Author's Note: I apologize if the content seems a bit jumpy or lacking a certain depth to them, but as I said before, these were small snippets written to fit pictures I had posted on a forum.

Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect

Lost Time


Mercy's legs shook from absorbing the weight of her fall and she stumbled into a fighting stance, pistol held high as she raced out of the elevator.

"Shepard, what's going on?" Kaidan lowered his weapon with confusion coloring his words as Mercy aimed past his head.

"Step aside Kaidan; you're not the one I want. Udina is a dead man."

The human councilor stormed to Kaidan's side but stopped short of passing him, the coward. "Shepard's blocking our escape. She's with Cerberus!"

Kaidan gave her a pleading set of eyes that filled her with mirth. She was done explaining herself to the former lieutenant. He made it clear a long time ago that he would never listen.

Udina shook his head in impatience and quickly walked to the command console. "I'm opening the lock."

Mercy tried to move around Kaidan but he mirrored her paces, blocking her shot.

Her scars stretched into a grizzled snarl. "Would I do this if I weren't dead certain Kaidan? Would I?" She dared him to defy her just so she would have a reason to show him the price of not believing her, now and in the past.

Kaidan closed his eyes tightly and released a deep breath through his nostrils before swiveling to face Udina. "I better not regret this."

Mercy lowered her pistol and tried to smile but she couldn't manage it. "You won't."


After Cerberus' attempted coup, Mercy rushed to the hospital, her head spinning with the complications from the attack. Inside the crowded medical building she confronted Kolyat, it was only the second time they had met, and she asked if he had known about Thane's impending death. Kolyat tilted his head downwards and ushered her inside to his father's bedside.

Mercy and Thane never got along, she would tell anyone about how they'd always argued while he served on the Normandy when in reality he had stood by and allowed her to verbally berate him with a quiet frown plastered to his face. It was only after she helped Thane rescue his son that he learned Mercy's deep seated hate was not for him, but his relationship with Kolyat.

A few evenings after sorting Kolyat into working under Baily, Shepard had indulged in too much alcohol and spewed the anger that had been stewing ever since her parents abandoned her on earth in the middle of a dirty, downtown street. She damned them for never coming back and saving her from becoming a free-lancer spy for the local gangs and cursed Thane for running away from his responsibilities as a father.

"Shepard, I'm dying and I have come to terms with it, but I am no longer at peace. There are things I must do, things that mustn't wait any longer."

The assassin she had come to know uttered such words that would have been normal for any dying man, but for Thane, it was blasphemous.

Mercy cleared her throat. "I've never known you to be afraid, now's not the time to start."

Kolyat stepped next to her and presented an open prayer book.

"Would you like to read with me? Thane- my father requested it."

Mercy didn't what had come over her when she complied and read the words on the page.

"Kalahira, this one's heart is pure, but beset by wickedness and contention. Guide this one, Kalahira…and she will be a companion to you, as she was to me." After last words died on her lips, Thane was gone.

"Kolyat?" she asked, hesitantly, after closing Thane's eyes with care. "Why did the last verse say she?"


Mercy tried to make it back to the Normandy without drawing attention but to her dismay Kaidan was waiting for her at the docking station with a big, dumb smile on his face and looking to all the world like a stray dog looking for its master.

"Shepard, hey, how's it going?"

"Kaidan," Mercy clipped in greeting.

He noted the way she crossed her arms and looked solely at his eyes, Kaidan sobered. "Back there, it got a bit rough, didn't it?"

Mercy nodded. "A bit but we handled it." She had a sneaking suspicion as to where this conversation was going and she didn't like it, not one bit.

Kaidan looked out at the docked Normandy, thinking of something that appeared to trouble him.

"What would you have done if I hadn't backed down?"

She started, the question throwing her off guard. Mercy had expected another berating for joining Cerberus and a small part of her had hoped he was about to apologize for all of the previous times he had verbally injured her. Anything but- this.

She steeled her voice, caging the emotions she felt bubbling to the surface. "It doesn't matter. The council is safe and Cerberus was defeated."

Kaidan shook his head with a grim tug of his lips and disappointment coloring his features. "Sometimes a way something goes down does matter, but for what it's worth, I'm glad we got out of there intact."

Mercy was boiling on the inside. How dare he chastise her for her decision or the implications of what she might have done?

She clinched her jaw. "Maybe not."

Kaidan and she were oil and water. They never saw eye-to-eye and nothing about their personal lives or pasts were ever shared between them. She didn't even know his favorite dish. Their relationship was based too much on the physical realm. After spending more than a year apart from him, she had come to the realization that she wanted something real, not a boy-toy to hang off her arm.

"Admiral Hackett gave me a position you know," Kaidan began, filling in the heavy silence. "I'm tempted but, if you would have me, I would be on the Normandy in a second, with you."

Mercy's heart fluttered and her imagination threatened to run wild but she clamped down on the foolish feelings before it could take root and control her.

"I think your skills would be better served under Hackett."

She watched the subtle display of emotion play out on Kaidan's face, the twitching of his eye brows and mouth, the tilting of his head. Finally he stood straight, his face indiscernible, and saluted her.

"It has been an honor, Shepard."

They parted ways for the last time.


Nice job." Joker praised Mercy's uncanny abilities to accomplish the impossible, including single handedly stopping a massacre on the council by Cerberus. He then added with a quieter tone, "I-hope major Alinko is happy with his new post."

Mercy balled her hands into fists and bore holes into the back of Joker's chair with her gaze. "It's war time Joker. We all go where we're ordered to."

"Understood. Just for the record though..." Joker hopped out of his seat and began to hobble her way. Shepard expected him to add, "I need to use the little boys room," and continue on past, but he stopped before her.

Only a couple feet away Joker stood at attention, no doubt a painful pose with his condition, and saluted Mercy without a glint of mischief in his eyes.

"What's that?" she asked, baffled.

"Somebody giving you the respect you deserve, Commander."

He turned and made his way back to his seat after rendering Mercy nearly speechless.

"Thanks," she murmured and bowed her head.