Disclosure 15

Shepard had forwarded orders to Kelly, directing her to split the crew up and arrange their accommodations. When he came back up the elevator, he was confronted by the business end of Grunt's enormous claymore shotgun.

"Hello Shepard." The Krogan grinned, lowering the weapon.

"Security?" John asked.

"Garrus suggested it." Grunt replied. "This elevator is the only way up. He also closed all the blast shields on the windows. This floor is a fortress!"

Shepard made a private note to thank the Turian. He tapped the Krogan on the shoulder and said, "Carry on, Grunt."

When he arrived back at his suite, only Tali, Garrus, Ashley, and Oriana were still there. Miranda's sister was at the bed, staring hollowly into space. Garrus had settled himself down into one of the more comfortable chairs, and looked to be dozing off. Ashley was with Tali, sifting through Miranda's enormous database.

John walked over and took a seat on the bed beside Miranda's feet. He suddenly remembered that he was still dressed in full combat gear. He began to loosen the necessary straps and buckles, all the while watching Oriana's blank features. The girl had calmed down somewhat, and had the expression of one who has passed through the mountains of anger, grief, and confusion, and is now laying in the peaceful valleys on the other side.

"You know," she said as he carefully removed his breastplate, "I always thought it would be cool to know what she did for a living…"

"What she does." John replied. "She'll be alright." He gazed down affectionately at Miranda's sleeping face. "She'll be fine." He watched Oriana carefully, "But I know that she wouldn't have wanted all this to simply be piled on you the way it has. It was unfair, and I'm sorry for that. You deserved better."

Oriana snorted and looked up at him. "I somehow get the feeling I've only scratched the surface."

John nodded. "You're right."

The girl looked over at Garrus. "He said my parents were probably already dead. Ashley wouldn't let me check."

"Garrus thinks in worst case scenarios," John began.

"Why do you keep him around?"

John grinned at the dozing Turian. "He's my closest friend, my best squad mate, and quite frankly, somebody has to imagine the worst, and I can't afford to be pessimistic in front of my crew. He's also the best damned shot in the galaxy. Unfortunately he's right more often than he's wrong. But I think he's wrong here." John tried to pump as much honesty as he could into the statement. Oriana seemed to lighten slightly in response. "Your parents are probably alive, if only because Cerberus wants to find a way to use their relationship with you against Miri and I. The same goes for Danner and everyone else you're close to."

The young woman perked up slightly. It hadn't cheered her up, but at least she had something to cling to.

"That being said," John added, "Sending a message to any of them could cause Cerberus to go after them."

"So what am I supposed to do? Just give up on my entire life? Cut contact with everyone?"

"You should wait." Said John simply. "I'm sorry I don't have any better options for you, but at the moment I've got my own problems, and as narcissistic as this is going to sound, they are much worse than yours."

"The Reaper things?" the woman asked. "What are they?"

"You've had more than enough nightmares for one day." John said firmly. "When Miri wakes up, you can ask her about contacting your parents and at least letting them know you're alive and safe. She knows Cerberus a lot better than I do. She'll know how to work around them."

"The soldiers said she worked for them…"

"She did."

"She was a terrorist?" Oriana's gaze fell upon Miranda.

Shepard noted the anger and sudden uncertainty in her tone, and shook his head. "No. Cerberus aren't- Weren't terrorists." he corrected himself. "That's alliance propaganda."

"You were working for them too, though."

"And for the alliance for a good ten years before that." Shepard reminded her. "Believe me, I used to feel the same way. I still wouldn't trust them, and I can't say much for some of their methods, but they certainly aren't there to stir up trouble for humanity. Not the way Terra Firma is."

"What did they do that changed your mind?" Oriana asked.

Shepard watched her for a moment, shrugging off his shoulder-guards and laying them gently beside the breastplate. He was trying to think of a way to justify Cerberus' actions to her without exposing her to the horror of the Reapers. Then he said, "Do you remember when the Alliance reported my death?"

"Yes."

"They reported the absolute truth." John winced as the distant memories flashed by. His mind pushed back the most painful of them, and replaced them with happier moments, like his experience in the engine room with Miranda. He glanced down at her and smiled slightly. "They were reporting the absolute truth. I was dead. Dead as dead can be."

Oriana stared.

"I know it sounds crazy." Shepard said patiently. He tapped Miranda's foot. "But Cerberus paid billions of credits and devoted two years to bringing me back. Your sister was placed in charge of the entire project to bring me back so I could keep on doing what I was doing before I died; fighting people like Saren and the Geth and any other threats out there."

"The Reapers, you mean." Oriana said, not quite willing to let things go. "Tell me about them."

"I'd rather not." He replied honestly.

Oriana exploded, her face contorted in anger, her hands waving erratically. "I just saw my classmates die! And now I can't talk to my parents! There's terrorists after me because of what you did! Because of things that have nothing to do with me at all! I want to know why this is happening to me! What's so fucking important about the Reapers!" she took a breath, and seemed to shrink slightly, though she was still defiant. "I deserve an explanation at least!"

"The Reapers are a race of sentient synthetics responsible for the downfall of the Protheans." Both John and Oriana looked to the side. Garrus was perched on the back of his chair, his grey eyes boring into Oriana. He continued, "There are millions of them waiting in dark space. Every fifty-thousand years, they all come out to cull and harvest their organic herds. They wiped out the Prothean civilization, and they are going to wipe out ours too, unless someone does something about it. They created this Citadel. They created the Mass Relays. And for all these thousands of years, our Galactic Civilization has been using those same tools to set ourselves up for them."

Oriana's gaze oscillated between the two of them, looking for the joke. The punchline. When it became apparent that both were dead serious, she sat back heavily, collapsing onto the floor beside the bed, her back against the alcove wall. "How long have they been there?"

"We don't know." Shepard told her.

"How many are there?"

"We don't know."

"Why do they do this?"

"We don't know."

"How many times have they done this?"

"Does it matter?" Garrus asked. "We stopped them once during the battle of the citadel."

"Saren was working for them." John elaborated. "The Citadel is actually a giant mass Relay, once designed to let the entire reaper horde through. We shut it down. Just barely."

"But that got their attention." Garrus continued. "Now they are all coming back the long way. Slowly but surely, and when they get here, they are going to wipe us all out. Human, Asari, Turian, Krogan, Salarian, Quarian, Geth... It doesn't matter, the entire galaxy will be at war. The entire Galaxy will lose."

"Well… what is the council doing about it?" she demanded.

"Nothing." John said, feeling his heart drop lower. "Neither is the Alliance. The fact is that only one group in the entire galaxy was willing to step up and even admit that the threat exists."

"Cerberus…"

"Exactly." John nodded. "That's why they weren't terrorists. But now the Reapers have got to their leader, and I don't know how far down the ranks the corruption goes, but we can't rely on them anymore. The Council has done their best to convince the entire galaxy that I'm crazy. I have no allies anymore, Oriana." He told her simply. "Except for Miranda, Garrus, and everyone else in this room. As of now, you're the only civilian I've managed to convince. I'm actually surprised you even believe me."

"I don't want to." The girl said hollowly. Her head was hanging between her knees, her arms forming a protective cocoon while she tried to absorb the news. Garrus and John exchanged glances. The Turian said, "Sorry about what I said about your parents, by the way."

The girl started to laugh. It was a forlorn, hollow sound, intermingled with sobs.

John reached out unconsciously and slid his hand into Miranda's, hoping her grip would tighten. It didn't, but the woman seemed more serene than she had when he'd first brought her in. A small amount of color had returned to her cheeks, and her eyes weren't moving quite so wildly underneath her eyelids, making her appear to be in a deep, blissful sleep. She was improving, though he wasn't quite sure whether or not he could define exactly how.

"John…" another soft voice slipped past Oriana's sobs. Shepard twisted in his seat. Ashley was standing at the edge of the alcove. Her expression told him everything: I heard it all. She said, "We should talk."

He nodded, letting go of Miranda's hand.

She lead him quietly over to the bar, and stood behind it, leaning on the shelves. John took a seat on one of the stools and waited patiently for her to collect her thoughts. When she did speak, it was an abrupt statement, blurted out as if she were unsure what the consequences would be. "I'm sorry about what happened to Miranda."

"Thank you."

They fell into an awkward silence. John couldn't remember when it had last felt that awkward around the chief. Spectre, now, he reminded himself. Ashley had always been so easy to talk to. She was a strong, grounded woman with a sense of right and wrong and a willingness to stick to both her guns, and her opinions. During their hectic pursuit of Saren, she had been a port in the storm. A place he could pause, joke, relax, and collect himself. He had fallen in love with her. It wasn't complicated. Like everything involving Ashley, it was straight-forward and tackled head-on. Their relationship had been against regulations, but that was also an acknowledged fact. Nothing was hidden. Everything was simple.

And now all of that seemed…boring. Unfortunately, John himself had changed drastically in the past months. The two years on her part had changed her as well, but he had grown used to complicated. He had grown used to secrets and distrust. Miranda had been, still was, and would always be, a challenge. She was intriguing. A continuous puzzle to be unlocked and explored. John had found that he immensely enjoyed skirting the edges, pushing the boundaries. Especially in the beginning, when he wasn't even sure she wasn't playing him on behalf of Cerberus. She had possessed an edge he had never encountered before, and it had drawn him in and trapped him. He had gotten lost in her beauty and mystique, and after wading blindly and happily through it, he had finally found the woman underneath. He loved Miranda Lawson. He knew that for a fact as well.

Ashley seemed to be thinking along the same lines. "John, about us…"

"I'm done with you." He told her immediately. There was nothing angry in his tone. Nothing berating. No gloating at all. Just a simple statement of fact.

"I figured." She replied.

"But I'm not too keen on being enemies either."

"Friends, then?" she asked.

"Friends." He agreed.

They both felt it, the dam breaking. Suddenly things were back to normal, somehow. Different, but the tension was gone. The anger was gone. Just relief remained, and a feeling of clear air.

"I gotta say, she's a much better fit." Ash smiled slightly. "For the Human Ideal."

"Oh, Christ…" John muttered, smacking his forehead with his palm.

Ash grinned, having found a crack in his armour. "From what Jacob said, she was after the title herself."

"Yeah well, she took second place." He poured them both a strong drink. "It was a source of serious tension for a while."

"Okay, I gotta ask." Ashley reached around the short bar and pulled up a stool herself. Her voice was playful, reminiscent of the old banter. "Was it the looks?"

"How do you expect me to answer that?" John demanded, sinking back into his SR-1 self for a moment.

"Honestly."

"Fine! Yes, the looks played a part." John admitted.

"Ha! Shallow as ever!" Ash grinned triumphantly, downing her shot glass in one gulp.

"It was the attitude as well." John added, feeling obliged to defend himself. "Everyone was going 'Ohh, Commander Shepard, you're our only hope!' and Miranda was the only one to treat me like a second class citizen."

They fell into another silence, this one much more comfortable. After a few moments, Ashley chuckled. She nodded at the alcove. "You know, that was the first time I actually got to hear your side of the story. And you weren't even telling it to me. It kinda makes what I said on Horizon sound bitchy."

John chuckled. "You did sound like a bitch. You know, it had been two years for you. Only a month or two for me. It made the traitor moment hit me all the harder…"

"Sorry about that."

John shrugged. "I got over it."

Ashley nodded at Oriana. "She reminds me a lot of Sarah."

John glanced at the girl, then back at the Spectre. "Yeah?"

"Shepard!" Tali said loudly. The young Quarian woman had been diligently sifting through the copious amounts of data, and she appeared to have reached her goal. "Shepard I found it! The Bosh'tets have a warehouse in Zakera ward!"

"Which warehouse?" Garrus demanded sharply, striding across the wide expanse of carpet to look at Tali's console.

"Nowhere near Fade…" He observed, loud enough for the others to hear him. "It's near the opposite end of the ward. About as far from the Hub as we can get. C-sec doesn't' bother much with the ends of the ward-arms."

John rose and gave Tali an appreciative pat on the shoulder. "I knew you wouldn't let us down, Tali. Thank you."

"You're welcome." The woman said dryly. "Can I go talk to Chakwas, now? I only have a broken rib, after all."

John sheepishly removed his hand. "Right… sorry."

"Never mind." Tali rose and limped for the door. "Just make sure you blow them up when you get there. I spent too much time working on that ship not to see them pay…" She reverted to her native tongue, uttering a series of uncouth syllables which made Shepard glad he didn't speak Quarian.

Alright, so that was a quick update. I wanted to cover just a little more characterization before I got back to the action. I wanted to capture the difference between the Ashley and Miranda romance options, and why Shepard would go more for Miranda. I don't know how many people romanced both, but I know why I did. I'm not sure if I nailed it, but I got pretty close.

I wanted to pay just a little more respect to Tali. I know she hasn't gotten much facetime in this story, but she still played a vital role, which is more than can be said of Jack.

Also, Oriana's revelations were fun to write, but nothing we haven't seen before. I know it's boring, but it had to go in. Next chapter should be prep and maybe the first part of the battle.

Stick with it. Things are about to get more interesting.