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Thane leaned his head back against the side of the shuttle, closing his eyes, feeling the burst as Garrus, at the controls, floored the pedals to get away from the Collector ship as quickly as possible. He had only known the turian a short time, but he trusted that they were going to reach the Normandy safely—and he had absolute confidence in Joker, at the controls of the big ship, and in the AI, EDI, who would be assisting.

Odd to feel so certain of others, he who had spent so much of his life operating alone. Shepard was good at putting people together, though, and at getting the best from them. Take Jack, sitting across from him, tensely looking out the window. Jack was barely sane—she was the first to admit it. But there was no one like her in a fight. Ruthless and confident and fully in control of her power. He and she had fallen into an entertaining routine fighting the Collectors—she would freeze one and lift it into the air with her biotics, and he would shoot it and cause it to splinter into pieces. It had tickled his sense of whimsy, and apparently hers, as well.

Shepard had ignored their antics, her entire focus on what was ahead of her. Having seen her fight, he now no longer was surprised that she had died; rather, he was surprised that she didn't make a habit of it. Rushing headlong into the fray, seeking cover only when her armor was smoking, her shields completely gone. She fought like someone who gave no thought to the future. Or possibly like someone who had an unpleasant job to do and wanted to wade in and get it done as quickly as possible, regardless of its effect on her.

But she kept an eye on him and Jack, as well, always taking the brunt of whatever danger was to be faced on herself. Which wasn't difficult, since the Collectors appeared to be obsessed with her. In every cadre of Collectors they had faced, one had been taken control of by something calling itself "Harbinger", and Harbinger had spent its time calling to Shepard, telling her that she couldn't win, letting her know that the Collectors wanted her as … it seemed to be as a trophy. Thane had found it disturbing, and the words weren't aimed at him. She had ignored it all, though. She had a tough hide, no doubt developed over years in the military. Possibly even before, although her brief description of her life on Mindoir had sounded rather pastoral and peaceful.

The shuttle docked, and almost before it had stopped moving, Shepard was out of it and sprinting for the cabin. Jack followed her. Thane and Garrus came behind more slowly. The turian's eyes were on the door Shepard had disappeared through. "This must be like repeating the past for her," he said. "It is a little for me, as well."

"Because this is the same Collector ship that attacked the original Normandy?" EDI had discovered that information and passed it on to them while they were on the Collector vessel. Shepard had been angered by it, not liking the idea of being hounded by the same set of Collectors for two years. Thane couldn't blame her.

Garrus nodded. "Yes. She was with Joker at the end then." He glanced at Thane. "You know how she died?"

"She was spaced, I understand, after the original Normandy went to pieces?"

"She was spaced because Joker wouldn't leave his post and she went after him and dragged him to a pod, but she didn't have time to get in it herself. It's why he doesn't sleep. I mean, he never slept much—he prefers to fly—but now even less, because he relives it in his nightmares. You know about his condition?"

Thane shook his head.

"Vrolik's Syndrome. His bones are brittle. He can barely walk on his own without breaking a leg. It's not clear that he could have gotten to a pod on his own, even if he wasn't so damned stubborn. He blames himself for Shepard's death." Looking down at his feet, the turian added softly, "There's a lot of that going around."

"You, too?"

"A little. Kaidan was the last one with her—she sent him to a pod and went after Joker, and he said, after, that he wished he had gone for Joker instead."

"She wouldn't have let him," Thane said with certainty.

"You got that already? Yeah, she doesn't let her people put themselves into danger if she can avoid it." Garrus chuckled. "She's got to be so pissed at the Illusive Man for letting her take you and Jack into a trap. What I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall for that conversation."

As short a time as he had known Shepard, Thane agreed—she wouldn't hold back her anger at anyone who caused her to put her people in unnecessary danger. Perhaps that was the key to her magnetism. Because she was magnetic. People were drawn to her. And it wasn't her beauty; strictly speaking, Shepard wasn't beautiful. Her skin was too pale, her features regular but too sharp for real beauty. She kept her hair scraped back so severely that it was clear she didn't want her looks to be an issue. Thane suspected that, too, had been learned in the military.

She couldn't hide her lovely eyes, though. Hazel, he believed the humans called them—brown at times, green or blue at others. Always direct and honest and uncompromising and expressive.

Walking with Garrus, Thane found himself lost in the memory of sitting in the observation deck with her, that brief moment in time when their eyes had met and something had passed between them. He had dwelt in that memory several times since it occurred, trying to parse the emotion he had felt. Not attraction, although there was that. Something more fundamental … a recognition of some kind, a sensation that it was meant to be that they two should be sitting together at just that moment. He had never experienced anything like it, and he found it at the same time both deeply unsettling and oddly comforting.

Beneath them, the ship accelerated swiftly. Garrus and Thane looked at one another with relief.

"He pulled it off this time," Garrus said. "I thought he would. He was pissed that they took his ship from him before; he wasn't about to lose a second Normandy."

"I can't blame him for that."

Garrus looked around him with affection. "No. It's quite a ship."

"Which do you prefer?" Thane asked, hoping it wasn't too intrusive a question. "The original, or …?"

"That's a difficult question." Garrus pondered it for a moment. "The old one was carpeted, a bit warmer feeling … but it was an Alliance ship, and it never stopped being an Alliance ship. Being an alien aboard it always felt a bit—awkward. Cerberus, despite being a human-focused organization, seems more relaxed about aliens. Or maybe Shepard's had more to do with the atmosphere aboard."

"She seems remarkably open-minded."

"Long as you do your job, Shepard doesn't care what you look like, it's true."

Thane hesitated before asking the next question. "Is Shepard different now than she was before?"

"In most ways that you could see, no. Same drive, same sense of humor, same inability to get into cover in a fight until the last minute."

"She's always done that, has she?"

Garrus smiled. "Oh, yes. Used to drive Kaidan nuts."

"Kaidan?" It was the second time the name had come up, and Thane sensed there was something there, maybe from something in Garrus's voice.

"Kaidan Alenko. He and Shepard … well, I suppose it was common knowledge. He took it hard when she died, as you might imagine. Harder when she showed up not dead—and working for Cerberus."

"Devoted to the Alliance?"

"You could say that."

"Ah." Thane had met a number of people who had negative opinions of Cerberus. He didn't think he could give up someone he cared about over such a disagreement, but it took all kinds, after all. "That would explain the sadness," he said, almost to himself. There was an air about Shepard, stoic as she was, that would be explained by a broken heart.

Garrus glanced at him in surprise. "You saw that, too?" He sighed. "It isn't just Kaidan. Liara, too. You met Liara?" At Thane's nod, he went on, "She used to be … sweet. Innocent. Lovely. Now she's … not. If Joker blames himself for Shepard dying, Shepard blames herself for dying and what happened to the rest of us afterward. Even me, I think, as though I became a vigilante cleaning up the streets of Omega because of her."

"Didn't you?"

"Not entirely. I was fed up with C-Sec and regulations and answering to idiots long before I met Shepard. But that's what she does—she takes on her people and takes them to heart and holds herself accountable for their well-being." They had reached the elevator, and the turian hesitated. "I don't suppose you play chess?"

"I've tried it once or twice." In actuality, he was only a few points short of being a Master … but there was no point in revealing that fact before he'd had the enjoyment of the surprise at least once.

Garrus wasn't entirely fooled. He studied Thane skeptically. "I'll bet." He tipped his head toward the elevator. "Come up and have a game."

"Don't mind if I do."