A/N: Doing a bit of an overhaul updating for this fan fiction. I hope this helps all of you to understand everything that's going on the story. Let me know what you think!

Enjoy!

-Eddy

Chapter 1: Prologue (UPDATED)

It all started with a simple respondent mission in the Terminus Systems. A distress call had been broadcasted into Council and Alliance Space, causing Admiral Hackett of the Systems Alliance to respond with sending the SSV Normandy to investigate the site.

Reviewing the data she had received from the Admiral, Captain Allison Elise Shepard of the Systems Alliance and first human SPECTRE, noted the only response to Alliance hails were only static followed by an explosion. The latter had caused such a report to head her way, she assumed.

Since the end of the Reaper war ten years prior to this mission, there hadn't been much going awry in the galaxy. Sure, there were your average criminal antics and the like but nothing this ominous. Considering all of these factors, Shepard was more than happy to take this on. She just wanted to see more action.

With her on the Normandy was the bulk of her original crew. Tali had decided to return to the ship joined with her beloved, Garrus. Joker returned without hardly any qualms, eager to return to the helm of his favorite ship. Kaiden had returned to his family shortly after the war and retired from active duty to pursue a new position as an instructor for the Alliance's biotics. However, he decided to come back to the Normandy using his own SPECTRE status after just five years of being a trainer.

Samantha Traynor decided to stay once the galaxy started to rebuild. After first finding the prospect of continuing her time with the Alliance a little daunting, she grew attached to her position. Leaving the revered crew had become her last thought.

Kenneth and Gabby left the crew shortly after the war to start a family and have since been replaced with equally experienced engineers. Although Engineer Adams could have stayed, he decided to retire shortly after the war. His position was eventually taken by Tali after she rejoined the crew. Dr. Karin Chakwas, although encouraged by the crew to retire, returned to the Normandy despite the reluctance of her old CO. And, although quite reluctant herself, Liara had decided to stay on the Normandy despite her wishes to settle down with Shepard after they married and bonded on Armali, Thessia and made a home at the T'Soni Estate.

Grunt decided to settle on Tuchanka after the war and has helped Wrex rebuild their armed forces, newly allied with the Galactic Council. The new ally having obvious intention of controlling what they could of the krogan within reason. Javik disappeared shortly after the war but had been found by the Shadow Broker's agents, under Liara's command, on Ilos. James joined the N7s, after passing each level, and eventually became a CO to his own crew and frigate. Miranda settled trials with the Alliance and became a leading Cybernetics Engineer in Alliance Space, with Oriana interning at her main office on Earth. Jack returned to Grissom Academy, unwilling to leave her teaching job behind, but stayed in contact with her "Cerberus Cheerleader".

All-in-all, Shepard was pleasantly happy with her crew and it had been smooth sailing ever since.

However, this was the first mission in many years that she felt would shake that up a bit.

After reviewing the data one last time, she headed up to the cockpit.

As she steps up to the window, she closely examined the docking bay. Indeed, there were no signs of any vessels except for the Normandy. "Someone had to have pulled the distress beacon at the station. Unless…" She says before noticing the slightly paler than normal face of her pilot. "…are you afraid of ghosts, Joker?"

"No, ma'am. Just curious how anyone could be on the station, is all." Joker responds with a nervous smirk. "Unless they magically manifested themselves, it's impossible that whatever is on that station is human. Or living." He explains before glancing at his Captain from the corner of his eyes. "Just saying."

"This station was abandoned before the final push during the war. Ten years ago." She tells him, knowing she wasn't helping Joker's nerves. She liked messing with him sometimes. "Who knows? Maybe someone colonized it in that time."

"That's highly unlikely, Shepard." Joker says, nervousness gone away. "I doubt Aria would've allowed that."

"It could just be a ghost, then."

"Oooh, I can feel the air getting colder already." Joker sarcastically remarks as the ship docks on the station. "Aaand, we're docked."

Garrus and Liara make their way to the airlock.

"Are we ready to go?" Shepard asks her two companions.

"Ready when you are, Shepard." Garrus responds.

She looks over to Liara in silent question. Liara, still a bit angry from their last discussion about settling down, just nods that she's ready. "Alright. Be ready for anything. We don't know what's on the station."

As they walk out onto the platform, the three look around the area. The station was small, but big enough to be a simple transport station. As expected, it looked to be completely deserted—as if no one had been there in years. The only thing that was blaringly obvious that someone had recently been there was the active distress beacon that was still buzzing through the halls.

"Do you really think there are going to be hostiles, Shepard?" Garrus wonders as he takes in his surrounding while they walk into the main area. "To be brutally honest here, I don't think we'll find anyone here."

"It would not hurt to check." Liara chimes in, causing Shepard to smirk at her turian friend, who silently relents.

As they got closer to the security doors, they noticed a trail of dark red blood.

"Someone is here." Shepard hisses as she cautiously starts following the trail with Garrus and Liara behind her. As she opens the door to the darkened security room, she calls, "Hello?" Through the static flashing room light, she follows the trail of blood leading to a much bigger pool of blood. At the end of the trail was a young woman with white hair and pale white skin almost as white as the hospital gown-like single piece of clothing, soaked a dark red from her own blood.

Without delay, Shepard and Liara head straight to her side. With Shepard scanning her body for injuries and Liara checking for a pulse, while Garrus disarmed the beacon. "She's alive." Liara says as she finds the pulse. Shepard finishes her scan, sending it to Dr. Chakwas.

"She has a few internal injuries as well as a few bullet holes." Shepard says as she hoists the young frail woman into her arms and stands up. She couldn't help wondering what had to have come about to such a young individual. Her best guess was that this girl in her arms was just barely an adult, if that. "Let's get her back onto the Normandy." She says as she makes long strides towards where they came onto the station from.

She heard her companions speculating what happened, but given that the evidence was pretty vague and the only evidence of a struggle was the beacon itself, they couldn't know exactly what happened. There wasn't a single bullet shell, not a single dent in the metal walls, and absolutely no clear sign of how she even got there in the first place.

There were more questions that needed answers, with only one way to know for sure what had occurred on that station; an unconscious, bloodied, young woman. A young woman who made her feel the need to protect, as if there was something more to her.

She just needed to make sure the white-haired frail woman in her arms would wake up to tell the tale of what happened. And get the questions she had answered.

A/N: This is a rewrite of chapter 1. I hope it's a better version. (Uploaded 7/17/2018)