James noticed two things wrong when Shepard walked into the cargo bay. First, she looked upset. Oh sure, she covered it well when she saw him approach but seeing it had set him on edge. Second, the Admiral was not with her. Also, it felt as if the ship was leaving atmo. He wasn't sure what the deal with that was. Maybe we're going to regroup at Langley?

He didn't have time to address her before she brushed past him, heading toward the ship's armory. Was she going to give orders? A sitrep? No you don't, woman. I am not going to let you avoid me, he thought and fell in step behind her. "What the hell is going on? Where's Anderson? Where are we going?" Heat crept into his cheeks as the Commander pointedly did not answer and continued through the bay at her fast pace. He imagined this tactic generally worked on most people. Unfortunately for her, he was not most people. Increasing his speed until he was directly behind her, he could feel his hand reach out toward the woman. "Hey!" he shouted. Was she even going to answer?

"We're leaving." she responded over her shoulder, still moving forward.

He felt as if he had been slapped, "Leaving?" How the hell could they just leave? Had she been blindfolded all the way to the Normandy? He saw the Major's eyes jerk up from the rifle he had been modifying, he thinks this shit is crazy, too.

"What's going on, Shepard?" he asked.

"Anderson wants us to go to the Citadel. Get help for the fight."

James could feel his anger start to build, are you fucking kidding me? Here he was with the only group of people that had fought against a Reaper and they were going to leave Earth - which was covered in Reapers, by the way - to go to the Citadel to talk to a bunch of politicians who might not do anything? "Bullshit! He wouldn't order us to leave!"

Shepard's fingers stilled above the console and turned to face him. A look flashed over her face, was it annoyance? Anger? He hadn't picked up the ability to completely read her over the past six months. "We don't have a choice. Without help, this war is already over."

No! They could message the Council, couldn't they? They didn't need to send the whole damn ship! "Forget it! Drop me off someplace -"

The Commander's eyes narrowed. "Enough!" she shouted. A finger jabbed him in the chest hard enough to put him off balance, "Don't you think I'd rather stay and fight?! We are going to the Citadel. You want off this ship? Fine. You can catch a ride from there."

Anger it was, then. Whatever, I'll get my shit together an -

"Commander! I've got an emergency transmission from Admiral Hackett for you."

James stopped and turned back to see the message from the Admiral. The pilot sounded pretty worried. What was that guy's name again? He thought of a clown on an island. I'll ask someone later.

"Patch it through."

The screen flickered briefly to show Hackett before the picture began to distort with the sound stuttering. "...heavy losses... overwhelming. No way to defeat them conventionally," He finished as it mercifully focused on his face and held still.

"Anderson has already ordered me to the Citadel to talk to the Council."

"First I need you to m-m-m..." Were they jamming the signal even this far away from Earth? "...Alliance outpost on Mars... lose control of the system."

James reached down to the pile of armor on the ground. I am so lucky I had time to grab this, he thought as he pulled the heavy plating over his legs. The transmission continued to stutter and hiss with feedback in the background. It didn't matter, he got the jist of it - get some sort of research from Mars. His ears pricked up, "...found a way to stop the Reapers. ...only way to stop them." Maybe they wouldn't have to go to the Citadel after all!

"Joker, set a course for the Mars Archives."

He turned to the Major, "This is loco!"

"Why Mars?" Alenko said, James understood it to be agreement. "What does he think we'll find there?"

"I don't know, yet." Shepard answered, testing the weight of a pistol. "But if it helps us win this war... grab your gear."

"Here, Shepard, let me," Alenko said, holding his arms out for the breastplate she carried.

"I can put it on myself, Major." James thought she sounded pretty frosty. Had he missed something?

"I know, but it'll take less time if we help each other out," he answered, gently taking the plating from her.

No one offered to put my breastplate on, James thought as he pulled the straps around his torso. He was missing something here. The Commander had never mentioned the Major and, from what he remembered, the Major had never mentioned the Commander until he asked if he knew her earlier today. Had they both been on the Normandy? He watched with interest as the woman seemed to relax as the man settled the armor on her shoulders.

"Just like old times, eh Shepard?" he asked as he tightened the buckles on the side. James saw him lean in slightly, as if to breathe on her neck as he talked. Smooth. Major Alenko wasn't hitting on the Commander, was he? No way, James thought, dumbfounded. He wouldn't... "Going in, rescuing Liara for some bit of information she's managed to gather on the Protheans..."

"I think she'd be able to fend for herself now. But it would be nice if we didn't have to fight a Krogan battlemaster," she laughed.

A battlemaster? If they fought something like that together, of course there'd be that sense of camaraderie. It was hard to describe to a civilian but everyone in the Alliance who saw action understood it. Curiosity sated, James turned to look for Steve.

"Hey, Cortez!" he called. His old friend looked up from the datapad he held. "Lemme get the keys to the Kodiak."

The Lieutenant eyed him warily, "What do you need the keys for?"

"We're heading out to Mars, should be a quick trip. Grab some papers from some scientists and head out."

"Maybe I should drive."

"Aw man, are you still upset over that one time I put a scratch on the Mako? Everyone put a scratch on the Mako!"

"You did not just scratch it, the whole side of it was caved in!" Cortez threw up his hands.

"Come on, it'll be parked outside of a research base, nothing's going to happen to it."

Steve sighed and handed James the keys, "Be good to her, okay?"

He followed the other Lieutenant's eyes to where Shepard sighted a sniper rifle a few feet away. "I've never had any complaints." he answered, grinning.

He could hear Cortez saying "Oh, brother" as he opened the hatch to the Kodiak.

Footsteps sounded behind him, "Joker, what's our ETA?"

"About five minutes out, Commander," the voice replied.

"Good." Clink. Something about the sound of thermal clips being loaded into magazines always sent adrenaline through him.

Aside from the noise of weapons being double and triple checked, the cabin was silent as they began their descent, the red planet loomed largely over them. A light flashed on the radio interface, James opened the line.

"I've been trying to reach Mars over secure channels, but no one is answering."

Vega almost groaned. He would tell Cortez that this would be a really simple mission before everything went to shit. It probably went to shit because he had told someone it was going to be easy.

"Any sign of Reaper activity?" Shepard stood behind him. He had noticed the instant she came closer to him because of the perfume she wore. Was it perfume? It could have been soap for all he knew. It smelt nice. Her room - she had made it a point to refer to it as her "cell" - always had the lingering scent of it in the air.

"Negative."

"EDI?"

"The base appears to be online. It's possible that the inhabitants were evacuated." That was the ship VI, He wondered if the voice used was completely computer generated or if a real woman's voice had been used.

"Be ready, Joker, just in case."

He steered the Kodiak to park in a rocky outcropping hidden from the base's view. He didn't have a good feeling about this. No one had answered any of his hails on the radio - the base was completely silent. There was also the huge wall of sand moving their way, too, which was just fucking great because they were undoubtedly going to need their comms.

James killed the engine and sealed his helmet to his suit, "Still no word from the base, but we've got a massive storm headed our way."

"How long do we've have?" Shepard sounded almost bored.

"Half hour, tops."

"Let's get moving then," she said as she swung the hatch open.

James followed behind her. The wind whipped sand against them, it made soft dings as it struck the Kodiak. He felt awed as he watched the storm - 30 minutes was a generous estimation. "Damn, that's a huge storm."

"Pretty average for Mars, actually." Alenko answered.

"We'll I'm glad you're so optimistic," he replied dryly.

"You never came out here for training? I thought all ground pounders went through the Alien Desert Warfare School." Shepard sounded surprised.

"Cutbacks - they moved it to the Sahara."

"What part of that is 'alien'?"

"Beats me." He could see Major Alenko on the ledge below him, slowly moving his omni-tool over a black heap beside a generator. "What's that?" he asked as he and Shepard climbed down.

"He's Alliance. Sergeant Reeves. Didn't put up a fight before he died." The Major continued to pass the omni-tool where the dead man laid, as if he could glean more information to make sense of his death.

Muy malo, the corpse made his skin crawl. "Something's not right here."

"Agreed. Keep a low profile until we know what's going on." He watched Shepard pocket the clip from the rifle on the ground - she was expecting a firefight. He felt a little guilty of the thrill that crept into him as he realized that he would actually be fighting beside her - the Hero of the Skyllian Blitz, the Saviour of the Citadel, the only human Spectre in existence, an exemplary soldier and citizen of the Alliance. Military strategists were still trying to work out how she held off so many for so long on Elysium - maybe he should take notes? He tried to focus, reminding himself of the woman he got to know over the last six months helped somewhat, but it was hard not to feel a little starstruck as she pulled her pistol from the holster at her side.

They slowly hugged the wall of rock in silence until a shot rang out, then another. Shepard reholstered her pistol and unstrapped the sniper rifle from her back, diving for cover near where he crouched. The shots hadn't been aimed at them, which was good. It meant that they hadn't been seen yet. He tapped the side of his helmet to turn on the cam-sight and zoomed in on the group downhill. Five heavily armored men stood in a semicircle, with another man kneeling on the ground, two bodies lay motionless nearby. One of the men took out a pistol and shot the kneeling man in the head, "Holy shit, they're executing them!" A loud shot rang out and the man that had just killed the kneeling man's head exploded. He quickly tapped the cam-sight off, "They know we're here now!" he said as he readied his weapon.

"Come out! We won't hurt you!" shouted one of the armored men, holding a rifle in the air. Another shot, the man's arm lay on the ground, its hand still clutching the weapon.

"Shepard, play nice," Alenko admonished, lifting another armored figure and slamming it to the ground. The woman chuckled dryly, but said nothing.

When the area was clear, James wondered aloud, "Those guys were Cerberus, weren't they?"

"Sure looked like it," Shepard answered distractedly as she sighted the area ahead of them for more hostiles.

"Cerberus. What are they doing here on Mars?" the older man's tone was accusatory.

Satisfied with whatever she had been scoping, she stood and began to move forward, "Good question."

"You mean, you don't know?"

The woman lowered her rifle and turned to face Major Alenko, "I'm not with them, Kaidan, if that's what you're asking," she sounded annoyed.

Alenko turned to face Shepard, "It's not, but you have to admit, it's a little bit, ah, convenient."

What the fuck, guys? It looked as if this was turning into a fight.

"Ah, no. How about you explain to me just how this is 'convenient'?," she challenged.

Not the time for this, pendejos. "Uh, guys?" he piped up. "Could we save this for later? I don't think Cerberus would only send that group here." Both of the senior officers' straightened themselves quickly and an uncomfortable silence settled in.

James fell back and studied the man in front of him. Hero worship aside, he knew that Shepard could be hotheaded. He didn't know how she'd react in the field, but assumed that she'd be the type to use force where diplomacy failed. But Alenko on the other hand... He had served with the Major, then Staff Lieutenant Alenko, on a black ops mission that spanned a few months about two years ago. The guy was always calm and methodical. He had looked up to the other man's leadership, straight-laced as he was, and felt that, with time, he might even be able to emulate his demeanor out in the field. So what was that just now? They had come across several Cerberus operatives then, even captured a couple, but Alenko, though his disdain was clear, never picked fights with them. Was it because they had worked together?

James had been at her trial, he felt that she had made it pretty clear the only reason she had worked with Cerberus was because they were the only ones interested in helping her pursue the Collectors. Which she had managed to do before the Alliance even knew what was attacking the colonies. That wasn't entirely true - Admirals Anderson and Hackett both knew - she testified that she had been sending them reports regularly. The thought made his stomach twist uncomfortably, my team… the colonists.

Maybe it was because of Bahak then. Citing inconclusive evidence, she had been acquitted of the charges - mostly because her lawyer and Anderson hadn't let her attend the proceedings due to "security concerns".

"And my report?" she had asked. The man in the sharp suit paused straightening his omnipads, "I've looked. There is no report to speak of because the Alliance would never sanction action in Batarian space." he said, giving her a meaningful look. And that had been the end of it.

No, he had been upset about Cerberus, not Bahak. Movement caught his attention, "Look out!" he shouted as a bullet whizzed by them. Alenko jerked suddenly, staring where Shepard had cloaked moments before. "Hey man, you alright?" he grunted in between bursts.

"Yeah," the Major answered, throwing a man into one of the armored trucks, caving in the plating.

"Whoa! Good arm, Blue!"

"No."

"No? Man I really liked that one. I'll try again later, Shields."

Shepard's cloak dropped as she slid her omniblade through a weak spot in the armor of a Cerberus operative, severing the spine. In what looked like a fluid motion, she swung her arm up and away from her, breaking the seal on another operative's suit. Taking advantage of the person as they clawed at their neck, she knocked them to the ground using the momentum as they fell together to drive the arcing blade through their visor.

Picking off the last two, James joked, "Damn, woman, remind me not to get on your bad side."

She wiped the blood off of the face of her helmet, "Let's just hurry up and pick up that research and get out of here."

"Doesn't look like they came here in force," he added.

"Yeah, just a few vehicles," she answered as she started for the hanger.

"Must have had help from the inside." Major Alenko said angrily.

"Yeah, you could be right," she said, tapping on a screen to close the hanger doors.

As soon as the hanger doors sealed, Alenko stomped up to the Commander, "Shepard, I need you to be straight with me," he demanded.

"Kaidan - " she said wearily.

"Don't fucking "Kaidan" me! This is business!"

James watched the the two stare each other down with irritation and said nothing. When he had said "later" he meant back on the Normandy. He supposed it was better that it happened here in the empty hanger than in the middle of Cerberus gunfire. Small favors…

"Do you know anything about why Cerberus is here?"

Shepard took a step closer to the Major, "What makes you think I know what they're up to?"

He wondered again what had gotten into his two career role models. He didn't think that this would end with blows but it would eventually devolve into a shouting match - he was sure of it.

"You worked for them, for godsakes! How am I not supposed to think that?"

And there it was; Shepard's button. Her trials, the dismissals of her advice and warnings could be boiled down to one sentence - You worked for Cerberus.

"Did you know I went to Anderson and the Council first? Neither of them would help. What else could I fucking do?" He remembered the defeated look on her face as she vented over a beer he had smuggled in for her, there was no remorse there, only resignation. Frustration on her behalf welled in him. He believed her, believed in her. What she had accomplished was nothing short of amazing - to hear it repeatedly discounted because the Commander dared to do it under the wrong colors was infuriating.

"I used them to take down the Collectors, that's it."

"There's more to it than that. They rebuilt you from the ground up. They gave you a ship. Resources."

"Let me be clear," she bit out. "I've had no contact with Cerberus since I destroyed the Collector Base and I have no idea why they are here or what they want."

Major Alenko turned his face away from her, shaking his head. James approached him from the other side, "Commander Shepard has been under constant surveillance since coming back to Earth. No way they've communicated since." He hoped that would diffuse the tension without appearing to take sides.

The older man pushed himself off the railing, "Sorry, Shepard. It's just that -"

"You of all people should know what I'm about, K- Major Alenko." she interrupted and walked on to the elevator platform.

Alenko stood beside her, shoulders slightly slumped. He noticed the Commander had used the Major's first name with familiarity until the Major rebuffed her. Had there been something between them? It annoyed him a little that he thought they kind of suited each other.

"Please trust me," she said as the platform docked.

"I do. I'm sorry, I didn't mean -"

"If you did, you wouldn't have questioned me a second time, Major. We need to clear the air when we -"

The group dived for cover as a muffled gunshot sounded followed by thumps in the ventilation shaft. All three had their weapons drawn, drawing beads as the thumps moved closer to a large vent in the middle of the room. Several more shots rang, ricocheting inside the shaft's metal walls. A smallish blue Asari slid neatly from the vent she had kicked open, launching herself over the cargo below. Two heavy-armored Cerberus brutes tumbled out behind her. Running to an open space on the floor, the Asari turned to face her pursuers. A singularity appeared, dragging the two around its core as they vainly struggled to escape. The Commander and Major both lowered their weapons. Shepard looked bemused while Alenko stared in disbelief as the Asari cleanly shot both men in the head, their bodies dropping lifelessly to the ground as she absorbed the energy and shot them both again.

"Easy there, Lieutenant. She's with us," Shepard said, pointing the barrel of his rifle down.

"Shepard. Thank the Goddess you're alive." The Asari's husky voice was monotone, which was oddly calming and unsettling, given her actions the minute prior.

Vega was surprised to see that instead of answering in kind, the Commander offered her a small, genuine smile. "Liara," was all she said, but he could hear the relief in her voice.

AN: Embarrassing fact: I had over half of this written in May before I got side tracked by SWTOR and The Sims. Sorry!