This is an on-going episodic story set post-ME3. Contains FemShep, an AU ending, OCs, no romance (yet) and generally will update as and when I feel like writing a new chapter.
The Citadel was vastly different now from the last time she'd been here, Shepard noted. Or the last-to-last time even, Catalyst be damned. Once these corridors had thronged with refugees and soldiers, but now they were emptier than ever, most diplomats retreating to their homes to help out with the post-war rebuilding efforts. The human councillor's office, once home to that rat Udina, was dark and dusty. She had heard there were some talks about replacing him back at home, but with Earth still devastated, and the only real leadership coming from Hackett and what remained of his fellow senior officers, she didn't think it would happen for a while yet. Elections would need to be held, strategic decisions to be made, all of which was being put off while simple problems of healing, feeding and housing those who had been displaced and caught up in the Reaper attacks were tackled.
She looked further down the corridor, where only emergency lighting was flickering fitfully. They hadn't wanted her on her feet so soon, but she'd felt like she was going crazy cooped up in that hospital bed. Shepard leaned back against the wall and looked down at her hands, at the fine pattern of scarring that webbed them. They'd said she had only been half-alive when they had pulled her out from the rubble of the Catalyst section, a heart only just pumping thanks to her cybernetic implants. She had woken for the first time three days later, after the emergency immediate surgery, to find Jack and Garrus by her bedside, keeping vigil. The tears had come unbidden as within fifteen minutes the rest of her crew- heck her family- had reassembled by her bedside. Two by two, they had kept watch 24 hours of the day, never leaving her alone, making sure she would always have someone to wake up to. Garrus, Liara, Tali and Ash, from the old days, Miranda and Jack (not at each other's throats, for once), Jacob, Samara, Grunt, Joker, EDI, Vega, even Javik. She had lead them and looked after them, and mothered them, and chewed them out, and in turn in her hour of need they had been there.
Of course, while she had recovered back on Earth, they had gone back to work, to aid the rebuilding efforts in their own way. Garrus was back on Palaven, promoted again to another senior Hierarchy position (one he would quit soon, if what she read between the lines in his letters were any indication). Tali was back on Rannoch, helping build the geth-quarian Coalition, and occasionally taking her mask off to breath fresh air. Liara and Samara were both back on Thessia, Jack and Kahlee had re-established what was left of Grissom Academy temporarily back on Earth, Joker and EDI and the Normandy were tasked as a fast picket/courier for the Systems Alliance while the mass relays were down and so were the others scattered around the galaxy, doing what they could, but always, always staying in touch. A daily mail message made the rounds, filled with the weird and the wonderful, from Vega's awful jokes to Samara's not-so-gentle haranguing to stay within the code to Grunt's terse descriptions of the changes that Wrex and Bakara wrought day-by-day on Tuchanka. Her people. Her crew. A bond forged in the fire a thousand suns could not hope to match.
She mourned the lost, the ones she had not been able to save. Kaidan on Virmire, giving his life to ensure the bomb went off and Saren's plans were thwarted. Mordin, who sacrificed his life in saving the krogan species. Wrex's first son was going to be Urdnot Mordin. Legion, who had done the same to bring evolved identity and consciousness to geth programs. Who had made the newly-forged pact between geth and quarians on Rannoch possible. And Thane…her heart clenched, and she blinked away the tears that had sprung up at the corners of her eyes. She had known what she was getting into when they had first given into their mutual feelings, but even now her heart felt fragile when she thought about him. Kolyat messaged her from time to time, and she found some solace in keeping in touch with him. Her last living link to Thane.
Gently, she shook herself out of her reverie, and approached her destination, holding up her hand to the security pad and then standing still to let the full-body scan finish quickly.
"Spectre status recognised. Access granted."
The familiar electronic voice was strangely comforting, and the door slid open, letting her back into the Council Special Tactics and Reconnaissance office, where she hadn't been since before the assault on Earth. Unlike the rest of the floor, here there was full power and lighting, and as she walked down the corridor into the main part of the office she noticed the place was in better shape than she was expecting. And then she saw something that stopped her quite cold. There was someone else here. Apart from the business with the hanar diplomat where she'd worked alongside the salarian Spectre Jondum Bau, she hadn't even run into any other Spectres here before. Not to mention that apart from Bau, and Ash, the other Spectres she had crossed paths with had tried to kill her at one point or another.
The turian woman at the console turned around to face her as Shepard came forward. She was tall, taller than Shepard by at least a couple of centimetres, and slender. A delicate horn-like fringe, with the right one ending abruptly halfway, and large dark eyes were framed by silvery-white tattoos. She wore a well-worn suit of Kassa armour, and Shepard noted the high model Claymore shotgun strapped to her back, and the Carnifex heavy pistol strapped to her waist.
"Commander Shepard, a pleasure to finally meet you." The voice was clear and calm, and she smiled as she spoke. "Cariana Artellus, a fellow Spectre." She carefully stuck out a hand, an obvious attempt at aping the human handshake. Shepard paused briefly, then shook the proffered hand, callused human hands meeting tough turian talons.
"Hi. Luisa Shepard. Call me Shepard, everyone else does. I'm surprised to find someone here. Place was usually empty when I dropped by during the war." Shepard leaned back against the railing across from Cariana, the comforting weight of her own Black Widow and geth submachinegun clipped to her plain black and white N7 armour making her feel like she really did belong here once again. Spending six months recovering from a shattered hip, broken femur and ginormous amounts of internal bleeding made her feel incredibly rusty about coming back into the field again. It wasn't like Lazarus because she'd been awake and itching through her entire recovery, feeling her reflexes getting slow, her co-ordination dip.
"I was on Vandanus, one of Hierarchy's bigger colonies. Got caught there by the Reapers, so ended up as part of the ground resistance forces. Fun times." She quirks her jaw mandibles in an almost-smile, and runs a talon along her broken fringe-horn. "Almost lost my head to a brute. Luckily he only got my fringe before the grenade I'd shoved down his throat blew up."
Shepard grinned as she nodded, a look of recognition passing between the two women. An acknowledgment that they'd been there and done that, one that could never come from someone who'd only sat behind a desk.
"Yeah I guess a lot of us would've been caught up like that. I barely got out from Earth without having my ship shot out from underneath me." A harrowing and ugly escape, one that felt cowardly even in hindsight. Vega angry with them for running, Ashley still in accusatory mode about Cerberus, the mess on Mars all contributed to an unhappy set of memories. Still, at least the story had finished with a happy ending of sorts.
"Right. Bet more than a few were dispersed by Council orders when they realised that you were right and Reapers were fucking coming. Not many of us left now, I gather." Cariana's voice is sombre, and Shepard lifted an eyebrow in a silent question.
"Had a briefing with Councillors Tevos and Sparatus. The rump Council, I guess. The salarians will be sending someone new, and so will your people I assume. Anyway, they said there's only about 25 Spectres left. And someone still has to go around putting out the fires." There had been over a hundred Spectres before the war, but they would have been where the fighting was hottest- Palaven, Thessia, Tuchanka, and the colony worlds in the path of the Reaper advance.
"Fires?"
"Cleaning up Cerberus remnants. Hunting down Reaper tech before it falls into the wrong hands. Going after the pirates and black marketers who are taking down vital medical and supply transports and selling the goods afterwards for much higher prices. The usual." Cariana ticked them off against her talons, and Shepard felt better for coming back. Clearly there was more work to be done, and she wouldn't be caught lounging around in a hospital ward if that was case. No matter what the doctors said about recovery time.
"On a personal note, I wanted to thank you for catching that sonofabitch Saren, and putting a bullet in him. Nihlus was…more than friend once. I was deep into a mission against some major Red Sand dealers, otherwise I would have come back at once to help you hunt him down." Shepard could almost feel the heat in her voice when she spoke of Saren, and she nodded in response.
"Nihlus was a good man. Feels like a lifetime ago now, but yes, taking down Saren felt good. Felt right."
"Was a lifetime for you Shepard, if the reports on Lazarus are right." Cariana's voice was dryly humorous, and Shepard couldn't help but smile. She liked the turian Spectre, and hoped they'd get a chance to work together soon. Before she could respond, the door slid open once more, the metallic voice confirming access for another Spectre. Two in the space of minutes was a new record for Shepard, and both she and Cariana turned to face the doorway corridor once again. The newcomer was an asari, solidly built and wearing the heavy armour favoured more by human vanguards. Her skin was a deep ocean blue, and she had pale golden markings on her forehead which made her look like she was wearing a crown. A Disciple light shotgun lay clipped to her back, and a late model Mattock assault rifle peeked up over her shoulder.
"Savira!" Cariana's voice startled Shepard from her observation, and she looked over to see the turian smile and walk towards the asari. In turn, Savira was smiling back, an expression that made her grimly neutral features blossom into something radiantly beautiful. Pale grey eyes lit up as she and Cariana fell into a heartfelt hug, one clearly between old friends who had not seen each other in some time. Perhaps had not even expected to see each other. Shepard let herself fade into the background a little, giving the two of them a moment to catch up.
"I heard you were on Thessia. When everything went down there, I feared the worst." There was genuine concern in Cariana's voice as the two disengaged and she leaned back to look her friend up and down. Savira's armour was battered and chipped, dented deeply at the left shoulder.
"I was. Got sent to help look after the matriarchs, not that those old crones needed that much looking after. We were evacuating when my shuttle got hit, and went down, so stayed back to help the ground resistance. Helped cobble together some old museum piece artillery batteries to take down a pair of Reaper destroyers, and then they really decided to come after us. Basically had us in the last few days, I could feel it." Savira swivelled to look directly at Shepard, eyes conveying respect and gratitude. "Till Shepard came through and they fell over dead basically right outside the door of our so-called safehouse. Helped with security and rebuilding for the last few months, till having to deal with my fellow fucking asari all the time was driving me nuts, and then caught the next fast transport to here." Savira strode forwards to Shepard, who came out to meet her, and then grasped the offered hand.
"Shepard. Savira T'Miran. Didn't know you were awake and walking. We heard about the Catalyst and everything. Thanks. Nice fucking work." Savira's grip was strong and even, and she abruptly pulled Shepard into a hug. In turn Shepard lightly patted the back of the asari's thick armour. Savira was nothing like most of the other asari Shepard had met. She reminded her of Jack, maybe with a dashing of Aria T'Loak, with that slight craziness almost every vanguard Shepard had ever met had.
"Thanks, Savira. Luisa Shepard. And I had a lot of help and a lot of luck."
"Fuck that Shepard, you make your own luck. Alright ladies, I say with blow this joint and go get some beers. Even some of that dextro crap for you, Cari."