Prologue

In the silent hallways of the Citadel apartment complex, Eruvian Tor stood before his home calm and collected as always, though what he felt inside was anything but. As a turian he was taught from childhood not to fear, to remain stoic and level headed no matter the situation. Within the game they called 'war' losing any of these features was equivalent to raising an invisible white flag that no one but death itself could see. The height of battle was his joy, the adrenaline rushing through his veins his life.

But ever since he had joined the ranks of the diplomats, the times where he would join his brothers and sisters in battle have lessened considerably. He was starting to forget things, minor but important details of the war: The sound of grenades hovering through the sky; The directions he needed to swerve in order to dodge that one bullet that would be his fast-tickets to the ranks of the Spirits; The vital seconds of opportunities that will decide the outcome of the entire battle. He couldn't even remember the sensation of a gun weighing on his arms. They were fading from his memories, becoming dulled to his senses, an antistatic being applied to him ever so slowly, a drop at a time.

Despite this though, even as all his talents and skills seeped out of him like a bottle slowly leaking from its pin sized hole, it would be long before he lost his touch with the soldier inside him. He still could tell when he was being watched, when he was being followed. And right now, yes, he was definitely being followed.

This wasn't the amateur skills of a stalker-ish paparazzi who couldn't hear their own footstep if they were wearing tap-shoes inside an echoing hallway, or of those who bathed in their own delusions that their often too wide figure could hide behind a foot wide lamp post. No, this was far more cunning, more skilled and experienced. This was a work of a trained professional. A military trained professional.

It was subtle at first, so much so that Eruvian doubted that even if he was still a soldier in active duty he would have been able to notice. There were moments in the past months when he would simply stop as though jumping at the sudden pin prick of a bug's bite, suddenly realizing the voice at the back of his mind was shouting, screaming like a madman behind a jail cell, trying to tell him something, to warn him. He would often stop to scan his surrounding, look at each individual around him, every building, behind every plants and corner, and he would frown when he couldn't decipher any oddities anywhere. But the uncomfortable feelings remained, as though a foul, festering glob of sludge was squirming at the pit of his stomach.

Eventually, however, he would let it go. Despite feeling as though the whole world was snickering behind his back, Eruvian couldn't dwell on the notion without any solid proof. There were much more important matters that required his attention. Every time, he ignored the sensation, brushing it off as nothing more than his senses acting up due to his long absence from a good gun fight. And every time he believed his own words that it was, stomping down on his on instincts until they were numbed to his own soul.

That is, until now.

Compared to the times before, when the presence following Eruvian felt like an ant shuffling at the corner of his eyes, what he felt now was comparable to a colossal sized quire singing before him the human's religious hymn of 'Hallelujah.' His follower was flaunting their presence to him like a child bragging about his new toy. Yet, despite how obvious their presence was, or how much he searched, Eruvian could not locate his follower. His follower was toying with him.

Anger surged from his guts, a primal anger born as an instinctive defense against his rising fears. There was only one reason why his stalker would be exposing themselves to him: it was the last day they could enjoy his frustration, his suffering. After today, their job would be done. And so would he. So why not play with the mouse before sinking their teeth in its throat?

Sadistic bastards.

Eruvian was egotistical and a bit of a bragger if he had to admit, but he wasn't delusional. He knew he wasn't going to survive the night. Not with his skills. Running away now would be pointless. But the thought wasn't even in his mind at the moment. He had to act fast, make sure his wife will be okay after his death, pass his work down to those who were able, make sure he didn't die for nothing. And perhaps then, he might be able to confront his follower, his assassin as a true turian should: face death head on, and die gloriously in battle, struggling till his last breathe for victory.

Yes, Eruvian thought to himself. That would be good.

With that last thought, the turian diplomat immediately went to action.

With a swift flick of his hand, Eruvian opened the door to his apartment and sauntered into his home for the past five years with firm determination. The moment he walked in he was greeted by the form of his wife, a beautiful human whose long titanium blonde hair and jewel like green eyes captured his heart from the moment they met. She was placing dinner on the table just in time for his arrival, just as always.

Four months they've been married with each other. It was so short, he wished he had more time if only enough to let him tell her how much he loved her. A sense of solemn regret escaped the turian's heart as fast as it came. Ignoring his wife's warm welcome he turned to his study and stomped his way to his computer where he immediately began packing all the files he had collected over the past years into a single folder.

"Ruvi?" Elizabeth Palmer-Tor entered the study confused, uncertainty marring her smooth lilting voice. "Is something the matter?"

For a moment Eruvian ignored her, far more focused on the work at hand. But soon his emotions got the better of him and he began speaking. "I messed up, Eli." He said simply, neither his tone nor expression betraying the urgency he felt. Being his wife though, the blonde woman felt it in her gut that something was direly wrong. "I should have been more discrete. They've hired a hitman on me. And the job will be finished by the end of today."

Elizabeth stood wide-eyed, absolutely stunned at what she had been just told. Her mind reeled at the information. Was this a joke? Someone had hired a hitman on her husband? He's going to be killed? "Wait, Ruvi." She spoke, her voice breaking with shock. "I don't understand what you're saying. Why would anyone want to... to kill you? You're just an ordinary diplomat."

"Just a diplomat? That hurts, Eli." Eruvian said with a light chuckle. Jokes in such a situation Eruvian? You're wife's turning you into another regular cocky human.

"That isn't funny Eruvian!" Elizabeth spoke in a panic ridden tone, beads of tears now flowing down her cheeks.

"Isn't it? Well, I guess I still have much to learn about humans." Eruvian gave a small pause as another wave of regret consumed his form. "A shame that I won't live long enough to do so."

A cry escaped Elizabeth at his words, but Eruvian ignored it and began explaining in his usual stoic tone, "I'm not just an ordinary diplomat Eli. I've been running a solo mission to dig up information regarding a terrorist organization. Bunch of xenophobic bastards running live experiments on captured turians, asari, krogan, just about anything that's not human."

"Cerberus." Elizabeth finished, a dark shadow clouding over her tear stained face.

"Yes." Eruvian confirmed somberly. "I know I talked about them to you like they were just bunch of lowly pirates who hate 'aliens' but the truth is they are so much bigger than that. It took me years to figure it out, to link the facts together, but I did it in the end. I've figured out why no one could pin them down before: They've been pulling strings within the Citadel. They got influences in high places." Eruvian dismissively waved his hands towards the screen. "These files. They're not everything that I needed and I'm sure there are far more things that can be dug up, but this is a starting point. A bit more into this and it could bring down the whole of Cerberus in a single shot." Eruvian confirmed the file's attachment onto the mail and clicked on the send button, prompting the loading bar to pop up. The enormous amount of data dropped the loading rate to a snail's pace.

Three minutes. Good enough.

Eruvian left the loading bar going and moved to his wife. He placed one hand on her arm and the other on her chin and tilted her head until their eyes met. The green pair of orbs twinkled under the room's lights. Despite the tears washing over them, her eyes were the most beautiful things Eruvian had ever seen in his entire life. "You need to go."

"No." Elizabeth sobbed.

"Yes." The turian nodded. "Pack your things. Take the car, and get to C-Sec. The hitman won't come after you. I'll stall them as long as I can."

Moving quickly, Eruvian made for the bookshelf that covered the entire one side of his study. Standing before the left most shelves he haphazardly threw the books down and removed the wooden board on the back to reveal the hidden safe behind it. Hastily he punched in the code and opened the safe. Reaching inside, he pulled out the first thing he laid his hand on and returned to his wife to push it into her hands.

"Take this with you." He said hurriedly.

Elizabeth blinked her tear blurred eyes clear to see what her husband had given her. A small gasp escaped her when she saw the large gun inside her hand. She looked up at Eruvian and shook her head, her fears swallowing up her words before she could speak them out loud.

"It's okay." Eruvian reassured her, grabbing the gun and maneuvering the woman's hands to make her hold the weapon in the correct fashion. "It's a custom pistol-shotgun hybrid my father made in his days. The only one he ever made. It's his legacy. I want you to... no, I need you to take it. For protection."

"I-I can't." Elizabeth shook, "I've never even held a gun before. I don't know how to use them."

"Just point and shoot, honey. The spread should compensate for your aim." He explained softly. "Besides, you probably won't even get to use it. You'll be taking the car to C-Sec, remember?"

"But-"

A melodic beep made the couple turn towards the computer. Eruvian grumbled a string of curses and got behind the computer screen to begin his work again. The mail he was sending failed. Technical issues. Of all the time for it to occur.

"What are you doing?" Elizabeth asked.

"I'm sending the data I collected to people I can trust." He replied, never taking his eyes off the screen.

"Why?" She croaked. "Are there no other copies? Can't we run away together?"

"No." Eruvian answered his regretful tone left unmasked. "Everything is on this one computer. It was stupid of me not to make a back up, but I couldn't risk these information getting leaked. If I don't get these data to someone else it wil-"

Bang.

With the loud gunshot, the turian's head suddenly snapped backwards and the body of Eruvian Tor fell over his chair, landing on to the ground with a solid thud. Dark blue blood seeped out from his mangled face and pooled onto the rug underneath.

Elizabeth Palmer-Tor watched the body of her dead husband sprawling on the floor with momentary shock, which then quickly turned into anger when she remembered how long it took her to remove the wine stains off the rugs last time. Hopefully turian blood was easier to get off than wine, but that was highly unlikely. Ugh, what a mess.

She studied the pistol in her hand with genuine curiosity as well as annoyance. She should have noted Eruvian's words better. A pistol-shotgun hybrid he said. That and the other information her husband gave her should have instantly told her that the rounds were shotgun pellets rather than regular pistol rounds which clearly left more mess than necessary when shot to the head. A push at a lever and the ammunition case inside rotated with a loud click. A rotating four-case ammunition blocks, almost like a classic revolver. Impressive.

Regardless, she really should have thought things through before she went out and scared the daylights out of the turian. Fun or not, if not for her, he probably wouldn't have been pushed to suddenly try and share the confidential Cerberus information with everyone. Not that he was ever going to succeed, though. Not after the bug she planted in his computer.

Walking around the desk, towards the screen, she made sure no mails were being sent just in case, and with a frown turned to the body once more. The bleeding hasn't seemed to have stopped yet but already the turian was lying in a small puddle that gave her the impression that it would take a bit longer cleaning off than it did for the simple wine spill. Giving a small huff, she coolly raised her hand and gently pressed the area on the side of her head, just before the ear. With a beep only she could hear, a connection was made.

"I assume the job is done?" The voice of her employer asked from the implanted communicator. It never seized to amaze her how the Illusive Man always seemed so laid back every time she contacted him.

"Yes sir. Eruvian Tor has been terminated." She replied casually, walking around the body to reach down at the toppled chair and set it up right before crashing down on it like a bag of sand.

"And the data?" He continued without missing a beat. Elizabeth tapped on the keyboard lazily for a second before replying.

"Secured. Eruvian confirmed to me that there are no other copies in existence. I shall extract the useful information and destroy the rest."

"A shame he had to die. He was doing an excellent job of tightening our overall security with all the data he was collecting."

"He got too close, sir. We had no choice."

"Quite correct." There was a silent pause followed by the distinct sound of cigarette smoke being blown out. "Anything else to report?"

The blonde gently kicked the body aside to give herself some more space to move around. "No, sir."

"Then I shall have a team dispatched to clean up the body." Another pause ensued, followed by a small fizz of fire meeting water. "Excellent work as always, Ms Chambers. I trust you will continue to impress me in the future."

With a quick press and a wave over her head with her omni-tool, Elizabeth Palmer-Tor disappeared from existance: the long mane of luscious blonde shriveled into neatly combed fiery red, one of her emerald green eyes fading into cold, dead blue. The skin around her face shimmered before fading away, giving it a completely different form, and the voice that came out her throat was no longer the same as before.

"Of course, sir. Anything for humanity."

Immediately the connection broke, and Kelly Chambers spun around on her chair freely, gleefully smiling over another job well done.


A/N: The idea was "What if Kelly got caught by Cerberus before the events of ME3?" So, Plot Bunnies AWAY!

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