Disclaimer: Mass Effect does not belong to me. It belongs to it's respective owners, namely Bioware.

Bio Lab, Andromeda Initiative Survey Ship Tempest, Andromeda Galaxy.
August 15th, 2819 CE.

Inhaling the smell of her plants, as she sat down on the chair behind the single 'desk' in her room and read the first chapter of Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, a gift from Scott for her birthday a week ago, Lieutenant Cora Harper sipped her green-coffee from her mug and let herself enjoy the silence, with only the quiet hum of the Tempest's engines as company.

But then, SAM's voice interrupted her peace and quiet with a question, which made her jump in her seat in surprise, "Lieutenant Harper?"

Even though shocked, Cora did regain control, lest her biotics did some irreparable damage to her room or by extension, the Tempest itself, and put her bookmark in her book before putting away and asking, "Yes SAM?"
"You have a letter".
To say that she was surprised, would be an understatement, "A letter? From who?"
A pause, before SAM said, "The letter is addressed to you, from a Captain Nisira T'Kosh. From the 207th Huntress Unit, also known as Tallinn's Daughters. Sent to you before the Arks left. I have forwarded it to your personal terminal here on the Tempest".

This statement, had shocked Cora into immediate silence, as she thought over the fact that her previous mentor, who had effectively gave Cora away to the Andromeda Initiative and had not spoken to her since, had sent her a letter.
And immediately, she asked the AI the foremost question on her mind, "How come I've not heard of this before? SAM, when was this letter sent?"
"Just now. Apparently the letter was programmed to be sent after a certain amount of time, after the Hyperion's arrival to the Nexus. For around 400 days"

And with this answer, came a pause.
A rather long pause, that went on for so long that SAM asked out of concern,
"Lieutenant Harper?"

Remembering that SAM was also still present, Cora shook off her shock and paused before saying, "Alright, thank you SAM. It's in my personal terminal?".
"It is. And you're welcome, Lieutenant Harper".

And as soon as SAM left, or at least, she presumed that he did, Cora went straight to her personal terminal and accessed her private messages, finding a message from SAM that was no doubt forwarding the letter to her personally.

Opening it, Cora began reading her old mentor's letter, scrutinising every bit of it.

To: Lieutenant Cora Harper, Systems Alliance (on attachment to the Andromeda Initiative, Pathfinder Team, Ark Hyperion).
From: Captain Nisira T'Kosh, Commanding Officer, 207th Huntress Unit.

Cora, not a day goes by, when I see the look on your face, after I told you to go and join the Andromeda Initiative.

I know that you were hurt, and you wanted to stay with us, presumably for the rest of your life.

But while I regret that you were so hurt by my actions, I stand by my decision to let you go.

I just need to let you know the reasoning behind my reasons and my actions that day.

When you arrived as an Cross-Species Exchange Officer into our unit, you were quite a change from the usual recruit that we usually got, some young maiden with her head in the clouds about the romantic fantasies of being a Huntress. I still remember all those various reactions from the team.
I remember when Janae was excited that she wasn't going to be the youngest member of the squad. I remember when Kalia was really welcoming of you and starting to share stories with you in no time at all, and when Valenza was eager to talk with someone who wasn't an Asari, but yet had an eager to learn more from us.

I also still hold dearly, the memory of our first mission together. When we were assigned to take down a slaver ring in the Terminus Systems, that were targeting Asari colonies.
We took a ride on the cruiser Athame's Illuminated Path for the trip and spent around three days bonding with one another. Then we arrived at the slaver base, and the mission went successfully, as you probably remember. We fought the slavers, freed the slaves and rushed to get to the shuttles as the base exploded around us.
Then the Turian slaver leader was about to draw his pistol on Janae, and you jumped in front, emitting a barrier before throwing him across the room and breaking his neck.

And thus began, the team as we knew it. Soon enough, you were fitting right into our team, as if you had been with it from the beginning.
Tethys was now warming up to you, even though she would have never had admitted it, and both Kalia and Valenza had us toast to a successful task working together.

Never had I expected a human to click so right into a Huntress unit.

We saw through some very successful missions through the years, and they were some of my fondest memories. Seeing the lot of you, bonding together? All over the years? They will always be one of my best memories that I'll cherish for centuries.

Then I saw, over time, that you were taking to our customs and our way of living, and while I was glad that you were getting accustomed to our ways, I was worried.

Because the truth is, you aren't an Asari. You are a human. And I think you were in the stage of forgetting that, in favour of staying with us. And I did not wish for you to forget who you are.
If you had stayed with us, and with the Asari for the rest of your life, you would have forever been an outsider amongst us, Cora.

The more adept term that humans have for this, would be the black sheep.
You'd have been a black sheep forever if you'd had stayed. A human soldier-turned-Huntress who wished she was an Asari. And you deserved better than that.

And truthfully, you were too much into our customs and beliefs to realise that the Asari are not the all-perfect species of the galaxy that the Matriarchs would like everyone to believe.
Sure, we may be the most dominant and powerful species in the Citadel, but underneath the facade, we are the most selfish, most prideful, most vain species in the galaxy. We did not get to the top of the Citadel by being nice and diplomatic. We achieved it by being the most ruthless, most cutthroat and most sinister climbers in the galaxy, political or otherwise.

And I did not wish for you to find that out the hard way if you had stayed. So, I made a hard decision, amongst many I've had to make these last years.

I let you go.
By pushing you away, and having you join the Andromeda Initiative.

It was not easy. And despite the fact that I was doing what was best for you, it was heartbreaking to see the look on your face when I told you.

I only hope that you find it in your heart to forgive me, and move on, so you can find yourself a place in Andromeda.

May the Goddess guide you.
-Nisira

A pause, as Cora looked upon every word and imagined the voice of Nisira, her mentor and mother figure, saying it.

Her eyes watering, she wiped her eyes and sniffed as she looked upon her mentor's letter.

Nisira's comment on that the Asari were not as they seemed, oh how true she knew that to be.

She remembered that whole debatcle on the Leusinia, when they had discovered Sarissa's role in Matriarch Ishara's death.
"You were her tiamna, Sarissa, you knew exactly what was expected of you! You're supposed to stay faithful, even when all..."
"Oh, please, Lieutenant, save that for the bloody maidens. Those legends, they're all just romantic make-believe stories we make up for the little ones, to tell them that the world's all perfect when really, it isn't!"

Wiping away another tear, as she remembered the shock she felt afterwards that continued to stick with her even after the Leusinia had managed to get to the Ark safely, Cora looked around the Bio Lab and felt it was too quiet, even with the accompanying hum of the Tempest's engines occupying the void.

So, she asked for the only person who could help that, the one person whom she could find comfort in.

"SAM?"

There was an initial pause, until SAM asked, "Yes, Lieutenant Harper?"
"Is Scott busy?"
"No. He's currently in his quarters, having just finished a call with the Nexus to Director Addison. Do you want to patch you through to Scott?"
Nodding, before remembering that SAM could not see it, she then said, "Yes. Please".

And once SAM had excused himself to send the appropriate summons, Cora breathed in and out, in order to calm herself before she told Scott that she needed him to be there for her.

Soon, Scott's voice came on, "Yeah Cora?"
In a shaky voice, she coughed slightly, before she asked, "Urm, hey Scott, could you come here to my quarters, please? I could, erm, use some company".

And in no time at all, Scott responded, "Sure. I'll be right there".

2 minutes later and the doors to the Bio-Lab opened.
And in came Scott, who upon seeing the state that Cora was in, immediately felt concern take over as he came over to her side, asking her, "Hey Cora, what's wrong?"
Taking a deep breath, Cora closed her eyes for a moment, before she then said, "I just a received a letter".

There was a momentary pause, before he asked, "A letter? From who?"

A pause and, "Nisira".
Raising both eyebrows in surprise, Scott seemed to look like he remembered their talks, when she shared her days with the Asari, "Your old commander? From your Huntress days?"
"Yes".

Scott opened his mouth, as if he was about to ask what was it about, before he closed it, and took a look of concern at seeing Cora, and probably knew that questions could wait a bit, so instead, he simply asked, "Do you want to talk about it?"

Nodding, she then explained Nisira's letter, detailing why she let her go join the Initiative despite Cora's wishes at the time, and her very mixed feelings in regards to all this.
And at the end of all that, tears were running down her cheeks, before Cora then looked at Scott and asked, "Could you stay with me, for a bit? Please, Scott?"

There was a momentary pause, before, "Sure thing, Cora".

Soon, Cora found herself in the embrace of a young man who had had so much weight on his shoulders ever since arriving in Andromeda, having witnessed his elder sister be nearly on the verge of death with, and his predecessor and father die saving his life, and on top of all that, be tasked with being at the forefront of saving the Andromeda Initiative from disaster, and yet, managed to do so well, despite all the challenges that were thrown at him.
One of the reasons that she felt drawn to him, she reckoned, as Cora leant into his embrace.

And in that embrace, she was still feeling the weight and drain of her emotional state, but, as the seconds drew on, much lighter as the weight and drain started to lift.

Smiling slightly, she whispered, "Thanks, Scott".
Giving a light kiss on the head, Scott said simply, "Anytime, Cora. Anytime".

Oh, man, I thought I'd never get this completed!
So relieved to finish this up.

Even though Bioware have stated that they've practically put Mass Effect on hold, I still have faith that they'll go back to Andromeda one day.
It'll probably just be a while before they even get to the sequel, and they probably just need some time to get back on their feet.

This one shot was thought up after listening to Cora her story with the Asari Commandos, and when Nisira urged her to leave for the Initiative, as well as looking at her loyalty mission when she learns about Sarissa.

Anyways, don't forget to leave a review whenever you can, and see you next time!

(Update 09/11/18: Just did a initial clean-up. Added a few more words in, and tried to not make this one-shot feel a bit 'disjointed'. Special thanks to
jerseydanielgibson for pointing this out, and hope this clean-up meets with your satisfaction)