Chapter Text
The Daybreak is a giant hunk of shit. Well, perhaps ‘giant’ isn’t the word for it. She can barely hold her crew of nine; they all practically live on top of each other. But Mags chose this life; and she’s happy with it.
That’s what she likes to tell herself, anyway. Right now it doesn’t seem all that glamorous. She’s kneeling underneath the ship, passing Ketu tools when he needs them. So far she’s hit her head on the underside of the ship (twice), dropped a tool box on her foot, and she’s been splashed with fuel. All in the name of helping keep the Daybreak from flying apart on their next relay jump.
“You know sometimes I think you were the ones who got the worse end of the deal,” Ketu says. He’s got some sort of panel open, and is busy adjusting things with some kind of glowing tool. “This ship isn’t exactly what I’d call a prize.”
“Don’t insult her,” Mags says, handing him another tool when he holds out his hand.
The drell glances over at her with a smirk. “You were just calling it a piece of shit this morning!”
“I’m one of the owners,” Mags says matter-of-factly. “She’s a piece of shit, but she’s my piece of shit.”
“How’s it coming?” A pair of boots appear beside the ship. Mags crawls out from underneath the Daybreak, wiping some of the filth off on her pants. A quarian stands in front of her with one hand on her hip. Mags knows Raela is impatient to be off; they have a job out in the Terminus Systems that they need to hop on. “Will we be able to leave soon?”
“Define ‘soon’!” Ketu calls out from underneath the ship.
“Soon; adverb. Definition: in or after a short time; alternatively, used to indicate one’s preference in a matter,” says a synthetic voice, seemingly from nowhere. Raela looks visibly exasperated. She taps her suit.
“That’s not what he meant, Tick, and you know it,” Raela says.
“Apologies, Creator Raela,” it replies. “And to answer your question, at Ketu’s current rate, he will have the ship back to 84% functionality within an hour and a half-”
“That’s a number I can live with,” Raela says, shrugging. “The others should be back soon- knowing Nyx they bought the entire market.”
As if on cue a krogan enters the dock and walks towards them. He carries a large metal crate of supplies on one shoulder and five bags of God knows what in his other hand. He’s followed by two humans carrying even more supplies. The krogan drops the crate beside the ship and looks at the others.
“We about ready?” Trendok asks.
“It’ll be another two hours,” Raela replies, setting a hand on her hip.
“Where’s Nyx?” Mags asks.
“She went to go find the twins,” Kelvin replies with a shrug. He looks toward the other human, whose face is hidden by a mask. “Dante was going to go with her, but someone started giving him shit about keeping his face covered.” He pauses. “Then they asked ‘what are you, a suit rat?’ and he punched him.”
“Good man,” Raela says, smirking. She glances towards Mags. “I’m so glad we took him on.”
From there it’s just a matter of loading the Daybreak. They have a couple month’s worth of supplies; it means they won’t have to dock for a while. It also means that their resources are almost drained. The Crimson Novas generally live from job to job. Scraping by. But it’s not about money. It never has been.
As they finish loading the ship, an asari and two identical turian women approach the ship with even more supplies. Mostly dextro food; Avinaria, Novitana, and Raela have to eat, too.
“Are we almost ready to leave?” Nyx asks, looking towards the others.
“Gimme another thirty minutes!” Ketu yells from underneath the ship.
“Negative; it will be another fifty-two minutes at minimum,” Tick says.
“Wanna bet?” Ketu pokes his head out from under the Daybreak.
“Negative; you are without proper funds,” Tick replies.
“Hey!”
“It’s not wrong, babe,” Mags says, fighting a smile. She leans against the ship and ignores the betrayed look Ketu is shooting her. He disappears back underneath the Daybreak, grumbling under his breath. She stands and watches Trendok and Dante load up the last few crates of dextro food. Everyone else is happily going about their business. Raela has vanished on to the ship, probably to make sure everything else is ready for their departure. There’s chatter and people running back and forth. It’s a familiar, comforting sort of chaos. Mags smiles to herself as she watches them.
Then she notices the asari.
Mags recognizes her immediately. She wants to run, to hide, to leave, but she knows that she’s already seen her. So she stands there, frozen, her arms crossed over her chest.
The others notice her too. The activity pauses. No doubt they all recognize her. Dr. Liara T’soni is something of a celebrity these days. All eyes turn to Mags, silently asking what she wants them to do. But she ignores them. Ketu pokes his head out again to see the cause of the sudden silence. Upon seeing Liara, he scrambles out from under the Daybreak and goes to Mags’s side. He grabs her hand and squeezes it comfortingly. Liara approaches somewhat cautiously, glancing at all of the people watching her.
“I told you not to follow me,” she says.
“I know,” Liara says. She glances around at her crew. “A diverse group you have here.” She pauses, looking towards Mags. “I don’t mean you any harm. Any of you. I was just…curious.”
Mags lets out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. She glances at the others, who still have not moved. “It’s fine you guys.” She squeezes Ketu’s hand. “Really.”
They look at her skeptically for a moment, then slowly return to the tasks at hand. Ketu takes a bit longer. He looks at Mags with concern. She offers him a comforting smile and kisses his cheek. “Go on; you have a bet to win.”
He lets go of her hand reluctantly, and she motions for Liara to follow her. Once they are away from the docks, Mags doesn’t quite know what to say. She just stands there, digging her heel into the ground. Waiting.
“You cover your tracks pretty well, I’ll give you that much,” Liara says finally. “It took me this long to get a solid lead on your location.”
She bites back her annoyance. There was a damn good reason she’d been careful about covering her tracks. The news got out that ‘Commander Shepard’ was a hoax fairly quickly. In the firestorm that followed, people wanted the clone dragged back and arrested for impersonating their hero. Half of the credits she’d taken from Shepard’s account had been spent on bribes, trying to keep her surgeons on Ilium quiet. Even then, they blabbed. She ran to Omega- and that’s where she met Raela.
Ever since she’s done all she can to hide her connection to Shepard. The doctors on Ilium managed to change her jawline a bit and her nose. She wears contacts to make her eyes look blue rather than green. She keeps her hair dyed black, and has found she prefers to keep one side of her head shaved short. Her plethora of tattoos also helps disguise who’s DNA she shares; people tend to focus on them rather than her face sometimes.
“I know why you ran,” Liara says suddenly. “We all do. We all understand.”
That’s a relief, at least. She looks away. “I never meant to hurt anyone. I was just- I was just trying to do what I was meant to do. But I wasn’t meant for that.” A small smile comes to her face. “I’m more than just spare parts. I’m more than her replacement.”
“I’d hoped…” Liara glances away. “I…apologize for how things happened. I presumed your intentions were purely malicious. Our first encounter-”
Mags holds up a hand to stop her. “You had every reason to do what you did, Liara. It’s over, it’s done, it’s in the past. I don’t hold a grudge.”
“You seem to have done well for yourself, at least,” Liara comments. She smiles. “The Crimson Novas have crossed my desk a couple of times before. A diverse task force of mercenaries for hire with a strict moral code. You’ve done good work.”
“They’re my family,” Mags says, smiling slightly.
“Do they all know…?” Liara asks.
“Yeah.” She’d cried a lot after telling them. Not one of them – not a single one – had given a damn. And that meant the world to her. It still does. “We’ve all got nothing. Trendok lost his entire clan in the Reaper War. The twins lost their mother and most of the people in their unit. Nyx was on Thessia. Kelvin was on Earth. By the end of the war Raela only had Tick. Ketu never had much to begin with. Same with Dante.” The tears start to come, and she wipes at her eyes. “We all had nothing, but now we have something. We’ve got each other.”
Liara sets a hand on her shoulder. “I’m glad you’re doing alright. I’ll let the others know.”
“How are they doing?” She stands there and listens as Liara lists off what everyone is up to. She’s pleased to hear that most of them are doing well. Even Garrus seems to be doing alright; she still feels a familiar pang of guilt whenever she hears his name mentioned, however. “Could you…tell him I’m sorry. I…I can’t imagine how bad it hurt him to realize she was really gone.”
“It was…definitely painful for him,” Liara admits. “And for you; he said you were very…attached to him.”
There’s that guilt again. “I thought I loved him.”
“You thought?” Liara raises an eyebrow.
“I didn’t. I just- I saw how happy he and Shepard used to be. And I wanted that. I wanted somebody to love me the way he loved her,” she says. “I just wanted someone to care. And Garrus was…there.” It sounds so awful to say it aloud. But it’s the truth. She hadn’t loved him, not really. She certainly cares about him; he’s a good person. He made her laugh. But Mags knows what love is now. And it isn’t that. “I used him, and I’m sorry. Tell him that, will you? Tell him Mags is sorry.”
“Mags.” Liara repeats the name, the surprise evident in her voice. “I…of course. It was foolish of me to think-” She sighs. “Can we start over?”
“What do you mean?” Mags asks, frowning.
“I know Shepard would have cared about you. She tried to save you,” Liara says. There’s still a distinctive sadness in her voice whenever she speaks of her fallen friend. For a moment Mags considers telling her everything – that Shepard isn’t truly gone, that part of her is living on through Guardian – but she knows that Liara won’t believe her. Who the hell would? “She’d want you to be happy. And she’d want me to get to know you. As a person. Not as her clone.” She takes a deep breath. “So let’s just…start over.”
Mags raises an eyebrow. “You’re suggesting we…what? Be friends?”
“Why not?” Liara asks.
The idea makes her slightly uncomfortable. She’s worked so hard to separate her life from Shepard’s. Striking up a friendship with Liara would mean that, once again, their lives would intersect. But…perhaps that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. She’s not just Shepard’s clone now. She’s Magdalene. Not Jane Shepard, not Shepard’s clone. Mags. Co-founder of the Crimson Novas and the owner of a piece of shit ship known as the Daybreak. And she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I’d like that,” she says, smiling slightly. She holds out her hand. “I’m Magdalene. All my friends call me Mags, though.”
Liara smiles as well. “Liara T’soni.”
“Mags!” Raela appears from around the corner. “Mags, we’re ready to go.”
“I shouldn’t keep you,” Liara says. “I’ll be in touch.” She pauses and adds, “Mags.”
She nods and turns to go towards Raela. Then Mags pauses and glances back. “How did you find me, anyway?”
“I got an anonymous tip,” Liara says, shrugging. “From someone who only referred to themselves as Guardian.”
Mags bites back a smile. “Well. See you around, Liara.”
“See you around,” Liara says.
With that she and Raela start walking back towards the Daybreak. As soon as they’re out of earshot, Raela says, “Ok, what in the hell was that all about? What did she want?”
“She just wanted to clear the air,” Mags assures her.
“That better be all she wants,” Raela says, glancing back over her shoulder. “I don’t want anyone giving you shit for whose DNA you share.”
Mags smiles slightly. As they approach the Daybreak, Ketu is waiting outside. He brightens up considerably when he sees her. “What’d she want?”
“Nothing, apparently,” Raela says. She goes to climb into the ship. “Come on, you two. We have shit to do.”
Ketu grabs her hand, holding her back from going into the ship. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine, Ketu,” Mags says, smiling slightly. She wraps her arms around him. They both smell like fuel and grime. But she doesn’t care. “She just wanted to clear the air, that’s all. I doubt she’s going to give me away.”
He sets his hands on her hips and kisses her. “Good.” Ketu smiles. “C’mon. Let’s get moving before Raela has a stroke.”
So they climb into the ship. As soon as they’re on board, the door closes behind them. Tick’s voice echoes through the Daybreak. “Preparing for launch. Destination: Sigurd’s Cradle. ETA is twelve hours. Number of predicted relay jumps: three.”
Mags heads to the cockpit and takes a seat beside Raela. The ship moves away from the dock and begins accelerating toward the relay. As they approach, her friend glances towards her. “Ready?”
“Ready,” Mags says.
With a chuckle, Raela accelerates. And in the blink of an eye, they’re gone.