Thank you to all those who reviewed/commented. I know you received my replies. Keep on giving. Share with me anything you like, I love talking to my readers. Also to those who put my story in their lists. Hearts and love to all of you. And to readers in general: thank you!

Changed the Sibling dynamics a little from the conventional roles they usually play. I'm hoping you like this rendition.

Just an FYI: If you guys are familiar with Guild Wars 2's Countess Anise, I've loosely based FemShep's fashion from her and gave it some more futuristic twists. A little classic for a sci-fi story but I've designed FemShep's character to be old-fashioned.

Chapter 2

"Why didn't you tell me you had a sister?"

Garrus noticed he started everything with a question lately. He had just caught a moment with John Shepard in between work for the Council. Trying not to look upset when John looked just as confused as he felt, Garrus folded his arms across his chest.

"I thought you knew. It's in my Spectre file."

"Wha—no, it isn't."

John rolled his eyes, shaking his head as he brought up the holo of his omni-tool, pulling up his profile. "You should have access to my file. It's all right there. I thought you researched before I joined up."

"I did."

Shepard crossed his arms, leaning back on one leg. An eyebrow raised in question. "So, why is that every Spectre knows but you? Mearkah even asked me if I could get him an autograph."

"Very professional, that guy."

John smirked. "He paid for lunch for a while. Good stuff."

"Besides the point, Shepard," Garrus began to argue. "If you had just told me then I wouldn't have embarrassed myself in front of your sister."

"What?" John got on his two feet and uncrossed his arms. "You met Janey? I thought your meeting was supposed to be in 2 hours GS. How was she?"

"Great. Very friendly."

"No, seriously. How was she? Did she look sick?"

Garrus thought about that for moment. It's not like he knew intimately the signs of human sickness. Turians tended to be more obvious: voice modulations changing and subvocals became a higher frequency. "Not that I was aware of. She was—more intimidating than the way she's usually portrayed in kiosks and virtual ads."

"Well, that sounds like Janey. Intense." He nodded in reply. "But wait, when did you meet? The Council is still setting up and Udina isn't being a huge pain in the ass yet."

Both their omni-tools pinged and they reached for them at the same time. They usually got synchronized messages like these when they were in trouble or when Nihlus wanted them to do something. This time it read: You're in shit, Vakarian.

John clapped him on the shoulder. "I'm sure you need to get ready before you have to face death row."

When he was alone, Garrus let go of the cry of frustration.

Withstanding the shame from Nihlus's message was one thing, enduring the Council's tongue lashing was another. No one was surprised when a VI courier came to tell them all that Kaida would not be arriving for the meeting and that any future plans to collaborate must be through formal channels, if at all.

Back in the bowels of the tower, Garrus watched his mentor in question. Nihlus was grinning at him from his leather seat, spinning every once in a while and cackling like a pyjak.

"Spirits, tell me the story again."

"After the Council bit my head for being irresponsible and Udina joined in just to be vindictive, I told them exactly what Kaida told me to tell them: shove your politics up your asses."

Nihlus howled. "That's my boy! I knew tampering with your extranet ID was a good idea."

"You—You did what?" Garrus opened up his omni-tool holo in a flash and clicked through his files. There was a duplicate of one of his music files, sitting there like he was supposed to have noticed it all along. He growled. "This is why I couldn't get all the information I could on Kaida—Spirits!"

"I told you: your understanding was lacking."

"Yes. You also just got me into the Council's shit list! I've always wanted to be in there." Garrus glared, no smile on his face as he delivered the line despite the chirpiness of his tone. "Thanks for that. I love you."

"Aw, I love you too. Wasn't it fun? Besides," Nihlus didn't seem to notice or care about Garrus's ire. "I won a wager worth more than the Council's trust."

"Not your betting pools again."

"Well, not really. But almost."

Garrus sighed. "Tell me you didn't just nearly cost me my career just so you can win a few thousand credits?"

"No, he had a wager with me."

Kaida's voice was a distinct melody against his ears. Behind her was John, grinning as he gave him a mock salute at their entrance.

"John gave me the details, Nihlus. As well as the recordings of what had transpired in the Council Tower." She stopped right by them and held out her forearm, they exchanged a customary turian handshake. Garrus was impressed but then he realized Kaida didn't extend to him the same courtesy. That soured his mood quickly.

"John, you were in on this?" Garrus glared at his friend.

John shrugged. "Well, I wasn't sure what Nihlus had planned exactly but he gave me a rundown while you were getting yelled at. Then I went to fetch Janey. Sorry, Gar."

Nihlus interjected the conversation with a cough. They all turned to face him as a result. "I told you, didn't I? My student has a spine. He'll be a good match for you, Kaida. You won't have to worry too much once you've assumed your place in the Council."

"Not very inventive though. He wouldn't have gotten in trouble in the first place." Kaida eyed Garrus briefly, challenged him with a flicker of mocking in her eyes. So she knew what was rude in turian culture as well. "I'm not wholly convinced, Nihlus."

Nihlus stood from his seat. "I never knew you to back down from a deal, Kaida."

"The deal was to convince me of the competence of your student so that I can be assured of my safety. Clearly, he is yet to be his own master if he needs you to prove himself." Garrus didn't know what was more upsetting: the fact that Nihlus looked ready to throw down in his defence or the fact that Kaida was talking about him like he wasn't around.

"Aw, come on, Janey. Garrus was clearly at a disadvantage here. It's not like people talk about us being siblings." John put a gloved hand on her bare shoulder. She eyed it with as much disdain as a fly before he finally let go and took a few steps back. "Don't shoot the messenger."

"You're another problem, John. Getting into this program after I told you clearly that I disapproved—"

John's perpetually sunny demeanor diminished. "Mom never liked that the fact that you left the Alliance to pursue music either."

"Which is why I left her control and our family. I have reinvented myself outside the Alliance and Council construct. And yet, here you are, suggesting my involvement in politics—getting Udina and the whole Alliance to agree with you as well." She put her hand up when John was about to speak. "Don't tell me you didn't do it when we both know you did."

John's control over his own biotics had never been perfect. Nihlus said it was mainly because it was composed of too much raw energy. Garrus thought it was more because his moods were linked to his powers. Either way, his implants couldn't control either or both no matter how advanced L3 technology was. John's whole fist flared as he let out a Throw with more juice behind it than was necessary.

Nihlus and Garrus had been ready to leap to the side to avoid the Throw but before they could Kaida had lifted a hand, body still and quiet as she slapped the energy to the side— instead of tearing through the three of them, it hit the computers and couches to the right, causing a few small explosions, circuitry to fizzle, and snow burnt feathers and cotton.

Whereas Garrus heart was pumping madly at the adrenaline that was coursing through his body, the whole ordeal barely even ruffled Kaida's skirt.

"You've improved slightly, baby brother." She examined her own hand and noted the redness. It seemed she wasn't completely unaffected. Garrus hadn't realized she had summoned her own biotics. "Some of that got through my defenses."

"I'm not a baby." John countered. "And you're only four minutes older than me!"

"And yet you're still a child." She fixed her stance, standing straighter and taller. "When are you going to learn that they only agreed to your plan because they want to use me, to use us for some game? We are pawns to them."

"Janey," Garrus heard the pleading in John's voice. "If there's anyone who can play their game and win, it's you."

Kaida sighed heavily through her nose, her shoulders tensing and then lowering. All the air around her seemed to deflate as well. Garrus narrowed his eyes. "Her biotics—it's clear in color."

Nihlus put a hand on his shoulder. "Good eye, Vakarian. I wouldn't have detected it this soon if not for the Intel."

"Don't flatter me when you don't mean it, Kryik."

"Don't be like that." Nihlus laughed then pushed passed him. He cleared his throat again. "It seems I got involved in a family dispute. I hadn't realized you were this unprofessional, Kaida."

"Don't mock me when you don't mean it, Nihlus." She mimicked Garrus's tone exactly, down to the most subtle of his sub-vocals. He turned away, sure that as she stared at him she probably heard every word he said. And then the realization that she managed copy his voice.

And she was human. Not turian.

"Fuck, Kaida. That's pretty damn sexy. Change the sentence to: 'Make love to me, Nihlus,' would you?"

She sent him a pretty powerful glare but his turian mentor didn't even blink. "Our deal is off, Spectre. Clearly, your student is not you. And John," She turned to her brother, her expression hard. "The sooner you realize our true worth to those in power, the sooner you will realize how little we mean to them. Good day, gentlemen."

Mahogany was a bar they frequented in the Citadel that was owned by a human couple with an 18 year old son who liked to play bartender than do homework. The best thing about the bar was that they were regulars during downtime and the couple allowed them to stay in a little corner at the counter, undisturbed. Maybe it was the air they gave away: "Spectres mid-rant, disturb and you die."

"Janey wasn't always a hard-ass." John glared at the distance, drink in hand, as the three of them sat in a row feeling sorrier for themselves than they should. "She used to be part of the Alliance. From there, everything in her profile is fabricated. She was straight-laced. Responsible. In a lot of ways, she still is. She enjoyed the rigidity of rules and ethics. She started training two years before me as a biotic prodigy. And then it started." He took a long chug of his beer before he asked for another one.

"What do you mean it started?" Garrus took a sip of the Cipritine gris, a formula that was similar to human scotch.

"It started at first as dreams. Prophetic ones. Really hardcore shit that even the asari don't get." John actually toned his voice down, something Garrus didn't know he could do. "When those died down a bit she started being able to read minds—no need to go through that embrace eternity crap to do it too. There are limitations, though. She can only read a mind one at a time. But as prodigy she was mostly singled out, one-on-one sessions became unbearable. Handlers freaked out. Most people were just scared."

Nihlus shook his head. "So she decided that she couldn't be part of Alliance and became an idol instead? Isn't that counter-productive, being exposed to so many minds all at once?"

"If she can isolate one person, her mind instantly dives into their thoughts. It's not really something she can completely control." John scratched the back of his head. "Part of the reason why she left the house too. Reading mom's mind—Janey never told me what she read, only that she couldn't bear to live in the house after knowing.

"In a crowd all she hears is silence. Too many minds blurs and everything just dissolves. Janey's talent in music is also linked to her biotic abilities: it's partly the reason why hers is colorless. She said something about how if everyone's biotics are visible then hers are audible."

"That's an interesting theory." Garrus hummed.

"It is. Only she's probably one of a kind. I doubt she'd want some salarian poking around her brain." John chuckled, practically soundless. "But I think she probably decided to start a music career because she might have always wanted to pursue it and never knew how to bring it up." He sighed. "That's Janey in a nuthshell."

"Some of this info would have been nice, Shepard." Nihlus bumped John on the shoulder. "Then I wouldn't be making needless bets while half-drunk." It was his turn to sigh. "But Spirits, imagine all the good she could have done as a Councillor. The moment Udina brought up the idea in the Council Chamber I was ready to jump on that Transit unit."

"Why are you so hell bent on her being the human representative, Kryik?" Garrus countered, raising his glass to eye level and staring at the yellow tinge of the liquid. "And Spirits, why do I have to be the one to protect her?"

"It was something she said in an interview before she got this famous." His mentor began. "I was just a little chick, just like you kids. My mentor was Saren, as you've both met—Spirits, calm down it's not like saying his name will conjure him—anyway, Saren would often talk about how humans have yet to earn their place in the galaxy and they shouldn't be butting heads with the rest of us all the time. Most of the other Council races agreed with him then.

"Then Kaida showed up, an upstart in the industry. No one was entertaining her at first until she was invited to a newbies forum. The interviewer was an asari who was directing none of the question to her. Kaida barely made a face at this, kept her cool the entire time until the asari started making jokes. It was on batarians and their country. Punch line after the next about them. All of them made the other artists roar with laughter.

"That was when she stood up all of a sudden, furious. The camera zoomed straight to her to that moment, as if the VI's couldn't help it. Then she said: 'How would know that the planet is a dump if you have yet to visit it yourself? It's fools like you that perpetuate this hate among all people, of all races and yet you complain constantly that your own race has only been fair to all other races. This is bullshit. I hope your show gets cancelled.' Spirits, Saren and I were watching just then and we both looked at each other and laughed."

John smirked, looking smug. "Sounds like Janey."

"You can imagine she got dumped by her former agency, lost a lot of clout for a while. But then for the first time in history, the batarians invited a foreigner into their own territory. A human, out of all races. Now her tours circle around all their colonies. No other artist or diplomat has managed to do this so far.

"In the past seven years there have been some major reforms in batarian Hegemony that we haven't seen in over centuries. Trade routes are being opened up. Slavers are losing clout in both in and out of Council territory.

"This is just one of things she's managed to do because of her influence. For the Hegemony's case it's slow progress and I don't expect it to be fully done even when we're at our death beds but she's moved more planets for the galaxy than any of our Councillors or Spectre I've known.

"I've always believed talent like Shepard here and you, Vakarian are key to Council space peace. Defenders, people whose talents lie on warfare. But we also need visionaries, compassionate souls like Kaida. We need this kind of influence, this kind of open-mindedness working with us. This is what our Council currently lacks. And this is what our galaxy needs."

John nodded along through-out the story and chugged half his glass before speaking. "Janey could definitely do it. It's just a matter of convincing her of the fact."

"She said she won't do it because she'd be leaving the safety of her industry. I told her that I would get her a protector. I devised this way to prove it to her but—as you can see, boys, we've failed. Luckily, the Council only thinks it's because Kaida is being stubborn but with this wager off now I'm sure she will decline in front of the public. Shitstorms abound if the Council pushed too hard."

Garrus downed his drink in a single chug before he slammed his chit and his glass on the counter. He was steady on his two feet as he began to walk towards the exit.

"Where you going, Vakarian?"

He didn't answer back, only gave them both a wave before slipping out.

Garrus did everything that was asked of him the last time before the VI, Lily, could badger him. He was easily granted permission to enter. The same strange sort of peace settled around him inside the Ridge. He found Kaida as she shifted her gaze between the keys of her piano and then at the holo of her sheet music.

"I have a wager for you."

Kaida barely looked up from her sheet music, typing by hand a few notes before she paused. "So, John squealed on me, did he?"

"Tell me, Shepard," He was after the flinch of her shoulders. She knew that too because she hide them by standing up. She turned back to return his stare. Her expression was cold but he felt that energy again and he was sure that she was close to boiling. "Exactly what is it in my mind that makes you think I'm not—"

"Qualified." She finished for him, her hands behind her back. She made her way slowly towards him, deliberately holding his gaze. Garrus fixed his stance: feet apart, and back straight. "What makes you think you are?"

"Why are you asking when you already know?"

She stopped in front of him. Even for a human she was on the short side but still she seemed ready to take him on if she deemed it necessary. "You think you're more than you actually are, Vakarian. In combat, that is dangerous. And I need a Spectre who poses no danger to me."

"You're asking for the impossible then."

"Your mentor I could learn to trust easily. He is confident in his ability because he knows his limits. You, on the other hand, have yet to learn the hard way." She pointed at her temple. "I'm not so cruel as to subject you to these hard lessons, Vakarian. Come back when you're no longer teething."

He refused to respond to her provocation, even though his trigger finger was itching to retaliate. "Why do you need a protector in the first place?"

"What do you mean?"

He titled his head. "You know exactly what I mean. Why would you need a protector? You've shown us that you're capable of defending yourself. A biotic prodigy, John told us. And since you were part of the Alliance you have some basic idea about self-defence. Why do you need the assurance that you'll be defended as a Councillor? Won't that be a given?"

She stared at him for a long while, barely moving save for the flickering of her eyes as she looked about his face. Sighing, she rubbed the bridge of her nose. "So, John didn't squeal about everything did he?" She crossed her arms, leaning back on one leg much the same way her brother did when he was about to be patronizing. "But there is no reason to tell you when I won't be taking the job. No matter how fancily your mentor put it: I can't take up the position unless certain conditions are met."

"But why? I can't read minds. I need to know before I decide whether or not you're worth persuading."

"What makes you think I can be persuaded?"

"There are things that just don't add up." Garrus had been part of C-Sec before. He knew what happened when evidence didn't add up: something had gone terribly wrong in the investigation. "I think you're just making excuses not to take up the job because you're scared."

She gave nothing away in her expression or her body, only she looked back at her piano and began to walk towards it again. "Spectre, I think you know your way out."

"But what are you afraid of. It isn't your career, something tells me you'll still be able to be part of the music industry. It isn't the politics, you're adept at handling people. John said it was a game you could play and win. So, what is it that I'm missing?"

"Lily," She called out. "Kindly escort the Spectre out of the Ridge."

"Ridge. Why would you name this place a Ridge?" He opened up his omni-tool, ready with the program to lock the door behind him before the VI could enter. It would take it at least a minute for it to hack through. "It gives us a clear view of your psyche as well, doesn't it?"

She sighed, looking back at him. "I will not ask you again, Spectre. Leave or I will make you. Your guess is far off."

"Give me a week." He announced as Lily broke the door and was charging up, ready to attack him until Kaida signalled her to stop. "Give me a week to read your mind. If I get it right, you assume your place as Councillor."

"And if you get it wrong?"

"I'll resign as Spectre."

Her eyes widened. "You're not serious."

"You know I am." He held out his hand. "Do we have a deal?"

When she walked passed him, he thought she was going to decline. Then, she brought a datapad out and put it on top of the coffee table. "I prefer deals like these be made tangible, Spectre. You're on."