Attention: This is a direct sequel to "Amity in the Stars" and will include all of my personal adaptations as well as items, characters, and relationships that took place throughout.

This part of Ellure Shepard and Garrus Vakarian's journey occurs during the events of ME3, includes multiple characters, and is Rated: M for strong language and adult content.

Here we go!

This is a work of fan fiction from all Mass Effect games owned by EA and Bioware. I do not claim any ownership of the characters or the Mass Effect universe. My thanks to Bioware and EA for creating an amazing story with characters we have all come to know and love.

Prologue

It had been months since he had heard from her. The days stretched long, and the nights whispered their desperation. News on the wire hailed of the terrors they'd fought so hard to stop. In every moment he only experienced the purest of nightmares. The matter of when was no longer the issue. The newest developing question was how.

This enclosed military bunker had been his home for more days than he cared to consider. With only enough space to stand in the center of the room, the back of his calves brushed the cot as he rearranged the maps, strategic plans, graphs, and stat sheets of their plight that concealed the small table. An onyx shard rested on one untouched corner. As grisly of a reminder as it was, it gave him enough conviction to endure another day. I need to know that you'll be out there fighting just as hard as I will, she had said.

Garrus Vakarian gripped the barrel of his M-98 Widow and affixed it to the back of his armor. Double checking thermal clip holsters, he opened the heavy metal door.

The hushed but cool air of Menae greeted him as he strode through the camp, scuffling through the uneven pebble ridden dirt till he located General Corinthus dutifully poring over the holographic mapping table. "Vakarian, sir." He saluted.

"At ease, General. Anything new?"

"The offensive assault is still ongoing. The Hierarchy is sending warp bombs through the relay-"

A transponder began to crackle. They shared a portentous glance as Corinthus picked it up and adjusted the tuning.

"... reports from the Exodus Cluster... were fleeing..."

Corinthus twisted the dial with trembled patience. "Repeat transmission."

"Earth has gone completely dark. Intercepted reports from the Exodus Cluster were incorrect. The batarians were not invading human-occupied space. They were fleeing. All contact with Khar'shan has died... past twenty-four hours... Urgent... Repeat..."

"Damn this radio frequency." Corinthus thumped the receiver.

"Urgent. Taetrus has fallen! Repeat. Taetrus has fallen!"

A chill crept across his shoulders. A chill that had nothing to do with the temperature of Menae tonight.

Stepping out from the shelter's overhang, he gathered with the rest of the command base's inhabitants and observed the place he'd called home for thirty-one years. Solana would be prepping the intensive care unit on the fifth floor of the hospital. His father would be rallying local civilian forces in the residential district.

He closed his eyes. Taetrus has fallen. The words would be burned into his memory. Garrus held tight to this picturesque scene. Everything was about to change.

Bone chilling reaper roars echoed in the sky.

The fight had come to Palaven.

Chapter 01: Hourglass

"What do we do?"

She drew their attention to the large screen displaying the turmoil being unleashed upon Earth. "The only thing we can. We fight, or we die."

The tiles vibrated beneath her feet as a bottomless hum encompassed the room. Her pulse fixed in her throat. "Oh my god..."

Behind the Defense Committee's perch red lightening stirred in the clouds. Reaper legs loomed over the water causing ripples to become waves. A particle beam streamed into a neighboring skyscraper and swung toward them. "Go... Go, go!"

Anderson turned on his heels. Glass and heat exploded from behind them. Metal groaned with the crack of marble. She slid to her knees, covered the back of her head, and hunched forward. The fortress of a desk breezed her shoulders, slamming into the exit. Screams of panic reflected off the walls.

As she staggered to stand another blast hit. Shrapnel propelled across the room. Lights faded away.

"Do you know what the worst part of it was? That after I had gotten past the shock of killing so many, I was thankful it wasn't you... or Tali... Joker, Jack..." Slicing the air with the back of her hand, she said, "What kind of person thinks like that? A selfish one."

A warm touch angled her chin up as he lowered his gaze to hers. "The kind of person who can understand someone else's loss. The kind of person who fights with a passion for what they love. Whether it's an individual or an entire galaxy, you do the best you can. That's all you can do. You think I went into that collector base worrying about the millions of humans I was setting out to save? I wasn't... I was only concerned about one. If that makes me a bad guy, so be it. Either way, the mission was accomplished."

"But it's different. What if the Collectors had been abducting turians?"

He sighed. "Then I would have been fighting for my people, my family, and one very important human. But, I would have been keeping myself alive just for the human giving me an incentive to see tomorrow."

"Shepard!"

"Damn it..." Ellure rolled to her hands and knees while the world refocused. Coughing and hacking, she spit red onto the floor and brushed the back of her hand over her mouth as she sat back on her knees. Head dropped, palms on her thighs, elbows bent out, she tried to gather her bearings. She had a turian to live for.

"Shepard! Come on. Get up." Anderson dropped the warmed grip of a pistol into her hand. "We've got to get moving." He spoke into his comm while sifting a path through the room's debris. "This is Admiral Anderson reporting to - anyone... Major Alenko, is that you? What's your status?"

She rose and stepped over a lifeless body. Flames licked along melted support beams and rubble, creating a stench of smoke and flesh.

Standing at the hole in the wall where gallant windows had adorned seconds ago, she watched fighters plummet through the atmosphere and streak across the sky.

The Reapers' level of force was astronomical. No amount of training could prepare someone for this.

"Shepard. Let's go. Normandy is inbound." Anderson waved his gruff hand, attracting her attention.

She nodded and set her own body into motion. Her leather boots crunched through shattered glass as she dropped out the window's shell and onto HQ's rafters.

Her path in life hadn't been golden, but she'd experienced moments worth saving. Ellure Shepard had made mistakes. She didn't always have the answers. However, she wasn't a quitter.

And failure was not an option.

James and Kaidan departed into the Normandy. Ellure stood cemented to the top of the ramp while Anderson charged back into battle. It should have been her down there.

As the SR-2 drifted, she viewed her people scrambling for safety. The boy, who'd been playing with his toy ship before hiding in a ventilation shaft, climbed into an Alliance shuttle unassisted. No one had the time to help a child or to even see one in the chaos. As the vessel lifted off, a Destroyer's death sentence was issued. Eyes snapped shut, she tried to breathe steadily. It was the first of many, she thought.

Ellure slapped the panel on its stand and the scene tapered away as the bay door closed. She regarded the returned and repaired chain of ID tags Anderson had thrown to her in haste.

It was time to keep her promise.

Gripping them tight, she pressed the cold metal to her lips before slipping the tags overhead, tucking them in her shirt as she strode through the shuttle bay. Garrus was solid. There was no way he'd go down or give up easily, and neither would she.

"Hey!" James grasped her arm and pulled her to a stop. "Where's Anderson? What's going on?"

"We're leaving. Anderson wants us to go to the Citadel and speak with the Council."

"Whoa, now. That's loco! We can't leave Earth. We should be out there fighting."

She faced him. Pointing at her sternum, she said, "You think I wanted to do this? I've already had my fair share of bartering and begging, but we don't have a choice. If you have a problem with that, I'll punt your ass out the hangar."

James' eyes tightened. "Let's do that then. Give me a parachute."

"I... what?"

"Your story is bullshit. Anderson wouldn't order that."

"We've got a job to do. Unfortunately, this is the one we were given. You can hitch a ride home from the Citadel." She continued her march up to the console and left him to broil.

The Alliance had certainly changed a few things on the Normandy, but how much? She never learned what happened to her crew. During her incarceration, James was the only person to visit her from time to time. He was her keeper, so to speak.

"Admiral Anderson. There's a message from Admiral Hackett. Coded as urgent."

His voice caused her to take pause. There was still one person on this craft she could count on. "It's me, Joker."

"Ell? What the shit?"

She smiled. "Don't be excited or anything."

"Are you kidding me? I'm fucktastic! Oh, man... What happened?"

"Anderson is giving them hell. Can you patch it to the shuttle bay console? I see they've made a few upgrades."

"Consider it done."

A small view screen sputtered. While she waited for static to clear, she began tearing through the armor locker. Where did all her gear get packed away?

"Shepard," said Hackett, "glad to see you've been reinstated."

"Only took a war with the Reapers for that to happen."

"You got off easy."

"If you say so. Looks like I've got a date with the Council."

"Hold off on that. I need you to go to an Alliance outpost on Mars before we lose control of the Sol system."

"Mars?" She shut the locker and stood over the console, hands on her hips, to stare at the scrambled feed. "Why Mars?"

"Prothean archives... I was in contact with Dr. T'Soni. This may be what we were looking for."

"Our blueprints? You think it's there?"

"I'd stake my life on it."

"Time for a detour then."

He nodded. "Don't delay. Hackett out."

The video cut off.

Ellure narrowly missed Kaidan's shoulder with hers as she passed, resorting to the first of many crates to find her armor. "Joker, set a course for the Mars Archives."

"Aye aye, Commander."

Kaidan leaned against a support beam and hooked one knee to prop his foot on his toe. Noting the hard whisky eyes raking over her, she attempted to ease the tension in the air while digging through rifles. "Am I the only one who thinks he's telling me to 'hack it out' after every conversation?"

"Mars? What does he think we'll find there?"

Peeking over the lid, she concluded he wasn't in the mood for stress relieving banter, which she should have already guessed would be the case. "While you were out playing with your biotic covert ops and becoming a major, I was picking through collector base data. Long story short, I passed it off to Hackett and Liara. We were missing an instruction manual." She slammed shut the lid. "Sounds like they found it."

"Instruction manual for what?"

"Some kind of weapon," she said, moving on to the next stack of crates.

"A weapon? What weapon? Something from the collector base?"

"Are we going to play twenty questions, or are you going to help me find my damn gear?"

"I prefer twenty questions."

She combed burgundy strands back out of her view. "I don't know what kind of weapon it is. I don't know whose weapon it is. All I know is that it's the only thing we've got."

"Why should we put all our chips in one basket?"

"If you can find me another basket, I'm game."

Kaidan pushed off the girder and stepped closer. "Are we going to discuss things or are you going to change subjects and avoid it?"

"What things?"

"Let's start with why you teamed up with Cerberus."

"I don't have time for this. If you're not going to help me find my gear, then you should get suited up. We can talk about this later." She held his gaze till he walked away, albeit unhappily, and returned to her search.

James and Kaidan gathered their artillery and armor and headed toward a small alcove filled with a weapons table, exercise equipment, and littered with gun components; a place that had formerly been a makeshift sparring ring. "Where are you two going?"

"To change," said James matter-of-factly.

She snorted a laugh through her nose and kept burrowing. "All right."

"What?"

"Nothing."

Sounding of a more level attitude, James said, "Were you hoping for a strip tease?"

"I found it humorous that it bothered you because I was in the room. You boys don't have anything I haven't already seen." Ellure winked to Kaidan. He sighed and began undressing where he stood without retort. She still knew how to push his buttons if nothing else.

James disappeared from view. "I'm not used to this yet."

Little by little, she made her way through the boxes. She found thermal clips, Medi-gel, guns, scopes, and just about every other type of protective gear except for her own. "Crap," she said as Kaidan climbed into the shuttle. It was time to settle for anything that fit and slap it on.

While plucking out a set in her size, James' heavy boots appeared beside the base of the crate. "Yes?" she urged.

"I wanted to see if you'd found anything."

"I did. Thanks... Anything else you wish to ask me?"

He shifted his weight and shook his head. "No, forget it."

"I know a silent question when I see one."

"Well, you have to admit it's sort of interesting. Commander Shepard shows up to captain the ship, then Major Alenko gets all stuffy and you two are giving each other hostile googly eyes."

"Hostile what?"

"You know. The look of death." He widened his eyes and lobbed his head in a circle, growling in a whisper, "Muerte..."

"This is going to be a long flight. I can feel it in my bones."

"You have nice bones by the way. Not bones exactly, but the covering over them is good."

"Careful, Mr. Vega. You may bite off more than you can chew."

"I don't know. I can eat a good bit."

"Ah, just what I need - another ego maniac in my life."

"Who's the other one?"

"That's classified information I'm afraid."

"You holdin' out on me? Isn't there some Alliance rule about that?"

"If there is, then maybe I need a refresher." She shrugged. "Either way, you don't get to know." Ellure directed his gaze toward the shuttle. "You may want to get a move on."

"Why?"

"Because I have to undress, and I have a gut feeling you're all talk." She got to her feet and smirked at his flustered expression before he retreated.

"I... I can't believe she just did that." said Vega.

His helmet pressure leveled as they opened the side of the shuttle. "I can't believe you tried to stop her from it."

"I mean, you know, the whole stripping down in the shuttle bay I could grow to tolerate."

"You're going to learn to tolerate that? You were enjoying it plenty." Kaidan Alenko could understand the distraction. After all, he'd handled those enticing hips first hand. But that was a long time ago. As far as he was concerned, that woman died in the attack on the SSV. This Shepard had all the trimmings of the first, but how could she team up with Cerberus like that?

"But... she kicked me out of the pilot seat. She's not even that good at piloting! That chick is muy loco."

"What did you call me?" Shoulders squared and arms folded across a black N7 breastplate, Shepard stood outside the shuttle with an obvious lack of patience.

James jumped down out of the Kodiak. "I didn't mean anything by it."

"I don't care what you call me." A plated finger poked into Vega's shoulder. "But do not call me, chick. Ever. End of discussion."

"Why?"

"That's not important. Just don't call me that. Please?"

"Yeah. Sure thing." As she cocked her Mantis and marched away, Vega rolled out his shoulder and massaged it.

"There's something you should know about the commander." Kaidan said, watching her tromp across the Mars landscape.

"What's that?"

He grinned at the encroaching dust storm. "She has a temper, but it passes quickly."

"I was beginning to think she was on her cycle."

"I hope not."

On any other day he would have appreciated the chance to take in the beauty of their surroundings. Mars was famous for its scarlet waves, but however tremulous the weather they were here to find T'Soni. She had gotten her hands on something important enough for Hackett to make an urgent personal request during Earth's biggest war - possibly even their last.

Glancing over the edge of the path's drop off, he spied her waiting expectantly.

Shepard tapped on the side of her helmet. "My comm is on. I can hear everything you two are discussing. And for your information, I don't have a menstrual cycle. That went kaput after I died."

His armor clattered as he stuck the landing. Kaidan grunted and straightened, shaking off the hit to his legs. "How come Cerberus didn't just fix it with everything else?" It was hard not let the bitterness seep into that inquiry. What did he care about any of this?

"If you really want a biology lesson, let's just say eggs can't be replenished. You only get so many. And I would rather not have half-robotic Cerberus baby clones."

Vega said, "Well, I feel like an asshole."

"Good. Now I own you."

"I can't keep up with this."

"Give it time," he said, listening to Shepard's subtle and acquainted laugh as it filled his helmet. "You learn to work around it."

Rifle in hand, she followed the narrow path wrapping craggy cliffs as they traveled toward the landmark facility while veering from the sharp descent on their right. "There's you're problem, Kaidan. You don't know how to push back."

"Me not pushing back? That was the problem?"

"I never said that you weren't. I said that you didn't know 'how'."

Two shots fired in the distance.

Shepard signaled for stop. "I'll scout it out." She quickly crouched to a red boulder overlooking the next ledge. Flattened onto her stomach, she sidled on her elbows up to the verge as they trailed. Like a viper lying in wait, she swept her barrel over the area. "Oh my god. They just..."

The muscles in his stomach constricted at the nature of her voice. "What is it?" Kaidan knelt down beside her, keeping hidden. For a moment he'd almost reached out to touch her. Habit, he assured himself.

"Cerberus is here. They killed two Alliance. Execution style."

"Huh." He followed her sightline to the valley in front of their target destination.

The facility wasn't large enough to be considered high risk. Archivists, scientists, and researchers made up the bulk of its inhabitants. Two of the main buildings were connected by a transportation rail, but overall nothing noteworthy aside from the Cerberus Makos and personnel dotting the courtyard. "Do you know why they're here?"

She lowered her weapon. Blue-grey eyes smoldered behind the screen of her helmet as she glanced over her shoulder. "Why would I know anything about that?"

"You tell me. You just happened to bring us to Mars where we find Cerberus has already arrived and set up camp? That doesn't seem at all a little convenient to you?"

"I'm not even going to acknowledge that statement." She returned to her scope.

He was tired of this tango. She'd never told him a damn thing. He wasn't even sure what was going on about their relationship. It was never called off or restarted. Neither of them had mentioned it since she returned.

Kaidan clenched his jaw. How many days, weeks, and months did he spend mourning her only to find out she was alive? Shouldn't he have been the first person she contacted? Or at least tried to? Instead, he finds her waltzing around Horizon with Garrus and some half-naked tattooed kid fighting in the name of Cerberus. "Shepard. I need a straight answer."

"Kaidan..." She pulled back and dropped her head.

"Don't Kaidan me. This is business. Do you know anything about why Cerberus is here?"

"Why do you think I know what they're up to?"

"You worked for them for god's sake. How am I not supposed to think that?"

"We joined forces to take down the Collectors. That's it."

"There's more to it." He nudged her hip with the butt of his assault rifle. "They rebuilt you from the ground up. They gave you a ship and resources." They could have even brainwashed her. He'd heard of that happening between victims and their captors. She was gone for two years. How long had she been alive before Horizon?

"Let me be clear. I've had no contact with Cerberus since I destroyed the collector base."

Across Shepard's sniping gap, Vega turned to him. "Commander Shepard's been under constant surveillance since coming back to Earth. No way they've communicated since."

Kaidan took a deep breath. He wanted to believe that, but Cerberus was capable of anything. "I'm sorry, Shepard-"

"I don't need an apology," she interrupted. "I'm asking you to trust me. I don't know how else I'm supposed to convince you of this."

"I do trust you. I didn't mean-"

"Let's not get into this right here. We're lucky we haven't been spotted yet. We are here with an objective, Major." Shepard patted the side of his boot. "Come on. Show off some of those biotics." She returned to steadying her aim.

He tried to concentrate on controlling his biotics under such duress. She was treating him like a child.

Kaidan straightened his fingers and slowly curled them as he rotated his wrist to cradle the blue in his hand. He waited for her to take out the first target.

Shepard faintly whispered, "Breathe in, shoot-"

How did Cerberus get in here?

She jockeyed through the ventilation shaft as it quaked and swayed under her weight and theirs.

By the Goddess, let this thing hold.

Once again she was scrambling for data. It was exhilarating. Not as freeing as blowing up the Shadow Broker's ship, but-

Bullets ricocheted off the sides of the narrow passage. That was incredibly stupid. They had no qualms about the risk of hitting themselves. They were desperate, but so was she. Liara T'Soni was the only thing standing between Cerberus and the galaxy's saving grace.

Scant lines of light came into view. She pulled her pistol and continued her confined running crawl.

Pulling her legs forward, she kicked the grate and sent it crashing to the bottom. She leapt, landed, and slipped, hitting her side but rebounding. Spinning around, she powered a singularity to fall in their path.

As the two lackeys squished their bulked bodies through the lone exit, they were immediately caught in her trap. She fired two shots. Once they'd fallen to the ground she reloaded and made sure it was completely carried out.

"Liara?"

She whipped around to see the face that matched the voice. "Shepard?"

"Hackett sent me. Are you okay?" One of the men behind the commander was aiming for her. Shepard put her hand on his fit to bust arm and lowered it. "Put it away, James. She's a friend."

She shelved her pistol and hurried to meet her halfway for an embrace. Liara was elated. She could use her help now more than ever. "I'm so glad you're alright. I wasn't sure after the reports from Earth started coming in." Shepard provided a quick squeeze before releasing her. "Right after that Cerberus shut everything down. I don't know how they achieved access."

The other human behind her approached and broke her train of thought. "Kaidan?" she managed, astonished to see him with Shepard. Liara returned his greeting smile and hugged him. "I hear you're a major now."

"Yeah," he said shyly, "you've been pretty busy yourself too I see."

"Very."

Shepard said, "Did you find our answer?"

"I think so. It's a device crafted by the protheans for a defense against the Reapers. I haven't had the time to truly look into it, but, from what I can gather, it is massive."

"That's reassuring. Do you think we'd be able to recreate it?"

"It certainly seems that way, but I can't get to the data. It's in the archives, and I've been locked out."

"All right. What's the plan?"

"We get it." She grinned in comeback to Shepard's quirky smile and rested one hand on her hip in a ceremony of nonchalant confidence. "What else would we do?"

Shepard held out her fist and bumped it to hers. "I like your plan, Ms. T'Soni."

Sparks crackled from the entrance point behind them. Cerberus was making a push.

Shepard turned to her squad. "Kaidan, cover our six-"

"There's nothing behind us."

"Please don't question me - trust me. Cover our six. I guarantee that is the first step to solidifying our defense. If I have to keep checking behind me, I might as well have left the sniper rifle on the ship." After Kaidan nodded, she said to James, "Get back to the shuttle. I want that thing in the air."

James' jaw clearly dropped. "But... I wanted to join in the race to the archives."

Shepard pinched the bridge of her nose. "You're not going to stick out your lip and pout, are you? Cause I don't need another pouter. I've already survived one. Between your ego and your pouting, I'm... I'm just not sure what to do with you, James."

"But-"

"I need you in the air. The storm is interfering with our ability to reach the Normandy. I want you covering the exits if Cerberus beats us to it. You were demanding to pilot not fifteen minutes ago."

"Why do I have to sit out on all the action?" he said and stormed away for the lift.

Scanning the area for good positioning, Liara noted Kaidan's sour expression. "Having trouble with the new crew?"

"Things on Earth were difficult. I can't even begin to describe it. Everyone is on the edge." Shepard ducked behind a glass partition. "This is terrible cover."

"I'm sorry, Shepard. I meant to come see you, but then Hackett contacted me. And yes, they can see you."

"I'm glad you didn't. This is more important. You can just drop the glowy thing in the entrance."

"I owe you a hot chocolate." Liara powered a singularity at the door as Cerberus troops broke through.

"I'll hold you to that. It's always nice when someone buys off their absence." Shepard fired and reloaded. "Tracking down data again? I'm starting to think you like the thrill of the chase."

"What thrill? Your driving almost got us killed. Even Garrus was rattled for a couple seconds and that's saying something." Elbows glued to the storage container, she steadied the cooking pistol between her gloved hands.

"How's Feron?"

She would ask that in the middle of a firefight. "I thought I already made that clear?"

"Things change."

Liara ducked the stream of a Cerberus SMG and emptied her spent clip to the floor. Catching a fresh one from Shepard, she popped it in and cocked her Carnifex. "Can we please concentrate on Cerberus at the moment?"

"Fine." Shepard engaged her tactical cloak.

"You're going to wait and ask me later, aren't you?"

"Yep."