"How do I always seem to get myself into shit like this?" Shepard asked herself for the hundredth time since she'd agreed to help Aria.

It'd started a week ago when she'd landed on the Citadel ready to go around helping anyone she could. First she started by visiting Kaiden for a quick chat, then she headed to see what Aria wanted which started a whole list of dealings with the three biggest mercenary groups in the galaxy (luckily she was able to keep a crazy bitch in prison), then she helped a fellow Spector keep an indoctrinated Hanar from destroying his home world with some help from Kasumi (which earned her a pardon and a date), and then she had some doctors escort an elderly woman to a mental care facility due to her showing obvious signs of advanced Alzheimer's.

She'd also had a long conversation with Miranda. She was currently incognito while working on something possibly connected to her father. She also had a bodyguard who stood a parade rest the whole time and seemed very stiff in their movements. They had a nice reunion before Miranda had to leave, wishing Shepard luck.

During this time Ashley was informed that she too had been approved to become a Spector. Shepard had kept the main room in the apartment for her own use so after activating the soundproofing and the window tint functions, she, Ashley, and Liara 'celebrated'. The next morning, she spent with the girls, their new roommates, and their guardians. Joker even came by to spend time with his sister.

The Commando, Aeian T'Goni, was still looking uncomfortable but also looked like time away from wounded soldiers/hospital had calmed her down a little, that and a better prescription Shepard found in one of the bathrooms. Kelly had actually come by to talk with her a bit and Shepard and Hilary joined in for a bit of group discussions. The kids all watched from afar, curious as to why two soldiers and their friend were getting so emotional about whatever they were talking about. They asked Liara and she said that they were discussing things that had left them with mental scars that really hurt them emotionally.

After they broke from the discussion Shepard took Aeian aside and told her that she'd always found a bedmate to help with any sleeping problems. Aeian responded that she'd gotten a prescription but didn't like how it made her feel.

"I get that," Shepard said, "But trust me, it feels worse when after you think you're back in the field and were about to shoot an enemy, you find that you were pointing your gun at a loved one."

"Did that happen to you?"

"Once. Most of the time however I'm back at the controls of the asteroid station, the number three hundred and four thousand nine hundred forty-two displayed on a screen in front of me and I can almost see the reapers in the distance. Coming to invade years early if I don't delay them and sacrifice those people. When I would snap out of it, I'd find myself standing in front of the blender for some odd reason."

That made Aeian laugh, "Seriously?"

Ashley spoke up from behind them, "Seriously." She stood next to Shepard, "Sometimes she'd be muttering to herself, other times she'd in the process of making a smoothie of some kind."

"The docs couldn't quite figure that one out, so they just gave up trying."

"But these drugs just end up making me feel sick… and they give me the hiccups. Have you ever spent the whole day hiccupping to the point where each one has you on the verge of puking?"

"Never been there but try finding yourself locked in a fever dream due to a fine print label saying that psychosis symptoms may become worse for people with certain implants… and seeing as I'm now at least one third cyborg… yeah. Wasn't fun waking up after a week of freaking out and finding out that I'd wondered off while thinking I was surrounded by collector troops… almost killed an orderly with my bare hands. If the drug's symptoms start to get really bad, then get them changed."

"I have, and so far the best have just been sapping my energy."

Shepard put her arm over her shoulder, "Hey it's better than jumping at every shadow."

"Yeah."

There was a lull, so Ashley interjected, "I read in the report that a team member was an Ardat-Yakshi?" Aeian nodded, "Well to get over any problems with that you could volunteer at the Monastery," Ash suggested while pointing at the station visible from the window.

"Wait… that's what that is?"

"Yeah," Shepard said, "I helped set that up and they thanked me for caring with a shit ton of gifts."

"I guess I could act as a guard."

"Just be careful, the commando's get jittery when the girls get in a huggy mood."

"I bet."

After that and a few more political games Aria contacted her and gave the first few details about how she was going to retake Omega. Then after a shuttle ride to a formerly Cerberus vessel they headed off. And that's when things started to get bad.

Aria hadn't put much money into upgrading Omega's defenses, but the Cerberus General who now controlled it did, and the modifications to the Frigate they were in couldn't handle the incoming fire. Thus, one crash landing in an escape pod and a trek through the innards of Omega and now Shepard was fighting for her life to activate the defenses of a safe house while MANY soldiers tried to kill them.

But luckily they made it, thus Shepard's muttering.

After that she had several conversations, mainly people asking her to keep an eye out for stuff, Aria's conversation with Nyreen, and attached several new mods to her weapons. Normally all weapons were legally only allowed two mods but seeing as there was a war on and that she was a spector Shepard added as much as she could. Ultra-lite materials, heavy/high-caliber barrels, scopes or a heavy scope for her rifle to see through smoke and cover she could shoot through, penetrator mods, power amplifiers, melee attachments… the works. When she was finally ready to go Aria squelched the complaint about how long she took when she saw Shepard's load out…

And being handed a shotgun that could one-shot an ATLAS mech helped.

Getting to the Talon's base was easy, and along the way Shepard found most of what the people at Aria's base needed. They found out, no surprise, that Nyreen was in charge, and that taking back the station would be harder than Aria thought. A bit of plotting, Aria pulling a few dick moves and goading Nyreen into joining forces later and the three of them headed back to Aria's base.

More plotting, turning in a few items and hearing the results of unlocking terminals, taking on the task of finding Aria's couch, buying better mods, and re-equipping Nyreen. Aria had to admit, Shepard had a gift when it came to gun smithing.

During this time Shepard spotted Aria looking at Nyreen with interest from time to time. She knew from experience that Aria's thing with Tevos was pretty serious, though she tried to down-play it constantly, but she could tell that she may have had genuine feelings for Nyreen at one point in time.

After she took up the quest to find Aria's couch, they set off to shut down the force fields. After entering the area under lock down Shepard immediately got a horror movie vibe. She gave a slight chuckle, gaining a 'what's so funny' look from her companions, but sobered up after they found the first dead Cerberus trooper.

Nyreen looked ready to bolt but Shepard just tapped her assault rifle and said, "Don't worry, this'll kill anything we find very quickly. And here," she handed Nyreen and Aria both small devices to insert into their weapons, "Double ammo mods. Applies warp and armor piercing effects to your ammo. Should help take down any Adjutants quickly."

"Good," Nyreen said, equipping the mod and taking point. It was tedious moving around in the dark and made Shepard twitchy but they eventually made it through with only two firefights. What happened afterwards however…

They hadn't expected the general to have made the reactor area a trap, thus they were caught, but luckily for them, Aria was a badass biotic and was able to rip open a hole for Shepard to jump through. After killing a few mechs she found the controls and then laughed at the general's assumption that she was a dumb grunt by insta-hacking the terminal with a program she'd made where she'd tell it what she needed and it would do the rest while endangering as few civilians as possible.

The General actually complimented her on her abilities before returning his attention to his command center screens.

Meanwhile Aria was helping Nyreen up from getting blasted off her feet from an explosion when Shepard jogged back to their location. After congratulations for a job well done they set off to rejoin the people who'd started their attack on Cerberus troops, Nyreen left to go check on something and said she'd meet back up with them soon, and they found Arias' couch in a… water canal (Idk).

Shepard snorted when Aria asked, "Is that my couch?" almost like a child asking their parents something mundane.

Nothing of note really happened till they spotted Nyreen in front of Afterlife surrounded by Adjutants. The ammo mods were helping but not enough do to their numbers. When it looked like she was about to blow herself up however Shepard shot the grenade belt out of her hands then began shooting the adjutants.

With their attention temporarily drawn away Nyreen was able to warp away to safety while Aria helped finish them off. After they were down Aria first slapped Nyreen for the almost suicide then kissed her out of relief. Then the three of them shot their way into the club.

Thanks to her cool head Aria was able to circumvent the trap meant to take advantage of her quick temper and they captured the general. After Aria put the fear of god and herself into him she turned him over to Shepard, gave her a kiss, gave a speech to her people, and then picked up Nyreen to cart her off to a secret living chamber probably to work off some serious after battle horniness.

Shepard just smiled before heading off to catch a ship back to the citadel.

After talking to an incredibly happy Hacket about the new captured General Shepard headed upstairs to collapse onto her bed. Kelly was in the room and Shepard noticed that Liara had converted her office area into a smaller workstation which she was using to log several mental health reports. Shepard smiled happily before falling asleep.