Chapter 1: Prison Life

The dim ruby colored light illuminated Ascher's prison cell as he sat against the steel wall, his right arm resting on his raised right knee, his left leg folded under his right. He ignited a tiny flame in his left hand, tossing it through the air into his waiting right hand. He'd been quite literally playing with fire for the past few hours to pass the time while he waited. For what, he wasn't sure. Maybe his dinner, an edible paste filled with the necessary nutrients required out of a normal meal. The grey food, if you could even call it that, had the same consistency as low fat peanut butter. That basically meant that it was hardly smooth, and felt like they took some sand and mixed it into the meal. The drink you got with it was a small styrofoam cup filled with less than clean water. You could get sick from the water, but it wouldn't kill you. Ascher never got sick, but he'd occasionally see a prisoner being literally dragged to the sick bay, moaning in pain the whole way.

There was a sort of recess. Prisoners were allowed into the base area of the cell block to socialize and whatnot. The guards lined the stairs as well as the base's perimeter, mainly turians, seeing as how the prison warden was a turian. There were a few human guards, not many though. Ascher mainly just hung out by his prison cell, zoning out as he stared at his hand, which was usually engulfed in orange flames. Other times, he'd saunter about the floor, humming his favorite songs to himself. It may have been 2166, but that didn't mean he liked any of the songs from that year, or that century for that matter.

Ascher may have looked like a fairly young human adult, but he was far from that. By human standards anyway. His actual age was a healthy 226 years young. The only defining features of his race were his tail, and his wings. Maybe he should say defining features of both his races. Unbeknownst to him until he was about 20, he was a hybrid of two races. What exactly that entailed, he learned that over a longer period of time.

Today, he'd forgotten that recess was a couple hours before dinner, as he was reminded by the loud buzzer that sounded just before the prisoners were released from their cells. There was a turian guard waiting in front of his now open cell, toting a rifle. He hated turians with a burning passion, pun intended. There were a few okay ones he supposed, but most of the guards that worked at Purgatory were complete scum. Beating prisoners within an inch of their lives while the recipients of said beatings were completely defenseless. Ascher just tried to make the most out of the situation when it happened to him. That usually involved mocking the guard who was attempting to beat him into submission, which usually ended up in the beating becoming prolonged.

"Get up Grey," the turian guard ordered Ascher, staring down at him through his blue and silver helmet.

"Yes ma'am Lioness ma'am," Ascher replied with a smirk on his face, extinguishing his small flame before getting to his feet, crossing his arms as he looked back at the unamused guard. "How's my favorite turian guard doing today?'

"It's Lyanis. And you're just asking for another beating aren't you?" Lyanis sighed, quite used to this treatment from the prisoner.

"Oh you know it. Think I'm gonna try and break the record for most near-death beatings received at Purgatory prison," Ascher replied, his smirk growing into a big grin.

"I don't know why I put up with you," Lyanis said as he turned around and stepped aside, letting Ascher exit his cell into the large cell block.

"Because we're friends, that's why," Ascher replied as he stood next to the turian guard outside his cell.

"Don't remind me."

Lyanis Starque was the only one exempt from Ascher's burning hatred for turians. The two of them met the day after Ascher arrived at Purgatory. Lionis was a laid back guard who didn't really care much for his job at all. He just needed the credits. He usually turned a blind eye when a prisoner stepped out of line, unless that prisoner killed someone. Then he would actually do his job. Otherwise, if he was the one on guard duty during shower time, he'd make up an excuse for the prisoners who would get into a fight, physical or otherwise. A lot of prisoners respected him for that. He'd only gotten to know Ascher so well since he was assigned to bring him his food and release him for recess.

"Anything fun planned for today?"

"Guarding, being a lousy guard, and working guard duty as a lousy guard."

"Sounds fun."

"You?"

"Sitting in a cell while playing with fire."

"Sounds more dangerous than what I have to do."

"Because these cells are oh so flammable."

They stood next to each other in silence like that for a while, which eventually led to Ascher absent-mindedly humming a song from the 1970's.

"That another song from over a century ago?" Lyanis asked him casually, used to hearing his friend humming unfamiliar melodies.

"Yep. It was a popular one too," Ascher replied.

"Again, you talk as if you lived that long ago," Lyanis said, furrowing his brow under his helmet.

"You don't know how old I am," Ascher responded with a little sass.

"You've already told me you're 26," Lyanis countered.

This rendered Ascher silent for a moment.

"You don't know if I was telling the truth," Ascher said with mischievous look on his face, nudging the turian with his elbow.

And they talked like that for the rest of the recess. That's how they always talked. They'd conversate on a subject for a little bit, fall silent, then do it again on another subject. About an hour later, the buzzer sounded and the guards started herding the prisoners back into their cells while Ascher just continued his casual conversation with Lyanis all the way back to his cell. Once there, they said their goodbyes and their see you tomorrows before Ascher stepped back into his cell and Lyanis shut the door.

The turian sighed as he walked away from the closed cell and up the steps to his post. He'd been worked at Purgatory for 3 years now. He figured that the longer he worked there, he'd get used to the conditions of his workplace. But the fact that he'd stayed there did the exact opposite. The way Warden Kuril treated the prisoners on the prison ship was cruel, putting it nicely. The beatings, the executions, especially launching prisoners out of the airlock to 'set an example.' Lyanis didn't have a ship of his own, but he'd find a way out of Purgatory, and Blue Suns. Someday. Somehow.

Ascher sat in his cell, having just finished his 'dinner' and was busy melting the metal spoon, watching the glowing molten metal at the top trickle down the handle of the spoon, letting it leak onto his hand where it cooked his flesh. A long while back, he'd been trained to deal with unimaginable amounts of pain. The searing of his flesh barely felt like anything. Mainly it was similar to a multitude of near painless pinpricks traveling down his arm. A little while later, he placed the remainder of his spoon in his empty tray and put it on the slat, where the small rectangular space opened and the tray was pulled out. There was also a groan of annoyance, to which Ascher smirked.

"Come on Ascher! That's the third time this week!" Lyanis complained. "How do you even accomplish...oh yeah."

Ascher stayed silent, grinning upon hearing his friend sigh and walk away. Meanwhile, his skin had healed for the most part. Some parts still sizzled and gave off steam, which were the parts he watched in sick fascination as they rapidly healed. Another perk of being what he was: rapid cellular regeneration. That and slow bleeding. That way his body could conserve his blood and send it to the place while some of the other blood exited his body. Within a few minutes, his arm had completely healed, leaving a long white burn scar.

"Welp, there goes a few more nerve endings," Ascher said boredly before getting up to lay down on the metal cot that served as his bed. That's how he was trained to deal with pain a long while back. By literally frying his nerve endings. He yawned as he stared up at the ruby light tiredly. It was close to lights out for the entire facility and all was quiet. Just another night at Blue Suns Purgatory space prison. All was quiet except for the screams of another prisoner being beaten and the echoey clang of metal boots against the old steel catwalk above the cell block.

The nights at Purgatory could be interesting. They usually weren't though. The guards up top the catwalk occasionally had interesting conversations, usually about how much they loved or hated their jobs, other times about rumors floating around the facility. Tonight though, just after lights out, the night shift guards talked about how much they loved beating the prisoners. The way the night shift worked around this facility was that the guards were on a rotation. This only applied to a select group of guards though. For whatever reason.

"Beating the prisoners here is just so much fun sometimes," one of the guards said with sadistic glee lacing his voice. A turian by the sound of the undertone in his voice. What a surprise.

"Especially the human prisoners we have. The way the scream and plead for us to stop is just so satisfying," he continued. An anti-humanist at that. Shocker.

"They're so weak too. I can't believe the Council let them join the galactic community. They should've just let us finish them off," another guard chimed in. Were there any human guards on the night shift? Or was tonight the Turian Special? Ascher knew he'd face dire consequences for it, but he had half a mind to shout at them to pipe down.

For now, he'd just have to plot his escape. He didn't mean this seriously of course. He was trapped in the middle of space. Escaping this ship wouldn't do him much good. The last fight he'd started got him a beating and cell arrest for a week. He was confined to his cell for a week, minus recess, and the beating only lasted for the evening after the incident. Having burned the amount of days he'd been in that prison into the wall, he'd calculated that he'd be allowed back into the mess hall by tomorrow. That way, he'd be able to gauge the amount of possible exits while eating his food. He'd be able to take things from there. He might actually be able to pull it off tomorrow. He still had his powers, his fast healing, his tolerance for pain should he inevitably get shot. And, he could take Lyanis with him. He already knew he was going to hide out on Omega, and that since Warden Kuril wrote him off as just another human, he wasn't high on the buy list.

The next morning, the buzzer sounded at God-knows-what time, waking all of the prisoners up for roll call. All of the prisoners walked out of their cells once the doors swung open, and they were met with the usual line of guards they'd seen since having been sent or transferred to Purgatory. A few minutes after all the names were called and it was determined that no one had miraculously escaped overnight, the prisoners were sent back to their cells.

Around 2 hours later, or at least it felt that long, it was time for breakfast in the mess hall. The prisoners were individually escorted by the guards to the mess hall where the usual meal of 'Power Paste' was waiting for them. Once all the prisoners were in their respective mess hall, most of the guards that escorted them left to return to their posts, the other ones staying behind to keep the eating prisoners in check.

Ascher dug in, trying to finish his meal in a quick manner. There were people who would try to steal others' meals on occasion, and Ascher liked to keep his meal. Usually he'd stand up for himself by knocking his opponent's teeth out, but he didn't need that kind of distraction today. Pretty soon, he had finished his meal and had set the spoon in the empty metal tray.

Ascher was sitting at an empty table in the mess hall, just as he always had throughout his time at the facility. The only friend he had made was Lyanis, the last person he expected to like when he first arrived at the facility, considering his personal vendetta against turians. He didn't mind the lonely hours of the day so long as it meant he was going to see Lyanis in the evening hours. Lyanis made this place bearable.

But instead of getting up and flame blasting one of the guards, a guard came up to him first.

"Come on Grey. Warden wants to see you," the human guard explained.

Ascher was confused. He hadn't done anything significantly bad. Not in recent weeks at least, not counting the fight he started in the mess hall last week. Now he was generally curious as to what the Warden would want to talk to him about.

"Okay," Ascher replied, getting up from his seat and following the guard out of the room. He walked behind the human guard only to be joined by a turian guard behind him. Regardless, he followed his escorts down the metal catwalk, then turning right down a hall where they walked into the room at the end. The Warden's office.

Ascher followed the guard in front of him through the hatch to where the Warden was sitting behind his metal desk, filing through his recent payments by the look of his holotop screen. His olive and dark silver eyes flitted up to see the prisoner accompanied by the two guards, and smiled.

"Ah, Mister Grey. How nice of you to join me. How've you been?" Kuril asked Ascher, resting his head atop his folded hands.

"I've been okay. No one's been bothering me after last week's incident," Ascher smiled as he sat down in the chair opposite the Warden.

"Yes well, your cell arrest surely contributed to that," the Warden replied.

"How can I help you Warden Kuril?" Ascher folded his arms as he sat back in the chair, getting down to business.

"Straight to the point, I like that," Kuril commented, focusing his attention back on his holotop before addressing Ascher again. "I've noticed you've been chatting up one of my guards during these past few months. You wouldn't be planning anything stupid, would you?"

Ascher stared back at the Warden for a moment. "What? Like an escape attempt? We're in the middle of space Warden. I'm not stupid."

"I see that, contrary to some of the other prisoners here," Kuril responded, refocusing his attention on Ascher. "I prefer to keep my prisoners in line."

"Well everyone saw what would happen if they tried to do something drastic. Hard to forget the airlock," Ascher said, folding one leg over the other as he talked with the Warden.

"It's good to hear you remember that. Means I set a good example," the Warden smiled. "There's just one more thing I'd like you to explain to me before the guards escort you back to your cell."

"And that is?" Ascher said.

The Warden grabbed a metal box sitting next to his holotop that Ascher didn't pay attention to until now. It was a little larger than a wedding ring case, and opened up just like one from what Ascher saw. Kuril reached inside and grabbed an object between his forefinger and thumb, revealing a short metal stub with a rounded edge and a blackened, burnt end.

"You've been making a lot of these lately, and I don't exactly enjoy destruction of prison property, no matter how small," Kuril said with a slightly upset voice, his displeased expression staring back at Ascher's blank one. "Care to explain?"

Ascher needed to be cautious now. He could reveal his ability to produce, control, basically do anything he wanted to with fire. But that would be all that he'd reveal. He couldn't reveal anything further about himself, if what Cyrus and Roxanne said was true. He was starting to doubt that a little bit now, considering how they framed him, but he believed in the 'better safe than sorry' doctrine.

"Not sure how this came to be," Ascher said, raising his pinky, a small flame igniting at the end of it. Just like he was lighting a candle.

The Warden leaned forward with great interest at this new bit of information. "It didn't say in your report that you were a biotic."

"Biotics have more telekinetic based abilities, so I don't know if I'm biotic. To be honest, I don't know exactly what I am," Ascher stated, lying on that last part. He knew exactly what he was, but no one else needed to know.

"Interesting," the Warden said with a smile on his face. "It appears you're far more valuable than I realized."

"I guess, if you take into account my extensive criminal record," Ascher said. "I'm already a hitman."

"You were a hitman, you mean," Kuril reminded him.

Ascher waved his hand passively. "If I ever get out of here I might continue being a hitman. I might go be a mercenary on Omega. That place is loaded with the scum of the galaxy."

"By the way the planet that sent you is paying their fees, you'll have to wait a few years before that happens. Unless I sell you by then."

"In which case I'd 'convince' my buyers to let me go."

"Not unless I sell you to a group of krogan."

"I'd be grateful then. I love a good challenge."

The Warden actually laughed, something Ascher never expected to hear. It was weird, especially since it felt like he was befriending the Warden. He kind of felt like Andy Dufresne in Shawshank. Kind of.

"I like you Grey, you're the best piece of scum to have been sent to this prison," Kuril said. "But I'm starting to take away from your cell time. Go ahead and take him back officers."

Ascher got up and walked out with the officers, who took him back to his cell. He walked in once the door swung open, the turian guard shutting it behind him. He seriously needed to get out of this place.

Ascher was happy to see Lyanis at prison recess. This day was weird enough as it was, having made a friend in the Warden, he was just happy to have a normal conversation.

"You know when the next shipment of prisoners comes in?" Ascher asked the turian next to him.

"Two days from now, why?" the guard responded somewhat confusedly.

"I need to get out of here. It'd be nice if you could come along as well," the antsy man said, actually nervous about what more the Warden would want from him. He certainly would want to keep being sold as a last resort option for getting out of the prison.

"What happened to you today?" Lyanis asked his friend, weirded out by his unusual behavior.

"I had to reveal a secret of mine to Kuril," Ascher said worriedly. If he hadn't, then the Warden would've become more curious, then would've kept pressing till he got what he wanted. It sucked that he was placed at a higher value now. Sure, he'd probably get a lot less beatings now, but he now had a higher chance of getting sold.

"Like what?" the turian queried.

"He got wind of those spoons I kept destroying," Ascher explained.

"How did you do that to all those spoons anyway?"

"Can we talk about that later?"

"Fine."

"So are you in?"

"Well where would you take us to after we got to the cargo ship?"

"Omega. You used to be a merc right?"

"I'm not going to be a Blue Suns merc again Ascher. If we did pull this off, it'd be the end of my relationship with Blue Suns. And I'd be fine with that."

"I wasn't going to suggest joining the Blue Suns. They run this prison you idiot."

"Then what group would you want to join?"

"I was thinking we could start our own merc group. Except we could focus our efforts on the scum of Omega."

Lyanis just stared at Ascher after he said that.

"So you mean the whole of Omega," he responded finally.

"There are still good people on Omega. It's just that 98% of Omega is filled with the scum of the galaxy," Ascher smiled at the turian, who just shook his head.

"Y'know you'd have to do something pretty drastic for us to have a shot at escaping," Lyanis pointed out.

Ascher just smiled devilishly at that. "What? Like set one of the new prisoners on fire?"

Lyanis just shook his head. "The shipment of new prisoners arrives just after breakfast. I'll be on watch during breakfast that day, so I'll be the guard leading the prisoners in the cell block back to their cells. When we near the entrance, there's an elevator leading down to the cargo bay where the empty cargo ship will be. There'll be the guards from the cargo ship and the two pilots that we'll have to deal with too. That totals to six guards we'll have to deal with plus any other guards that get in our way," Lyanis explained very matter-of-factly. "There is a very good chance that we'll die attempting this."

Ascher just laughed at his friend's last comment. "You haven't seen me in action Lyanis. We'll be fine."

After he said that, the buzzer signaling the end of recess sounded and the prison cells opened. All that stood between Ascher, Lyanis, and freedom was two days.

FanFiction really needs to leave more characters for making story summaries, like seriously. There's so much more to this story than what my crappy summary details, because I promise you, I cannot fit the basic idea of this story into only a few hundred characters. Hear me FanFiction! Please fix this problem! Anyway, had to make this new account so I could post the rewrite of the series I want to write. I was ScarletDavidRose, and if you could refrain from reading my first attempt at a crossover fanfiction as well as an unfinished story. Well both of them are unfinished, but you know. Well I'm rambling now, so I'll shut up and do the typical FanFiction author advertising: R&R, if you don't like this story why are you even here, and I really don't give a crap if you flame me. I really don't.