Disclaimer: I do not own the character of Commander Shepard, James Vega or anything canon to the Mass Effect series. Bioware and EA own all that. Sarah Shepard is my brain baby, but that's the extent of it.

Reviews are always lovely!

11.

James spent the next morning going through her file, trying to find out who this "Thane" guy was. No one in the Alliance by that name has ever crossed paths with her, but they had intercepted messages to her from an unknown sender.

The writer of the messages had called her "Siha", and the word occurred far too often for it to be some strange typo of her name. The ones in the beginning were of a familiar nature, but it seemed as time wore on, the sender suspected they weren't getting through, so the messages became clipped, formal, before stopping completely.

Almost all of her known associates were accounted for but there was a reference to an assassin that had worked with her against the Collectors in her file. Race, name, and gender were unknown. It seemed they vanished as soon as she had decided to turn herself and the Normandy over to the Alliance, their whereabouts also unknown.

Way too many unknowns for his liking.

After a couple hours of getting nothing, he closed out the file.

Vega let out a frustrated sound, scrubbing his face with his hands. What was he doing? What business was it of his who this guy was whose name she said while mostly asleep? It wasn't. It was none of his business. He needed to stop acting like he had some claim over her.

"Attention on deck!" He stood up from his chair in a shot, his hand snapping up in a salute as the Admiral came into the room.

"At ease." He said and James relaxed. "Lieutenant Vega, just the person I was looking for."

"Admiral Anderson, how can I help you?" He asked, looking at the aging officer.

"I need you to get Shepard for a meeting with the Defense Council, she's needed ASAP." His tone worried him.

"Admiral?" James asked.

"Just...get the Commander, Lieutenant." Anderson said on his way out the door again, "I need to pick up some more intel, I'll meet you there."

"Yes, Sir." James said, watching him go before following. The halls were busy with people running this way and that and he could tell something big was going down, or about to go down.

He made it to her room, the door opening with his pass and she turned away from the large window to look at him. She was dressed simply in a pair of jeans and her Alliance hoodie, plain sneakers on her feet.

"Commander, you have to come with me." James said and she gave him a look at his tone.

"You're not supposed to call me that anymore, James." She said, but there was no teasing lilt to her voice.

"Yeah, I know." He said and she tossed the datapad in her hand on the bed, following him out the door.

"What the hell is going on, Vega?" She asked, moving around people as they almost jogged down the hall.

"No idea. Alliance brass needs to see you now."

"About time for my damn hearing, but they could have least given me some-"

"Shepard!" They both looked over, seeing Anderson coming towards them at a quick clip.

"Anderson." Sarah said in greeting as they shook hands, James giving another salute. "What's going on, David?" She asked as they continued down the hall, skipping the pleasantries.

"We don't know." Anderson said, "But something big is on radar, and it's on it's way...fast."

"The Reapers?" Sarah asked and he paused on his way up the steps.

"If I knew that..." He gave a defeated shrug.

"Well what the fuck else could it be?" She asked, taking the stairs two at a time to catch up to him, James trailing a few steps behind, not quite sure what to do. "We're not ready if it is them. We're going to get spanked in a spectacular way."

"Eloquent as always."

"You don't need me to talk pretty, David, just to shoot a gun."

"That's not the only reason why we need you. You know more about the Reapers better than anyone alive. Shit, Sarah, you talked to one! Then blew the damn thing up!"

"Yeah, I remember." She said, "Is that why you took away my ship? My tags?"

"No, that's why we've been stalling the Hegemony for the past six months while we could figure out what to do with you!" Anderson exclaimed, turning to her. "That mess with the Alpha Relay, you should be in a max sec prison right now, not under house arrest, but the Defense Council trusts your word on the Reapers."

"The Council is the waste of goddamn time, Anderson! You and I both know that. The Reapers don't want to talk to us, they want to kill us! Our salvation is our destruction, remember?"

"They're just scared, Sarah." He said and she sighed.

"Yeah, well, they should have listened to me three years ago."

"Sarah." They turned, seeing the other officer there. His skin was a shade lighter than hers, his hair short and dark.

"Kaidan." She said and he came over to them, shaking hands with Anderson.

"Major, what's going on in there?" He asked.

"I've said my piece, they're just waiting on her." He said, moving his head at her.

"Major?" Sarah asked and he looked at her.

"Yeah, you didn't hear?" He asked, the air getting tense and awkward between them.

"No, I hadn't. Congratulations." She said, looking away from him as she shoved her hands in the pockets of her hoodie.

"Thanks, Shepard." He said and they were called into the room.

"Later, James." She said, pushing his shoulder.

"You remembered I'm here?" He asked and she snorted.

"You're kind of hard to miss, Vega." She said with a roll of her eyes and he caught the Major giving them a look.

"Come on, Shepard, they're waiting for us." Anderson said and she pulled away from them.

"Sarah, good luck." Kaidan said and she spared him a fleeting glance, but didn't say anything.

When they were gone inside the room, James turned to him, seeing him staring after them with an almost sad expression.

"You know the Commander?" He asked.

"I used to."