Shepard awoke from what felt like an eternity. He removed the covers and rubbed his eyes tiredly as his vision focused on the details of the room. He looked down at his hands which burned irritatingly as he rubbed his eyes. Large gashes had broken through his worn hands which were equally and painfully covered in blisters. Shepard's popped back into place as he stretched his hands above his head. His body felt lighter than it had when he had entered the room.

Shepard found his armor slung over a chair in the room. The sight caused him to look down to make sure he was wearing something. He found a blood covered shirt with matching pants. Shepard scratched his head as he remembered the ordeals that he had to face. He stood up only to fall back down as he felt his swollen ankle yell at him. Shepard lifted the ankle to see the large puffy skin bulging at the seams. Shepard sighed as he slowly rotated the stiff ankle.

He tried to stand again, but this time he held himself up with the bed and the walls, avoiding any and all contact with his tender ankle. He walked to what he thought was a shower which happily it was. Shepard turned the water on and took a shower with his clothes on; they needed cleaned anyways. Shepard had forgot what relaxation has felt like after those grueling days. He smiled happily as the water softly dripped from his nose.

Shepard heard the door to his room 'ding' open. He leaned around the corner to see Shala standing there with a clean set of clothes. She saw him and quickly diverted her eyes.

"I'm sorry for intruding Commander Shepard, but Tali told me that you would be needing new clothes." Shala said.

Shepard looked at the pile of clothes and saw the ceremonial robe that he had won from one of the challenges. He smiled and went back to the soothing waterfall of water that was falling in the closet sized cubicle that they had set up for him. The run-off water was red from the blood that slowly washed off of Shepard's body. The clothes began to feel heavy so Shepard decided that he had better take them off. He flung each of the clothes off to the side to soak.

Shepard grabbed the towel that was placed on the outside of the door and walked out of shower with it wrapped tightly around him. Shala was still there with her arms folded in her lap standing in the doorway. She nervous diverted her attention again.

"I came to teach you how to put your robes on Commander Shepard… if you wish for me to…" Shala said respectfully.

"Your and Admiral, yet you seem to be treating me like you are my servant… Why is that?" Shepard asked picking up the clean undershirt and slipping it over himself.

"You have been an inspiration for us Commander…" Shala said.

"Really? For just completing some challenges?" Shepard asked as he took the robe off to put on some underwear. Shala became exceptional nervous. Shepard was too tired to care.

"Challenges…" Shala's mind broke off as she struggled to turn away from the bottomless Commander, but she managed to regain control. "They weren't just challenges Shepard… They were tests for your obligation to the Flotilla, but more importantly how you are to Tali. Those challenges are designed to be impossible. Or, at least, so close to impossible that no one can pass them."

"That seems kind of heartless," Shepard said as he put on the pants that came with the robe.

"It has been a tradition ever since we were almost driven to extinction. We had to preserve as many able-bodies quarians to reproduce our dwindling numbers…" Shala said almost remorsefully.

"But now you have your planet back!" Shepard said happily.

"We still don't trust the geth, but we have agreed to give your… 'Legion'… a chance. I guess its our way of being the first to act in favor for the geth…" Shala said.

"I'm glad you accepted his news so readily." Shepard said, buckling his boots up.

"We didn't… Not really… We decided to discuss it while keeping the high morale on the ships. We needed that boost, Shepard. Something to hope for…" Shala said.

"You don't trust him still, do you?" Shepard asked staring Shala in the face.

Shala diverted her gaze from those piercing, knowing eyes. "No, but he is showing great promise." Shala said.

"If there is anything I can do to speed up your decision… just ask." Shepard said.

"We will… now that you're with us now…" Shala said as she turned to leave the room. She stopped in the doorway and cocked her head back to Shepard. She struggled to say what had been itching in her mind. "Thank-you for doing this for Tali…" She said in almost a whisper.

"Your welcome…" Shepard said with nod.

Shepard looked at the robes and almost from memory of watching Tali put hers on, he had managed to slip it on like a professional. He looked in the one mirror and gave a few poses before he limped out of the room to the medical bay. Hopefully, they could fix his ankle up before the bonding ceremony.

Tali walked through the halls of the familiar ship. She had walked these halls many times when she was younger. Her father always told her to stop running. She smiled at those happy moments on the Rayya. She turned a corner and squeezed passed a small group of quarians talking amongst themselves. One waved to her as he passed. She waved back. She had made the same circle around the ship almost ten times before she decided to get something to eat.

Along the way she walked past Shepard's room. She decided to check on him again. She opened the door and found the room empty except for a pile of wet bloody clothes hanging to dry by the closet. She wondered where he had gone to. The front of her visor fogged slightly, but just enough for Tali to know that she had just missed him.

She decided to check the mess hall for him since eating was his second best profession followed by saving the galaxy… Tali laughed at her own thoughts and walked towards the mess hall. She walked past the large glass windows of the med bay. She didn't even turn her head to look at the quarian having his ankle checked out, though it did seem quite odd. Tali almost brushed it off, but decided to see why her mind was nagging at her.

At first, she saw nothing wrong as the robed quarian was looking down at his swollen ankle. She stared at that ankle for some time and realized that it wasn't a quarian sitting in that room; it was a human, and not any human, but Shepard! Tali tapped on the glass. Shepard looked up enough to look just past the bottom of the top of the hood. Tali waved quickly before placing her hands behind her back and bouncing in place. She was happy to see that happy smile spread across Shepard's face as he waved back. The size of Shepard's ankle was truly a sight to behold.

Tali made her way to the door to the bay, and opened the door. The quarian doctor looked at her and waved her away.

"Can't you see I'm busy trying to fix this ankle… If you have an appointment please, take a seat…" The doctor said as he twisted Shepard's ankle while applying a generous dose of medi-gel.

Tali walked past the doctor and hugged Shepard tightly.

"Oh… Sorry Tali… Didn't know it was you…" The doctor said, returning to his work.

"It's okay, Gern… I understand that you are busy." Tali said. She looked at Shepard's new robes. "Bonding robes…" She placed her hand on his chest and leaned in closer to feel his body against hers. "They look so striking on you…" Tali said, romantically tracing some of the designs on his robes.

"You like it?" Shepard asked. "It reminded me of you…"

"That's so sweet of you Shepard… You didn't have- I mean thank-you." She said struggling to fight back her selflessness for just this once. "So what happened to your ankle?"

"You know… had to fix an engine…" Shepard said chuckling slightly.

Tali joined in the laughter. "You actually learned something from me?" Tali asked.

"I learned from the best?" Shepard said, smiling slyly.

"Pshh, I'm good, but I'm not the best Shepard…" Tali said.

"You're the best to me…" Shepard said widening his sly smile.

Tali pushed him gently on the shoulder.

"You planned that didn't you?" Tali yelled.

"Hook, line, and sinker!" Shepard said, giving a victorious arm pump.

"Can you please sit still…" Gern asked, annoyed of course.

"Sorry." Shepard said wrapping his arms around Tali's slender waist.

"I can't believe we made it this far…" Tali said, pulling herself closer to him.

"It's been worth it…" Shepard said.

Tali pulled back so she could look into Shepard's eyes. Those dark glittering balls were simply amazing. Every time he looked at her she fell into their dark beauty. Her focus switched between both of his eyes as she felt her cheeks begin to burn with her love for him. She wanted to simply rip her mask off and kiss him right then and there, but she knew that that would ruin all of their hard work up to this point. She backed away from Shepard's hands which slowly fell from as she moved out of reach.

"I'll see you there, Shepard." She said before she walked out of the room.

Shepard smiled as she left and followed where she was walking through the wall. A sharp pain in his ankle drove him to look down at the doctor.

"Damn! What was that for!" Shepard yelled.

"I'm sorry to inform you that you ankle is broken…" The doctor said.

"What!?" Shepard yelled.

Krog found himself back on Omega, that filthy hole of scum and disease, reminded him of home. He was searching for someone who he had seen walk into this market countless times or at least someone of his species. Almost like his prayers were answered, Kenn walked nervously around the corner to haggle a ship seller for a cheap ship. Krog looked at Kenn and laughed as he stumbled over the haggle. He was almost pitiful in his attempt.

Krog stepped forwards and placed a hand on Kenn's shoulder. He felt the small jolt of fear rock Kenn's body as he gripped him tightly, but at that moment that wasn't his concern.

"I heard my friend here wants to buy a ship!" Krog said happily.

Kenn looked at him with a a confused look showing in his glowing eyes. He breathed out a broken breath afraid of what was happening. The Batarian on the other side of the counter stared at Krog with hateful eyes.

"This dirty quarian has been bugging me daily for me to sell him a ship, but he doesn't offer me anything, if you know what I mean." the shopkeeper said.

Krog pulled out his credit chit through the receiver bay to review his credits. The Batarian nearly fell over as the numbers continued to climb. Kenn could only watch at the never ending stream of numbers grow bigger and bigger. He looked up nervously at the large Krogan and gulped loudly. He didn't like this at all.

"So how much for the best ship you got?" Krog said, flipping through the public catalog.

"W-well as you c-can see from the c-c-catalog…" The Batarian stammered as the numbers flew past the two billion mark.

"I can see what is in the catalog! Do you think I don't know about the black market? Now show me the goods!" Krog yelled angrily as he pointed out some of the ships to Kenn as if he was a close friend. Kenn tried to play along.

The Batarian cleared his throat. He flipped a long sequence of codes into the pad in front of him. Krog quickly memorized the code to save till a better time. The catalog instantly changed to almost five hundred pages of pirated ships. Krog browsed them nonchalantly for his own ship had been pirated, by him of course. Kenn looked around nervously trying to find some escape, but the firm grip of Krog denied such escape.

"This one!" Krog said pointing to a large greenhouse- eco-producer ship.

"That is a very rare ship…" The Batarian said nervously.

Krog looked over as his money ticked past the 100 billion mark.

"Does it look like I will have troubles paying for this ship?" Krog asked menacingly.

"No! No! I'm sorry… umm…" The Batarian tried to connect his thoughts.

"How much?" Krog asked.

"What?"

"How much you worm, and it had better be a reasonable price or you won't have a mouth to say what again!" Krog said angrily.

"500 million…" the Batarian said which was half of what he had been holding it for.

"You got yourself a deal!" Krog said, happily pressing the button to transfer the funds. "I gave you a little extra for your generosity."

"Th-thank you sir…" the Batarian said.

Krog turned to Kenn who yelped at the brutal stare of Krog.

"There you are quarian… That will impress your fleet…" Krog said.

"Why did you do that for me?" Kenn asked nervously.

"Because I'm going to ask you a favor…" Krog said staring into the afraid eyes of Kenn.

"What do you want?" Kenn asked shaking nervously.

"I want to go see the Migrant Fleet of course… Particularly the Rayya… You see, my friend is going through the quarian bonding ritual and he is getting bonded tonight, but upon arriving at the Fleet, they denied me entrance. I didn't want my friend to think I skipped out so I decided to try to help a friendly quarian to help me see it." Krog said innocently.

"I don't think they will let you-" Kenn started.

"I don't have any guns… I promise" Krog said displaying his unarmed body.

"I did hear about the bonding ritual… Are you a friend of Shepard's?" Kenn asked.

"You know Shepard?" Krog asked excitedly.

"He helped me get out of a tight spot a while back." Kenn said.

"Yes I'm his friend!" Krog said laughing gruffly at the end.

"Who? Might I ask?" Kenn asked.

"Wrex Urdnot!" Krog lied. "One of Shepard's closest friends!"

"I think I heard him talk about you briefly! Of course I'll take you!" Kenn said, gaining a more confident pose.

"Thanks, buddy! I'll be sure to give a nice gift of credits for doing this for me!" Krog said as a sly crooked grin grew over his broken face.