Illium, A city of where just about everything is legal and the deadliest weapon you could have is a well written legal document. I had mixed feelings when I watched Shepard, Ashley, and Garrus leave the ship, ordering everyone else to stay on board. I didn't argue, not because I was being punished for my impulsiveness in both missions I had been assigned to, but because I'd get into even more trouble if I ran into a slave trader. I wanted to shoot the kneecaps of anyone who dared called it "Indentured Servitude".

The mission this time was simple, recruiting a Prothean expert, and Illium had one of the best. Liara T'soni, the archeologist turned information broker. I didn't know if Shepard could convince her to join the team, not without going to war with the Shadow Broker first. He or she was a secretive information dealer who had tried to sell Shepards body to the collectors. Liara had recovered his body to give to Cerberus for the Lazarus Project, but her comrade and friend had been captured, his fate unknown. The last two and a half years had changed the naïve and kind asari, making her cold hearted and merciless like her mother had been on Noveria. I wasn't looking forward to meeting her.

I spent the first half of the day in engineering, helping with the weekly calibrations and maintenance. Tali was pleased with the progress I had made, but was not ready to let me work with the drive core interface. After she explained that a miscalculation could lead to a shutdown of life support or a meltdown, I could understand her fears of letting the new guy tinker around.

"So, Alex, what time should I come over?"

I blinked, and then remembered our plans last week, movie night. With the events of the last few days I had completely forgotten about it. "Oh, um, not sure. Thane wants to run me through some more stealth training in the simulator today." I checked my Omni-tool's digital readout, seeing the time. "It's nearly noon, and I don't think there is anything more I can do down here. I'll skip lunch and have Thane meet me early. I don't know how long he wants me to train for, so we'll say about seventeen hundred hours?"

Tali's glowing eyes smiled at me. "Sounds good, I'll see you then." I grinned and sent Thane the message to meet me at the simulator, then did some last minute checks before heading to the elevator. From the corner of my eye, I noticed Tali watching me leave. I frowned, not understanding why she seemed worried; maybe she knew something about today's lesson plan.

As I made my way to the training room and saw Thane waiting for me, his posture as it always was; thoughtful. He opened the door and I followed him inside. He took a seat at the controls. "Today I will be teaching you to disconnect your mind from your body. This will allow you to be free of the guilt of your actions, and your body will react instinctively."

He typed something into the terminal. "I made this program specifically for this kind of training. If Chief Williams is any indication, you will find this training…disturbing." He looked off to my left and I saw what he meant. Holographic images of the crew had appeared. Shepard, Garrus, Jack, and Tali were standing still as statues, unaware of my presence. I raised an eyebrow and turned back to Thane. He looked apologetic, speaking softly. "She came to me after her encounter on Omega. She even helped me develop a similar program for her own training."

That explained who was in this room last night. "She wanted to be able to put aside her personal feelings and fight Kaidan and the Oblivion right?" The Drell assassin nodded.

"She felt it was the responsible thing to do. She realizes that whether he is a copy or the genuine article, Alenko is working for the enemy, and has to be stopped. It is a difficult thing to learn to kill a friend."

The session ran longer than I had planned, even longer than I had wanted. Even though I knew that the programs were not real, I had trouble pulling the trigger. Thane wasn't too disappointed, stating that he didn't expect me to master it in one lesson. When the lessons were over, I had only 30 minutes to prepare. I rushed through the ship to my quarters, stripping my armor off and jumping into the shower.

I reluctantly stepped out of the relaxing heat of the water and dried off, wrapping the towel around my waist. I opened the bathroom door, planning to slip into my room and change into something clean before Tali arrived. Before I moved one step toward the bedroom, an overpowering smell wafted over me, making my mouth water and my stomach rumble. I moved carefully out toward the small kitchen area.

Tali had turned in my direction and then immediately looked away. "Oh, um, I-I thought you wouldn't mind if I let myself in. I didn't know you were…well I thought I would surprise you." She turned her back to me and seemed to busy herself with whatever she was cooking. Tired as I was, I couldn't understand what seemed to make her so nervous until I looked down

"Oh shit, sorry Tali. Um, I'll go throw something on." I felt my cheeks flushed as I rushed into my room, changing into the form fitting but comfortable Cerberus uniform. I hesitantly moved back to the kitchen, where Tali was plating what looked like lemon chicken and rice. Grinning a little as she still seemed embarrassed by catching me with my pants down, as it were.

"I thought that Quarians had to radiate their food before they could eat."

She seemed even more self conscious. "Actually, I made this for you. I thought you might be running behind, and I knew you hadn't eaten beforehand. Rupert gave me some instructions and the recipe, and I was going to surprise you before you got back, but I didn't realize you were going to get out in time…and I'm babbling like an idiot aren't I?"

"Just a little, Tali, but I appreciate the thought." I sat down and took a careful bite; her eyes were watching me carefully. I smiled and took another bite "It's really good, Tali. Even if you couldn't taste it yourself, you did a good job adding the seasoning." She seemed pleased with herself as I continued to eat, finally realizing just how hungry I was. Pretty soon I was relaxing with an empty plate, offering her my compliments.

"You've been very kind to me, Alex. I wanted to show you how much I appreciate…everything you've done for me"

I stood up and offered her my hand. "That's what friends are for, Tali." I helped her up and moved to the small couch. "And this time, you get to pick." Her eyes smiled at me and used her Omni-tool, purchasing a movie that made me groan. Why did she have to pick the one where the girl is in love with the emo vampire? But I dimmed the lights as she returned to the seat next to me in time for the Opening credits.

The last time we had joked around through most of the movie, tossing around popcorn and poking fun of the acting. This time she had remained completely silent through most of the film. I thought she might be engrossed in the film as much as I could have been if I wasn't worrying about her. It was only during the scene where the emo boy confesses his desire to love /eat the girl that she spoke quietly.

"Alex, do you believe in true love, like the kind in the movies? That somehow and someway the person you're destined to be with forever will find you?"

I turned to look at her, only now realizing that she had curled up next to me, her head resting on my shoulder. I frowned, unable to understand the look in her eyes. "Not really, I think that every person has a soul mate, but I don't think there's some cosmic power that will draw them together. If that were true, no one would be alone. I would like to think you'd know the second you laid eyes on them"

She sat up a little, staring at me, the piercing look trying to tell me something. "Alex, do you think a human can find true love with someone else, another species perhaps?"

I looked at her sadly "Tali, you're going to find the person you're meant to be with, whether they are Quarian, Asari, or Human. But you have to let go of Shepard, it's not healthy"

"Shepard? Alex, you really don't know do you?" Her eyes shimmered a little "I'm not talking about Shepard" She looked away to the vid screen "I'm happy for him, and Ashley. But there is someone…"

"Tali, if it's not Shepard then…who…" She had placed her hands on my chest, her two fingers lightly caressing the place where my heart started to pound. The clarity of the truth crashing around me as my cheeks flooded with heat. "Oh..." I looked into her eyes. "Tali, I didn't think…um…wow…"

She stared at me with a longing in her eyes. "I understand if you don't feel the same way. It's just that I wanted to tell you how I feel." She pulled her hand away, my brain now mush in my head. "Alex, you fell into this world with nothing, and you chose to risk your life fighting for Shepard. I watched you push yourself to the breaking point and then keep training every day. You've always gone out of your way to make me feel important, to make me feel wanted." She stared at me, her eyes shimmering at the edge of tears. "How could I not have feelings for someone like that?"

Somewhere in my brain, something kicked in "Tali, I don't know what to say." I reached out, and gently took her hand. "I never thought of you as more than a friend." The sadness on her face tore me up inside. "I don't mean like that, I mean… I don't know what I mean. Tali, you can do better than me, I've got a lot of issues with relationships. I am not saying there can't be anything more between us, just that I need some time to think about all this"

Her hand gently squeezed mine, before she let it go and stood up. "I understand, I think I better leave." I stared at the door, long after she had left.

I woke the next morning to the sound of my intercom going off. I had probably only been asleep for a few hours, having tossed and turned as the emotions and thoughts swirled in my head. The ringing noise continued as I rolled out of bed and stumbled to noise, and pushed the blinking green button.

"Please tell me this is good news and the reapers decided they only really wanted to end world hunger"

Shepard's voice rang from the speakers. "No, but this is something you need to hear, come up to the conference room immediately." I groaned once I was sure he couldn't hear, throwing on the same clothes I'd worn the night before and shuffled up to the elevator.

I stepped into the conference room, expecting a full crowd, only to find Mordin, Shepard, Legion, and the newest Asari scientist, Liara. The looks on all their faces made me nervous. "Um, okay, what did I do?"

Shepard cleared his voice. "Liara has agreed to help fight the reapers in exchange for help taking down the Shadow Broker. However, she was more interested in the cache of translated Prothean data we recovered. This morning she made a discovery that we missed during our debriefing." I blinked as he turned his attention to Liara. What did this have to do with me? The young asari her focus to me

"The data you collected pertains to the last few decades of Prothean civilization. Like on Illos, small groups of scientist were hiding from the Reapers galactic purge, working on a project that would help stop the next cycle of genocide."

"The Ascension Machine, Mordin mentioned it."

She nodded. "Yes, but there was a mistake made. While it's true that Oblivion was trying to create a human/prothean hybrid to unlock the location of the base. It failed not because of they couldn't match the genetic code, but the unique energy frequency that was needed to unseal the locks."

"Unique energy frequency, okay pretend I'm from another dimension and explain it to me"

She looked at me seriously. "That's precisely it. Everything in the universe uses the same energy frequency, it's like a thumbprint. Nothing in our universe can open that door, but you are not from this universe. Your presence here is not a coincidence."

I stared at her. "Your fucking nuts. No really, that idea is insane"

Mordin looked up. "Theory holds merit. Prothean race dying out, humans likely to become next victims of reaper invasion. However, cannot predict if humans will become indoctrinated. Solution simple, bring human from untainted dimension, make device only accessible to him."

I stared at Mordin. "Okay, you're both fucking nuts." I looked at Shepard "This is a huge jump from logical. You're telling me that I was dropped on the Normandy because I'm some sort of ancient chosen one?"

Shepard shook his head. "It's bizarre, but after the last three years, I don't take anything for granted."

I clutched the desk for support, suddenly feeling light headed. "We don't even know if this place really exists."

Liara looked up. "Actually we do, Legion has been using the Mass relay's com buoy to communicate with the rest of the Geth." I sank into the chair, my legs feeling like Jell-O, I hadn't seen Legion on the ship for days, and I could guess that this was why he had locked himself away in the AI core. "The Heretics have rejoined and uploaded with the others. All the knowledge of what they have done while serving the Reapers is now a part of the Geth."

Legion spoke, his mechanical voice making me shudder. "The heretics discovered a prothean laboratory in the underground ruins of the planet Quana. It is locked with the unique genetic signature shown in the prothean data you acquired. The Heretics and organics serving the Old Machines have tried countless means to gain entry, but failed. Addendum: during the excavation, a strange spike of energy was detected inside the laboratory. This coincides with the exact time Jameson, Alex appeared on the Normandy"

I took deep breaths, my head spinning. How could this be true? I wasn't brave, and I couldn't stop a band of mercenaries, let alone an entire fleet of reapers. But if everyone was right, than it meant that I might be the only one who could stop them. I stared into Shepard's eyes, accepting what could be my destiny, my one true fate.

"I want to go to Quana, Commander. I want to see this for myself."