SSV Magnesia hadn't been damaged too badly in the battle over Elysium, but she still needed at least three weeks in a space dock. Most of the crew were forced to take leave right after the awards ceremony. The Alliance was trying to deflect attention from the sad truth that one of the most important Alliance colonies had almost been captured by a bunch of pirates. A very big bunch of pirates, but nonetheless pirates. It was embarrassing and they weren't shy about creds for PR. Lots of big speeches, very important people and press.

Lieutenant Shapard had become the hero of the Alliance and had received the Star of Terra, the highest military award of the Alliance. Their suicide orbital drop and actions on the ground hadn't been ignored either. The three of them had gotten Crosses. Max and Taylor had been promoted to Gunnery Chief and Service Chief respectively.

Neither Max nor Taylor had any plans for the vacation and agreed to accompany Nikita, who decided to visit his family. Max had been playing with an idea to meat David, but he was on a mission. Anderson, like Max, didn't seem to have much of a life outside of the Navy. Three years into the service and she hadn't found any time to meet him or his sister, who had been working on something in the Terminus Systems. Max still owed them a big one and hoped to repay somehow.

The rain was pouring in Moscow as their shuttle flew through the downtown. Max had never been interested in Russia to judge if this was common for the capital city of Russia. Her knowledge about Russia was limited to Fokin's stories and things she had known about it from 2013, when it still was the good heiress of the Evil Empire. The Evil Empire was a long-forgotten history now. The city was just as massive as Rio, but more conservative and less colorful. Although it could be the weather and lack of sea affecting her impression.

"Hey, Fucking, would you give us a tour?" Reyes asked.

"Sure," Nikita answered. "We've got enough time."

As they got out of the shuttle Max felt a bit uneasy. It would take some time to get used to open spaces after two years in the narrow corridors of the Magnesia. Somehow, she hadn't felt this way on Elysium.

They were in the old city of Moscow, where low-rise buildings were in majority. Ancient buildings, museums and, of course, Kremlin, the Red Square and that beautiful building with colorful domes, which she had thought to be Kremlin when she had been a child.

"See that small building over there?" Nikita asked. "That's where you could see a mummy a century ago."

"Bullshit," Reyes said. "Everyone knows that mummies are in Egypt."

"You can read about it on the extranet," he said.

"The extranet is full of shit."

"Right, but that's truth. The mummy was a famous tourist attraction. By the middle of the 21th century as it lost its popularity, they buried him. Now it's just a museum."

"Why would anyone want to see a dead man?"

"It was a corpse of Lenin."

"Who the fuck is that?"

"A revolutionary leader of the early 20th century."

"Like Washington?"

"Well, not quite, but you got the general drift."

"People are fucking creeps."

Nikita shrugged.

Fokin's whole family gathered around the table.

His twelve-years-old sister Alice was in awe of Reyes. Apparently, Taylor looked like a poster supersoldier of the Alliance. A tough muscular two-meter-tall brute. Max didn't look the part at all and was mostly ignored.

To her left sat Leonid, Nikita's older brother, and he didn't look well. Max knew that he was one of the first human biotics and suffered from severe chronic headaches due to his L2 implant. Max had spent a week with Shepard and hadn't noticed any kind of discomfort. Either she was lucky or had an improved version of the implant.

Both Leonid and Nikita were looking a lot like their father, Andrey, although unlike his sons, who had some Asian features from their mother, he had a distinct European look. He had served for twenty years in the Russian armed forced and had retired when it had been completely integrated into the Alliance after the First Contact War.

"Did you and Shepard really repulse the pirates on Elysium single-handedly?" Alice asked.

"Well, we were defending one position," Nikita answered. "The Alliance soldiers and civilians, aliens and humans, everyone was defending the colony."

"But you were with Jane Shapard, right? What is she like?"

Max smiled. The Alliance's PR machine was in full flow on the victory on Elysium and their new hero, who had saved the colony. It didn't surprise her that Alice was so taken with it.

"She's a good Marine," Nikita told his sister. "Elysium would have been captured if not for her."

"Our safety shouldn't depend on a single soldier," Andrey said suddenly. "What happens if the next colony doesn't have its own Shepard?"

"We won, dad," Nikita argued.

"You call it a win? How many civilians died? How many were captured and enslaved?"

"Dad-"

"We'd be better off without the Alliance and their alien-loving-"

"Andrey," his wife interrupted his rant. "We haven't seen Nikita for two years. I don't want you to argue about politics."

Nikita's father shook his head, but stayed silent. He wasn't the only one, who had such views. Max heard some of her fellow Marines talking about it and some of them shared his opinion about the Alliance. "The Alliance doesn't do enough to protect interests of humanity", they said. "The concessions the System Alliance offered to the Council were too generous," others said. There were those worried about human culture and those who thought that the Alliance needed to be more aggressive.

"You're a sniper, aren't you?" Alice asked as she looked at Max.

"Not quite," Max answered with a smile, "but yes, I do have sniper training."

"Can I see your sniper rifle?"

The week in Russia had passed quickly. Opinion differences aside Fokin had a good family. They had given them a tour around their country, but soon it was time to leave. The capital city of the United North American Statues hadn't changed much in three years. It had grown larger, and there was twice as many aircars flying over their heads, but it was still the same city.

It was the last day of their vacation. Max and Nikita would begin training at the Officer Candidates School and Reyes would return to the Magnesia. They were closer than she was with her own long-dead family. It wouldn't be right to compare them, but who could she trust more than people who had been having her back in dozens of firefights? She was afraid to lose them like she had lost Chloe. It wasn't the first time they'd be separated, but Max still worried for Reyes. What if something would happen to her? Would she be able to save Taylor using a selfie?

"You really should stop scowling, Caulfield," Reyes said and patted her on the shoulder.

Max sighed as she rubbed her shoulder. Taylor was insanely strong.

"I know what you're thinking," Taylor continued. "It's bullshit. We'll see each other in no time. Get an assignment on some cruiser, request my transfer to your squad and we'll be shooting fuckers together again."

"And here I thought we'd finally get rid of the brute," Nikita said.

"Just wait till your sister enlists. She's the clingiest girl I've seen."

"Don't remind me about it. I'd prefer she'd get some civilian job. She's too clumsy for a military life."

"You're saying it because you haven't seen Caulfield in the boot camp," Taylor said laughing. "She was the runt of the litter. Always doing some stupid shit, like losing her rifle in a head."

"Laugh all you want, Reyes, but I was still kicking your ass."

"Yeah-"

Suddenly there was a flash of pain in her head. Max closed her eyes and fell down to her knees. As the pain lessened, she slowly opened her eyes and found herself in the same place, but everything around her changed. Her friends were gone and the street was full of panicking people. She heard familiar sounds of gunfire and explosions. The air smelled of ash and blood. There were huge squid-like things flying and moving through the city, crushing everything in their paths.

"What the fuck is going on here?" she exclaimed.

Max looked around and finally realized that it was a vision. Just like the one she had seen about the storm that had hit Arcadia Bay, but this vision was much worse. She couldn't have caused an invasion, could she? Max tried to turn on her omni-tool, but it didn't work. She tried to stop a man who was running towards her, but he didn't seem to hear or see her. There were weird zombie-like creatures running after him...

"Max?"

She woke up on the ground with Taylor hanging over her. Max tasted blood on her lips.

"Max!"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Fine? What the fuck is fine about it?" Reyes asked. "You fainted and you're fucking bleeding!"

"I've called help," Fokin said.

"Cancel it," Max said. "I'm fine."

"Max," Reyes said, "you look anything but fine. You're scared and I've never seen you really scared of something."

"My fear has no connection to my condition. It was a vis-" she cut herself off. "Anyways, I'm fine. I don't need help."

"As you say," Nikita agreed. "But you need to see a doc-"

"I know what caused it. There is nothing to worry about. I'm fine."

"You don't look fine," Taylor argued.

"There is nothing to worry about at the moment. I'm not dying and don't plan on dying."

"You need to fucking explain this, Max."

She nodded. "Later. Give me some time to collect my thoughts. I need to go somewhere."

"We're coming with you."

"All right," she agreed.

As they sat in a skycar, Max closed her eyes, trying to remember all the little details from her vision. Vancouver from her vision was larger than this one, which meant this invasion would happen soon. There was time, but how much? Fucking omni-tool. If only it had worked in the vision.

"Did you hear anything about spaceships that look like squids?"

"Squids?" Nikita asked. "Why are you asking?"

Max didn't answer. A dozen minutes later their skycar landed and she led her friends to the place she had once called her home. She had been trying to avoid thinking about Arcadia Bay, her family and Chloe, but the road to the lighthouse brought back a lot of painful memories. She hoped that history wouldn't repeat itself.

"It's nice here," Reyes said as they looked at the bay. "Why are we here?"

"Wait," Max said and took a selfie.