I got an incredible response on Sunday's post. Thanks for all the alerts, keep 'em coming. For the moment I'm alternating updates with my other story, so there should be a new chapter every other day, RL permitting. Comments motivate me to write more and update faster. Just sayin'. Also appearing in this chapter: Jacob, Garrus, Tali, and the character who is rapidly becoming my favorite to write for: Mordin.

Ch 4. For Old Time's Sake

Shepard sat with her eyes closed, feeling the gentle rocking against the turbulence as the shuttle lowered towards Eden Prime. The SSV Crerar had landed at the large human colony the previous day, and she was descending to meet them. And Kaidan. But she was absolutely not thinking about Kaidan. At all. Or the birthmark on his shoulder blade that looked vaguely like a turtle with its head tucked into its shell. Or the scent of his face right after he shaved. Or the tingles he left on her skin when he didn't.

Her head dropped as she exhaled. God damn it.

There had been enough distractions during her missions these past few months to keep him out of her head. Most of the time. She'd focused much of her attention on solving everyone else's problems. But damn if she didn't miss him the night before passing through that relay. She'd read his message over and over. He was apologetic for what he'd said but still so cautious. Maybe he hadn't changed as much as he thought. Maybe that was just her own wishful thinking. Shepard had sat there, alone in her quarters, thinking about calling him, messaging him back, something. Her fingers had rested frozen on the keys. I couldn't bear it if I lost you again, he'd written. Here she was, on a suicide mission. She had the figurative balls to lead her team into the fray, but not to say goodbye to the one that she loved. With a shuddering breath, she'd pushed herself away from her desk and his picture, hanging her head. I couldn't bear it if I lost you again. As far as he needed to know, if she didn't make it back from this mission she just disappeared through the Omega-4 relay.

But she'd survived.

Shepard stood and stepped closer to the doors, resting her head against the window to watch the ground race up to meet the shuttle.

The vehicle was almost full. She'd brought along Garrus and Tali, along with Jacob and Mordin. The salarian doctor might turn up something the Alliance missed that would allow them to pick up the Collectors' trail. Jacob was familiar with Eden Prime having served here during his time with the Alliance. In a surprising turn the asari justicar, Samara, had also stepped onto the shuttle without a word. The rest of the ship was made up of former Cerberus crew. Those with families, mostly, who would not be returning to the Normandy. Shepard had already written glowing recommendations for all of them, divided up most of the credits Legion had been able to hack out of her old Cerberus accounts amongst them, and wished them luck.

"Everything all right, Shepard?" She looked over, catching Garrus watching her carefully. That night before the relay she'd ended up with him, drinking and trading war stories in the mess hall.

"Anxious," came her quick response. "We need to finish these Collectors off already."

"I hear that," Jacob murmured, eyes narrowed on the colony below.

Garrus' gaze on her was dubious.

There was a bump as the shuttle landed at last, and she gripped one of the handlebars to keep her balance, stepping out once the door opened.

From the looks of it, Eden Prime had recovered completely from the geth attack two years prior. It was a thriving colony, one of humanity's first. The air was fresh and clean, filled with the scent of blooming flowers. It was a completely different smell than Shepard's last visit. Then it was torched bodies.

She's lost Jenkins here, and gained Ashley Williams.

At the end of the landing bay walkway, she spied Kaidan and Bester. He was smiling at something Bester had just finished saying to him, rolling his dark eyes. In the bright natural light his hair had a chestnut sheen, and she was flooded with the sudden memory of the smell of his pomade. She'd teased him about it once, laying on the bed, watching him get dressed. He'd answered by rubbing his head into her bare stomach and making her squeal with laughter. It had left his hair tousled and sticking up in every direction, and he dared her to let him leave her quarters looking like that.

Jesus, Shepard, snap the hell out of it. She walked closer, looking over Bester casually. She was a petite woman with short cropped blond hair, wearing thick Alliance armor, just like Kaidan.

Aside from one slinky evening dress, Shepard no longer had any clothing not emblazoned with the Cerberus logo, and buying something new seemed frivolous with their current financial state. Tali had offered more than once to burn the logo off Shepard's armor using her omni-tool, but the commander politely declined. Approaching the Alliance Commander and Lieutenant, however, she suddenly felt strangely self conscious, and fought the urge to explain why she was still wearing the insignia.

"Commander, Lieutenant," Jacob said formally, offering them both a salute that was politely returned.

Shepard motioned behind her, "This is Doctor Mordin Solus. He's done some research on Collectors and their technology. Mr. Taylor, you've met. Lieutenant, this is Garrus Vakarian and Tali'zorah. Aaand…" She trailed off, rising up on her toes to search the crowd for that familiar shade of blue. "I swear Samara was right behind us…"

She turned back to see Tali hugging an embarrassed Kaidan. "You never answered my messages!" She stepped back to look up at him, pointing a finger, admonishing, "You disappeared! You aren't allowed to do that again."

He smiled crookedly, "Sorry. I didn't mean to worry you, I was… keeping busy."

Garrus, meanwhile, had been with Shepard at Horizon and witnessed the difficult reunion. He crossed his arms and nodded, greeting his former team mate with a much cooler, "Commander Alenko."

"Wasting time," Mordin said quickly, already looking to the bright blue sky. "Trail already cold. Investigations must begin immediately. Salutations can wait."

"Right," Jacob nodded, "We should head to where the ship was spotted. It's ballsy, their going after a colony this big and well protected."

"We thought so too," Bester nodded, turning on a heel to lead them from the port. "They had previously stuck to the edge of the Terminus Systems from all accounts. It's possible they were scouting. Or were actually preparing to attack. But like the Captain told Commander Shepard, it just appeared out of nowhere, hovered for over two hours, and then was gone again."

"It never sent in the swarms? No Collectors actually came down to the surface?" Shepard asked.

"No," Kaidan said, "Nothing. Maybe they were trying to send in the swarms and something went wrong. The base was destroyed about the same time. Chances are the two events are connected."

"Highly likely. Many possibilities. Could speculate all day. Pointless without more data," Mordin said in his usual rapid fire cadence.

Bester lead them to a waiting six wheeled off road military vehicle, it's top retracted to give the passengers a clear view of the cloudless blue sky. Shepard paused, turning to look for Samara once more, before climbing inside, squeezing in between Garrus and Jacob in the back. No sign of the asari. "She'll turn up, Shepard," Jacob said, reading her thoughts. "Don't think we could get rid of her that easy if we wanted to."

The vehicle sped down the well paved road; past shops and office buildings built low so as not to interfere with the scenic vistas. Businesses turned to houses, then into rolling fields of corn, soy, and blooming canola. Several fields were being watered by a system of irrigation sprinklers, and the strong winds sprayed a cool mist into Shepard's face as the car sped past.

Tali had leaned forward in between Bester and Kaidan in the front seat, cheerfully quizzing Kaidan. "So are you an Alliance special operative now?"

"Sometimes?" Kaidan looked over at her, gaze flitting to Shepard, then back to the quarian. "I mean… there were certain missions they asked me to go on."

"Like this one?"

"I-… yeah."

"Did you know you would run into us?"

Kaidan's mouth hung open, his brain not quite ready to let the words out yet. He closed his mouth, eyes narrowing in thought. His lips twisted up and he looked back at the masked woman, "I was aware of the possibility. We were both going after the same target."

"The Collectors," Tali said, as if to remind him.

"Yes."

"Their base was awful. I had to crawl through the ventilation tunnels to open the doors so that everyone else could get through. I still haven't gotten the smell completely out of that scarf."

"I'm sure the mission would have been a loss without you," Kaidan answered, a slow smile crossing his features as he watched Tali.

"You should have been there, Alenko," Garrus murmured a bit too casually, his arms still crossed. He winced at Shepard's elbow in his ribs. "Ow."

Kaidan turned to look at Garrus, his lips pulled back in a grimace before turning to face forward in his seat again. "Yeah, Garrus, I know."

Tali spun to give Garrus a look that was obscured by her dark visor, but the intent of the look was obvious when she followed it with a kick to the turian's knee. "Ow, stop it!"

More green hills passed in awkward silence, before Mordin finally spoke, "Suffocating under weight of elephant in room. Human expression. Believe I used it correctly. Are we there yet?"

"Damn near," Bester said in the strained voice of a woman trying to contain laughter. The vehicle turned, off the paved road and up a dirt path, around a rocky outcrop and stopping before a magnificent view of the colony.

"Shit…" Jacob said slowly, standing up in the back of the vehicle, looking around a bit wide eyed.

Shepard had been here before. She stood up as well, staring at the clearing. It had changed since she saw it last, but not much. The trees were taller, the dig site was a little larger, and the dragon's teeth were gone, but this was the spot where the Prothean beacon was discovered two years ago.

"Yeah," Kaidan said with a frown, sliding out of the car. "It can't be a coincidence."

"The beacon," Jacob said, hopping out and walking towards the dig site where a handful of archeologists were working with painstaking care. "It was right here. I remember watching them pull it off this spot when I was stationed here."

Bester pointed to the sky above the ancient stone marker where the beacon had previously rested undisturbed for thousands of years, "The ship was hovering right here."

"Prothean ruin," Mordin said, his large eyes narrowing. "Can't be coincidence. No such thing. No. Came here when base was destroyed. Same day. Why? When exactly? Very important. Very. What hour was base destroyed, what hour was ship here?"

"We got out of there at oh-two-hundred, Alliance time," Jacob answered, referring to his omni-tool.

Bester glanced at her own, "And the ship was spotted here at nineteen-hundred."

Mordin shook his head a little, "Ship came after base destroyed. After leader destroyed. After it lost direction from Harbinger. Not possible. Not possible."

"It came here on its own," Shepard murmured, staring at the sky.

"Not possible!" Mordin said again, pacing towards the dig site. "Jumping to conclusions. Collectors were mindless drones! Following orders. Unable to think on own. Genetically engineered to do Reaper's bidding."

"Genetically engineered from Protheans," Garrus added, crouching to stare at the ruins.

"No, no. Latent orders. Following old orders. Find human colony. Found one. Stopped and waited for more orders. Nothing of Protheans left in them."

Bester raised her hand, "Could we catch the soldiers up, please?"

"Harbinger is a Reaper. EDI found evidence of his existence when we pulled information off another Collector ship," Tali said, bringing a Reaper schematic up on her omni-tool. "The Reapers genetically modified Protheans and turned them into Collectors."

"Holy shit," Bester whispered, squinting at the display.

"Like the Keepers," Kaidan said, looking over Tali's shoulder.

"Exactly. From files on the Collector base, aaand a few memorable fire fights, we learned that Harbinger was assuming direct control of the Collectors himself." She paused, and then amended, "Itself. Via some sort of antenna in the base."

"Base destroyed, Harbinger's control shattered." Mordin was now in the dig site, picking through a few rocks, earning an angry shout from one of the archeologists.

"Be nice to have Liara here about now," Kaidan sighed, crossing his arms. "How sure are we that the Collectors don't remember anything about being Protheans?"

"I don't know," Shepard said, looking over at him. "They only seem to share a genetic link. I guess it would be like asking what we remember about being monkeys."

"We had considered another possibility, and it seems even more likely now if they're fumbling in the dark." Kaidan's dark gaze was on Shepard now. "They might have been looking for you."

"Ah, possible." Mordin slipped under the strings bordering the dig site, walking back to them. "Yes. They wanted Shepard. For years."

Kaidan nodded, pointing off to the tree lined horizon, "And that is where we first saw Sovereign."

"Yes, far more likely." Mordin said with a nod, curling his fingers under his flat chin. "Revert to default programming. Find and kill Shepard. Threat to Reapers. Have no information to go on to find her. Retrace steps. Follow old trail. First known location." He sniffed. "Eden Prime."

Shepard's gaze snapped to Kaidan, "We went to the Citadel next."

Bester tapped her ear, stepping away from the rest of them, "This is Lt. Bester. We need to increase Alliance presence at the Citadel."

Jacob shook his head, leaning back against a tree. "Even mindless Collectors should know better than to show up there. If they're smart enough to run when an Alliance gunship shows up, they aren't going to go anywhere near the Citadel."

"We went to Therum next," Tali said.

"Then Noveria, Feros…" Garrus nodded.

"Virmire," Kaidan added, his eyes still on Shepard.

She let out a sigh, "I vote we cut to the chase and meet them at Ilos."

Bester lowered her arm, frowning over at Shepard, "An Alliance ship can't go to the Attican Traverse, Commander. If we even enter the Hoc or the Refuge Systems it would be considered an act of war."

"Looks like we're going to need to split up, then," Garrus said, his voice a low rumble. "Damn shame."

Kaidan rocked his head back to stare at the heavens, "Oh, the Captain isn't going to like this at all."

"She doesn't seem like the kind of person who likes much of anything." Jacob raised a brow.

"She doesn't." Bester frowned, looking over at him. "She's a grade-A hard assed bitch, but she knows what she's doing. One of the most competent captains I've ever served under, but I would hate to meet her in a dark alley, that's for damn sure."

"So the Crerar heads to Therum, Noveria and Feros," Tali said slowly, brushing an insect off her visor. "And the Normandy to Virmire and Ilos. Maybe she'll let the two of you ride along with us. This is a joint effort, after all."

"That… might actually be the ideal scenario," Bester answered, blinking at the quarian. She looked to Kaidan, "We'll introduce the idea to Halabi. We should head back."

"Shotgun," Tali called suddenly, as if she had been waiting for the opportunity. Without a moment's hesitation she sprinted back towards the vehicle before anyone could protest, relegating Kaidan to the back seat with Shepard.