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Hallowed Truth	By : Spiritwolf71 Category: +M through R > Mass Effect Views: 3767 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Mass Effect and its world is owned by Bioware, I make no profit from this tale.

Chapter List
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James had been the first to be released 'officially' from the hospital, not that he had not already come and gone a few times. His leg was healed but it still ached slightly at times. They had told him it would take another week or two before it was completely back to normal and made some arrangements for therapy. He was more than certain he was not going to go.
Teemo shoulder had healed up completely and the dog bite had not produced rabies like they had all been joking about. Grace had been the worse but thanks to some new modern medicines she had limit the scars she had received to a single scratch just above her lip; even that, the doctors had said, would disappear over time.
James hobbled out of the shuttle that had been commissioned to bring them all back to their office. It had not been a pleasant ride since James had finally decided to tell Grace about the Judge Advocate General. Teemo had been livid, so much so that he was not even going to talk and Grace had been in disbelief, coming up with several reasons why the man would have been in that picture.
In the end by the time they reached the office temper were simmering and James had a headache.
“Listen,” Teemo said finally as they exited the shuttle, “that picture was hidden from view, which should be your first clue that there’s something wrong with the people in it. If it was a picture one could be proud of he would have it in his fucking living room.” Teemo argued.
“I’m not saying we disregard the picture,” Grace countered then paused, “This man made me what I am, he helped my through school, he was always there to help me come up with the right decisions and he is part of the reason I am here now.”
“Is he now? So he put you in a position where you could hide his dirty little secrets then.”
“No, that’s not what I meant,” she said and looked to James.
“This unit was made to be impartial; to protect those against people in power is part of that. It is part of the reason we don’t answer to people in power, like the Spectres, Gracie, if your boss is dirty will you be able to make the right call?”
“Are you doubting me James?” she asked, “Really, what if Admiral Hackett was dirty, involved in the wrong thing, would you bring him ‘down’?”
“In a heartbeat,” James answered without blinking and eye, “I would hate every minute of it but I would do the right thing.”
“In a heartbeat, sometimes James you are full of your self-righteous morals. It wouldn’t be in a heartbeat and you would need more than a picture of him with a suspect to believe that,” the lawyer countered, James could only agree with her.
“I never said it would be easy and yes I would need more to go on, but if he was dirty then yes I would arrest him,” James said. “I truly believe what they hoping to accomplish with FORCON and I will not go against the directive. We protect those that can’t protect themselves.”
“Oh I am certain your girlfriend can protect herself,” Teemo stated. James sighed.
“We need to stop this bickering,” James said, “It’s not helping anyone, Grace is right, we need more than a picture. We also need to figure out who everyone is. We know pretty much all but two of them. You have the Demarais’, the Judge Advocate General, and General Tarsk.”
“Add in Gary and the Secretary of Defence with a little bit of Terra Firma and we have nothing but disaster.” Grace asked.
“I’m going to forward the picture to Sam, she if she can’t do some facial recognition,” James said tapping on his omni tool.
“How are you going to do that?” Teemo said.
“I’m going to throw it back the last direction she used to send me information. I’m sure she’ll find it. I have no doubt she might be monitoring us.”
“That doesn’t fill me with confidence.” Grace added to the conversation. They began to move to the door of the roof and back to their office.
“I’ll just be glad when we get the whole satellite system up and running,” James said. “This all would have been a moot point had they been working.”
“Yeah well, rebuilding doesn’t happen overnight and our crews are spread thin between Earth and the Citadel.” Teemo answered. “We are lucky we have the security we do."
"Kevin said he had some stuff for us, let's hope it's some good news. He should be downstairs waiting," James said glad they were no longer bickering. He always hated when people who were supposed to trust each other argued.
"Kevin thinks new equipment is good news so I wouldn't hold your breath," Teemo joked.
"New equipment makes me happy as well, just different equipment," James smiled, he remembered when they were setting up their office they had been budgeted for a workout room. James had taken great pleasure in putting everything together and setting it up. It was nice and private so that he and Teemo could beat the hell out of each other when working out or blowing off steam, and Teemo seemed to have a lot of steam.
He was lucky, he knew that. He would never forget those that he had fought with and those that had died. His career was a bit of a roller coaster of good and bad he was just happy the good outweighed the bad. He had been surprised when Admiral Hackett had approached him for this position.
James had said no at first, thinking that perhaps someone better should get the position. He realized though that his problem had been trying to measure himself to Commander Shepard’s standards. He had been tasked with guarding the woman for months then ended up part of her crew when she had been reinstated. He had learned a lot from her.
He had to admit that he did not like her at first. Not that he really had any basis for that dislike. She was quiet and kept to herself and even though she never complained he could tell she was hurt that none of her friends, or even her lover, had come to visit her. She might not have been in prison, but she sure had felt like it.
It had been a month before she and James even carried a conversation beyond pleasantries and that revolved around hockey and sports, he was not a hockey fan but he had been against the fact that a Drell had joined the league. As far as he had been concerned human sports were only for humans.
He had learned that the woman was pretty open minded and fair to just about everyone, even the Batarians, which he hated. He knew killing those Batarians had eaten away at her almost as much as the solitude had.
It was when he became a part of her crew though that he really came to respect her. Her unwavering faith in what was wrong and what was right her total dedication to her crew and to her goal was legendary. It didn't matter who thought she was crazy or not, she had a job to do and she had done it. She had united a galaxy and saved them all. His only regret was her death. He could only hope to be the faction of a FORCOM officer that she was a Spectre.
For the longest time after she had been declared dead James had a hard time dealing with the fact that she was gone. He volunteered every waking hours to the crews to find her but there was so much rubble to go through. The citadel was as much a mess as Earth was, maybe even a little bit more.
When the search had been called off James went back to trying to do his job and tried his hardest to be exactly what Shepard was but it was hard. He had his doubts, he wasn't as forgiving and he was not unbiased, no completely anyway. He still questioned the decisions on Fehl Prime even though Shepard had told him he made the right decision. That sometime the right decision is not the one with the happy ending and that it takes a real leader to realize this.
James had only found out a few months ago that Shepard had sent Alliance Command a letter, promoting James for the N7 project. She had written letters for most of her crew, almost as if she knew that she was not going to make it.
It wasn't until he had met Gracie that he realized he didn't need to be like Shepard. He needed to be like James and that was a pretty special thing, not that he was full of himself. He held the same moral codes as Shepard but he realized he was more flawed in the execution of them sometime. He still did not think it was right for a Drell to be in a Human hockey league but only because Human needed something for themselves, much like people in relationship needed something to call their own.
Gracie had been the one to help him decide to join. He had never looked back and was happy that Admiral Hackett had granted him this honor.
They moved down the hallway to their office and James felt the little hairs on the back off his neck begin to stand up as he notice their door ajar. It was an early warning that he had learned never to ignore. He reached to his side and pulled his pistol out and placed his hand up, Teemo and Gracie stopped immediately.
"Stay here," he said to the lawyer then he and Teemo moved forward and entered the office. As trained James entered the room with a quick scan. Their only was four rooms in the office; the main room, a kitchen, bathroom and the exercise room. The N7 agent liked the open office much better then private rooms, it promoted discussions and conversations.
The first thing he noticed was that the placed was trashed. There were papers all over the place along with smashed equipment and electronics. Kevin was going to cry when he saw this. The second thing he realized was that Kevin was nowhere to be seen and he was supposed to meet them here. He swallowed down the urge to call out for his officer
He looked over to Teemo and motioned for the hallway leading to the other three rooms. The two of them took either side of the wall.
James could only pray Kevin was all right. He remembered when he was looking for communications specialist that Kevin was one of the last on his list. He did not have the greatest portfolio, barely making it through basic training and he had spent most to the war behind a desk managing operations at the crucible. He had no girlfriend, nor did James think he ever had one because he just couldn't talk to them well. He was still slightly bad talking with Grace and most of the time avoided it.
James would have passed him over except that there had been a single accommodation in the man’s file. It had been from Admiral Hackett and it outlined how Kevin had been responsible for most of the set up and organization of the crucible and he had been the one who had figured out how to make the machine communicate with the citadel and had it not been for him, they would never have solved this. He had managed to hack through reaper code to get that information. If the man had been good enough that Hackett had complete faith in him, then he was good enough for James.
Kevin had become not only a trusted part of the unit but a constant source of humour for James and Teemo. They loved making him go and get thing if it involved talking to women, he was just so awkward at it at times it was funny, and it was even better if he had been drinking cause then he really screws up. James could not help but think of him as a little brother.
James slightly nodded his head and he and Teemo moved down the hall, the kitchen it was empty, they would do a more thorough search later. Not that there was much to search, some cupboards, the oven, fridge. The bathroom was much simpler with only a shower to look into and it was empty as well.
The moved to the last room and James looked to Teemo for only a second before they moved in as one, moving in slightly different direction and scanning, then switching to scan each other’s area.
Kevin was tied down to a work bench with a cloth in his mouth and he was unconscious, or at least James hoped he was as he rushed to the kid’s side. The first thing he did was remove the gag, as he did he realized the kid was breathing, but someone had beat the hell out of him. Teemo cut the binds off his wrist and brought him to a sitting position.
As he was moved Kevin woke with a start.
"Jesus," he said, "I didn't think you'd ever come back." He said and tried to stand up on wobbly legs. "How bad is it?"
"I'm not going to lie kid, you look like shit," James said honestly.
"No, I mean the office. I heard them going through everything and I heard the smashing..."
James smiled slightly and looked to Teemo; he wasn't surprised that the kid was more interested in his computers then his own health.
"Well, I hate to say it but it looks worse than you do," Teemo answered which elicited a sound James had never heard before from Kevin. With reserve James didn’t think Kevin had the young man leapt from the bench and moved quickly into the main room, as James followed he swore he could have heard the young man sob.
“My isolinear compensator,” he cried picking up an object that looked like it had been smashed in two, “do you have any idea of how hard it was to find this.” He continued to scramble about the room on his knees, picking up broken equipment here and there as if it was a child that been hurt. He was beginning to make a pile for himself as Grace entered the office.
“OK this is not a good sign,” she said and looked about moving to her desk, her files were strewn all over the place and she was more than certain quite a few were probably missing. Kevin made another sob sound and everyone looked to him as he held up some odd looking key type item.
“My code key for the grand items on Galaxy of Fantasy, why would they break that?” he said and for a second James could swear he had tears in his eyes.
“James, we had a lot of information here,” Grace said, “like the photos Sam sent of the child, the info board with almost everything we knew on it.”
“Well,” James paused and rubbed his forehead, “Dios bastardos malditos. Find out what is missing, Kevin pull yourself together, I’ll contact the old man and let him know what is going on. He handed Kevin a file drive. “I need you to through this out so Traynor can find it. If anyone can get it through to her it’s you.”
“But I have no equipment,” he whined.
“Not here you don’t, but I imagine you have quite a hub at home that you play on.”
“Well, I did have a complete…”
“Great, go and get on that, and hit a medical clinic somewhere to, make sure you don’t get any infections.” Teemo added to the conversation.
“Well a quick glance will tell me our files for the case are gone, which means they know that you know Gary’s daughter is your daughter, or Lanie’s anyway.” Grace said holding several broken pads in her hands.
It was quiet for a long moment as James hung his head and muttered something in Spanish under his breath; both Teemo and Kevin looked over to him.
“Oh, damn,” Grace said, the room remained silent for a few more moments.
“Well they were bound to find out sooner or later,” James said rubbing the back of his neck. A large smile crept on Teamo’s face and he turned to Kevin and held his hand out.
“What is this?” James asked.
“Ah well Buddy, Kevin here seems to view you as a pillar of all that is holy and think you can do no wrong,” Teemo said, “Myself, I had no doubt you banged the girl based on how much effort you were putting into this investigation and some of the reactions you have had. Sending me to Gary’s house sealed that deal. We made a little bet on your virtue. I bet you didn’t have any.”
“Gee thanks,” James moped.
“Don’t worry, Buddy I figured it all out on my own anyway,” Teemo patted him on the back, “And congratulations.”
James was about to come back with a witty remark himself when his omni tool went off. He looked to it for a few moments. “It’s the old man,” he said and looked to their conference table. The communicator on it had been smashed into pieces. James narrowed his eyes as he suddenly did not feel right about the whole situation. He activated his Omni and the small,orangish image of Admiral Hackett appeared over James hand. Everyone in the room seemed to stand at attention when he appeared and they all saluted the Admiral.
“I tried to get you on your regular communicator but it kept telling me it as off line. James, what is going on down there?” The Admiral said but his image kept flickering. According to Kevin they had state of the art communication boosters and he had gone on in detail how they could pick up anything in their office even through their Omni tools. His Omni was not broken; they should not have been getting a reduced signal, especially not from the Citadel.
“Someone broke into our office and trashed it. We are just trying to figure out what is mis…” He paused as they almost lost connection.
“James, I couldn’t hear you what,” he broke off and then came back, “I don’t like this James, get you and your team out of there right now, meet me up here, just get out until we can hav…” they lost him again.
“That shouldn’t happen,” Kevin said. “The signal booster can’t be interfered with unless,”
“Get out of here,” James said grabbing Grace with one hand and Kevin in the other. He started to push them out the door. Teemo was already there. “Move it, rapido,” he continued to push them out the building making them take the stairs. They were almost to the bottom level when he heard the first explosion. He had no doubt it came from their office. They were all running now, James no longer having to motivate them. The second explosion was much closer but still above them. James yelled at them move faster, not that he had to. Teemo was out the fire exit first followed by Kevin and Grace. James ran out behind them and urged them to continue but felt the heat only a split second before he felt the force throw him from his feet and into a dumpster in the laneway.

____
They were a sad looking lot, the four of them sitting in the Admirals waiting room waiting to hear from him. His secretary had informed them he was in a meeting presently but he wanted to see him, so they sat in the waiting room tending to each other’s injuries.
They had decided to by-pass the hospital and head straight for the local military base to book a shuttle to the Citadel. James would have liked to use the one assigned to him but it had been sitting on the roof of their office building and was now a part of the rubble.
James had managed to limit his injuries to a sprained shoulder and a bruised back. He was more than certain Teemo had a broken nose but they had finally stopped the bleeding and Grace was limping quiet heavily and he was sure she sprained her ankle. Kevin somehow made it out unscathed, but the bruises from his earlier beating remained. They were all singed and filthy and stinking of fire. James had to admit, he was surprised the Admirals secretary did not through them out.
Truth be told, James had no idea where to take his team anymore. They obviously stumbled on something pretty big and he had no idea of who to trust. He knew and liked some of the people in the picture that Teemo had found. He even considered General Tarsk a bit of a friend, or they had been before he was promoted. He could only wonder how deep this went.
He did trust Admiral Hackett though, the man had given him this position and he had created the small group for numerous reasons. He wanted someone to police and protect humanity the way the Spectres defended the Council races. He also wanted them not to be tied down the way regular police were. He wanted them to be able to get to the truth no matter the means and James swore that he would do that.
“Well aren’t you the sorriest looking bunch I have seen in a while?” Hackett said has his door opened and he looked them all over. They struggled to attention. “Alice, get my personal physician here as soon as possible. I also need a change of clothing for each of them so get those uniforms, their sizes should be noted. The woman nodded and the Admiral brought them into his office.
“They blew up your office, you said, but you failed to say who they were, James,” the Admiral said. He stood in front of a window that looked over the ward down below. It was one of the area’s designated to be fixed first and over the last two years had almost been completely rebuilt. There had been an office in the ward designated for the FORCON team however James thought it would have been better staying on Earth. Now he was beginning to wonder about that decision. The office space was still there and James figure now might be the time to move into it.
“I figured it was best not to broadcast anything over the communications system. I have no doubt they have been listening to our conversations for some time, Sir,” James answered.
“I have also been asked to look into what it is you are investigating and I have been asked that you stop.”
“Sir,” they all looked to him now.
“I didn’t say I was going to stop you, I don’t even have the power for that now, the Director of Special Forces Edgar Himmel, he advised that you are stepping on his toes and he doesn’t like you overlooking his investigation.”
“That’s what this unit is designed for though is it not. If we are going to protect and defend humanity then we sort of need to clean up our back yard first.” James said.
“What do you know about the assassination?”
“Well, Special Forces have it pinned on one shooter and they still have yet to come up with a reason. They have blamed Lt. Alana Flynn because she perfectly fit the bill. She was disgruntled, losing her family in the war; she has ties with Cerberus and has worked for them in the past. She is a perfect scape goat. They also have her as being dead.”
“But you don’t believe any of that?”
“No Sir, I know that Lt. Flynn is indeed alive and I know she did not pull the trigger. We believe that there are deeper issues involved in the whole affair.” James handed the picture he had printed to him. It was quiet for a long time.
“There are a lot of good people in this picture, and one not do good person,” Hackett looked to James. “These are not people who you can just start wagging a finger at. These are very powerful and respected people; just what is it you think they have done?”
“Well, I tend to look at the guy in the middle, the one with his arm around Gary Hart, Lt. Flynn’s handler. We all thought Menneau disappeared but what if he didn’t. What if he wanted everyone to think that so that he could orgistrate something more sinister? “
“Well, that’s a stretch,” Hackett placed the picture on his desk and looked to them, rubbing his chin with a forefinger as he did. “I would have a harder time believing you had your officer not just been blown up or if I was not being pressured to get you to back off.” He paused for a long time, “I also know Lt. Flynn and I am not going to say she is not capable of something like this, I don’t think it was her either. She’s a good soldier, lives for the job and has proven time and again that she cares more about the men then she does herself. I also don’t see her as a politically motivated individual.”
“She doesn’t need to be, Sir,”’ Gracie spoke up, “She hates Aliens, and really no one can blame her given her upbringing. I don’t know if she was the shooter or not but she is the perfect scapegoat. She might not be politically motivated but given her past…”
“She hated Batarians,” James said, “Not all races.”
Hackett looked from Grace to James. “I need to speak to Commander Vega alone.” He said and without a word the other left until it was just the Admiral and James. It was quiet for a long time.
“You’re attached to her somehow,” Hackett said finally breaking the silence.
“We had a moment in time,” James said, “She rescued me and my men from the Blue Suns, she earned my respect.”
Hackett raised a brow and James whitened slightly, “And we had a few more moments in time afterwards at the celebration and well it was a mutual thing, just a fling a,” Hackett held up his hand.
“You’re spilling a lot into this for a woman you had a moment with.”
“Yeah, well,” he scratch the back of his neck, “it’s hard to explain, she affects people like that, draws out loyalty somehow, like Shepard did sometimes.” He looked up to Hackett who seemed to be waiting for more. “And we may have had a child together, not that I knew about it, I mean until recently, not that I’m a dead beat.” He was going in circles now and he knew it.
“So you had a moment in time with this girl, which resulted in a child that you knew nothing about until now, conveniently.”
James looked to him, “I know it wasn’t her, everything in my gut tells me this. First we know for a fact that she is still alive, which is one lie already. Second the Alliance has been chasing her all over gods green acre. Third they sent the Demarais after her to try and quietly get rid of her. They are hanging her on circumstantial evidence at best. I’ve review the tape they have of her a million time and at no time do we see her shoot the gun. I know it’s grainy but it shouldn’t be, that’s state of the art stuff. The image should have been clear as day. And to say they have no footage from the other cameras because they were still damaged from the war is stupid. And to say that she was dead, that’s ingenious so now they can say whatever they like while they hunt her down and kill her. All the while Terra Firma is placing people in positions of power and trust and no one is the wiser.”
“Except you.” Hackett finished. James looked to him. “How certain are you that she did not take that shot.”
“I would stake my life on it.”
“Then there is something you should know.”
“Sir?”
“Claude Menneau is not dead, we have had him in custody since his disappearance. At first it was for Conspiracy of Treason but then it was for his own safety as Charles Saracino found out he was alive and had made several attempts to have him killed. He is no longer a prisoner but has been in protective custody. As far as I know he has not had any ties with his former group, but then that doesn’t mean he hasn’t.”
James took a step back as he heard this news. He had always believed that Saracino had killed Menneau, knowing the man was still alive made everything make sense, “Holy Toledo,” he said for a lack of anything better to say. Finally his thoughts settled, “Where is he, I need to speak to him.”
“That will be the hard part, he disappeared just after the assassination, no one has heard from him since.”
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Hallowed Truth