Shepard gazed out the window at the snow that was softly falling down. If there was any weather she missed, it was snow. Rain and heat were both simulated on the Citadel. Snow? There were too many cold blooded alien races to simulate the icy coldness that came with snow. She had left for Earth yesterday morning, Citadel time. Garrus had seen her off and told her to check in at the end of every Earth day, if she didn't he would immediately go and inform the Council of what had happened, damned the consequences.
At the beginning of this experience, Shepard knew she would've told him to fuck off. She would never have trusted him with such sensitive information regarding her own people. Now, she trusted him with something that could be labelled as treason if he was the one to inform the world of humanities failure. For once in her life, she trusted a turian completely and without any doubts.
He would be there for her. He would stick to their plan. He would give her help if she required it.
If she began to doubt him, the plan would crumble, and more importantly their relationship would break. The relationship that had started out like shattered glass, both of them slowly picking up the pieces and putting them together. Shepard picking up her shattered heart from Kaidan, and repiecing them together with Garrus. Forming something completely different, and much more fragile.
However, this wasn't the time or place to be thinking of her personal life. She sighed and tore her gaze from the window, scanning the docks. Her Alliance escort was late, or rather she was early. Unfortunately for the recruit was to pick her up, it didn't matter. He was not there when she arrived, therefore he was late. Though, she had been the recruit once, and she wouldn't tell a soul that the escort was late. There was no point, her nerves were worked up already and she didn't care about Alliance politics.
Shepard's gaze passed over a familiar face, but she couldn't place where she had seen the woman before. After a moment, she gave up and looked away. The woman could've been someone who had been given an award at the same time as her, or someone who was mentioned in an article of some sort that she had skimmed through.
As she looked for someone who matched the picture that one of Hackett's assistants had sent her, her mind subconsciously rotated through names to match the face too.
A sudden realization burst over her and her gaze slowly slid back to the woman. She was facing away now, looking at the clock on the digital display that showed all arrivals and departures from this station. When her gaze swung back around, Shepard quickly analyzed her features.
They were the same…and yet different.
Miranda Lawson.
One of humanities biotics and one of her old colleagues from before the incident.
A smile graced Shepard's features and she went to go say hello, but something made her stop. She hadn't even heard of Miranda since the incident. The others all had gone on to do something big with their newfound abilities. She and Kaidan had risen through the military, others went to study the effects of putting implants into people to cause biotic abilities, and some used them in peacekeeping efforts. Miranda? She went dark. No word from or about her.
So, what was the woman doing in business attire at a docking station?
You can't just abandon the Alliance and make a name for yourself.
Shepard's intuition paid off, within a few seconds of pausing, her attention was drawn to a man walking up to Miranda. The latter's face twisted with impatience and irritation. She pointed a finger at him and said something, but Shepard was too far away to hear them. Though, she shouldn't listen in anyways.
The man turned his head towards the digital display, and Shepard inhaled sharply.
Udina.
How did Garrus not know that Udina was on Earth? The ambassadors generally never left the Citadel except for special emergencies, which had to be cleared by the Council first. If Earth's ambassador left, that would be the talk of the station. Humanity had just been given an ambassador.
She quickly ducked behind a pillar and opened her omnitool. Maybe she would still have some military applications that would allow her to listen into the conversation without getting any closer. She flipped through, occasionally peering subtly around the corner to see if the two were leaving. They seemed to be getting into a heated argument about something.
Damn, all of her surveillance applications must've not transferred over when she made the switch a month or so back. She'd have to do it the hard way.
Sliding out from behind the pillar, she began to walk diagonally in the direction of the two. Keeping a far enough distance away and moving at a steady pace. Hopefully, they wouldn't notice her. Something was off about this meeting. What did the ambassador of humanity and a biotic who disappeared years ago have in common? How did they even know each other? There were so many questions swirling around in her head as she stopped at a vending machine close to them.
Before she could start listening in, a voice called out to her, "Captain Shepard!"
Shepard's head whipped up and zeroed in on a man hurrying over to her. Tattooed, shaved head, scar under right eye, bouncer physique. That would be her escort.
As much as Shepard wanted to look at Miranda and Udina to see if they had noticed, she kept her gaze towards the escort. If they didn't think she noticed them, then maybe they wouldn't perceive her as a threat. Just someone coming back to Earth for a visit. It would've been better if Shepard actually had any connections to Earth to speak of. Unless…
"James!" she strode over to her escort and clasped his hand tightly. Before he could react she shifted so he wasn't facing the ambassador anymore. The man looked incredibly confused with her initial reaction to her, she lowered her voice as to not be overheard, and "You must be my escort, Ensign Vega?"
He cleared his throat and went to salute her; she stopped his hand before he could and lowered it. Which earned her an even more confused look, but he responded, "Lieutenant, actually."
"I apologize, the information sent to me must've been dated," she gave him a reassuring smile, one that always worked on her crewmates when something was wrong but she didn't want to worry them,"I also apologize for my reaction, but I want to remain as anonymous as I can while on Earth. There's enough hate from humans on the Citadel towards me, I don't want to start anything here. You don't need to refer to me by my title."
Vega nodded his head, the confusion clearing just slightly, "Of course, Captain – I mean, Shepard. There is a shuttle waiting for us."
"Great, I hate flying on citizen ships. So slow and cramped," she stretched her arms, "Let's get out of here."
Shepard waved for him to lead. As he turned to move, Shepard noticed Udina getting uncomfortably close to them. She strode beside James and increased the pace just a bit. Hopefully, with the comment he would just assume that she was itching to leave the docking station. Unfortunately, the young Lieutenant looked at her from the corner of his eye, a look of suspicion on his features before he turned his head fully to her. Glancing over to him, she caught his gaze flash backwards for just a second. When his head returned forwards, the confused look had returned.
"Why's the Ambassador on Earth?" he asked, keeping his voice low, "I thought he was supposed to stay on the Citadel for at least a year straight?"
Keeping her head forward, she responded, "It's complicated, and confidential. He isn't supposed to be here. Does Hackett or anyone else in the Alliance know he's here?"
The man straightened, snapping to attention at her tone, "No, ma'am, at least no one has said anything to me."
"We'll figure that out once we get to Hackett. For now, keep your eyes forward and keep our pace steady," she advised, and followed him at a quick step out of the station and into the snow.
She was inadequately dressed for the snow, but she didn't even flinch at the biting wind or when the snow blew up and froze her skin to the bone. Training as an N7 gave her plenty of experience of even colder temperatures with even less clothing than her military best she was wearing to the meeting. Her feet crunched the snow flat as they headed quickly towards the shuttles.
"Which one?" she asked, not wanting to slow down the look around for the shuttle, least the Ambassador catches up.
"The one on the far left," he gestured vaguely at the shuttles. "I'll send a message to the pilot saying we're being followed."
As he did so, Shepard took a casual sweep of the area. Neither Udina nor Miranda was anywhere to be seen, but her body didn't relax. Just because you couldn't see your enemy didn't mean they could see you. Maybe they assumed Shepard truly hadn't noticed them and had left the area before anyone else of any sort of importance saw them and reported the Ambassador's presence to Alliance HQ.
The shuttle was humming quietly as they approached it, and James quickly hit the control panel to open the door.
Without waiting for the door to fully rise, Shepard ducked her head and climbed into the spacious back. So good so far. It was second nature for Shepard to lean into the cockpit of the shuttle to greet the pilot. She walked up to the chair.
The man didn't even turn to acknowledge her presence beside him. A sense of dread filled her stomach as she reached out and placed her hand on the man's shoulder. With the pressure, the man's head fell to the side. His body limp against the harness keeping him to the seat. She quickly held her hand in front of the man's nose and waited till she felt the faintest whisp of breath against them. He was still alive.
"Vega-" she twisted around, a warning on her lips when she saw two men in white, black, and yellow armour holding guns to the back of the Lieutenant's head. The rest of her words died on her lips and she straightened her back. "Who are you?"
"We'll be the one's asking questions, Captain," a female voice piped up as Miranda stepped into view. "Let's take a ride, shall we?"
Shepard scowled at the men as they shoved James to the floor of the shuttle and climbed in. She helped James climb to his feet, knowing fully well that they couldn't do anything right now. Two men with guns, and a woman with biotic powers, they were defenseless.
"Make sure they're bound, we wouldn't want them causing any fuss," Udina ordered, climbing on the shuttle after Miranda and then closing the door. One of the men headed into the cockpit, and Shepard heard the click of the pilot's harness loosening and then a solid thud as the man hit the floor. "We can't have them alerting anyone to what is happening."
"If that is what will make you feel safe," Miranda said, her words cooler than the air outside. Their guards stepped forwards and clasped the handcuffs about their wrists, before they were forced to sit down. Miranda grasped a hand rail as the shuttle lurched into the air. "Now, Shepard, we're going to have a little chat."
A/N: Sorry for the late upload guys! When I went to update on Monday, I found out that this entire chapter hadn't saved! By that time I was in no mood to rewrite it for publication on Monday, and on yesterday I worked for the full day. So! I rewrote it this morning so I could still give it to you guys before next Monday! Sorry for the wait!