AN: Mass effect belongs to Bioware not me. Warning there are spoilers with Mass Effect 1 and 2.
Explosions rocked a quiet neighborhood awake and a small little girl jumped from her dreams. Her father runs in the room and pulls her out of bed by her right arm in his other arm was a military grade assault rifle. He pulls her into the closet and makes her crouch down as her mother runs in with another high grade rifle in her hands.
"Stay here and be quiet. Don't leave until one of us comes to get you, okay?" Her father orders as he kisses her forehead as she nods.
"We love you, Thalia." Her mother said with tears in her chocolate eyes as she too kissed her young child's brow.
Try as she might to obey her father, the dark brown child grew more scared as the gun fire drew closer. She peaked out of her closet and made a break for her door. The little girl snuck around to the ground floor of her home. Thalia went out the back door of the house and starred at the fiery red that was spread across the night sky. Curiosity got the better of her and she ran up the right side of the house to peak around the corner at the battle. That decision will forever haunt her life.
The little neighborhood was covered in smoke, flames, and dead bodies. Up not too far from their house was her parents, they were behind cover and only poking up to fire their weapons at their enemies. Her mother rose to fire at an enclosing Krogan in maroon armor when a bullet ripped into her right shoulder causing her to fall and her father yelled as he gunned down the gang member. He ran to his fallen wife, who was grasping her shoulder and breathing heavily, to hold her in his arms. Her dark haired mother pulled him down to her face and gave him one last kiss before she stopped movement. The grieving brunette man grabbed his rifle and fired wildly before he was joined by other weapons as soldiers in Alliance armor joined him. She was grabbed by a Marine to move her to a safer place but it didn't stop her from seeing her unarmored father shot down by a shotgun wielding Batarian.
Thalia screamed and struggled to get free from the soldier. Finally wiggling out of his arms, she charged towards her parents bodies as fast as her little legs could carry her. The presence of a little girl on the battlefield startled some of the Marines but she picked up one of her parent's rifles and started firing. However, the recoil of the rifle was too much for the eight year old and she fell back hitting her head. A grenade thrown nearby sent a piece of metal onto her head knocking her unconscious.
When the young girl came to, she was in a medical bay of a base with her grandmother and aunts sitting at her bed side. She noticed that all their eyes were puffy and red from crying. She tried to cry or feel something about her parents' death but nothing came. The only thing that registered as a feeling was the intense rage she felt for all who had anything to do with the attack on her home and the deaths of her parents. Across the Galaxy, the council received news of the attack on a settlement on Elysium and the deaths of retired Commander Alex Shepard and retired Lieutenant Ashley Shepard.
*16 years later*
"The rebuilding from the Reaper invasion is taking too long." Councilor Valern stated angrily at a meeting of the council.
"What do you suppose we do about it?" Councilor Anderson fired back at the Turian. "If we had listened to Shepard in the first place, we could have saved a lot of lives."
"Enough, both of you. We won't start this again. Anderson, we understand that Shepard was right and we should have listened instead of judged, but we can't change the past." Ever the voice of reason, Councilor Tevos commented.
"But what if we could? Experimental technology thrown together from tech from other species could solve problem in limited time range." The fast speaking Salarian councilor trailed off and the rest of the Council stared at him in shock.
"The Salarians have been developing time travel technology? What were you planning to use it for?" Anderson questioned.
"Unfortunate side effect but could prove to be useful, but how to use it?" He answered while wondering.
"Wait, are we actually thinking of trying to do this?" the Turian's mandibles flared.
"For once, we agree, Councilor. This doesn't sound like a good idea. There's no way we could know what would happen if we did this." The Human soldier said with certainty.
"Maybe we should try this course but we would need to send someone who could read Shepard's moves. We can't deviate from the path too much just prepare ourselves and the rest of the galaxy." The blue woman suggested.
"So, how would your plan go?" Valern sarcastically asked.
"We send someone back to work with the Commander and help guide him while we prepare ourselves." She answered.
"When exactly do you plan to send this person back? I don't think Shepard would trust just anyone, let alone someone we assigned him." The Turian was trying to stop the Asari from continuing with her idea.
"The first time he comes to the Citadel after the Collectors attack the first Normandy." The response was immediate from the only female councilor.
"You've thought long about this, haven't you? Well, have you thought of who to send? There is no one in the Galaxy that could possibly know what Shepard was going to do." Valern tried one last time.
"What about his child?" Anderson's voice cut in.
"No, she's a criminal." The Turian automatically rejected.
"She would understand how he thinks." The aged man argued.
"Perhaps sending not just one but two would increase likelihood of mission success." The hooded Salarian interjected.
"Fine, waste your time, but I'm telling you Thalia Shepard can't be trusted." Valern snarled.
AN: so tell me what you think. I don't know the Salarian Councilor's name but it is implied that it might be Valern; however, I thought that sounded more Turian.