When Nevvar went missing again, it took Thena exactly three seconds to figure out where he'd wound up. The kid was bright as hell, except when it came to anything resembling street smarts. She wondered how he'd come to end up on the Citadel at all — he didn't seem to… fit anywhere; he seemed like the kind of kid who actually did belong home with his parents. She wondered if she'd been so awkward and clueless when she'd first arrived here. Pretty sure Tyrrana would give answer that question with a resounding yes, along with some complimentary laughter. Hell, there'd probably even be some guffawing.

Still, after getting picked up for vagrancy three times in a month, Thena would've hoped Nevvar would learn not to loiter, or at least learn which parts of the Citadel cared if you loitered or not. And even though vagrancy was about as low as you could get on the crimes-and-misdemeanors totem pole, Captain Vakarian did not like to see the same faces pass through C-Sec. No repeat performers for that place.

It was Tyrrana's idea that Thena try to collect him, or at least demonstrate to C-Sec that someone was watching out for the kid, and could maybe hammer the point home to Nevvar that he needed to be more aware of his surroundings.

But as it turned out, she was too late.

"Kid's already been released," the bored C-Sec clerk told her. "Missed him by half an hour."

"So what exactly was he doing?" asked Thena, crossing her arms and glaring at the woman. One last gasp of a growth-spurt had evened her out just shy of five feet, ten inches — she could reach that height, or at least give the illusion of it, if she stood up straight, which she was doing at present. But as it turned out, the clerk did not get the opportunity to answer Thena's question. No, the answer came from behind her, in a voice that never failed to make her hackles rise.

"The young man was brought in on a vagrancy charge," Captain Vakarian said, "—again, might I add. The—"

"Third time this month," she finished for him. "Which makes me wonder exactly who registered the complaints, and exactly what Nevvar was doing that was considered vagrancy."

"Is there something you're trying to imply, Shepard?" he asked lightly.

"Depends on what you're inferring, sir."

Her comment gave him pause, surprised him, even — Thena saw it it in the way he blinked at her, the way his mandibles twitched outward before slamming back in, close to his face. He almost—almost looked as if he were trying not to laugh, but the expression didn't last longer than a sliver of a second, and then it was gone.

"Implications and inferences aside, now that you're actually here, there's a matter I wish to discuss with you."

"What, trying to see if you can get me arrested for sass?"

A beat of silence followed, during which time Vakarian turned and began walking sedately towards a door on the other side of the room. Mildly, he replied, "Would that I could do that, Shepard. Would that I could." He turned long enough to glance over his shoulder at her. "Coming?"

"Depends. Am I going to come out again?"

"That part is entirely up to you."

As much as she didn't like the C-Sec captain, as much as he'd been a thorn in her side — and as much as she'd tried to be a thorn in his — she'd never known him to be less than perfectly honest in his dealings. "Better make it fast," she told him, inclining her head and falling into step behind him. "I've got places to be."

"And hapless children to herd away from the Upper Markets?"

"Is that where he got picked up?" she asked Vakarian's back, but never gave him a chance to answer. "Damn it, I've told Nevvar and told him to avoid the Upper Markets."

"And yet he continues there despite your guidance."

"He draws," she answered on a sigh as she took a look around them. The hallways were all bland and perfectly labyrinthine, but she could tell the route to the captain's office all the same. She'd certainly been there often enough, much to her continued annoyance. "That's all he's doing. Problem is, I know the Upper Market merchants don't give a damn what a duct rat is actually doing, the fact that they're doing it in plain sight of the pretty people is what's pissing them off."

Vakarian paused in front of a locked door, keying in the entry code. The lock chimed once, then the doors slid open. It took a moment for Thena to realize he was waiting for her to go in ahead of him. Brows furrowing, she sidled in past him and stood in the center of his office, hands linked behind her back.

"Sit," he told her, nodding at the chair directly across from his desk. It was a chair she knew well.

"I'll stand, if it's all the same to you."

"Very well," Vakarian replied, walking around her to take a seat behind his desk. He pressed his hands together, three long digits of either hand steepled as he bowed his head in evident thought.

The silence was almost maddening; Thena was aware that it couldn't have lasted more than a few seconds—maybe ten—but silence standing in the C-Sec captain's office multiplied upon itself over and over and over again until Thena was all but certain an hour had passed before the turian spoke.

"According to your file, you will come of age—by human standards—next month."

"That's right." She narrowed her eyes and tilted her head at him. "Mind if I ask what you're doing paying such close attention to my file?"

"Your name crosses my desk more than you know, Shepard. How you've managed to remain beneath the Alliance's notice—"

"For starters, I don't hang out in the Upper Markets," Thena interjected. Vakarian's browplates rose as he inclined his head at her.

"I suppose that's fair enough. My point, however, in speaking with you has less to do with how you've managed evasion in the past, and more how you plan to spend your future."

Her future? Of the things she expected to come out of Vakarian's mouth, that was the last, and her next question came out only a shade or two subtler than a blurt: "Why the hell are you concerned with my future?"

"As I said, you will have reached human adulthood." When she didn't seem to be piecing together the picture he was sketching for her, Vakarian leaned forward on his forearms. "Surely you do not plan on spending your adult years as a duct rat."

"That doesn't tell me why you give a damn."

She wouldn't have thought his mandibles could press any tighter against his face, but they seemed to be doing just that, giving the illusion of a human grinding his teeth. "Why do I give a damn? Why indeed. Tell me, just where do you expect to be in five years' time, young woman? Ten? Will you still be herding runaways and teaching them how to avoid the security cams and steal their next meal? And whether they return home or meet a more ignoble end, where does that leave you? Exactly where you began. Protecting those unable to protect themselves is not an unworthy goal, but you may as well be throwing your effort and determination into the vents. Do something, or in time you will vanish into obscurity as well — into the vents, or worse, into the Broker's pockets — and who will pick up your cause if — when — there is nothing left of you?"

Thena stared. She found she could do little else but stare. "What exactly are you saying, here?"

"I'm saying that you have before you a choice: you can choose to advance yourself, or you can choose to remain in the situation you've carved out for yourself on the station. And there are repercussions, no matter which choice you make."

"Choices?" she barked out in a dry, harsh laugh. "Choices? What kind of choices do you think I have available to me? If I go crawling back to the Alliance now… hell, you said it yourself: I'm an adult by human standards. There's nothing there for me."

"Are you quite certain? There are always choices, though they may not be apparent at first, though they may not be appealing. There are choices before you, Shepard." He leaned back in his chair, hands still flat on his desk. "The Alliance, for example. If you truly have a desire to protect those unable to do so themselves, there is almost certainly a place for you there."

"You're telling me I should join the military?"

"I'm suggesting you consider it in light of your other… options."

With an indelicate snort, Thena muttered, "Like I've got a whole lot of those."

"Precisely. But it is a matter worth your consideration. And you have a month to consider it." He paused a moment before going on to say, "Should you decide to take that option, return here and I will put you in contact with someone in the Alliance."

Shifting her weight from foot to foot, Thena tightened her arms around herself. "The Alliance is going to learn I've been dodging them for two years."

"If you're laboring under the misconception that they'll be displeased to discover you've come out of hiding, you can stop right now," Vakarian told her, his tone dry. "In any event, I believe you'll find Lieutenant-Commander Anderson to be… appropriately discreet. Enough time has passed since the Mindoir raid that you should be able to slip into the system without a great deal of fuss."

"If that's even… what I want to do?"

"Exactly."

When she left Vakarian's office, Thena was bewildered — no other word for it. Bewildered. Maybe even a little baffled. The worst of it was, he had a point. She had no actual marketable skills that would earn her any sort of decent pay, and as much as she liked Tyrrana, Thena couldn't deny that she'd been feeling at loose ends lately, and for many of the reasons Captain Vakarian mentioned. She was going to be eighteen soon, and what did she have to show for it? She hardly thought anyone in her family would be pleased knowing the kind of existence she'd scraped together for herself in the intervening years, and now…

Now she was starting to wonder if everything she'd done these two years, starting with running away, hadn't been because she needed something else to focus on, something else to keep her occupied, and what better preoccupation could she have hoped for than survival? As long as she was surviving, day in and day out, she didn't have to ask what's next?

Except Thena was starting to ask it anyway.

Nevvar was waiting for her outside Tyrrana's place. It was busy inside tonight, the kind of night where some of them were going to have to share cots or blankets — or both. He was hugging himself with his thin arms, dark head bowed. Someone must've told him she'd gone looking for him.

"Thena—" he began, peering up at her. They weren't too far apart in age, but Nevvar was a good six inches shorter than Thena. Never had it been more evident than right now.

"Don't," she replied shortly, cutting him off with a slicing motion. "I've told you enough times to stay the hell away from the Upper Markets, Nevvar. If you haven't been able to figure it out by now, I can't help you." Nevvar winced and Thena regretted her tone — not so much her words, but definitely her tone immediately. Letting out a deep breath, she rubbed tiredly at the back of her neck. "Listen," she said, trying to rein in her anger and frustration. "Forget it. Just… just try to stay away from the Upper Markets."

"I thought it'd be okay! Jerry said—"

Jerry was a squirrely little troublemaker, no more than twelve, maybe thirteen, whose main talent so far seemed to revolve around getting Nevvar in trouble. Nevvar was a good kid, he had a level head on his shoulders. He just needed to stay the hell away from Jerry. Hell, if anyone would benefit from some time spent in a C-Sec cell, it was that kid.

"I don't give a damn what Jerry said," she told him sharply. "I'm not always going to be around, you know."

She hadn't realized she'd come to a conclusion that quickly, but saying the words felt… solid. Right.

In the following weeks, Thena tried to convince herself she hadn't come to any sort of conclusion regarding Vakarian's… suggestion. She thought morosely of Jason. He'd been so damned excited over becoming a marine; could she… could she do the same? It was a hell of a commitment, and not one she wanted to undertake just because she missed her elder brother, but she wondered, really wondered if she could take that path herself.

The shelter roof was quiet, high enough above the foot traffic, though still far below the skycars that raced above. It was a good place to think, and an excellent place to think alone.

When the rooftop hatch opened, she wasn't surprised to find Tyrrana herself climbing through, heaving herself to her feet.

"Been up here a while," the woman said. Thena shrugged.

"Just thinking."

"About?"

Expelling a long, deep breath, Thena pushed to her feet as well. "What comes next."

"That's something worth some thought, yeah." Striding easily to the building's ledge and glancing down, she asked Thena, "So what're your thoughts on it?"

Joining Tyrrana, Thena looked down, too. "I've got to do something, I think. Licked my wounds long enough." Folding her arms over her chest, she rocked back lightly on her heels, saying, on a chuckle, "That's the bitch about being a grown-up. Sometimes you've gotta start being a grown-up."

"So what's the plan, such as it is?"

"Joining up."

Tyrrana nodded once. "Any thought to which branch?"

"Before he was killed, my brother was going to be a marine. I think… I think I want to, too." She rubbed one hand hard across her mouth. It wasn't going to be easy — hell, it was going to be damned hard. The question was, though, would it be harder than the last two years had been? And even if the answer to that question was yes, Thena couldn't feel herself backing away from the decision. In fact, the prospect left her feeling strangely… settled, for the most part. "I don't… I don't just want to ditch them, though. Most of them've already been abandoned. I can't—"

"Get a mailbox account set up," Tyrrana told her with an easy shrug. "You can transfer credits into it — at least they'll be able to feed themselves that way." She paused, and the silence was weighty. "As for the rest… you're going to have to let them succeed or fail on their own, kiddo. You can't hold their hands forever."

They stood in companionable silence for several moments before Thena peered up at Tyrrana through her too-long bangs. "Can I come back and visit? You know. Afterward? When I get time?" Odd to be thinking about the prospect of shore leave before she'd even signed up — in fact, it was an odder concept than signing up was proving to be.

"Hell, Thena, if you didn't drop by I'd come and hunt your ass down."

She grinned. "So that's a yes."

Tyrrana clapped her hard on the shoulder. "Definitely a yes."