hey everyone

First off: I do not own any character expect for Maria. She's all mine. Tulu is a made up planet. It's not in mass effect at all. This is completely AU. Does not follow the mass effect story line. Hope you enjoy!

My beta Spyke1985 is amazing beta.

REVIEWS ARE EXTERMELY WELCOMED!

Chapter 1

Ah. Beautiful, peaceful, and spacious Tulu. It is mid autumn here. Well its what we call it anyways. The trees leafs were turning brown along with the grass. The wind has a nip to it but not by much. Children laughing and playing in the park. It was a good day for a stroll. My companion was a beautiful mixture of colours that matched the fall colours. He was a beautiful species, a drell he called himself the first time I met him. Now that was one of my best memories. We sat down on one of the benches in the park to watch the sun set together, and I escaped into the memory of the day we first met.

I was outside doing yard work. Man it was hot that day. It was the middle of what we call summer. It was so damn hot that I wore a tank top and short hip hugger blue jean shorts and black sandles. Mom walks out and yells to me:

"Maria, come grab some tea and a snack. You're going to get hot."

"Yes, ma'am" I said, standing up from doing my work in the flower bed.

I heard a deep, velvety voice call out to me, but I didn't even turn around to see who or what it was. I was too busy getting dirt off my hands. "Excuse me ma'am, but can you tell me where the police station is?"

When I was satisfied with the amount of dirt I brushed off, I turned around to address him, but when I saw him, I was speechless. He was so beautiful it took my breath way.

I stutter as I answer, "Uh.. hmm... yeah just... uh... turn left at the corner over there," I said as I pointed, "you should... umm... see a big sign on the building that says police." after the explanation I just stared at him, letting out a breath that I didn't even realize I'd been holding. My mom yells again form the house, "You coming, Maria?"

"Yes ma'am, just give me a moment." I yell back, not taking my eyes off of him.

He takes a slight bow and says "Thank you." Man that voice, it was so deep and dark. God it was torture on my part. I smile and slowly turn to leave before he spoke again. "If you're curious to know what I am all you have to do is ask.'

"Umm... I'm sorry I didn't mean to stare it's just that your ummmm..." My face turns a deep shade of red from embarrassment."Your just.. umm... you know... beautiful." I said, quickly looking around for an escape route from the embarrassment I was feeling.

A light chuckle escapes his perfect 'kiss me' lips and he says in an amused voice, "Thank you. I'm not offended that your were staring at me, I'm used to that. I'm a drell by the way, just in case you where wondering, but you'll have to excuse me. I need to get going." He takes his leave, and I let out another breath that I had been holding for some time.

I walk up to the door to go inside.

I slip out of the memory thanks to a touch of his hand to my face. His own face wore a concerned expression and he asked, "You ok?"

"Yeah I'm fine just remembering something." I smile at him to assure him that I was alright.

"Can I ask what you were remembering?" The hand on my face was now entangled in my hand.

"Yeah, it was the first day I meet you." I respond, shyly laughing.

He smiles at me and says, "Ah, that day. You were stuttering like an idiot. It was so cute."

I playfully punch him and laugh, "Well my bad for being shy."

"I love it when you're shy. It makes me want you even more."

"You wish you could take me."

"Oh, I will one day, trust me once you turn eighteen you won't be able to move for days." Says his lustfully playful, deep voice in my ear, making a shiver go down my spine.

I laugh nervously. "Keep dreaming, Feron. Alright let's get going, dinner should be ready. Do you want to stay for dinner today?"

He smiles impishly. "Oh, I'll keep dreaming alright, and sure, if its ok with your parents."

"I'll ask them when we get there"

We walk the street where my house was holding hands and talking bout what we did today. We arrive at the small home that housed the five people who make up my family. I walked in and yelled, "Hey, I'm home."

I take off my shoes at the front door, Feron does the same. I turn towards the kitchen and hear my mom yell back, "Ok, dinner is ready." I hear the sound of small feet running loudly toward the dinning room, two young boys, my brothers playing space ships as they ran around. I get to the door of the kitchen and look at my mom.

"Hey mom, can Feron stay for dinner?"

She looks up from the pot she was standing over. "Yeah sure I can cut up some fruits real quick, it won't take me long. Go get your father out of his office, he's been in there all day."

I nod. "Yes ma'am. Feron, wanna walk with me?"

"Sure" He smiles.

We walk toward my dad's office when I heard some small shuffling noises. I knock on the door and the noise stops. I open the door without hearing an answer and say, "Hey dad dinner is..." I cut off mid sentence seeing the scene in front of me. My father is on his knees, looking up at the gun pointed to his face. The man with the gun freezes and looks at me. In that small moment I take him in. I could tell he was a drell like Feron, but a different colour. It was too dark to tell the exact colours.

Feron walks up to the side of me and speaks in a language I didn't understand, and my translator sputtered for a moment as it tried to translate a language it hadn't registered before. "Who are you?"

The man says nothing, the gun in his hand still pointed at my dad's head. I took the first step, getting closer when my father says, "Dont" in a very stunned voice. Me being stubborn, I walk up to the man with the gun. Without backing down or turning, I say "Feron, get my father out of here. Please." I keep gaze solidly on the eyes of the would be assassin.

Feron's voice has shock in it as he speaks, "Maria, you can't be..."

I cut him off, "NowFeron!" With a commanding voice that I didn't even know I had in me.

Feron did what he was told, grabbing my father's arm and leaving with him in tow. I bring up my omni-tool to lock the door so no one can get in or out. The assassin's gun now pointing at me, he still hasn't said a word to me, but now a low growl escapes his throat.

He's standing still with the gun pointed to the center of my forehead, and I take the time to get a better look at him. He was way different from Feron. He was taller and more built, and where Feron was a mixture of different colours, he was many shades of green with black accents. His big black eyes held so much sorrow and pain in them that I almost felt a pang of pity for him in my heart.

I finally broke the silence. "You should put that gun down. We can handle this the old fashion way."

"Old fashion?" He finally spoke. His voice was even deeper then Feron's. Man whats with drells and that sexy deep voice?I think to myself.

"Oh, So you do speak? Yes, old fashion way, meaning put the gun down and fight me in hand to hand combat. If you're up to the challenge." I taunt him, trying to get a raise out of him as a devious smile paints my lips.

"Very well, but I will not hold back. You took my target away from me." He says to me in a calm voice, not showing any sign of emotion what so ever.

"That target was my dad. Besides I don't want you to hold back. It would be a shame if I beat you without breaking a sweat." I say, still taunting him. He puts his gun down and takes off his jacket, laying it across the back of a nearby chair. I go to move the desk out-of-the-way to make more room. He sees what I'm doing and surprisingly comes to help.

After clearing more space, we both take our defensive stances and start circle one another. We're both watching each other, gauging who will throw the first punch. He moves first, swiftly flinging a fist at my face. I dodge it with ease. I sweep one of my legs out to kick him in the side and he dodges it with ease as will. We continue like this for what feels like 30 minutes of dodging each others' hits. Both of us panting but not giving in.

I finally caught him off guard long enough to throw myself into him for a takedown. He goes to move out-of-the-way, but I grab his hand and pull him down with me. Both of us trying to catch each our breath, which was harder for me with him putting all his weight on me. I grunt a little before speaking, "Can you get off me now? It's kind of hard to breath. You're heavier than you look."

He lifts up just enough to take the pressure off of me. He looks at me and speaks with the faintest of smirks on his lips, "You're good. I've never meet someone who can take me on and not let me get a single punch land on them before."

I laugh and say, "First time for everything."

"True. But now I find myself in the position of making a difficult decision. Do I kill you now or not at all? Seeing as I'm the one on top." He says, as his smirk grows minutely more pronounced.

His statement makes me laugh again and he looks at me as if I've lost it. I finally say "Oh really, because from where I'm looking at it I can take you down with one blow." I lift my knee just right, between his legs so he can feel what I mean.

He looks down in reaction to my action and his head shoots back up and he speaks with a look of incredulity on his face "You won't. That's a cheap shot."

Laughing softly I whispered, "Oh, yes I would. Never underestimate me. If I see a shot, I'll take it to get the upper hand."

He chuckles at me and speaks in a lustful voice, "I see. If you want to play dirty, so can I."

He moves his hand up and pins my hands under his. He quietly moves my legs to where I can't take my shot if I need to. With his free hand he trails it up my stomach and slowly pushes my shirt up. When his scaly hand touches my skin it send shivers and goosebumps all over my skin. I don't say a word to him, wanting to see what else he will do. He says "See, now I have the upper hand. What will you do now?"

Is he taunting me? He is! That smartass bastard.I think to myself. My thoughts were cut off with the sudden loud banging on the door. "Maria! Maria! Open the door!" Feron's worried voice comes through from the other side of the door. I look back at the man who still has me pinned down and said, "You'd better go. We can finish this little fight some other time."

His grip on my hands loosens and he gets up, puts his jacket on, and says, "As you wish." He disappeared into the shadows of the room. I get up, smoothing my shirt down, and unlock the door. Feron walks in with anger on his face, looking around frantically. "Where is he?"

"Gone, now let's get out of here. He won't be back for a while."

"How do you know that?" His face is twisted in worry and confusion.

I smirked. "Trust me I do, let's go and eat. You didn't tell mom about what happened did you?"

He shook his head. "No, your father said that she doesn't need more stuff to worry about and that you can take care of him, yourself." He said, eying me up and down to see if I was injured. "Are you ok? Are you hurt?"

I let out an impatient sigh. "Feron I'm fine ok? Trust me. Now can we go and eat? I'm staving."

He still looks worried, but decides to let it go for now. "Yeah let's go."

With that, Feron left to go eat his now cold food.

From within the shadows, the mysterious man watched him leave with a smile across his face. He moves to leave without anyone noticing, or so he thought. As he looked back, she was watching him. That's unnerving. He thought to himself. Is she smiling at me? He shakes his head, still smiling, and leaves without making a sound.