Dear Ali,

If you're reading this, it means that my plan has gone horribly wrong. Either that, or you've decided to go ahead and look at this letter anyway. Given that I'm not going to give you this letter unless you promise not to look yet, and that I know you wouldn't break that promise, I'm going to go with the "horribly wrong" option.

I didn't tell you where I was going, precisely because I want you to be able to honestly say you didn't know. The stuff I know that got me killed is not going to be in this letter. In the greater scheme of things it doesn't really matter. What matters is that it didn't work as I had hoped, and it means everything's going to fall on your shoulders now.

To be honest, I'm not even sure where to start. I've gotten a great deal of information I can't really explain the origin of, information of things that are about to come, and it's going to sound abso-fucking-lutely crazy. But it's true. It's all true.

Guess I could start with the very beginning. The protheans.

Our entire galaxy works on technology taken from the protheans, taken from ruins and caches of information left behind after their disappearance, some 50,000 years ago. Common wisdom has it that the protheans dominated the entire galaxy and built the entire relay network. Well, that's a lie.

The relays are much, much older than that. They were built... I'm not entirely sure when, millions of years ago at the very least. Maybe a billion years ago. The important thing about them is that they are a trap. They were created by an ancient race of machines the protheans called the Reapers.

The Reapers were the ones who destroyed the protheans. Every 50,000 thousand years they reappear from deep space, destroy all spacefaring civilizations, and leave. They are the ones who destroyed the protheans, 50,000 thousand years ago. Each Reaper is an AI, made into one fucking gigantic ship two kilometers in size, with weapons, shields, and armor that completely outmatches anything we currently have.

And they're coming back.

For most of the 50,000 years, the Reapers stay dormant in deep space. They operate in a very systematic fashion: They wipe out the previous civilizations, leave behind a few bits of technology for the new races of the "cycle" to find and learn the technology from, and leave behind a few booby traps of their own. The way they've set up things, they make sure any new race "learns" the technology they have left behind, thus ensuing the Reapers have the technological edge.

To make sure they're completely victorious, there's something else they do: Indoctrination.

I don't know how it works, if it's nanotechnology, synthetic brainwaves, or what the fuck it is. Indoctrination is how the Reapers turn organics to their side. It's like brainwashing on steroids. People who come in contact with Reaper technology lose their minds, and start to work for the Reapers without even realizing they're doing it. Reaper technology is all over the freaking Galaxy, making sure they have sleeper agents inside any organic race that comes to power during the cycles.

If this all sounds crazy, you haven't heard the best part yet. The reason the Reapers do this is because of how they... reproduce, I guess. Each Reaper is not a pure synthetic AI, they are made of a combination of synthetic and organic components. The synthetic part is fabricated. The organic part is the countless civilizations that the Reapers have destroyed before ours. They can take the organics they defeat, even the ones they kill, and turn them into monsters, a mix of organic and synthetics. Foot soldiers for the war. If they get enough, and they are compatible, they create new reapers out of the combination of billions of organics.

When they come, they will come through the heart of the relay network. The Citadel. The Citadel is a trap, a mass relay that connects our galaxy to the deep space where the Reapers sleep, and it can be used to shut down the entire freaking relay network down. I don't have to tell you how that'd cripple us. The Reapers always leave behind a way to be awoken. As far as I know, there are two Reapers active in the galaxy, called Nazara and Harbinger.

Nazara is the one in charge of getting the Reapers back here. It'll eventually come for the Citadel, with a fleet of Geth with it. Yeah, I'm not joking. The geth haven't left the Perseus Veil until now, but some of them (only some of them) think the reapers are some kind of mechanical gods, so they'll join with Nazara. And possibly a Spectre called Saren Arterius. This'll all go down in about 10 years, give or take. Keep your eyes open.

I should mention, the rest of the geth don't really give a toss about the galaxy. As far as they're concerned, all they want to do is be left alone, and possibly wait for the quarians to come back. I'm not even sure if it'll be possible to convince the quarians that the geth don't want to kill them anymore, but that's what it is.

Harbinger is in charge of the Collectors. If you look it up there ain't much on them out there. They are the remnant of the protheans, morphed into bio-mechanical slaves for the Reapers. They've got a base in the centre of the galaxy that can only be accessed through the Omega-4 relay, and the technology to start building Reaper ships if they have to. Whoever messes with Nazara is going to have a big honking target on their backs, and let me tell you, the Collectors are pretty fucking dangerous. Their ships have Reaper tech, they can find stealth ships no problem, and their guns can tear through anything but dreadnoughts without batting an eyelash. The only way to get to their base is for a ship to have a Reaper IFF to identify itself as a Reaper. Otherwise, the Omega-4 will tear whatever ship goes through it to shreds. There's millions of ancient ships on the other side of that relay.

You notice I have said 50,000 years a lot. As I understand it, we were already due to get a visit from the Reapers. The only reason it didn't happen was because of the protheans. A remnant of the protheans stayed behind in cryosleep in a world called Ilos, only accessible through the Mu relay. It was a research station, where the protheans were studying the Mass Relay technology. They built a prototype, a small relay that connects their base directly to the Citadel (people think the miniature relay inside the Citadel is a sculpture, hilarious; now you know the truth). The few surviving protheans spent the rest of their lives trying to find a way to stop the Reapers from returning, and they kind of managed. The systems inside the Citadel were blocked by their work (they called this the conduit), and the signal for the Reapers to return was never sent.

There's still a prothean VI functional at Ilos. You'll need the location of the Mu relay to find it. The rachni knew where it was, and Binary Helix have managed to find a rachni queen egg. So that's how you find the Mu relay.

If all else fails, the Reapers will come through normal FTL travel, with a date on that: 2186. If they make it to the Alpha relay, they'll spread through the galaxy and we'll be screwed unless we're ready.

I know you must be thinking I'm fucking crazy. Trust me, I'm as sane as it gets. There's some evidence you can see for yourself. First, there's a derelict reaper on Mnemosyne, orbiting the gas giant. It's actually not hard to find, it creates a massive gravitational disturbance that's easy to pinpoint. Finding and dating it will show that Nazara isn't a geth ship. There's Ilos, find it on time and the VI will prove what I'm saying. And there's a big one, too.

There's still a living, non-indoctrinated prothean out there. He's in cryostasis in an underground facility on Eden Prime. I don't know exactly where, somewhere close to either the current spaceport, or wherever they're planning to build a new one, or expand it. His name is Javik. He's a bit of an ass, but he's the second biggest asset the galaxy has.

This is all the bad news, but I have some good news. There is a way to stop the reapers which doesn't involve everyone dying. The reapers took over 200 years to wipe out the protheans, and in that time, they worked tirelessly to come up with ways to fight them. They created a superweapon, building over the work of previous civilizations, called the Crucible. It taps onto the centre of the Citadel and the AI which lives there – the one that created the original Reapers – and can be used to destroy the reapers, and all synthetic life in the galaxy. It'll also blow up the relay network. That's a last resort weapon, but it can be used.

The designs for the weapon are deep in the Mars prothean beacon. Javik won't be able to help you much with that, but at least he speaks prothean. I mean, duh.

…

Okay, I'm hoping I still have enough of your trust that you won't think me insane. The next question is why I'm telling you all this, or, rather, why I'm telling you all this the way I am. I'm afraid that, if I'm dead, it's all going to fall on you. I left to try and convince some people who I thought had the pull to make the galaxy get their asses in line. The worst case scenario is this, though I left mostly thinking they'd either kick me out or have me committed. Anyway, that's life.

When you told me you were going to join the army, I told you I didn't want that for you. That's because, as I said, all this will fall on your shoulders. When I told you that you were going to be great, I wasn't kidding. You can make it as far as you can imagine. You have the potential to be the first human Spectre, and I'm telling you this because I know you'll work just as hard even if I tell you. It's going to have to be us, humans, who stand between the Reapers and the galaxy. The council races are too invested in the status quo to really believe something like that. I have some hope for the Turians, if you can unearth enough evidence and show them, but don't count on it. If it's us, it'll have to be the best of us who leads. And that'll be you, Ali.

...

There's some more things for you to look out for. I hope I'm not forgetting anything.

First, Saren Arterius is the first one you'll have to be wary of. He came into contact with Reaper tech long ago, and as far as I know, he's indoctrinated to the hilt. If he's made contact with Nazara, he'll be leading the geth army with it.

Second, there is an organization called Cerberus. The leader is one Illusive Man, better known as Jack Harper. He, too, is indoctrinated to the hilt. He's a xenophobic human supremacist, and he's convinced that he can control the reapers and move humanity to the top of the totem pole in the galaxy. He's wrong, and all he'll do is hand over the galaxy to the Reapers on a silver platter. He's got resources like you wouldn't believe. Given the chance, he can put together a hell of a fleet to stand up to the major powers. Not only that, but he's got people everywhere, including the Systems Alliance military.

Third, the Collectors will come for you too. When they make their move, you're going to have to be prepared. Don't just go scampering off on your own with a poorly armed ship until they have been dealt with.

Fourth, the Alpha Relay is the back door to the galaxy for the Reapers. Even though they'll eventually come for us through normal FTL travel, this relay can spread them out and give them the control of the relay network. If it comes to that, don't hesitate to destroy it.

Fifth, you won't be on your own. There are two people I know you can trust. One is David Anderson, N7 and all around badass. The other is Steven Hacklett, who I can tell you will make it far in the military.

Sixth, well, it's going to be an uphill battle to convince the galaxy that the reapers are real. It may come to pass that only when they're breathing down their metaphorical necks they'll come to you. If that happens, you'll still have the Crucible in your back pocket.

Finally, I don't know what else I've left out, because I can't think straight. Ever since Mindoir all I've been trying to do is find a way for you to not end up shouldering all this. For the longest time all I thought was that if you could be shown that you could still have a somewhat normal life, you'd take it. But that's not you, and now I have to figure something else out. If I'm honest, I was also stalling. Between just the patrol duty I've been running, and having you back home, it was a bit like a life I could get used to. But now it's time to get moving. Seems like my idea wasn't too brilliant, so I've left you this letter as, hopefully, a way for things to go better for you in the future.

So, that's all I have. Fucking crazy and confusing, I know. And I've been sitting here for an hour trying to think how to close this letter. Maybe I'm overthinking it.

Take care Ali.

Roy.-

I put down the paper and looked at it, leaving the pen aside. Pen and paper. This was something I didn't trust to any electronic device in the Mass Effect universe. Every fucking thing in the galaxy seemed to have an open port for the extranet. I mean, a good enough tech could fucking hack the VI of a gun. Why the hell does a gun need extranet access anyway? As soon as I realized how stupidly connected everything was, I had wiped the omni-tool where I had previously taken my Mass Effect notes, after studying them over and over to make sure I didn't forget anything important.

I had forgotten a few things over time.

With a mental sigh, I went over draft twelve of the letter. It was a really shitty letter, to be honest, marginally better than draft eleven. Explain the reapers, the Citadel, the Crucible, and then a few notes on the main plot of the games. I had every intention of warning Shepard about all the possible backstory events to come – Elysium, Torfan, and specially Akuze – but the other stuff I preferred not to mention. I had left a few things out on purpose, things she was better off not knowing just yet.

Then again, if I knew what was going to go down, did I really have a right not to tell her?

On to draft thirteen. Drafts one to eleven, since I couldn't burn them without setting off some hideous alarms, had met their demise by being reduced to paper paste with judicious use of water.

Before I could start scribbling anything, the bedroom door of the apartment opened, and out walked Shepard. She was still uneasy on her feet, but at least she was up. She had been positively sick ever since she got the gene mods, which really shouldn't have surprised me. She got five.

It was a kit made by DoubleHelix, a company I hadn't heard of. It came with the standard alliance two-mod kit, plus three extra ones they claimed were completely compatible with each other and the alliance ones. Five total. Highest available in the open market.

The problem was, the five mods meant five groups of retroviruses hammering her liver. Normal retroviruses (or all viruses, for the matter) work in a very straightforward fashion: They have a tissue or cell type they target, when they find it they go in, reproduce, and then leave when the cell's practically bursting with them. But because gene mods are supposed to not kill you on their way to making you a super-soldier, they don't just burst your muscle cells, neurons, or assorted paraphernalia they target. When they enter the target cell, they simply integrate and that's it.

But to get enough viral load for it to happen, they need to reproduce, and they use liver cells to do that. Giving you enough viral load through IVs would cost millions and millions of credits, and would be a waste, too.

And Shepard's liver not only got hammered by all the mods, but one of them – toxic environment adaptation – targeted the actual liver. That one mod was made so that the liver could process a whole lot of toxins it would normally not be able to cope with. It was a nasty mod by itself, and I don't know who thought it was a good idea for it to come in a kit. The other two were hemoenhancers (a mod targeting the blood, including the immune system, oxygen transport*, and clotting) as well as raptor eyes (creates a pecten-like structure in the eye, as well as a second fovea, which develops over time). All in all it looked great on paper, but she spent the whole first day in the ICU.

And I spent the whole first day in a state. The doctor ended up giving me the choice of leaving or taking some horse-strength valium. No third option of just staying and calming down, and he outranked me so he could pretty much do whatever the hell he wanted. I ended up in a valium haze while looking up information on DoubleHelix – including where the headquarters were – and fantasizing about how I was going to murder everyone in there in a very painful way, should anything happen to Shepard.

For the last five days she hadn't been able to take anything solid. Good thing I had a good repertoire of hearty and nutritious soups. My ginger and miso soup is the dog's bollocks when you're sick.

It's all about the broth.

"Up already?" I said, looking at the unsteady young woman.

"I have to," she replied, stumbling towards the cryo unit and pulling an Astro-fizz out. Damn sugary drinks. "I have a shuttle to catch."

"What? Wasn't it a week?"

She fell heavily on the other side of the sofa, and cracked the drink open. It hissed angrily, and she had to twist it closed to avoid getting showered.

"It starts in a week, I have to fly before then," she explained.

… duh.

I looked at the table. Dammit. Draft twelve it was.

"What's that?" she said.

"This," I said, taking the paper and folding it in three parts, "is a letter."

"… okay?" she offered tentatively.

"It's for you, but I need you to promise me something." I waited, and she gestured with her chin for me to go on. "You can't read it yet."

She didn't say anything, but her face was eloquent enough. You have to be kidding me, I'm not in the mood for this shit.

"Look, I'm about to go do something potentially very dangerous. If it goes horribly wrong..." I rose the folded letter and shook it.

"And you're not going to tell me?" she said, not making to take the letter I was offering.

"You're better off not knowing yet," I replied.

"Not... really?" she said, her voice edging up. "Says who? Maybe I should have a say in my own damn life for once!"

"Lana!" I snapped. "Dammit, just... I'm just asking you not to, okay? Just this once can you just listen?"

"Just this once?" she said. "And what the hell, you think I'm still a kid or something? I'm joining the freaking army!"

"Of course you are, that's nothing to do with it!"

She was going to say something else, but she just stopped and looked away. Thinking. After a few seconds, she just huffed and snapped up the letter, folding it in half.

"Fine."

I admit, I was a little annoyed. Without further ado, Shepard got up, fell on her butt on the sofa again, then stood up more slowly, heading for the bathroom. Too small space in the room. Me? I had another shuttle to catch, but not for another three days.

"The Prothean Extinction, Recurring Folly of Large Civilizations?"

An open talk by Doctor Liara T'soni.

I always wanted to go to Thessia. Maybe I could do something about the Reapers razing it to the ground.

Shepard had not expected her entry into the Systems Alliance military to be particularly glamorous, but this was worse than she expected. She was feeling sick, irritable, and looking at the queue standing by the gate, the trip was going to be cramped and miserable.

"I'd give you some advice, but there's nothing I can tell you that the Drill Sergeants won't tell you louder and more often," Roy said, putting an easy smile on.

How the hell did he do it? They were shouting at each other not an hour ago inside the apartment, and now he was smiling and making light banter.

And what was she doing? Grunting at him in annoyance.

"I'll be fine," she said.

"I know."

Damn him!

She fought the stupid, irrational urge to snap back at him, instead choosing to tap her pocket. Yeah, the letter was still there. Paper letter, where in the galaxy had he gotten that idea? Sometimes she wondered about him.

Who uses paper in this day and age?

"Keep it secret, keep it safe," he whispered in her ear.

She looked at him like he had lost his mind, because given the grin he was giving her, he obviously thought it was the funniest thing ever.

"You haven't read it, have you?"

"Read what?"

"I'll send you a copy," he said with a shrug.

"Fine."

The boarding call for the shuttle came up the speakers, and the assorted menagerie of humans, turians, and even two asari, headed for the gate. Shepard stood up, shouldered her bag, and turned awkwardly to look at Roy. Damn, she hadn't thought about that part.

"All right Ali, that's you," Roy said, giving her a gentle tap on the shoulder. "Go kick ass, and keep in touch, okay?"

"Sure. Bye, Roy."

There was a tiny, awkward pause, but just as usual, Roy picked up on that. He gave her a nod, a smile, and stepped away, leaving with a slow step but without looking back.

Shepard, too, turned away to get to her queue. Even through the flight was leaving Arcturus, there was always an extra bit of security to go through when flying to Earth. It was the same when they went to Kitt's for New Year.

Joe. He had ended up with a good family. It was a strange place, felt like going home when she visited, but everything was off. Like she had crossed into a parallel dimension or something. In her reality, she had ended up with Roy.

No, scratch that, Roy had ended up with her.

The queue started moving at last. Shepard shouldered her bag again, and looked back. Roy wasn't there, of course. She was going to Earth, he was going... somewhere. He hadn't told her, for her own good he claimed.

It didn't feel right. It didn't feel right at all. Dammit, she had every right to be pissed at that! It wasn't that Roy treated her like a child, that was what had come out, but it wasn't what she had meant. He treated her like she was fragile, like she couldn't be left on her own to do-

No, that wasn't right either. He had done nothing but the opposite. He was away most of the time, and had trusted her to be on her own and be normal at that. It didn't work, but he still helped.

She was keenly aware of the folded paper in her pocket. She had every right to be angry about that little gem Roy had given her.

But she wasn't. She was scared. She was as ready as she could be to take off to Earth and join the military, she knew she was. But Roy had had to go and ruin it.

It wasn't right at all.

Without another thought, she dropped her bag and jumped out of the queue.

"What the-" the man behind her snapped.

"Sorry!" she replied, before taking off at full tilt. "I'll be back!"

She couldn't just leave like that. It wasn't right. She rushed out of the waiting room and into the busy terminal, and weaved through the people, looking for the tall marine.

"Roy!" She called. "Roy!"

He was quite a bit ahead, but his hearing had to be pretty good because he picked it up. He turned around, looking at the crowd and trying to find her.

"Roy!" she called again. She was close enough that he finally saw her.

"Lana? What's wrong?" he said. "Didn-"

She didn't let him finish, she practically crashed on him, jumping to his neck and giving him the strongest hug she could muster.

WHAT. THE. HELL!

I don't know, I think Harbinger going "assuming control" on some random passerby, then dancing a Polka, would have surprised me less than Shepard coming out of the crowd and jumping at me to give me a hug.

A hell of a hug too, it was strong enough that it took my mind a few seconds to reboot.

Shit, shit, shit! Did she open the fucking letter? I shouldn't have- No, why would she hug me if- What the hell?!

"It's not right," Shepard muttered.

…

Nope, no thoughts were getting any traction in my mind.

"What?"

"It's not right. You do everything, and I'm just... It's not right."

Okay, it was getting a little awkward, mostly because I really didn't know what the hell to do. So, I decided to return the hug (yeah, she had been hanging off my neck while I stood there like a dummy).

"It'll be fine," I said. What the hell was I supposed to say?

"I'm sorry."

…

Before I could respond, she let go of me, so I did the same. With a step back she looked me right in the eye.

"Let me help you. You can't just tell me..." she tapped her pocket. "That, and then go. I can't let you just go."

I shook my head. "Not this one, Ali." I said. "Trust me, you'll have plenty to do, but this one I've got to do myself."

She didn't respond, and we just looked at each other until another call for her shuttle boomed overhead.

"Okay," she said, and gave me another hug. Not crazy like the previous one, but there it was. I returned it. "Be careful."

"I will."

"And thank you. For everything," she whispered.

With that, she let go, and without giving me even a glance, turned around and rushed out. Well, that was her allright. She had decided to go, so she went for it.

And left me really, really confused.

Good confused, but confused.

See what I mean?

I watched the monitors until Shepard's shuttle switched to "departed", and took off towards the apartment. Given what I was about to do, I wanted to make one final phone call before I took off to Thessia.

Given that I was trying to tell a potentially indoctrinated Matriarch that I knew about the Temple of Athame and the prothean beacon down there, I was understandably nervous. I wasn't sure about the timeline, but I was hoping she wasn't indoctrinated yet. If she was, I was screwed. If she wasn't, she was the only big fish I knew who wasn't human and could maybe do something about the galaxy's apparent lethargy. At least the only one I could get to, if Liara was willing.

Or I could just be building mountains out of molehills in my head and this really wasn't so risky. I've been known to do so before.

The FTL beeped a few times before being sent to voicemail, so I left a message and went to clean up the place. It was just a few minutes before I got the call back.

"Hey Roy!" Kim greeted me from the other side.

"Hey yourself," I replied. "Hows things?"

"Good! To what do I owe the pleasure?" she replied, a goofy grin on her face.

"Oh not much, just went to say goodbye to Lana. She joined the army on her birthday."

"Uh-huh."

"… and of course you're not surprised."

"She might have mentioned it once or twice," she replied. "Were you?"

"In a way. I was hoping she wouldn't, but I guess it was like trying to stop the tide from rising."

"Oh, wow."

"What?"

"Well, I thought you'd try to blame me or something."

"Nah," I said, shaking my head. "Can't blame anyone else on this one."

"Uh-huh. So, what now?"

"Yeah, what now. I'm going to be taking a few days off."

"Oh wow, it did hit you hard."

"You could say that... There's a couple of things I've got to do, I got all the backleave I've been accumulating."

"What things?" Kim said, her smile fading. "What are you up to? You have that look on your face."

"Do I?" I said with a chuckle. "Just stuff."

"Uh-huh." She paused for a moment, looking around before talking. "Do you need backup?"

"I don't think it'll help," I replied. "But thanks. Take care Kim."

"That sounded way too final," Kim said. "I'll see you later, Roy."

"Yeah, that," I chuckled. "I'll see you later."

* Red blood cell mods: While much of the gene mods I talk about are made up (not invented, more like Sci-Fi possible, so to speak, with sufficiently advanced tech not too dissimilar to what it's currently available), that one's actually very close to possible. Research done on crocodiles shows that its hemoglobin is remarkably similar to mammalian ones. There are a few key differences that allow for a greater allosteric effect between subunits of the proteins (basically, when one of the hemoglobin molecules takes oxygen or carbon dioxide, it makes other hemoglobin molecules more affine to O2 or CO2 too), which allows crocs to hold their breath for longer. In vitro research allowed scientists to reproduce that effect with human hemoglobin with the swap of only five aminoacids. If you google "Scuba Hemoglobin" you'll find lot of info on this, it was quite remarkable.

Author's Notes: All right, shorter episode this time. This probably should have been part of the last episode, except that it would have been a little too large, hence the split. And I wanted two things: The letter to Shepard not to be lost in the middle of an episode, and for it to be a memorable moment, as both Shep and I split into separate parts.

Lots of comments on last chapter, thanks a lot! And reviews are finally showing again, why do things always break over the holidays?

One thing that's come up is the way Shepard and Roy are interacting, how Roy's taking everything too much in stride, and Shepard's constant way of lashing out. A bit like on Convergence (my other SI fic, which I explain because more people read this than Convergence) where Roy took too much shit from the rest of the team, and the rest of the team dished out too much shit. Anyway, I think it's really about pacing. I've paced the evolution of Shepard trying to cope with Mindoir probably too slow. And while a breakthough after all that can be cathartic, dragging it too much probably detract from it. Much like Roy being too passive, he's got to get more life into him.

I'll try to do a little better. In a way, it might help as I need to move things along a little faster. I've gone through one big timeskip already, there will be more as pre-game events span a whole decade of stuff. Although we'll see what's left of the game once I'm done with the pre-game.

NathanHale2: Haha, nooo! She liked a guy in school called Hector, and he slipped in an Illiad reference to let her down gently, because HIS brother liked Shepard. :)

Mizuki00: Did I overdo it this time?

Toothless: Yeah, wonder which of the two will be easier to find :)

Lfan8: Thanks for the great feedback! Yeah, as I said up there, I think I need to improve basic pacing. While big moments are great, I need to pace things better so that there is better evolution through the story. One thing here is that, for both Shep and Roy, things are going to shake up a lot more. They're now thoroughly out of their comfort zones.

Azariah, Moonman: In terms of classes, Roy's probably going to end up a groundpounder. No biotics and future tech is really not my forte. It's like being great at building steam engines, and then being asked to repair a modern hybrid car. Just doesn't work :) Regarding shipping, well, still lots of people to introduce. I'm not sure how things will go to be honest. I have moments planned regarding several potential pairs.

Caesar12: Thanks! Yeah, fic's definitely taking a turn towards changing events. I hope you have been paying attention to this chapter! And I'm about to push Roy out of his comfort zone, should be more of a rollercoaster, hehe.

Yeah, I may have kept things like that with Shep for a little too long. I wanted the moment when Shep and Roy part ways to be intense, but I should have probably paced it a bit better. Thanks for the positive feedback tho! :)

So, next time, a trip to Thessia and... Who knows where else! I'm excited! I hope you are, too. Until then, ta-ta!