Shepard threw herself into her bed and let out a tortured groan as she felt all the aches from the last mission flare up at the sudden movement before easing as she sank into the soft material. If she felt like lying to herself, she would say that the last mission escalated far beyond what she had been prepared for and that was what left her feeling so worn out...but it would still be a lie.

The price for Kasumi joining the crew was a heist at the home of one of the more influential gun-runners in Citadel space. It was also something that needed to be taken care of quickly since Kasumi was planning on using Donovan Hock’s own party to get access to his vault.

It wasn’t...the worst mission she had ever been on.

Sneaking around using her almost forgotten infiltrator training she hadn’t really used since N-school had been kinda fun. It helped that Kasumi was good enough that Shepard really only needed to talk to some people to get a voice print or get her hands on some DNA for the vault lock. Things that Kasumi could still probably do, but was made easier by Shepard being allowed to just walk around the estate as an invited guest.

Being found out once they were in the vault and having to fight her way out, eventually needing to take down a Mantis Gunship on foot -something she was starting to get far too much practice with- was significantly less fun. Especially since the master thief was her only backup and not the Sith Lord that would’ve brought the whole thing down and made it seem effortless.

Shepard sighed.

And there was the real reason she felt stressed out. Ever since their little falling out after meeting with the Council Shepard had avoided Revan as much as possible, mostly out of embarrassment.

Once she had some time to cool off she realised her insults at the Elven woman had been over the line. Revan wasn’t necessarily wrong that the Batarian Hegemony needed to be controlled before the Reapers arrived. Their slave raids and pirate attacks certainly hadn’t made them many friends in the intergalactic community and Shepard wasn’t naive enough to think the Reapers attacking would mean everyone would just forget about decades of attacks, but the thought of dragging innocent civilians into the firing line just to remove a threat went against every instinct she had.

Still, that was no excuse to hold Revan personally accountable for the situation especially when Systems Alliance admirals were likely thinking along similar lines. It was one of the reasons she never wanted to get a desk job. You would be forced to make calls based on numbers rather than what you believed was right.

None of that thinking made it any easier to actually bring herself to apologise to the Sith because in many ways she wasn’t sorry. Sure she knew why Revan was planning to do what she said, but Shepard wasn’t going to endorse that kind of thinking at all. The whole ‘breaking eggs’ mentality only meant that others would be paying the price for decisions based on goals that could be solved in other ways even if they would take longer or be more expensive.

Shepard sighed again.

She was thinking in circles. She knew she needed to apologise, but couldn’t actually bring herself to do so.

’Hi Revan. Sorry I called you evil, but I still think you're evil for going to war with a bunch of slavers to force the morons on the Council to actually prepare for the invasion of sentient starships coming to kill us all. You should just give us all your technology because we have definitely proven that we can be responsible enough to take things seriously.’ She snorted. Yeah, that would go over well.

Nothing she could do about it for now. Shepard just resolved herself to avoiding Revan for a bit longer until she could think of a way to make her point without straining their relationship any further. Now she just wanted to nap and recover from the...last...mission…

Jane Shepard drifted off to sleep before she could even finish her thought.

-o-

Revan was happily tapping away at a datapad while she finished inventorying the last crate the Normandy crew had recovered from her crashed ship. There were only a few more datapads to sort through and from what she could tell there wasn’t anything incredibly important on them. Some holovids, a couple recordings, and some kind of journal that Revan would go through when she had a minute but for now she would just be glad she finally finished going through everything. She had enough parts to throw together a basic fabber and a couple other tools as soon as she was away from Cerberus and their attempts to steal her stuff.

She stopped their efforts for now by coating several of the crates with a contact adhesive. It made it physically impossible to open without telekinesis, but the Force made such issues irrelevant. Revan also had fun acting like she hadn’t noticed when one of the crew had gotten his hand stuck or his two friends trying to unstick him when she walked in the room. The three crewmen had stayed perfectly still for over an hour before she grew bored and left again. She released him later and reapplied the adhesive, but only after Miranda had been forced to request her assistance.

“Oh, Revan! Do you have a moment?”

Revan looked up to see Yeoman Chambers standing nearby. The human seemed flustered and lightly out of breath. She must have hurried down here for something important then.

“How can I help you, Yeoman?”

“The Illusive Man is waiting with some important information regarding our mission for you and Commander Shepard, but she used her command access to shut down the elevator to her quarters and you are the only one available with the clearance to override the lockdown at the moment.”

“I see, but why didn’t you just ask EDI to relay that to me or call the terminal?”

Yeoman Chambers smiled awkwardly, “You, uh, disabled her terminal and speakers after the last time she interrupted you.”

That was still disabled? Revan would’ve sworn the crew would fix that once she was distracted for a few hours. They must be trying not to annoy her anymore if they were willingly leaving their droi- AI unrepaired and just sent a crew member to speak with her.

“Is that so… anyways, I’ll retrieve the Commander then. Thank you for relaying the message Yeoman Chambers.”

“Oh, ah, yes!” the young woman stammered. “But, uh, you can just call me Kelly. We aren’t in the same hierarchy afterall.” Revan found it almost cute how much the redhead projected her adoration for some fictional near-human race onto Revan herself. Not enough to take advantage of it, but it was amusing how twisted up her dedication to her job as ship councilor/spy and her shallow crush made her at times.

Revan patted the Yeoman on the shoulder as she walked by. “Of course Kelly. Thank you again.”

The Sith Lord smiled internally as the light contact and thanks was enough to cause Kelly to flush lightly. Poor girl was going to be crushed if she ever found out her Cerberus bosses were using her open personality and desire to help others to find weaknesses for the entire crew.

Not long after, Revan found herself in front of the door to the Captain’s Quarters and punched in her access codes to bypass the lock on it. The insides weren’t what she would consider for personal quarters, and she wanted the idiot that thought an aquarium had any place on a warship to get his head examined, but it was tasteful enough that Revan had no other complaints. She did make a note that the Commander seemed to be a fan of model building and resolved to get one in case she ever needed an apology gift.

The woman herself was sprawled on her back, spread out over a fairly large bed and deep asleep. Even after a light shake the human remained unconscious.

“Wake up Commander, we have an urgent call coming in.” Another shake proved to be a bit more effective as the human started to wake up.

“Nooo~, I dun wanna be a Commander. I’ll be Jane, you be da C’mmandr.” she slurred, still mostly asleep.

“Well Jane, I can be the Commander but I still need you to wake up and come with me.” Revan said, amused at the childish whining.

“Nnnnggggh.”

Revan sighed and reached out again, intending to shake the human awake. She wasn’t expecting Shepard to grab her wrist and pull her along as Shepard rolled to face the other direction. Caught off balance and surprised, Revan collapsed onto the bed where she was quickly pulled into an embrace.

“Oh dear, I thought Yeoman Chambers was the one with a crush. What is she going to think when she finds out about this?” Revan said dryly once the shock of Shepard’s action wore off.

“S’okay, she c’n join too. Yer both pretty ‘nough for it.” Shepard mumbled. There was a beat of silence and then green eyes snapped open in horror before meeting a pair of greatly amused violet ones.

“...Revan?”

“Yes Jane?”

“Kill me.”

Revan chuckled, rolling back off the bed and out of Shepard’s embrace. “Perhaps another time, we have a call to be on. Take some time to straighten up, I’ll wait outside.”

The Spectre hid her face between her hands and mumbled something inaudible but nodded. Revan decided the Commander was definitely awake enough now and made her way to the door.

-o-

“Shepard, I think we have them.” the Illusive Man said enthusiastically once Revan and Shepard made it to the Q.E.C.

“Horizon, one of our colonies out in the Terminus Systems, has just gone silent. If it isn’t under attack, it soon will be. Has Mordin delivered the countermeasure for the Seeker Swarms?”

“Not yet.”

“Let’s hope he works well under pressure. There’s something else you should know…” T.I.M. took a drag from his cigarette. “...one of your former crew, Ashley Williams, is stationed on Horizon.”

“Ash? Last I checked she was Alliance, what is she doing out in the Terminus Systems?”

“Officially it's an outreach program to improve Alliance relations with the colonies. But they're up to something, and if they sent Chief Willaims there it must be big. I suggest you take it up with her.”

“The Collectors just happen to pick a colony with one of my former crew? I don’t buy it.”

T.I.M. waved off Shepards concern. “It shouldn't be a surprise the Collectors are interested in you. Especially if they are working with the Reapers. They might be going after her to get to you.”

“Then we should send a message to the Citadel. The Alliance can send us reinforcements.” Shepard said, crossing her arms.

“No, not until you investigate. I don’t want the Alliance getting in our way. Once you have the situation under control, I’ll send the message personally.” Unfortunately T.I.M. also had the authority to block communications with Citadel receivers so Shepard couldn’t even go behind his back.

“Fine. Send the coordinates, we’ll head there right away.”

“One more thing. Revan, I’ve heard you’re interested in learning more about VI technology in our galaxy. We have an outpost dedicated to researching new methods I’d like you to stop by after you investigate Horizon. I’m sure it would be useful in finding ways to integrate the technology you brought with you to the systems we have here.”

Revan didn’t miss the attempt to drive a wedge between her and Shepard. It might’ve been more effective if she had any intentions of actually working for Cerberus but as it stood it was just a feeble plot.

“If Shepard wants to head that direction after the investigation I’ll be happy to look. But let’s wait on making any more plans until after this mission.”

“Very well, this is the most warning we’ve ever had you two, good luck.”