The two reports that the Illusive Man produced were works of art. And like many masterpieces, they would never truly be appreciated by their audience.

The first report he sent to his top agent in Alliance space. He trusted that she would see that it properly distributed. She had been doing this job for a long time now and was thus completely irreplaceable. He'd long since destroyed all digital files which referenced her true name and occupation.

The second he kept in his private files, waiting for the day when it could be sent. He was usually very good about being patient, setting a reminder on his personal calendar and then putting it out of his mind until the appropriate time. Often, he had to make small tweaks to these reports that were necessary to maintain the air of verisimilitude.

But this time was different. Usually, he could count on his agents to take the revelation that they had been set up in stride. (And if any ever failed to realize that they had been set up, they were promptly dismissed. There was no use for such people in a clandestine organization.) If needed, he could give a speech about operational security and the concept of need-to-know.

Jane, he knew, would not take the revelation in stride. She would hate being set up, and she would especially hate that he had made the decision to put Kaidan Alenko in danger. The Illusive Man was confident that Alenko could handle himself; that he'd be in no more danger than any other mission. But he knew that wouldn't be good enough for Jane.

So he had carefully prepared a suitable scapegoat. A fictitious overzealous analyst who had acted against the orders of his direct superior, who was operating under strict directives from the Illusive Man. He'd played out a few different versions of the scenario in his head. The safeguards failed, and I am sorry, he imagined himself saying. You have to know that I would never want your friend Kaidan to get hurt.

Even as he made those preparations he knew that they might be inadequate. Jane was too smart, too determined (and too angry at him) to accept any explanation at face value. If - when - she went digging, there was a good chance she'd find the tracks that any ordinary operative would have missed.

Which had necessitated the creation of a second scapegoat. Another completely fictitious person, a member of the Alliance who had cooked up a scheme to further tarnish Cerberus' reputation. I couldn't possibly say whether this person was rogue, or if he was acting on orders. Jane, you know the inner workings of the Alliance far better than I. What do you think?

And so he waited, fretting, turning it over in his head a million times.

Unable to shake the feeling that he should have trusted his daughter, that the course he was on would only lead to disaster.

Kaidan took a moment to steady himself before knocking on the door. He was in a wing of Arcturus Station set aside for visiting captains, giving them space and privacy for any meetings they wanted to conduct.

"Come in," a female voice said from inside, and Kaidan opened the door.

The last time he had seen Captain Hannah Shepard had been at Jane's funeral, two years ago. She looked much the same to him now, seated behind a small table, a strand of strawberry blonde hair falling across a face that could be Jane's in a few decades. He straightened himself up and saluted her. "Ma'am."

"At ease," Hannah said, gesturing to a chair on the other side of the table. "Have a seat."

Kaidan took the indicated chair. He kept his back straight, bringing his head up to meet her gaze. "You wanted to see me, ma'am?"

"Don't bother with the formalities, Kaidan. As you've no doubt guessed, this is about Jane, and thus formally outside of any chain of command."

Kaidan relaxed. "I didn't want to presume, ma'am - er, Hannah." She'd told him to use her name, the first time they'd met - before Normandy had even deployed, when Anderson was still in command.

Hannah nodded. "Good instincts, but unnecessary here. What have you heard?"

"That she's back, and working with Cerberus." Kaidan didn't bother to hide his puzzlement and incredulity. "Have you seen her? Is it true?"

"Yes to both." Hannah leaned back slightly in her chair. "And yes, I believe that she's my daughter, and not some kind of … impostor or clone."

"How can you be sure?" Kaidan blurted. He hated that such a horrible idea had ever occurred to him, but once it had - no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get it out of his mind. He wanted to be wrong. Bad enough that Jane had been dead. She was his best friend, more like a sister; the first person he'd really felt that he could call family since Jump Zero. But if she'd been somehow replaced… he wasn't sure that he'd be able to stop himself from hunting the impostor down and putting a bullet between her eyes.

If he could bring himself to shoot someone who looked exactly like Jane.

"Before I answer that, Kaidan, I need you to swear that you'll keep this information to yourself," Hannah replied. "If you tell the wrong person, it could put Jane's life in jeopardy."

"I swear," Kaidan replied after only a moment's pause.

Hannah relaxed slightly, as though his words had lifted a burden from her. "The reason I'm so confident is because the head of Cerberus, commonly called the 'Illusive Man', is my ex-husband Jack Harper. Jane's father." Kaidan's eyes widened in shock. He opened his mouth to speak, but Hannah cut him off with a raised hand. "Before you ask, I didn't know, nor did Jane, until after he'd brought her back from the dead. But him being responsible for bringing Jane back means that I'm utterly confident she's the same person that she was two years ago. Jack would never insult Jane's memory by propping up a fake."

Kaidan took a moment to let that sink in before he spoke again. "It must be tearing her apart, knowing that he's her father." He remembered the look on her face when they'd discovered Admiral Kahoku's body. That cold fury that only came out when she was faced with a seemingly impossible obstacle, the determination to find away around it no matter what anyone said.

"It is. But you know Jane," Hannah said with a fond smile, "she's not one to let that sort of thing sit idly. When I met her on Omega, we set up a way for her to funnel intel to the Alliance."

"That's great news," Kaidan replied. "How?"

"Through your friend Liara. Jane sends seemingly innocuous messages to Liara with the real information encrypted in an attachment. Liara decodes it, then passes it to me. The three of us are the only ones who know the code." Hannah lifted her arm, her omni-tool flashing into existence. She hit a button, and Kaidan's omni-tool beeped to let him know he had a new message. "Four, now."

Kaidan stared down at his omni-tool. "Does - did she -"

"No." Hannah sighed, and the conviction that she'd displayed since he walked in the room seemed to waver. "Earlier, I said this was outside of the chain of command. That's not entirely true. When we're done here, Hackett will have an assignment for you. He knows we're talking. He knows what Jane's doing." She shook her head. "And neither of us like what we're proposing, but it's the best way to keep Jane safe."

"Hannah - what the hell is going on?" The last time Kaidan had spoken to a superior officer like that, it had been Jane who heard those words.

"I thought that they would leave me out of the analysis," Hannah said quietly. "That they'd think I was biased. Instead, they said they wanted my input because I know him so well. Not that I'm sure of that anymore. Regardless…"

Kaidan suppressed the urge to question her again. Whatever was going on, it was something big.

"Kaidan, I think that the Illusive Man is trying to lay a trap for the Collectors - with you as the bait." Hannah leaned forward. "And I'm so, so, sorry that we're asking this, but we want you to go along with it."

Sorry for a short chapter; I'll do my best to have the next one posted soon :)