. In another experimental room, this time it was more damaged, and Shepard could see why, at the of the room, off to the right-hand corner were two brutes and three banshees. "Shepard!" Garrus shouted, "we need to get into cover now."

"Stay out of their reach and push forward. Edi used those damn decoys." Edi was able to use her decoy this time to attack, she took on the banshees before they got too close. The brutes, however, we're much closer, this was down to Garrus and Shepard, Garrus readied his assault rifle and concussive shock, his sniper was useless in this situation.

Shepard used her biotics to the best of her ability, throwing constant warps. One dropped to the ground fairly quickly with Garrus shooting it right in the eye, the others turned to Shepard, she needed to use her nova again. Edi had taken down one of the banshees, her decoy was destroyed, so whilst waiting for it to recharge she had to use her other abilities, overload didn't do much damage, but only enough to stun them for just a second.

Shepard looked down the hallway, there was the lift they needed to get to the tower, one more brute and banshee stood in their way. Edi swapped with Shepard and helped Garrus take on the brute whilst Shepard took on the banshee, she used her warp to try and counteract the banshee's strong blows of biotics.

Garrus used his concussive shock on the brute and shot its eyes with his sniper rifle, now being further away to use it. Edi used her decoy to distract and also do damage to the brute. Shepard finally was able to drop the banshee with her nova when it got too close for her to use her gun, she turned around on her heel to see the brute coming closer, it was moving slower, obviously taking a beating from Garrus and Edi.

Shepard warmed her biotics up for one more push and she used her charge to crash into the back of the brute, it dropped to the floor with a low growl and thud. Edi and Garrus came out of cover, checking around them, Shepard took a moment to catch her breath, this would be the last charge and Nova she could do for a while.

"You alright?" Garrus asked, jogging over to her. Shepard leaned upright, placing her hand on his shoulder, still panting for air.

"Yeah, I'm fine, the lift is at the end of the corridor, let's go. Miranda should be there, hoping she is still alive." They all jogged to the lift, Shepard slammed her fist onto the tower button, at first, the lift asked for access codes before going, Edi was able to quickly hack through them.

---

The doors opened to a small office, another set of doors right across theirs, Shepard held her hand up when she heard muffled voices, she quickly rushed off again running for the door when she heard the sound of biotics and glass smashing on the floor.

They all walked into the room, guns at the ready. Shepard saw Miranda's head just poking up from the top of a table, she was wounded and covered in blood. "Shepard?!" Miranda called out in plea.

They walked in a little further, Oriana, Miranda's sister was facing Henry Lawson until he saw a glance of Shepard and the crew, he grabbed Oriana by the neck using his arm to wrap around her throat, he pinned his gun on Shepard. "Ah... Commander Shepard, excellent timing."

Shepard slowed her walk a little, she wanted to get a good luck with Miranda. "Put the gun down," Shepard said with a sarcastic attitude, Henry smirked at her.

"No, Oriana tried to shoot me. Miranda's poisonous influence, no doubt." He kept his gun pinned on Shepard but also glanced at Miranda who was curled up on the floor.

"It's a shame she missed, where is Kai Leng?" Shepard asked as she looked around the room, she knew she didn't need to keep her sight pinned on him, since Edi and Garrus had her backed up.

Henry shook his head, "I don't know, gone. He took my research data and left us here to die." He furrowed his brows as he spoke, Shepard knew that anyone was expendable in the Illusive Man's eyes.

Shepard looked over at Miranda, her gun still on Henry, "Miranda? You alright?" She saw from the corner of her eye as Miranda tried to get herself up.

She stood up fully, swaying slightly, horror on her face as she watched her father nearly strangle her sister. Henry pinned his gun back and forth from Shepherd to Miranda. "That's close enough. Both of you!" He shot a glare at Miranda, "Kai Leng didn't finish the job, but I will.''

Shepard sighed, did Henry think he could go up against two biotics, the famous Archangel and an AI? She held back the chuckle but kept the smirk on her lips, "this ends here,"

He mirrored her smirk, "on the contrary, now that the Reaper's are taken care of, we now have a way out." There and then she wanted to put a bullet in his head, but at the risk of harming Oriana she held back from pulling the trigger.

Miranda looked at Shepard from the side, not wanting to fully turn around. "Shepard..." she said with a groan, "don't let him take her." Oriana looked at her sister, she was too scared to make any sudden movements, her father had her behind a large glass window that was close to breaking.

"Shepard...please," were the only words Oriana could muster to speak, she wanted to be held by her sister and have this horrible mess all put behind her.

Shepard gave Oriana a small nod, she wasn't about to let her be taken by the man that had no care for her, "look I don't have a problem with you, all I want is Oriana and the research data."

Henry seemed to think about her words, gripping just a bit more on his gun. "You are asking for a lot." He furrowed his eyebrows again, he didn't want any tricks to be played on him.

Shepard moved sideways, the gun following her movement, "you get your life in return. How much Is that worth?"

Henry looked at everyone around the room, he knew his odds were one to a million, he then looked at Oriana from the side of his eye, slowly moving his arm from her neck and placing it on her back. "All right, take her." He pushed her to the floor, she landed with a thud and little whimper, "but I want out alive. Deal?"

Shepard saw in the corner of her eye, Miranda had clenched her fists and her body was glowing blue with the activation of her biotics. In a split second, she held her hand back forming a throw and released it towards her father, sending him screaming towards the cracked mirror which smashed under his weight, sending him to his death below. Miranda was panting looking at the window. "...No deal."

Oriana was on her hands and knees making sure it was safe, Miranda walked closer to her, bending down as she got closer. "Are you alright? Did he hurt you?" She pulled her sister into a high, Shepard gave Garrus and Edi the go-ahead to get the communication jammer down. "It's okay now Ori, you are safe."

Oriana held her sister tight, not wanting to let go, "I'm fine... I just.. want to leave this place... forever." she said with a small whimper in her voice.

Miranda pulled back, looking into her eyes. Oriana was holding back her tears, Shepard walked a little closer to them, "we will just give me a minute, okay?" Miranda turned to face Shepard. A devious smile tugged at her lips. "Commander Shepard, fancy meeting you here."

Shepard looked at her up and down, she seemed alright, just dirty from the fight with Kai Leng. "We caught a break, you alright?" Miranda gave her a small nod.

"I'm fine, I don't know how you managed it, but I'm grateful you're here." She leaned to the side, folding her arms over her chest.

"How did you do all this?" Shepard never doubted Miranda's abilities, but this was a lot for her to take on herself, Miranda looked down at the floor, lost in thought for a second.

"Finding my father didn't take long once I confirmed he was working for Illusive Man." She looked back at the floor, scoffing, "just had to follow the lies. Once I saw what this place was..." She hesitated for a moment, "I couldn't just walk away." She stood up straight again, closing the distance between them. "Things got complicated when the Reaper arrived and Kai Leng."

"You survived, not many people could do that," Shepard said, many would have not even made it halfway to where Miranda was right now.

"When you mentioned he was involved, I took a few precautions, probably saved my life." Crossed her arms again back over her chest, Shepard shook her head in disapproval with the idea of her doing this alone and with no help.

"Miranda, this whole thing was a huge risk, you should have told me, I would have helped you." Miranda gave Shepard a small smile. Miranda could handle herself, but taking on Cerberus, Reaper's, her father and Kai Leng all at once was a suicide mission.

Miranda dropped her gaze from Shepard, looking over at Garrus and Edi, she then looked back at her sister, "you have a war to win, Shepard. This was my fight, it has been for a long time."

"You did it, it's now all over," Shepard said as Miranda unfolded her arms and walked to the side, facing the wall, then turning back around, Shepard followed her movements.

"Yes, I just wish my sister didn't have to see all this." She looked down at the floor, placing her hand on her hip. Shepard could imagine the pain she was feeling, killing her father was something that would be hard for anyone.

"About your father..." Miranda cut her off.

"I'm glad he is dead, I'm sorry if that sounds cold." Shepard didn't think she was cold in the slightest, in her shoes, Shepard would have done the same thing, she just wished Miranda came to her for help, even with a war on, she would have helped her friend.

"No, I understand." Silence fell over them for a few moments, a small smile crept on Miranda's face, the first Shepard had seen in a very long time.

"It is finally over, for both of us," Miranda said with passion in her voice. Shepard wanted to get her a hug, but Miranda wasn't one to be sentimental, she walked back over to Shepard. "We can finally stop running," she said in a quiet voice, just low enough for Shepard to hear.

"Yes, you can," Shepard replied with a smile, but the business with this place still wasn't over. She looked over at Garrus and Edi. "What's our status? Any intel we can use from this place?

Edi was typing on the console, Garrus watching from the side. "The research data is gone, but there is basic facility information, shuttle arrivals and departures, Cerberus included." Shepard walked over to her, "no direct links, but it gives us a good start."

Shepard was hoping for better news, but they got something out of this mission and most of all, they saved Gemma's mother. "Grab anything you can off the computer, we will analyze it on the ship."

"I can do better than that," Miranda said from the background. Shepard turned to face her, Miranda meeting her with a control device in her hand, "before Kai Leng took off, I planted a tracer on him. If you act fast, you'll track him right to the Illusive Man." She passed it to Shepard.

"A tracer?" She held up in front of her, the little blip jumping between relays, "sounds like you thought of everything." Shepard pulled it back down and met Miranda's gaze.

"Not quite, but well nobody's perfect," Miranda said, looking at the floor as she scratched her chest. Shepard noticed it was something she did when she was nervous, when they first met, Shepard thought she was not even human, she ran more like a robot, taking commands, but slowly, she saw humanity in Miranda and out of it she got a close friend.

"Thank you, Miranda. This is exactly what we need, hopefully, we can finally end this war." Shepard passed the tracer to Edi, she turned back to Miranda.

"I thought you could do with some good news for once," Miranda said with a small smile, Shepard chuckled in reply.

"Damn right. What is next for you two?" Miranda turned to look at Oriana, she was sitting in the chair, looking down at her hands.

"I'll get her somewhere safe, then get this scratch taken care of." Miranda touched the scratch from her eyebrow down to her cheek, the medgi-gel had cleaned most of it up, but she needed stitches.

"Alright, I need to follow all this up." Shepard walked towards the terminals to see if there was anything else that might help, Miranda followed her.

"Thank you again, Shepard, I will be in contact soon." Shepard placed her hand on Miranda's shoulder, giving her a small smile, Miranda returned the gesture. "Come on, Ori," Miranda said as she went to grab her sister, "we have had enough of father's hospitality." Shepard held back the small chuckle from Miranda's sarcasm.

"Communications scrambler disabled," the computer announced, seconds later, they could hear the voice of Miranda's messages as she warned all incoming shuttles, Shepard joined the rest of the crew.

"Come on, we need to grab Daniel's body and get Kaidan and Lynn." She turned towards Garrus, "could you go on ahead and meet them, I want off this planet."

"Sure thing, Shepard." He started to walk out the way they came in, holding his gun close, no more Reaper's had arrived, they could have left when the communications dropped and they knew this place was now abandoned, he placed his talons to his ear. "Kaidan?"

---

Kaidan and Lynn had been talking for a while, no Reaper's had shown up at the door. Kaidan heard the static through his earpiece. "Kaidan?"

Kaidan stood up, Lynn watched him. "Garrus? How is everything going?" Kaidan was getting worried after waiting for so long, he wanted to go after them, but he knew he couldn't leave Lynn behind.

"We are all done, Henry's Lawson is dead, we were able to save Miranda and her sister, but Kai Leng got away with the research data. I'm coming to get you and Lynn." Kaidan was about to reply, but Garrus interrupted him. "What a minute..."

He turned to Lynn, she was still watching him, "everything will be okay now, we are going back to the Normandy, you'll be seeing Gemma very soon." A huge smile crossed her face.

Static came back through the comms followed by Garrus's voice. "So that was Shepard, she asked if you could sort out getting back in contact with the Normandy. Edi has set up the link, but it will take a couple of minutes for it to come through on Joker's end. Tell them to drop the shuttle in fifteen minutes. I'll be there to meet you at ten." His comm was cut off, with Garrus closing the channel.

Kaidan opened his omni-tool to get a comm like with the Normandy. "Major Alenko to Normandy, is anyone getting this?" There were a few brief moments of static until the link picked up with Joker on the other end.

"Hey, how are you doing down there?" Kaidan held his breath, ready to tell him everything about what had happened in this hell of a mission.

---

Joker slumped back in his seat, Thane was still sitting next to him, the voice of Kaidan didn't reach past the cockpit. Thane instantly stood when he heard about Gemma's mum being alive. Joker looked at him, confusion danced in his eyes, Thane mouthed to him. "Getting Gemma," Joker gave him a quick nod and Thane turned on his heel and went towards the lift.

Gemma sat on the end of the bed, her feet dangling off the end as she held her face in her hands. Thane came to the door, knocking very lightly. Gemma looked up at the door, wiping her tears away, "come in."

Thane walked through the door, he looked around the room until his gaze dropped to Gemma, she tried to hide the tears, but he could tell from the bloodshot eyes and tear stains on her cheeks. "Are you okay, Siha?" Gemma patted the bed for him to sit next to her.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I just wish I could be there. I want to know if I should mourn them or if they are alive." She looked back down at her hands, they were shaking, she just wanted to blow herself through Normandy's doors and get down to Sanctuary, but that wouldn't help anyone and she would probably just get herself killed.

"We have just heard from the Major." Gemma looked up to meet his eyes, he had a small smile on his lips. Gemma didn't know if she wanted to know what they found down there, they might have not found anything, meaning she is back to stage one. Thane took Gemma's silence as she didn't want to know, he respected her wishes and stood up. "If you wish to know later, please join us in the cargo bay in half an hour." He started to make his way to the door, but Gemma grabbed his wrist.

"Wait..." He turned around, Gemma wouldn't meet his gaze. "I want to know." He sat back down on the bed and prepared to tell her everything Kaidan had told him.

---

The shuttle was lining up to meet the Normandy, Cortez didn't dare to talk as the shuttle was full of the cries and screams of Lynn as she dropped next to her husband, who was wrapped in the body bag. Shepard sat next to her, rubbing her back in comfort, Garrus and Kaidan stood to the side looking down at the floor, even they mourned for Gemma and her mother.

Edi sat down, she had a question on this human behaviour, but she knew silence was to be respected for someone mourning a loved one.

"I can't believe he is gone," Lynn cried out, she wanted to open the body bag, but she knew if she opened the bag, the sight would eat her alive, Shepard continued to rub her back.

"I am so sorry for your loss, Lynn. I'm not sure if Gemma knows right now, but we are her family and so that means you are also part of our family, we will always be here to protect you and Gemma." Lynn looked at Shepard, no words needed to be spoken. Lynn fell into Shepard's arms. Shepard accepted her into her arms, holding her tight and stroking her hair.

Garrus leaned into Kaidan, "does Gemma know?" he spoke low enough so it didn't get past Kaidan's ears, Kaidan looked down at Lynn then at Garrus.

He slowly nodded his head, "Joker told me Thane was with him when I told him everything, he said the moment I told them about her parents, Thane got up and left to tell her, as she went to the room an hour or so before." Garrus nodded in understanding, it must have been hard for her to be miles above the planet waiting on some sort of news.

"I can understand that, I was worried day and night until I found out about my dad and sister." Kaidan looked at him, waiting for him to finish, "they are safe now, my sister broke her leg, but she is alive."

Kaidan patted him on the shoulder, "I understand that. I was the same with my parents, luckily my mum is safe, but.." Kaidan hesitated for a moment. "My dad... gone, declared killed in action, but my mother is still here and I will protect her the best I can." Kaidan looked back at Lynn and Shepard. Lynn had stopped crying and seemed to just enjoy the moment of Shepard showing her love she probably hasn't had for quite a while.

"I'm sorry, Kaidan, losing a parent is one of the worst feelings." They both looked at each other again, Garrus loosened his mandible into a smile Kaidan would recognize, Kaidan returned the smile. Cortez cleared his throat loud enough to get everyone's attention.

"We are docking now." Everyone started to get up and collect their guns. All Kaidan wanted to do was to hold Gemma, but he knew she would want her mum right now. Shepard stood up and grabbed Lynn's hand to pull her up, Chakwas was already waiting with a million tests to run on Lynn to make sure nothing long-term had happened to her.

The shuttle set itself down slowly and Vega had the clamps lined up to clamp down on the sides of the shuttle, Shepard placed her hand over the shuttle's door button, she looked back over at Lynn, "you ready?"

Lynn looked back down once more at her husband's body bag, then trying to place a small smile on her lips, she stood up a bit straighter, "ready."

Shepard opened the doors, most of the crew were in the cargo bay, but standing at a distance giving Gemma and Chakwas space to meet them off the shuttle. Shepard walked off first, placing her hand out for Lynn to take.

Gemma watched as her mum slowly stepped off the shuttle. She was about thirty steps away from holding her. Kaidan and Garrus stood behind them, patiently waiting to get off. Lynn's eyes landed on Gemma's, they couldn't wait any longer, Lynn was tired, but nothing was going to stop her from getting to hold her daughter, Lynn walked as fast as her legs would take her towards Gemma.

Gemma did the same, dropping her crutches, she took off running and in four big strides, she was holding her mum in her arms, both crying. Chakwas tried to grab Gemma when she ran, but everyone noticed the statis bubble, Gemma had placed it around her leg for her to be able to move it, she was able to run with her leg stretched straight, Kaidan walked around them to get Gemma's crutches.

"Oh, my baby," Lynn whispered to Gemma, "you don't know how much I have missed you." Gemma placed her face into the cruck of Lynn's neck, holding her mum just that bit tighter.

Gemma noticed how much easier she could get her arms around her mum's waist, she had lost so much weight, but she was alive. "I've missed you so much, mum." Lynn pulled back from her, wanting to see Gemma's face.

"You look so different." Lynn only just noticed the glowing blue light from the bottom left side of her vision, she pointed at Gemma's leg, "is that your biotics?" Gemma gave her a small nod, waiting for the judgment to come with it, but Lynn smiled even more. "My god, you are so strong, I'm so proud of you." Gemma smiled with the tears rolling down her cheeks, she looked past Lynn just for a moment and noticed the body bag on the floor of the shuttle.

"Is that... is that dad?"

Sorry to end it here guys. But I'm 15 thousand words in and I'll just end up not stopping at this point. I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has come on Gemma's journey. We are close to finishing the first book. Kudos and comments are always welcome. Thanks again, guys :)