Chapter 6

Shepard jumped through the vent in the elevator, followed closely by Kaidan, and then Garrus.

While the Normandy returned to the Citadel after curing the Genophage, Cerberus launched an attack. Hearing from Councilor Valern that Udina was in league with Cerberus sent Shepard's team tearing through the Citadel, trying to catch up with him and the other two councilors.

Careful maneuvering on Udina's part had resulted in the deaths of the Council's guards. With no one to protect them, Sparatus fell back on the military training received by all able-bodied turians while Tevos supported him with her biotics. Shepard had no doubt that he and his squad could kill all three councilors with little difficulty if it came to a fight, but to prevent a diplomatic nightmare, they had to convince Tevos and Sparatus of the truth.

They could hear Sparatus shouting as they left the elevator. "We can't get out from this platform! Everyone back in the elevator!" Sparatus froze when he saw Shepard's squad.

"Councilors," Shepard began as Garrus locked the door.

"They're with Cerberus!" Udina declared.

"Councilors, we can…" Kaidan tried, raising a hand to placate them.

"Nobody move!" Sparatus ordered.

Udina seized the opportunity. "We should have known. Cerberus wouldn't have just let Shepard turn himself in. He must have been a sleeper agent this whole time."

"No! That's not…" Shepard tried.

"Our guards getting killed, getting cornered here: Shepard must have been planning this the whole time!" Udina continued.

"That's not true!" Shepard snapped. "You've been fooled, all of you! Udina's behind the attack. Councilor Valern confirmed it."

"Please," Udina scoffed. "You have no proof. You never do."

"Are you sure about that, 'Councilor'?" Kaidan asked, activating his omni-tool and quickly tapping the keys.

Councilor Valern's voice sounded over the platform. "Shepard, it's Udina: he's going to kill us all."

"T-They must have fabricated that," Udina declared, shocked.

"The hell we did!" Shepard barked. "We recorded that when we saved Valern from Cerberus assassins!"

"Before killing him yourselves, no doubt!" Udina argued back.

"Enough!" Sparatus shouted, waving his gun at Shepard's squad. "You can't expect to trust you when you burst through a door, pointing your guns at us during the middle of an attack orchestrated by a group Shepard acknowledges working with in the past."

"But you suddenly trust Udina?" Shepard asked. "Wasn't he the one who talked you into locking down the Normandy so we couldn't get to Ilos and stop Saren?"

"And wasn't Udina the most adamant about Shepard's relationship with Cerberus when he was asking for help against the Collectors?" Kaidan added.

"They're right," Tevos said before Udina could retort. "We've distrusted Shepard before, and it has not helped us."

"I-I'm not…" Sparatus faltered.

"Councilors," Kaidan said, "you made us Spectres because you trusted us to keep the galaxy's best interests at heart, and that's exactly what we've been doing all this time, even when you wouldn't admit it. And now everything that we've warned you about has happened, so trust us now. Trust that you made the right decision when you gave us this responsibility."

"We don't have time to argue," Udina huffed as he stormed over to the shuttle console.

Sparatus just held his position for a moment before closing his eyes and lowering his weapon. "Udina," he said, turning to his fellow councilor, "step away from the console."

Tevos wordlessly moved to enforce Sparatus's command.

"To Hell with this!" Udina declared, shoving Tevos to the ground and pulling out a pistol.

"He's got a gun!" Garrus shouted.

Before Udina had time to raise his weapon, four gunshots rang out over the platform and Udina silently collapsed. Sparatus and Shepard's squad lowered their weapons, all of them trying to process what they had just done. Before they had a chance, they heard the distinctive sound of a blowtorch applied to a door.

They all spun around, Tevos activating her biotics while everyone else raised their guns. Shepard wanted to laugh when the door opened to reveal Bailey and a C-Sec technician.

Bailey bluntly told the Council that Shepard had saved them all. Everyone was shocked when Sparatus offered a sincere thank you. When Shepard angrily remarked on what it took to finally get them on board, Tevos could only say that they were unsure. The Council wisely chose not to remark on Kaidan's disgusted grunt.

As everyone filed into the elevator, Shepard stopped for moment to consider Udina's corpse. Whatever he personally felt about Udina, it still didn't sit right that he had killed a member of the Council. A hand on his shoulder caught his attention. For the moment, the sight of Kaidan's reassuring smile was enough, and the two followed everyone else.

It was hours before Shepard finally returned to the Normandy. As he entered the airlock, Shepard found Kaidan in the process of closing his omni-tool. It was very obvious that Kaidan was upset about something, especially since he started when Shepard got his attention.

"Kaidan, are you okay?"

"Yeah," Kaidan said unconvincingly. "Just… trying to wrap my head around what we did."

"Yeah. I'm still not sure we did the right thing," Shepard admitted.

"Neither of us liked Udina. At all. But… I always thought he really was trying to look out for humanity when he wasn't climbing the ladder, even if he was an idiot about it. Did you ever imagine he could do something like this?"

"No. After he kept harping about me working with Cerberus… but we all had to make a judgment call, and he wasn't backing down."

"I guess you're right," Kaidan said.

"That's not all it was though," Shepard pressed. "And don't try to tell me it is. We've worked too closely for too long."

Kaidan sighed. "Okay, there is more, but I'd rather not talk about it here. Besides, Anderson and Hackett will want to talk to you about this."

"Yeah, but I will be checking on you later, Kaidan," Shepard said, leaving no room for argument.

The two entered the Normandy without another word.

Shepard found Kaidan in the starboard lounge like he usually did. Kaidan was leaning against the window, just watching the stars.

"It looks so peaceful from here," Kaidan said before Shepard could speak. "You wouldn't think that the Reapers are slaughtering so many people. I want to be out there with them, but I also want to be here, you know?"

"I know. Thinking of anyone in particular?"

Kaidan sighed heavily. "I heard from my mom. She managed to get to a communicator while we were fighting Cerberus. She's safe for now, but Dad's… he's MIA. He's presumed…" Kaidan couldn't bring himself to finish his sentence.

Shepard put a hand on Kaidan's shoulder, getting the other man to face him. "What happened? You said they got out of Vancouver?"

"They did. But Dad was in the Alliance. As soon as he was sure Mom was relatively safe, he reported for active duty."

Shepard grimaced. Of course. The resistance needed everybody it could get.

"Mom's alone out there now," Kaidan continued, keeping his voice monotone to prevent a breakdown, "in all this."

"I'm glad you told me," Shepard said sincerely. "You don't have to go through this alone. There's more to it though, isn't there?"

Kaidan sat down heavily on one of the lounge's seats. Shepard followed suit.

"I didn't leave things on the best terms with my parents," Kaidan admitted. "That's actually why they were heading to the orchard that day. Dad and I had gotten into a huge fight."

"I was under the impression that you two were pretty close. What happened?"

"We were, but Dad is an Alliance hardliner. If they said something, he didn't question it, and I don't have to tell you what they were saying about the Reapers."

Shepard sighed deeply. "And he didn't believe you when you tried to tell people the truth."

Kaidan laughed bitterly. "I even told him about our talk with Sovereign itself. He was convinced that it must have been some sort of VI interface, because why would the Alliance lie to us? It built up for more than two years, and then…"

"It exploded," Shepard finished for him.

"Big time. It was the day before the attack. After the mess with the alpha relay, I knew the clock was ticking, so I stepped up on trying to get the Alliance and the Council to acknowledge the threat. Dad said something about you being crazy, I took exception, and everything went downhill from there. We started screaming at each other, he called me delusional and accused me of trying to create a panic because I couldn't stand that you weren't being propped up on a pedestal anymore. I called him a tool, an idiot, and a stooge. We were about ready to punch each other, but he stormed out first. That was," Kaidan's voice broke, "the last time I talked to him."

Shepard didn't know what to say. All he could think to do was wrap an arm around Kaidan's shoulders.

"You know," Kaidan continued, "I probably wouldn't have recovered from Brain Camp if it hadn't been for him. Mom was great, too, don't get me wrong, but the most violent thing she's ever done is swat a fly; killing someone by accident wasn't exactly something she was equipped for. He got me through that, and then the last thing I said to him was…" Kaidan couldn't bring himself to finish that sentence. "Even knowing that he must have realized I was right after all…"

"Being right about the Reapers has always felt empty," Shepard said sadly.

"Yeah. Is it wrong that… part of me wants to hear that he's dead, just so I don't have to wonder if he was indoctrinated, or turned into a husk, or whatever else the Reapers felt like doing to him?" Kaidan asked.

"There was a time when I would have said yes, but that was before I even heard about the Reapers, much less what they can do. Kaidan, you can't give up hope. As long as you don't get confirmation that he's dead, there's always a chance, no matter how small," Shepard insisted.

"I want to believe that," Kaidan said sadly. "You know, my mom's always wanted to go off-world. Maybe when this is all over, I can take her."

"Sounds good," Shepard said. "If we pull this off, there's going to be a hell of a reunion all over."

"Hugging in the streets, screaming and crying," Kaidan added, sounding a bit more cheerful.

"Something to look forward to," Shepard agreed.

Kaidan nodded. "Shepard, thanks," he said, squeezing Shepard's hand.

"Always."

This is as good a place as any to end; there wouldn't be any appreciable changes to canon after this point.

I would like to thank everyone who took the time to read this. It's much more than I expected for the first thing I ever wrote on my own initiative.