Chapter Text
The anniversary of the Normandy's destruction finally arrived.
Emry didn't like this time of the year, she hated it on Earth and she hated it now.
Before it was because it was too hot outside, now it's because of the loss of her friend. It was hard thinking about the Normandy and yet the reminders were everywhere.
She had to take an unexpected trip to the Citadel for some more food and most of the Holoboards were talking about it. It was exhausting.
While Kal was talking to a merchant about a gun mod Emry wandered off a bit and was approached by someone she didn't recognize.
"Emry Winchester?"
She stiffened and turned to look at him. He was tall, with dark skin and dark hair. He was definitely military at one point with how he stood.
The Cerberus logo proudly displayed on his chest made her blood boil.
She raised an eyebrow- as pissed as she was she was also curious, was he stupid?
"Depends on who's asking, Cerberus. You're taking quite the personal risk talking to me. But I guess in public and while I'm away from Kal is about the smartest way to go."
He smiled and she had to resist the urge to punch him. Her hand twitched at her side as he spoke.
"My name is Jacob, I know you don't like Cerberus and I apologize for what happened on the Flotilla. I wasn't a part of that cell, I can't speak for what they did or why, but that's not why I'm here. The Illusive Man has a proposal for you."
Her laugh was full of venom and she was losing patience, fast.
She saw the man glance behind her and shift his stance, she stepped a bit closer and poked him in the chest as she spoke.
"I don't want anything Cerberus is offering. You can shove whatever 'proposal' he's got back up his ass for him. The only way Cerberus will ever have my respect is if they blow themselves up. So unless you're offering me your organizations head on a plate, go to hell."
She heard Kal's footsteps approaching and Jacob seemed more uncomfortable by the second.
"I understand. I promise you're going to want to meet him though. Just, think about it."
He pressed a couple buttons on his Omni-tool and left, hers went off as Kal came up next to her and put his hand on her back.
"What was that about? Is everything okay?"
She sighed, rubbing her forehead.
"Cerberus. He was Cerberus."
Kal bristled and she turned to him. "Yeah, I know. I want to kill him but we really should just get out of here."
He nodded while still looking in the direction the man went.
"Yeah, okay."
They left the Citadel that evening and Emry deleted the message without even reading it.
Two weeks after their Citadel run Emry was called to speak to the Admiralty.
Tali was going on a job to a Human colony to pick up a Quarian on Pilgrimage who had gone quiet after the colony went offline and she wanted Emry to come along to help with any human survivors.
She happily accepted.
They were leaving ASAP so Emry went to her apartment to pack, shooting off a message to Kal on the way to let him know. He meet her at her place.
It didn't take him long to show up.
"Hey, what do you mean you're going on a job? What kind of job?"
She smiled as she continued to pack, she was excited to pick up a gun again.
She had been using her targeting drones in her ship and working out to keep in shape, but it wasn't the same.
"Going to pick up a Quarian on Pilgrimage in a human colony that went dark. Tali requested I come to help if there's any Human survivors, it is a Human colony after all."
He sighed, he was worried and she knew it.
"Em, just be careful please and keep in contact? I know you can handle yourself but I don't like this."
She walked over to him and put her hands on his chest as she stepped in close, he wrapped his arms around her and they tapped their helmets together. She smiled.
"I'll be careful, I promise."
He sighed.
"I love you.. now I know how you feel."
Emry went back to packing as they talked and eventually Kal had to go and she headed to the docks to help the others on their team finish loading everything.
When they had the ship ready to go Emry was double checking her supplies when she heard someone approach her.
“Ready to go?”
She smiled and nodded as she marked off the last thing on her Omni-tool.
“Yeah, all good.”
She stood up and turned to see Kal standing by Tali in full armor with his weapons. She cocked her head to the side.
“Kal? Are you coming?”
He nodded.
“I am. I requested to go and the Admiralty was happy to send me.”
She hummed happily.
“Well, I'll do my best to remain professional.”
Tali rolled her eyes.
“Alright lovebirds, we're heading off. Come on.”
There was twelve people in their little group counting Emry. Ves'Prazza was usually the squad leader and half of their team was his men, but this mission Tali was in charge.
The trip was tense, they were worried Veetor, the Quarian they were going to get, would be dead.
That was the logical explanation considering everything, but some small bit of hope held on.
They got to the colony and when they found the Quarian, he panicked and ran.
As they started making their way through the buildings to find where he had gone they had to destroy mechs that shouldn't have been aggressive towards them.
They got a notification over comms that another shuttle landed and to be careful because it was marked Cerberus. Emry tensed at the thought and they continued on.
Eventually they made it to a room where they could pause and were trying to make a plan.
They needed to be careful so they didn't freak Veetor out too bad.
The team was discussing options when the door opened and three Humans came in. Two were Cerberus- one of them was the man Emry had met on the Citadel named Jacob, and the other she didn't recognize.
But the one who seemed to be in charge.. looked like Shepard.
The N7 armor, the way she carried herself, the way she was built.. Prazza rushed forward with his gun drawn as the others drew their weapons too.
Emry and Kal stood back and waited as Tali pushed through the group of Quarians.
"Prazza! You said you'd let me handle this!"
Tali and Emry stared at the woman in the N7 armor in front of them as she pulled off her helmet, Emry gasped quietly as green eyes met Talis, red hair framing a determined face with her scar replaced with thin lines on her skin.
It was Shepard, or a damn good replacement.
Tali stepped further forward.
"Wait.. Shepard?"
Prazza pushed forward more with his gun still drawn and Kal joined him as he spoke.
"I'm not taking any chances with Cerberus operatives!"
Tali pushed back, she was getting angry now.
"Put those weapons down!"
She turned back to Shepard and Emry put her hand on Prazza's arm. She didn't look away from Shepard as he begrudgingly lowered his gun.
Tali sounded awed.
"Shepard? Is that.. you're alive?"
The Commander smiled.
"Yeah, it's me. Cerberus rebuilt me, and in return they asked me to investigate the colony attacks."
Prazza stepped a bit closer, Emry kept her hand on him, he didn't attempt to push past Tali again as he pointed his gun towards Shepard.
"You'll pardon us for not taking you at your word, Cerberus!" A woman behind Shepard crossed her arms and cocked her hip. She looked bored.
"We're well within our rights to investigate attacks on human colonies. What are Quarians doing here?"
I want to shoot her.
Emry didn't really know what to do, what to say. She was stood there by Prazza, hoping she didn't have to physically stop him from harming Shepard.
She spoke as he started to step forward again and she tightened her grip on his arm.
"How do we know you are who you say you are?"
Shepard turned towards Emry while clearly thinking.
"On the Normandy you used to stalk around the ventilation and freak out the crew. You liked to go in the escape pods and turn off the gravity for naps."
She turned to Tali. "You had trouble sleeping because the ship was so quiet so we had to get you a white noise machine
Also every time we all watched F&F you and Emry would fall asleep in a pile of limbs on my couch."
Tali turned to Prazza.
"This is definitely Shepard, Prazza. Put the gun down."
He grumbled but gave in. Kal walked him off to the side while Tali turned back to Shepard.
"Maybe we can work together. We're here trying to find a young Quarian who came here on Pilgrimage, his name is Veetor."
Shepard looked a bit confused.
"Why would a Quarian choose a remote Human colony for his Pilgrimage?"
Tali smiled a bit.
"Veetor liked the idea of helping a small settlement. He was always.. nervous in crowds"
Prazza stepped back up a bit, sassy as always.
"She means he's unstable."
Kal waved him off and spoke.
"He's not unstable. He's.. different. Pair that with damaged CO2 scrubbers and an infection from open air exposure and he's probably delirious."
Tali nodded as she joined in.
"When he saw us landing he hid in a warehouse nearby. We think he programmed the mechs to attack on sight."
Shepard nodded and Emry knew she was making a plan.
"He's likely the only one who can tell us what happened here. We should work together."
Tali nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, you'll need two teams to get past the drones anyway."
Prazza pushed past Kal and up by Emry and Tali again, Emry put her hand on his shoulder, keeping him in line. He didn't push, but he was pissed.
"Now we're working for Cerberus!?”
Tali turned to him with annoyance clear in her voice.
"No, Prazza. You're working for me. If you can't follow orders, go wait on the ship."
He huffed as he threw his hands in the air and stomped off. Tali turned back to Shepard.
"Head to the warehouse. It's on the far side of the colony, not too far from here. We'll head around the other way to try to draw some of the drones off you."
Shepard hummed in agreement.
"Sounds like a plan."
She thought for a moment. "Your people really don't like Cerberus, what did I miss?"
Kal spoke up with his arms crossed, stepping up near Emry.
"They killed our people, tried to blow up a liveship."
Emry knew Prazza had been on the ship when it happened, he barely made it out. They had talked a bit about it on the way.
He was standing by the wall looking like it was taking everything he had to not shoot the humans.
Emry put her hand on Kal's arm as she turned to Shepard.
"It was.. bad, Shepard. Hundreds dead. They didn't care if they were adults or children either, they wanted someone on board and it got really bad really fast."
Shepard looked horrified. The woman behind her rolled her eyes.
"Not exactly how I'd explain it, it was nothing personal."
Emry felt Kal tense and moved her hand up to his chest to keep him in place. He stayed.
She put as much venom into her words as she could.
"It doesn't really matter if it was personal, Cerberus. They killed children. Do you understand that? Some of them weren't even old enough for suits. Tiny, innocent, children."
Kal moved in to block Emry when Jacob stepped between them trying to diffuse things.
"We can argue over who killed who later, right now we have a job to do."
Kal leaned into his space.
“Not much to debate considering you all made it very clear it was you.”
Emry pulled him back and Tali took over again.
"We need to get to Veetor."
Shepard looked at her and nodded.
"Keep in radio contact, let us know if anything changes."
"Will do. Good luck Shepard. And whatever happens, it's good to have you back."
Shepard smiled and the Cerberus group left the building.
Prazza was still shaking in anger when they headed out the other direction. Emry stayed close to Kal.
Dealing with the drones was annoying, but they managed it. They fought their way through until Prazza took some of the men and went ahead to cut around.
Tali tried arguing with him but he didn't care. She told Shepard what happened and continued on.
Him and his little group were wiped out by a mech.
Emry and Kal grabbed what little keepsakes they could from their bodies for their families while scanning them and praying to their ancestors to guide their souls.
It was a hard thing to just walk past.
After a while they came to the building they needed and heard the woman with Shepard say to take Veetor to the shuttle.
Tali rushed forward yelling as Emry walked to Veetor and started speaking softly to him, asking if he was okay and scanning him for injuries.
She could feel Kal hovering nearby with his gun ready as she listened to the argument behind them. Tali sounded panicked.
"He's injured, he needs treatment not an interrogation!"
Jacob was always trying to diffuse things, it seems.
"We won't hurt him, we just need to know if he knows anything else. He'll be returned unharmed."
The woman that Emry still wanted to kill sounded frustrated.
"Your people already betrayed us once, if we give him to you we'll never get the Intel.”
"Prazza was an idiot and him and his team died for his stupid mistake. Take his Omni-tool data, but let us take him home. Please."
Emry and Kal started leading Veetor out as they argued. She wanted to trust Shepard, but they weren't leaving the injured Quarian with Cerberus.
Shepard, luckily, was still Shepard.
"He's traumatized and needs medical care, Tali will send us his Omni-tool data and take him back to the Flotilla."
The woman sighed, but didn't argue. Tali seemed to finally relax.
"Thank you Shepard, I'm glad you're still the one giving orders."
Shepard nodded and smiled.
"I don't think Emry and her friend would have let us leave with him anyway."
Emry chuckled from where she was standing with Veetor and Kal by the doors.
"Not a chance."
Kal shook his head with his gun still drawn and Shepard laughed.
"You should come with me. We could use your help, guys."
Tali shook her head slowly.
"I have an important job I'm doing, I don't think Cerberus needs to know the extent of it but it's in Geth space so you know it's serious. If I survive this, I'll happily help."
Emry spoke up as Shepard smiled at Tali.
"I'm joining you, Shepard." Tali and Kal both turned to her in surprise, he spoke first.
"Emry, please.”
She looked at him with determination and sadness in her eyes.
"I can't just walk away from this."
She turned to Shepard.
"I need to make sure they make it back and grab my things on the Flotilla. Can I meet you somewhere?"
Kal walked away as Shepard turned to the woman with her who sighed and typed on her Omni-tool.
Emry's pinged a moment later with a message, a location. She smiled.
"See ya soon, Shep."
They went their separate ways.
Once back on the ship Tali turned to Emry.
"Em, I don't know that Kal is going to handle you helping Cerberus as well as you think he is."
She sighed. She knew that, but she couldn't turn her back on Shepard.
"I know.. I hope he can understand, I really do."
"Good luck."
She went down to the cargo bay while she ship prepared to leave the planet and found Kal pacing.
“Kal, I know you're mad, can-”
“You're joining Cerberus. Why?"
She opened her mouth to speak, and then closed it.
He sighed and went back to pacing with his hands on his hips. He wasn't looking at her. "Emry, they killed hundreds of us. No, they massacred them."
She walked towards him with her hands out.
"I know, Kal. I'm not joining Cerberus, I'm following Shepard. Once the job is over I'll blow them up if I can, but I can't walk away from this."
She wanted to cry as he shook his head. "Kal please.."
He sighed.
"Emry, I'm sorry but if you leave, if you join them, I'm done. I can't do this."
She stood there frozen in shock.
"If I go help save human colonies you're dumping me?"
"If you join Cerberus I am, yes. You're welcome to go help human colonies and do what you can to help Shepard, but joining Cerberus is different, Em."
"Kal, I can't just turn away from her with this. I can't."
He nodded slowly.
"I.. I don't think we're going to find common ground on this. I love you and I'm sorry. I hope you change your mind."
He turned and left and she stood there, shocked and broken before starting to cry.
Kal didn't talk to her for the rest of the trip and when they finally arrived back to the Flotilla, she left.
She went to the small station she was sent a location for and when she docked she told Eva to get the ship to the Citadel.
She was there to find Shepard with a bag slung over her shoulder full of necessities and a holo of her and Kal she couldn't bring herself to throw out.