The group headed straight for the Normandy once they got back to Port Hanshan. Kaidan was waiting for them by the airlock, looking as though he expected Cade to reprimand him for allowing Allegra to sneak off the ship.

"Commander, I'm sorry," he began, avoiding Allegra's gaze.

"Alenko, it's fine," Cade interrupted the lieutenant. "When my sister is determined to do something, nothing will stop her. I should have remembered that. Besides, she saved our asses."

Kaidan's eyes finally flicked over to Allegra's; she grinned widely at him.

"Debriefing in twenty minutes," Cade announced. "Spread the word. Joker," he called to the pilot. "Get us out of here. Keep us in orbit until I figure out our next destination."

"Aye, aye, Commander," Joker replied happily.

Allegra watched her brother disappear towards the comm room, Tali close behind him. She turned back to Kaidan, but he was looking Liara over closely.

"Is everything all right?" he asked the asari gently.

Liara just stared at the ground, an aura of sadness permeating the air around her.

"Uh, her mother," Ashley began, shifting her weight awkwardly. "We had to. . ."

"Oh," Kaidan said, understanding, his eyes going wide.

"It has not been easy," Liara finally whispered.

"We had to fight our way out of there immediately afterwards," Allegra supplied. "There wasn't any time for much of a goodbye."

Liara suddenly excused herself and walked briskly towards the elevator.

"I have to say, I'm surprised she didn't turn on us," Ashley commented.

Kaidan looked like he wanted to say something, so Allegra hurriedly spoke up. "I'm ready to get out of this armor. I think there's time before debrief, don't you, Ash?"

"What? Oh yeah."

"See you soon, Alenko," Allegra called over her shoulder as she and Ashley headed towards their lockers.

Fifteen minutes later, the girls made their way towards the comm room with Wrex and Garrus. Kaidan, Liara and Tali were already seated, watching Cade pace.

"So, Noveria," Cade began once everyone was seated.

"What a shit storm," Allegra commented as Ashley nodded her agreement. "First geth, then an asari matriarch, followed by rachni. Just how I wanted to spend my day."

"Wait, rachni?" Garrus questioned. "Did I hear you correctly?"

"Yes, indeedy, Garrus," Allegra answered. "They were breeding rachni on Peak 15."

"Why?" Kaidan wondered.

"They found an egg and, well, you know how scientists are," Allegra said.

"The existence of rachni on Noveria was a surprise. Not a pleasant one," Cade interrupted. "At the moment, I'm more concerned about Liara."

The asari glanced up when she heard her name. "I will be fine, Shepard," she said quietly, meeting his eyes. "We had to kill her, I know this. I will grieve in my own time."

Cade nodded his understanding, then focused his attention back on the group. "Benezia told us Saren was looking for the Mu Relay. She gave us the coordinates, which she pulled from the rachni queen's memory."

"Do we head for the Mu Relay then, Commander?" Ashley asked.

"The Mu Relay could link to dozens of systems," Cade replied, shaking his head. "Unless we know exactly where Saren's going, we'd just be wasting our time."

"The commander is right," Liara spoke up. "We cannot rush off blind. We still need to learn more about Saren."

"Who put you in charge?" Ashley interrupted. "Did the commander resign when I wasn't looking?"

Allegra tried to hide her snort of amusement, earning a glare from Cade.

"We're all on the same team here, Williams," Cade said to Ashley, shifting his disapproving frown to her. "Liara's just trying to help."

"Sorry, Commander," Ashley apologized reluctantly.

"So, Feros then?" Allegra asked after a moment of tense silence.

"Actually, I think we should head back to the Citadel," Cade replied. "We could use the opportunity to restock and I'd like to report to the Council personally about Noveria."

"Maybe we could give everyone a few hours of shore leave," Allegra suggested. "Let 'em relax a little. Things have been pretty intense around here."

"I suppose a few hours wouldn't be too bad," Cade agreed.

Cade dismissed them. Allegra followed him out of the comm room and over to the galaxy map. As they pulled up the map to plot their course to the Citadel, Joker's voice sounded over the comm.

"Message coming in, Commander," Joker announced. "Patching it through."

"Commander Shepard, my name is Nassana Dantias," greeted a voice over the comm. "I have a job for you. I can't say any more in an unsecured communication. If you're interested in hearing my offer, meet me on the Citadel so we can talk in person. I'll be waiting in the diplomat's lounge on the Presidium."

"Convenient that we're headed to the Citadel," Allegra commented.

"What do you think? Should we check it out?"

"She said job, which implies credits, so . . . yes."

Cade grinned at her and hit the comm to tell Joker to head to the Citadel. "I don't know about you, but I'm famished," he said, switching off the comm.

"I hear wiping out a whole species will do that to you," Allegra replied.

"That was mostly your fault."

"No regrets."

When the Normandy docked at the Citadel, Cade gave the crew eight hours of shore leave. The ensuing rush to get off the ship was chaos, and Cade couldn't help chuckling at their excitement.

He slowly made his way up to the airlock to disembark, surprised to find Allegra chatting with Joker in the cockpit. Cade slowed to hear their conversation.

"Got a list for me, Joker?"

"Already transferred to your omni-tool, Commander."

"Please tell me you didn't put porn on the list again."

Joker laughed. "No, but the look on your face last time was priceless."

Allegra reached out to flick the brim of Joker's hat up, skewing the cap's placement on his head. "You sure you don't want to come this time? Use your shore leave for actual shore leave?"

"It would probably take me eight hours to hobble anywhere," Joker replied nonchalantly as he fixed his hat.

"Don't be an ass, Joker. I would carry you."

"You wouldn't really want to be seen carrying little old me all over the Citadel, would you?"

"Why? Because everyone else would be super jealous?"

Joker laughed at Allegra's comment. "Just go have an extra drink for me, okay?"

"Don't have to ask me twice. Oh, and Joker, no jerking off while no one's onboard." Allegra turned around, catching sight of Cade. "What?" she asked defensively as she walked towards him.

"When did you and Joker get so friendly?"

"We bonded over our mutual hatred of you, of course," Allegra grinned.

As the two stepped off the Normandy, Cade put on his serious voice. "Just be careful how flirty you get, Allegra. With anyone. I think Alenko is starting to get a crush on you."

"You don't say," Allegra replied, fighting a smile.

Cade studied her as they walked. "You already know that, don't you?"

"It's possible."

"Don't you dare lead him on, Allegra. He doesn't deserve that."

"I couldn't if I wanted to. Fraternization and all that."

"Are you serious? There's actually a rule that you're trying to follow?"

"Fuck off," Allegra groaned.

"You've never had much concern with fraternization before," Cade continued, ignoring her. "What's so different this time?"

"We're trying to save the galaxy of course!" Allegra joked.

"Who are you and what have you done with my twin sister? If the end of the world was really about to happen, the Allegra I know would go after what she wanted, damn the consequences. Hell, the Allegra I know would go after what she wanted any day of the week."

"I like him, okay," Allegra replied, frowning.

Cade shut his mouth with a loud click. "You like him," he repeated.

"Yes. He's different then the guys I'm normally interested in. He's the kind of guy who's in it for the long haul. I don't want to screw this up."

"So you're going to stay away from him?" Cade asked disbelievingly.

"While he's my subordinate, yes." Allegra looked up at him. "It's hard to deny myself something that I want, but Kaidan has a long career with the Alliance ahead of him and I don't want to ruin that for him."

"That's awfully mature of you, Allegra."

"I have my moments."

"Will you wait for me while I give my report to the Council? Then we can go for drinks or something."

"Sure thing, big brother."

Cade smiled as he led the way to the Presidium. Once they reached the Citadel tower, Cade was granted an immediate audience with the Council. Allegra waved him on ahead as she waited for him down the stairs.

"Is this report accurate, Commander?" the asari councilor greeted. "You found rachni on Noveria?"

"And then wiped them out?" the turian councilor added. "Do you enjoy committing genocide, Shepard?" he asked wryly.

Cade had a hard time fighting the urge to roll his eyes. It was impossible to please the Council. "It was them or me," he found himself saying. "The choice wasn't hard."

The salarian councilor decided to play peacemaker. "Just remember that your actions have consequences, Commander."

Cade could practically hear Allegra in his head sighing "Duh, obviously" and suppressed a sudden grin.

The council took more time to berate Cade for his choices and urging him to deal with Saren already. Cade usually had an easy time being diplomatic, but the council really knew how to push his buttons. He was beyond relieved when the meeting finally ended.

While Cade was in the meeting with the Council, Allegra paced restlessly through the middle of the room. She eyed the keeper just standing there, not entirely sure that it wasn't watching her. Everyone swore the keepers minded their own business, but its eyes kept following her. Quickly stepping away from the creepy keeper, Allegra found herself next to an Alliance officer slapping his hand against a comm buoy in obvious frustration.

"Uh, is everything all right, sir?" she asked him warily.

The officer turned to look at her, recognizing her at once. "Commander Shepard, isn't it?" he asked. "Admiral Kahoku," he introduced himself.

"Is there something I can help you with?" Allegra wondered.

"Well I'm getting stonewalled by bureaucratic assholes, which is nothing new," Kahoku griped. "One of my recon teams was investigating some strange activity out in the Traverse. Yesterday, we lost contact with them and now I can't get clearance to check it out. It's somehow become a restricted area. I just want to know what happened to my team."

Allegra studied the admiral for a moment. "My brother was recently made a Spectre," she began. "A restricted area wouldn't be enough to keep him out. Maybe we could find out why your team dropped out of contact."

"I would be grateful, Commander. I'll stay here and see if I can find anything out through official channels. Won't hold my breath, though. Let me know if you get anywhere."

Allegra told him to upload any information he had to the Normandy. She promised to keep the admiral updated before quickly passing the creepy keeper (still standing in the exact same spot) and heading towards the fountain. Minutes later, Cade appeared. Before Allegra could mention Kahoku, he was dragging her off to the elevator.

"Where are we going?" Allegra asked.

"Diplomat's lounge," Cade answered, stepping into the elevator. "I figured while we're here, we may as well see what this Nassana Dantias wants."

"Is that the one who sent you the message about a job?"

"Yep. A few extra credits couldn't hurt, right?"

As the pair made their way to the diplomat's lounge, Allegra wondered how they would figure out who Nassana was. Would she point herself out to them? Allegra didn't even know what brand of alien Nassana was (though she was guessing asari).

"Which one is our contact?" Allegra asked Cade when they entered the lounge.

Cade scanned the area, noticing an asari sitting by herself near the bar. He strolled up to her, Allegra quickly following him. "Nassana Dantias?" he asked as he approached.

The asari looked up at them. "Commander Shepard," she greeted, her eyes never leaving Cade's face. "I see you got my message."

"You said you had a job offer?"

"I do," Nassana nodded. She beckoned Cade to sit next to her, leaning in and lowering her voice as soon as he was seated. Allegra scooted closer to hear her. "My sister Dahlia is a crewman on a cargo vessel operating on the fringes of the Traverse. Her ship was attacked by privateers with no reported survivors."

"You want us to hunt down the people who killed her?" Allegra asked.

"I don't go in for revenge work," Cade stated, making to stand up.

Nassana placed a hand on his arm, urging him back to his seat. "Dahlia is still alive," she said. "I received a message last week. The others on the ship were killed but my sister was taken prisoner. The slavers demanded a huge ransom from me in exchange for returning her unharmed. My family is very wealthy, Shepard. My sister probably told them who she was and the slavers decided she was worth more to them alive." Nassana sighed. "I've already transferred the funds to the account they specified but they won't release Dahlia. They haven't contacted me since."

"Criminals," Allegra muttered darkly. They couldn't be trusted; the asari should have realized that.

Nassana continued with some sob story about how she could end up in jail because she paid a ransom to the slavers (supposedly government representatives were forbidden by law to negotiate with terrorists). Allegra was bored by the pathetic speech, figuring Nassana brought this predicament upon herself. She had obviously been well aware of the law, but chose to ignore it.

Unfortunately, it seemed Cade was falling for her tale of woe. He agreed to find Dahlia and bring her back in exchange for a generous reward from Nassana. Allegra would be the last person to refuse a shitload of credits, but last she checked, they had a rogue Spectre to track down and no time for chasing a band of slavers around the galaxy. Pointing this out to Cade, though, got her nowhere.

"She's in a bad spot," Cade replied as they were headed back to the Normandy to go over Nassana's information. "We're able to help her, so why shouldn't we?"

"I just told you why we shouldn't!"

They spent the walk back to the Normandy arguing. This was such a regular thing for them to do that Allegra nearly burst out laughing. It sure made the walk go a lot quicker.

"Commander, an Admiral Kahoku uploaded some data for you," Joker greeted as the pair emerged from decontamination.

"Admiral Kahoku?" Cade repeated questioningly.

"Er, yeah," Allegra replied as Joker shrugged. "I told him we would find his missing recon team."

Cade pinned her with a heavy stare. "Was that not you who just spent the whole trip back up here yelling at me for agreeing to help someone?"

"But this is for an Alliance officer!" Allegra protested. "It's important."

"And if we can get those credits from Nassana, we'll be able to afford some better weapons and armor," Cade stated.

"But the Alliance!"

"I never realized you were so hot for the Alliance, Commander," Joker laughed.

"Shut it, you," Allegra hissed at the pilot.

Joker held his hands up in surrender and spun his chair around to face the console.

"All right, Cade. I'll be a big girl and compromise; I will stop harassing you about helping Nassana if you agree to help Admiral Kahoku."

"A few more missions to build team effectiveness wouldn't be a bad idea," Cade said slowly. "But we do need to get to Feros soon."

"Joker, send the data from Kahoku to my omni-tool, would you?" Allegra called to the pilot as she made her way towards the galaxy map.

"Sure thing, Commander," came Joker's reply.

Cade followed his sister to the galaxy map, glancing at her questioningly.

"Where did Nassana say the slavers were holding Dahlia?" Allegra asked him.

"She said she'd managed to track her to Sharjila."

"Sharjila . . ." Allegra muttered, studying the galaxy map. "That's in Artemis Tau." She checked her omni-tool for Kahoku's data. "Hah, talk about convenient. Kahoku said he lost contact with his team on Edolus which, get this, is also in the Artemis Tau cluster. And Artemis Tau is practically on our way to Feros." She pointed out the clusters to Cade on the map. "It's one relay in the opposite direction, but really that isn't bad." She paused thoughtfully. "I swear every other mission we get is in Artemis Tau. Wasn't T'Soni found on Therum in Artemis Tau?"

Cade chuckled. "Too bad we didn't know about Kahoku and Nassana's missions back then."

"You're telling me."

"Joker, once everyone is back onboard, we're heading to Sharjila in Artemis Tau." Cade turned back to Allegra. "Drinks?" he asked.

"Sure. But first I have to do Joker's shopping."

After the shopping adventure was completed, the twins wound up at Flux with Ashley, Kaidan, Tali, Garrus, and some of the other crew. They spent the last few hours of their shore leave dancing and gambling.

When everyone had made their way back to the Normandy (in rather high spirits), Joker got them back into space and headed towards their destination. Cade went to his terminal to do some research on Sharjila and the slavers who had captured Dahlia.

Joker got them to Sharjila faster than Cade had expected. He told Tali and Garrus to get ready, then headed to his locker to ready his own equipment.

Allegra appeared at his elbow, tapping him on the shoulder. "Be careful down there. I don't trust criminals."

"Neither do I," Cade replied.

Joker dropped the Mako off close to the slaver's base of operations. Garrus drove the Mako towards the base nice and slow.

"Looks like they've got a group keeping watch outside," Cade announced, peering through the window. "Tali, jump on the cannon. Let's surprise them."

The small group of slavers lingering outside the base were no match for the Mako's cannon. The three of them gained access to the building within minutes. As they entered the main room of the base, the slavers were alerted to their presence. They ducked behind cover and worked in synch to take the slavers out. It was relatively easy; Cade's team had superior skill and firepower. Their only real challenge came in the form of an asari slaver who enjoyed using her biotic skill on them. After a tense firefight, the slaver went down (Cade hadn't been worried; it was three against one after all) and Cade went searching through the base for a sign of Dahlia.

In an upstairs room, they found a console, but no sign of anyone else. Tali sat down at the console and started searching through the data on it. "Commander," she said after a minute. "The asari slaver we shot down . . . that was Dahlia Dantias."

"Nassana told me Dahlia had been captured by slavers," Cade replied, hurrying over to look at the data Tali had pulled up. "Not that Dahlia was a slaver. Save this data, Tali. We need to confront Nassana with this and figure out what the hell is going on."

Tali nodded and stored the data to her omni-tool.

The team headed out of the base and radioed the Normandy for a pickup. Once out of decontamination, Cade told Joker to plot a course for Edolus to look for Kahoku's men while he searched through the data Tali had found on the slaver's console.

Edolus was close; the Normandy reached the planet in no time. Cade paused his reading to seek out Allegra. He wanted her to take point on this mission, something which should really make her happy.

Allegra couldn't quite believe it when he announced his intention.

"What? You want me to be in charge?"

"You were the one who told him we'd figure out what happened to his team," Cade pointed out.

"So you're going to let me lead? On my own?"

"Don't be so surprised. It's not like you haven't had plenty of experience."

"Do I get to pick who I take with me?"

"Of course, I'm not going to micromanage you," he laughed. "Now get down there and gather some good news for the Admiral, will you?"

Allegra grinned and hit the comm. "Joker, I get to lead my own mission!"

"Uh, that's great news, Commander," came the confused reply.

"Keep the Normandy flying like a pro, Joker."

"I am a 'pro', Commander."

Allegra released the comm, waved to Cade, and ran off towards the elevator. Cade met Pressley's eyes and the two men laughed in amusement.

Allegra restlessly paced the elevator as it made its slow journey downwards. When the door finally slid open, she burst out of it and rushed towards Ashley, yelling at Garrus as she passed. "Garrus, get the Mako ready! We're taking it planetside!"

"Aye, aye, Shepard," Garrus replied automatically.

"Ashley, Ashley, Ashley!" Allegra grinned at the stunned gunnery chief.

"Did someone spike your coffee?"

"Close. Cade's letting me take the lead on this mission."

Ashley grinned, "It's about fucking time."

"Suit up, girl, you're coming with me." Allegra turned towards Wrex and shouted, "Krogan, suit up! You've been sitting in the Normandy doing nothing for far too long."

Wrex punched his palm in excitement. Allegra giggled and turned back to Ashley. "Make sure our weapons are perfect, just in case we need to step off the Mako."

Half an hour later, Allegra, Ashley and Wrex dropped planetside in the Mako. Wrex brought up the map and marked Kahoku's coordinates on it. Allegra quickly studied the topography and smiled. "Excellent, some mountains in our way. Who's up for putting the Mako through its paces?"

Ashley cheered as Allegra floored it and the Mako shot forward.

Joker's voice sounded in Allegra's earpiece. "Garrus has asked me to remind you not to destroy his precious Mako."

"Pfft," Allegra replied, swerving over a steep hill so that the Mako went airborne. "It'll give him something to do if he has to fix it."

"Just the messenger, Commander."

"Don't crash the Normandy, Joker."

"Aye, aye."

Allegra took them in a relatively straight line to their destination. For the most part, the Mako was able to make it over the mountainous terrain, though it was a very bumpy ride. Luckily, Allegra noticed Wrex and Ashley were both enjoying the ride.

As they neared Kahoku's coordinates, the terrain suddenly flattened out. Allegra drove slowly onto the plain, searching for something, anything, that would point them in the right direction.

The ground trembled violently beneath them and Wrex ominously said, "Uh oh."

A giant head burst from the ground directly in front of them. "Thresher maw!" Allegra screamed as she quickly got the Mako out of the maw's path.

The thresher maw started spitting at them as Allegra steered them wildly around its body. "Ashley, man the machine gun. Wrex, the cannon!"

"I killed one of these on foot before," Wrex commented casually, firing off a blast at the giant thresher maw.

Allegra and Ashley gaped at him.

"Better move, Shepard," he said.

Allegra managed to just avoid the acid the maw spat at them. She forced Wrex's comment out of her mind and focused on driving. After a few more tense minutes, they managed to take down the maw with only minimal damage to the Mako (Garrus would be pleased).

"Look, over there," Ashley cried, pointing out the window. "There's a vehicle."

Allegra drove the Mako over to the spot Ashley had pointed out. "We're positive the thresher maw is dead, right?" she asked Wrex before they stepped out onto the planet.

Wrex nodded and the three piled out of the Mako.

Upon closer examination, there were dead bodies littering the ground around the military vehicle. "These are Alliance men," Ashley said quietly. "Kahoku's men."

"Looks like they were lured here by that distress beacon," Wrex grunted, motioning towards the beacon a little ways away.

"Who would place a distress beacon in the middle of a thresher maw nest?" Allegra asked, confused. "Something about this doesn't add up."

"We need to let Kahoku know what happened," Ashley said.

Allegra nodded in agreement. She went to turn the beacon off then they radioed for Joker to pick them up.

Once back on the Normandy, Allegra headed straight for Cade to discuss what they had discovered. "Someone planted a fake distress beacon in the middle of a thresher maw nest," she greeted.

Cade looked up sharply. "A thresher maw?"

"Don't worry, we killed it. Did you know Wrex has killed one on foot? Probably with his bare hands."

"We'll need to head back to the Citadel and let Kahoku know. I have a bone to pick with Nassana Dantias while we're there."

"You never did tell me what you found on Sharjila."

"According to this data Tali discovered, Nassana's sister was the leader of the slavers."

"What? Seriously? Why would she tell us differently?"

"That's my question. I wanted to head to Feros, but . . . maybe we should make a quick trip back to the Citadel?"

"No shore leave this time, Commander," Allegra smiled. "We'll make it a quick trip. I'll go let Joker know."

Allegra busied herself with paperwork during the trip to the Citadel. When the Normandy docked, only she and Cade disembarked. They immediately headed for the Citadel tower to find Admiral Kahoku.

The admiral was still trying his luck on the comm buoy in the tower. Kahoku looked up as Allegra and Cade approached. "Commanders," he greeted. "Any word on my missing men?"

"I found them," Allegra nodded. "They were killed by a thresher maw."

"A thresher maw?" Kahoku repeated, stunned. "That's not . . . my men wouldn't just stumble into a thresher nest! Not the entire unit!"

"Somebody lured them there with an Alliance distress beacon. It was placed right beside the nest."

Kahoku shook his head. "Damn it. An Alliance beacon used as bait, my unit wiped out and nobody seems to know anything about it!" He sighed. "Commander, I appreciate what you did. Thank you."

The admiral walked off, still shaking his head in astonishment.

"That was awkward," Allegra murmured.

"It's about to get a little more awkward. Time to go find Nassana," Cade replied.

The twins used the nearest rapid travel station to get a ride to the embassy. The diplomat's lounge was a quick walk away, where, luckily, Nassana was still waiting for them.

"Shepard, did you find my sister?" she greeted when she saw them approaching.

"Dahlia's dead, Nassana. I killed her myself," Cade replied. "Turns out, she was one of the slavers, not a victim."

"Better start talking, Nassana," Allegra growled.

"No need to raise your voice, Commander," Nassana said, glancing around them. "I'm sure you can understand why I lied to you. If it was discovered that my sister was a criminal, I'd be considered a security risk. My clearance would be revoked or I'd be forced on administrative leave until she was apprehended. I couldn't risk you exposing me, so I misled you. But now Dahlia is out of the picture."

"You hired me to kill your own sister?" Cade said in disbelief.

"That's low, Nassana. Even I wouldn't do something like that," Allegra commented.

"I am sorry I wasn't honest with you. We have trust issues in my family," Nassana continued.

"Obviously," Allegra snapped.

"I shall transfer a little something into your account as a token of my appreciation," Nassana said, ignoring Allegra. "I'm sure you'll find the amount satisfactory."

"Let's get out of here," Cade said, turning to leave.

"What a bitch," Allegra spat. "Hiring us like we were simple mercs."

"We should have seen this coming."

"I need a strong drink. Can we stop by Chora's Den?"

Cade eyed her curiously.

"What? It's not like I want to ogle the strippers. They just make this mean mixed drink that I can never remember the name of."

"All right, lead the way."

They were nearly to Chora's Den when a loud shout stopped them in their tracks. "Commander Shepard!"

Both Allegra and Cade looked over to see a man waving enthusiastically at them. They looked at each other, then cautiously approached the man.

"Wow, both Commander Shepards," the man breathed in excitement. "I'm Conrad Verner. I am so honored to meet you! They say you both killed more than a hundred geth on Eden Prime!"

"I spent most of the time trying to stay alive and help the colonists," Cade replied.

"And I was too busy killing geth to count how many," Allegra added.

Conrad focused on Cade as he said, "There are rumors on the extranet that you've been made the first human Spectre! That's incredible!"

"Being a Spectre is a big responsibility. I just want to make humanity proud," Cade replied diplomatically.

"The vids are all talking about "Commander Shepard fighting for all of us back home". And they also say that you don't take crap from anybody. You're showing them what humans can do."

"Sounds more like my sister they're talking about," Cade chuckled.

Allegra shoved him in response.

"Hey I know you're probably busy, but do you have time for a quick autograph?"

"Anything for a fan," Cade smiled, signing his name for Conrad.

"Thanks I really appreciate it. My wife is going to be so impressed." He looked at Allegra expectantly.

"What? No way, I don't do stuff like that."

Conrad's face fell. But he didn't give up. "Can I get your picture then?" he asked hopefully.

"Why would I let you take a picture if I wouldn't give you an autograph?" Allegra asked in exasperation.

"Come on, Allegra, one picture," Cade wheedled.

"Why would you want a picture anyway?" she grumbled.

"You're a hero, Shepard. Both of you are! Decades from now, humanity is going to remember you and I'll have your picture."

"Fine," Allegra agreed reluctantly.

Conrad directed them to stand next to each other and pose with their weapons out. "Just hold up your gun. Perfect." He quickly snapped the photo with his omni-tool. "Thanks again, Commander. I'm going to hang this in my living room. My wife will love it! I'll let you get back to work now. Bye!"

As Conrad walked off, Allegra turned to Cade. "Now I really need a drink."

A/N: Apologies would never be enough. But I'll say it anyway: I'm sorry. Everything is planned for this story, I just need to get it written in story format. Unless, you know, you guys like reading outlines.