Chapter 122: It's You When I Look in the Mirror

=== Summary ===
Captain “Commander” Shepard comes by her sharpshooting skills quite naturally. Both the Shepards and the Minkowski’s have a long, long history relating to their aptitude with guns, and accurate eyesight. And the living members of the family have been busy.
Hannah Shepard is extremely distrubed by Hackett’s current refusal to tell Shepard the truth about Aelianus’ assasination attempt- enough that it is affecting her shooting. She thinks back to her and Robert’s discussion on his last undercover assignment as well as all her regrets and loneliness.
Hackett grills Shepard on her relapse in her own mental health, and demands to know why she shouldn’t be put back on medical leave. Shepard points out that she spirals while on leave- she needs something to fight for. She asks for three weeks to get into fighting shape and pass her physicals. Hackett gives her the time she’s requested, but adds that if she fails, he will be forced to transfer her file out of active command due to “misusing the Alliance’s best resources on both sides of the equation” otherwise. Shepard, rage apparent but under control, tells Hackett plainly that she is going to crush her recertifications, because the day she takes a non-feild commission will be “the day I die”.
Robert Minkowski assassinates the asari matriarch in charge of delivering supplies to one of the few metropolitan centers not under Minos’ control. Shortly afterward, the asari that survived are run off-planet, and another city raises Minos’ banner. 
Shepard trains for her recertifications, camouflaging drawing power from her nodes, though she does feel better. With Verity’s help, she has been eating more often and sleeping more, though the headaches have lingered. 
On the day of the gauntlet of exams, Shepard is feeling very good, and shocks the people evaluating her. When she goes in for her firearms recertification, she is thrown into a holo simulation of the run up to the Crucible. Unlike the actual fight, her disruptor ammo acts like it has been cranked to 11. She flies through the simulation, almost adrenaline drunk, like a force of nature. The simulation reacts by throwing so many troops at her, they can’t even move. But Shepard feels like a million bucks, and her mind is calm.
=== Title Meaning ===
=== Easter Eggs ===
==== Discord Highlights ====
istie being the opposite of reassuring, Taken starring the Shepard-Vakarians, and new MELE players discovering that the fish die.