Tali had snuck away before Sam woke up in order to get to the Wards without her friend's knowledge. She knew it was dangerous, but the credits she could get for selling the recording would be enough to keep Sam alive. The human had been getting dangerously thin the past few weeks, her biotics using up more energy than the stolen food could provide. Tali felt her resolve strengthen as she pictured her friend offering her dextro food, skipping meals to keep the quarian healthy if she suspected she might be getting an infection. Pushing aside thoughts of the fury Sam would surely display later, Tali approached the meeting point, watching for signs of ambush. A year with the human had at least taught her to be wary.

Sam's eyes snapped open as they usually did after a nightmare. Checking her watch, she saw it was six: plenty of time to get breakfast before Tali woke up. However, she glanced over at the bedroll next to hers and saw it was empty. Fuck she thought. She leapt to her feet and checked Tali's backpack for the recording, it was gone. She grabbed her rifle and sprinted towards the Wards, praying to anything that she wouldn't be too late. Tali was all she had.

When she reached the location, she was unsurprised to see that it had been a trap. She also noted with with pride that Tali had gotten herself into cover and was keeping a couple of batarians at bay with a pistol. There were three Alliance marines who seemed to be trying to help the quarian, but there was a large group of armed mercenaries between them and her friend. Sam lifted the sniper scope to her eye and quickly picked off the two batarians encroaching on Tali's cover. The shots were clean, headshots, both of them.

The Alliance soldiers, meanwhile, were keeping the main group distracted. There were two females and one male. One of the females seemed to be leading them, ordering the other two to cover Tali's position. But, there was still a sizeable force between them and Tali, keeping them from getting to her. Sam went to go around the mercenaries and get to her friend, but suddenly the rifle was knocked out of her grasp. A grinning batarian was pointing his pistol at her face. Without hesitation, she raised her fist and biotically slammed him against the far wall, shutting out the sickening crunch of his bones on the concrete. In the moment of her distraction, a krogan had gotten away from the main group. He was almost on top of Tali, his shotgun ready to shoot.

Sam slammed him hard with her biotics repeatedly as she raced straight through the battle between her and her friend. The Alliance soldiers held them distracted, and seemed to have almost broken through. The biotic thrusts were only enough to keep the krogan staggering, but she used a pull to rip the shotgun from his hands and fling it from him. He'd gotten around the cover though, and he had a knife. Damn it Tali, Sam thought as she flung herself over the low wall and into the blade's path. It went through her shoulder blade and she turned so she was facing him, throwing him with all the strength of her biotics as his elbow connected with her skull. She was unconscious before her body connected with ground, sprawled at the quarian's feet.

Tali had frozen the second the she saw the krogan. Time had slowed as she watched the shotgun rise towards her face, unable to move. In the next moment however, the Krogan was flying across the Wards and her only friend was lying prone at her feet, bleeding and unconscious. All thoughts of the Alliance soldiers and still living mercenaries went out of her head and she fell to the ground, holding her friend's unmoving body on her lap, sobbing.

She'd forgotten the Alliance soldiers were there until a woman bent down and began applying medi-gel to the shoulder wound. "Your friend will be okay. But, she needs to go to a hospital," the woman said, her voice breaking through to Tali's consciousness.

Hospital. "No! No, hospitals! Sam doesn't like it there. I can take her somewhere…there's a refugee camp, maybe they can help her there. Thank you for the help, now please, I need to save her."

The woman rested her hand on Tali's shoulder. "I was looking for you. Come on, we can take her to my ship, we have a med bay. I'll explain everything there." Tali couldn't speak, she was too worried about Sam. She let the woman guide her to the ship, shutting out the voices of the other two soldiers. Her attention was entirely focused on the recording in her hand and the body of her friend her actions might have gotten killed.

...

When they finally got to the med-bay, Shepard had Ashley and Kaidan set the girl's body on a table and she called Chakwas to come take a look at her. Her face was covering in blood, as were her clothes, but the wounds didn't appear to be life threatening. Whoever she was, the girl was impressive. Where the hell did those biotics come from?Shepard wondered. She'd need to wait until Chakwas got the girl cleaned up before figuring anything out, and so she focused her attention on the quarian.

"Come on, the doctor needs to look at your friend. Let's get you something to eat; the kitchen is right outside. I'll explain everything," the commander spoke in as reassuring a voice as she could muster, but she had no idea who the human was or what her relationship to the quarian was. So, she was relieved when the alien agreed and walked to the mess hall with her.

"I'm Commander Shepard, Alliance navy. I've been trying to prove a rogue Spectre's involvement with the geth, and someone told me you had something that would help. I'd just figured out there was a hit on you and was on my way to stop it when we ran into the ambush they'd set up." She paused before continuing, "It must be something important if Saren was willing to send that many mercenaries against one kid."

Tali stiffened at the "kid," but she overlooked the insult due to the fact that the woman had saved her life, and hopefully Sam's as well. She allowed herself to study her rescuer, and was surprised to find the woman's eyes were as green as her unconscious friend's. In fact, there were a lot of similarities between the two woman's facial features. Perhaps humans look more similar to one another than I assumed, Tali thought. She'd never actually paid attention to them, or studied them in much detail. Sam was probably the only one she'd ever carried on a full conversation with, and she was different.

"I have a recording of this…Saren speaking with the geth. I recovered it from the hard-drive of a derelict geth platform I was investgating. When you found me…" Tali hesitated but the woman smiled warmly, reminding her once again of Sam, and she continued, "When you found me, I was trying to sell it to the Shadow Broker. Sam, my friend, she hasn't been eating, she's seemed feverish the past few days keeping me healthy instead of herself. But then she ends up nearly getting herself killed for me again." She put her face in her hands, done speaking.

"You're friend is going to be fine, Dr. Chakwas knows what she is doing. Is there a reason you didn't want her to go to a hospital?" the commander asked, curious.

"I don't really know. I just know that she hates them and is scared of them. She was very sick once, I thought she was going to die. But she started screaming when I asked someone to help me carry her there…You can have the recording, but I want to come with you," Tali responded.

"We'll talk about this in a few minutes. Stay here okay? I'll have Kaidan, he's the soldier that was with us before, bring you some dextro. I'm going to check on Sam."

"Wait, Commander," Tali said and the human paused and turned to look at her. "Can you send someone with me to get our stuff from our camp?"
"Sure. Wait here and Kaidan and Ashley will be right over."

After telling Kaidan to walk Tali to wherever it was she and the girl lived and radioing Ashley to do the same, the commander returned to the med-bay. Without looking at the girl, she turned to Chakwas. "How is she doing?" She asked.

"She should be awake any moment, I had to strap her down, she was having a nightmare. She kept calling out for someone, I think she was saying, "Kay." Shepard froze and turned to the girl lying on the bed. No it can't be, she thought. She strode to the bed and tore the blanket off the girl, she was nearly naked underneath, but the commander didn't care, she was focused on her face. She looked about 17, but she was malnourished, she could be older. Her hair black, almost as dark the woman's standing over her. Then she opened her eyes, and Shepard knew. Eyes equally green as her own stared into hers before focusing on the restraints tying her down.

"Lucy?"

The green eyes snapped back to hers, and opened wider, "Kay?" Shepard froze, unable to move, staring at her sister in shock. Sam/Lucy? did the same, but then her eyes went back to the restraints on her arms and legs and she went into a panic. "You fucking assholes!" She started screaming and her biotics began to flare.

"Doctor, sedate her!" The commander shouted, not noticing that Chakwas was already running over with a needle. The girl relaxed slowly, but the pure terror in her face didn't leave as she lay back. The commander reflexively held her hand as she fell back asleep, not letting go even when her eyes closed again. She felt Chakwas shove her into a chair, but didn't react, her eyes glued to the sleeping girl.
Finally, she felt the doctor staring at her, and spoke. "Doc…can you run a DNA test on her…and me? I think she's my sister." To her credit, the doctor just nodded, shock registering in her eyes, but not her actions.

"Of course, Commander," She said and began making the preparations.

After the doctor has taken some blood from both her and her sister, Shepard stood and released the girl's hand. "Keep her sedated until Tali comes back, Doctor. I think it would be best for her to have someone she trusts close by. Seeing me triggered something." Before the doctor could respond, the commander turned on her heel and left. She sat in her cabin until Joker radioed her to let her know that Ashley and Kaidan had returned with Tali.

When she left her cabin, the three were standing around the mess table; Ashley and Kaidan instantly saluted her, but Tali stood there awkwardly. "Tali, Sam will be awake soon. She already woke up once, but she panicked and we had to sedate her. If you could reassure her…I'm not sure what she thinks is happening." The mask made it hard to read the quarian's facial expression, but Shepard judged by the swift nod and urgent movement towards the med bay that Tali had some idea of what was going on. With her sister. God. How did this happen?

…

Sam woke up to the familiar sight of Tali sitting beside her, the restraints on her body removed. Was it all a dream? She remembered before and started shaking. "Where are we?" She asked when the quarian grabbed her hands with her armored ones.

"We are on an Alliance ship called the Normandy. Some soldiers rescued us and you are in the med-bay."

"I woke up before…I thought I was back with Cerberus, and you weren't here."

Tali threw her arms around her friend, "I am so sorry, Sam. I only went to get your things, so you could have this when you woke up," Tali said and reached into the bag Sam hadn't noticed. She drew out a photo of a younger Sam with a girl who looked just like her, only older and placed it on the table next to the bed.

"Tali, is there a woman who looks sort of like the other girl in the picture on this ship?"

"Yes, she is the one who brought us here. Commander Shepard."

Shepard. "Fuck. Tali, help me get up, I need to see her."

"I don't think that's a good idea, Sam."

"I need to get out of here. Just back up, okay," Sam whispered and began to sit up.

Another voice cut in, however, and a strong hand gripped her shoulder, pushing her back down. "I think you should listen to your friend. You took a knife to the shoulder and you exhausted your biotics doing with you did to that krogan."

Sam turned her head to glare at the woman, but stopped short when her eyes met the matching ones staring back at her. "You!" She yelled accusingly and tried to summon her biotics. When they didn't work, she sat up and screamed, "What the fuck did you to do me?"

The woman forced her back down and grinned, "I see you've picked up some new language, Luce. I'm not sure it suits you."

"Would someone like to explain to me what is going on?" Tali asked.

"I thought she was dead, but apparently she's a fucking Alliance officer with her own fucking ship," Sam responded and started crying. Her sister sat down beside her and held her hand, too shocked to let her own tears fall. She smiled gratefully at Tali when the quarian left the room, but Sam was too distracted to even notice. They sat together for a long time, both reeling from the fact that the sister they'd gone ten years thinking dead was alive and sitting next to them.

A sudden beeping brought both their attention to the commander's omnitool, and the commander sighed. "Listen, Luce, I've got to go take care of something, and I need to bring Tali with me. I'll call Doctor Chakwas back and she'll go over some things with you okay? We'll…talk when I get back." With that, the older woman stood and left, leaving Sam alone.

A few minutes later the doctor returned and fussed over Sam's wounds. She forced a plate of food on Sam, and told her that the sedative had temporarily disabled her biotics, they'd return soon. The doctor seemed kind, and Sam decided that she liked her. "Do you know my… the commander very well?"

"Fairly well. We've served together a long time."

"What's her story?"

The doctor regarded her patient with a long stare before speaking. "Your sister, and yes, she is your sister. I ran some DNA tests. She was rescued from Mindoir ten years ago and has been serving in the Alliance ever since. I'm not sure if you've heard of Elyisum, but Commander Shepard is sometimes known as the Lion of Elysium. She's quite famous."

"I see," Sam muttered and closed her eyes, willing the emotions broiling beneath her skin to go away.

"I just have a few questions, for medical purposes, if you don't mind answering them," Chakwas waited until her patient nodded and asked, "How old are you?"

"Twenty three."

The doctor stared at the girl, waiting for the truth. Shepard was only twenty six, there was no way this girl was only three years younger.

It took the younger woman a while to catch on, but when she finally did she laughed bitterly. "Sorry, force of habit I guess. I should be eighteen, almost nineteen, I think. Kaylin was almost eight when I was born."

"Kaylin…I was under the impression her liname was otherwise."

Sam laughed, "I'm not sure how it started, we called each other by our middle names. It drove Mom and Dad crazy."