Spending the whole night talking with Shepard about her family was probably the best excuse to engage in voluntary insomnia I had ever thought of. She finally agreed to accept one of the many offers of adoption she had received, and in return I promised I'd never go away. Arm or not, I'd always keep in touch, and she could count on me.

So, the following morning I was saying goodbye to her as she boarded her shuttle. She had taken the offer from one of the families that had wanted to adopt her, as she had promised, but she hadn't even bothered waiting for them to show up. That was one thing I came to understand about her: once she made up her mind about something, she'd go for it without any hesitation. Whatever it took. And the reapers help whoever tried to get in her way.

She was off to Eden Prime. The family in question lived somewhere there, and were rather well off too. The fact that it was Eden Prime gave me a chill, but I couldn't really say anything. By the time the attack on Eden Prime came, if it ever came, she'd be old enough that hopefully she'd be somewhere else – scratch the hopefully, I'd make damn sure she was. I was planning on trying to convince her to go to college. Somewhere on Earth. Safe enough for the time being.

Ideally, it wouldn't come to that. I had a lot of work to do.

Hey Marie,

Sorry I've been out of touch lately. A lot has happened in the last few days, and... Well, I've been a bit distracted, let's put it that way. Crappy excuse, I know.

How have you been? Have you been rotated out of Mindoir yet? The news have been rather tight-lipped about the attack, nothing new that I didn't know already by the time I came here. I don't know about you, but if I never get to set foot on that place again, it'll be too soon. Then again, who knows where they'll send me.

Oh yeah, I should mention, all the kids are now shipped off. Not sure if you heard. Joe's off on Earth, a nice family took him in, they've got horses and a ranch. I think he's going to like it there. I'm attaching one of the pictures they sent me, he doesn't look exactly happy, but he's at least looking up from his feet. Robert's been sent to Shanxi to live with some relatives the alliance managed to find. All I've heard from him was that he's back to school now, but not much other than that. For what I've read from Shanxi, it's not a bad place, pretty safe colony world. Liz's at the Citadel, a couple from the diplomatic service have adopted her. I'm not sure how she's doing though, those two really didn't like me, and I haven't heard from her since. And Aliana just went off this morning to Eden Prime.

I had a very long chat with Aliana yesterday. Turns out she was afraid of sharing anything about her family because she felt she'd forget them if she did. Does that make sense? I don't know, she finally opened up and told me a lot about them.

As for myself, I'm off in a couple of weeks, but before then I have to get surgery! Yeah, turns out they're going to replace one of my lungs. Freaked me out.. Actually, I'm still freaked out, but the dodgy Russian doctor just laughed at my worries. So I have to go for surgery in two to three days, and should be enough time to get me up and running for bootcamp. And the gene mods too, don't forget those. It all feels so surreal.

Sheesh, that was a lot of babbling. Anyway, I hope you're doing okay.

Take care!

Roy.

Dear Roy,

Oh my gosh, that's so good to hear from you! Great timing, I'll be in Arcturus tomorrow! We definitely need to catch up. I'll call you when I get there!

It's great to hear most of the kids all have homes to go to. There's a lot of orphans back on Earth, you know. What about Jasmine? Found her a place yet? Is she doing any better? We didn't find any more survivors. Well, other than... Yeah. A few of them have recovered a bit, with some therapy... No, I don't want to talk about it over mail. I wish I could see all the kids, but it's better that they're all somewhere better. Better the better!

Gosh, that sounded so down. No more down! It's all good stuff now, they've started to rebuild back on Mindoir, so it'll just get better!

You're having a lung replaced? What did you do to the old one? You're really going to join the military then, huh? Well, be careful and keep your head down. I don't want to lose you or anyone else from Mindoir.

I'll call you tomorrow!

Marie.

I read Marie's message when I was already in bed that night. Which was just what I needed, she didn't know about Jasmine, and sounded like she wasn't going to take the news well. Truth to be told, I wasn't sure whether I was looking forward to seeing her again or not. She was probably going to want to talk about Mindoir, and no matter what, she was still a shrink. Always digging for something.

"Eh, I'll burn that bridge when I cross it," I muttered, powering the omni-tool off.

For the first time, I was going to bed without Shepard and the kids being the foremost thing in my mind. I had focused so much on trying to help them until they went somewhere safe, I wasn't quite sure what to do next. A thousand things were swirling inside my head. The reapers, the military, everything that was going to happen to Shepard.

Like hell.

Even if I hadn't met Aliana fresh out of Mindoir. Through the games, the galaxy did nothing to Shepard but chew her up and spit her out. The council, the Alliance, nevermind fucking Cerberus. Everyone used her, and threw her away when she started to become inconvenient.

I'll figure out how to warn the galaxy about this. Just have to find the right person. Anderson, or Hackett maybe. I know where a lot of stuff is located, it can prove what I know. Even Cerberus. Heck, maybe Kohaku will help. The Illusive Man? Fuck, that's going to be a handful. Maybe one of the alien governments would be better, less chance of Cerberus fucking things up.

There wasn't that much time. Sure, it would be a good fifteen years before the invasion. But fifteen years, even if the whole galaxy went on the warpath, wouldn't be enough to beat the Reapers. Fifty thousand years per cycle, one billion years, there had to be tens of thousands of the fucking things. It'd probably come down to the Crucible.

I can't really remember what else I was thinking of, because I fell asleep. Thoughts are always very strange before sleeping.

The dreams, however, were a lot worse.

I remembered them clearly, I was lucid through most of it. I was somewhere familiar. It was New Zealand or Mindoir, probably a mix of both, the colour of the sky wasn't right for either. A very nice open area, people milling about, not doing anything in particular. Then the awful, awful scream, like it bore straight into my brain.

Then the sky was full of reapers. That was when I realized. I tried counting them, but I couldn't. Couldn't count straight, couldn't walk right. It was a dream.

"All right fuckers, bring it on!"

I was in alliance armor. I didn't know how it felt, or how it was supposed to feel. It was just what I needed. I didn't really remember the reapers landing, things don't always happen in the most logical fashion in dreams. What happened next was that the landscape was littered with reapers, and husks started pouring out of them. Hundreds, nay, thousands, of them.

Not that it mattered. Omni-blade in hand, I just charged at them with reckless abandon. It wasn't my first lucid dream after all.

I realized later it wasn't a dream at all. It was a nightmare. No matter how many I killed, they kept coming. I couldn't stop them, I couldn't save anyone in my dream, humans, faceless humans being devoured by the horde of synthetics. I woke up when I heard the anguished cry from Shepard. Not Commander Shepard, but the only Shepard I knew. The young, sixteen year old kid from Mindoir.

In the movies, people always wake up from nightmares by jumping off their beds, scream being optional, suddenly wide awake and realizing what a nightmare they had had. Reality is a little different. There was no scream, I didn't jump out of bed; but my heart was beating in my chest like it wanted to escape through my throat, and I was breathing like I had finished running a marathon. And for the longest few seconds, I wasn't sure what was real and what wasn't.

Goddamn Reapers...

After a shitty night's sleep and a worse morning feeling sick, I wasn't feeling at my best. I spent all day just thinking, trying to remember everything I could about the Mass Effect timeline and writing it down to my omni-tool. I didn't even eat anything until my omni-tool beeped to warn me of a message, and I realized it was late evening.

Hey! Wher R you? We R at the Flyboy waiting for yo!

Marie!

"Shit," I muttered. I saved the notes I was writing, put a password on them, and fired up the messaging app.

Hey Marie!

Sorry! Kinda lost track of time. I'm going to grab a quick shower, do they do food up at the Flyboy? I haven't eaten at all today!

Roy.

I hopped in the shower and wasn't even wet when Marie's reply came through.

Just come! Well get U sumthin!

Her lack of spelling skills was rather amusing, but I did get my shower before throwing my clothes on (my old jeans, meaning 21st century old, military green t-shirt, and plain futuristic shoes, since I didn't think my hiking boots would be appropriate), and buggered off.

The Flyboy was a kind of weird bar/pub mix, and that night it seemed more of a bar. Loud music, lots of shouting, and what looked like a lot of marines on shore leave. I was quite relieved to see I was slipping right in unnoticed, until a very familiar voice shouted over the hubhub of the bar.

"ROY!"

All I saw was a whirl of black hair before I had a very chirp Marie latched on my neck. She lunged at me so hard that I had to stagger a couple of steps back, and ended up having to swirl around with her in my arms to avoid falling down, which may have been what she intended in the first place.

That was drawing far too much attention for my liking, but she wasn't letting go. I did get her to take a step back, her hands still latched on the back of my neck.

"It's so great to see you!" she said. She reeked of booze, her make-up was smeared, and she looked like she could barely stand. Even in the low light of the bar I could tell she looked... It was hard to put into a single word. Weary. Tired. Sad. She was trying way too hard to sound happy, but it didn't really reach her eyes.

"Marie, it's-"

*GRRRROOOOWL*

Yeah, I hadn't eaten since the day before. I spent all night talking with Shepard, the day just writing down all I could about the timeline, and now here I was. So sue me.

Even though it was quite loud inside the bar, Marie actually heard it. Or maybe felt it, since she was holding on so close to me. There was this very uncomfortable pregnant pause, and then she started laughing. For a wonder, this time it did sound like a happy laugh.

"Any chance we can get some food here?" I said.

"Naaaah, lemme go tell 'em. I'm gonna show you the... Best! Ribs in the station," she slurred. With a pat on my chest, she stumbled back and went to speak to a group of marines sitting at one of the tables. I didn't go with her, just watched from a distance. They didn't seem particularly boisterous, or loud, or drunk for the matter. One man and three women.

A few minutes later, and after a couple of loud catcalls from the female members of Marie's troop – more in jest at her than me, luckily – she was dragging me out of the Flyboy, leading me by the hand with a quick but unsure step.

"Where are we going?" I said.

"Relay Rob's!" Marie replied enthusiastically. She must have looked like a woman on a mission, because everyone we came across took a quick step out of her way.

After only a few minutes and several mysterious turns (to the point that I'm sure we crossed in front of the Flyboy a second time, though Marie didn't seem fazed by it), we arrived at Relay Rob's. It looked like an old style diner, including miniskirt waitresses and neon sign (holographic, no buzzing sounds).

"Welcome to Relay Rob's!" Marie said, about a millisecond before one of the waitresses did.

"Table for two?" the waitress said, pointedly ignoring the drunk woman and addressing me.

"Yeah," I said.

I subtly pulled Marie by the hand to get closer, before she went off and did something silly, or expensive. I had to then grab her by the waist when she nearly fell over. Okay, so maybe I hadn't been that subtle. She reciprocated very quickly, which made for a very embarrassing walk to our table.

"Special of the day is the T-bone steak. 16 or 32 oz.," the waitress offered. She didn't give us a menu at first, and only when she saw I wasn't doing so, she flicked the holoprojector on the table to show us the menu.

Oopsie. Embarrassing.

Marie flicked quickly to the back of the menu and to the drinks page. "I'm gonna have a Schutz raspberry vodka."

"No food?" I said.

"Naaaah, I'm not hungry,"

The waitress took the order without a single word, and then turned to me. "Sir? Do you need a minute?"

"Nah. I'll have the T-bone, the big one," I said, flipping back to the start of the menu. "What does it come with?"

"Your choice of two sides," she replied, flipping the menu to the appropriate page.

"Okay. Steamed vegetables and salad then. And if you can bring some wedges and some dips now it'd be great, because I'm starving."

"Sure thing. Anything to drink?"

I made a quick check of the back of the menu, and chose a non-alcoholic at random. "Uh, a large Astro-fizz will do."

That got me the looks again. The waitress recovered first, jotting it down on her datapad and walking off. Marie took a couple of seconds longer, and then she started laughing again.

"I'm glad I'm entertaining you," I said, trying to keep the annoyance out of my voice. I fucking hate when people laugh at me.

"It's just..." she giggled, and took a deep breath to compose herself. "That's a kiddy's drink."

"I like kids' drinks. They get all the best stuff. Heck, have you seen he kids' menu?" I flicked through the holomenu until I got to the right part. "Wait, this one comes with a toy! I think I'm going to change my order."

I didn't think it was that funny, but Marie was drunk enough that she was giggling all the way through. And by the time she had calmed down, the waitress was back with our drinks, and she started laughing all over again. As it turned out, the large Astro-fizz was pretty damn big, and came in a plastic with toy ships and planets drawn all over it. I wondered what exactly they were doing with kids in the future if they were happy to feed them that much sugar. And golly, did the Astro-fizz have sugar.

But I wasn't distracted enough to notice how eagerly Marie drank her own vodka mixer. By the time I was done with the breadsticks, she was on her second (and let me tell you, I made very quick and short work of those). And by the time I had finished the wedges, she was on her fourth.

While I ate, I had given Marie a quick update about the kids. I had had letters from Joe and Robert, or rather, their adoptive families. Joe specially, I had gotten several pictures from the ranch, and although he wasn't smiling in any of them, he looked more lively than he had been at the station.

"Oh my god, he's so cute," Marie chirped, looking at the holo on her unsteady omni-tool. She was slurring the words quite noticeably by now.

"If you say so," I replied with a smirk. "Haven't gotten anything from Liz though, I don't think her adoptive family liked me very much."

"Their loss," Marie retorted. "And what about your little sister?"

"Marie," I said, dragging the e and getting a laugh from her. "She's not my sister."

"I know, I know. What about her?"

"She just left, a family on Eden Prime is taking care of her. She should be arriving tomorrow."

"That's great!"

The waitress arrived then with my steak, and I really couldn't see anything else. It looked awesome, and given that, other than the few appetizers I had just eaten, I had been living off military rations since I arrived to the Mass Effect universe, I was almost drooling like an idiot. Vat-grown stuff is the standard for the military, although Arcturus, being big and close enough to Earth, made it possible to get fresh food and produce.

"And here's your drinks," she said, putting down another vodka mixer for Marie, and a refill for my Astro-fizz.

Marie was about to reach for her mixer when I grabbed the bottle myself, putting it just beyond her reach.

"I think you've had enough," I said. As if it had been a signal, the waitress made herself scarce, while Marie looked at me with a seriously astonished expression. She smiled and reached for the bottle, but I pulled it back. At that moment, a flash of anger ran through Marie's face. She half-stood and snatched the bottle off my hand.

My interest on my steak waned considerably. The look on my face must have been eloquent enough, because she sat down and tried to put a nervous smile to cover it up.

"I'm fine," she said, tittering nervously, and giving the bottle a sip. "But anyway! What about Jasmine? She's still here, isn't she? Poor girl."

And I was just about to sink my fork in the steak, too. For a moment, all I could see was Shepard's face that day. The accusation behind that look. Where were you?

"Roy? Whass the matter?" Marie said. Or at least I thought she said. Between her slurring and the fact that I wasn't paying attention, she could've said anything. "Something's happento her."

"She's dead," I said, my voice chocking out. I had my eyes fixed on the steak now, but it didn't really matter. I wasn't looking at it. "She took a piece of broken glass and... Shepard found her. I never saw it. She just told me there was a lot of blood."

I don't know how long we just sat there in silence. I only broke out of it when I heard a muffled sob. Looking up, I saw Marie covering her mouth with both hands.

"I... I'm sorry..." she muttered, and stood up far too fast. She nearly fell over, probably would have if I hadn't shot up myself to hold her steady. After a moment, she pulled away. "I'll be... I'm sorry..." she started to stumble away, and gestured for me to stop when I started to follow. "I'll be right back."

With an uneasy step, she stumbled her way to the restroom, and left me dumbfoundedly behind. And very awkwardly standing by the table.

One very quick look around, and I sat down again. Yeah, everyone was looking at us. Or as it was the case, me, because Marie had left me hanging. Not that we weren't getting looks already, but Marie's loud, drunken outbursts weren't too much out of place. Marines on shore leave are loud anywhere and everywhere.

I prodded the steak with my fork, quite uninterested. I waved at the waitress, and asked her to pack it up to go. I really didn't feel like sitting down and having dinner anymore. A few minutes later, she brought my steak and vegetables back. A few more minutes later, and Marie still wasn't back. I gave her some time, then some more time, and so on until I thought she had simply fallen through the toilet.

"Marie," I called, knocking on the ladies' room. "Are you okay?"

The answer came through loud and clear. "Leave me alone!"

"Great," I muttered. It was all familiar enough, I wondered whether she'd swing back immediately or wait until morning to do so. I didn't have to wonder long, the door opened and she poked her head out. Her eyes were reddened, and her breath smelled strongly of mint. "I'm sorry. Just... gimme a minute."

With a sigh, I went back to wait for her at the table. Sure enough, she did come back, sporting a huge smile and as if nothing had happened. The fragility of the smile, however, was hard to miss, at least for my trained eye.

"You done?" she said, and didn't give me any time to answer. "Come on! Lessus go!"

She didn't sit down, just tried to drag me by the arm, but I convinced her to give me enough time to pay the bill – not forgetting to give the waitress a good tip for putting up with us – and off we were, carrying my dinner and on a mission to find the Flyboy again.

The bluster from the place guided us much more easily this time, and with Marie firmly attached to my arm, we made our way in. As the hour grew late, the place had filled more, and now it was jam-packed. Marie's companions waved at us, and when she waved at them, she pushed me towards them while she made her way to the bar.

"Hey hey, look what the kitten's brought," the only man said, a large, broad-shouldered fellow with crop-cut black hair, thick eyebrows, a square head large enough to double as a docking station for a frigate, and a very loud voice.

There were four of them total. Two were women I could hardly tell apart, both with short black hair, almond-shaped brown eyes, high cheekbones, and a goofy grin that gave them deep dimples on the sides of their mouths. They weren't identical enough to be twins, but they had to be sisters. Last one was a blonde, hair held in a bun which reminded me of in-game Ashley's (as it turned out, Alliance regulations were to keep hair short, or held in a bun like that when in uniform). She had a gaunt appearance, with sunken cheeks and a bony lower jaw.

"The kitten?"

"Marie," the two sisters said at the same time. They started laughing when I looked at them.

"Do they do that often?" I asked the man.

"All the freaking time," he replied. He offered me his hand. "Name's Wilson."

"Roy," I replied, shaking his hand. He had a hell of a mitt, and nearly crushed my hand in his.

"These two are Jill and Melanie," he said.

"And which one is which?" I said, nodding at them.

"That's Jill," Melanie said, pointing at her sister.

"And that's Melanie," Jill added, returning the pointing.

It all had the feeling of a rehearsed set piece. Me? Given the lowish light and the fact they were all wearing the same, I had a hard time telling them apart.

"Zay," the blonde woman offered, together with her hand, which I shook. "Where did Marie find you anyway?"

"Mindoir," I replied. I sat down at the table, and put the container in front of me, which quickly attracted the attention of Wilson.

"I don't think I saw you there," Zay said. "Who're you with?"

"Uh? No, I'm not with anyone. I was there during the attack."

Here we go, I thought. But to my relief, their responses were a lot different from what I was expecting. The blonde and the twins looked at me more closely, with varying degrees of surprise, and even Wilson stopped demolishing the steak to look at me.

"That was you! I heard you killed ten batarians there," one of the sisters (Jill I thought) said.

"It was twenty!" the other one added.

"Five," I said. "Well, four, the last one was sucker-punched by Shepard, all I had to do was press the trigger."

"Not bad," Wilson said, nodding sagely and returning his attention to my (former) dinner.

"Fucking lucky," I replied.

"How did you manage?" Zay inquired.

Fortunately, I was spared having to give any explanations by the arrival of Marie. She stumbled onto the table with both hands full, and nearly dropped everything she was carrying onto our heads. She had a bottle of tequila in one hand, and a bowl full of lemon slices and six shot glasses in the other. There was a salt shaker in there as well.

"Oh hell no," I said.

"I'm baaaaack!" Marie said, sitting herself besides me. "Didya missh me?"

"Of course!" Jill said. Her sister was already working the tequila, and had lined up the six glasses.

"Not for me, thanks," I said.

"Wha? No way!" Marie protested. "We gotsa drink together!"

"I'm not doing shots, okay?"

"But... But..." Marie started pouting, and immediately the other three women made a sort of uuuuuuh noise.

"You made her cry," Zay said.

"No..." My denial died on my lips when I saw she was actually crying. To say I was surprised would be an understatement, but it very quickly changed to annoyed. Crocodile tears really don't do it for me.

I considered, seriously considered, getting up and leaving without a word. It would also save me from unpleasantness the next day. But after a brief internal debate, which as usual I won, I decided I could at least ride it out until morning. It didn't look like it'd take much to knock Marie out anyway, given how utterly drunk she already was.

So, because I hate myself, I raised one finger. "One shot. And I mean it. One."

As I expected, Marie's demeanour changed like a switch had been flicked. Tears dried up, the big smile returned, and she passed the glasses around. Or at least tried to, but when she started sloshing more of the contents out than she left inside, Jill took over, topping the glasses up.

Marie took the time to explain to me what I was supposed to do (which I already knew, but eh, kept her entertained), and up we went.

I hate tequila.

They did indeed try to get me a second one, but I did refuse. Completely. Marie cried a little, pouted some more, then made a show of huffing and puffing, and taking a second shot herself. After that, conversation naturally turned to – what else? – Mindoir. They started asking questions about how I made it out, how the fight went down, and I tried to answer them as simply as possible.

In truth, it wasn't a particularly impressive tale. I had caught the first batarian by surprise ("I bet he had never seen anyone so unconcerned about having a shotgun pointed at his face, except maybe a krogan" was the way I put it), I was just lucky with the second ("he apparently thought he could shoot me through his compatriot"), the third never really had a chance ("he was distracted shooting someone else, didn't realize I had two shotguns"), the fifth was sucked-piped by Shepard ("heh, I made a funny"), and the only one that was a real fight was the fourth. Even then, I had been damn lucky. Through the whole thing.

As I spoke, Marie kept drinking, and kept trying to interrupt me. Not letting me speak. She didn't want to talk about Mindoir herself, but she didn't want me talking about Mindoir either.

"You wern't luck...ghy," she slurred at the end of my explanation. "You jush... kicked their ashes!" she giggled, and leaned on me, putting her hand on my chest. "My Roy'sh gunna be a marine!"

"Is that right?" Zay said, looking at me with an amused and slightly tipsy smile.

"At least going to try," I said. "Have to get through bootcamp first"

"Gotten the gene mods yet?"

"Not yet, I'm getting them tomorrow."

"Well, that's a hundred thousand reasons to get through bootcamp right there."

"A hundred and twenty thousand, actually."

She whistled. "Damn. That's inflation for you." She reached for the bottle of tequila, but to her disappointment, it was empty. "Well, ya better get through, I wanna see what you came out like when yer done," she said with a wink.

"Hey! Handshes off, he'sh mine," Marie protested. I stirred uncomfortably, getting out of her grip. She didn't seem to notice much. "Lesh go dance!"

"Ah, that's not going to work. I don't dance."

"Jeez, no drinking, no dancing, do you do anything?" Zay said.

"I'm great at keeping chairs warm," I replied. "And making balloon animals, but I'm not very good at that."

She shook her head, and whatever she was going to say next was interrupted when Marie stood up and dragged her away towards the dance floor. With a call for them to wait, the sisters took off after them, and soon it was just Wilson and I.

"Really kid, you ain't noticing the kitten purring?" Wilson said.

"Sure," I said. "She's drunk."

"Don't matter, she's been talking about you. You and your kids were the only ones to make it out of there."

"What about all the... well, the people with brain damage? They haven't recovered? None of them?"

Wilson shook his head. "Not one of them. The batarians took anyone who could be useful, even if a little damaged. The ones they left, well..."

I nodded, not taking my eyes off my empty shot glass. I kept twirling it in my hands, trying to resist the urge to throw it against the wall. It wasn't until I heard a commotion coming from the dance floor that I looked up. I turned to see Marie laughing on the floor, while Zay and the sisters were trying to help her up.

"How often does she get this drunk?" I said, already knowing the answer, but asking nonetheless.

"She's had a rough time lately, she's just getting her hair down."

So, that's a very often then, I thought, nodding.

Apparently Marie's little adventure had been enough to convince the girls that dancing was not the best idea, because they were back just a few minutes later. She was clearly unsteady, and pretty much fell on top of me.

"Royyyyy, I wanna dance with youuu," she said.

"I don't think you can do much dancing as you are," I replied. "Why don't I just take you home?"

"Ooh, forward, I like that," Zay said. She was going to say something else, but she shut up after I looked at her. That was a pretty damn poor joke.

"M'kay," Marie replied.

"Great, let's go." I stood, helped her up, and with her arm holding on to my waist for dear life, I waved the others goodbye.

"Thanks for dinner," Wilson said as I left. "Go get her tiger."

I rolled my eyes at him, and led Marie away. There were a few catcalls and comments as we made through the crowd, which didn't seem to annoy Marie as much as they did me. In fact, she seemed to be enjoying herself. Holding her firmly, we finally broke out of the bar, and into the empty station corridors. It was late enough that most decent folk were already in bed.

"So, where are you staying?"

"I wanna go with you..." she mumbled.

"Not a good idea."

She rubbed her head against my neck, and mumbled something I didn't get before insisting again. "Royyyy, I wanna be with you..."

"Not today." I said.

"Why do you hate me?" she sniffled.

Oh for crying out loud, I thought. You can't be serious.

"Marie, I'm serious. No. Where do you live?"

"Fine," she replied, and pushed me away. "Jussh lemme here then." She stumbled two steps, and would have fallen down if I hadn't taken hold of her again. She tried to struggle, which only served to make both of us stumble then.

"Come on Marie, stop that," I said. She did, and grabbed me again. "Okay, fine, jeez. Let's go to my place."

She nodded without a word, and we started the not-so-long walk back. As she was, all I had to do was drop her in my bed, and she'd probably be asleep in a matter of seconds. I was amazed she was still conscious, given that she was already quite drunk when we met before, and with everything else she had put in her system. She really wasn't that big.

After what should have been a short walk, but became a somewhat long one due to our slow pace, we got to my apartment. We stumbled in with Marie trying to hug me, but luckily, all I had to do was take a couple of steps to drop her on my bed. My apartment was really just the size of a shoebox.

"Roy, cm'ere," she mewled.

"Give me a few minutes, gotta go to the little boy's room." I helped her up to the bed, took her shoes off, and tucked her in. She snuggled to the pillow without a complaint, although she did try to paw at me, and I left her there before retreating to the bathroom.

With nothing to do, I sat on the toilet, opened my omni-tool, and started an extranet search for military regs on alcohol abuse. Didn't take long to find what I was looking for. As it turns out, there were several places in Arcturus where I could go for help.

I just had to have it out with Marie in the morning. I could have been imagining things, maybe I just thought she had a problem because I saw the problem everywhere. In any case, we'd know in the morning. I just had this uneasy feeling, it was all the little things she did that I was so familiar with, and the fact that she told me how she had had trouble digging herself out of the hole after her tours of duty. I idly wondered which way she'd go when she woke up. Would she go for throwing things at me, or just trying to guilt-trip me somehow? I hoped for the former, my tolerance for emotional manipulation was very low.

Waiting, I spent almost an hour just browsing, without a peep from Marie. To make sure, I switched the lights off, and took a peek out the bathroom door. As I expected, Marie was fast asleep already, probably had fallen asleep in seconds after I tucked her in. I tiptoed out, and was about to leave the apartment when I head a small whimper. I stopped to listen, and after a while, another. I set the omni-tool to the dimmest setting, and approached the bed. Sure enough, it was Marie. Whatever she was dreaming, she was obviously very distressed about it. Whimpering, and crying too.

Much as that did hurt to see, there was nothing I could do. As she was, I didn't want to wake her up, just in case.

Without any more noise, I left the apartment, and made for one of the hotels in the station. It wasn't hard to find a room to spend the night. Not that I expected to get much sleep.

Author's Notes: So... Yeah, pure OCs here. In-game, all we ever hear about the consequences of the Mindoir raid is how Lt. Zabaleta became an alcoholic and had to be sent to rehab (if you had the spacer background), but for what little bits I've gathered from codices, wikis, etc., the issues were very widespread among the alliance personnel that tried to stop the raid.

On a completely different note, Relay Rob's and the sugar-loaded Astro-fizz come straight from Raven Studios' most excellent series of fics: Cause and Effect, Newton's First Law, and Newton's Second Law. Now you know :)

Mizuki00, Aliana's sixteen, but she's probably acting a little less mature due to the trauma, so yeah, I can imagine how you can imagine her being younger. As far as bootcamp, etc., there will be chapters on it! ICT... Well, you'll have to wait and see, since things are going to happen way before that could become an option (muahaha!).

Friaku, thanks a lot! Hope I can keep the story interesting enough :D

Archer83, yeah... Ali's kinda messed up at the moment, and you know how when you're down it seems as if the Universe conspires to keep you down and not let you dig yourself out? Something like that.

Thanks everyone for reviews, reads, faves, and all the good things! Early release this time, because I'm a little stuck at 49,993 (planetary war chapters are giving me some trouble), so I focused on My Effect a little bit more to get the ol' neurons churning. Next time, expect a change of pace! :)