Ship Manifesto turned fic idea: Not-Pathfinder Ryder & Exiled-from-Kadara Reyes Vidal

Imagine Pathfinder Ryder lets Reyes Vidal live in the events of High Noon, but still takes Sloane's side. Imagine that Reyes has to flee Kadara and start anew somewhere else. In the Heleus cluster we know, there aren't that many places to start anew if you've been exiled from the exiles. So he goes deeper into Angaran space, or Kett spaces, in order to try one more time to BE someone. Maybe he's a bit mad at Ryder, but imagine that his time with Ryder awakened something in him, a desire to do something that's MEANINGFUL, so the anger mellowed out over time and by the time of this story, while he may have some wistfulness about Pathfinder Ryder to him, he's determined to forge his own path.

Enter the Ryder sibling who is not Pathfinder. In my case, that would be Sara, but it works just as well with Scott. After the events on Meridian, the erstwhile victory over the Archon's Kett - but not over the Kett overall - and also quite some bit of physical therapy to make up for all her time basically in a coma, she's itching to do something, to go outside, have adventures and see this new galaxy. She was looking forward to it, and maybe there's a bit of sibling rivalry involved as well, so she's not exactly looking forward to joining his crew on the Normandy under his command. She, too, wants to forge her own path. So when another Pathfinder is looking for a crew of her own just when Sara has a full medical clearance (with pain meds and anticonvulsive meds because her nervous system is still impacted by having been a pain capacitor for a Kett), Sara jumps at the chance to join her.

There she is now, charting the Scourge with Vederia and her new crew. The Scourge, where Reyes has been ferreting out Kett hide-outs and giving the data to the Angara, and that's where they meet.

They both feel like they're lagging behind, everybody they care about is doing their own thing, and only they either haven't had the chance or missed it to make an impact, to shape the world they're part of. (They're both wrong about this of course, but that's how they feel.) They'd both respect Pathfinder Ryder deeply, but it wouldn't do them any good to keep close to him, so it's a complicated relationship, with some things that need clearing up.

Sara & Reyes would make good allies, at first, working towards the same goal but with different teams, so I imagine they keep running into each other, maybe saving each other a few times. The tension is there from the beginning, they get to know each other in the field, under fire, while sneaking into parked Kett ships, and maybe there's a quick kiss or snog in there somewhere, but they can't really be together, not when they've got things to do, not when they're after the Kett, who, after the loss of first their Kett-making facility on Voeld and then of their leader in this cluster, focus all the more on their military advances. They're still taking prisoners, even though they can't turn them into Kett right now - instead, they're rounding them up in large ships to jump them to their home base.

When Sara gets intel that Reyes has been taken prisoner by the Kett, she goes after him, and with her Vederia and her crew. During this, they find out some secrets the Kett leadership have hidden even from their own people … secrets which could turn the tides of this war and finally bring peace to the Heleus cluster.

Which would definitely make both Sara and Reyes feel relevant and accomplished, and would make a relationship forged in fire, the stuff legends are made of.