I understand a lot of people were hoping I would change the events of the Arrival DLC, so I feel like I need to explain why I didn't. First of all, all of the things that could have been changed to affect the actual outcome happened before Shepard came to Aratoht in the first place, so Terra's involvement wouldn't have been able to alter it either. Secondly, the third game has to start the same way, which means Terra has to turn herself in while Garrus stays behind, which she would only do for such a big crisis as the Arrival sequence. And lastly…well, I just preferred to write it this way and couldn't think of anything better. So I'm sorry I couldn't give a more cheerful outcome, but you'll soon discover that's about to change, promise. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the next couple chapters before we move on to the third game. Here we go.

Chapter 57: Independent Assortment

Though in space we are distant
Though our paths may diverge
We will still be connected
Our roads parallel
Until we find a way back to each other

November 11, 2185…

Terra couldn't bear to say goodbye to Garrus, but neither could she bear to not say goodbye to Solana or her parents. On her way out, she'd taken the time to warn them what was about to happen, explain why it was necessary, and promise she'd be praying for their safety. They were sad to see her go, especially when Solana silently took notice of how Terra was fighting tears, but they were turian and they knew why she needed to take the hit for the good of the Alliance, especially with the Reapers clearly drawing close.

That didn't make it any easier when Garrus came out, dejected and heartbroken, left behind for spirits knew how long. Solana, now fully understanding just what had happened recently, was there for him. Their mother was there for both of them as best she was capable right now.

Castis, on the other hand, took it upon himself to make sure Terra's actions would not be in vain any longer. Within an hour of Terra's departure, he had contacted the primarch. The basics of the story were already reaching Palaven over the news feed, which complicated things a bit, but Castis stood firm, insisting this meant they needed to take action. "You can't afford to shrug this off any longer, Fedorian. What happened at Aratoht means we're running out of time."

"We've already taken precautions at your insistence," the primarch retorted, "And now you want us to prepare for war based on the account of a human who's being charged with mass murder?"

Having heard what really happened, that insinuation sent a growl through his sub-vocals that he hoped wouldn't transmit down the line. "No, based on the account of my son and his mate, who I happen to consider an adopted daughter."

"Fine, I understand, but I also have to draw the line somewhere. Even if we were to act on Shepard's warnings, we have no authority to speak with her while she's being prosecuted—"

"She's being prosecuted in her position as an Alliance soldier, not a Palaven citizen."

"She's not a citizen, she wasn't born here."

"Actually, it doesn't matter where she was born. She lived here long enough to earn basic rights, enough for you to hear her out."

"…you're not going to let this go, are you?"

"We're talking about the safety of every last turian in the hierarchy. No. I won't."

"Fine. If your son is such an expert, he can start organizing our defenses. We'll even establish contact with Commander Shepard if we have to. We'll talk about further action when it's been proven we need it."

Not much, but it was more than they'd had for the past two years and it might make a difference in the end, so he took it.

Garrus was still a bit too dismayed to act on the "promotion" just yet, but he wasn't shutting down entirely like he had after Alchera, so they all knew he'd be back in form making sure her actions were not ignored this time before the week was out. Right now, he just needed time. And his family.

Garrus started recovering faster than they expected when Castis explained just what he had managed to negotiate for them. Garrus was actually being given command of their preparations. And if they played their hand right, he could use that to stay in contact with Terra, maybe even leverage some kind of transfer from the Alliance to the hierarchy since she wasn't technically an Alliance soldier anymore… It was a long shot, but he was used to those and he'd take any he could find if it meant seeing her again. So he set to work.

They might not be able to stop the Reapers yet, but they could hold them off. At least long enough for evacuations. He'd make sure of it.

November 13, 2185…

Terra had found that her visits to Earth came in three varieties. The first kind was the happy, carefree, wondrous escapade of showing Garrus around her home-world as he had shown her Palaven. The second was the bittersweet, hit-and-miss stay that had been her basic training, also known as "wow, this farmer turned bird-lover is really good, but let's all pick on her anyway." Now she had discovered a third, absolute nightmarish flavor that was the slog of her "trial."

She had arrived at Alliance headquarters ready for the worst, even going so far as to surrender the Normandy and try not to display how heartbroken she was at the prospect. The press had shown up in 30 seconds, already filling the entire ANN with the bulletin that Commander Shepard was indeed alive and being held on charges of either treason or mass murder or maybe both. Hackett had managed to hold them off and escort her safely inside, but it was still all downhill from there. The entire Alliance Parliament knew what had really happened at Aratoht, but her reasons didn't change their mind. Her sentence had already been determined, the trial was just a show for the public. She was declared guilty in a matter of hours to assure the batarians that justice was being served, then she was quietly slipped into house arrest in the Vancouver base. And that was the end of that.

Her communications were being monitored as a precaution because of her tempestuous history with Cerberus, so she elected not to attempt calling any of her crewmates. …former crewmates. Most of them, including the entire squad, had left on Palaven and gone back to their lives, all promising to stand with her when the time came. The time hadn't come yet. She was just lonely. She might still have risked a call to Garrus or Solana, but it was too painful just yet, so she sat in the silence she so despised and considered that the real punishment.

Hours ticked by. Somewhere out there, the Reapers were redirecting their approach, circumventing the delay she had forced upon them. Somewhere out there, there were batarians who had lost family or friends to her, who would probably wish her dead or worse for what she had done to their world by trying to save their people. …somewhere out there, Garrus was once again trying to find his way in a world without her while his mother slowly wasted away and their crewmates drifted apart. And through all that, she was trapped here. Why did everything in her life have to conspire against her like this?

Then again, that wasn't entirely true. She could've escaped this time, run away with Garrus instead of from him. She hadn't. Instead, she'd left her mate behind without even telling him she was leaving and submitted to her fate like…well, like a turian, to be honest. Maybe trying to balance both sides of herself was what was really threatening to undo her.

The one small grace in this situation was that they had left her pack untouched so she could keep her sketchbook and pencil case close at hand. She made use of that now, not to draw but to scrawl out a line of poetry.

Difficult comes easy
Not from bravery
But from selflessness

She didn't know how long she sat there, hovering over this partial verse, before she heard someone knocking on her door. Confused at first, she quickly put her book away and went to answer the door.

The last person she expected answered. "This what you call 'being careful' now?"

For the first time since her sentencing, she smiled. "Anderson!" She almost hugged him.

He smiled back. "I heard about what happened. Thought you could use a friendly face."

"No kidding. What are you doing here, though? Shouldn't you be on the Citadel?"

Anderson sank back into the wall. "No. I resigned from the Council."

Just like that, the joy from seeing him seeped out of her. "What? Why?"

"It didn't exactly fit me to begin with. Once I saw I wasn't really making a difference, at least as far as preparing for the Reapers was concerned, I felt like I'd outlived my usefulness there. Plus, the politics were getting too much for me. I need to be back here." He smirked. "They're talking about making me an admiral now, you know."

She was glad to hear that and she understood his reasons, but it still seemed like a mistake. She had suggested he take the position in the first place because she trusted him, because she knew he was a good leader, because the alternative was Udina and he was a politician more than anything else. The Council wasn't going to listen about the Reapers anyway, not if seeing Sovereign hadn't swayed them in the end, but it had been a comfort to know that one of them was really fighting for the people. Even if Udina had come around about the Reapers by now, he would only be fighting for humanity. Fair enough since humans were still looked down upon by some, especially considering what she'd done, but still. She fought for unity. Anderson understood that. Udina wouldn't. The Council worked best in balance from harmony, not from equable prejudice.

Not seeing how to put all this simply for her old captain's sake, though, Terra resorted to the blunt version: "I get it, but you picked a bad time."

Anderson scoffed. "The way I see it, there won't be a good time until the Reapers are already dealt with…or it's too late to worry about it." He looked at her more seriously now. "How long have we got?"

Terra shrugged. "There were about ten minutes out from that relay when it blew, so they're close enough for FTL. We don't know how fast theirs are. Could be another two years…could only be three months."

"Then we need to work quickly. I'll start managing our defenses as soon as I can."

Terra took comfort in that. Anderson knew what they were up against and wouldn't let the Alliance slack off over this threat like the Council was trying to. If they couldn't guarantee the whole galaxy, at least they could keep Earth safe.

Or die trying. But she didn't want to even think about that. Not yet.

Before the conversation could carry much further, someone else came up from down the hall. "Commander Shepard, I—" He stopped in his tracks when he saw Anderson there, quickly standing at attention. "Captain Anderson! Sorry, I didn't know you were here."

"I was just dropping by, Lieutenant," Anderson said, "Feel free to report in."

He nodded, turning back to Terra. "James Vega. I'm gonna be, uh…guarding you."

Terra nodded back. "Right. Nice to meet you, I guess."

"Suppose I should let you two get to know each other," Anderson remarked, turning to go.

Terra winced at the wording but opted to simply offer a farewell.

Anderson stopped halfway out and turned back to look at her. "Oh, one more thing. I just got word that, apparently, Admiral Hackett received a communications request from some of the higher-ups in the turian hierarchy."

That was news she wasn't expecting. "Really? Who was it? What did they want?"

"Just said they were working for the primarch…" He smirked. "…and that they wanted to discuss invasion protocols."

Terra felt the joy that had seeped out of her earlier slowly returning. The primarch was finally listening. At least enough to start taking proper precautions. And maybe, if she was proving valuable to the turian defense coordination like she had been hoping for all those years ago, they might claim her and remove her from Alliance jurisdiction entirely. It was a bit much to hope for, but either way, maybe it would mean her two peoples would finally start truly cooperating. …maybe it would mean getting to speak to Garrus again.

It was too early to think about how this mess was going to clear itself up. She just focused on giving a friendly farewell to Anderson and a cordial greeting to James before returning to her isolation, now with a small ray of light peering through. However this all turned out, she could cling to the promise she had made to him as a promise to herself: she would see him again.

December 19, 2185…

Garrus had gone to Omega in the first place because he had felt like he hadn't been making a difference. He was avoided that useless feeling this time by involving himself in the primarch's promised attempts to prepare for the Reapers. There wasn't much they could do to counter the assaults of such a powerful force, but they could still harden their defenses, bolster their communications and emergency supplies, and at least organize strategies for evacuation should it come to that. It was pretty clear this was a token task force, but he was still making sure they got as much out of it as they could. The fact he was in charge of it was especially helpful to keeping his morale up.

Still, the real boost to his morale came when he received word that Fedorian had actually lived up to his word and convinced the Alliance to let them contact Commander Shepard. He didn't let anyone argue when he stepped up to make the first call. Let them handle the actual discussions with her later. Right now, he needed to hear his mate's voice.

She answered on the first ring. She must have been waiting for this moment for a while. "Shepard."

One word and he felt the emptiness she had left behind filling up again. He had what he hadn't had last time: a connection, however small, that proved she'd come back to him one day. "I believe you were expecting a call from some turians?"

He could hear her smiling at the sound of his voice. But her words didn't show it. "I was. What do they need from me?"

At first, he was confused why she was acting so distant. Then he realized what must be going on. Even for official business with Palaven, her communications were being monitored. Did the Alliance not trust her for anything anymore?

Then again, he should probably be thankful her punishment wasn't worse than house arrest and that they were allowing her outside communication at all. He was just going to have to take the difficulty of making this sound like the introductory conversation it was meant to be rather than a personal call. …because that was going to be so simple.

He finally tried to keep his professionalism up (again, so simple) and answer: "The primarch has arranged a task force to prepare countermeasures in response to your warnings about the Reapers." Finally. "I have experience, but you're the expert, so we're coordinating."

He also heard her smirk. He knew her too well. "I can do that. Not like I'm going anywhere."

He took some comfort in hearing her try to be witty in spite of all they were going through. She wasn't exactly the most optimistic person he knew, but she knew how to find the bright side all the same. It was in her artistic, poetic nature. It was one of the many, many reasons he loved her.

They talked business as they were meant to, planning how to organize the turian defenses and who all she would have to be connected to (most of which was him, to be honest), but they were talking underneath it with more than words. As only they could, they let what they weren't saying speak for them, let the feelings in his sub-vocals and her subtext tell them what they really needed to hear—"I love you," "I'm here for you," "I'll see you again soon." Whatever was coming, they would still have that to hold onto.

By the time they were forced to disconnect, they had seemed to come to terms with the limits on their arrangement and returned to being glad it was made. It wasn't much, but it was something.

"We'll call again when we need your input," Garrus said, making it clear to her and nobody else that he would be counting the moments.

"I'll be here. Palaven is my home, too, you know…keep it safe."

She didn't need to tell him. Still, he assured her he would before they ended the call.

Palaven was as resilient as the people native to it. It wouldn't fall. He'd do everything he possibly could to make sure of that. Like she would for all of them. They were running out of time, but they weren't running out of hope. Not yet.

Not yet.