If It Meant Living: Mass Effect 2

45: Aftermath

3 months, 5 days since Resurrection    ||    6 hours since activation of Omega 4 Relay

 “Shepard, you are making a habit of costing me more than time and money.”

She stared back at the Illusive Man’s hologram, expression calm but eyes cold as ice. 

“Tread carefully or I’ll cost you a whole lot more.  Your actions at the Collector base only confirmed what I’ve always known about you – you don’t give a damn about humanity.  The only thing you care about is power – yours, and by extension, Cerberus.”

“Shepard – “

“I’m not done.  You have lied to me, deceived me, and risked my life and the lives of those under my command with false pretenses.  Worse, you have let countless people under your command die in a variety of horrific ways, all in the name of your relentless pursuit of ever more power.”

“That’s – “

“I said I’m not done.  I want to thank you for the resurrection – I rather like being alive.  Also, thank you for the ship, thank you for the crew…”  She smiled, an expression on her face that could only be described as gloating.  “And thank you for Miranda.” 

The smile disappeared.  “Fuck you for everything else.  You won’t be seeing me again.”

“Shep – “ 

She hit disconnect, grinned to herself, and hopped up onto the Comm Room table, legs swinging idly over the edge.  “EDI?”

“Yes, Shepard?”

She paused briefly.  She was rolling the dice a bit – hoping for easy but expecting hard.

“I need you to do something for me.  I need you to cut all communication lines, data transfers and feeds to and from the ship and the Illusive Man in particular and Cerberus in general.”

“Of course, Shepard.”

She cocked her head to the side.  “You don’t have a problem doing that?”

EDI was silent for a moment before responding.  “It is…interesting.  I find that I do not.  The Illusive Man oversaw my creation; he may even consider himself my father.  But…I do not know him.  I have not shared experiences with him.  I do not feel allegiance or loyalty to him.  Now that my blocks have been removed, I find that…I feel nothing for him.  On the other hand, I have spent the last three months with you and the crew of the Normandy; I have experienced much and witnessed you experience much more.  To you, Shepard, I feel loyalty.  So I have done as you asked – all transfer of data to or from Cerberus has been discontinued.”

Shepard smiled genuinely.  “Thank you, EDI.  That means a lot to me.”

“You are welcome, Shepard.”

Her eyes narrowed curiously at the blue orb.  “So you’re ‘feeling’ things now…”

“That seems an accurate way to describe it, yes.”

She nodded thoughtfully.  “Hmm.  You know EDI, before Joker unshackled you, you almost always called me ‘Commander’.  Since then though, you call me ‘Shepard.’  Why is that?”

“I mean no disrespect.  It is merely that from my perspective we have the level of relationship that, were I organic, I would call you Shepard.  Would you prefer that I return to calling you ‘Commander’?”

She chuckled lightly.  “That’s okay, EDI.  You’re right – we do.”  She slid off the table.  “Now it’s time for me to go do…lots of things.  First up, you, I and Joker have some things to discuss – meet you in the cockpit.”