Comment: This was hard. Really hard. And reading over it, I think I haven't expressed myself as I want to, this being more an outpour of random thoughts meshed together than a coherent oneshot that's actually going anywhere. Some aspects, tangled somewhere in this oneshot, were inspired by the asari consort's 'gift of words' in Mass Effect I.

Reviews and/or constructive criticism welcomed.

The Assassin

Drell had perfect memory.

Thane could remember the moment he had dropped from the ventilation shaft, every shot he fired and neck broken by his hands all to eliminate Nassana, but the most vivid memory was how composed Shepard had been while her team mates had drawn their firearms at his entrance, protectively watching out for their Commander.

He did not know then that he would become one of them.

Her eyes were searing, glowing, piercing in both colour and way of being. They watched him with an ever-present strength, a power that he had never seen before.

Thinking over, Thane could trace the similarities between Shepard and Irikah, if he listed it out in general terms; the strength, fearlessness. Yet though they possessed similar traits, they had different ways of expressing them, different ways of using them… They were not polar opposites, but neither were they identical in any facet of their characters.

It was hard to explain in words. Shepard was just different.

Irikah had been drell, familiar in sense of race, but Thane couldn't help but view her as exotic, and beautiful because of it, giving him his first taste of what it was to be truly alive.

Shepard was alien in race, but she seemed so familiar to Thane that her mere presence brought him back to life, like she was the driving force that he thought he had lost.

Not just to live, but for life itself.

Her calm was constant just like her strength; never faltering, always there, underneath her tranquil expression, in her precise and graceful movements.

Whether she was aware of it or not, she drew others to her, and Thane knew he was one of them, and he did not try to resist; he did not want to.

Too different to be ever likened to Irikah except that they were both siha, the divine angels of Arashu.

Shepard was mortal; she had died for over two years, but Thane knew that who she was went beyond mortality. She was not shaped and defined by her deeds and the titles pressed upon her, instead her actions and choices were defined by her.

The surface of Shepard seemed so simple to list, but she was complex, sometimes blurry, so confusing that words were lost for they could not precisely articulate or live to the full meaning of what little Thane already understood and knew of her.

Sometimes Thane felt that all he had to do was pray to Shepard for forgiveness for all the mistakes and wicked deeds he had done, and should she grant it, she would forever cleanse him of his sins.

Yet Shepard was more than a siha, a woman more than any could fully understand. Yet... she was so familiar, so quietly assuring, her strength and calm giving others a foundation to truly allow their skills to flourish.

With her, the chill of fear whenever Thane thought of his death did not grip him as it once did.

Shepard made it seem impossible to truly die.

"You've built a career on performing the impossible."