She held the gun steady against his head. Reyes Vidal stared back at her with those golden eyes that used to make her weak in the knees. Now they just made her angry, and anger got shit done. There was so much more at stake then them and power. She would use him as he had tried to use her months ago. The changing game of chess between the two of them. She was a queen and he but a king with limited moves.

"Ryder," Reyes tried rolling her name like he used to. "I do not know what you are talking about."

The bit of familiarity threw her off but a moment. "You have the cipher I need.." Sara pressed. "Don't insult me."

Hello, Mr. Vidal. SAM traitorously piped up.

"Hello, SAM." Reyes ignored her talking to the AI who inhabited her person.

"Don't be difficult, Reyes. It would be better for the both of us if you just give me what I want. I'll leave you to your trinket sol-" Sara began.

Reyes crossed his arms and looked at her. He slowly raised his arm and moved the gun away from his head. "You are not going to shoot me." He stated firmly as if he knew her intentions or at least knew her. "That is not your way. I finally know that."

"About time you figured it out." She breathed.

"Why are you HERE Sara?" He said her name. Reyes rarely said her name unless he was serious.

"The Cipher." She responded.

"What Cipher?" Reyes smirked. She could feel him toying with her. Perhaps that had all it been with her a toy for his games.

"Just give me the damn thing and I'll go." Sara smiled at him putting the gun back into her holster. "I can kill you before any of your men get here."

"And yet the last time you were in that position you let me live." Reyes played her. He played her instincts and her desires. He knew her in the dark corners of her soul and the drive she had. The one that said to believe even when all signs point against it.

"I didn't want to clean the blood out of my shoes. Again." Sara jested making light of the political situation she found herself in. "I need two things. Kaetus and the cipher. Kaetus will buy you freedom from Sloane's aggression and the cipher will have me stepping in if the Initiative tries to come for you, and after your sniper got bagged… they will-"

"That wasn't us." Reyes cut in.

"I know that. You know that. The Initiative? Doesn't see the Big Guy." She looked at him pointedly.

"And if my contacts are to believed you do not stand with them as much as you used to." He sneered.

"Fair enough," She offered, "I withheld information from the Initiative. I understand their feelings. This is bigger than all of us."

"Then why would I even want to assist you, Ryder?" He purred. "It could end with me and mine killed."

"Because if I get what I need from you I will be able to translate something that will help us find the Quarian ark," She lied. It was a small lie to be sure. It wasn't entirely wrong. What he could provide would lead them to the information they needed. Sloane would give her what she wanted. Sloane would give them what the Initiative craved. Their future now laid in the hands of a man that betrayed her.

"Tsk. Tsk." Reyes responded. "You don't think I know that Sloane already has the Quarian distress buoy? Now, Pathfinder, what can you offer ME that my men can't already give me?" Reyes raised his eyebrow.

"Well, they can't kill you right now… but I can." She gave him her killer smile. "Close quarters with a vanguard, tsk tsk Reyes. Thought you would know better by now."

"You wouldn't kill me for the same reason you didn't kill Sloane." Reyes responded shakily. "We've been over this."

"Are you sure about that?" Sara played along. This was a game she was long used to: the touch and go of blame. It was something her father taught her too well. "I don't see any snipers in this room."

"He's dead." Reyes said softly.

"Vouna made it back then?"

"How the fuck did-"

Sara pulled out her gun again and held it by her side. "Dixon pleaded for her life and she granted it. Whose the Big Guy that was working with Doctor Zenari? The one that killed Kandros? And Dixon? And why did he let you go?"

For a moment he wasn't Reyes. His stance, his posture changed. He was the furthest thing from the man on the docks as his eyes met hers. Reyes in that moment was not a man she had known. Not even in their brief interludes. This was a part of him he had kept separate from her, and buried. "Sara." He said her name, and the weight of it fell on her.

"I need to know." She pleaded. Sara did not know if she pleaded for him, or her, or all those who died over the promise of Andromeda.

Reyes shook his head and looked away from her.

Mr. Vidal, SAM spoke when neither of them could.

"Please." Sara begged. "Think of-"

"When you betrayed me to Sloane." Reyes spat. He was a wounded animal lashing out.

"I did not." Sara stood firm. "If you told me… if I had known I would have sided with you."

"No. Sara Ryder." Reyes whispered with all the weight of dreams long past. "You would have done what you always do... the right thing. No matter what the cost."

Something inside her snapped. Something that made her think this man who she had loved against all reason would have seen her, but no she was the same thing to him as everyone else: a means to an end. She was the child of a pariah who hoped for more. She was exiled. She had given up everything to come to him and ask for help. It burned, it ached inside her and it clawed through her being the feeling of abandonment.

Reyes Vidal was not prepared for when her fist hit his face. He reeled back and looked up at her as the bruise blossomed. Reyes looked as if he could not imagine a world where she had caused him the cuts on his body the same way she did on his soul. "I took out the Archon. I did everything the Initiative asked of me. I did EVERYTHING you asked of me, except step aside while you murdered a woman in cold blood." Sara spat angrily as the emotions she had pressed beneath the surface came spilling out. "I should have shot you. MY team would have shot you if I did not stay their bullets. You would have left that duel in a casket if I charged that fucking..."

Mr. Vidal I insist you cooperate with the Pathfinder. It would be in your survivals best interest. SAM interrupted.

"But you didn't." Reyes ignored SAM watching as Sara stopped. "You didn't then and you won't now. You aren't like us Sara Ryder, and I hope you never are." The sadness within him spread across his face. "My men will open this apartment in a moment. They've heard everything. I have no secrets from them anymore."

Sara watched him as he moved to where the door lock was. There were no more words she could say to him to convince him otherwise.

"They will be taking you to a cell. We will get any Initiative information out of you to secure our place on Elaaden. It seems Morda still doesn't fully trust you for reasons you are now proving." Reyes gave her a smirk one that she wished she could wipe off his face. "And then we will ransom you back to the Initiative. I don't think you will fetch a price, but that AI they didn't remove from you might."

Sara, SAM said on their private line, his biology says he is bluffing.

"I know." She replied to her AI and the man who stood staring at her as if she would run or hide. Perhaps he still cared, there was a chance she could get through to him.

The door swung open as a few of his personal guard walked in. Whoever they were they dragged her out the door and towards the cells. Reyes watching as she went. She starred him back as if challenging him to stop whatever she would do to escape. He knew what she was capable of but yet he didn't warn any of the men who touched her. There was more to Reyes Vidal than she could have ever understand.

What he didn't know was that in her pocket she had the cipher. He had given its spot away with his eyes when he entered the room. It went from where his important secrets laid to where the remainder of the mount milgrom was stored. All she needed to do now was to leave, the same way he did all those months ago.

A part of Sara was almost relieved to see Kaetus sleeping on the cot in the cell. In the upgrades the Collective hadn't decided to fix the cells for this area. If she had been in charge, Sara reasoned, she wouldn't have either. There were supplies that they would need to survive that would be first and foremost. Cells for prisoners would come second.

Nothing could prepare her for the look that Kaetus gave her as she walked into the cell. It was a bit between of course and the obvious what the fuck. So she met his anticipation with "funny to meet you here." Kaetus rolled his eyes and fell back to sleep as she slumped against the wall.

Sara watched the ongoings of the guards around her over the next few hours while Kaetus slept undeterred by his new companion. Vouna, a krogan and a salarian even came by to see the new pathfinder captive. Part of her should have felt proud that she was such a big deal, but she knew after what happened that the Intiative would not bargain for her. She was as good as dead to them. If she died it would be an easier transition for the SAM node. It would slip into Cora's mind and she would go through everything by the letter

Love was not something Sara was good at, but she did love Cora. With that responsibility Cora would be ruthless to abide by Andromeda Initiateve code. She would not wish that on her friend for all the tea on the Quarian Ark. She had to protect her, from herself.

Kaetus opened his eyes in the morning and it looked like he was still amused that she was there. "How the fuck did this end up happening?" He joked.

"Well, long story… I hopped onboard a supply route. They discovered I was not so much seeds of corn and here I am." She joked.

"Spirits, its no wonder Sloane didn't like you." Kaetus turned on his back on the cot.

"My charming personalities sometimes has many victims." Sara joked.

"Trapped in the cage of your ex and you are still cracking jokes." Kaetus turned and looked at her. "Makes me think of Sloane…"

Sara could feel where the conversation was going. "Kaetus, darling," She began. "Your girl? Is crazy but she didn't deserve to go out like.. the Charlatan had planned." She offered.

"Sloane isn't crazy." Kaetus shot her down. "She's just…"

"Extreme." Sara looked at him. "I get it. She has been through more than I can understand… but… seriously she needs to chill… and I think I figured out how."

Kaetus' face changed. If he had been human he might have raised an eyebrow or a quirk to his mandibles. Sara only dated a Turian twice and was still learning all the biological differences but if she was correct… that meant he was on her side. "Sloane made a promise to me." Sara drew his attention to her. "I get you out. She'll help. SO you are like.. my end game of this mission. If I get you out…"

"Initiative still gets what it wants from Sloane." Kaetus spat. "After all they-"

"Nope. Kaetus. They will get it from me. If I have my way it help with trade routes between Kadara Port and Ditaeton. I don't think your people are worth abandoning. I didn't the first time I set down on Kadara with all the heads everywhere and I don't now. Shit maybe what you fuckers did I would have done in your stead."

Kaetus chucked. "you so fucking wouldn't have."

"No. I wouldn't have." She responded and then the sadness set in, "But my Father would have."

"Your father was an asshole." Kaetus looked at her.

"Yeah, he was." Sara said leaning against the cell. "I worry I ended up just like him. Don't you fucking say anything."

"I will." Kaetus interrupted her. "Sloane would be dead if it was your father. I knew him well enough. He would have shot both of them in cold blood to initiate a treaty between worlds."

Sara knew what he said was true. Since joining the Andromeda Initiative she had access to more of his files. The man he had been, the father he had been, neither had lived up to his reports. It was like he was a man who lived between the words. Alec Ryder could never be contained between one word and the other.

"He wouldn't have been able to do what you have done." Kaetus spoke, and it hit Sara. It was like a slap across her face, she determined, a bit of realization in a way she never expected. She had always been the one in the betweens. She was a bulwark between Alec and Scott, between her mother and death. Sara had been the center of the storm as she brought them all safe to harbor. It was what she was now. Sara had taken who she was and become the center of a storm to the Heleus cluster. Sara never knew how to be any other way. She was their honor roll student, she was the class president, and leader. She was everything that made them look away from Scott living his life as he needed to.

All she wanted was to study ruins. She never expected to become them.