Lieutenant Zabaleta organized the search parties, and we were groundside less than an hour later. Rather, we were on the transports and shooting for groundside less than an hour later. Unlike the typical boring shuttle rides, the pilot was going at it like we were in the middle of battle, and as far as I could tell, the freaking transport had no kinetic dampeners, or they were on the fritz.

Needless to say, I was very quiet during the trip, mostly trying very hard not to throw up. For once I was missing my armor suit, because at least it did come with atmospheric filters, and I could have set the air to ice cold.

Ice cold air, or a chunk of ice in your mouth, is a great way to prevent throwing up due to motion sickness. Now you know.

"Come on Jinx!" Corporal Fernand called, another one from my team. A shorter, muscular guy with black hair and a funny-looking round head and face. "We're up!"

"We're landing?" I asked, standing up gratefully, but holding on for dear life onto the handles that ran along the ceiling.

"No, we're jumping."

I stopped walking, and I'm pretty sure all my blood decided to run away from my face and hide somewhere in my liver. Because the idea of throwing up came back with a vengeance, and for some reason I thought it was a very agreeable one.

"I... What?"

"Come on, this is taught in basic!" he said, pushing me forward.

"I haven't gotten there yet!"

"Well, consider it an advance class!" the corporal shouted. The back of the transport opened, and before I could do anything, someone kicked my ass – quite literally – and I went flying out the back door.

As you can imagine, I was screaming obscenities all the way down. No parachute, or any clue of what I was supposed to do, I just saw the land coming at me faster and faster, and whatever was supposed to happen... wasn't bloody happening.

I managed to keep control of my bowels, which was quite fortunate, as the mass effect field of the ship kicked in when I was mere seconds from the ground, lowering my mass considerably, and slowing me down as the air resistance increased due to my lower mass – or something like that, the marines didn't believe in explanations, only in doing. By the time I hit the ground, I was nearly weightless, and not going all that fast.

And yes, I did hit the ground. Not quite face first, just close enough, and I crashed and rolled in a most unbecoming way. It probably looked ridiculous, though I was too busy thanking whatever deity had been that had intervened to let me survive that insane fall.

"You okay Jinx?" one of the soldiers called, and I could tell he was trying hard not to laugh.

"Just peachy," I croaked, standing up on trembling legs and dusting myself off. In the distance I could see another dropship coming down, only this one wasn't flying down like it was a warzone, or sending people off the back without a parachute. It gracefully lowered itself to about a meter above ground, the back opened, and half a dozen soldiers gingerly stepped out without a care in the world. "Son of a bitch," I muttered.

"Let's go," Hark said, calling all of us with a simple gesture. We fell into line, and took off towards the forest.

The entire detail were covering the forest, following my suggestion. My omni-tool updated with the positions of everyone else, and a grid-pattern map of this area of Mindoir. Green areas had been already covered, and we were methodically working our way through. I noticed that nobody was calling out for Shepard, just methodically searching every corner, nook, and cranny. I figured it had something to do with how searches are supposed to be conducted without warning everyone in a ten mile radius where we were, or something like that, so I didn't do it either.

Hours passed, no one saying a word. As we closed the perimeter, some of the teams broke off to search the nearby farms. Reports started to filter in that nobody could identify Shepard, but that they had seen teenagers around a little more often than usual in recent times. So no clues, and nothing really to raise hopes. A few times there was a call on the radio from someone who thought they had spotted her, but it always turned out to be a false alarm. On the sixth hour, Hark called a break.

Once we all settled down, with water and protein bars to keep us going, he called up the map on his omni-tool.

"Okay, let's see." He pointed at the grid, which was starting to be quite full. We had gone from the edges, closing down towards the centre of the forest. "We should be done in a couple of hours. If she isn't here, we have to think our next move."

"She could've gotten away while we were searching," I said.

"That's why we're using this pattern," Hark said. "It's not impossible, but it's very unlikely."

I looked at the map, thinking. "I'd say our next step is the farms. Plenty of places to hide, and probably familiar territory for her." I shook my head, thinking.

Dammit, where did you go Shepard?

My eyes wandered off around the map, and became fixed on the river. It ran along one of the edges of the forest, and as far as I knew it was rather wide and deep. If Shepard had fallen into it...

I must have stared at it for a while, because Hark had to bump me on the shoulder to get me out of my thoughts.

"Hey Jinx, you okay?"

"I'm fine," I said, and after a couple of seconds, added my thoughts. "Do we have someone searching the river?"

The soldiers all exchanged looks, but no one answered the question.

"Come on, let's keep searching," Hark said. "We've got to keep pace to close the perimeter."

And so, we moved on. We were now close enough to the centre of the search zone that we could see the other soldiers, so it was unlikely we'd miss Shepard.

It wasn't even twenty minutes when we had contact confirmation. I waited for it to be called a false alarm, but it didn't happen.

"This is Jinx, please confirm," I called, probably breaking protocol bad enough to get myself into a whole lot of trouble.

"We have contact, it's- Shit!"

Where was a loud snapping sound, and then what sounded like a scuffle.

"Come in!" I shouted.

The scuffle was short lived, and what followed next was something I didn't expect. A shot. The sound of mass effect guns is very distinctive, and even over the radio I could recognize it anywhere.

"She's got a gun!" the solider shouted.

"Goddamit, stay away from her!" I shouted. Without looking to my unit, asking for permission, or even asking for confirmation, I took off. I didn't hear Hark shouting for me to stay put, or even the other soldiers asking where I was going.

I ran through the forest faster than the day the batarians had attacked. Carrying Shepard or not. A second shot rang through the radio, which spurred me to run even faster. I was at the grid location in less than five minutes, where one of the soldiers was down. He had a leg wound, and another soldier was treating him.

"What the hell happened?!" I shouted as soon as I was within earshot.

"She shot me!" the soldier replied. "Fucking damn, that hurts!"

"Don't be such a whiner," the other soldier said.

"Where the hell did she get the gun?" I said.

"I don't know!"

Somehow, that didn't set well with me. I had heard a scuffle over the radio, and then the shot. If she had had the gun from the beginning, she'd have just shot him.

"Where's your gun?"

"Fuck off Jinx!" he replied. Well, there was my answer. The soldier treating his wound looked at him, then at me, and knew exactly what I was saying.

We pinned him down, ignoring his protests, and searched him through. Yep, no gun.

"You let her take your gun?" he said.

"The bitch jumped me!"

Bitch?

I bent down and looked at him straight in the eye. I really wanted to punch the fucker in the face, but I had a bigger fish to fry.

"Where did she go?" I said. I spoke slowly, emphasizing every word.

"Fuck off, I don't- Argh!"

He jumped up to grab his leg, but the soldier held him down. The hand that wasn't pushing him down on his chest was on his leg, with its thumb buried into his leg wound. That was a bit of a surprise, but I didn't much mind to be honest.

"Where?"

"Dammit. She went that way," he finally said, pointing towards the inside of the forest.

"You fucking idiot," the other soldier added, shaking his head. He looked at me and made a rueful smirk. "He's new, he wasn't on Mindoir."

"Thanks," I replied. Without another word I stood up, and ran in the direction the shot soldier had pointed.

I saw her, or what I thought was her, soon after I started my run. She was dashing through the forest at a desperate pace, but even so I was faster. She stumbled, took a fall, and instead of standing up, she turned and aimed her gun at me. I saw her face for the first time. Dirty, messy hair, but more than that, the look on her face was positively terrified. I don't think she could have recognized her own mother.

"Ali! It's me! It's Roy!"

She fired.

The round bounced off my kinetic barrier harmlessly, but I did feel the impact, like a punch to the chest.

I didn't dive for cover.

"Ali! Lana! It's Roy!" I repeated, raising my hands.

She looked ready to shoot me again, but she stopped mid-gesture. The gun was trembling in her hands dangerously, so much so that I was expecting another bullet to go off whether she wanted to fire it or not.

"R-Roy?"

"Yeah! Yes, it's me. It's-"

I was interrupted by another shot, hitting me straight on the chest. It caught me so much by surprise that I was thrown off and fell on my back. Shepard was as surprised as I was, given how she dropped the gun like it was fiery red hot.

"ROY!"

"Freaking... hell..." I muttered. Shepard rushed to my side, and knelt down, grabbing my shirt and pulling it back. There was no blood. Thank the Alliance for military grade kinetic barriers.

"Oh my god, I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."

"It's fine," I grunted, sitting up. "It's just fine..."

The drive back home was long – very long, as the driver didn't seem to be in a hurry at all – and quiet. Once I managed to calm her down, showing that I wasn't hurt at all, I had asked Shepard why she had run. I only asked once, but she hadn't answered. Why she had shot the soldier, well, that was a different story. The guy had jumped her instead of trying to approach her calmly, and got a dose of Commander Shepard to the leg. Sure, he was trying not to hurt her too bad, but Shepard? She went for the gun and was fighting for her life. Or so she thought at least.

You don't try to get the jump on Shepard. Ever.

By the time we left our rallying point, Zabaleta was giving that soldier, whose name I never learned, the dressing down of a lifetime. I mean, by the time I got there with Shepard he was already shouting at him, and when we left he was still going.

After about half an hour, we finally came to a stop in front of her house. The soldiers all got out, and left us alone in the transport.

"Ready?" I said. When she didn't answer I stood to get out, but Shepard stopped me by grabbing my sleeve.

"I don't wanna go," she said.

"Okay. What happened?" I replied, sitting down again. She didn't answer, she just sat there, wringing her hands together. That put me immediately on alert. At first I thought she had run because of Mindoir, thinking she was in danger, or something like that. Something not logical, but understandable. But it was that house that was making her nervous, and that put me on edge. "What did they do to you?"

My question had come out icy cold, which Shepard didn't miss.

"No, no. It's just... I've tried, but I just can't... It's like I can't do anything right. I really try, I swear."

She wasn't making much sense, but she didn't have to.

"Did they hurt you? Hit you?"

"No! No, nothing like that. No, not hitting me, I just..."

With a sigh, I put my hand on her shoulder, and I was glad to see she didn't flinch. Nothing physical, then. That I would have recognized. But the way she was talking, she either didn't know how to explain what was going on, or didn't want to. Whatever it was, I wasn't sending her back in if she didn't want to go; as in really didn't want, not I don't want I'm throwing a silly tantrum.

"Aliana. I'm here with a whole squad of marines. You say the word, and we'll extract you in ten seconds flat, no questions asked." I smirked at her surprised reaction. "But it'll be easier if I go in there and try to explain things instead. Okay?"

"O-okay," she answered, nodding.

"Wait here," I said. I tapped her shoulder and got out of the transport. The marines immediately took a step back, which made me chuckle internally. You wouldn't expect it, but marines are worse about gossip than old ladies playing Bridge.

"I've tried so hard, I really have!"

I looked at the woman with unsympathetic eyes. Carol. Ten minutes of her had been enough to gauge the bitch. Between the constant appeal to her martyrdom, the way she was shouting at her son, and the way that weak piece of shit Edgar was letting her mistreat his own kid like that? Yeah, I was having a hard time keeping a straight face. I had been standing at parade rest the whole time, because if I sat down, I was sure I wasn't going to be able to stay still.

And I thought I had had it bad. When I saw the kid's face, Thomas, when he finally bolted out of the room, fleeing the shouts from his mother, I wanted to go to her and smack her in the face.

"I understand," I said, trying to gauge just how thick I was going to have to lay it. "It really is a difficult position."

"How can she say she doesn't want to come back?" she snapped. She looked at me, and while I carefully schooled my face to complete neutrality (something I do have a lot of training in situations like that), the look I was giving her was probably eloquent enough. So, she changed track, in a way that would have been uncanny if I hadn't seen it before. "We love her, we want her to be happy, give her a home..."

And I'm the freaking Primarch.

"Unfortunately, it is not unexpected," I said, going for the truck full of manure kind of thickness, as I laid the bullshit down. "After Mindoir, all the children are having trouble readjusting to normal life. I had hoped Shepard would be able to find stability with a normal family," normal, hah! "but it may not be possible."

"But-"

"I know," I said, going for a dose of victimisation feeding. "It can be hard for the family too, I can't imagine what it'd be like to welcome someone into your family and have them leave like that, but it may be for the best."

She looked at me, and for a moment I thought she knew what I was up to. On the other hand it was a good point I had raised. I swear I saw the mental calculation going on behind her eyes, and I had to sit tight and hope she bit. Just go for the juicy morsel.

Of course, I did have a whole squad of marines. I could probably get Shepard spaceside without anyone in Eden Prime having a prayer of stopping us.

It was all pretty obvious. Nonetheless, she might bite, that's what I hoped. Just imagine all the sympathy you'll be able to garnish.

After a few seconds, she sighed, and I knew it was down hook, line, and sinker. It was a matter of reeling her in.

"I so wanted to help her," she said.

"She may yet come around and realize what she had here. But it's probably best for now if you were to part ways," I said, with a sigh.

"I suppose..."

I straightened up, and while I didn't give her a salute, I expected my demeanour made it clear the conversation was over. Edgar hadn't said a word, and even now he was just looking at me, I wasn't not sure why. I nodded at Carol and stepped out.

As I was making my way out of the house, I saw Thomas peering at me from upstairs, his head stuck between the bars of the handrail. I looked back at the living room, saw that Carol and Edgar were busy talking – loudly, and steadily climbing in volume – and gestured for him to come down.

He looked surprised, but complied nonetheless.

"Listen kid," I said, glancing at the two morons in the living room.

"I'm not a kid!" he protested. "I'm almost fourteen!"

"Good," I replied. "Look, don't do anything stupid." I pointed at those two with my thumb. "You're going to have to put up with those two for now, but don't let them get to you. Once you turn eighteen you can tell them to piss off and go live your own life."

He didn't answer, he just kept his eyes fixed on me, open wide. As if he had never heard something like this from anyone.

"Keep your head down until then. And as I said, don't do anything stupid. Okay? If you want to make it out by yourself, you've got to be responsible and learn to take care of yourself." I leaned closer with a small smile on my facel. "Trust me, it's easier than you may think."

I gave him a friendly thump on the shoulder, and finally left the house. The fresh air outside had never felt so good. It was going to take some doing, but I was hoping the Alliance would have some legal help on how to untangle this mess. Tell you the truth, I was feeling pretty damn pleased with myself – Carol had played it right as I had expected.

"How'd it go?" Hark said.

"Managed to convince them to let her go," I replied, shaking my head.

"I see." He looked back towards the transport, and shook his head. "Poor girl."

There they were, the lost puppy eyes again. I tapped Hark on the shoulder and got his attention.

"Look, if you want to help, the last thing she needs is to be treated like a lost puppy." Hark looked surprised at first, but that changed quickly to pissed off. I raised my hand in a calming gesture. "I know you've got good intentions. Heck, that's how I treated her at first too. But what she really needs is to be treated like normal, okay? She fucking hates the pitying looks."

Hark looked at me fixedly for a couple of seconds, then nodded. "Okay."

"Thank you... sir," I added, having forgotten I was the lowest ranking member of the team, and saluted, which made him chuckle.

I stepped into the transport, where Shepard was still waiting alone. She looked at me a moment only, then quickly averted her eyes. She was sitting leaning forward, wringing her hands together.

With a deep breath, I sat down next to her.

"Okay Lana, I've had a little chat with those two. Well, with Carol." She looked at me. "First off, I'm sorry." That took her by surprise. "If I had known how much of a... nevermind, if I had known, I wouldn't have let them send you here."

She blinked, but didn't answer. She was waiting for the hammer to drop, and I didn't have any interest in letting her hang.

"Second, I've managed to convince her that it's best if you were to move out."

That did it. She breathed out with such relief I thought she was going to deflate and fold in half.

"Thank you," she muttered, sitting back and closing her eyes.

"Yeah, I've got to talk with the Captain. There's probably some legal Gordian knot we have to unravel at this point, but we'll see."

Shepard nodded, but didn't say anything. We sat in silence for a couple of minutes, the marines outside giving us some space, and probably listening too. Bunch of old ladies, as I said.

"The question is, what do we do next Lana?"

"Are you gonna send me away again?"

"Send you..."

I looked at Shepard, and she had curled up in her seat, hugging her legs to her chest and her chin on her knees. She refused to look at me, even when I leaned forward to see her face. It felt like the thoughts in my head had short circuited, because I knew what I had heard, and it didn't seem to want to make sense in there.

Shit. Did she feel like that when...

"Lana, I'm in the army. By myself. I can't take care of anyone, I can't give you a normal-"

"Normal!" she interrupted, suddenly fired up. "What"s normal? This? This is normal?" She kept gesturing; at herself, at the house, at the air, the only thing she didn't gesture to when she asked what normal was, was me. "Fine! I don't need you to take care of me! I don't need anyone! I-"

"Ali, Ali, stop," I said, making a calming gesture with my hands. She did stop, but for all the apparent spirit in her voice, she looked more scared than anything else.

What was I doing? Did she feel abandoned? Like I was pushing her away? In a way... No, I wasn't pushing her away. I wanted her to be safe, somewhere with a nice family and with a normal life. Away from-

Away.

…

So I am pushing her away.

She was still looking at me, waiting for my answer. Hoping. I just couldn't figure out what to do, I knew I'd probably screw up things for her real bad, screwing things up is what I'm best at. But... But I couldn't just leave her. If I could nudge her away from that path, from becoming Commander Shepard, from ending up the chew toy of the Galaxy, then maybe it was worth it. I had thought that I could keep her safe if I kept her away from the worst of what was to come. A normal family. A quiet life. But maybe this was for the best. I'd have to be the one to keep her safe.

Of course, if I was to do that, I'd have to do something about about the upcoming reapers. I knew I had to anyway, it was a matter of balancing the two things. Taking care of Shepard, and figuring out what to do about the war. One scarred teenager in one hand, the entire freaking galaxy in the other.

Now, however, wasn't the time for that train of thought. One scared teenager in front of me it was.

I sighed, sitting back and pressing my fingers on the bridge of my nose. There was nothing to it.

"Ground rules," I finally said. "I have to be away training, and deployments after that. I'm going to have to find you some adult supervision, okay? I can't just leave you behind on your own all the time."

"… okay."

"And you're going to have to be responsible, okay? I trust you not to do anything stupid, but you've got to be smart."

"Fine."

I finally looked at her, and she was still fixed on me with wide open eyes.

"But the most important thing, Lana, is that you can't just hide away and be alone all the time. You're going to have to make an effort, and try to have a normal social life, all right?" I made a small smile, trying to relax the atmosphere. "Or at least what passes for normal these days, for the two of us."

Unfortunately, my attempt at levity didn't have the desired effect. In fact, it didn't seem to have any effect at all. All I managed to get out of Shepard was a nod. I sighed and put my hand on her shoulder.

"Look, we'll figure it out. Just remember that I'll be there for you no matter what."

I had to wait for a couple of seconds before she answered. "Promise?"

"I promise. No matter what. I did come, didn't I?"

She nodded, and leaned back on the seat, eyes closed. I saw one of the marines discreetly peeking in, so I gave him a nod, and like clockwork, the rest of the squad moved in. They were all chatting animatedly, about the exercise, about the upcoming leave... just a bunch of marines, laughing and exchanging smack talk. Hark gave Shepard a wink with a big grin on his face, and turned to me.

"So, Jinx, hows the face?"

"Uh... Still ugly?" I offered, not having a clue what he was aiming at.

He chucked and shook his head. "I have to say, that wasn't the most graceful landing I've seen."

"Hey, it was my first time! I didn't even get any instructions!" I protested, but tried to keep my tone light. I really wasn't much for mutual put-downs and similar banter, but I saw what he was trying to do.

"Really."

"Uh-huh. So what about you, how was your first time, huh?"

"Landed on my ass," Hark deadpanned. "Much more elegant."

The transport filled up with amused chuckles, including my own, much to my surprise. Then Fernand started fiddling with his omni-tool, and a moment later all of ours pinged to announce a new transmission. I raised mine and looked at the file. It was a cam recording.

I have a bad feeling about this.

It turned out to be a cam recording from his point of view as we approached the landing zone. Err, I mean, the dropout zone. He announced our arrival, broke the news gently that we were going to jump, then kicked my ass.

"You son of a biiiiiiiiitch..." my voice echoed. "You're fuckin-"

"Shit!" I said, quickly shutting the transmission off.

It was for naught, because Hark resumed it from his omni-tool, and I was treated to a mirrored view of my less than graceful trip and landing. As well as a pretty good replay of my whole repertoire of curses.

"Wait, wait, is that even anatomically possible?" Ferdinand said, after one of my more colorful descriptions.

"Wanna find out?" I retorted, annoyed. Next to me, I felt Shepard start sniggering. "Yeah, laugh it up kid. One day you'll try it, and you'll find the recording from your first jump all over the extranet."

"I'll make you proud," Shepard replied, still laughing. She leaned forward and looked at my face. "But it'll be hard to top that."

"Jesus H. Christ on an oyster-encrusted pogo stick!" the recording shouted.

Yeah, I laughed. So did everyone else. For once, I didn't mind if others were having a laugh at my expense. One look at Shepard and a simple thought came to mind.

Totally worth it.

It had been a hell of a long day. I had gone straight into the Einstein from boot camp – with a mere four hours of travel, where I didn't sleep at all – then I was treated to ten hours straight of the sniping course, and then seven hours of beating around the bush – literally – looking for Shepard. I was still keyed up high, since I was with her, but I was positively exhausted.

Problem was, there was a time difference. We were orbiting Eden Prime, and as regulations stated, we had synced our operations clock to the standard zero meridian of the colony. That meant it was the middle of the fucking day.

And that meant I had training to do.

Once we were aboard, we were greeted by none other than captain Kishi herself. We all snapped to attention as soon as she walked in, while Shepard herself stood ramrod straight. More out of surprise than anything else.

"Eight hours of search, what took so long?" she said.

A few of us exchanged looks, but nobody dared speak.

"Well, you can tell me later. Recruit Morgan, with me for a full report."

"Yes sir!"

She then walked up to Shepard and looked at her straight in the eye. I saw Aliana shift nervously on her feet, but she didn't break eye contact. Good girl.

"You must be Aliana Shepard."

"Y-yes!"

"Good. Welcome aboard. I am captain Aino Kishi. You're aboard a military vessel, so I expect you to mind your manners and follow orders."

"Yes. T-thank you."

"Gomes!"

"Sir!" a female private replied. I didn't turn to look at her and she what she looked like, but I thought I knew who it was. A tanned, dark-haired Hispanic woman from one of the squads that had been part of the search.

"Show Shepard to her bunk, then medbay. I want a full checkup on her."

"Yes sir!"

"Morgan," she added, and without another word, she turned and walked off, followed by a couple of marines.

I was about to follow when Shepard stopped me, grabbing my arm tightly.

"Where are you going? Are you going to leave me here?"

"Hey Ali, it's okay. I told you, I'm here with a full squad of marines." I tried to smile as reassuringly as possible. "This is as safe as it gets for anyone. I'll go find you once we're done."

"W-what..." she hesitated, but ended up just nodding.

"Great. See you in a bit."

I ruffled her hair a bit more than it was, and took off after the captain. I was expecting we'd go up to the bridge, but instead, the lift stopped one level up, and we took a long walk towards her quarters. Once we were there, the two marines stopped and stood at their post outside, and the captain gestured for me to get in.

"At ease," she said, taking her chair and leaving me to stand in front of her.

The room was tiny: a terminal, a single chair, and a narrow cot hanging off the wall at the back. I'd have thought that, given the size of the freaking ship, the captain would have slightly more luxurious accommodations, but much like the rest of the space, it was all prime real estate. Not an inch was wasted.

I obeyed the order and stood at parade rest.

"So, I heard it all from lieutenant Zabaleta," she said. A small smile appeared on her face. "She's got guts."

"That she does, sir."

"What I am curious about is why she is our new passenger," Kishi said.

"Ah, that..."

Kishi caught my hesitation, and gave me the same small smile. It was almost as if she had to make an effort to show that much emotion.

"You won't get far with sergeant Baker with that attitude, Jinx. Shoulders back, head held high, and speak as soon as ordered to!"

That got me by surprise, because it was exactly what the drill sergeant kept yelling at me every time I hesitated. Usually followed by pushups. As a result, the response was almost automatic.

"Sir, yes sir!" It took me a blink for my brain to start up again. "Are you acquainted with my drill sergeant, sir?"

"I graduated from Greyhound Camp too, Jinx. I still go back from time to time," she said. "So, our new guest," she finished, obviously considering the matter closed.

"After ten minutes in the house talking with her adoptive parents, it was clear they were completely unsuited to take care of a goldfish, nevermind Shepard or their own biological son. Sir."

"Is that your professional opinion?"

"No, just one borne out of experience, sir."

"I see." She leaned back on her chair, and put her elbows on the armrests. Thinking. "So what do you intend to do?"

"I convinced her that she'd get extra drama points if she were to release custody of Shepard, so I expect I will have to find a lawyer and untangle the mess. Although I don't even know where to start, sir."

"You start with the corps' legal aid, recruit. That's what they're there for."

"Yes sir!"

"Now, back to the range. Dismissed."

I saluted and turned, but before I could open the door, the captain stopped me.

"Oh, and Roy..."

"Sir?"

"Thank you for the message."

I took me a second to realize what she meant: the message I sent her about the rest of the kids from Mindoir. I nodded, and made my way out, not at all surprised when the two marines standing outside leaned back as soon as the door opened.

I thought the door was soundproof.

Hiding my smile, I made my way towards the lift, and down to the medbay. Took a while, not just because of the slow lift, but also because the carrier was pretty big, and most of the crew was on shore leave. So it took a while until I could get directions.

Of course, by the time I got there, Shepard and Gomes were gone. Luckily I knew they had gone to the mess hall, which was where I finally found them. I grabbed myself a tray of grub, and kept an eye on the timer. I had to wolf it down in about five minutes.

Not a problem.

"Well here you are, how did it go?" I said, sitting myself down with the tray and going at it with the stupid nutrient paste. Gods above it tasted awful.

"Nada," Gomes replied. "She's a tough cookie."

Shepard gave her a baleful gaze, and then looked at me eating the paste. She had a tray of her own, and looked like she had barely touched it. She had had a chance to clean up, and get a fresh set of fatigues to wear.

"Lana, you gotta eat," I said. She gave me a look, but didn't say anything. So, I continued, after swallowing another mouthful. "You know, it's tradition that army food has to be bad. It keeps the soldiers in a bad mood. For what I heard, the Roman empire had the worst food in history for their cabbage stew and things like that." I swallowed for effect, which made Shepard grimace.

"Come on, you have to get something in you, nena," Gomes said.

I finished my food. Yeah, two minutes flat for about half my daily calorie intake. Easy when the concentrated slop has nothing but nutrients. "Well, I'll leave you on Gomes' capable hands. I've got a date."

That got Shepard's attention, which made Gomes start laughing. "Jinx, you better not let the range master hear that!"

"What can I say, I'm a charmer," I replied. I stood up and grabbed my tray. "What's your plan now?"

"Oh, we'll go find you later," Gomes said.

I gave her a grateful smile and a nod, and winked at Shepard before taking off. I really had no more time to spend with them, and the last thing you want to do at camp (which is where I was at, no matter the location) is to be late to something.

Legging it hard to the range, I managed to get there about ten seconds before Lt. Zabaleta did. And it looked like the range master was expecting him.

"On your belly, Jinx," Zabaleta said. "Let's see what you've learned."

Off we went again. I unfolded the rifle and got into position, keeping my eye on the lights at the back of the range. My HUD synced with the range, giving me the 3D holographic targets, and we were off to the races. Twenty-one out of twenty-four targets, that was the benchmark. They started appearing, with my HUD and scope giving me firing solutions as I started chasing them.

Eighteen out of twenty-four.

Fuck!

"What the hell is this?" Zabaleta said. I winced in anticipation to the verbal beatdown I was about to get, but when I turned around it was the range master who he was giving the dressing down. "I gave you one specific task! One recruit!"

The hell? It isn't his fault, it's mine!

"Sir, I-"

"I don't remember addressing you, recruit!" Zabaleta snapped. "Maybe some pushups will shut your mouth. Now!"

Sigh.

So, I went at it while Zabaleta chewed up the range master. Which was really not a good thing for two reasons. First, I was the one screwing up. Second, it was a guarantee the range master was going to turn it around on me as soon as Zabaleta was done.

And so he did. I think was doing sets of push ups in between every single exercise. And let me tell you, when your arms are starting to feel like wet noodles, it's very hard to aim.

I was vaguely aware that Gomes had brought Shepard to the range. As it turns out, there aren't a lot of things one can do for fun aboard a military ship. So, other than watching me screw up and learn, there wasn't much else for them to do – so Gomes started giving Shepard some basic lessons with the pistol.

No, I wasn't happy about that. In the back of my mind, I still had this plan to steer Shepard clear of the military, and that wasn't helping. My behing in the military wasn't helping. What the hell was I going to do? I had seven more weeks of bootcamp, and in that time... What? I still had to figure out the legal Gordian knot, nevermind what we were going to do next.

So those thoughts really didn't help with the sniping either. And it was all sniping, sniping, sniping! Sure, we did drills with the assault rifle and the shotgun, too, but sniping was what I was the worst at. I had already hit the marine standards with the shotgun, and I usually hit it with the assault rifle too – consistency was what I had to work on there – but fucking sniping...

I realized a few hours later that Shepard and Gomes were gone, shortly before the range master released me. Unfortunately I didn't have time to find them, because I had one more thing in my to-do list before I was free to go to bed and sleep (and ye gods, but I needed that). The sparring mats. I still had training to do there, although I wasn't sure how I was going to do it.

As it turned out, Shepard and Gomes were there, too. Whether it was Shepard's idea, or Gomes', apparently they had decided to shadow me the rest of the day.

So Gomes was in her gym clothes, helping Shepard stretch on one of the mats. There were about a dozen of them, set up inside one of the hangars. Real estate was quite precious inside the carrier, so it was just a temporary affair that could only be set in place when not in operations. And it was our responsibility to pack them away in less than three minutes if an operation call came through.

"Jinx!" I heard someone call.

I followed the voice, to find a familiar face at the other end. A tall male marine, with blonde hair, bushy eyebrows, and a bulbous nose with a scar running through it. The name came immediately to mind, even though I hadn't seen him since Mindoir. Richard Jameson.

"Yes sir!" I replied.

"Come on, your ass is mine for the next two hours," he said, and I saw he was fighting to keep a smile from breaking through his lips. He tossed the headguard and a pair of gloves at me, and I managed to catch them mid-air no problem.

I remembered Jameson as being this really big, really strong marine, and I have to say, I didn't remember it wrong. The guy was two inches taller than me, and absolutely solid. And I had to spar with him?

Bloody hell.

So, he was fast too. And did I mention how freaking huge? It wasn't just all that, there was quite a definite intimidation factor there. At one point he just held his guard, feinting every now and then, just waiting for me to make a move, and finally stopped to inform me that it had been a whole minute and I hadn't made a single move.

"What's wrong?" he said, throwing an easy jab to check if I was paying attention.

"Just... I can't see a way to get in," I replied after dodging.

"That never stopped you before. Hell, you punched my damn helmet when I had you pinned on the ground, back on Mindoir!" He threw more punches with that, forcing me to curl into my guard. He was right on top of me when he whispered next. "How are you going to protect her like this, huh?"

I was so shocked that I nearly fell down when he pushed me back.

"Come on! Show me something else!" Jameson shouted, going hard at it again.

Funny how things work. I tried my hardest to step it up, and Jameson wasn't really going easy on me. Every time I pushed forward he was ready to drop some punishment on me, all while shouting at me to keep at it. It shouldn't have been so different from the trainers back at bootcamp, but somehow, it was.

But it wasn't the words, or his attitude that pushed me. It was what happened a few minutes after that. A sudden yell coming from a few mats away. That's not particularly unusual while on a sparring session, but it was that it took me a moment to realize it was Shepard's.

"Lana?" I called, only to end up with a punch to my face.

"Pay attention Jinx!" Jameson shouted.

Shepard yelled again.

"Shepard!" I called.

Without missing a beat, Jameson stepped right in front of me, not letting me through. "You want to get to her, you have to go through me."

I don't know who started it. I shoved him, he shoved me, and then I just couldn't see anything else. Just him. And I was pissed. Specially at the cocky smirk he had on his face. I kept going at him, and on every exchange, he kept getting the best of me. He'd punch me, throw me, or take me down. Several times, I don't know how many. I wasn't even counting. All I saw was that he was standing between me and Aliana.

With one final exchange, I managed to sidestep one of his punches, grab his arm, and follow through with a basic pull and throw. I was so wired that I didn't have time to be surprised at how I had managed to do an overhead throw of what appeared to be a two hundred and fifty pound man, but there you go. As soon as he fell to the ground, I turned around and went straight towards the mat where Shepard and Gomes had been.

"What the hell happened?" I said as I ran towards them.

Shepard was sitting on the ground to the side, with one of the doctors fussing over her arm. By the look on her face, it had to hurt like crazy.

"She took a bad fall," Gomes said, with a small smile on her face.

"I heard two screams," I replied, eyeing her suspiciously.

"Yeah, first one was her falling, second one was me yanking the bone back in place."

I still didn't see what was so funny. I knelt on the ground next to Shepard, who was wincing as the doctor immobilized her arm.

"Hey Ali, you okay?" I said. "Uh, right, stupid question. I mean-"

"I'm fine," she replied, interrupting. "I'm fine."

"Clean fracture," the doctor added, pakcing up. "I'll have her up and running in no time."

"Good," I replied, putting my hand on her shoulder. She gave me a quick look, and she looked... embarrassed? Why? "Nothing to be ashamed of Lana, you should see all the tumbles I've taken in the last five weeks."

She nodded, and I helped her up. Unfortunately I couldn't go with her to the medbay, so when the doctor led her away, Gomes slapped me on the back before going after them.

"I don't think she knows how to take it easy. She's going to be a kickass marine."

"God I hope not," I replied, which only made her laugh.

"Trust me Jinx, you ain't keeping that girl down!" she exclaimed, and went off after them.

Dammit.

I walked off back towards my mat, where Jameson was waiting with a cocky smile on his face.

"See, kid? You can do it when you want to," he said, throwing a friendly jab that I could easily dodge.

I guess I can.

Author's Notes: So, I bet everyone saw that coming. There's things one cannot change no matter what, call it fate. But if there's one thing I'd try to change in this situation, is keeping Shepard out of the military. Seriously, just look at all the crap everyone puts on her shoulders. Fuck 'em. Get a trained monkey to fire the crucible and be done with it!

Now we'll have to wait and see if I'm capable of it.

And damn, but this ended up being a seriously long chapter! Next chapter will be a little... different. So many things still to come. It's more than a decade until the games' timeline comes about, so yeah, expect a lot of different stuff.

And reviews time! Thanks so much for all the reviews and support. Big grin! - :D

Michae1ange1o, I've always referred to the Alliance guns as a waste of perfectly good omni-gel!

DrStache, well spotted, my eagle eyed friend! For everyone else, you will soon be treated to the crazy personality of Patrick Magroyn... Dun dun DUN!

Mizuki00, sorry, I kinda had to, that was exactly what would go through my mind under the circumstances. I'm a glass-half-empty kind of person! But now Shepard's back with Roy, at least for the time being.

Toothless is best, worry not, we haven't seen the last of you! =) Ship-wise, it may actually happen, we'll see.

Archer83, no need to apologize my good sir, I really appreciate all reviews, never look at it as an obligation please! Took a different turn between Thomas and LAna, but that isn't the last we'll read about them two. Actions have consequences, and so will Roy's. So far, he's mostly relieved, he can't stay mad at Lana :D

Mikle Silver, yeah, it won't be easy. Possible, but I expect some wrenches will be thrown in the way. You'll understand very quickly once Roy leaves camp and starts working on the more important mission of stopping the reapers :)

general-joseph-dickson, thanks!

So we've seen the changes, and now Roy has finally stepped up and understood what Shepard wanted. Will it be like this forever? Surely not, there's unbreakable steel inside Shepard, and Roy'll have his work cut out for him if he wants a hope to stay her course. Stay tuned, because next chapter is going to be a crazy ride!