#altverse || the kids with the big big plans ( shepard )

[anderwhohn]

@blitzbefallen asked: "I'm so tired of feeling like I'm constantly disappointing everyone around me." — from Astrid to Izzy

There's a slight smirk playing at Isabela's lips when she leans in to dramatically and deliberately poke Astrid sharply in the shoulder.

"You feel human to me," she quips with a wink before casting a look around to make sure no one's paying them too much attention. "But hey, you know you're not disappointing Hannah, or Anderson, or me, yeah? And I'd bet no one on this crew is disappointed in you. So, who else matters?"

"And if you say Udina, then I'll be disappointed in you. And I might have to disown you. Sorry, fam, but that's just too much for even me to handle."

[anderwhohn]

"I told you, you know," Isabela notes wearily as she slips around the bar, digging through the stash until she finds the bottle of Noverian rum that she'd... acquired the last time they had to stop on that frozen corporate hellscape. Pouring them both a generous glass, she slides one to Wren with a pointed look. "But nooo, you just had to be the Alliance Princess and let them chew you up and spit you out when they were done with you..."

It'd been a main source of arguments between them for years, aside from the usual stuff that comes up between siblings. Her own refusal to stay with the Alliance itself after one too many missions going south certainly hadn't helped matters, even if she did drop everything to help whenever Wren asked.

"Fucking hell, Wren... Would it really kill you to just tell Hackett to shove it up his ass just once? You can yell at a fucking Admiralty Board, the fucking head dalatrass of the entire Salarian Union, the fucking Primarch of Palevan, some ancient alien that essentially created the reapers themselves, and go up against multiple Reapers on foot, but telling Hackett 'no' is too fucking much?"

                  open starter ↷

❝ It’s almost like, ❞    she leaves the sentence hanging, runs both hands through her hair. Her voice softer than usual, as she makes effort to keep it even. She’s not fine, but she can handle it; she’s not falling apart.  She’s not falling apart.    ❝ I don’t even feel like a person, anymore. Just a patched-up-together collection of every shitty thing that’s happened. And I try to mask as a human being, but... It’s fine,  I’m fine,  I just... ❞

[anderwhohn]

@bloodiedbiotic || semiplotted starter

The sheer relief of seeing Blair up and fighting again after the incident on Mars was enough that Isabela doesn't even think when she practically launches herself at her older sister despite her tactical cloak not yet having worn out, forgetting for the moment the only ones keyed into it for tracking her movement are the pair of turians on her own six as she practically wraps herself around Blair just a second before the cloak shimmers and dissipates.

"Don't ever leave me like that again," Izzy mutters quietly, barely holding back the sob wanting to escape her.

In the weeks since Blair was injured by the Cerberus mech, Izzy's had to deal with Alenko throwing a fit over Hackett appointing her as the de facto commanding officer of the Normandy until Blair recovers, dealing with the Council, having Sparatus blindside her by his appointing Nihlus as her Spectre mentor for immediate training as the second human Spectre, rescuing Palaven's primarch, double checking the mech's hardware after EDI took it over, helping EDI calibrate the mech for combat situations, dealing with even more politicians in the war summit, stopping Cerberus from blowing up Tuchanka with a turian doomsday bomb, taking out a Reaper with the mother of all thresher maws, curing the genophage, securing an alliance between turians and krogan, quietly being appointed as a Spectre so that she can continue to work mostly from the shadows, saving Jack and her biotic students from Cerberus, nearly getting abducted by Cerberus herself, and now trying to stop a coup staged by Cerberus with Udina as a puppet while chasing an assassin to keep him from killing the Council. To say she's a bit overwhelmed and stressed would be an understatement of the century.

As a three fingered hand comes to rest on her shoulder, Izzy looks up at Nihlus as he squeezes in silent reassurance before looking around at the damage caused by Cerberus. "We need to push forward - the Council is still in danger," he notes gently, a quiet apology for interrupting their reunion tinging his dual tones.

Izzy frowns, but nods slowly, holding onto Blair more tightly for just a moment before finally letting go, pulling herself back together in order to get through the rest of the mission. "Just so you know, you've got a stack of paperwork piling up on your desk," she says with a pointed look at her sister. "I figured my saving the galaxy for you in the meantime was more than enough. You get to handle the reports."

Though she knows Joker at least did most of the actual work with those after getting Izzy to tell him about each mission in an informal debrief, leaving it mostly to Blair to just sign off on everything. But she's feeling petty enough to not mention that in light of all the political bullshit she had to endure to get this far.

[anderwhohn]

@dutyworn asked: “Is this what you do in engineering all the time?” / for izzy in siblingverse

"Only on Thursdays," Isabela quips as she briefly glances toward her sibling with a cheeky grin before focusing on her task once more, half buried under a mess of cables, wires, and circuitry as she lays on the deck plating under the propulsion console. "The Normandy may be state-of-the-art, but there's plenty still that can be improved. Tali and I worked it out to where we can improve our fuel efficiency by five percent. With all the back-and-forth we're doing out here, I figured it would be worth it."

Securing the access panel back in place, she carefully slides out to the open floor before sitting up, brushing at her now dusty uniform. "Why? What did you think I did down here? Flirt with our quirky quarian guest constantly?"

[anderwhohn]

@bloodiedbiotic asked: "You don't get to disappear, then come back like nothing happened. Life moved on without you." @ Izzy, for the verse where Izzy's younger than Blair and is the Commander, set in early ME2

"Well, excuse me for being dead!" Isabela snaps back at her, an angry aura of dark energy flickering around her as she struggles to maintain control, particularly with the new, much more powerful implant Cerberus fitted her with. "I didn't just 'disappear', dammit! I. Was. Dead. I remember getting spaced - my air line was damaged, and I couldn't get the omnigel to respond to even attempt to make an emergency repair in fucking vacuum."

Panic darkens her emerald gaze as she remembers, "My suit's medical VI kept pumping me full of adrenaline and medigel, even as my air was escaping into the void. The ship was in pieces, and there wasn't anything to tether to even if that wouldn't have just likely got me completely vaporised when that ship kept attacking the wreckage. I only lost consciousness when I hit the planet's atmo and things started heating up..."

"'Nothing but meat and tubes' - that's what Taylor said was left of me when Cerberus got a hold of my body. I don't know how they did it - I've gone to Karin and let her start running tests, dammit, just to figure out what all they did, to make sure there's no trackers or explosives or hidden back doors that they could hack into somehow."

Glaring up at Blair, she gives her a hard shove in retaliation for the accusation. "So no, I'm not acting like nothing fucking happened, but for me, it's been days, at most. I mean, hell, before the attack, I was under the mako with Garrus pulling out geth pieces in the undercarriage from Ilos the Alliance team had missed when they recovered it from the Citadel while Wrex was teaching Tali how to handle her shotgun better. Then the next thing anyone knew, we were under attack, I made the call to evac, Joker was a stubbornly brave idiot who kept us flying long enough for most of the crew to escape, and I had to haul his ass into the escape pod because everyone else in the CIC was already dead because it'd been torn open by one of the first blasts."

"You think I don't know everyone's moved on without me? And I do mean everyone? One of the only reasons I'm even remotely sure I'm me is because Joker is one loyal son of a bitch and left the Alliance on just the chance that Cerberus wasn't lying. They hadn't even been sure they could bring me back yet, but he took a chance, and the moment I first saw him, walking, I ran up to him and hugged him, crying into his shoulder that I was so relieved he'd made it out alive, that I hadn't failed him when I chose to hit the emergency eject button to get him away from the ship before it was too late. The only other familiar face I had was Karin, and she immediately wanted to start poking me with needles for a checkup, so I wasn't quite as thrilled to see her in the moment."

Tears well in her eyes, though she looks away to try to hide them, sighing heavily as she continues, "But you either believe I'm me, or you don't. Regardless, I've got a damn galaxy to save, again, a new Council that's just as useless as the last one, and I don't have time for anyone else's bullshit - even yours."

"And hey, we'll be heading through the Omega-4 relay. There's a fair chance we might not make it back out, so then everyone can go back to me being dead and they'll probably stay right this time. Stars know I didn't ask to be brought back and thrown back into the front lines against the Collectors and the Reapers..."

[anderwhohn]

@bloodiedbiotic asked: "i'm still a person! they all look at me like i'm some intangible being who will save them. i'm just one person." GIVE ME THE ME3 IZZY/BLAIR ANGSTTTTT

"Hey, hey," Isabela says soothingly, closing the distance between them to wrap her arms around Blair, practically hanging off her older sister a moment later as she embraces her. "You're not in this fight alone, yeah? I'm here, and so are Joker, EDI... and even Alenko, supposedly... Vega, and the rest of the crew."

She's still not sure about all of the new Alliance crew herself, of those few who were on board when the Normandy escaped Earth - especially Kaidan, given his attitude on Horizon several months back. And then for him to bitch at Blair again, repeatedly, while dealing with Cerberus on Mars?

She had joined Joker in the cockpit to listen in on the comms while Blair and the others went planetside, her trusting Adams enough to leave things in Engineering to him while she monitored what she could from the co-pilot's chair as she's apt to do ever since the original Normandy. Things had been mostly fine up until Cerberus made their appearance and Alenko immediately set to blaming Blair for their presence on the colony.

Squeezing her tighter, she adds, "It's not going to be another Torfan, sis. You know I won't let it get like that. We'll find our people - Garrus, Wrex, Tali, maybe the rest of the crew from the last mission - and we'll save everyone's asses, whether they like it or not. You're badass like that, especially with me and Team Dextro handling the tech for you."

"And hey, if the Council tries to deny the Reaper threat now, we can just punch them, right? I call dibs on Sparatus, after the whole mess when the SR-1 went down..."

[anderwhohn]

@bloodiedbiotic asked: ❝ I feel like this was a big accomplishment, we came out of this with no attempted murder. So it's a win. ❞ if I haven’t sent this one yet, it’s for Izzy!!

"Just because there wasn't an attempt made doesn't mean it wasn't considered," Isabela notes with a baleful glare back in the direction of the Embassy. "I'm pretty sure no one would actually miss Udina. I mean, it'd practically be a public service, right? I'm certain Ambassador Calyn and Ambassador Din Korlack would be happy to be rid of the man - especially if one of them could take over his office."

[anderwhohn]

@bloodiedbiotic asked: “You’re not going to risk your life for me. I’m not going to let you.” and for Izzy because sibling angst

"Oh, so you're the only one who can take on life-threatening missions now?" Isabela snaps in return, emerald eyes glaring sharply at Blair. "Just because I'm not as strong of a biotic as you doesn't mean you get to take all the damn risks! Or are you planning on benching me now that you've got other tech specialists onboard?"

[anderwhohn]

@bloodiedbiotic asked: “You know, you keep fretting over everyone else, but you won’t even take a second to relax, yourself.” and one for Izzy ♥

A frustrated huff is all the answer she gives at first from where she's elbows deep in part of the Normandy's inner workings, swapping out one of the couplings. If only it were so easy as Blair tries to make it sound.

"If I take a second to relax, the whole ship might fall apart," Isabela retorts, only half-jokingly. You never did want the engineers to slack off when every life on the ship depends on them and the pilot to keep them safe in flight. "There's only so much duct tape and bubble gum in the galaxy, and I swear half of it's holding the fleet ships together..."

[anderwhohn]

"When aren't you a pain in my ass, Pipsqueak?" Izzy retorts sharply, her hands clenching at her side as dark energy curls around her fingers. It always has been harder for her to keep a grip on her biotics when she's angry, and now is no exception, even as she tries not to let it get out of hand.

Though the second that Wren tries to touch her, Izzy wrenches herself away, taking several steps back with a snarl in warning, the deadly aura flickering at her fingers briefly flaring all over her body before she manages to contain it again. "Don't," she growls, for a moment looking desperate for an outlet, for anything other than her kid sister to focus on her anger on. "You know not to fucking touch me when I'm..."

Shaking her head, she turns away, near stalking with the predatory grace her steps seem to take when her emotions get too high, threatening to get the best of her. There's not much in the cabin, not even in terms of space to pace, and it leaves her feeling caged.

"What do you want me to say, Wren? That I'm not absolutely fucking terrified by this shit that damn beacon injected in my head? That I don't want to murder Udina and the fucking Council with my bare hands for refusing to even take the threat Saren poses seriously, much less the whole threat of galactic extinction at the hands of the Reapers? That if Hackett calls with one more fucking errand that any jarhead grunt could handle that I'm not going to have Joker take us to Arcturus Station so I can drag the Admiral to an airlock and shoot him out of it?"

"The Alliance wanted to get rid of me, but I was too valuable to Cat-6, so they handed me over the Council to make me their problem instead. Only now, they think they can still use me to do their fucking dirty work despite my being on the Citadel's payroll. That last call? He wants me to fucking 'negotiate' with some jumped up crime lord - which, let's be real here, means he's pointing me in that direction in hopes that I'll kill the bastard."

Reaching up, she rubs at her forehead, scowling at the biotics still clinging to her hands. She knows she needs to learn better control, but she sure as hell isn't going to ask for help from either Alenko or T'Soni - not with the way they both seem more interested in getting in her pants more than anything else. Maybe Wrex... He's had centuries of practice with his, after all. But... later. Definitely later.

"It's like Finch and Belmont all over again," she finally admits, glancing back toward her sister. "Every gang around 10th Street knew that if 'Nova' was sent out to 'negotiate' with someone, that there wasn't going to be much left of them by morning. I hated it then, and I hate it more now. This shit isn't why I agreed to go through that fucking hell for ICT. Or why I didn't tell Nihlus to go to hell when he dropped that whole Spectre candidate recommendation on me out of nowhere..."

❝ No, ❞    Wren says, calmly yet firmly, hands resting on her hips as she seeks eye-contact with her older sibling.    ❝ No, I specifically feel like being a pain in your ass right now, Izzy. ❞    Too much softness and Wren feels she risks Izzy further pushing her away. Too much firmness might do the same. It’s a fine line to tread, but she’s determined to do so.

There are plenty enough reasons for Izzy to not be fine. Ever since her becoming a Spectre, ever since everything started going towards chaos, it’s been one thing after another. And, for the most part, none of it is something Wren can fix. It pains her, to see more and more trauma and baggage piling up on Izzy’s shoulders. And most people... simply expect her to carry it without complaint.

❝ Talk to me, ❞    Wren offers, gentler, reaching a hand to touch Izzy’s shoulder.    ❝ It’s just me. I know you’re not fine, and I’m hardly going to judge you for it, so just... don’t pretend. Not with me. Because if you do, well. Not that easy to get rid of me. ❞

[anderwhohn]

"It's the Illusive Dick - does he need a reason to screw everyone over?" Isabela asks in retort, emerald eyes narrowing as she looks down at her captured wrist before levelling a pointed look on Blair. "Cerberus assassin. Plus some sword wielding biotics, another biotic spec ops, and the typical Cerberus grunts."

"Udina is involved," she adds an almost afterthought. "Valern actually called about it, wanting Nihlus and me to look into it. Only when we got here, we got the SOS that Cerberus was attacking, so we helped Bailey retake C-Sec and chased the assassin here."

With a further pointed look, she smirks as she notes, "The assassin you're now keeping us from chasing, by the way, so if you're coming, you'd better hustle. Grab what thermal clips you can find along the way and let's go."

Whether either of them like it or not, this is unintentionally Izzy's mission, and it's clear in the way that she finally starts to pull away, heading towards the elevator. "Oh, and I wrecked a C-Sec skycar on the way here, but it wasn't my fault - it got stabbed by a Phantom mid-air. So don't let these two complain about my horrible driving."

Too much time had passed by the time Blair had been cleared for discharge from Huerta Memorial Hospital. Isabella's updates from the Normandy about the war against the Reapers were, well, startling to say the least. Palaven was already facing a heavy front from the Reapers, meaning that humanity was no longer alone in this fight. But asking for help didn't come without a price.

Curing the genophage, she cured the fucking genophage. Not to mention she was up close with a Reaper in that whole process. Her sister sure got reckless without Blair around to take the heat. Who the hell came up with the idea to sic a thresher maw on a Reaper?

Thoughts crash together in Shepard's head, too many to filter out in the middle of an attack. A headache is the least of her worries when Cerberus forces have taken to the Citadel en masse, causing chaos and casualties aplenty. Just what the hell was the Illusive Man trying to achieve here?

Blair had only finished clearing an area of the Presidium's market of Cerberus troopers, having invoked Spectre authority to "claim" a shotgun from a store whose owner was cowering behind the counter. Thankfully the terrified salarian didn't object. She looks over her shoulder to the upper floor where she had last seen her companion, Thane, who was no longer there. No doubt he was utilizing his skills as an assassin to blend in amongst the chaos and pick off enemies where he could.

It would have been an understatement to say that Blair was violently shocked when an unexpected weight slammed into her. If Izzy's tactical cloak had taken any second longer to dissipate, there was no guarantee that Blair wouldn't have struck her sister with full force biotics. She's barely able to register Izzy's presence before Nihlus is behind her, urging her to continue their mission.

"The Council–? Isabella, what the hell is going on? Why is Cerberus attacking the Citadel?" Blair's demand for answers force her to grab Izzy's wrist, stopping her and refusing to let her continue without her. "You are not doing this without me, Izzy. Not anymore. If the Council's in danger, I need you to fill me on while we're on the way to save them."

The reports could wait.