Shepard's eyes opened.

Darkness.

It was still the middle of the night and she had been deep asleep, yet somehow she woke up alert and not the least bit sleepy.

Her heartbeat raced.

Someone was here. She didn't know how she knew this but the gut feeling in her stomach wouldn't leave her alone.

With great difficulty and after listening to her surroundings, she quietly (...well, as quietly as she could) made it to her chair and settled herself into it. The pistol that she kept under her pillow was now in her lap and a few spare packs of thermal clips were in a little compartment that was built into the chair.

The lights remained off, she didn't want to alert the possible intruder that she was awake if possible.

Shepard manuevered her chair to a window and when she couldn't detect anyone, she guided herself to a little hidden room outside of her bedroom to the right where a bunch of monitors were set up. Despite the darkness and lack of light, the little room glowed from the light of the monitors. She checked them all carefully and was about to leave when she caught a flicker of movement from the monitor on the lower right.

It showed the outside entrance of her house and the front door.

Bastard, Shepard frowned when she caught another flicker. The person was trying to hack the front door open, "What a ballsy person." she let out a sigh and then guided her chair out of the room and back to the bedroom. She stopped beside the door and let her right hand roam the wall for a moment and when she found a tiny niche she dug her fingernail into it and slid the panel open revealing a print reader.

Shepard pressed her thumb to the device and brief light scanned it. There was a little hiss and click as a cache located beside the print reader opened up. Instead of a spare ammo pack there was 1 flash bang grenade, 2 frag grenades, and 1 cluster grenade. Feeling a little happy with the presents in the cache, she gathered them as quickly as she could and stored up with the spare ammo packs with the exception of the flash bang. Then she closed the cache up and covered up the panel. There was no time.

She could hear the front door clicking open.

Steadying her breath, she quietly guided her chair so that the back was against the wall and she was facing the door. There was only one way to do this now.

A direct confrontation was out of the question. Her physical capabilities wouldn't allow it and the intruder had come earlier than she had anticipated. She couldn't deny the sulkiness that she felt at the realization that her traps and triggers had been deactivated. This person was good.

Shepard checked her pistol and switched the safety off. She looked straight ahead at the door to her bedroom. Anytime now. There was little chance that she would win but she was prepared for that.

Creak.

Her spine stiffened at the noise and she leveled her gun straight in front of her, "You can come out of hiding." she said loudly focusing on the barely visibly glimmer in the doorway, "It's not really fair if you know my face but I don't know yours right?" she couldn't help but say the words with a slight growl.

There was silence, the intruder had stopped moving.

Shepard frowned, "I know you're there." she said quietly, "Don't underestimate me because of my current state." she pulled the trigger of her pistol not particularly trying to hit the person but was surprised when it ricocheted off the intruder's shield and made a hole in the ceiling.

"Woah woah woah." A familiar voice made Shepard freeze from pulling the trigger again, "Hold on a moment Shep, let's not be too hasty here."

Shep?

Shepard frowned, the blood in her veins turned to ice water. Of all the people she didn't want to see...

"Kasumi?" her voice croaked out as she lowered her pistol. No way...

The cloaking fell away from the person revealing the lithe form of Kasumi Goto. Her hooded face wasn't visible, but her unmistakable eyes glittered from the shadows and the thief faced her with a hand to her hip, "Well this is a surprise." her husky voice was soft and she stepped closer to Shepard.

"Don't move." Shepard raised her pistol again and pointed it at Kasumi, "Show me proof that you're really Kasumi." there was an edge in her voice. It pained her to do this, but these days there was no way to be sure of anything.

"Keiji's greybox." Kasumi had stopped advancing, "I kept the greybox intact. Silence is golden. I faked my death in front of Jondom Bau. Remember?" she automatically said it all in one breath. They were details that were only known between her and Shepard.

Shepard lowered the weapon and then critically eyed Kasumi, "What are you doing here?" she asked in an almost accusatory tone. It's not that she was particularly disappointed that it was Kasumi, but she didn't think that she was ready to face what would inevitably come next...and a happy reunion it would be...there was a bitterness somewhere in her heart that she quashed. She would have had to face this someday right?

Kasumi grinned, "It was a job that I simply couldn't turn down." she stepped lightly and sat down on the bed facing Shepard, "You know me. Searching for rare treasures and breaking into impenetrable places." she crossed her legs and gave Shepard a once over but didn't say anything or ask.

Shepard tried to raise both of her hands and place her face into them out of habit but realized halfway through that her left arm wouldn't obey her. It was shaking uncontrollably and she had to give up on the feat and instead use her right arm to hold her left arm. Luckily the nausea she usually experienced didn't take over her. It must have had to do with the adrenaline pumping through her body.

"You never change Kasumi." Shepard let out a weary laugh and settled even deeper into her chair, leaning back tiredly, "So what's the next step?" she asked and looked over at the thief.

Kasumi grinned, "Time for me to bring the treasure home." she stood up energetically, "I'm surprised that you knew someone was here though. Usually no one is ever prepared." she gestured Shepard to follow her out the room and down the stairs. They moved quietly and made sure to keep an eye out for anyone else.

"I'm Shepard." the veteran grinned jokingly, "Nothing gets passed me." she manuevered her chair slowly down the stairs after Kasumi, "Where is this 'home'?" she couldn't help but to ask. She would let the 'treasure' comment slide only because she wanted to know what was going on more than she wanted to admit, and besides, it was Kasumi.

There was a pause, "Don't worry Shep, it's a safe place, even from me." the thief then pulled out a little round device and pressed a button on it before tossing it to Shepard who barely caught it with her right hand, "Hold that." she said, "It's a cloaking device for your chair and yourself." she cast an eye on Shepard, "I don't think you had time to change into anything else more suitable." there was a laugh in her voice.

Shepard looked down at herself and realized it was true. Since waking up she had only thoughts of surviving, changing into armor or rather combat suitable clothes hadn't even crossed her mind. She was still in her black spandex shorts and a black N7 shirt that she had used as pajamas, "You're prepared for everything." she muttered and examined the device with a critical eye.

"I usually use that for bigger hauls." Kasumi explained lightly as they made their way onto the empty streets. The neighborhood still looked somewhat deserted despite the rebuilding of the area, "Have I told you that I once used it to smuggle out Michelangelo's statue of David from a rich collector's home?"

A cold wind brushed past them eliciting a little shudder from Shepard, the season changed faster than she realized, "Sounds like a good time." she replied with a little smile. She had no doubts that wherever Kasumi was leading her, James and everyone else would be there, if not now then later.

Was she ready to hear the questions? Was she ready for the reactions?

It was unreasonable for her to think this way, especially when there was a bigger issue to worry about, but she couldn't help it.

Kasumi and Shepard made their way down the streets, both cloaked and invisible to the naked eye. They neared an alleyway close to downtown and entered it, after a few minutes of turning this way and that, Shepard had no idea where she was, except that she was somewhere in the city. Surprisingly, very few people were out, whether it was because they were avoiding people on purpose or not, Shepard didn't know but for some reason this little detail stuck to her.

Little by little they emerged from the back alleys and went down a a street crowded with apartments crammed and squished together. The streetlights were flickering on and off but anyone could tell that it wasn't a particularly safe area to be in. It stank of the lower levels of Omega and the street was littered with trash and empty battles smashed here and there. Pools of questionable liquid shone on the street from the lights and there was an air of oppression lingering in the atmosphere.

"Safe, even from you?" Shepard just had to mutter skeptically as she let her gaze sweep the area. They passed a black bag that was suspiciously similar to the ones C-Sec used for bodies.

Kasumi let out a quiet laugh, "You'll know when we get there." she snickered at the look on Shepard's face.

They squeezed in through a space between adjacent apartment complexes and followed a winding road to the left where they ultimately found themselves in front of a door hidden in the shadow of a giant high rise condo. Kasumi knocked 3 times and tapped a button on her omni-tool, "We're here." she sang into the microphone. A voice that Shepard couldn't quite hear came from Kasumi's earpiece.

"Password?" Kasumi frowned, "Oh come on, you know it's me. It's cold outside so hurry and let me in." she threatened to break through the security and make sure to fry all the equipment with a virus if the doors didn't open.

Moments later there was a click and the door beeped and then slid open, "You see, it only opened this quickly because you're here." Kasumi grumbled and then stepped inside the dimly lit apartment, "I know he doesn't care what I do with technology, especially since he got a new gun."

From where Shepard was, she couldn't see anyone inside. All she saw was a table scattered with data pads and papers and a bed behind it shoved up against the corner. She guided her chair across the threshold and the doors hissed shut behind her. Curiously she looked around, it was a small studio apartment and didn't look very lived in. Rather, it looked like it was only used as a place to work. The kitchen didn't look used, the stack of takeout boxes in the corner were testimony to that and the bed didn't look like it had been slept in or sat on.

She had positioned herself closer to the table to examine the contents of the papers and data pad and was so occupied with the information that she didn't realize that someone else had walked out of the bathroom and into the general area. Shepard had known in her head that James would be here. She had known without a doubt. But when she looked up from the table and saw him in the flesh, the data pad she had managed to pick up dropped to the floor with a loud clatter and her heart dropped down to her toes. She could feel her heartbeat getting faster, her hands turned cold and clammy for some reason and shook as she tried to bring them together.

It's still too soon for this, she thought to herself as she willed herself to look away from him. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she realized that Kasumi was nowhere to be seen. That sly thief. Shepard allowed herself a grim smile and then bent over to pick up the data pad when a larger calloused hand picked it up before she could.

She wasn't ready for this. As long as she lived, she would never be ready for this, and yet it was already happening. It couldn't be stopped.

Shepard took a breath and looked up to find that James was standing right in front of her. The expression on his face said it all.

There was silence as their gazes locked on each other.