Title: Shepard's Rule

Author: Alex Ryzlin Gold

Fandom: Mass Effect

Pairing/s: Mention Fem!Shep/Liara

Rating: Teen

Warnings: Swearing, and lots of it.

Spoilers: Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 (including the omega DLC)

Disclaimer: I do not own.

Shepard knew that Aria T'Loak would eventually cause her problems the moment she walked into Afterlife with her crew. Though crew was a bit of a hyperbole as Shepard hadn't managed to recruit a lot of people to her cause yet.

She'd only met Zaeed five minutes prior, so 'crew' was being used liberally when applied to him. Anyway, he was off somewhere else, finishing business before he boarded the Normandy. Miranda had stayed on board the Normandy to finish off some work despite Jane's request that she take a bit of time off. Jacob had wanted a drink and some relaxation, but for the moment his need for a drink was overridden by his need to protect Jane. He hadn't been too pleased with the idea of Jane going dockside in Omega for the first time with only Jack as company. Jack had wanted a real drink in a real club surrounded by real music and real people. Despite the fact that she had been in stasis for the past few years and completely oblivious to her own existence, she still complained about the fact that she hadn't been able to drink anything that whole time and jumped at the idea of going ground side in Omega.

People watched them as they moved through the lower level of Afterlife; they stood out horribly. Their armour was a bit too nice to be mercenary, and their weapons were a bit too well worn to be just for show.

Shepard wasn't surprised by Aria's apparent lack of interest in her. It was clearly an act to prove that Aria was the one with the power. She had been helpful, a little too helpful to not be interested and Shepard knew she'd most likely expect some sort of compensation when everything was over and the galaxy wasn't in dire threat of being destroyed. When someone well known to uphold high morals and a fierce duty to save people came to the roughest place in the Milky Way, you paid attention. Particularly when you ran Omega.

What Shepard hadn't expected was Aria's blatant staring at Jack. Admittedly Aria was actually kind of subtle about it, but to Jane it was pretty obvious. The staring could be explained, Jack dressed pretty unusually for a human and her tattoos were exquisitely done. But Aria a little parting shot that showed that she knew exactly who Jack was.

"Make sure you control that pet experiment of yours."

Only Jane heard it and it only took her a second to decide that Jack was never coming to Omega again. Aria's interest would only lead to trouble for Jack.

/-/-/-/-/

"Shepard!"

Jane sighed as Jack called out to her. She wasn't surprised; she had just banned Jack from disembarking the Normandy. They hadn't gone back to Omega since the first time when Mordin and Garrus had been recruited, and Shepard had hoped that they wouldn't have to. But now they were hunting down Samara's daughter and there was no other option. The rest of her crew was huddled at the door of the briefing room, having been in the middle of leaving when Jack yelled at her. They were acting like they were trying not to listen in, but were doing a poor job of it. Some of them had given her weird looks when she requested that Jack not enter Omega, but mostly they had accepted that she had a good reason. Jack hadn't.

"Jack."

"Why the fuck are you grounding me like some under aged brat? I mean, did I do something wrong? You can't just tell me that I can't -"

Jane pinched the bridge of her nose. "I'm not trying to punish you Jack. I need you to trust me with this; I think I've earned that."

"Shepard…" Jack sighed. "Fuck it. Fine, I'll stay onboard. Just don't make a habit of it."

Jane glared at Miranda when she opened her mouth to say something. Sometimes Jack and Miranda's rivalry was funny, most of the time it was annoying as hell. Jack pushed through everyone and presumably headed to her room under engineering. Everyone but Samara left shortly after.

"Are you ready, Shepard? Morinth will be tricky to corner and you seem distracted by whatever is happening with Jack."

Jane sat down heavily in one of the many chairs in the briefing room and sighed heavily. Samara scared her sometimes; she was incredibly powerful and completely unemotional when it came to the Justicar code. There was no give or take, just the code and the inflexibility worried Shepard a bit. But Samara was an asari Matriarch and Jane had found that she gave excellent advice.

"Would you like to talk about it?"

Shepard rubbed her eyes. "The first time we went to Omega, Aria called Jack a 'pet experiment'. She knows who Jack is, and that means that she's looked into Jack's history before this whole thing with Cerberus began. It's not too surprising, the prison they held her in was run by the Blue Suns, and if they wanted to get into Aria's good books, they might tell her about Jack. A powerful human biotic who would probably join whoever freed her, who wouldn't want that?"

"Jack is with you now, do you really think she will leave to join Aria?" Samara asked calmly. Shepard knew that Jack and Samara hadn't really talked and that part of that was so that Samara didn't have to go against her Justicar code when Jack did something less than legal.

"At one point I thought there was the possibility that she would leave the Normandy the first chance she got, but not anymore. Now I worry that Aria will see Jack and become interested in her, and that Jack won't have a choice in the matter. I need Aria to forget that Jack exists, and that it's going to happen if Jack spends her time getting drunk in Afterlife."

Samara tilted her head to the side. "Why don't you tell Jack this?"

"Because Jack is a stubborn son of a bitch who will disregard my concerns and flaunt the fact that she exists to Aria to prove I'm over reacting." Shepard grinned awkwardly. "It's probably what I'd do actually. Samara, can I ask for your help with this?"

"What do you need Shepard?"

"If Morinth is on Omega, Aria will know. I want you to come with me to see her. I want Aria to know that whenever the Normandy docks at Omega she has to be careful because I have a Justicar on my ship and that going after Jack is a bad idea."

"Of course Shepard. A peaceful solution is always something to aim for."

/-/-/-/-/

Aria made a few sarcastic remarks about Samara accompanying Shepard but gave them the information they needed to find Monrith.

"Next time bring the other biotic, she's a lot more to my tastes." Aria sneered.

Jane stopped at the top of the stairs down into the lower level of Afterlife. She nodded at Samara, indicating that she should downstairs.

"I'll be down shortly."

Shepard turned to Aria. "You have your rule, Aria and I respect that. This is your station and I will follow your rule, as long as you understand and follow mine."

Aria laughed. "What? 'Don't fuck with Shepard'?"

"No." Shepard clenched her fist, making blue sparks of biotic powers flicker across her hands. "Don't fuck with Shepard's crew. I've died Aria; it's not as scary as you might think. The asari I love is so distant with me that I don't even know what to do about it anymore. Aside from making sure that the Collectors and the Reapers are stopped somehow I really don't have much to look forward to. The only things I have to lose are my mission and my crew. So I'm warning you, don't fuck with my crew Aria. Don't fuck with Miranda or Jacob. Don't fuck with Garrus, Tali, or Grunt. Don't fuck with Mordin, or Thane, or Zaeed. Don't fuck with Samara, Kasumi, or anyone else that decides to help me. But most of all, don't fuck with Jack. Leave her alone."