Slowly but surely we're making our way to Feros and Noveria. Just stopping for some shore leave while everyone tries to figure out where the hell Saren is! :D

~Pyro

-.-.-.-

Zen woke slowly. His head hurt. "Guys?" he asked, hoping the other two were still on the comms.

"Well… that was an experience and a half, if I must say." One of them replied. His voice was mature, commanding, and had more than a hint of refined upper-class accent; it must have been Vladimir Thatch's.

"Urgh. At least you were awake for it." Kress groaned. The Frost Prime seemed severely annoyed that he'd been knocked out for the trip.

"Well we made it…" Zen muttered, getting up. Everything ached. "I think."

Outside he could see a grand space station, looking like an open-air Dojo or one of the Relays. It was big.

"What do we do now though?" Kress asked, his helmet appearing next to Thatch's on Zen's HUD. "We seem to have lost power."

"I can fix that," Thatch announced. True to his word, he Banished the Lisets again. Being in the Rift allowed them to gather the ambient energy and kick-start their systems. Thatch suspected that Tessa would have suffered an entire caboodle of problems with her Liset without a re-Banishing to help restart everything.

Zen wondered what he'd convinced himself into. Running through a Solar Rail with his Liset Banished by a Limbo (a helpful chap by the name Thatch who said he owed Tessa's mother a favour), just to find a girl he'd known ages ago. Three Tenno, an Ash, a Frost Prime, and a Limbo. Two of whom were merely in their late teenage years.

"Thanks. How do we find Tessa?" Kress asked, his Liset doing a barrel roll.

"She's quite disruptive, I heard." Thatch mused. "She's a bit of a… what did you say she was, Zen?"

"Thunder Mirage." Zen replied dully. "She figured out how to maximise the Thunderbolt mod on her Attica and… yeah. Thunder Mirage." He couldn't get it out of his head that somewhere out here Tessa was… he had no idea what she was doing. Wreaking havoc or enjoying herself, free from the wars of the Origin system, he couldn't even begin to wonder. All he knew was that he wanted to see her safe again.

"Then let us ask the natives. Perhaps they will be willing to tell us if they've found her." Thatch suggested. He had a heavy accent, and a rather posh one at that. Zen thought it might have been an old English one, but he couldn't be sure.

"What makes you think there's natives?" Zen asked, looking back at the massive space station.

"Oh, just the interceptor fighters and that blooming great cruiser over there," Thatch highlighted the ugly ship on the Cell's HUDs. "I'm not sure who designed that dreadful thing-"

"Contacts!" Kress announced, sending his Liset into a dive. The others followed his lead, ducking and diving to keep the new fighter-type ships following them from getting a lock-on.

"I'm a Stealth Ship, NOT A COMBAT POD!" Zen could hear Jems yell at Thatch. She sounded rather pissed off. Zen's own Cephalon hadn't shown any excessive emotion like that to him ever.

"Hey, that's actually a good idea." Zen realised. "Engage cloak," he ordered his Cephalon, Miana. The Liset disappeared from radar, visual, and most forms of detection that didn't involve physically hitting it. Sadly, Grineer scout ships were annoyingly competent at kamikaze runs.

Zen saw the other two Lisets… and then he didn't.

The fighters, interceptors, whatever they were ceased to follow them as soon as they'd disappeared. Obviously confused, they returned to… wherever they were before Kress had warned them that they were there.

"Fantastic! We've completely given them the slip," Thatch said, slightly mystified by how well it'd worked. "Now, in order to find our missing Mirage, we'll probably need to land."

"Where though?" Kress asked, highlighting a few areas he'd found. "This one seems the most appropriate, considering the limitations involved with Liset docking," he mentioned, zooming in on one particular area.

"Then that's where we'll start." Zen decided.

-.-.-.-

Dr. Michel had been pretty well, lately. Only a day or two ago she'd survived a hostage situation, helped save some lives, and had even found some Turian chocolate. She didn't know why she bought it, but it just came as such an odd impulse. Turians had chocolate?

So she was very surprised when three armoured humanoids phased into existence outside her medical clinic. The thing that confused her most was that they were all armoured similarly to that girl who'd helped diffuse the hostage situation. What was her name… Tessa?

She boldly approached the trio, who were all speaking some kind of gibberish. Michel didn't really expect them to speak English like the other girl had but she had to try.

"Um, excuse me?" she asked, trying to get their attention.

The one with the top hat stared at her for just long enough to make her wonder if these three were hostile. Then he raised his arms and cheered. "Oh, yes! English! Oh this is wonderful, the implications are just astounding-"

The shirtless one- at least he appeared shirtless, the entirety of his torso armour was smooth and unbroken- cleared his throat.

"Ah, yes, well." He tipped his hat to her and bowed deeply. "Vladimir Thatch, at your service," he introduced himself. Thatch was quite the charmer, he believed. "My friends and I are looking for a young girl armoured in a similar attire to us, would you happen to have any information regarding our lost fellow?"

Michel nodded. "Yes, actually. I'm Doctor Michel, I run this med clinic," she pointed to the clinic, making sure that if the trio ever needed her again they'd know where to find her. "Your friend passed through here a couple of days ago, and managed to save me from a couple of thugs."

"Ah, Tessa, fighting the good fight I see." Thatch seemed to smile heartily. He took a small disk from his sleeve and turned it on, letting a floating image of Tessa appear.

"Yes! That's her!"

The shirtless one yelled something that didn't hit the translator, looking like he wanted to charge at her and demand information but Thatch stopped him. "Zen, be respectful. Kress, don't go wandering off," he told them. "Do you happen to know where she went?" he asked her softly.

Michel shook her head. "Last I heard she was with Commander Shepard. She's the first Human Spectre."

Thatch seemed to frown. "Hmm… thank you for your help. It is greatly appreciated, madam."

"I can point you towards the Embassies if you'd like," Michel offered, summoning an aircar from one of the Citadel travel terminals. "The Human Embassy should have someone who can contact Shepard for you."

"My dear, you are one of the kindest souls I have met for a long time," Thatch said, not believing his luck. They'd only been here an hour and they were already hot on Tessa's trail.

-.-.-.-

In the Human Embassy, Udina looked like he was about to have an aneurism. Anderson just chuckled. A dashing magician, complete with top hat, had walked in accompanied by a young man in a full coat and a kid that looked like a barebones shirtless ninja.

"What are you doing here?" Udina seethed. He was sick of all these people.

"Hello, good sirs. I am Vladimir Thatch. We are looking for a colleague of ours, perhaps you might know her," the tophatted man said, bowing lightly and tipping his hat to them. "A young Mirage named Tessa has been through here-"

"I know her," Anderson interrupted. "She's safe with Shepard." Safe might not have been the right word to use, considering Shepard's mission, but he was trying to be reassuring here.

Thatch chuckled. "I doubt that very much. Safe is not something Tenno are accustomed to, nor something that remains around them. You could even say we have an aura of trouble," he seemed to smile under his intricate helmet. "Mirages tend to do this even more than usual."

"Would you like me to ask Shepard to bring her back?" Anderson asked, pointing his thumb at the holoprojector.

"That would be lovely." Thatch nodded. While Anderson was busy trying to call Shepard, who seemed to be unavailable, Thatch decided to try talking to Udina. "Hello. You seem stressed. Is there anything I can do to help?"

Udina scowled. "No."

"Very well." Thatch stepped back to Zen and Kress. Only, Kress was missing. "Zen," he asked, speaking in Orokin to keep their conversation private, "Where did Kress go?"

Zen shrugged. He was too excited about seeing Tessa safe to care about Kress.

-.-.-.-

"Hello."

The voice startled the Asari receptionist. She hadn't heard anyone approach and was busy reading her book. "Uh, hello," she greeted the man. Ava spoke in English, hoping that her language classes might actually be used one day. The man- or was he a young man? - wore a black suit of what she guessed what armour, adorned with gold and covered with intricate white marks. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Yes," the man, who seemed to be more of a teenager, possibly Human, replied. "I was wondering what you are." He didn't say it maliciously, or with any ill intent. It made her wonder why he needed to ask it though.

"I am an Asari," she answered. "Are you Human?" she asked, curious.

"Not quite. I'm Tenno." The being seemed to smile. He tilted his head to one side. "You're very interesting. I've met a few aliens but all of them were merely animals; I never expected to find that intelligent life in the galaxy would look so Human."

Ava bristled. "We were here first."

"Apologies. I'm merely accustomed to humanoid things. It feels… foreign, to describe things like us as asarinoid." he said, thinking. "It was a pleasure to meet you," he nodded, leaving.

Ava was just befuddled.

-.-.-.-

"Kress, you must return to us at once!" Thatch demanded through the comms. "We are so close to finding Tessa and I do not want to lose you to this rabble!"

"Hm, yeah, huh… this place is very interesting. They call it a Presidium." Kress seemed to completely ignore Thatch, instead talking to himself.

"We'll launch a rescue mission for you later." Thatch promised sarcastically. Now he understood what Trin and Ves were talking about when they shared their troubles with him. Raising children was hard, raising Tenno children with insatiable curiosities was downright frustrating. Especially when there was a mission to get back to.

"Sorry, I can't reach Shepard," Anderson announced his return apologetically. Nobody blamed him. "The Normandy's docked but Pressly told me she already left. Tessa, too."

"Darn!" Thatch exclaimed. "I was absolutely sure-"

"I found her." Kress interrupted.

-.-.-.-

"Hey Tessa!" Kress yelled, spotting the Mirage walking across a bridge in front of a weird statue. "Tessa!"

Tessa finally noticed him waving madly, and waved back. She didn't have access to his comm channel, but she could yell just fine. "Kress?! What are you doing here?!"

"We came to find you!" Kress yelled back, sprinting and wall-running his way to the other end of the bridge. He jogged to catch up to her.

"What- how?" Tessa couldn't believe it. She gave him a big hug, but Kress stood almost a head taller than her and he was still growing.

Kress returned the embrace with vigour. "Zen-"

"Zen's here too?!" Tessa looked overjoyed and amazed at the same time.

"Yes," Kress smiled, disengaging his helmet. His snow-white eyes greeted her warmly, though his irises were grey and clouded as though he were blind. "Zen organised a Limbo to help us recreate your accident. He's called Vladimir Thatch."

Tessa frowned. "Wasn't he that one who pissed off mom?"

Kress grinned. "That's the one."

"Okay so why are you here?" Tessa asked. "You're not the kind of guy to just run off on a rescue mission to save some damsel who's causing distress."

"I was curious about what was on the other side." Kress told her, finally stepping back. His long dark-grey hair fell over his face, rustled slightly by the soft breeze that permeated the Presidium. "So far I have discovered several species of alien, all of whom are intelligent enough to communicate, and a massive space station that really should have no atmosphere at all and yet it does."

"I found robots to kill." Tessa shrugged. "Oh, and this woman who's practically identical to mom, and a guy who's identical to my dad."

Kress tilted his head. "Interesting. I would love to do a DNA check on them. Perhaps we could even use their genetic samples to produce a sibling for you, one who isn't Tenno."

Tessa looked conflicted. "I don't know… I'm not sure they're ready to be parents yet."

"Fair enough." Kress nodded. "Come, we must meet up with Zen and Thatch."

-.-.-.-

Kaidan had been a little shocked when Pressly had made the news. "To all crew, you have two days of shore leave available if you wish to take it. Shepard just wants to make sure you can all be back on the ship and ready for action within a couple of hours if an emergency arises."

There had been a lot of cheering and half the crew went straight to Chora's Den. The rest either went to visit family and friends or Flux for a drink.

Tessa, obviously, had followed the Commander off the ship right off the bat. The rest of the ground crew had decided to have a little party to get Liara introduced to the gang at Flux. She was regretting her oversized breakfast before she was even out the door. And then three quarters of the normal crew decided to tag along.

Kaidan just wanted Shepard to come back. He didn't know how, but they'd managed to go from longstanding teammate friends to… more than friends. Much more. He hoped he wasn't being selfish by assuming the Commander returned his feelings.

He made his way to the Presidium, hoping to catch Anderson at the Embassy or Diplomat's Bar. Tessa's head of very bright hair seemed to be the first thing he noticed when he left the elevator. Kaidan wasn't sure why she was talking with this other boy, but it seemed to ignite a few nerves he wasn't even sure were his.

But, she was happy. Kaidan didn't want to ruin that, she could take care of herself.

He took a deep breath and blew it out, puffing up his cheeks. What the heck was he thinking? Why was he so worried about Tessa? Taking a closer look at the boy, the young man she was so ungracefully chatting with, Kaidan decided that he knew why he didn't like him.

Then he remembered some of the old teenage romance books he'd read and how all fathers would almost threaten their daughter's boyfriend with death if he so much as looked at her wrong. The most disturbing thing was he felt like he'd just experienced that same overprotectiveness.

Kaidan shook his head. Shepard would never let them adopt her.

-.-.-.-

Thatch strode out of the Embassy full of confidence, joy, and the full assurance that Tessa had been found. The doors opened automatically to let him pass, and he bumped straight into a face he never thought he'd see again.

His shock was enough to stunt his reaction time as the pair fell down in a tangled heap of limbs and tophat.

"Hey! Watch where you're walking, will ya?" The grumpy voice growled at him.

Thatch picked himself up, before giving her a hand up. "My apologies, Kara. I simply had no idea that you would be here!" he exclaimed, unfolding his helmet. His electric blue eyes and perfectly groomed rust-brown hair seemed to glow with new life as he drank in the smells and fresh air of the Citadel.

The redheaded woman accepted the hand up but glared at him still. "How do you know my name?"

Thatch's jaw dropped open. "It's me! Vladimir Thatch! How could you not remember me?"

If looks could kill he'd be dead ten times over by now. Twenty if Udina's looks counted.

"I seriously have no idea who you are." Kara ground her teeth. She picked up his tophat and thrust it at his chest. "Or what you are."

Thatch griped his hat, saddened, yet somehow hopeful. Kara had been rather pissed off at him last time they'd met, and it was common knowledge not to piss of a Valkyr- "Kara, where is your Warframe?" he gaped, realising that the woman in front of him was clothed, not armoured.

Kara frowned, before realisation dawned on her face. "Oooohhhh, you're like Tessa, aren't you? Tenno?"

The Limbo was at a loss for words. Kara thought she was HUMAN?! "But-"

Kara shut him up with a look. A look that promised a world of hurt if he continued down this path. "I'm Human. Tessa's Tenno. Apparently I have an identical twin in another universe that gave birth to her."

Thatch was deeply saddened by this news. "I thought-"

"Yeah. She did too."

"Oh." He didn't really know how to continue this conversation, so he brought his helmet back up and tipped his hat to her. "M'Lady," he said, bowing before leaving. This place was just full of surprises.

-.-.-.-

When Shepard got to the Embassy to talk to Anderson, she received yet another shock. It was a very dull and half-expected shock.

She found Udina bristling as usual behind his desk, Anderson sipping coffee while looking out at the Presidium, and some armoured teenager leaning against the wall sending blank-faced glares at Udina. His helmet was surprisingly… minimalist, compared to Tessa's and whatisname tophat's. No eyes, either.

"You're Tenno, right?" she asked, pointing at the kid. He nodded, talking gibberish. Shepard held up a hand, "I can't understand whatever language you're speaking. I assume you can understand English?" another nod. "Good. Stay." she commanded, allowing herself a tiny smirk when the kid gestured at her, like he was trying to say seriously?! I came all the way across the galaxy for this?!

She honestly didn't blame him.

"Shepard, it's good to see you again," Anderson smiled warmly, offering her a mug of freshly-brewed coffee.

"Same," Shepard grinned, sipping at the coffee. "I take it him and that tophatted fool I met outside were looking for Tessa?"

"The one and only." Anderson confirmed. "I can't help but wonder, though, if there's going to be more of them coming." Seeing Shepard's look of confusion, he delved deeper. "First Tessa, now these three-"

Shepard nearly spat her coffee in shock. "There's three of them?!" she hadn't found the other one and after Therum she was pretty much risking her neck letting Tessa walk free on the Citadel. If there were four people who could do damage like she could…

"And apparently they have no way back to wherever it is they came from." Anderson said, causing Shepard to groan loudly. The Tenno in the room yelled something at them, but nobody could understand him.

"I don't want to have to deal with any more of these Tenno if I can help it!" she replied, ignoring the kid's outburst.

"I know," Anderson sighed heavily. "They are, even for civilians, extremely undisciplined."

Shepard thought about it. "Maybe they just have a different discipline. Chakwas was telling me that Tenno have zero social time back where they're from." she jerked her head at the other Tenno, who folded his arms, irritated. One of them was smoking, oddly enough. "Like Smokey over there."

Smokey grunted and left.

-.-.-.-

Zen couldn't believe how rude the people here were. Sure, the Syndicate members who hated him were just as bad, if not worse, but these particular humans had absolutely no reason to hate hi-

Oh.

That was Tessa's mother.

He mentally facepalmed as he explored, following a couple of wanderers into what looked like a Clan Gathering, but with less gathering and more pointless standing around. Zen spotted one almost-familiar face leaning on a bench, drinking from a purple glass.

Unfortunately, he spotted Zen, too. A frown crossed his handsome features for a moment, before it passed and he beckoned Zen over to him. "C'mere," he grunted.

Zen cautiously approached, moving to sit on one of the stools next to the strangely familiar man. "Do you understand Orokin?" he asked.

The man shook his head. "No idea what you just said." he chuckled, chugging the rest of his drink. "You're… Tenno, right?" he remarked, his words only a touch slurred by his drink.

Zen did the only thing he could do, and nodded.

"That's nice… I'll have to take you back to our ship so you can meet Tessa," he said, slightly sadly. "I think you two would…" he stopped there, obviously having no idea what the two would do, be, or get up to.

"I have been looking for her," Zen told him, forgetting that the man couldn't understand him for a moment.

"Okay… I'm Kaidan-"

"WHAT?!" Zen shouted, drawing several angry glares from other patrons. "You're her father?!"

Kaidan looked at him. "Well…. Shit. I'm guessing you know me as Tessa's dad then."

Zen nodded.

Kaidan swore quietly.

-.-.-.-

"So what's it like in this corner of the multiverse?" Kress asked, his eyes twinkling with curiosity.

Tessa frowned at him. "Multiverse?"

Kress smiled and nodded, clasping his hands together as he explained. "Well, I've done some research and I've discovered that this place has an Earth. It has the entire Origin System, but not as we know it."

"Uhhh… I'm not sure I follow."

Kress tilted his head, an innocent yet very annoying habit of his. "There is an Origin System, and yet no Technocyte, Corpus, Orokin, Grineer, or even Tenno in this universe."

Tessa nodded slowly.

"To top it all off, there are identical people here. Kara and Kaidan. They exist here, and they exist here, but they do not exist together." Kress finished. "The multiverse theory is that there is an infinite number of universes, all identical bar a point in their history where something changed."

The Mirage in front of him scratched her head uncertainly. "So… we're in the wrong universe, is what you're saying."

Kress nodded. "Yes. But, we are not in the wrong universe, just a parallel universe that mimics our own in several areas."

"We're in a parallel universe. Just… leave it at that, please," Tessa scrunched up her face. "Any more and you're gonna make my brain hurt."

Kress smiled. It was an innocent smile. "My question still stands; what's it like here in this universe?"

Tessa looked out over the gardens of the Presidium, leaning against the railing and folding her arms. "It's weird, to be honest. It's like… there's this one guy, Saren, who not-mom is chasing after, but instead of giving her the resources she needs to get it done, she's expected to do it on her own. The only help they gave her is Saren's old job, which basically means she's above the law."

Kress whistled. "Wow. That does seem rather shortsighted."

Tessa rolled her eyes. "Tell me about it. All I've done since I got here is argue, sleep, blow shit up, and argue even more."

"Can I join you?" Kress asked, grinning madly.

"You'll have to take it up with not-mom, but if she says yes then I don't see why not." Tessa shrugged.

The Frost Prime looked at her uncertainly. "Why do you keep calling her that, 'not-mom'?"

"Because she's made it very clear where she stands on that." Tessa scowled.

Kress tried to be sympathetic but in hindsight, he might have been sympathetic for the wrong person to be comforting Tessa. "She's a Valkyr, and a stressed Valkyr is generally an angry and impulsive one," he frowned. "She likely didn't mean to hurt you like that."

"Yeah, right," Tessa muttered, her voice breaking as she fought back tears. "You don't know what it's like to hear your mother scream at you. Screaming that she's disowned you."

Kress lowered his gaze to the floor. "You're right. I don't. I'm sorry." he apologised, pulling her into a great big bear hug. Tessa sobbed into his shoulder, ignoring several varying gazes from pedestrians passing by.

"Now let's go find the others." Kress suggested.

-.-.-.-

Just as Zen thought he was done dealing with Tessa's parents, Kara decided to visit.

So he was stuck between a half-drunk Oberon and a completely sober and over-stressed Valkyr. He would honestly have preferred to be stuck between a rock and a hard place. It was much safer between a rock and a hard place.

"Kaidan?"

The chuckling out-of-frame Oberon silenced himself immediately and gazed at Kara. "Oh, hey Shepard!" he greeted her with a goofy smile. Zen could feel himself burning in embarrassment, head to toe. He sorely wished he could just Smoke Bomb his way out of here, but considering the fact that this was a Diplomat's Bar (which he'd recently learned), a bomb would be a very bad idea.

"What are you doing?" Kara asked him, her voice filled with hidden malice. Malice hidden just well enough for a half-drunk man to miss.

"Drinkin' with my new buddy… buddy." Kaidan replied, calling Zen 'buddy' because he realised he hadn't gotten his name yet.

"My name is Zen." the Tenno growled at them. Maybe he should have learned English. As far as he knew, only Kress and a couple of the other new-gens had bothered.

"Kaidan."

"Yup?"

"…" Kara was silent for a moment, before she drew a hand down her face and sighed. "Forget it."

"Okay."

Zen had the sneaking suspicion that Kaidan wasn't in Kara's good books anymore.

-.-.-.-

"The Geth were weird though." Tessa remarked, picking up a Turian plushie from the basket of this interesting souvenir shop she and Kress had decided to check out. "They were like… skeleton robots with armour and flashlight heads."

Kress raised an eyebrow. "Have you still got your mission logs?"

"Yeah, I never delete them. Why?" Tessa asked, putting the plushie under her arm. Then deciding that her arm was too mellow of a place, she cuddled it fiercely.

"I would like to review them later, if possible," Kress smiled. He looked through a glass cabinet filled with model replicas of ships. He frowned when he saw one he recognised. "I remember this one…" he said, pointing to it.

A shop assistant, a friendly Turian woman, speedwalked over to them, sensing customer interest. "Do you like that one, huh?" she asked, her mandibles flared. Kress assumed it was a smile, because what kind of shop assistant doesn't spend 24/7 smiling?

"Not particularly. I thought it was rather ugly, to be honest." Kress said evenly, still eyeing the ship. "It doesn't seem to have any guns, I have no idea what that great missing chunk of the midsection is for, and it almost resembles crosshairs."

The assistant's smile faltered for just a moment. "That's the Destiny Ascension, flagship of the Citadel fleet and an Asari Dreadnaught to boot."

Kress frowned. "That's a Dreadnaught?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "I assumed it was a heavy cruiser or frigate of some sort."

"I'd like to buy this please," Tessa squeaked, holding up the plushie and trying to draw the attention away from her accidentally rude friend.

Once outside the shop, Tessa glared at her very rude friend. "Did you seriously have to insult that thing?"

Kress held up his hands. "Hey, I had no idea it was the 'biggest, best, most amazing ship ever designed'." he commented. "Besides, size isn't everything."

Tessa snorted. "Yeah, right."

"True!" Kress argued.

This time a random onlooker butted in with a smirk. "Honey, the only time a guy says that size doesn't matter, it's because he's not big enough," she winked at them, before going back to reading her book.

"Hah!" Tessa pointed at Kress, triumphant. Kress just smiled that innocent smile until her mind clicked into place. "Wait, no. EW! EW, EW, EW! KRESS!" she shrieked, covering her face with the plushie while the Frost Prime laughed his head off.

-.-.-.-

Thatch didn't have any money. Nor could he fathom how to pickpocket anyone. But looking in at a café, he so dearly wished he had enough to purchase a cup of tea. He couldn't remember ever having a drink of the delicious beverage, but he knew deep in his heart that pre-cryosleep, he'd had one of the most stupendous cups he'd ever enjoyed.

It was with a sad and heavy heart he turned around to go back to the Embassies.

-.-.-.-

Zen was feeling more and more closed in with every passing moment. He was now stuck between a three-quarters drunk Oberon and an even drunker Valkyr. This was not how he'd planned to spend whatever time he had to with Tessa's parents.

Kara was slouched over, taking shots of various liquids, half of which glowed, and slurring her words badly. It also appeared like she couldn't think straight either. "Put more of the stuff in… in the thing more stuff goes in," she slurred, holding up her glass.

"I think you've had enough, ma'am," the bartender chuckled, shaking his head, but smiling all the same.

"I'll decide when I've had enuff," Kara slurred, plopping her glass down. "More shtuff!" she ordered, pointing to the glass and looking very determined.

The bartender looked thoughtful for a moment. "Alright. Whaddaya say to giving this new mix a taste test for me?" he asked, taking away Kara's small glass and replacing it with a slightly larger bottle, lid off. Zen suspected this mix wasn't 'new' at all.

"Hmmkay," Kara grabbed the light-blue drink and downed it in one go. "It'sh…" she tried to say, before her eyes rolled back in her head and she fell off her seat and onto the floor, snoring.

Barkeep winked at Zen. "Asari drink. Made especially for the persistent. They call it a Blue Lotus," he told him, grinning. "It's come in handy these past couple o' years."

Zen was a little stunned by the name. Blue Lotus. He'd have to tell Kress about that one.

"You want anything?"

Zen shook his head, but pointed to the discarded bottle and then Kaidan, who nursing his own drink a little more guardedly since Kara had shown up. It seemed like he'd remembered something slightly sobering. He glanced at her, lying on the floor and gaped.

"Here you go pal, on the house," the bartender slid another small bottle of Blue Lotus to Kaidan, who downed it slowly.

"It's nice…" he murmured, his eyes fluttering closed before he too was leaning on the bar, asleep.

Zen couldn't be sure, though. Should he be relieved? Or absolutely terrified? He shook the thought from his mind as he bodily dragged Kara's limp body to a relatively soft couch nestled into one corner near the bar. She seemed happy.

Kaidan's sleeping corpse followed soon after, Zen propping them up against each other. He looked at the arrangement for a moment, thinking something was off. Then, finally realising what it was, he moved Kaidan's arms away from Kara's chest and put them into more of a sitting position.

They'd thank him later.

Or murder him.

-.-.-.-

Tessa and Kress walked across a dimly-lit bridge, admiring the view of space and the streams of hovercars zooming below them.

"Where are we, anyway?" Tessa asked, looking around, wondering how they'd gotten lost.

Kress looked up at the lewd sign and read the writing underneath; it was surprisingly in English. "'Chora's Den'" he read, shrugging. He could hear odd music emanating from the club. He could also see several blue bodies gyrating in extremely tight and very revealing leather suits.

"Shou-"

"We're definitely in the wrong sector," Kress stated, cutting Tessa off as he dragged her away before she caught sight of the many alien, and some Human, strippers.

"Hey!" Tessa cried out, surprised at Kress's sudden energy. She knew that Frosts of any kind were not energizer bunnies or idle twitchers. And she only knew that because she'd seen Kythe, that airheaded Zephyr, trying to get Kress to dance with her. In the end, Vess, a female Nekros, had taken the dance.

"Which way to the Presidium?" Kress asked a local, who pointed him in some direction down by an area he recognised as where he landed with the other two. He ignored Tessa's outcries, deciding that sometimes it was better not to know.

"Damnit Kress, slow down! My legs aren't as long as yours!" Tessa complained. She hated being dragged along. She barely managed to break away when another hand clamped down on her shoulder. Whipping around, prepared to use her Turian plushie as a weapon, she was faced with an odd sight. "Hunh?"

"Not one word." Garrus warned her, likely scowling. "Who's your friend?" he asked, nodding towards Kress, who'd finally realised Tessa wasn't with him anymore.

Tessa looked at him, beckoning him over. "Garrus, this is Kress. He's a Frost Prime. Kress, this is Garrus. He's a Turian." Tessa introduced them. "What're you doing down here, Garrus?"

"I could ask you the same thing." Garrus retorted, pointing down the hall they'd come from. "I know for a fact that the only thing down there is Chora's Den. I don't know if anything's changed since we took out Fist but I don't think anyone is going to like the idea of you-" he paused, glancing at Kress, "-either of you being there."

Tessa just shrugged and rolled her eyes like I have absolutely no idea what anyone is talking about anymore and started walking in circles around them.

Kress and Garrus stared at each other for a long while. The tension in the air was palpable only by a select few.

Kress decided to break the silence in the only way he knew how; bluntly and traumatically. "So why is your face covered in pink paint?"

-.-.-.-

Anderson looked at the pair on the couch snoring and groaned. He glanced at the 'Tenno' kid who was at the bar, playing what looked like a long-running game of paper-scissors-rock with the bartender.

He silently debated between bringing Shepard and Kaidan back to the Embassy, leaving them here, or seeing if he could have whatever they were having.

The Tenno that Shepard had appropriately named Smokey saluted to Anderson with two fingers, almost like a hand-gun. His entire arm appeared to be shrouded in an aura of smoke.

The former Captain took one final glance at Shepard and decided it'd be best if he went and raided Udina's drink cabinet.

And angry Udina was much easier to deal with than an angry Shepard.

-.-.-.-

The music was loud, the bass was pumping, and the people were dancing or drinking or gambling or some combination of all three. Liara swore she could see one person dancing and drinking while gambling over at the machines.

She still didn't see why it was such a good idea to hold down Garrus and paint his face pink. As an archaeologist, she'd never naturally been a social butterfly, as the Humans called it. It was still a mystery to her how Tali had ended up leaning against her, hiccupping and whispering things to do with programming loops, mainframes, and debug schedules.

Seeing Garrus re-enter the bar-casino whatever this place was- by the goddess, must it be so loud in here?- warmed Liara's heart just the tiny bit she needed not to hurl.

A slightly-synthetic gasp came from her left as someone poked her sore, churning gut. "Liara… are y- *hic* are you pregnant?" Tali rambled, suddenly unhealthily interested in the small undigested lump resting in Liara's stomach. She was slightly worried that she might have eaten dextro rations in her mad rush for sustenance this morning.

"No, Tali, I'm not," Liara sighed, gently pushing the drunk Quarian away from her midsection. "What have you been drinking?" she asked, concerned for the woman's health.

"Turian brandy, thrice filtered and emergency induction port," Tali slurred, holding up a straw.

Liara was absolutely sure Tali was forgetting words in her sentence structure now. Were all drunk people this hard to deal with?

"Hey, Liara." Garrus greeted, sitting down next to her, wet washcloth in hand. "I'm glad this is just Human facepaint; Turian facepaint isn't made to wash off so easily," he remarked, eyeing the growing pink stain on the cloth with distaste.

Liara smiled. "Pink isn't your colour."

"No, it's mine," Tessa hissed, plomping down in one of the seats roughly. Liara couldn't quite see for sure, but it looked like she was trying to squeeze the death out of a plushie Garrus. Tessa was quitw right about that colour being hers; if her hair and eyes were enough to convince Liara then her attitude and personality were.

A tall, dark-grey haired young man stepped in behind her, looking around, his eyes filled to the brim with curiosity. Liara didn't recognise him. She wasn't sure she'd be able to recognise many of the crewmembers aboard the Normandy anyway.

"Hello," she said to the newcomer.

"Hi there," he replied, holding out his hand. "I'm Kress. You must be Liara," he smiled warmly.

Liara shook his hand, nodding. "I am. Do I know you from anywhere?"

Kress shook his head. "I doubt it. I only got here a few hours ago. This place-"

"The Citadel." Garrus reminded him, his voice muffled by washcloth.

"The Citadel," Kress amended, "is amazing. A gigantic open-air spacestation that somehow has atmosphere, and even has its own defence fleet." The Frost didn't see Tessa's warning glare as he continued, "Even if it has the ugliest and most impractical flagship I've ever seen. The-"

Liara cut him off with a cry of disbelief. "You think the Destiny Ascension is ugly? Impractical?" The pinnacle of Asari war technology, artistry, and engineering all lumped into one nearly-oversized Dreadnaught and this kid thought it was a mistake?

Kress looked at like she should already know the answer. He spoke noticeably slower. "Yes," he nodded, "It looks like a set of crosshairs, there are no weapons available for immediate use, and it has that great big hole in the middle. It is stupendously short, compared to its height and width. Those… prongs," he frowned slightly, as though there were a bad taste on his tongue, "serve no purpose. To call that a Dreadnaught is a gross misclassification. At best it is a glorified frigate, or maybe cruiser."

Everyone still sober enough to understand him, minus Tessa, stared at him in shock, their jaws hanging open and everything. Wrex, who was just sitting in the corner drinking Ryncol, chuckled.

Kress looked at them all. "What? It's true. I've been on light cruisers that could outgun, outrun, and maybe even out-tank that hunk of junk you call a Dreadnaught."

Reactions around the room varied from cries of disbelief to calls for more. A couple of Turians in particular were laughing their mandibles off. One of them immediately got slapped by an Asari, causing the other to howl even louder.

One of the Normandy crew was chortling to himself and pointing out Kress to his mates, who were too drunk to care. An Asari, likely to be rather tipsy, if her slight stumbles were anything to go by, went right up to Kress and headbutted him.

"Hey!" Kress yelped, tripping over his Warframe as he stumbled back.

"My sister's on that ship!" the Asari growled, pointing to the window in the completely wrong direction. "Quit insulting it!"

Tessa nodded thoughtfully, grinning at the way the woman had headbutted Kress. "I agree. Quit getting yourself in trouble, Kress," she told him, not bothering to give him a hand up.

As Kress crawled to his feet, muttering, he decided that publicly denouncing the Destiny Ascension would have to wait for now. He sat down next to Tessa, looking very much less serene than he did walking in. "Aliens are weird."

Garrus burst out guffawing. "That," he gasped, finding it hard to talk and laugh at the same time this was so spirits-damned funny, "is the best reaction to an Asari headbutting I have ever seen!"

Liara rolled her eyes and grabbed Tali to stop her falling off her seat. "Go dance," she told the Quarian, who'd been listening to the music and trying to hum along with it for the last five minutes. Tali enthusiastically made her way to the dance floor, only losing her footing once.

Kress hmphed, slumping in his seat. "You know, Tessa, I've been thinking-"

Tessa cringed. "Uh-oh."

Kress ignored her. "I've been thinking… we're young Tenno. We've never been into deep Cryosleep."

"Your point?" Tessa asked tiredly, much to Garrus's amusement. She whapped him in the face with the plushie.

"We've always relied on our Warframes for… life." Kress looked like he was about to get all existential on her. "I listen to the older ones, sometimes, and they always have these offhand remarks about… something. Thatch was moaning the other day 'my kingdom for a cup of tea'. Before you went missing, when I was on a mission with Kara, she took a particularly nasty hit to the back of head. At extraction she was muttering about needing a good bottle of vodka later."

Tessa stared at him blankly, while Liara and Garrus realised what Kress was talking about. "You two have never eaten or drunk anything?" Garrus asked, not really believing it.

When both kids stared at him, confused, he got his answer. "Perhaps alcohol isn't the best-" Liara tried fruitlessly to talk him out of it.

"Joe!" Garrus yelled over the music to one of the bartenders, who he knew back from his days in C-Sec, "Three Paradise Passions and a Steel Talon!" he ordered. Joe grinned and nodded, getting to work on the drinks.

Liara glared at him for cutting her off. "Perhaps alcohol isn't the best way to introduce them to-"

Garrus waved off her complaints easily. "Come on, Liara, they're unarmed, and we can keep them from getting into too much trouble," he coaxed her into it slowly. "Besides, we've all been stressed, these two included, and I doubt either of us would let them go overboard."

Liara had a bad feeling about this.

-.-.-.-

Three a half drinks later, Liara had no idea what she was thinking earlier. Watching Tessa try to dance was fun, if excessively cringe-worthy.

Eventually she fell over and Garrus had to help her back to the table. "Well… that was enlightening." he remarked, thoroughly shocked that anyone could dance that badly.

"Hehhhh hehehheh…" Tessa giggled, cuddling her plushie. "You should see mom… she's horrible!" she squealed in laughter, leaning against Garrus for support.

Kress was sitting across from Liara, sipping at his drink occasionally like he was determined not to get tipsy. Liara found this extremely funny because after discovering the stinging fruity taste of a Paradise Passion, Kress had demanded shots of more drinks to taste. So far, in total, he'd managed to down more than the other three combined.

Liara was not embarrassed to admit that after getting a hold of the menu, she had ordered the drinks for him.

"How does this one taste?" she asked, pointing to a glowing white one. She had no idea what they did to make it glow, but she suspected it was in the glasses. They were extraordinarily sturdy for bar glasses.

Kress hmmed, taking a sip, running it over his tongue. "It's…" he said slowly, deliberately, "… different."

Liara was disappointed in him. She knew she shouldn't be, as Kress had nothing to go off for his descriptions, but as inebriated as she was, she was very disappointed in him. "Give," she commanded, pointing to the same drink.

"Mmmmkay," Kress slid the shot-glass to her. His seat, oddly, was frosted over. It was almost snow-white with ice and almost seemed cold enough to be steaming like liquid nitrogen did.

Whatever the drink was, it tasted like cherries mixed with honey and something Liara couldn't identify.

She screwed her face up, staring at it, making some noise between a grunt and a hum. It was certainly different. Whether it was a different good or a different bad she couldn't tell.

"I feel haaaaappppppyyyyyyyyyyyy!" Tessa threw her arms up, accidentally throwing the plushie into the face of a returning Tali. The Quarian fell over with a plushie on her mask and didn't get up.

Garrus chuckled. "Yes, I suppose you would." He quietly sipped his own drink, enjoying it while he could. Back in C-Sec, he wasn't allowed to drink unless he was off-duty for the next three days. Suffice to say, he didn't get a lot of chances to go out drinking with friends.

Tonight, Flux was the place to be.

As the party started to dwindle down, some of the Normandy crew went over to the hotel next to Flux. Adams had made sure to rent enough rooms for everyone so that after the party, they'd wake up in a nice soft bed rather than on the floor of the Wards.

For the few could remember what had happened that night, it would be memories they'd treasure forever.

-.-.-.-

Thatch grumbled, sitting on a bench, watching the Presidium Lake with growing disappointment. He came here to find Tessa as a favour for Kara. That was, until he bumped into Kara, and discovered that she had either completely forgotten about who and what she was… or forgot to mention a twin sister somewhere in the galaxy.

This situation was not ideal. The artificial environment of the Citadel had changed to an 'evening' mode, causing the sky and ambient lighting to fade.

He enjoyed watching the stars. He only wished he could enjoy it with her.

Looking down, he opened up a small, chained, locket he had always kept hidden up his sleeve. In it was a tiny picture a woman Vladimir loved with all of his heart. She had been taken away from him by the Corpus, years ago. When he had found her, dead… it had ripped his very soul apart.

Thatch disengaged his helmet, setting his tophat to rest on the seat beside him. She had been the greatest Saryn he had ever known, ever loved. The way she joked with that brutish Rhino back in the day, arguing about bust sizes and muscled torsos. It brought tears to his eyes, remembering her.

He kissed the picture, gazing up to the stars. Her short hair, always swept back tight to her skull. Her bright blue eyes, an oddity among bright emerald greens of the Saryns, making her all the more precious. Her stern, commanding, yet soft, loving, and compassionate face.

And she brewed the best teas Thatch had ever tasted.

"I miss you so much, Benezia," Thatch whispered lovingly as he cried, holding the locket to his chest as though it would bring her back.

-.-.-.-

The next morning, several hours later, Shepard awoke. Why was she in the Diplomat's Bar? Looking around, she found Kaidan next to her, still snoring quietly, and Smokey the Tenno sitting opposite. His arms were crossed and his posture was slumped enough that she assumed he was asleep too.

Oddly, she felt refreshed. Getting up, yawning and stretching, Shepard realised she hadn't felt this rested since… well, she couldn't remember the last time she felt this good.

She noticed with a heavy heart that the Citadel's lighting had been set to 'morning', meaning she'd been asleep for well over twelve hours. In that time, Saren could have attacked and damn well annihilated almost any Alliance or alien colony he wanted.

Several other patrons of the bar were sitting around, some asleep, some awake, and some of them were waking up like Shepard was. She couldn't help but wonder if the Diplomat's Bar ever shut, or if this 'overnighters' thing was normal. One thing she remembered was that she'd been drinking pretty heavily with Kaidan.

Her omni-tool beeped at her, informing her that she had twelve- wait, no… one hundred and twenty new messages. She barely even got ten over the course of a normal day!

Shepard sighed. Her work was never over. This was why she'd opted to stay in the grunt-plus division. She wasn't ready or capable of dealing with all the stress that came with large-scale leadership. She just wanted to be in charge of her squad, working towards a clear objective, receiving the Intel and orders she needed to get the job done. Being the one who gave out the Intel, orders, and even the goddamn objectives made her… she couldn't explain it, but she just wasn't ready for this.

Twelve messages from Elilia, all asking where the hell she was, where the hell the new Tenno were, and why she so unresponsive? Shepard replied to the last one only. Sorry, Elilia. I'm at the Diplomat's Bar- Presidium Embassies. One of the Tenno (Smokey) is here with me and I swear I can explain everything once you get here.

Her tool sent the message away with an immature little *ding*. Around seventy of the messages were from the ground crew. Absolutely none of them made sense, text wise. The pictures and videos they'd sent her though, had her nerves on edge.

Tessa dancing badly, some other kid looking kinda wasted with a veritable mountain of shot glasses next to him, Garrus with pink face paint instead of his normal blue, a video of Tali asking a sick-looking Liara if she was pregnant- Shepard couldn't help but snigger at that one- and an assortment of drunken (and sober) selfies taken… at a party in Flux.

Huh. So that was where everyone'd gone.

That other kid with the blind eyes and the dark-grey hair set off alarms in Shepard's head. He was kinda cute, in his own way, but his big heavy cloak thing- wait, damnit! Shepard mentally facepalmed. He was the third Tenno. Smokey, tophatter, and cutie.

Elilia was going to be hysterical.

-.-.-.-

When Tessa woke up in a bed next to Kress, with her head throbbing and no memory of what happened last night, she panicked. She leapt out of the bed- or tried to. Instead she got tangled up in the covers and managed to slam herself into the ground face-first.

Slowly freeing herself, Tessa managed to stand up… and immediately regretted it. She stumbled into the wall, her world spinning in ways it most definitely should not have been. An odd, queasy feeling rose up in her gut, one that she didn't recognise.

"Wh-" she barely got half the word out before something was rocketing up her throat and she puked, hurling whatever it was she'd drunken and eaten onto the floor. When it was finally over, she fell backwards, landing on the floor and knocking over a small table, her back resting against what she assumed was an armchair or something.

It left an acidic taste in her mouth and her legs weak. She hadn't felt like this since Ordis woke her prematurely from a mission gone wrong.

And Kress was still in the bed, lying on his stomach and sleeping. Man, that kid could be stoic.

When Tessa finally found the strength to move, she decided not to. Her gut was still feeling funny-bad and she didn't want to puke again. She wrinkled her nose at the smell. It was disgusting. It wasn't as bad as some of the Grineer Galleons or Corpus sewerage systems, but it came a close second in her currently biased opinion.

She remembered that she could contact the others without moving too much; she still had her omni-tool. But she didn't have any of their contact details. And Elilia's mind-meld had only given her so much information and how to operate an omni-tool was not in there.

Why'd she accept the drink, anyway? Tessa had to admit that she had been very curious about the concept of food and tastes and such, and that the experience was truly like nothing she'd ever done before, but if this was going to happen every time she ate or drank, no thanks.

Garrus must have been next door, because when the door opened, he didn't look all that surprised. "Are you okay?" he asked, eying the sickening puddle of puke in front of Tessa. He also noticed the trail of drool coming from the corner of her mouth.

Tessa shook her head, not trusting herself to speak.

"Need some help?" Garrus asked, stepping into the room.

Tessa nodded, before the sick feeling in her stomach intensified and something gurgled up her throat. She clamped her mouth shut, grimacing and fighting back tears as she cradled her stomach in one hand and covered her mouth with the other.

Garrus shot over, picking her up and taking her to the bathroom before she had a chance to realise what he was doing. He held her in front of the toilet, thankfully the lid was already open, holding her hair back. "Just let it all out," he advised, wincing as Tessa did just that.

When she eventually stopped, she slumped down against the bathtub, breathing heavily. "Thanks…" she groaned, still cradling her sore midsection. "Why does everything hurt?" she croaked.

Garrus hadn't been thinking of the aftereffects when he'd ordered them those drinks last night. Turian hangovers were surprisingly easy to deal with- something many other races were quite jealous of. He'd just taken a quick injection of whatever they called that stuff, he could never remember the name of it, but his friends back in C-Sec had always called it the 'Sobriety-Shot'. One shot, a couple of pills, and they'd be right as rain within ten minutes.

Aside from a small hell on the toilet as the toxins rushed to get out of his system, he felt about as good as he did before he went drinking. Due to this easy-fix, as it were, some Turians could fall into becoming an alcoholic quite easily.

"It's called a hangover," Garrus told her, kneeling next to her. "It's what happens the morning after you go drinking most of the time. I think Humans said it had something to do with dehydration."

Tessa just moaned in response.

"And that is the general feeling about it, yes." Garrus nodded. "Feeling better yet?"

"Noooo…" Tessa croaked, looking even paler than she had five minutes ago.

Garrus played with her hair as he talked. "Do Tenno normally get hangovers? I'd guess not, since you had no experience with food or drink before." Tessa shook her head. "I'll go get you some water, it might help."

-.-.-.-

Kress woke up slowly. Then he realised he was lying on his stomach- he'd never slept like that before. Usually it was on his back with his arms crossed in a Cryopod.

He pushed himself over, now staring at the ceiling. Or was it the roof? Kress couldn't be sure, but it almost looked like one of those things that beds had… those big ones that he'd seen in castles and whatnot in those old pictures…

The Frost slowly sat up, sitting against the wall. Wow, this room was a mess. It smelt horrible, too. The smell was an old one; almost like the rotting corpses of Drahk and Kubrow that had been left to die.

It was revolting. Kress could hear splashing noises, and could sense the humidity in the air of the room to his left. There were voices, but fuzzy and indistinct.

"Hello?" Kress enquired, his normally smooth voice almost gone. He was shocked at how he sounded, and then he realised why; it felt like someone had made him swallow gravel before cleaning his mouth and throat out with sandpaper.

The splashing stopped, as did the voices. Kress didn't like that. Moving to the side, he barely managed to get to his feet and stay there.

Now his head hurt too. It was like he had a migraine!

"Ah, you're awake," a dual-voice stated, setting Kress's nerves on edge as his entire body seemed to scream CORPUS! at him. He spun around to face the intruder, before he groaned and clutched at his head. Damn, that hurt.

"Who?" he asked, grounding the word out. By the Orokin, why did everything have to ache like this?

"It's me, Garrus," the Turian reminded him. "How're you feeling?" he asked, beckoning him over before disappearing back into the bathroom. The steam was seeping out the top of the doorway, billowing into the bedroom.

"Like hell." Kress answered, staggering over. He had to lean against the doorframe to stay upright, fearing he'd lose his footing if he tried to move any more.

"Well, you haven't chucked your guts up yet so I'd say you're doing much better than Tessa." Garrus told him, his tone making the smirk very hard to miss. He was leaning over the bathtub, hands- or is it talons?- in the water, his crouched form masking whoever was in the bath from Kress's failing vision. It must have been Tess in there, because Garrus immediately got splashed in the face. "Oh, cut that out."

"Unh." Tessa grunted at him. "Hey, Kress," she whispered. She didn't look too good. Her hair was all stingy, matted, and messy, despite most of it floating in the water.

Garrus got up and handed him a jug of clear liquid with ice in it. Kress was pretty sure it was just pure water. "Drink," he ordered, sitting on the corner of the bathtub.

Kress found it refreshing, awakening, and so cold. He closed his eyes in bliss as he drank the entire thing in one go over the course of a few minutes. All Frosts loved the cold; it was as revitalising as an adrenaline rush, and easily as refreshing a weeklong sleep. It was one of the reasons they were always in peak physical and mental condition; a Snowglobe could wash away the fatigue of battle instantly.

"Thank you," he said, putting the empty jug down and stretching. "That was really good."

He didn't understand why they both seemed to be staring at him in shock.

"So… you feel absolutely fine?" Garrus asked, pointing at the empty jug. Kress just nodded at him, grinning. He felt absolutely fine. Maybe even better. "So how do we do that for Tessa?"

Kress shrugged. "I'm not sure we could. I'm a Frost, she's a Mirage," he explained, "I like the cold, she's probably attracted to the light." On a hunch, he refilled the jug from the tap, dipping his finger in it and cooling it to the point where he had to lightly punch the surface to break the ice layer that'd formed.

Tessa reached for the water, and drank deeply from it when Kress had finally taken the hint and handed it over. When it was half empty, she waited until Garrus's attention was focused on Kress… and then threw it at him.

Garrus literally squawked in surprise and leapt up, scrambling as the cold hit him. His rapid movements caused him to slip on the tiled floor and land in an extremely undignified way. "Tessa!" he roared, rubbing his head.

Tessa giggled, letting it grow into all-out laughter. Kress just shook his head and smiled, helping Garrus to his feet. He whispered a quick something in his ear- or what he assumed was his ear. Most humanoid things would have ears on the side of their head, right?

Garrus nodded, chuckling evilly as Kress launched a bolt of electric blue energy into the bathwater. Tessa was immediately frozen in place, glaring at him as everything below her shoulders was encased in ice. "Kress…" she growled, channelling her inner Valkyr, which she likely inherited from her mother, through chattering teeth. "I'm going to kill you."

Kress smiled and tilted his head. "Okay."

-.-.-.-

Tali wasn't sure how she'd ended up in bed with Liara. She was even more confused about why Garrus was lying between them.

She'd been more than happy to send him to investigate the thump from the next room over.

But then he hadn't come back and she found herself missing him. She sat on the end of the bed, Liara still snoozing behind her, looking at the beautifully made Turian plushie she'd somehow acquired last night. Oddly, it reminded her of Garrus.

Tali had a small, mostly invisible, camera installed in her mask, right at eye-level. She had it recording constantly, every day, never stopping. At her hip was a small external drive specifically for the footage it captured. One drive would last her a month and a half, so she had to remember to swap them regularly.

It was times like this she found the little device invaluable.

She found herself turning purple with embarrassment, her face flushing more and more with every second of footage she watched. She definitely couldn't remember asking Liara if she was pregnant- though she did look over her shoulder to confirm that the incriminating bump was actually there. It still was.

Dancing, though, she remembered that. Tali felt that she was actually a pretty good dancer; and compared to several other patrons she'd apparently been watching, she was. How did they manage to stay up with only one set of knees? It was so confusing!

A couple more thumps from the other rooms around her brought Tali out of her daydreams, and Liara from her sleep.

"Oooohhh," the Asari moaned, trying to sit up, one hand on her temple. "By the goddess… what happened last night?" she asked, still not opening her eyes.

"You got pregnant," Tali answered, trying to hold back a snigger as Liara woke up completely.

"What?!" she exclaimed, her hands shooting to her stomach. The look of dread on her face was just priceless. "I- how-" Liara couldn't more than two words together before realisation crossed her features. "It's yours?" she whispered, pointing at Tali.

Tali burst into laughter. "No, no, it's not mine," she giggled. "I was just kidding. I don't know if you're really pregnant or not, and I'm not ready to be a mother. Or father," she added, remembering that Asari considered whichever parent didn't get pregnant to be the father.

Liara breathed a deep sigh of relief. "You had me worried for a moment," she admitted. Though, the lump in her stomach was still worrying her. "I don't think I'm pregnant…" she mentioned, rubbing her belly.

Tali waved her hand dismissively. "Don't worry, I checked the data from the Normandy. You accidentally ate half a leftover dextro ration pack." the Quarian informed her. "It should come up again sometime this morning."

Liara looked positively green at that. "I think you might be right," she muttered, hand over her mouth as she sped off to the bathroom to hurl.

Tali didn't get hangovers. Her enviro-suit kept her hydrated and she was glad.

She still couldn't figure out the mystery of the Turian plushie though.

-.-.-.-

Elilia just waved her badge to the scanner at the door and waited patiently for the system to recognise her as C-Sec and to let her in already. The bar was closed, yes, but as a 'police' officer, she was allowed in outside business hours for security reasons.

That, and Shepard was apparently in there. That could only mean one thing; the Commander had gotten so drunk she'd been left in there as an Overnighter. And if she was an Overnighter, she probably wasn't keeping an eye on Tessa or any of the other three Tenno Anderson had reported to her.

The door finally opened, and Elilia strode in with confidence she knew she shouldn't have felt. Based on her lengthy discussions with Ordis in Tessa's Liset, Shepard had an extra-galactic, maybe even extra-universal clone by the name of Kara who was a warrior best-known for her temper.

"Elilia, hi!" Shepard smiled and waved. That threw Elilia off a little. Everything she knew about Shepard pointed to her not being the kind of person to smile and wave.

"Hello, Shepard," Elilia nodded, grabbing an empty seat and dragging it over to the Commander's table. Indeed 'Smokey' was there, his chest slowly rising and falling as though asleep. She couldn't tell thanks to his blank-faced helmet which reminded her of a featureless skull. "I see you have another one of the Tenno with you."

Shepard grimaced. "Yeah, he was here when I woke up," she explained. "Anyway, just like Tessa, he can understand English but can't speak it. I was hoping you could meld with him or something when he woke up."

Elilia nodded, rolling her eyes. Of course she would want her to meld with the Tenno. "I will," she promised. Though this time, she would keep it short and to the point; giving him the knowledge he needed of English and nothing else. She leaned on the table, bringing up a report on her omni-tool. "How have things been with Tessa?" she asked, hoping for the best.

Shepard whistled, leaning back against her couch. Elilia noticed with a raised eyebrow that the Lieutenant, Kaidan Alenko, was lying next to her, asleep. "Well, it's been disruptive as all hell." Shepard told her. "Apparently the other me drives horribly."

Elilia had seen both the Therum reports and Tessa's memories; she had no doubts that Shepard was a bad driver and that the Armature and Dropship kills were Tessa's. "I think it may be a trait you both share," she nodded, trying not to grimace. "You really do drive badly, Shepard."

Shepard just blew her off. "Whatever. Anyways, I spot Geth, Tessa summons four clones of herself, and just goes loose with that crossbow of hers. It fires explosive bolts," Shepard told her, very slowly and seriously. "It's like the arrows are made of C4!"

Elilia nodded, pulling a relevant memory from her meld with Tessa. "It's a Thunderbolt mod. All the arrows are explosive, but not all will trigger on impact. They will chain-react though."

Shepard stared at her, jaw hanging open in disbelief.

"You'll catch flies like that, Shepard." Elilia told her, reaching over to shut the Commander's mouth.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Shepard asked, still in shock.

Elilia shook her head. "You've been in the field with her. What do you think?" she asked, leaning back in her seat. "Okay, as far as I've been told, there's now four Tenno on the Citadel."

Shepard nodded. "Tessa, Smokey, tophatter, and that cute one with the coat," she counted each one off on her fingers. "Tessa and cutie are in the hotel next to Flux-"

Elilia cringed. "That cannot be good."

Shepard nodded enthusiastically. "I know, right? Smokey's here," she poked the Tenno in the shoulder, causing him to snort in his sleep and shuffle away a little. "And tophatter is probably somewhere in the Presidium."

Not knowing what Shepard meant by 'tophatter', Elilia raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"Trust me, you'll understand when you meet him." Shepard waved. "Is it okay if I leave you here with Smokey and Kaidan?" she asked, "I have to go find Anderson and see if the Council's gotten any more leads on Saren."

Elilia nodded, letting Shepard get up and leave.

"By the way, I like your new uniform." Shepard smiled as she left. "It's very flattering."

It was true, since the fiasco with Tessa, Elilia had gotten a promotion to 'Special Situation Executor', allowing her what basically amounted to C-Sec's SpecTRes. She'd exchanged her old officer's uniform for a custom-made light combat weave. The undersuit was tight and form-fitting, yet gracefully flowing and elegant as most Asari hardsuits were. Overtop she had a human-design trenchcoat, tailored for her by a friend. It could stop a bullet, and the fabric had an internal dusting of Eezo, allowing her to brush off biotic attacks with ease. And it had the nicest colour scheme, too; black accentuated with intricate and beautiful patterns of light-blue.

"Thanks," Elilia smiled. Shepard didn't hear her, but she felt the need to say it all the same. Smokey was just waking up, so she heaved him into the couch and sat next to him. "Hey, don't fight it, and just relax," she told him. He nodded, slowly, as though slightly unsure. She tried her best to look approachable, and asked him to disengage his helmet.

Smokey was very handsome. She would be quick. Language, nothing more.

Elilia touched their foreheads together, and whispered, "Embrace Eternity."

-.-.-.-

Kaidan woke up to see the Tenno kid's skull-like mask right in his face. "Hey," he grunted, scrambling back.

"Hey. I'm Zen." the kid held out his hand, which Kaidan shook. "You're Tessa's father, right?"

He shook his head. "Nope. I'm just his identical same-name twin." Kaidan yawned. It looked like late-morning.

Zen seemed to relax. "Well, that's a relief."

Kaidan smirked. "Let me guess; you're trying to date her or something that her real dad wouldn't approve of?"

"Uhh… something like that, maybe."

-.-.-.-

Garrus and Kress had decided to leave Tessa in the frozen bathtub for a while. It was around about five seconds before they'd decided to help her out of there that Shepard showed up, they swear!

Shepard shot glares at the two nervous beings standing in the doorway while contemplating how concerned she should be about the girl encased in a bathtub of ice shivering with blue lips and pale skin. "Anybody care to explain?" she growled, pointing her thumb at Tessa.

"Aheh… well… I- uh, Kress-"

"I wouldn't have done it if you hadn't been so enthusiastic about it. I was only joking."

Shepard's enraged growling got their attention. "I don't care right now," she ground out, "You're both going to be punished. Now someone figure out a way to help Tessa out of there!" she bellowed at them, urging them into action.

Garrus ran off to get blankets and things that he thought could help melt the ice while Kress simply walked over, dipped his hands into the solid ice as though it were no more than warm water, and lifted Tessa out, bridal style.

"Th-th-th-th-thanks m-m-m-m-mom," Tessa chattered, looking like she didn't know if she should punch Kress or hug him. In the end she decided to boop his nose.
With her fist.

"Hey," Kress looked at her like she was a misbehaving Kubrow puppy. Tessa cursed; she wasn't strong enough to do any damage to his smug little face.

Shepard reached out to touch Tessa, maybe hold her and help her get warm again, but the moment she touched the Warframe armour, her fingers turned blue and Shepard swore the ends had frostbit. "Ow, ow, ow," she muttered, sucking on her fingers to try warm them up again. "How cold are you?" she asked.

Kress shrugged. "Too cold. It'd be helpful if we had an Ember or-" Tessa glared at him and he paused, "Or maybe I shouldn't have frozen you in the first place."

"M-m-m-m-m-much b-b-b-b-b-bet-t-t-t-t-t-ter…" Tessa shivered. She reached for pile of towels and blankets while Shepard tried to warn Garrus not to touch her.

"You'll get frostbite." was what she told him. Of course, Garrus ignored her and figured out for himself what frostbite does to Turians.

Kress smiled but didn't smirk at the display. "Fascinating," he whispered, putting Tessa down to one side before laying out the thick duvet, putting Tessa on it, and wrapping it around her until she felt like a baby swathed in sheets again. At least it started to warm her up.

Shepard sighed. "That looks comfy," she smirked. "Anyways, the reason I'm here; Kress, I'd like to recruit you."

Kress nodded. "Sure."

Shepard blinked at him. "What?"

"I said sure. Now that I'm here, I'd like to see the rest of it. Apparently you have FTL capable of taking you to other solar systems- even the other side of the galaxy!"

"Well, at least you're excited about it." Shepard muttered. "Okay then. I'm not sure Elilia wants me to reveal the Tenno species-"

"Sub-species." Kress interrupted, sitting down on a seat Garrus had dragged in. "We're a sub-species of Human. A branch of the evolutionary tree, if you will."

The three of them were sitting in a triangle with Tessa cocooned in the middle, occasionally grunting, moaning, or wiggling. Her hair still had icicles in it.

"… yeeaaaah, let's go with that. Elilia probably doesn't want to reveal the Tenno to the Council or the galaxy at large yet, since all this shit with Saren is going down." Shepard continued, making funny motions with her hand. "And unfortunately, one of the Alliance Admirals was let in on the whole Tenno thing so in order to get paperwork across, we need to forge some identities for you. It's best if we just use the truth, though."

Garrus seemed to frown. The part of him that used to be a cop wanted to arrest Shepard just for conspiring to make false IDs. The other part of him really didn't want the Tenno to be caught. The whole of him was confused. "What do you mean by using the truth?"

Shepard glanced at him. "Well, they're from a colony that's really far off in the middle of bloody nowhere and have been 'living under a rock' their entire lives. I'm recruiting them because they have extensive combat experience and are prone to causing trouble." She sent an extra-deathy death-glare at Kress, who just smiled in return. Damn, it was hard to stay mad at that kid.

"Will you need planets and co-ordinates and such?" Kress asked, curious. He'd never needed an ID before.

"Actually, just names, lineage and a DNA sample would be required." Shepard shook her head. "I know the DNA is going to be an issue," she said, cutting off Kress before he could even talk. "We'll use something else. I know Tessa's parents are Kara Shepard and Kaidan Alenko, although we might need to make up someone else since… I'm not a parent."

Garrus chuckled. "You two adopted. To this day you two consider it your best impulse rescue ever. After finding her stranded and alone on her home colony, you took her under your wing and have been dragging her around with you ever since."

Shepard gave him a funny look. "Yeah? Since when did this happen?"

"A couple of days ago. Probably on a quick stop to claim a garden world you found by chance on the way back from the Eden Prime slaughter." Garrus was scarily convincing with this story. "Instead of claiming it for the Alliance, you discovered an isolationist colony of ninjas-" Shepard gave him an 'are you shitting me?' look. "-or a colony of people practicing some monk-like things that happened to involve ninja-like origins."

"Much better." Shepard grinned.

"Of course, you only realised this after finding Tessa, getting confused, finding her parents dead, and the poor child suffering complete memory loss regarding them and most of her life as a way of dealing with the grief."

"Does that happen?" Kress asked, confused. "Total memory loss?"

Garrus nodded sadly. "It's a kind of post-traumatic stress disorder that's more common than you think. Back to this grand scheme, though; you adopted her with budding future husband Kaidan-"

"WHOA whoa whoa there, Garrus," Shepard held her hands up, cringing slightly, "Did you just propose for Kaidan?"

Garrus blinked. "Oops. It's a Human thing that one of the couple proposes to the other member, right?"

"Yes, Garrus, that's normally how it goes. Do Turians do it differently?"

"Not really. Although it's quite common that everyone else knows the couple are going to get married long before they themselves do," he explained. "It's like the Human thing how sexual tension is only apparent to those who aren't suffering from it."

"That's not just a Human thing…" Shepard suppressed a smile. It left the corners of her mouth twitching upwards.

"No way."

"Yes way."

Kress groaned and buried his face in his hands. This was getting them nowhere.

"I don't like what you're implying, Shepard."

"Yes way because I've seen how you look at Tali."

"What has she got to do with this?"

"Face it, Vakarian, you have the hots for a Quarian!"

"Vakarian…" Kress muttered, thinking back to his days in the Origin System, "I knew a guy called Vakarian once."

Shepard and Garrus stopped their arguing to stare at him. "What happened to him?" they asked simultaneously, startling Kress.

"He died," Kress answered, wondering why they were so worked up about it. Garrus seemed to deflate at that answer, almost shrinking into a depressed ball. "What? He stayed behind so the rest of us could escape. Vakarian was one of the greatest heroes the Tenno know."

"Tell us more," Shepard whispered, moving over to Garrus to comfort him. Nobody likes to hear that alternate-universe-you died.

Kress went on, not realising how much pain he'd just caused. "Okay. He was a nice guy, heart of platinum and all that, hell of a shot with a sniper rifle." He paused, realisation in his eyes. "I actually still have his Vectis in my Liset. Mom gave it to me after he… sacrificed himself." he finished, quiet. "He was a male Mesa. Always wore a blindfold; said he liked he challenge."

Garrus chuckled sadly while Tessa squirmed. "Sounds about right." he murmured.

"He stayed behind to blow the bomb and destroy the Infestation. It didn't do much good, in the end, you can't really destroy the Infestation. But we got two years to prepare before it showed up again, and because of that we've managed to save dozens of colonies and millions of lives." Kress told them. "As for physical, he was a male Mesa, dark blue hair, black eyes, and… I think I have a picture of him without his helmet on…" Kress dug at his waist for a disk, lighting it up to show a surprisingly Human face with sharp, angular features.

"Holy shit, Garrus… you're hot." Shepard said, mostly to herself as she gazed at the picture in awe.

"Thanks." Garrus replied dryly, although he had to admit he did look good… for a Human.

Kress looked at them, confused. "I guess I can see the resemblance." He tilted his head, frowning. "And that's about it. He preferred the Vectis and Redeemer. He never really liked sidearms or melee weapons."

"Were you two good friends?" Shepard asked softly, rubbing Garrus's back.

Kress shook his head. "He died before I was born."

Shepard's eyes widened. I don't like where this is going… "So how do you know all this then?"

"My mother told me. Bellona Grace, Banshee." Kress said proudly, sitting up a little straighter. "One of the best singers in the Clan and easily the loudest."

Garrus seemed to drag himself out his funk, grabbing the disk from the floor and inspecting the face more closely. "So who was your father?" he asked, while Shepard mentally committed suicide.

Kress nodded to the hologram. "Him."

-.-.-.-

Thatch was still staring up into the heavens when the massive lizard-man sat down next to him.

"It's a beautiful sight, isn't it?" Thatch asked, lazily gesturing with one arm-rested hand.

"Yeah. I guess." the Krogan's gruff voice replied. "I see what you mean, it's just not my thing."

"To each his own." Thatch replied, staring at the beast. "Impressive scar," he nodded to the huge marking along the Krogan's face and crest. Somehow, in this strange place, he couldn't find himself to be bothered that he was talking to what was essentially a full-biological Rhino Warframe.

"Heh. That's a story for another time. I'm Wrex."

"Vladimir Thatch."

"That's a weird name, even for a Human." Wrex remarked, leaning back.

"I have been told it is quite uncommon, but it is still a name, and it is my own." Thatch told him, his eyes twinkling. "I suppose a name like Benezia is also uncommon among Humans?"

Wrex raised an eye-ridge at him. "Actually, I know a Benezia. She's an Asari Matriach though. And the enemy," he rumbled.

-.-.-.-

Tevos sat patiently, occasionally sipping very expensive and rather exquisite tea from a crystal cup while the two brutes beside her were fidgeting and moving and being annoying. "Sparatus could you please stop muttering?"

The Turian in question whipped his head around to glance at her. "She should be here by now."

Valern didn't look up from his datapad. "Shepard is on her way. We all knew when we picked her out as a Spectre candidate that she had a good soul and penance for helping others."

"True." Tevos nodded. "She works hard to save lives and it's been far too long since we had a Spectre as dedicated as her."

"Nihlus was just as good." Sparatus muttered, desperately wanting to get up and pace. "This is taking far too long." he growled, sending a vid-chat request to Shepard's omni-tool.

It pinged back after barely a moment, and the Council could see Shepard standing in what looked like a Nebulite Hotel suite, right next to Flux. "Yello?"

"Shepard, do you ever check who's calling you before answering?" Valern asked, finally looking up from his datapad to the display Sparatus had put on the coffee-table.

"Private ID." Shepard answered, rolling her eyes. "Honestly, you're the Council. Nobody's allowed to have your number, let alone know it's you when you're calling."

"Shall we move on?" Tevos suggested in such a way that nobody was going to argue. Except maybe Sparatus because he could be a complete iron-skull at times. "We've been reports of strange Humans wandering the Citadel, Shepard. At first the reports were similar, but now, there are several more descriptions."

Shepard did look a little bit less confident all of a sudden. "Uh… yeah. Did you want me to investigate it while I'm waiting for leads on Saren?"

Valern shook his head. "Oh, no, Shepard, we already know you've got one of these persons on your crew."

"Shit." Shepard muttered. "Well, what'd you plan to do about it anyway?"

The three Councillors looked at one another. They hadn't really planned any further than thinly veiled threats to get more information.

"We…" Tevos paused, not sure what to say next. "We would like to know more."

"'Kay…" Shepard turned to face somewhere off-screen. "KRESS! GET IN HERE!" she yelled, making the three wince. Damn, she could be loud when she wanted to be.

Sparatus did a double-take when he saw the grey-haired blind teenager walk into view. "What-"

"Yes?" Kress asked, obviously ignoring the Council for now. "You called?"

"Yeah. Council wants to talk to ya. I'm gonna go check on Tessa and Garrus, try not to start a war or anything." Shepard told him, before walking off-screen. "Oh and if you try insulting the Destiny Ascension again you will start a war."

Kress sighed. "Noted. Don't insult giant floating junkers in front of the junker's proud owners." he grumbled, before turning to the Council. "Hello." he smiled and waved. "I'm Kress."

"Greetings, Kress. I am Tevos, this is Valern and Sparatus. We make up the Citadel Council." Tevos informed him, doing her best to ignore what he said about the Asari Dreadnaught.

"Cool. I know you're an Asari, he's a Turian, but what's he?" Kress asked, pointing to each of them in turn.

Valern chuckled. "I am the Salarian Councillor." he said. "It's a pleasure to meet you. I assume you are Human, correct?"

Kress shook his head, frowning slightly. "No. I'm Tenno."

Tevos was more than a little shocked. A new species? One that looked even more ridiculously Human than Asari? "Tell us more," she said, trying to make herself sound inviting rather than demanding.

"Sub-species of Human, I guess." Kress shrugged. "We're just Humans who can survive the Void and have been infected with the Technocyte Virus. And survived that." Kress smiled. "What are you up to?" he asked softly.

"I would like to examine one of you," Valern stated, noting down something on his datapad. "New species are always interesting."

"How about no." Kress scowled, actually looking mad. "The last guy who tried to 'examine' one of us tortured and mutilated them before trying to convert them into his own personal attack dog. When she escaped, he just did away with the next Tenno and cannibalised their Warframe into his own personal robotic attack dog. Seriously, the Zanuka is a literal robotic attack dog."

"We wouldn't-"

"You would." Kress interrupted Tevos, glaring at her. Evidently, despite the way his eyes looked, he was most definitely not blind. "Or someone else will. Everyone turns on us eventually." He seemed to switch moods again instantly. "I'm not the person to discuss this with. As soon as the Solar Rail is set up and other Tenno start coming through-"

"Wait, there's going to be more of you?!" Sparatus interrupted, as did Valern.

"What is a Solar Rail and why does it need to be set up?"

Kress groaned. "A Solar Rail is an analogue to your Mass Relays, if what Tessa told me is true. And yes, there will be more Tenno. Back home, we're incapable of getting out of the Origin System. Here, though… we can escape. We can evacuate our civilians to safety, maybe even end the War!" he explained, looking more and more ecstatic about the idea the more he talked. "Of course, organisation will be paramount," he muttered, starting to pace. Unfortunately for the Council, this was followed by Kress simply leaving.

Sparatus looked to Valern. "Did you get any of that?"

-.-.-.-

Shepard left Kress to deal with the Council while she checked on Tessa and Garrus. Finding out that there was a Human(ish) version of him was a shock and a half. Finding out that he was not only dead but had also fathered the young man in the other room was almost enough to send the poor Turian into a nervous breakdown.

At least, that's what Shepard thought.

"So…" she started, crouching down next to Tessa, "How're you holding up, Garrus?"

"I'm fine. Absolutely fine." Garrus replied, a little too tensely to be 'absolutely fine'. "Now all I can think about is how the Spirits did you manage to deal with Tessa calling you her mother."

Shepard shrugged, dragging her fingers through Tessa's pink hair to dislodge icicles. "As far as I remember, it basically went 'you and me assault Chora's Den while I send her off with the Lieutenant away from me'."

"True." Garrus sighed. "I don't know if he sees it." he said, hunching over to hold his face in his hands.

"Sees what?"

Garrus shot her a glance. "That I'm his alternate father."

Shepard smirked. "At least you know you've got a good chance with some hot gal who can sing named Bellona, right?"

"And that I have a good chance to die a futile death trying to stop an invasion." Garrus growled at her. "And by then, I'll have a kid that I never knew."

Shepard winced. "Well at least you'll get laid first, right?"

"SHEPARD, CAN YOU TRY BEING SERIOUS FOR JUST ONE MOMENT?!" Garrus nearly screamed at her.

Shepard growled, stood up, and leaned over him. "Look, Vakarian, this kid is practically grown up already. You wanna know what I'm in line to deal with in Tessa?" she jerked her thumb at the sleeping Tenno girl cocooned in blankets behind her, "Apparently, despite only being like three years younger than me, she hasn't hit puberty yet."

Garrus stared at her, looking only the tiniest smidge guilty.

"Yeah. Kress? The most he probably wants from you is a friend. Someone to look up to. He's smart, curious, and damn blunt." Shepard poked the Turian in the chest repeatedly, "Chances are he sees you as an alien uncle. Brother of his father. You don't even know if he wants to spend time with you yet."

Garrus desperately wanted to say something, and was looking around nervously, but Shepard was on a roll here.

"So if you want a parenting challenge, try adopting Tessa. That'll be a real handful for you." Shepard wasn't angry any more, but she needed to drive her point in. Not that she even remembered what the point was by now. "Suck it up, snipes, because we've got bigger problems to deal with."

She had the scariest feeling that there was someone in the doorway. Someone smiling. "Shepard," damnit, how much had Kress heard? "As much as I would like to accompany you and Uncle Garrus-" said Garrus made a startled mewling sound- "on missions and such, I'm afraid I may have to stay here. The Council seem to be annoyed at me… and I would like to stay and wait for the Solar Rail to arrive."

Shepard sighed and sat down next to Garrus. "How much did you hear?"

"I wasn't really listening until you said my name." Kress told her. "The Council is still on the… thing." He jerked his head to where the omni-tool screen was still sitting on a table.

"Damnit…" Shepard got up to deal with them, before she had a thought. "Kress, if you can get that shirtless one and tophatter to stay to deal with this Solar Rail thing, you could come with us on the hunt for Saren."

Kress thought about it. "I suppose. I'll ask Zen to record the event for me," he smiled, nodding. "It's a pleasure to join you, Commander."

-.-.-.-

Please, review! I love to hear your feedback (good and bad). It helps me figure out what I'm doing wrong, what I'm doing write, and what I sorely need to work on :P

And yes, I am very sorry for using Elilia to mind-meld again. Breaking the fourth wall here but yes, it was only languages because Zen is goddamn lazy when it comes to languages.

~Pyro

Sneak peeks

"How did you get an Orokin Cipher?" - "It was in the Prothean Vault."

"We cannot remember anything from before the Cryosleep, Kara, much less what the Sentients we were fighting were."

-.-.-.-