AN: Mass Effect does not belong to me.

The team had gathered in the conference room to discuss how they are going to approach Horizon, which as far as they knew was still under attack from the Collectors. Shepard was still concerned about Ashley. It had plagued him the whole way.

"Mordin, is the upgrade ready to counter act the seeker swarms?" The commander asked.

"Nearly there, few adjustments need made. Will look forward to see how this proceeds." Mordin replied.

"Ok, Aegis and Grace, you are coming with me. The priority here is to save as many as civilians as we can." Shepard ordered, "No more innocents get taken by these monsters."

Soon, after the team touched down they were met with Collector forces. As they continued through the village, they saw husks emerging from the buildings. The Asari Spectre saw the husks and froze at the sight of them. The feeling of a memory started tingling at the back of her mind. She could almost hear the sounds of the banshees and the screams of people. She hit the ground hard and covered her head to try and block out the noise but one voice started rising above the memory.

Thalia had seen Aegis freeze and the faraway look in her eyes. Seeing a Collector take aim at her, the corporal tackled her out of the way. She started shaking her and trying to bring her back to the present. When it finally looked like her partner was coming back to reality, she turned her focus back on the enemy at hand and ignoring the weird looks she was getting from her future father.

Shepard decide to keep to the mission but he didn't miss the freak out the usually calm Asari had. As the group continued on their mission, the amount of civilians was scarce and the commander had seen no sign of Ashley. They had run into the only colonist still able to move, who had been less than pleasant, and he told the team of a defense cannon that could damage the ship. After taking down enemy after enemy, they cannon was working and driving away the Collector's ship.

As the one colonist was yelling about his friends, he was interrupted by a smooth female voice. Shepard was staring at the woman that had stolen his heart and haunted his dreams since he had awoken from being dead. She was a sight to behold and although to him it had felt like it had only been a few months since he last saw her on the burning Normandy, it had been over two years since she last saw him. The worry begin to set in that she wouldn't love him anymore. He felt a nudge from the corporal next to him and he glanced at her to see her tilt her head towards Ashley.

"Ash, I can't believe you're here." Shepard said with a smile on his face as he went to give her a hug.

"Alex." Ashley whispered as she returned the hug and snuggling a little deeper into it, just to make sure it wasn't another one of her dreams. No one noticed the small smile appear on Thalia's face.

"I'm so happy to see you, Ash. I'm sorry it's like this but I've been missing you like crazy." He couldn't help but feel at peace here with her.

"I'm happy to see you, Skipper. I really am but I've heard some horrible rumors about your return and I really don't want to believe you joined Cerberus." The soldier stared at the commander waiting to hear him say it wasn't true.

"I haven't joined up with them but they are helping me to try and stop the Collectors." Alex explained and seeing Ashley slump her shoulders in defeat, he quickly added, "Just come with me and you will see that I'm still me."

"I can't go with you. Not when you are with Cerberus." She shook her head and the look on Shepard's face was hard to look at.

"I can't believe that bullshit." The couple turned to look at the woman that had spoken up.

"Excuse me, what was that?" Ashley asked shocked.

"Grace, can it." Shepard ordered with a hard face.

"I'm sorry, Sir, but this is one of the members that helped you steal the Normandy despite it being a traitorous offence. She helped you even though her family name was already blacklisted in the Alliance but she did it anyway 'cause she knew it was the right thing to do." Thalia was glaring at her future mother.

"Grace, Ashley is a member of the Alliance and Cerberus is a terrorist organization. As much as I want her to come with us, I can't make her." The commander immediately jumped to Ashley's defense.

"No, you don't get to use that excuse." Grace yelled at her future father feeling lost watching her mother refuse to help her father, "I serve the Alliance and I serve under your command. Even, Aegis works with you and she is a Spectre, so there is no reason in this Galaxy to stop her from joining you other than cowardice."

"Watch who you call a coward, Bitch. You think I don't want to go with him but how do I even know it's him. I love him with all that I am and you think you know better than I do." Ashley yelled getting into the Corporal's face and stunning Shepard with how much they look alike.

"Garrus seems to know it's him. You would think one of the Commander's best friends would know the difference. Just admit you're too scared to risk your life for him."

"Fine, Bitch, I'll do it." Ashley screamed in the young soldier's face.

"Wait, what?" Shepard snapped out of his daze at the scream.

"I'll go with you, Skipper, but if I see anything that makes me doubt you, I'll take you down." Williams said with a scowl.

"Ok." Alex responded before radioing Joker for pick up.

"Oh, shit." Aegis whispered under her breath before smacking her head.

AN: please review.