The Normandy continued to remain with the armada. Sashus was secured in the med-bay with the doctors during battles to keep him safe. Special mixtures had to be made everyday to feed him because there was no safe way to know how the little hybrid would react to the milk made by Sonya's body. They did not wish to risk a severe allergic reaction. Nihlus often rose in the night with the waking babe and he and Shepard took the command deck in shifts. The day Sashus opened his eyes the tree of them lay next to each other with the baby in the middle. Sonya had just finished feeding him a bottle when his dark copper lids blinked open revealing eyes that were dark as night and shimmered with emerald when the light caught in them. For the first time Sashus saw the faces that went with the scents of his parents and he smiled with tiny wide mandibles and upturned mouth.

The war raged on and the babe grew into a child that wandered about the ship with softly tapping feet under many watchful eyes. Sonya saved images of the boy to one day show to David. The only messages she received as the years went by were words she so often read with growing doubt. 'We are safe.' Cerberus eventually contacted the armada through Miranda. TIM sent new information, schematics for new technologies to help in the fight against the Reapers, provided ships and soldiers to fly them and occasionally inquired after Shepard's health and the Normandy. She assumed he wanted to make sure his investments were still safe and sound if he should ever need them in the future. It made her sick to her stomach when she looked into the iridescent dark eyes of her son. Sashus was nearly four years old when the questions came.

"Mamma, why do the big ships hit us?" He asked as she sat playing blocks with him.

"I don't know, baby." She said and lowered her eyes to the grey carpet.

"Can I paint my face like poppa's?"

His brow lifted in excitement and he drew over his carapace with his finger mimicking the oval designs of his father.

"Yes, when you're older. And your's will be unlike anyone else's. You are unique."

It always made him smile when she told him how special he was, that it was why he was different than momma or poppa and yet also like them. She would tell him that he was the only one like him because poppa and momma loved each other so strongly that he was created. Those were the days that he ran to meet his father at the door with hugs and strange kisses that had become as familiar as his own skin.

Nihlus and Sonya stood alone in the darkened corridor between the Loft and the elevator. Her back was to the wall and her legs were wrapped around him, hooked over his hips. They made love against the cold, hard steel in the quiet of the night. They kept their moans and purrs low so as not to wake the boy. They so rarely got time to themselves anymore. He loved her slow and hard, drawing forth her orgasm from her like water from a well. He bit her neck to quell her cries when he penetrated her more deeply. He wrapped an arm around her waist and held her close to breath her in, pressing his forehead to hers. He tangled his free talons in her hair as he left his seed deep within her. There was no moss here, but he held a secret hope for more children. Perhaps a daughter.

"Poppa?"

"Yes, little one?"

"Why do you and me and uncle Garrus look different from everyone else on the ship?"

"Because we are from a different world."

"Then why are you with momma if she is not like us?"

"... Because I love her."

"You couldn't find one like you to love?"

"I chose to love your momma."

"Why?"

"You're momma loved me."

"People like us didn't love you?"

"A few did, but it wasn't the same. Why are you asking these questions?"

"Because... I don't know."

"I think you do. It's okay."

"Momma says I'm you-neek and I should be proud, but I don't feel proud poppa. I just feel different. There is no one like me. There are no other kids here. I don't even look like you or momma or uncle Garrus."

"You look like you. You are momma and I together and we love you, Sashus."

"Will I be a poppa some day?"

"Of course!"

"Will she love me like momma loves you?"

"If she loves you she will love you for who you are, just like your momma loves me."

"Why is my blood purple?"

"...Did you get hurt?"

"I lost a tooth, see..."

"Ah..."

"But my blood didn't look like yours or momma's"

"You are made of both of us, little one. Red and blue make purple."

"Does momma love uncle Garrus like she loves you?"

"... No. She loves us very differently. Why do you ask this question?"

"Because you don't make her laugh like uncle does."

"... Enough questions for tonight. It's time for bed."

"Okay... poppa?"

"Yes..."

"I love you."

"I love you too, son."

Nihlus and Sonya sat on the bed together. They had converted the tanks into a small room for Sashus, who was already fast asleep. Mostly it was a bed and a place to keep the toys. They still kept him in the med-bay during battles. Nihlus leaned in to Sonya and whispered softly against her ear.

"I love you."

Sonya grinned. His breath tickled her neck.

"I know." She whispered back.

He slipped his arms around her and down her smooth skin to her hands holding the data pad. He nuzzled her neck and briefly flicked his tongue behind her ear.

"Nihlus..." She giggled, and struggled to keep her voice down.

He took the data pad from her fingers and tossed it over the bed. It landed with a soft 'plop' on the floor.

"I need to read that." She protested and went to reach for it.

She was surprised when he held her back and pinned her to the bed. He nipped at the skin on her neck.

"Nihlus, what are you doing?" She whispered angrily.

He knew Garrus was a more forceful lover. Ever since the questions he wondered if... No. He shook his head. She would never do that to him, would she?

"Can't I be a little aggressive from time to time?" He asked. He wanted to ask if that was something only Garrus was allowed to do, but he bit back the venomous words.

"I suppose, but..."

Her eyes flicked to the floor, then to Nihlus' piercing eyes.

"What's bothering you?" She asked softly and nuzzled him.

Nihlus drew back, surprised that she knew him so well. He kept his darker side from her as much as possible. It wasn't who he really was. It was the part that Saren had corrupted.

"I... nothing."

He rolled off and pretended to lay down for sleep. It did't fool her. She rolled over and put a warm hand on his arm.

"Nihlus, honey..."

"Do you ever regret leaving Garrus for me?" He asked suddenly. He kept his eyes on the clock as her hand withdrew.

"What makes you ask such a question? Of course not."

It was a lie. They both knew it.

"Sashus has noticed things... differences in your relationship with Vakarian that I do not provide." He told her.

He heard her sight.

"There are some things... we were together 2 or 3 years. I can't erase that. But he's not the father of my son. You are."

Her hand returned to his arm. He felt her lips press against the skin along side his neck.

"I wouldn't erase that." She whispered.

He rolled over and took her in his arms. She cuddled against him and wet his throat with soft kisses. He intended to make love to her, but constant battles, hiding and a young turian child kept them both to tired to care most nights.

So little of the armada was left. So many had died. Tali, Kal'Reager and their daughter Malta had all died in a battle two years prior. The Council had been discovered by the Reapers. Only the Turian and Anderson escaped. They now lived on the Normandy. The turian Councillor did his best to ignore the 'abomination' that roamed the halls and plagued him with questions he tried not to hear. It was early morning when such a situation arose. The turian Councillor sat down to breakfast when the young boy sat down across from him. The Councillor did not look up from him bowl. Sashus sat quietly for a time and the Councillor quietly ignored him. The peace didn't last long.

"How old are you?" Sashus asked politely.

The Councillor ignored him.

"How long have you been on the Council?" Sashus tried again. Still no answer.

"Do you like being a Councillor?" Sashus paused between questions for an answer he probably wouldn't get. "How many more Reapers do you think there are left? Why didn't you want to believe they were coming? What will you do if you survive this?"

The turian Councillor was growing impatient and loosing his appetite having to listen to the youngster drivel on. Even it's voice was an abomination in his ears. It reverberated as a true turian's would but the separation of tones was amplified. The variations were greater than the should have been. And it smelled wrong. Too human, too much like flesh and human musk. The dark eyes were disturbing to him. Like a demon inhabited the body.

"I know why you don't like me." Sashus stated.

The Councillor still did not look at him.

"You don't like my mother. You respect my father for his accomplishments, but he's an outsider. Even with so many dead you cling to unimportant things. I don't understand why you have a problem with an interspecies relationship. You were with the asari..."

The turian Councillor looked up sharply then, rage and pain in his eyes.

"How dare you suggest..."

But his own anger cut off his words and the shoved is bowl at the boy and left the table. Stubborn, Sashus followed him.

"You should be proud, not ashamed. Why does it make you angry? Why do I make you angry? Is it because I'm part human? Or is it because my momma is Shepard?"

The Councillor turned on his heals and grabbed the boy by the soft leathery skin of his throat with a growl. The boy narrowed his eyes, but did not cry out or struggle, even as the elder's talons dug into his flesh and drew purple droplets. There were no eyes that day.

"You listen to me. You are a depravity. You are an accident. You never should have happened. Just look at you! Half human and half turian. Belonging to both and being neither. You are disgusting, vial, and I would end you myself if I did not thing you would be useful as a target to aid the survival of the rest of us. You are nothing but a skin sack of alien organs that should repulse itself so violently that you explode to defile the walls. Vorcha are more worthy than you of life."

He threw the boy to the floor and stared to walk away. Sashus sat up, holding his neck and coughing up blood. He called out to the Councillor. His words stopped him cold.

"I am no different than any offspring of an asari and an alien. Does it upset you because you're jealous that you never had a child with her? Do you resent the love my parents share? You are a hypocrite. It should have been you that died!"

The turian Councillor did not turn around to face the child who knew too much. His eyes watered. His voice barely above a whisper.

"Yes, you are right about that. It should have been me."

The Councillor went to his room. He had tried to save her, and the child within. He had her hand in his as they ran from the collapsing caverns. When the rocks fell from the ceiling, he pulled her out of the way, but not far enough. The last formation to drop fell on her, cutting open his arm and ripping her hand from him. She died instantly. Small mercy.

Anderson loved the boy as he loved Sonya, as if he were his own flesh and blood. His own son, Jason, had died in the first of the attacks. It helped to ease the pain to have Sashus, though the boy had many questions he couldn't answer.

"Grand-papa?" Sashus looked up into the dark face that did not look like his mothers.

"Yes?"

"Why are you so different from momma?"

"Well, I sort of adopted her. She had no parents as a child."

"Then were did she come from?"

"We don't know for sure. But she's here now, and that's what matters."

"I suppose."

David looks down at the boy, confused and lost in a dieing galaxy, the only one of his kind and seeking answers. He put a hand on his shoulder.

"Common, I have some old albums we can look at." He smiled.

The boy looked up at him and grinned in his own way and shook his head with excitement.

Occasionally Nihlus and Garrus would hold a spar to release the anxiety they both felt. Each had grown tired of the life style of running, hiding and fighting. So they took out their frustrations on each other.

Nihlus, Garrus, Sonya, David and Sashus sat around the table in the mess. The turian Councillor passed by. His eyes met the strange dark ones of the boy for a moment, then he left the room. Sashus never told anyone about the incident. No one noticed the tiny marks. The minor punctures had healed quickly with no scars. It had been two years since anyone had seen a Reaper. What was left of the armada was returning to the Citadel. The rebuilding process would take decades. Many would travel between the Citadel and their home world. For Shepard's family that meant two different places. Earth and Palavan, though Nihlus had never seen his home world. The small mercenary base where he was born no longer existed. Neither society would be willing to accept them as they were or their son. It left them in a hard place. They could not continue to seclude their son on a ship. He needed to set foot on earth and sand, feel the sun on his face and breath wind. He needed to see where his roots lay.

Sashus was still too young, but his parents allowed him to tattoo his face. He designed it himself in honor of the Normandy. She was his home, and his paint should represent chose white to show up best on his darker plates and because it was the color of the Normandy as well as his fathers paint. He took elements from his father's design, the long line along the fringe and oval shape on the forehead, and something all his own on his cheeks and along his mandibles. Similarly shaped lines to blend with the design from Nihlus. He bore the tattooing ritual well and wore his paint proudly on the shattered streets of Earth and along the debris littered white sands of Palavan. No one knew what to make of the new marks until they saw his family behind him, armored and welding powerful weapons. Finally they returned to the Normandy. Sashus had enjoyed being planet side, but the Normandy was home.

A few nights after their return he came and sat on the edge of his parents bed and looked at them as they waited patiently for him to speak his mind as he often did.

"What is it, son?" Nihlus prodded after a few moments.

"I just wanted so say 'thanks' for taking me home, to Earth and Palavan I mean. I'm glad I'm different, that we are different, now that I've seen others that are part of me. I took for granted the love that we share. I'm glad that my grandfather is a Councillor for humans and that my mother is the first human Spectre. I'm proud that I have a father that has accomplished so much starting as an outcast. You destroyed the last of the Reapers so everyone can go home and rebuild. I wanted you to know that I love both of you very much."

Sashus got up and nudged foreheads with each of his parents, pausing to kiss his mother's cheek. It wouldn't be the last time, but as he grew into a teenager and found his own path in life, he would distance himself from his parents as all children must. But he never denied them and stood up proudly in the face of ridicule for his differences that proved many times to make him superior others. That night he went to bed with dreams of the galaxy that had just opened up to him because of his momma and poppa. When he had shut the door to his own loft Nihlus and Sonya smiled at each other..

"Well, I guess we didn't do so bad after all." Sonya smirked.

"Indeed."

Nihlus nodded and nuzzled her. He made love to her that night in their bed that night as they always had, but with a new level of intimacy that wasn't only physical. They would continue to do so for years to come as the Normandy patrolled Citadel space during reconstruction. No matter the struggles of the day, Nihlus could always find peace in her arms.

The galaxy was forever free of the Reapers. The family was whole and happy. They lived to see other turian/human relationships blossom and ideals to change. They saw the Citadel take shape and they saw their son marry a good turian woman and give them grand children. All of them with four fingers, three toes and more playable mouths. Sashus would remain the only turian to have a belly button or iridescent black eyes for generations. Sonya buried her 'father' on Earth near his birth place in England. A few years later Nihlus, Garrus and Sashus with his wife and children buried Sonya beside him. The newly formed parliament of Palavan denied Nihlus' request to bury her there because she was not turian. Some ideals would take more time to change. By that time the Normandy had been retired and been placed in a small museum on the Citadel in honor of Shepard. Nihlus had pushed the Council for years before they relented to the honor. Eventually Nihlus died as well as the turian Councillor before the 'New Citadel' had been completed. Neither ever loved another. Garrus lived a quieter life with his turian life mate, Novea, who he had met again and married several years after Sonya's death. He thought of his friend and once life mate often and missed her. He hoped she was happy wherever her spirit lingered. Something told him she was, and that she was not alone. He did not live to see his grand children, but his sons and daughters told his story to their children to honor him.

Memory

"Momma?"

"Yes, dear heart?"

"I love you."

"Aw, sweetie, momma loves you too!"

"Can we throw spit balls at Joker today?"

Sonya laughs.

"Sure, you get the straws and we'll both provide the spit!"

Sashus giggles and runs off to fetch the toy, his little feet petter patter softly on the grey carpet. Nihlus pauses to nuzzle her. She kisses his mouth and they grin at each other. His hand is warm on her shoulder.