On the anniversary of the reaper's defeat there were large parties hosted on every Council planet each year. This being the fourth year since their defeat, the turian Councilor had decided to attend the formal soiree on Palaven. Of course his guards would be attending as well, but he felt it had been too long since he and his family had been home and that it was worth the hassel.

His kids were grown had their own lives to attend to, but he and his mate would be going. He had warned Oya and Stryder that, while this was on Palaven and the Primarch would be there so security would be high, they were still needed to watch the perimeter.

He also felt that this would be a perfect chance to give them some time alone while they stayed in the shadows. He had been working them relentlessly since they came back from their mission off the Citadel.

Four more attacks on his life in the past three months – and it wasn't just his life, but the other Councilors as well. They all seemed to be orchestrated by the same individual, but they were so disjointed from the main cell that it was hard to pin down who was actually giving the orders.

Each new base discovered and infiltrated only lead to more questions. Whoever was ordering the hits was obviously a professional and aware of the Council's methods of investigation. It was an exceedingly frustrating situation.

They arrived at Palaven's main spaceport two hours before they had to make their way to the capital's banquet hall, just enough time for Sparatus and Saratia – or Sara, as Sparatus lovingly called her, to check into their rental home and prepare.

Stryder and Oya stayed in the main living area, scanning the grounds occasionally and pretending like they weren't both on edge.

It was one thing to protect the Councilor while they were on the Citadel since they both knew the Citadel and had time to research possible points of weakness in their defenses. Here? Neither knew what to expect.

They were going to be mainly staying in the hallways and servant's alleys; they weren't permitted in the actual ballroom unless called by Sparatus.

This was a party for the upper crust of Palaven's leadership and the tradition was that their guards waited outside while they pretended to be normal for a few hours. Even the Primarch's guards would be outside.

It didn't sit right with Oya as it seemed like a perfect opportunity to just kill off everyone in one hit. It reminded her something Javik had once said in her old apartment on the Citadel. It seemed fitting here that she would have similar thoughts now.

When they arrived at the building, Stryder and Oya immediately walked the perimeter of the room, noting that it was open to the elements instead of having a roof. It reminded Oya of ancient roman architecture, wood beams and stucco buildings with pillars supporting areas with ceilings. The ball's roof was open to the sky and had ropes going from one end to the other to retract cloth coverings in the chance that it rained.

It was beautiful to Oya and she was sad that she hadn't been able to see it in its glory before the reapers, or under better circumstances.

Well that's just a depressing thought to start off the night, Oya thought to herself. She was supposed to be guarding Sparatus instead of depressing herself.

Stryder noticed her funk and ran his hand over her shoulder to get her out of it. She turned to look at him and realized he was a lot closer than she originally thought. So close, in fact, that she nearly smacked her helmet in to his.

She stared up at him for a minute, unsure as to why they weren't moving away from one another when another sensation broke through her suit. He was running his hands over her waist and hips, just running his fingertips over her suit. He was shaking when his voice finally broke the silence.

"It's getting so hard to not touch you." He admitted, his voice cracking slightly under the strain of his emotions. Oya sucked in a deep breath as his hand travelled further up to rest on her neck under her hood. He pulled her head forward so that he could rest the forehead of his helmet against her own.

She felt her breath stop as she stared up at his masked face, her eyes wide and her cheeks burning. She hadn't wanted to admit that this was where they were headed; she didn't want to rely on someone again like that.

But she did, apparently. Her body responded instantly to the gesture and her own hands reached up to frame his face. At this moment she would give away all that she owned if it meant getting somewhere where they could remove their armor. She wanted to see his eyes.

The two lost in each other for a minute were observed by almost no one, only a solitary individual who happened to catch a glare of light bouncing off a helmet. Garrus looked at the turian Councilor's Guards, locked in a quick embrace, and his heart rate doubled.

He didn't know why, but for some reason it bothered him. They were on duty, sure, but they were kept from the party by a centuries' old tradition so why not sneak in a quick gesture of affection? It was obvious that "Oya" was either asari or human. Although Garrus had the definitive gut feeling that she was human and for some reason it made the display worse to him.

He of all people had no issues with human-turian relationships, but something in him wanted to claw the male off of her and defend her. It was ridiculous, he didn't know her and he certainly wasn't about to start a pissing match over her.

He was probably just upset because it was another reminder of how he failed Jane. He tore his gaze away from the couple and proceeded in to the party to meet with Primarch Victus since he was there at his friend's request.

Liara had made some headway into her investigation and did not like what she was finding. She had determined the racial makeup of the different teams. The salarian Councilor's guards were two male salarians, no surprise there, but at least one was Jondum Bau, the spectre who had worked with Shepard during the war to find the corrupt hanar delegate.

The asari had two asari and the human Councilor had two humans. The turian Councilor was the only one with a mix of species with his human female and turian male. The male was Tiberius Cretin, a spectre who had gotten notoriety for saving an entire colony from reaper attack by organizing defense plans, but the female was unknown.

All Liara could find on her was that her name was "Oya" and that she had come from a mobile medical facility that frequented the traverse. Liara had just managed to get an agent into that facility and was waiting for the human's medical files.

Almost on cue, her agent checked in with the requested files. Liara read through each file, trying to read between the lines of who this person was when something significant caught her eye.

While she was always referred to as simply "Oya", she had remarkably similar therapy needs to Shepard when she was admitted into the hospital. The timing was also incredibly suspicious. It was something easily overlooked if you weren't trying to find a link and Liara was always worried about confirmation bias, so she called someone who wouldn't be bias – in fact he wouldn't want to find Shepard alive at all, Liara suspected.

"What do you need Liara, I'm a little busy at the moment." Garrus' voice rang over her comm with a hint of annoyance, background music, and voices. Liara could tell that he was at a party and she mentally kicked herself for forgetting what day it was.

He was at the Primarch's gala for the leaders and elite of Palaven. Well… Good, Liara's contacts had said that Sparatus was invited and had confirmed his attendance. Oya would be there as well.

"I'm sorry Garrus, I forgot what day it was. I'm sending you a file on something and I want your opinion on it, it will only take a few minutes." She quickly sent the data package, removing the patients name and details of her therapies. If his first thought was Shepard as well then she'd continue down that thought pattern… If not, she'd look elsewhere.

She watched as Garrus read over everything, his mandibles twitching from time to time in irritation. "Why are you sending me Janes's old medical records?" He groused, unsure of where she was going with this.

"How do you know they're Shepards?" She wondered, her excitement getting away from her.

"The picture of the leg injuries; there's a mole on her inner thigh. Jane had one there too. Also the scar on the left hip is identical to one of the ones left over from Cerberus – Liara, why are you sending me these?" He started to get anxious, Liara didn't do anything without reason and if it had something to do with Jane…

"Garrus, those medical records belong to Oya, the turian Councilor's female guard." Liara said with too much excitement, not noticing the way Garrus' mandibles snapped to his face.

He found himself practically running out of the ballroom, he disconnected the call and ignored the protests of partygoers he had jostled on his way. He burst through the door and immediately went to where he had witness Sparatus' Guards necking earlier.

They weren't there so he started to look for them, he needed to rip that helmet off of the female and verify for himself that Liara's information was just a bad coincidence. It couldn't be Jane. Why would she have faked her own death and who was the man she was embracing earlier.

A fucking dead man, Garrus growled inwardly. It was no longer his place to get upset about who she congregated with, but logic wasn't sitting strong with him at the moment. His entire body was thrumming with the idea that Jane could be alive – and with someone else.

Strangely enough, Quin had never even entered his mind as he searched tirelessly for Oya. All he could think of was finding her and verifying, it was more important than his next breath.

Unfortunately, in his quest to find her he missed the presence of many strangely dressed guards.

Oya and Stryder had finally disengaged from one another with promises to meet up later, after the party, and actually got to work patrolling the premises. They had each gone up into the rafters to get a better vantage point, cloaking so no one saw them and tried to get them down since this was not necessarily standard procedure.

It was Stryder who first called attention to the vast amount of guards wearing the same symbol starting to amass. They weren't with any of the party goers that had come in recently and anyone important enough to justify the sheer volume of guards had been in the party a long while.

"Sparatus, sir." Stryder called over the comm, "I think it is time to say goodbye to the Primarch. We have a situation."

Sparatus' head jerked up and he looked around the room, trying to see what they saw. "What do you mean, Stryder?" He patted Sara's arm softly when she looked up at him with concern. Even Victus was now watching the Councilor with a keen eye since his story had stopped midsentence.

"Sir, there's a large contingent of guards amassing through the halls and they're not with anyone that we can tell. They're also more heavily armed than even the Primarch's guards." Oya added in, her voice betraying her unease with the situation.

"Ok, I'll meet you by the South exit. I will have the Primarch with me." Victus nodded as he spoke, typing out an alert to his own guards.

The Primarch and Sparatus had just reached the door when the gunfire started to ring out through the room. One bullet punctured the Primarch's arm while the one meant for his head was stopped by a quickly thrown barrier.

The small human, Oya, appeared standing directly in front of the Primarch while her partner, Stryder, was behind them clearing a path.

They were talking to one another in some way, but it was beyond the Primarch's hearing. They were working in tandem with Oya providing shielding while Stryder made a path for them to the emergency vehicle waiting.

The Primarch, Victus and his wife were in the car when the battle finally overcame the two guards. Oya was holding the barrier while Stryder entered the transport before her. He was turning to give her cover fire when her barrier dropped. She was climbing in to the vehicle as the bullet passed through her shields and tore into her side.

Her scream reverberated through Styder's body and his own angry cry accompanied his return fire at the sniper on the building's roof. The car pulled away and headed towards the Primarch's bunker before Stryder could verify his kills, but his mind was already off of the sniper and back on his partner.

"Oya, can you hear me?!" He called as he turned her over on the skycar floor. It was a stretched model to accommodate more people – or high officials who liked a lot of room. Luckily for its inhabitants it was armor plated and could withstand the bullets pinging off the hull as it sped through the sky lanes headed towards the military protected bunker.

She groaned a bit and Sparatus gasped as she was turned over, the exit wound was much worse than the entry point and she would need something more than medigel to correct the damage. Either way, Stryder slathered the wound with the goop and held his hand over it, trying to add pressure.

"Come on Oya, stay with me here. You need to stay awake." She was fading in and out of consciousness, he could tell by the way her head would lull to the side then snap back to attention with a groan. Sparatus was comforting Sara while calling for a medical team to meet them at the bunker – a team approved by and sworn to the Council to keep the identities of the Guards secret.

Stryder was glad in an abstract way that they realized they'd need medical attention at some point. "Are you going to swear in the Primarch, I doubt you'll be able to convince him to stay behind?" Stryder asked Sparatus while he tried not to panic over Oya's deteriorating condition.

Sparatus nodded absently while he quickly omni-chatted with the Council, informing them of the situation and garnering approval. They had prepared for something like this given the fact that the Councilors would have to return to their own worlds at some point and may need to treat their guards while there.

"It's already approved, I'm just informing the other Councilors that it was necessary much earlier than we had hoped." Victus cocked his head to the side, throwing the Councilor a curious glance and Sparatus sighed.

"They're on private comm channels so I can hear them if needed and they can talk amongst themselves while still remaining hidden." Sparatus explained. "When we get to the facility, Primarch, I'll need to inform you of their identities since we'll need to remove Oya's helmet."

Victus considered this for a moment and nodded, "Their secrets are safe with me." He said honestly and blinked as Sparatus coughed a bit, uncomfortably. "That, I do not doubt, Primarch." The Primarch had the sinking suspicion that this wasn't going to be like the average secret operation. The Councilor was nervous about revealing who they were and he wanted to know why.

He didn't have to wait long, cannon fire sizzled by the car as they rushed through the gates to the bunker. Their hunters were already being driven off when the medical team met the car at the front door.

"Condition?" The medic asked as they helped move Oya from the car. Sparatus took over detailing her injury as they entered the building. Once they were in, Oya was rushed to a surgical room where her suit and helmet were removed. Stryder tried to follow, but was held back by a hand on his arm.

"You can see her when she's out of surgery." Sparatus said softly, knowingly.

Sparatus looked back to the Primarch and nodded, signaling that they were ready to talk and the Primarch led them into a back room, leaving Sara with the guards outside. The room's guards scanned the room three separate times for bugs before the door was sealed and they were left in silent.

"Stryder, take your helmet off." Sparatus eventually said and Stryder hesitantly did as requested.

"Tiberius Cretin, I should be surprised, but I'm not. And the woman?" Victus asked with a hint of understanding.

"Jane. Jane Shepard." Tiberius answered for Sparatus. Victus didn't bother to hide his surprise as he stared at the two of them. The Commander Shepard wasn't actually dead, then.

"She agreed to this?" He demanded, thinking that maybe the Council had bullied or blackmailed her into faking her own death and hiding. Spirits, Vakarian. Victus suddenly thought. What would Vakarian think of this? Sure, he had moved on, but Victus had seen the haunted look in his eye whenever Shepard was mentioned.

Sparatus had the good graces to look surprised by the question, "Of course. I asked her to be on my guard team." He said, getting defensive towards the end. He would defend his choice in Shepard to his death if he had to.

Victus nodded and looked to Tiberius, who couldn't give a pyjacks ass about their conversation at this point and just wanted to be near his injured partner. Victus recognized the look on the man's face. It was the same one Vakarian wore every time Shepard went on a mission without him.

So that's how it was. Vakarian wasn't the only one who had moved on then. Victus was happy for her if she'd found happiness again. He had tried to reason with Vakarian when he had admitted to dating Quinela Larkos. Victus thought it was too fast, Vakarian had shown signs of having bonded with the Commander and to break a bond like that could ruin Vakarian if he ever had to come face to face with his bondmate's pain.

As it was, Quinela seemed to have an almost ironclad hold on Vakarian. He had an answer for every question Victus posed, some sounding so rehearsed that it would make Victus cringe. Then it came down to a question of friendship and Victus stopped pestering Vakarian and let him do what he wanted.

When he had heard that Shepard had woken up he waited to see if Vakarian would make a move to go see her, he made sure Vakarian knew she was awake… But Vakarain had not gone, instead moved further from the Sol system.

Then Shepard had died, again, and Victus was shamed to think that it was for the best. If Vakarian never had to face the pain he caused her than he could get out of the situation still mentally intact. Bonded turians who severely harm their mates were known to have mental breakdowns and some even committed suicide over the reciprocal pain that they endured.

Once Victus gave his promise to secrecy, they three left the room and moved to wait in another area, Sara walking back to her mate's side. Stryder paced until the doctor came out and said she would be fine and could be moved in a few hours when the anesthesia wore off.

Stryder didn't even wait for the go ahead before storming into the room that was her make-shift recovery room just to touch her. He ran his finger over her cheek and finally let out the deep breath he had been holding.

She was going to be ok, he told himself before he pulled a chair up to sit next to her. He would be there when she woke up; he needed to see her eyes to finally calm his racing heart.

Garrus Vakarian found himself leading the rest of the guests out a secret passage in the basement of the Ballroom while the newly arrived military personnel took care of the remaining mercenaries topside. He had been taken by surprise by the shooting, but was quickly informed that the Primarch had made it safely out of harm's way and was en route to his secure bunker.

Garrus had taken a few hits to the chest, just enough to dent his armor, before he had found some guards and put together a protective team for the remaining dignitaries.

Once everyone was safe and the last of the mercenaries was dealt with, Garrus walked through the carnage to see if he could try to determine who these mercenaries belonged to. They all had a symbol on them that reminded him of an ancient turian symbol used by a group of renegades that fought to overthrow regimes pre-spaceflight.

It did not bode well for the Primarch, if they were even his target. The one curious thing about the mercenaries that Garrus also noticed was that they weren't all turian. There were representatives from every species – so it wasn't just a turian-based group. He started to wonder if there was more to the Council's new guard than he originally thought.

Just was he was about to start heading to the bunker to check in with the Primarch, a call from Quin pinged through to his omni-tool.

"Garrus, I just heard, are you alright?" Her worried voice soothed his frayed nerves.

"Yes, I wasn't in the ballroom when the shooting started. A lot of people didn't make it, but the Primarch and Councilor are fine." He sighed, looking around as he spoke.

"Oh, good." She said strangely. "I'm just glad you weren't hurt. I'm going to be ready to rendezvous with you in 15 days at the Citadel if you're ready." She said softer, her subvocals trilling in a way that showed she had missed him.

He tried to trill back, usually subvocals were a subconscious thing, but his refused to work for a moment, rebelling against the idea that he missed her and he couldn't understand why. It seemed to happen when he was away from her for long periods. While he was around her he was a love-struck pup, but when he was separated for her for a while his body rebelled against the idea of being with her.

"Is everything ok?" She asked, her eyes glinting curiously. "Yes, everything is fine. I'm still recovering from the unexpected fire-fight." He added easily, masking his unease.

They talked for a few more minutes and she reminded him to take his medicine – for headaches that developed after the war, before he disconnected the call and started to make his way to the skycar lot so he could go back to his hotel room – all thoughts of the Primarch, the Bunker and Oya gone from his head.

Tiberious watched closely as Jane stood a few hours after surgery. He knew she had implants to help with healing and everything, but he was still uneasy about her walking on her own – but she was insistent. She said she had had worse and of that he didn't doubt.

He was hovering over her as she put her repaired armor back on and got ready for the trip back to the Citadel. Sparatus had requested a Guard from the other Councilors to allow for Stryder and Oya to return to the Citadel and recover. Well, for Oya to recover and Stryder to monitor to ensure that she took it easy.

The other guards were exiting the transport as Stryder helped Oya move in to place. They all respectfully nodded to one another as they passed. Oya and Stryder knew the two that were taking their places - Sora, the asari Councilor's guard and Doran, the salarian Douncilor's guard.

Of course they all had no idea as to their true identities, but Sora and Doran had worked with Oya and Stryder while defending the council against a bomb threat a few months prior and the four seemed to work well together.

The trip back to the Citadel was uneventful and true to form, Oya refused help walking back to the apartment. Once she was securely in their home, however, her pain seemed to take hold. She was slouching more and breathing more quickly.

"Jane… Let me help you." Tiberius offered and the fact that she let him undress her like a child was more telling to how tired and in pain she really was. He stripped her down to her under clothes and helped her walk to her bed.

Once she was securely lying down and trying to relax he made to move away. "Stay." She said as she grabbed for his hand to try and physically prevent him from leaving.

The gesture did something strange to his chest and he nodded, "Let me get changed and I'll be right back." He said while the tightness in her eyes making him hurry through getting his armor off and the pants he reserved for sleeping on. He picked up her armor and placed it on her dresser before sliding in to bed next to her.

She was colder than he anticipated and his breath caught as she pressed herself along his side, her forehead against his chest. It was strange, but not in a bad way. She warmed up quickly to his temperature and he turned to wrap his arms around her in order to secure her to him.

She did relax then, clinging to him for comfort while she allowed herself drift into a soft, recuperative sleep. He pressed his lip plates to the top of her head and inhaled her scent while he started to tire. "Never do that to me again." He demanded as his eyes closed and sleep claimed him.