Author's Note: Hey there! Yep, I am writing yet another story! Don't think this means that I'm going to not be working on my other stories so don't worry about any of that. It's just something that I have been thinking about for a little while now and am really excited for the idea. It's not about to get in the way of my other stories. As with all of my stories, this won't be word for word, action for action with the real story. I update stories as I see fit, not on a set schedule, I'm sorry! I am open to pairings, so let me know! And also let me know what you think! Enjoy!

Warnings: OOCness, language, murder.

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Word Count: 3,746

"Run!"

Obeying the terrified, hoarse screams of her mother, the teenage girl turned away from the scene; her mother, little brother and all the other families excluding older or able bodied men are being piled together into cages for transport by batarian slavers that hit their newly forming colony sometime during the night while the colony was sleeping.

The men littered the streets, dead or dying. They didn't want the men. Men cause problems. Men are strong. Men are dangerous. Just women, children, and boys up to their early teens. Too old and they're put down like men. All of her male classmates were put down. Boys who had yet to become men. Put down like sheep to the slaughter. There was no rhyme or reason for it. It was just senseless death.

An unstoppable massacre.

Somehow, by some form of luck, the teen had managed to slip away from the grip the slaver had on her. Her mother, disregarding her own safety, turned and slammed her body into the closest batarian to distract them from the newly freed teen. As they turned their attention to the wild woman kicking, screaming, scratching at biting at anyone who got close to her, it gave the teen a chance to run away from the center of their now seemingly tiny colony.

The girl wanted to stay. She wanted to fight as furious and hard as her mother was, but she couldn't. Her body refused to turn back around and fight, like her mother had, all she could do was run. Despite what her mother was going through to try and help her get away, the girl knew it wouldn't last long. Soon, they would be on her again with the intention of bringing her back to the fold. Capture her, like they were the rest of her colony's woman and children. Imprison her like the rest and give her a one way ticket to hell.

"Run, Jane, run!" Her mother's wails echoed off the buildings around her.

She turned down an alley, eyes widening when she heard heavy-set footsteps closing in behind her. Jane's eyes widened in horror even more as she did something she immediately knew that she shouldn't have done, she threw a look over her shoulder to see the batarian closing in on her quickly. Jane looked forward just in time to trip over a hole in the ground. She landed hard on her knees and chest, her chin burying into the dirt.

Jane quickly scrambled to her feet, ready to break into a run again but large hands grabbed the back of her large night shirt yanking on it hard. There's a loud ripping noise and Jane fell again, her hands flew out, whacking a nearby ladder, knocking over the ladder and a box of tools, bringing the batarian down with her. She scrambled again, crawling through the dirt to get away. Her blood roared in her ears like an angry krogan revving up for a rampage.

Something large wraps around her ankle, yanking her back. Jane's hand flew out toward the pile of tools, hand wrapping around the closest wrench, bringing it with her as she's dragged back to the batarian. She rolled onto her back, bringing the wrench above her head and to the side before she slammed it across the side of his face. He let out a roar of pain and pulled away. Jane jumped to her feet, giving him another whack for good measure before she turned and ran faster than she's ever ran before.

Jane ran through the twist and turns of their small colony until she reached the large chain-link fence that surrounded the colony. She quickly scrambled up the side, arms and legs burned from the exertion. But she pushed herself to the top ad over, before she dropped hard down to the dirt on the other side. She's beyond the colony limits. Past the land that the colony is built upon, she continued to run. Until she was out in the endless expanse of blackness. Jane was told, when she was young and they first came to Mindoir, that she wasn't allowed to go beyond the search lights. It was all uncharted territory past those lights. Little by little, they have expanded their territory on their new home.

Jane ran as far she could before she fell to her knees next to a dirt dune. Her breathing came out as hoarse rasps, before she fell to her side. She violently inhaled dirt. She rolled onto her back and coughed it out. She stopped moving and stared up at the stars. There was a rock sticking into the middle of her back. Her shirt had been ripped pretty bad in the back. She could still wear it, but most of her back was showing. But she didn't care. That was no where near close to being on her radar of shit to worry about at the time.

Once her breathing had finally evened out, she sat up slowly, then stood until she could see her home. There was a large carrier hovering over the colony with a hand full of drop ships on the group carrying Mindoirian prisoners up to the ship.

The teenager stared in horror as her life crumbled before her. It was like she was standing at a perch overlooking a massive drop into a pitch black abyss. Her life, her family and friends, everything that she's ever known is being poured into her fingers like water and slipping through so easily. No matter how desperately she tries to keep hold of everyone and everything she holds dear, it slipped away, falling into the darkness, forever lost to her.

Jane made a mistake. She shouldn't be there, a mile or two outside of the colony, watching as everyone and everything disappeared from her life. Never has she ever felt so completely and utterly helpless in her life. Jane was strong. She had lots of friends that followed her around and helped her out as much as she helped them and loved them as they loved her. She was independent and kind and was always doing things for others and having fun.

But now everything was falling away faster than she could stop it. Jane had no idea where her life was going yesterday when her mother was hounding her - again - to start thinking about college even though she was only sixteen, but now it looked like her life was going everywhere but where she wanted it to go. And that was with her. It's like her life and her were on two separate trains heading in two totally different directions.

Jane was on a train without a conductor and her life was being conducted by batarian slavers.

Her pain, anguish, confusion and desperation all whirled around her like a powerful maelstrom that could only be released by a scream so loud it echoed off the far off mountains. Her fingers tangle in her hair and it took all of her will power not to yank out the black locks. Anything to distract her from everything surging around wildly inside of her.

As much as she wanted to run back toward the colony and do... something to try and get back her friends and family, but she couldn't move. All she can do was stand and watch as more and more ships went to the carrier until the carrier disappeared into the atmosphere and was gone from sight completely. Jane didn't think she blinked once since she started staring. And at some point, she sank back to her knees in despair. Jane didn't know what to do now. She didn't know how to move on from this.

Jane let out another wail of pain, her voice cracking and fading as her breath ran out. She bent at the waist as she screamed until her forehead pressed into the hard stone beneath her. Jane's body went on auto pilot. It was early morning when she started moving but when she clocked back into reality, it was high noon as her foot slide on the dip of a steep slope and down she tumbled. She didn't know where she was or how she got there - well, she walked, obviously - but as she rolled down the slope, she couldn't think of a reason for her to still be alive at that moment.

Jane left everyone she loved to die. She didn't deserve to live. She didn't do anything that earned her the right to survive this. Everyone she knew and loved were being taken to god-knows-where to be forced into a horror that can't even begin to imagine.

Jane hit all manner of things in her decent. A bush, weeds, a few branches, a thorny bush and then hit a bit of a plateau overlooking a very steep drop with an undoubtedly sudden stop. Jane doesn't know if she believed in a god, but she wondered if something was out there, teasing her. Dangling this cliff out in front of her, dropping her next to it where she didn't have the will to move away from.

Her fingers curled up in the dirt as she started to cry. She cried for her friends and family. She cried for her neighbors and teachers and fellow classmates. She cried for the pain in her body and in her head and in her heart. She cried because she didn't know what else to do. There wasn't anything she could do and try as she may, she had no idea how to reverse the situation.

She just wanted to go back to the way everything was when she moved to Mindoir as a young girl. Where the world was large and amazing and her family was around her and all of the other colonists where there and they were all in this together.

Now she's alone.

There is a low groaning noise that pulls Jane slowly into awareness. She blinks the tears from her eyes as she sits up slowly, looking around for the source of that noise. There was another groan, this time beneath her. Jane looked down just in time for the chunk of earth beneath her crumbles away and falls into the darkness below, taking Jane with it.

As Jane descended into the darkness, her scream filling her own ears, she saw a bright blue flash of light, so bright she was blinded. by its intensity.

Jane was certain that she was going to die that day. At that moment, she knew it was all over. But then an angel appeared.

And Jane Shepard lived.

"Joker, set a course for Eden Prime."

"Aye, aye, Captain," Joker says through the intercom. The captain turns away from the screen to see the other two people in the room with him, folding his hands neatly behind himself, his narrow brown eyes look at the two in front of him.

One is a seven foot tall turian. His armor is typical for a turian, but all black with red lights and strips that accent the armor nicely. His plates are a chocolate brown color with his tribal markings being a shocking white against his dark face plates, making them stand out easily. The captain would never claim to be a turian expert but the turian before him has the most decorated markings that he's seen - at least in a long enough time of note - and it's hard not to be distracted by the design.

The other was a woman, taller than most of the others on the ship, but not nearly as tall as the turian, stands next to the brown and white faced alien. She had jet black hair pulled into a tight bun at the back of her head, bangs that go past her eyes are swept over to the left side with large sky blue eyes stare back at him. Her dark hair brings out the pale pallor of her skin, even in the dim light. She was in her typical black armor with a red and white stripe down the length of her right arm and the signature N7 on the shoulder.

"Anderson?" the woman calls out, looking over at him.

"Shepard," Anderson says, pulling himself from his thoughts to lock eyes with the woman in front of him. "I don't need to explain to you how important this entire mission is to humanity. Do I?" She shakes her head. "Good, get the team ready. Alenko and Jenkins."

"Sir," Shepard says, pushing her shoulders back a bit. She doesn't move right away, eyes sliding over to the screen with frozen image ingrained on it for a moment. The turian looks between the two humans mandible flickering a bit as if he wanted to say something when Shepard finally looks over at Anderson again, her eyes narrowed. "I'm going to ask her to come with me."

Anderson's eyes narrow slightly. "I agree that this would be the time, if any, to finally get her off of the Normandy, but you know her, she's particular about situations."

A crease appears between her eyes. "I know, but I've got a really bad feeling about this."

Anderson lets out a long winded sigh before nodding. "Go ahead and ask her, but don't expect me to go with you."

Shepard smiles, giving a single nod, before glancing over at the turian as if she forgot he was there. She gives the turian a single, respectful nod before turning around and leaving he room without another word to either men. There is a moment of silence that settles over the two men before the turian turns toward the human captain.

"So, is it safe to assume that this 'her' is the ghost that floats around on this boat?" the turian asks.

Anderson lets out a little huff. "That would be correct, Specter Kryik. She's quiet the slippery one."

"I like to make myself at least aware of everyone that I'm traveling with, yet people say that there is someone else here that I have yet to meet even though I've been with you all for the last week," Specter Kryik says, narrowing his eyes slightly. "But I'm assuming you know who this person is?"

Anderson nods. "I do, and she isn't anyone to be suspicious over. She's very personal and keeps to herself. You probably haven't seen her because she spends all of her time hanging out in the medbay with Doctor Chakwas. I hear that you've been avoiding there."

Specter Kryik stares at Anderson for a moment, as if thinking hard about something he couldn't understand. "I'm just going to say it," the turian says flatly. "This person is not part of the Alliance, is she?"

Anderson lets out a little sigh, nodding his head once more. "You would be right in assuming that, Specter Kryik. She's not."

"Then why is she on an Alliance vessel?" the Specter crosses his arms over his chest, staring down at the human captain suspiciously. "I'm not sure I understand. Is this standard Alliance protocol?" He blinks slowly, looking at him as if he didn't know what he was seeing.

Anderson shakes his head, sighing. "No. Not usually. To be honest, this is a special case, she's a special case." He hesitates for a moment, then looks up at Specter Kryik's for a moment, studying the tall Specter in front of him. After a long moment of debate with himself, Anderson says, slowly, voice low as if this was a top secret piece of information, "They both are a special case. But you'll come to learn that for yourself." He hesitates again, then says, looking into the turian's green eyes and says, "There is very little time since her childhood that Shepard has been alone."

Specter Kryik's eyes narrow. "What does that mean?"

"Even if she's the only one you see, Shepard is usually never alone," Captain Anderson says cryptically, a crease forming between his eyes. "If you take Shepard on as a partner and Specter trainee, you get a two for one deal." His shoulders relax and he straightens up. "Now, we should head to the docking bay, Shepard and the ground team will be ready to depart soon enough."

Specter Kryik's mandibles flop a bit, as if he wanted to say something, but didn't know what to say. His eyes narrow dangerously as the human Captain slips past him and out of the room. Specter Kryik frown unhappily and suspiciously. He doesn't like not knowing what's going on. He doesn't know how he feels about this situation at all. He doesn't like being surrounded by a sea of unknown.

Admittedly, he did walk into this situation knowing that he'd be making it up on the fly but since the day he's stepped onto the Normandy, everyone has been whispering about Shepard's ghost. The person that's not on the roster but seen walking the ship. Everyone he spoke to, no one knew how to describe this person - now he knows that it is a 'she' - but they saw her everywhere. No one knew where she came from or really why she was there. Only that this person would be seen anywhere and everywhere that Shepard was. Whatever ship she was on or mission.

But that was all speculation. No one knew anything or could prove anything, that is.

Until today, it seems.

The Specter walks down the cargo bay toward Anderson, Shepard and two other humans, Alenko and Jenkins. His steps are slow, quiet and purposeful. Alenko and Jenkins were standing off to the side, looking around at anything but Shepard and Anderson who were staring at one another, whispering quietly to one another with hard looks on their faces.

Shepard's blue eyes flicker up and she lifts her head. Her bangs fall back a bit, revealing a large, jagged scar going from her temple all the way up to her hairline just above the center of her left eyebrow. Her bangs were strategically placed to hide the scar. The Specter would never claim to be an expert on humans, but she never struck him as the type of person who cared about appearances. He could be wrong, he wouldn't it put it past himself, but he's spent the better part of this last week studying her and other than hiding the scar on her face, she's never shown any signs, at least any that he would be able to understand, that she cared at all about her looks.

"Nihlus," Shepard says, tipping her head a bit in greeting, the hair sliding back into place over her scar. "We'll be closing in on drop point in about ten minutes."

Nihlus shakes his head. "I'm going alone on this one."

Her eyebrows pull together tightly. "How are you suppose to evaluate my performance if you aren't there to see it?"

Nihlus frowns a bit. Shepard tilts her head, obviously unfamiliar with the shift in his expression, not matter how minute it was. She's sharp. "Something tells me that this mission is no longer the simple pick up it was a few hours ago. It's a lot bigger than that. Maybe the next one will be better but this mission should just be completed."

"He's right," a female voice says, literally stepping out of the shadows next to him. Nihlus' entire body freezes in surprise, nonplussed. How in the world did she manage to get beside him? Alenko and Jenkins jump at the sound of her voice and sudden appearance, while Shepard and Anderson don't look affected in the slightest by her suddenly being there.

Because she's always there, a little voice whispers in the back of his mind. That's what Anderson was trying to tell him. She's always with Shepard.

"This mission isn't like the one you originally perceived it would be, David," the woman says, stepping closer. She doesn't spare a glance Nihlus' way. She covered in a dark brown cloak that goes all the way to her feet, obscuring her body shape and clothing, and a large hood pulled up over her head, hiding her eyes from view. She was shorter than all of them, even Jane.

She takes another step closer to Shepard and Anderson and it's only then that Nihlus realized, in disbelief and horror, that there was no sounds with her steps. It was completely silent. If she hadn't spoken, he wouldn't have known she was there.

"What do you mean?" Anderson asks, looking down at the shorter woman, his eyebrows pulled together.

The back hatch opens up and the woman walks over to the edge, stopping dangerously close to the drop. The cloak whips around behind her, fluttering in the breeze, as she tilts her head like she's listening to something.

"Who's that?" Jenkins asks, leaning closer to Alenko's side, his eyebrows pulled together.

Alenko squints at her somewhat side profile, as if trying to see something about her that isn't coming easily to him. "Um... I think... I think she's the ghost. The surprise crew member. Isn't she, captain?" He looks over at the older man.

But Anderson doesn't respond. It's the woman in question. "Who I am doesn't matter, Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko," the woman says, tilting her head to the side before turning around toward Shepard, Anderson and Nihlus. Her face is still obscured, hidden beneath the long hood, but there is a frown on her lips that belies any emotion that she appears to be trying to hide. "It is time. I feel it. Even someone with a low sensing ability like myself can feel it." A single, almost unnoticeable strand of human fur - hair? Was that what they called it again, Nihlus wondered - fell before the woman's face, dangling out in the open.

And it was the oddest shade of light pink.

"It's as I've been warning you about," she says, lowering her head a bit. "The time has come. The Reapers are here. The invasion has begun."