Jiopaba: Yeah, Miranda gave it back to her. I mentioned Cali holding it three times.

Kaiya Smith: Power over plants? I suppose so. Who would have that power though? (If I forgot something in my own story then feel free to call me an idiot) I agree with you on the whole lack of sense though. The Cipher could have been a lot more help than anyone in-game mentioned. After she went to the trouble of getting the damn thing it wasn't even mentioned afterward. Her understanding Prothean language because of it didn't do much of anything either. They could have gone further than they did.

Jeremy Pine: I've had insomnia for years, so I am used to not sleeping a lot. I've just been working a lot lately and all. *Sighs* maybe I'm just getting old… I act like a grumpy old man when I'm hungry as it is. I'm sorry you have to go through that as well though. It catches up to you. Loved that achievement announcement by the way. It made my day to know Cali got an achievement. Makes me want to play my 360. Aw, no prophecies? And to think I've begun to look forward to them. XD

OnyxTemplar: Anytime. ^.^ I hope Tela will actually come. She probably will but she might get held up or… well, we'll just see what happens.

The Willful Wanderer: Somehow. Yes, somehow. Honestly I don't feel like I'm any good at emotional parts so I feel like it's 'off' when I write too much fluff. Maybe my awkwardness is what holds me back from making too much. I am relieved and happy that you approve. On the topic of description, I agree with you. I need to put more of that in there. Thank you for reminding me.

Subsider34: Ah, right! I forgot about that. Thank you for clearing that up, Subsider. I'll try not to make a habit of relying on you of course, but I'm glad you have my back. With how I wrote Miranda, I'm only assuming that she acted the way she did because it was her job to keep an eye on Shepard. And because she didn't want to become biased. Not that it really made a difference in the end since she became besties with Shep anyway. XD If I go too far or change someone too much as we go on though, please tell me. I do rely on you and the others to do that. ;D Would it really take so little time to get into Tela's head? I thought the colonists were there for weeks before the symptoms started to arise.

Hopelessly Blue: Me too. I say now that I wouldn't mind being adopted by that woman was I to live in that world. I am happy that you approve of the ranting. Unfortunately my mom never did the whole lecturing thing. I was more the mother in our relationship. *clears throat* In any case, I hope Cali can get the sash fixed up. Do people still sow in the future or does everyone just have a magical machine that fixes torn clothes for them? It's something for me to ponder. *laughs* Ah, you're probably completely right about hoe Shep's and Tela's relationship would be. Hilarious!

A Fan: I like seeing Tela as well. :)

"… Amelia?" I asked quietly, remembering the reason I had left the Normandy in the first place as we passed through its threshold. I shouldn't have been so worried about the way I would be looked at. Ash cared about me, right? So… if she really did then she wouldn't judge me… Right?

I... "Hm? What's wrong?" the Commander's deep emerald gaze turned to take in my apprehensive expression as I bit my lip, looking off into nowhere.

I should go talk to her… "Where's Ashley?"

Amelia stared at me for a moment blankly before she seemed to get what I was thinking. With a slight understanding smile she set me down on my own two feet. "She tends to hang around the cargo bay when she's-"

"- upset. Or has a lot on her mind." I finished. By her look I blushed and continued, "I avoided her, I didn't stop caring."

Shepard had a look that told me she knew about my avoiding the brunette. "Why did you do that anyway? I thought you two were close. With the way she acted…"

I nodded and looked down, "Yeah… um… after that meeting, I… When I saw her look at me like- like I betrayed her, I just… I was afraid to see her again because I didn't…"

Shepard's eyes grew sad as she finished for me, "You didn't want to see her look at you like that again…"

I shrugged, saying nothing more. A few moments passed by quietly before I returned my zaffre eyes to looking up at Amelia. "I need to talk to you soon too. Preferably today before I lose my nerve."

An inquisitive line appeared between the Commander's brows, "What about?"

"Lots of mission important things." I answered. "With one… really important… personal thing…" I knew I would have to come clean eventually. Serrkil was right when he told me about him and his brother. I would have to just tell Amelia and Ashley and hope that they didn't think I was going crazy and send me off somewhere. I really thought I was going crazy sometimes.

"Don't worry." At the sudden voice my head snapped up. My eyes zeroed in on the spot I'd heard that familiar sound and what I saw made my breath hitch. "We're not going crazy." Little Calista, broken Calista, dead Calista smiled.

I stared with a pale face full of terror at the little girl. She was still in her bloodied, torn white gown, covered in dirt and dried mud. Her cheeks were still gaunt, feet still bare and eyes still as kind and alive as I remembered. The stark contrast only caused the dread in my stomach to mix in with a thick feeling of guilt. My chest and throat was still, chained by the remorse I felt for her.

"We're just incomplete." The seven year old girl continued. I wondered briefly what she meant but I was still unable to speak. "I used to just be me. But when auntie Tela came to rescue me…" sadness flickered in her eyes and she hesitated. "Bad things happened. When the world went dark I met you."

My brows furrowed. What was she talking about? I don't remember meeting her, ever.

She stared at me as if reading my eyes, chin tilted downward. "You don't remember…" slowly, I managed to shake my head. "I can't tell you till you remember."

I reached forward as if to catch her but I blinked and then she was gone.

"Calista?" Shepard's voice broke me from my strange… vision and I jumped. I turned to look at her with question written on my face. Somehow, somewhere in my mind, I wondered if she saw what I'd seen.

But looking at her face told me she just wanted to know how I was. It was beginning to become obvious that I was fraying.

Blinking several times to adjust to the uncomfortable shift from whatever trance I had been in I clutched Tanin's sash tightly in my hands. "I spaced out didn't I?"

She stared at me for a second before responding, "You looked like someone scared you, but…" she glanced at the spot to our right where I had seen little Calista. Was she haunting me? Was there still something left of her, from when she died and I took her body?

Is that what she meant when she said I saved her life? And what did she mean, 'we are incomplete'?

"Well, no one was there." Amelia finished. I nodded.

"That's part of what I need to talk to you about." I said. "I was trying to hide it before but it's getting out of hand."

Shepard began to look really worried. "That beacon did more to you than you let on didn't it?"

I looked away but nodded all the same.

"And you weren't going to say anything? Calista, why have you hidden it from me?" she pleaded, taking my upper arms in her hands.

I refused to look her in the eye, feeling ashamed "I'll explain later." I answered. "But right now I have to go talk to Ashley."

Shepard stared at me for the longest time before she finally relented. I wanted to tell her but I didn't want to at the same time. She needed to know. She wanted to even. And since Ash cared about it I had to tell her too. It was my own stubbornness and fear that kept me from telling her before in the first place and it caused more trouble for everyone involved. I couldn't regret meeting Serrkil and even Miranda though. They helped me.

Amelia released me and straightened, allowing me to pass by.

…

The cargo bay. I never would have thought it would incite such dread in my gut. But as I stood in that elevator, wringing the torn cloth of Tanin's sash nervously, I realized there were a lot of things that had happened in my life inside the ME 'verse I never would have thought before. This one time seemed like the worse. Even if I had been put inside a child's body or gone through Eden Prime, at least those things happened quickly. I didn't have to stand in a metal cage as it slowly moved toward a heavy source of guilt. My stomach was having a hard enough time as it was.

The lift finally stopped and I took a deep breath through my nose to try and calm down. My body was all jittery thanks to me being so nervous. Don't ask me why I was making such a big deal out of this. It just seemed like-

"-dammit!" the loud curse was followed by an even louder crash of metal on metal, causing me to jump. Cautiously, I stepped out into the cargo bay, looking around. Garrus was under the mako again- he looked less like he was 'calibrating' and more like he was hiding. Wrex wasn't sitting around with his guns. He had been eating in the Mess when I'd passed by a few minutes ago. You wouldn't believe how much he could put away.

As I searched further into the cargo bay, thankful for my light step in keeping me undetected, I saw that it had been Ashley that made the loud noise. She was manhandling a gun that seemed to be refusing to cooperate. In response she'd thrown it down onto the table with the other weapons that needed maintenance. I briefly wondered why she was wearing armor but pushed that thought aside as she leaned on her arms, bracing them against the table's edge and hanging her head.

Needless to say I knew it was because of me. The day we make up and actually talk to each other again is the same day we get into an argument and I disappear. Again. Today was just no one's day. The more I thought about it the more I was beginning to hate myself. I was acting like an insecure, immature brat. One who didn't deserve such good people looking after her, let alone caring about her.

I made up my mind in that moment to go over there and try to explain things to Ashley. After that I was going to beg for her forgiveness.

Right. Hopefully she wasn't too mad at me. If she ended up yelling at me like Tela did I'd probably end up being afraid to talk to her again. Or I would start crying again. I did not like to cry. It was weakness.

Without further ado I quietly made my way to Ashley's side. I was pretty short and her eyes were closed so she failed in seeing me. I didn't want to startle her but I didn't want to just stand here until she did see me. That would be a little weird wouldn't it?

I raised my hand, hesitating for a second just before reaching her arm. My fingers curled into one of the crevices of the hard armor and I tugged in order to get her attention. Unfortunately in my worry I forgot that Ash was a marine. In an instant she jumped, obviously not having sensed anyone near, and in her startled state her reflexes took over. Before I knew it the back of her metal-covered hand crashed into the side of my face.

My head snapped to the side and my body followed suit, hitting the jagged floor with a loud thump.

It took a moment to start feeling the burning pain as I lay on the floor, and when it did pressing my hand against the side of my face did nothing to lessen it. The fact that the woman had been wearing armor only made it hurt worse. The split skin on my cheekbone and the side of my eye began to bleed, having taken a moment to realize. Above me I heard Ash curse and kneel down next to me.

I struggled to sit up on my knees with Ash's help, still holding my face. "Okay." I grunted. "I deserved that."

"Jesus Christ Cali, are you okay?" Ash warbled as she fussed over me, "What are you doing, sneaking up on me like that?"

Going defensive on instinct, "What are you doing wearing armor?" I snapped.

She paused for a split second to look me in the eyes, momentarily quieted. A pang of guilt sunk its teeth into my chest and I sighed, looking down. I was about to apologize for my bad habit when the brunette tried to pry my hand away from my face. I refused if only to keep her from seeing what damage there was. It hurt like a bitch, and if I was feeling right then it was already bruising and bleeding. I hate armor.

"Let me see." Ash murmured. When I continued to be stubborn she tugged harder on my forearm. "Let me see, Cali!" she practically ordered, just before successfully ripping my hand from my face with her ruthless yanking.

By the look on her face when she saw, I assumed it was either really disgusting and she was about to heave or it looked bad enough to get her to think she might have broken her nine year old sister's face.

Humor struck me and I tried to smile through the pain, "I'm not that ugly am I?" I joked.

I don't think she heard me since she said nothing, still completely focused on my stinging wounds. She released my head from her hold in order to hurriedly detach the gloves from her armor. It hissed in response, losing the airtight quality. When her hands rushed back up to my face I couldn't suppress the slight flinch. Ashley saw this and hesitated, staring at me with very guilty and slightly torn eyes. But a second later she, slowly this time, cupped my jaw in her hands.

As Ash took in the damage she was really quiet. She turned back to the maintenance table to grab a rag before looking back to me still with that look in her eyes. I really did think I deserved that bitchslap. I've done a lot of stupid things since day one. I've at least been holding myself back and going out of my mind. Even if it wasn't intentional the slap seemed to have knocked some sense into me. At least, I think I'm thinking clearer now…

"Come on: let's get to the med-bay." Ash suggested, moving to stand up. I grabbed her arm however, stopping her from pulling away.

She was still and a little stiff for a few seconds but eventually settled in place. I was quiet for a few moments longer, trying to figure out exactly what to say. After almost half a minute of this I just decided to fuck it and say what came to mind.

I took a breath and forced myself to look up into Ash's dark amber gaze before finally speaking. "I'm an idiot." I first stated. She moved to speak but I indicated for her to just listen with a slight shake of the head. "I've been taking everything way too seriously. I've avoided you for too long, and I don't want to just tear up our relationship because I'm being insecure and stubborn."

Her brows furrowed but she said nothing, knowing I wasn't yet finished.

I looked down as I began again, not wanting to see her expression until I was finished. "I have kept secrets from you. I know you don't like that and I know it was probably stupid of me for doing it just because I was scared you would look at me differently. I didn't want anything to change, but now I know I don't have a choice."

Ash slipped her larger hand around mine and gave it a little squeeze in order to tell me she wouldn't judge me, no matter what. Serrkil was right.

My eyes moved back up to see Ash and I smiled lightly through the incessant pain on the side of my face. "So I've decided I'm going to tell you everything. I'll explain everything I've been hiding and answer any questions you have, no matter what they are."

I could see Ash fighting a smile that desperately wanted to break out on her face as she stared at me with shining eyes. I wanted to smile wider too but any more and I might break what cheekbone I have left.

Ash took my jaw in her hands again and pulled me forward before landing a kiss to my forehead that made me blush in slight embarrassment. Even so, it made me feel a lot better. I would need to if I was going to subject myself to Ash and Amelia in a few minutes.

"You're amazing, you know that?" the brunette grinned at me once she pulled back. She stuck a finger in my face a second later, donning a stern expression, "Don't you dare run away ever again do you hear me? I will not go through nine hours of worrying my ass off again, little lady!" she firmly stated.

I grinned and leaned forward to wrap my arms around her neck in a hug. Ignoring the armor and my face hurting more, of course. "I promise, Ash. If I disappear again it won't be because I ran away."

She hugged me back before releasing me and standing the both of us up. "You better not disappear at all. I'd prefer to just keep you glued to my side otherwise."

I rolled my eyes but didn't reply as I took her hand. As I allowed her to drag me toward the elevator again I found enough strength in me to worry about what would happen once I explained everything I had been hiding. Knowing my luck it could either go surprisingly well…

… Or horribly bad.

A/N: I'm sorry I didn't update in the last couple days you guys. My family just really likes to get me away from my habit of writing 'too much'. That and my arm started getting to me again.