Disclaimer: All obvious or otherwise Mass Effect characters belong to Bioware. Anyone you know that isn't in the ME universe is mine (meaning the obvious mentioning of Shepard's siblings later)

CE 2186…1000 hours…July 17…Purgatory, The Citadel

As Commander Samantha Shepard sat in her black leather skirt there in Purgatory she continued to fiddle with her Omni-tool checking the Citadels map. She had just got done checking on her old friend Ashley Williams for the second time at Huerta Memorial Hospital and now was passing the time finding out where she may go next after she met up with her adoptive brother. She had already been waiting for him for at least an hour and was contemplating leaving when she saw a figure approach from behind the hologram of the map. She moved it to see a man in a set of glossy pitch black, highly advanced armor with red stripes that angled down his shoulders to his feet standing across from her table.

The armor was an amalgam of modified parts of ones she recognized; the shoulders were most likely of Hahne-Kedar but they were thicker, the power cells inside most likely pumping out twice the power to his weapons. The legs were originally Serrice Council made, but had since been modified specifically for Tech combat use so as to optimize the performance of the cells inside, causing the armored surface wires to glow slightly orange. The arms and chest were of Armax Arsenal, the arms were slightly licker all around but also had a strange add-on, a box like object that was part of the armor that extended down the length of his forearms. At its front closest to his hands a sharpened spike was mostly retreated into a tunnel in the box. The back of the chest plate, in its original form, reminded her of the armor that belonged to the dinosaur-like krogan Grunt she once had on her ship, the Normandy.

This one however had replace it entirely with a large block of metal that seemed similar to a backpack, the sides of the backpack had tanks of a glowing blue liquid she recognized as element zero, or Eezo, partially inside of it. On the front she could see many embroidered symbols starting on the right chest, exactly where her own N7 symbol was on her own armor back on the Normandy. The five symbols were in a block that covered a large portion of the front. A wire extended from the backpack up to the Death Mask helm he wore, which appeared to be the only unmodified piece of the equipment beyond the plug in slot. Its eye slots had an ethereal white glowing from them.

"You're late, Jason." She said to the man as she motioned for him to sit across from her on the rounded couch in the cubby area she was in.

"I'm sorry, Sam, I've been busy coordinating with Kirrahe over a secure channel, our special enforcements are still a little unsure of the situation and he's too busy with some classified assignment on Sur'Kesh to…." He began as he was squeezing himself into the couch, though the large block made it more difficult for him to slide in than most.

"It's fine, I get it." She assured him. "I just wanted to talk to you for a while, there's no telling if we can get through this and I just wanted to catch up."

"I guess we can, Sam, if you really want too." He said after a moment.

"Good..." she relaxed in the couch, letting her shoulder length violet hair fall from where it was tucked behind her ears as her head rested on the cushion, the club lights reflecting slightly on her light tan skin, "could you imagine this is where we would end up when we were with the Reds."

"I doubt any of us could have guessed this is where we would be now, it's not like the Reapers gave us a warning before we even got off our home world." He answered bluntly, "You never told me if you ever got over that night..."

"What does that matter?" she snaps.

"I'm sorry; I shouldn't have brought it up."

"No…it's okay…I don't think I have all the way."

"Is that why you tried to keep me from doing much when we were after Saren?"

"Maybe." she says as she looks away from the table, watching James Vega and the soldiers she talked to earlier enjoy the drinks she bought them.

"Well…do you want to talk about it…get it off your chest?" he ask hesitantly.

She sighs before answering, "I guess…maybe it will make things better, though now it seems like the past should be the least of my worries."

"Yeah, but you have to be focused for this, more so than when we were gunning for the Collectors."

She knew he wouldn't drop the subject, especially since she had let it slip that she was still bothered by the experience. She couldn't stand how he could still do that to her, make her tell him things she would never dream to tell others in great detail, no matter how close.

"I know." She sighs once more. "Well…"

CE 2172…2200 hours…April 10...10th Streets Reds base in the Atlanta Slums

Samantha sits with her Predator in her hand, the smoke filling the room as if the building was on fire. She always hated coming here. The men in this back ally whore house always stared hungrily at her and her younger sister, and all it would take is one failed mission for either one of them to end up being an offering to the filth who littered this place.

"You okay, sis?" asked the blonde 15 year old sitting next to her with a rusty Avenger in her lap.

"Yeah, Rebecka, this loveseat is just uncomfortable as hell." She lied as she shifted.

"When do you think big bro's gona be finished getting the briefin? It's not like we haven't cleared a warehouse before." Rebecka complained

Just then the door to the Reds leaders' room opened. Out stepped the dashing 18 year old that she recognized as her adoptive older brother Jason.

"Fox, Tigress, let's go." He said seriously as he made his way towards the halls that lead through the front rooms and to the exit

"Oh goody, where are we going brother? That took waaaay to long to just be a warehouse heist brief." Rebecka said excitedly as she hopped up from the couch, replacing the Avenger to the holster on her back.

"Not here little one," He answered calmly, "too many places enemy gang members could hide."

As they grew closer to the exit she could hear the sound of rain outside.

"Great, so now were gona have to do this in the rain." Samantha complained.

"I thought you liked the rain sis?" Rebecka asked

"Yeah when we can use it to bathe not when we're on a mission, now I won't get a bath for at least another week and the rains gonna make me smell rancid with all the smoke from this dump mixing with my hair." She pouted.

Jason chuckled as he opened the door to the ally. The rain poured hard outside reminding Samantha of a vid she had found of Kahje, the Hanar home world, in the burned school across from the abandoned apartment they lived at. As they stepped into the heavy rain it quickly soaked through their cloths. The two girls huddled next to their brother's side to keep warm until they got to their destination.

Jason put his arms on their shoulders and they turn the corner from the ally to the sidewalk when Rebecka asks, "So can you tell us now where we're goin and what we're doin?"

"We're going to the warehouse district to Warehouse 58," he answered quietly, "It's supposed belong to a man named Henry Lawson."