A/N: Hey guess who's still alive andistotallygonnaupdateLifeMatesoonIpromise

Three words.

She'd been staring at it for a good hour at least now, and that was all the information she had deciphered.

It was three words, and she couldn't read any of them.

"I...don't think it's going to change no matter how hard you stare at it, sis."

Sara sighed, ignoring her brother for the moment. She did glance away long enough to check the time, seeing that it was now 1:07am. She and her brother had been up since 9:00am the previous day, excited beyond reason for what would be happening that night at midnight. It was their twentieth birthday as of an hour ago now, and their marks had appeared, as happened to nearly everyone when they turned twenty. Around 11:30pm Scott had come into Sara's room grinning and rambling about some vid he'd seen. He tended to babble when he was nervous, whereas Sara was the opposite and became nearly silent. The both knew he was there so they could see their marks for the first time together, as they'd planned since they were kids, but both chose to ignore it. The prospect of finally seeing the names of their soulmates was suddenly right there in front of them, and it proved more nerve-wracking than either of them had thought.

At one minute to midnight, Scott's strained chatter finally faded, and they shared a look before holding up their arms, palms turned upward, waiting for the marks. And to their surprise, neither had been in an Earth language.

"At least yours means something," Sara snapped irritably, then winced at how petulant she sounded.

"So does yours," Scott pressed, unoffended. "Just because you don't recognize the language doesn't mean it doesn't exist." He glanced again at his own mark, indecipherable currently, but unmistakably Turian. Sara suspected he was itching to see if he could translate it, but was holding off due to her dilemma. Good, she thought, indulging in some selfishness for a moment. This was supposed to be a big moment, and of course fate had gone and mucked it up for her. She resisted the childish urge to stamp her foot.

She heaved another sigh. "Okay sure, but what does that mean? Not recognizing the language? I mean...Scott what if they're on the other side of the universe or something? They may be my soulmate, but what if we never get to meet?"

"Everyone meets their soulmate someday," Scott said quietly.

"Not everyone," Sara corrected, trying for a gentler tone. Scott didn't deserve her ire. "Some people never get marks at all, and every now and then you hear the odd story of someone whose mark disappeared or something." It was rumored that if the mark disappeared before you met your soulmate, it meant they had died, but it was difficult to prove. "And hell, maybe it doesn't mean anything," she continued miserably. "Maybe it's just...pointless scribbles." Appalled to realize she was fighting tears, Sara angrily turned her arm away, tucking the mark out of sight.

Scott was silent.

Minutes passed by, the tension thick enough to cut with a knife, until Scott began fidgeting, his curiosity beginning to get the best of him. Feeling guilty, Sara turned toward him.

"I'm sorry Scott, I ruined this whole thing for you."

"Oh, no you didn't," he immediately started protesting and she held up a hand to stop him.

"I did a little. And I'm sorry. Just accept the apology, 'cause you're not getting another one out of me." That coaxed a small smile from him. "C'mon, let's see if we can figure out what yours says," she suggested, hopping up from the bed so they could do some research.

Scott accepted her hand when she held it out to help, pulling himself upright. "Yeah, that sounds good," he replied, clearly trying not too sound too excited for his sister's sake, but the brightness of his eyes betrayed him. Not that Sara could blame him. As they slipped quietly through the house to the family terminal, Scott piped up. "You know Mom's gonna ask about the marks first thing in the morning, right?"

"Yep."

"Do you know what you're gonna tell her?"

"Nope."

There was another tense moment of silence before Sara wryly asked "Think Dad will ask?"

"...Probably not."

Two years later, still reeling from the death of their mother, Sara and Scott sat in her bedroom once again, now devoid of all furniture save for the mattress. Tomorrow they would board Ark Hyperion, go into stasis, and hurtle silently through dark space for over 600 years before exploring an entirely new galaxy.

To say they were nervous would be an understatement.

Scott was uncharacteristically quiet, and had been since their mother had passed. It had been so odd to Sara she'd found herself talking more, in an unconscious effort to compensate for the silence. Her words often came out awkward and fumbling, but she felt the need to be strong for her brother, and he seemed to appreciate it. She reached up and squeezed his shoulder.

"...Maybe you'll meet Vetra there," she said weakly, unsure if that was at all what he wanted to hear. Relief bloomed when he gave her a little smile and touched his arm where the mark hid beneath his shirt.

"Yeah...and maybe you'll meet whoever that is," he offered, nodding to her arm where the edge of the mark could be seen peeking from behind the fabric. She tugged on her sleeve self-consciously.

"Yeah, maybe." Her response sounded half-hearted even to her own ears, and she knew she hadn't fooled Scott.

Normally Scott would have sighed and told her for possibly the ten-thousandth time that her soulmate was out there somewhere, but his quiet spell remained. Sara thought of their father, Ellen's name written in elegant cursive on his left arm, the direct opposite of the plain no-nonsense script of his name on hers, and wondered if he had been as baffled by his own mark. Or if he had had the same quiet confidence that it had given Scott, knowing his soulmate was out there somewhere, regardless of how different his mark seemed to imply she was.

Sara leaned her head on Scott's shoulder, thinking of their mother, and felt Scott rest his jaw on her hair. And if she felt tears drip onto her skin, she pretended not to notice, just as he ignored the ones staining his shirt.

This had to be some kind of joke. It was just too unfair. Too cruel.

She'd traveled for six hundred years to a new galaxy, and hopefully, a new start, already short a family member, only to have her brother go into a coma and their father give his life for hers. Leaving her completely alone with the expectations of her entire species on her shoulders.

And now, she was standing here in front of her brother's soulmate.

"Vetra, Vetra Nyx," she'd said, as if the name wouldn't stun Sara to her very bones. Of course, there was no reason for Vetra to know they would, but Sara found herself unexpectedly angry, furious, and wanting to throw blame at whomever she could. It was just so unfair, and she couldn't think of a single thing she had done in her life to warrant karma of this caliber. She gets these meaningless scribbles on her arm instead of the name of her soulmate, meets the woman destined for her brother, who she can't even talk to, and she still alone, and, and...

She wants very badly to hit something.

After a very brief introduction to Vetra's sister, Sara's new crewmate launches into an explanation of how she will be of use on the ship, and Sara feels a bit bad about her earlier anger (though she reserves the right to change her mind at any time until everything in her life stops figuratively exploding.) Vetra reveals a surprising vulnerable side, eager to assure Sara that she will be pulling her weight. It makes her wonder how old the turian is.

An awkward silence falls on them, at least on Sara's part. She peers at Vetra, trying to remember how exactly it is that Turians connect to their soulmates, when she breaks the silence. "Hey, did we...meet in the Milky Way once or something? You seem really familiar."

Sara blinks and shakes her head. "No, I don't think so." She bites her tongue to keep from saying that she would remember too, considering Vetra's name was on her brother's wrist.

"Hm. Must just be my imagination." She shrugs and turns away, the conversation coming to a natural close.

Halfway to her new quarters, Sara suddenly remembers that Turians hear their soulmate's voice like a song in their head, and she wonders just how much she sounds like Scott.