Disclaimer: Everything belongs to the clever folks at Bioware.
They had been through the fabled Omega 4 Relay and back again, destroyed the Collector Base and lived to tell the tale. Against all the odds, and in the face of the indifference or downright hostility of the rest of the galaxy, they had survived. After the initial euphoria and relief, cold realisation had dawned that they weren't exactly going to be congratulated or even greeted as heroes. Not even by their own employers, that is if they were still employed by Cerberus!
No, the galaxy was oblivious to their accomplishments. No matter how many times you tell yourself that you'd rather have it that way, if the alternative meant millions being carried off to certain and horrific death, it still leaves a sour taste in your mouth.
So it was a rather lacklustre and bedraggled Normandy crew filling in the dark empty spaces in the lower bar at Afterlife. The Normandy had limped to Omega for much needed repairs and Shepard had ordered everybody off the Ship. She knew she needed to wind down somewhere and was pretty sure everyone else did too. So, apart from Joker and Legion who had both insisted on overseeing the work, the rest of the crew had somehow all eventually drifted into the gravitational pull of the ubiquitous Afterlife, and all choosing the lower bar for the same reason – to be as far away from Aria, her spies, and the inevitable questions, as possible.
Shepard sat nursing a glass of explosive-coloured liquid. She had been fiddling with it for over an hour and it was still only her first glass. Around her, spread across two booths, sat the rest of her squad all equally silent and uncommunicative. She could hear Doctor Chakwas's voice occasionally drift down from an upper level where she sat with Kelly, Donnelly and Daniels and she spied lots of other groupings of Cerberus uniforms dotted around in the low-light murk of the nightclub. No-one looked like they were particularly intent on celebrating anything.
"I really wish I knew how the Illusive man is going to react..." Miranda muttered for the fifth time that evening.
Jacob rolled his eyes.
Shepard clutched her glass just a wee bit harder. The throb of the repetitive music was like a dull ache in her temples.
Whump, whump, whump.
The background noise was punctuated by a squeal. Shepard looked up quickly to see a bored Jack flicking her right forefinger and sending a small shockwave into a particularly slow barmaid. This at least garnered a snigger from Zaeed.
Tali sighed, a sound emphasised by the speaker-unit of her enviro-suit. "I should have stayed on the Normandy to supervise the repairs to the Drive Core".
Shepard noted that Tali's glass was not only still full, but she hadn't even bothered to extend the drinking tube from her helmet.
"Tali", Jacob's response sounded forced, "I'm sure Legion can take care of everything."
No-one said anything further for a while. Shepard caught drifts of conversation from other tables.
"...fucking boring...." that sounded like Jack.
"...so if you hold this hand, you'd be in trouble if I suddenly produced...." what were Donnelly and Chakwas talking about?
Whump, whump, whump, the perpetual beat was really getting to her.
Mordin half raised his glass and then slowly lowered it back down. Even Samara managed to wear a glum expression on her usually serene features.
Whump, whump, whump.
" I would really love to know what the Illusive....."
Suddenly with a loud crack, Garrus slammed his hand down on the table making everyone jump. With a an exclamation that sounded suspiciously like "Screw this!", he stood up and stalked away from the table. They all watched as he marched up to the DJ booth and leaned on the little ledge to talk to the scruffy looking youth who had been ensconced there since they arrived.
His sudden loud and decisive departure had attracted everybody's attention, all Normandy eyes were watching him. Shepard heard a snort of laughter from Grunt as Garrus appeared to gesticulate wildly at the teen. Whatever it was he wanted, from the surly look on the boy's face, it didn't look like he was going to get. Then Garrus did something that made them all gasp. He appeared to pull himself up to his full height, reached in and grabbed the lad by the collar, jerking him forwards. Then with a swift move, Garrus headbutted the unfortunate DJ.
There was a spontaneous cheer from several Cerberus tables amid shouts of "Go Garrus!" and a roar of approval from Grunt.
Shepard specifically heard Donnelly shout "Oh ye beauty, what a Malkie!".
Garrus turned towards the cheers, his mandibles flaring in the Turian equivalent of a grin. He promptly dragged the stunned DJ out of the way, and stepped into the booth. He grabbed the Headphones and started to tinker with the decks.
There was a sudden silence as the music abruptly ceased. The hum of conversation was suddenly the only noise, and it rose in level as everyone turned towards the DJ booth in surprise. Even the Asari dancing girls stopped and looked around themselves awkwardly.
Then gradually the air filled with the dark grinding sound of guitars and an electrifying beat. A mesmerising Riff tore through the apathy of the crew, the lyrics speaking of dark desires. Shepard heard a whooping sound and swivelled round in her seat to look up at the sudden rush of Cerberus uniforms heading towards the dancefloor. When she turned back, she suddenly realised that she was the only one still sitting in the booth. In astonishment she looked towards the dancefloor and her mouth fell open.
Miranda had her eyes half closed and her arms above her head. Swaying in a most suggestive manner, in time to the music, she was wedged against Jacob, who with his hands on her hips, was moving in unison with her, his movements fluid and rhythmic. He had a confident, appreciative smile on his face.
Her eyes on stalks, Shepard swivelled them across the dancefloor unable to do anything except stare.
Kelly was doing her best imitation of a half-march, half-walk across the dancefloor towards some crewmen, then dipping down in a crouch and wiggling her rear, writhing back up again sinuously, then continuing to positively bop around basking in the admiration of the crewmen who watched her hungrily.
Donnelly and Gardner, on one edge of the dancefloor, seemed to be indulging in an impromptu display of air-guitar, complete with facial grimacing and straining leg muscles. Even Doctor Chakwas was letting her hair down on the edge of the floor.
Feeling slightly bewildered at the speed of change over the last 5 minutes, Shepard heard a difference in the music. The pace increased and a sound that spoke of metal, and synthetic spaces blasted forth. The singer's voice was plaintive yet aggressive and Shepard looked across at Garrus as he quietly nodded in time to the music, one taloned hand to his ear, the other pressing glowing buttons on the sonic deck before him. He seemed totally engrossed and ignored the adoring looks thrown his way by the gaggle of Omegan teens dancing beside his booth.
Shepard dragged her eyes back to the dancefloor to be greeted by the sight of Jack seriously digging the beat. Was she...what was the word...moshing? raving? She looked like she was having a fit! Even Zaeed and Grunt, doing a wierd bouncing shuffle were eyeing her askance and staying out of range of her wildly flailing arms.
Lots of hands punching the air, lots of happy sweaty faces. Shepard finally sat back shaking her head and took a long overdue swig from her glass. If this was what it took for them to unwind, she wasn't going to complain about it.
Back on the Normandy, Joker had finally finished the calibrations he had set himself for the evening, and sat back in his chair. Legion had already retired to the AI Core. He closed his eyes for a bit and wondered what to do with the rest of his time. Feeling bored and wondering what everyone was up to, he logged onto the Afterlife site and accessed the club's security cams. A few seconds of clicking on different cameras, revealed nothing of interest. Then suddenly, he leaned forwards, his eyes wide open.
"What the heck....?" he mouthed.
Tapping swiftly on the virtual keyboard, the image before him enlarged to fill the whole screen. One final tap switched the sound on and the cockpit was filled with electronically produced sounds and a regular beat.
"EDI!"
The blue light of the AI flickered into being.
"Yes Jeff?"came the pleasingly-modulated reponse.
"Please keep recording sound and image from this site until further notice".
"Is this necessary Jeff?"
"Hell yeah!" Joker slapped the arm of this seat, "a recording of Grunt tearing up the dancefloor like a pyjack on red sand has gotta be worth alot!"
EDI volunteered no further comment, but the red recording light on Joker's console screen, flickered into life.
Shepard remained alone in her booth, sipping her drink. Garrus had taken them all on an emotional rollercoaster, intense and driving; sometimes bleak, sometimes potent, but always dark and heartbroken. She wondered if it was a Turian thing, or whether it was their recent experiences. Although she hadn't been dancing, she had found it quite a release. She wondered where her friend had got his DJ-ing skills from – it was something he had never mentioned before.
She had also been quietly enjoying a certain Drell strut his stuff. He was always a beautiful mover, graceful even in stillness, but his dancing had left her almost breathless. Jacob was good, but Thane was searing, powerful and deeply sexy. They had not had a chance to reconnect since the hours before all hell broke loose through the Omega 4 relay. Watching him lose himself in the music was giving Shepard all sorts of ideas.
Sensing her eyes on him, Thane looked up at her. Moving like a panther across the floor, he approached her table with a predatory look in his dark eyes.
"Holy crap!" she thought faintly, shifting in her seat. No-one had ever looked at her quite that way before. Come to think of it, she had never seen Thane look at her that way before either. Did music always have this effect on him? She felt the fluttering of excitement in her stomach.
Without once breaking eye contact, Thane halted in front of the table and held his hand out in a mute demand. Shepard hesitated.
Just then, Garrus changed the music again. A much slower beat started up and the trill of guitars swiftly followed. She knew this song, it was old, of another time, and it spoke to a much younger version of her, one that had tasted heartache for the first time. Almost without realising, she slipped out of the booth and put her hand in Thane's.
"I am so high, I can hear heaven..."
The powerful voice wound around them and through them, binding them to each other. Shepard found herself on the dancefloor, wrapped in Thane's embrace. So close to him now, she could feel his warmth and the ease with which he moved against her. She gazed into his eyes, as fathomless as space and allowed the music to move her. For the first time that she could remember, she felt herself choosing to abdicate responsibility, to allow her guard down and surprisingly it didn't make her feel vulnerable. She was comfortable in it.
Thane felt her tremble slightly and saw her mask finally strip away. This strong, reliable warrior in his arms was looking up at him in wonder, trust and trepidation. He tightened his arms around her, feeling his throat constrict at the thought that she had chosen to truly reveal herself to him. He loved her with a fierceness that even he had not realised.
"...a hero can save us..."
She wasn't a hero. She knew she wasn't, even if they wanted to wrap her up into a neatly-labelled parcel. Her eyes took on a faraway look, no longer seeing the man before her.
She had committed too many morally dubious acts, made too many compromises to merit that title. So far she had managed to get the job done, that was it. The song prickled at the edge of her memory, remembering nights looking up at the stars wondering if she would ever get to join the heroes of her childhood in their battles against evil. Those were the days when her world was coloured simply in black and white. When good was recognisable and easy to choose.
She tried to swallow the lump in her throat. Thane's eyes never left her face, reading the complex emotions chasing each other across her face.
"...a world full of killing, and blood-spilling..."
That was her world. Dark, riven by an endless rain of bullets and filled with the screams of the dying. They even brought her back from the grave to continue cutting her bloody swathe across the galaxy. Just point her in the right direction and look at her go! Never before had she questioned her calling to this extent. Thane watched her lips twist in self-loathing and caught the echo of her thoughts.
"Siha" he murmured.
With a jolt, she re-focussed upon him again, a stricken look on her face. "Thane...!"
"....it isn't the love of a hero, and that's why I fear it won't do...!"
The tears welled up and trickled down her cheeks, over the slight bumps of the scars. She looked at this man who held her, whose heartbeat she could feel in the deepest core of her being. This was a good man, despite his actions. Not only was his time limited, but she had no right to drag him down to her level. His right hand slipped from her waist and he cupped her face, his thumb smoothing the wetness across her skin.
"Thane...I-I don't deserve you.." Her voice ended on a sob.
"Siha," the reverberations in his chest made her tremble, "in this life we are not granted what we deserve. We are given gifts, to reject or to accept, but the choice is ours." He smiled down at her, "Allow me to love you, for my heart will belong to you until the end of my days, whether you wish for it or not."
Shepard hiccoughed, and buried her face into his chest. Could this man save her from her own darkness? She could not help the words tumbling from her lips: "I love you!"
Thane felt, more than heard her muffled words, but he allowed the unalloyed joy of their meaning to well up inside him.
"...watch as we all fly away..."
The song wound down and Shepard became more aware that the moment was retreating and that she was still surrounded by her crew, her team. She swiftly wiped her face and re-emerged from Thane's now slightly damp leathers.
She was surprised to see Miranda and Jacob had danced that song together too, as had several other crew members. She looked over Thane's shoulder at Garrus. She raised a couple of fingers in thanks, and he mock saluted her. Then with one flick of his talon, the mood was turned on its head.
An infectiously positive foot-tapping beat suddenly rang out. Almost immediately it was followed by a cacophony of squeals and shouts. Shepard recognised it as a galaxy-wide smash hit back from when she was still a Gunnery Chief, which had turned into a phenomenon that had spawned a whole dance routine among other things. She hurriedly backed out of the way to avoid the sudden stampede as the dance floor was invaded from all sides. Thane and Shepard quickly retreated to their booth.
On the dancefloor, people had arranged themselves swiftly into irregular lines. When the melody kicked in, they all suddenly moved as one. Thane gasped and Shepard clapped her hand to her mouth to suppress the laughter, her eyes dancing. Like a choreographed ballet, with serious looks on their faces, the crew of the Normandy, spear-headed by Miranda, Jacob, Chakwas and Kelly launched themselves into the famous dance routine. Arms and legs all moving as one.
Hearing a large guffaw, Shepard turned to see Zaeed propping up the bar, watching the dancers and laughing with gusto at something Mordin had said. Garrus had also joined them from his DJ booth his mandibles twitching as he admired his handiwork. Unable to stop herself, she just threw back her head and laughed.
In that moment, Shepard felt at peace, that everyone had finally relaxed and were getting on as friends rather than just shipmates - even Jack who was giving a mildly less violent punch to Garrus's shoulder. She felt so much lighter and hopeful, the future didn't seem so bleak any longer. There was still a big job to do, but a huge burden had lifted and she felt able to face it with renewed energy.
She slipped her hand into Thane's and leaned to whisper in his ear. He smiled and nodded. They turned quietly and left the club together.
"...oh...god!..." Joker wiped tears of laughter from his eyes as he watched events unfold on the Afterlife security cameras. "I could kiss that Turian!".
He spotted Engineer Donnelly doing the required 1 step-2 step-arm punch-jump-and-butt wiggle, and went off again into paroxysms of laughter, followed swiftly by a violent coughing fit.
"Ow! Ow!....Shit! EDI"
"Yes Jeff, how may I help?"
"I think I've cracked a rib.....!"
Funny what bizarre things listening to an ipod on the train can inspire! Tried to leave most of the music vague enough to appeal to all. Sorry if some folks hate that particular song, I don't even own a copy, I heard it on the radio the other day and found the words rather apt! R&R please!