[A/N: While my story will follow the general flow of the games and feature some actual game dialogue, I will have quite a bit of my own artistic liberties inserted in as well to add to the characters overall stories. This is my first ever fanfic, so I hope you bear with me, and enjoy the read. Feel free to let me know what you think. :) PS: this story is rated MA for explicit sexual context. Read at your own discretion.]

Prologue

"Anya Shepard, first human spectre, savior of the citadel. You're in the presence of a hero...and a ghost."

Those words echoed Anya's ears as she stood in the empty comm room and sighed heavily, eyes closed and brows furrowed. She rubbed her temples, mumbling under her breath in annoyance. She had been surprised to see Kaiden Alenko on Horizon. He in turn was none to happy to see her. She was working with Cerberus now, a known terrorist group led by the Illusive Man, and Kaiden couldn't accept that she was only doing so to save humanity from the collectors abductions. She flinched as he had recalled their last moments together, how he had mourned for her when he thought Anya was dead. When he had turned his back on her and walked away in anger, his words had cut deep. Though now they had grown apart, she had once loved him, and his words were still like a hot knife.

"I loved you...I know where my loyalties lie..." She had hung her head as those words wrenched her heart into a vice grip while she radioed for pick up.

Kaiden was a part of her team two years ago when they were fighting against Saren, a rogue spectre who attacked the Citadel with countless geth and an ancient sentient machine known as a reaper by the name of Sovereign. They had grown close in the months before Sovereign's attack. She remembered how they had made love on the way to Ilos. When the Normandy was attacked by the collectors, it had hurt her to send him away to save the crew while she went to rescue their pilot, Jeff, who went by the nickname Joker.

She recalled watching the pods with her crew and friends shooting off through the darkness, sending Joker's escape pod rocketing to safety also mere seconds before an explosion sent her spiraling into space. She had taken a last look around at the remains of the Normandy moments before her suit ruptured, leaking out her precious oxygen. She had been clinically dead, but Cerberus recovered the shattered remains of her body from the planet in which her body crashed down on, and through a special experiment called Project Lazarus and nothing short of a miracle, they were able to bring her back.

She now commanded a newly built, upgraded Normandy with Joker once again at its helm. She was glad to have the helmsman back. He might be ornery, but his familiar face made things a little easier to accept the fact she was stuck working with someone she considered an enemy. She didn't like being on a Cerberus ship with people she didn't know and couldn't trust. Anya rubbed the still healing scars scattered across her face and shook her head against the memories of all that was and everything she lost in the last two years.

She was brought back to the present as she furrowed her brows again in irritation. The Illusive Man of course had been all too willing to pry about Kaiden and Anya's relationship. Her heart had gave a little squeeze as she stared the Illusive Man down with a stone cold expression, her eyes narrowed, her voice cold and detached.

"Your team will need to be strong, as will their resolve. There's no looking back. The same goes for you. Can I assume you've put your past relationships behind you?" He asked Anya.

"That's none of your damn business." She spit the words through clenched teeth.

"If it affects the mission, better you should leave it behind, Shepard. Once we find a way through the Omega 4 relay to the Collector homeworld...there's no guarantee you'll return. To have any hope of surviving, you -and your entire team- must be fully committed to this." The Illusive Man waved her cold attitude off with a hand, taking a drag of his cigarette.

"Let -me- worry about them. -You- just find us a way into the Collector homeworld." Anya crossed her arms and shifted her weight back on one foot. She had nodded as he informed her of three more dossiers he was forwarding to her before ending the call. She sighed, streching her neck from side to side and returned to the CIC to pick up her dossiers, checking in with her yeoman, Kelly Chambers, as well.

"Commander, how can I help you?" Kelly asked cheerfully. The bubbly red head was always in a good mood it seemed. She was a charming sort, and Anya couldn't help but like her. She almost envied the girls light hearted and carefree attitude, but also found it refreshing with all that was going on around them. Anya greeted her with a small smile.

"Is there anything I should know" Anya inquired, tilting her head inquisitively.

"You have unread messages at your private terminal. Is there anything else I can help you with, Commander?" Kelly asked, smiling softly.

"No thank you, Kelly. Ill take the messages in my cabin." Anya dismissed Kelly and made her way to the elevator, pressing the button for the top deck where her cabin was located. After dropping the dossiers at her desk and briefly glancing through her awaiting messages, Anya stood at the fish tank to admire at the colorful creatures as they floated through their glass world, oblivious to the outside world around them. As she hit the button to feed them, she let her mind wander over the events of the last couple weeks. Just barely back and it was already a nightmare all over again. When she had awoken, she was greeted with a handful of mechs trying to kill her, programmed by the very doctor who had helped bring her back to life. Anya shook her head at the memory. Now she was fighting an enemy called the Collectors, who in turn were working for the reapers. 'It's always the damned reapers' she thought, glaring at the tank.

Anya realized she had been lost in thought for several minutes, still staring into her fish tank yet not seeing them as her mind went over the last several recruitment missions. She had assembled quite a team already, one member of which she was relieved turned out to be her old turian friend Garrus Vakarian. He was also with her at the battle for the citadel when they fought and defeated Saran and Sovereign. He was a most welcomed familiar face in the sea of people she didnt know. She stretched her arms out with a small satisfied grunt and walked to the side of her bed to turn on some low music. She then returned to her desk with a bit of disgruntled mutterings as she sat and looked over the new dossiers.

One dossier was to Haestrom to aquire the assistance of Tali'Zorah Nar Ryaa, much to her happiness. Like Garrus, Tali was one of Anya's original crew before the Normandy had been destroyed. She had seen Tali back on Freedoms Progress shortly after escaping the medical facility where Anya was being brought back, but at the time, she was unable to join Anya. Anya smiled, her spirits feeling a little lifted now at the prospect of having Tali back on the Normandy. She pursed her lips in curiosity as she perused the other two dossiers. They were both on Illium, a planet in asari controlled space. One was for an asari Justicar by the name of Samara. She studied the file on the beautiful blue woman with curiosity, having never heard of Justicars before. Samara looked regal, commanding, and powerful just in her photographic presence alone.

The last file was for a drell assassin named Thane Krios. Drell were an uncommonly seen race. She had never seen one herself and she found herself studying the assassins attached photo. His skin appeared to be smooth scales, green in hue, with stripes in an even darker hue of green running down either side of his head and neck, as well as a couple set just below his full lips and eyes. Eyes dark as night stared back at Anya from the photo, and she swallowed lightly. They appeared to be pure black, and they reminded her of the way the asari's eyes turned black when they were melding minds with another. He looked cool, collected, mysterious, dangerous. There was a hint of something else she couldnt quite put her finger on as she studied his image.

Anya shook her head a bit. It was just a picture after all. She continued perusing his file, reading to herself softly. She kept finding her eyes drawn back to his photo, studying his features. She had to admit, he was quite handsome in the photo, for an alien. Growing more distracted by the drell in the photo, she leaned away from her desk, stacking the files in a pile.

"Get a grip, Shepard...you need to focus" she said out loud. She stood, walking to her bathroom to splash cool water on her face and take a deep breath to center her thoughts. She stared at her reflection for a short bit. Despite the scars from her reconstruction, and all the other battles she had been through, she was quite pretty. Her features were slender and smooth. Her sun-kissed skin was the perfect shade, not too dark, not too pale. It had the occasional almost unnoticeable scar here and there, but was smooth, all things considered, Her black wavy hair bounced just above her brow in a cute pixie cut. When she first joined the Alliance at 18, her raven locks used to reach past her shoulder. She learned quickly though that it interfered with her helmet fitting well, as well as the extra weight and length made her overheat when she was in the midst of battle. The short cut seemed to accent her delicate, pretty features well enough, so she didn't mind. She was content in knowing that while she was a soldier, she didn't look like a typical one.

The reflection of her eyes stared back at her, full of pride and determination. They were a brilliant shade of cerulean blue, as blue as the oceans of Earth. She smiled a bit, flashing a set of perfect white teeth as her mind wandered again. She wondered if this Krios would find her pretty, for a human. Almost as quickly as she had thought it, Anya waved the thought from her head as a wave of crimson colored her cheeks, splashing another douse of cold water across her face to focus. Giving one last glance to her reflection, she about faced and took the elevator down to the CIC to plot their next course.