Raven's P.O.V.

We'd received intel that the Razors, a small merc gang run by a vorcha named Grog was going to attempt to dethrone Aria to get more money and better resources for their business. The Razors wore black, green, and white colored armor with sharp blades on their shoulders, arms, and legs. If these guys ever get in close enough to an opponent they can rip them to shreds in hand to hand combat. If a person was thrown over their shoulders the blades would rip a person from their chest down to their hips. The other blades on their arms and legs were all on the outside parts of their body. With an arm all you needed to do was slash a person by back handing them. The leg blades are hardly ever used so most people thought they were decoration, but an experienced fighter knows that if someone ever tripped and fell down in front of a Razor they could be cruel enough to jump on top of you and cut you up instead of being somewhat merciful and just shoot you point blank. So with the intel we had received we swiftly started to plan and prepare for battle.

Aria saw no need to dispatch them before their date of assassination, she wanted to see the look of surprise and fear on their faces when they realized that Aria knew they were coming and that she wouldn't be the one dying. Personally I think she was just bored and the idea of a confrontation excited her.

So we prepared to have a fight in Afterlife, Aria saw to it that breakable objects were removed two days before the "assassination in her honor" would take place.

The fight was loud, and abrupt when it happened, at least for the bystanders, but Bray suggested halfway through our gun fight that we relocate where there were less civilians. He'd never admit it but he didn't want any unnecessary causalities. He said we should relocate so Afterlife wouldn't have bullet holes everywhere. So we left Afterlife through the back entrance.

Bray told me to release a biotic blast at the enemy while he pulled our guys out. I nodded in response and tried my best to block out the sounds around me as I gathered up two balls of black matter and threw them out in a wave of blue and black colors. The mercs were picked off of their feet and fell back onto tables and couches. One guy was unlucky enough to hit one of the walls that held some rather sharp artwork, and never did come down to rejoin the fight.

With our men out and the Razors scattered I pulled out and went after my team. We led the mercs to the lower wards of Omega and continued our fight there. We ended up in one of the old shut down mine shafts, I could tell because only the backup lights were on and there was no machinery activity going on at all down here.

The dust finally settled on the rocky walls now that the pumps didn't shake the dirt and the atmosphere didn't feel heavy with all the activity that used to go on here with the machinery and the people all moving about. One of the guys on Bray's squad had actually laughed once we had bunkered down behind some rocks.

His name was Hypax, a young turian who came to Omega looking for adventure instead of taking military orders from the hierarchy. He's twenty-five, skin is brown, and has the typical full face Kepler Verge tattoo that Grizz has; he's another turian on our team. Hypax also has blue eyes. His training and upbringing had been all about being part of a squad and being in fire fights so he quickly got bored with doing nothing on the station and he sought out Bray to join his crew. He wanted to get back in the environment without having to deal with diplomatic military codes that the Blue Suns normally use since most of the Blue Suns are composed of turians, but they do have humans, batarians, salarians, and others that join up too. The Blue Suns are known for being popular with ex-military turians though so that's why there are some formalities.

Bray isn't too big on formalities, he just wants the job done right so Hypax wanted in on the action without the stiff crap. Bray let him on a year ago, he had been the newbie before me and he says he's glad I joined up cuz now he won't be the newbie anymore. I think he was glad that I joined though cuz we were both the youngest on the team and could relate to one another. Either that or have a good time joking around, I'm not sure which.

I'm the youngest of the group, the only female, and to top it off the only human in the squad. I'm nineteen and everybody who works in AfterLife teases me about it. They say I must have come looking for a job here on the station just so I could drink because no bar in Council run space would serve me alcohol till I was twenty-one, but I'm here for different reasons.

Hypax had laughed at our surroundings though and I'm curious to know why so I raised an eyebrow at him, "What's so funny?"

He took a shot at one of Grog's men and nailed the guy in the chest; he went down like a stone. Looks like his kinetic barriers don't have much juice.

"I used to work here. Noisy as hell, thought it would never get quiet. I like the way this place turned out though, you can actually hear yourself think."

I laughed and returned fire. A Razor thought he was tough shit and ran right at me, what an idiot. I squeezed off a slug from my pistol and he went down, his yell cut off just before he hit the dirt and I shook my head at his actions. Must have been a new guy trying to prove himself, and look where it just landed him.

Hypax shot another merc and gripped my shoulder to pull me back down into cover, which was reckless on my part. I should have been paying attention. "Hey get down!"

He gestured at the Razor I just finished killing, "Looks like he wasn't too smart."

I nodded my agreement and took the head off of a vorcha, but they regenerate fast so I fired a few more rounds and ripped his body in half with my biotics. Hypax gave me this look like Holy shit could he get anymore dead? I shrugged in reaction to his look, I don't need a vorcha to get back up later on during the fight so he can shoot me for firing at him.

"I'm starting to think this whole group isn't too smart."

"Well of course they're not. Everybody knows you're not supposed to fuck with Aria."

Bray ducked as a Razor shot at him and he returned fire, "Not much left of this group. Let's hurry this up. Aria wants Grog saved for last so watch your aim."

Hypax and I did as we were told and helped finish off the last of the Razors. Aria then gave Grog a speech of how she knew about his attack and let him in on a secret. Today's assault wouldn't end in her death, it would end in his. I was looking for strays with Hypax and the men when I noticed something.

Aria was in the middle of killing Grog when I got the feeling. She was standing on an old dock port and she shot him in the head, broke the vorcha's neck with her biotics, and for good measure stabbed him in his side; then she let him fall down into the dark, rocky abyss below. Damn, talk about murder with a vengeance.

I saw a glint in my peripheral vision, it was armor and it was moving. I heard the gentle click of a gun cocking and I immediately raised my pistol, "Live one!"

I jumped forward toward the docking port and biotically pushed Aria back with my other hand. She yelled, "What the hell do you think you're doing!" I twisted my body so my back faced the drop off and I took a slug right into the shoulder. I fired a round right back at him and nailed him straight through the head. What the hell is she yelling at me for?! I'm trying to do my damn job.

In that moment everything seemed to slow down and I looked back at Aria's face. My boss usually had a cold, amused, sneer on her face, but in this moment I saw Aria's lips part in a small silent O and I saw something in her eyes.

I think she was surprised at my actions, and maybe a little scared that I took a shot for her, but why? That's what she hired me for. I knew I was probably going to die now, I was too close to the edge of the platform and the momentum from that vorcha's shot was enough to throw me over.

Then reality snapped back into place and Aria's face was gone. Now sheer rock zoomed past my eyes. I was determined to live though and I willed my biotics to slow down my descent, hopefully I could slow down enough to grab something, anything, to keep me from falling to my death.

My biotics flickered and eventually flared a bit brighter against the brown rock. Amidst the rapidly changing rock formation I saw a break in the cliff and I slammed my arm into a small, jagged hole.

I continued to go down for a second but I soon stopped as my arm broke inside the rock formation and the sudden jerk caused my shoulder to pop out of its socket.

I screamed in pain as my body hung limp off of the rocky overhang and I swung a few more times back and forth from my now dislocated shoulder.

I squeezed my eyes open a tiny bit to make sure that my arm was firmly embedded into the rock and the pain finally was too much; I passed out.

Aria's P.O.V.

I smirked as I broke Grog's neck with my biotics. It was like stepping on a salarian hutch of eggs. Their shells are hard enough to make that crunching sound but once past the shell everything is gooey. I took out my omni-blade and stabbed him in his side for good measure, vorcha usually aren't very smart but they have a nasty habit of regenerating so I wanted to be sure he'd die. With that done I let him fall into the oldest part of the station. I stood there relishing in my glory of crushing rebellion with my power and I noticed that Raven, a young female human I had just hired as one of my guards, seemed to go stiff.

Raven had been a bouncer at Afterlife before becoming one of my guards. She was a bit young in my opinion but she proved herself capable at Afterlife so I had her hired. Her job had been to make sure none of the customers got too fresh with the entertainers.

She was tall for a human woman, not the tallest I've seen but she was tall for her kind. She had a short spiky haircut and green eyes that said you don't scare me. She was also very fit, a few of the dancers would talk about her figure and say how they wouldn't mind her checking them out with that body of hers.

She did a good job of keeping an eye on customers and her presence was normally enough to make the men wary when she was around so incidents didn't happen often.

I was about to open my mouth and ask her if she was sure she had the stomach for this job when everything around me slowed down. Raven lunged, drawing her gun up and I narrowed my eyes. Was she going to shoot me? In front of all my men? In front of Bray?

I could see Bray was bringing his gun up to stop her and I coldly barked, "What the hell do you think you're doing?!" I raised my hand so I could fling her off to the side with my biotics. Just before I could though Raven jumped past me and pushed me back with her own biotics, and Bray lowered his gun in surprise.

At the same time she pushed me I saw chips of her armor break off and blood splattered from her left shoulder. Raven spun around having her back face the drop off. She lined up her shot and released one slug. She killed a vorcha I hadn't noticed. He would have assassinated me if she hadn't jumped forward in time. She was trying to save me, not kill me. That almost never happens. I snapped my mouth shut but then it opened again of its own accord.

The look she gave me as her body began to fall off the docking pad reminded me of Nyreen all those years ago when she took out those adjutants in front of Afterlife that were attacking civilians.

I could feel a scream forming in the back of my throat but it never quite came out of my mouth. The message in Raven's eyes said I'm sorry but I'll do whatever it takes to keep you alive.

Then she was gone, her body fell off the edge of the platform and the world was back in real time once more.

Bray shouted an order, "Go and make sure there aren't any more of those bastards. You! Go and grab a medic and stand by!"

I grabbed Bray's wrist hard, "We don't need a medic and we're going after her."

He held my gaze briefly and then we both ran to the nearest hover car. He opened the doors and jumped into the driver's seat and I closed the doors after me. Raven's armor should have already released medi-gel around the wound she had and sealed it off so nothing else could spread. If Raven somehow survived this fall I would bring her to Solous Clinic.

We went forward and down past the old dock that I tossed Grog's body into, known as Dead Man's Jump, I remembered too late that it had earned that reputation for a reason.

I quickly began scans for Raven's body on my omni-tool, "She's 300 meters below us."

Bray in turn sped up and my stomach turned over uneasily. Plenty of people have died doing their jobs for me and it had never bothered me before. But after Nyreen's death I had become more sensitive to the people on this station, enough to make see to it that everyone now received basic food rations. But beyond that nothing much has changed.

Raven's face flashed before my eyes and I remembered one night a few turians had come into Afterlife and they were watching several of the girls perform. They tipped well but made disgusting comments about what they wanted to do with the girls. The entertainers have heard it all before so it didn't faze them.

I had lost interest and was going to talk with Bray when I heard Noleena, one of my best dancers, gasp in pain. I spun my head around to see a turian had pulled her down off of her platform and was trying to get fresh with her, his pals whooped in enthusiasm.

It was Raven's shift though that night so he wouldn't get very far. She grabbed the offender's arm and brought it up behind his back and hissed, "That's enough!"

I saw the other girls stop dancing and anxiously all watched as Noleena quickly scrambled away and got back up on her platform.

"You can look but don't touch unless you're invited. Got it?" Raven's voice was low and lethal, the music was loud and booming but I heard every word.

The turian's buddies didn't seem to appreciate her words and I could see a brawl was ready to break out. I turned to signal for Bray and his men to break it up but to my surprise I didn't need to.

The girls all got down from their poles and platforms to surround the group of males and two of the girls got in between Raven and the turian who had attacked Noleena.

I smirked and got up. "It looks like you boys pissed off my girls. I suggest you all leave before someone gets hurt."

The turians realized that my presence graced the club that evening and they fled like the roaches they were. Noleena thanked Raven for watching out for her and she smiled, tipping her head in acknowledgement.

"No problem Noleena. You guys didn't need to back me up either but you did anyway."

The girls all smiled and replied that she owed them drinks after their shift for it and the night went on as usual. I found out later that Raven had walked Noleena home to make sure she was okay and the girls got jumped by the same turian.

Raven had gotten pretty banged up but she kept Noleena safe and kicked the turian's ass for his mistake of following them. When I caught wind of what happened I saw to it that he was dealt with permanently, no one messes with my dancers. The girls informed me that Raven had a lot of bruises so if she seemed to be a bit slow and a bit spacey not to ride her for it.

The girls were always a tight knit group, that's what happens when you're in that kind of business but they had never taken a real shine to the bouncers before.

So I had Bray check out her history and later out of amusement I offered her a deal to work with Bray and his men outside of Afterlife. After a few missions Bray suggested that Raven be one of my new private body guards.

We tested her skills and she passed, with flying colors. She had gone off world for several missions with Bray after that in my name to tend business and tended to my person a few times before we learned about this small insignificant gang that wanted to overthrow me.

I never realized it up to this point, but I was beginning to enjoy Raven's company. She was a young, smart, outgoing, charismatic, and powerful human. She had some of my fire, and it reminded me of my younger days.

Now all of that was gone within the blink of an eye. She's dead because a vorcha managed to not be detected by my people long enough for him to squeeze off a shot at me.

I was startled out of my mournful thoughts by my omni-tool's alarm. Raven's body wasn't too far from us now. I wanted to retrieve her and have a proper ceremony for her burial, there wasn't much of a chance that she would survive the fall.

"Thirty degrees northwest." My voice was colder than usual.

Bray looked at me with concern. He knew I was trying to hide my despair with my bravado, but he didn't say anything; one of the perks about Bray is he doesn't bring up subjects he knows not to touch, or he knows it doesn't need to be said out loud for it to still be recognized.

He just adjusted our heading and then he swore softly. "Son of a bitch."