I don't own Mass Effect, nor will I profit from this story.

Chapter 2: The Deal

"So, a genuine survivor of a demon of the night winds." My new companion, Trena T'laria apparently, peered at me with interest across the small table, "You sure you don't remember any of it?"

I shrugged, more than a little uncomfortable at her scrutiny, and did my best to remember what the old hag had told me in her very brief afternoon visit. "Just... fragments. Like a scream in my head. The… Matriarch said that it was probably because she killed her while we were melded."

Her body shuddered slightly, "Ugh. Well, you're still sane at least, I've heard stories about people who've broken down entirely when something like that happens, even without one of those…things involved."

Nodding vaguely, my eyes continued to take her in. She was about as far from the in-game depictions of the Asari as was possible. Short, stocky without being fat, obviously muscled, and her clothes were complete with stains of a dozen different colors from whatever she was working on during the day. Her skin was the usual blue, though strangely devoid of the tattoos and markings I was expecting. It was hard to remember that there was a civilization beyond what you see in the game, that there has to be Asari mechanics and farmers, cashiers and fast food workers. That they all weren't based on the same little set of in game models.

I guess I'm going to have to get used to things like that, given that I'm probably going to be stuck on Illium for god knows how long.

So taken in with my musings, I almost missed what she said next, "So, you say you think you were an engineer?"

"Well, I think. It's..." I bit my lip slightly, trying to act like I was rifling through memories. "Even with the Matriarch's help it's hard. I think I was a programmer…that sounds right, mostly."

"Hmm." There's a slurping sound as she brought some of the strange noodles to her lips and virtually inhaled them. "I can work with that. Been needing as assistant around the shop anyways, if you're up for it."

"I'm game." Not like I have a choice. Raising my own two pronged fork-thing, I eagerly bit onto meat that she said was some kind of fish. I was hungry enough to not care what it actually tasted like, but made a mental note to find some nearby restaurants with human food, if there was any. And that was assuming that I could trust any of the aliens on planet to know what real human food actually was. The Matriarch's idea of a human lunch had been bread. With butter. Nothing else. She'd even been confused as to my reaction to her 'meal'. "Apparently my other option is a contract, and I remember enough to want nothing to do with that."

Her utensil rose to her brow in a salute, "I actually live in this complex as well, and I'll pay you enough to let you keep this place, so you won't have to worry about that. Faster you learn, the more I'll give you. Don't learn fast enough or if you've got no skill though, I'm cutting you loose, old debts or no. Deal?"

My own fork, another piece of fish stabbed onto it, rose in reply, "Deal, Miss T'laria."

"Trena, if you please." She gave me a little grin, "Still a Matron. And you're Cie."

"Cieran." I corrected. "Cieran Kean. Either full first or last name please."

"I'm your employer now, I can call you whatever I want, ape."

Her tone was amused and light, and I felt safe in replying in kind, "But of course oh scaled one. You are not offended that I am eating your cousin, are you?"

"Never liked him anyways."

I couldn't help but chuckle at that, and was rewarded with one from her as well.

How strange is it that here I am, another dimension removed from home, bantering sarcasm with an Asari as if she was an old friend, like nothing unusual has happened to me in the last day.. Of course, the moment that hit me the locked box in the back of my head started shuddering, threatening to overwhelm me once again. I closed my eyes as she resumed eating, focusing my mind entirely on the feeling of the utensil in my hand.

No. Break down later. Focus on the now.

I blew out a long breath before viciously stabbing a bit of food. "So, what will I be doing then?"

"Well, we'll start with some basic courses to get your mind back in order. Engineering and programming for beginners, that kind of thing, try and shake some memories loose. I'll send that to you to work on from here. Get that down and you can come with to my shop and I'll put you to work assisting me." She did what was apparently a little Asari version of a shrug, her head tilting in time with a shoulder rising, "People bring in stuff and I fix it. Aircars, omni-tools, sometimes they have me do their extranet pages, their weapons... just about anything really."

"Cool." It was a bit of a mumble around another piece of meat, and she gave me another grin. "Sounds interesting at least." And useful.

She did the little shrug thing again, noisily inhaling another noodle. "And you need to work on your speech. You sound like you're from an old human vid, and a badly translated one at that. She must have really done a number on your head... Though your accent sounds local."

I winced slightly and shrugged. "Apparently."

"You aren't going to need help just living here are you?" Her mouth twitched into a smile again, "Not going to set the place on fire? Or start relieving yourself in the corner like those mog things?"

"Dog." I corrected, taking a pause to wolf down another bite of the pasta, "And I'm not completely hopeless." It had taken me a while, with plenty of thankfully hidden embarrassment, to work out how to use the alien bathroom. And I still had no idea what half of the unlabeled buttons on the oven did, but at least I knew how to turn the thing on and off. About the only thing it that hadn't taken me at least fifteen minutes to figure out had been the refrigerator and its attached freezer, which were both typical enough on the inside, even if they were filled with a dead woman's food. The one good thing to come of the afternoon had been realizing that whatever had zapped the Asari language into my brain had also brought along the ability to read it.

"Just mostly hopeless." Trena nosily slurped down another noodle, before tossing the two pronged fork onto her plate with a clatter, "Well, it's early enough, come on."

I blinked, another noodle halfway to my mouth, "Huh?"

Aquamarine eyes rolled as she sighed, "If you're going to live here, you need to know where things are, and since I would rather get some sleep tonight, let's get it the fuck out of the way."

"Ah." Trying not to choke on my last bit of food, and tossing my fork onto its own plate, I slid to my feet. "So, um, is there a key for this place? The ah, Matriarch wasn't really.."

Trena gave me a very masculine sounding snort, "Keen on explanations, I know. Come on, we'll get it coded to you, should have been reset by now."

Which, thankfully, it was. A quick tutorial on resetting the apartment's password, and adding a hand-print scan took just a few minutes. After that, we were off.

The city was... well, different. The building my apartment was in was five stories tall, with my place on the top floor. Unlike what I was used to though, the apartment doors opened directly into a broad walkway, with dozen ramps heading both up and down easily in sight. And of course, even with the sun setting, there were Asari everywhere. Tallish ones, plenty of short ones, thin ones, muscled ones... Some wearing clothing so skimpy it would barely qualify as nightwear, others in the business attire often seen in the games, and yet more in what I was assuming were casual clothes. Sky cars were blurring past overhead, most streaming to and from the massive towers in the far distance, the dull roar of their engines nearly drowning out the quiet murmur of a thousand voices speaking.

"Wow." I breathed the word, trying to stare at everything at the same time.

"Welcome to our little corner of Nos Astra: the River District." A firm arm dragged me over to the railing, while another waved expansively at everything in sight, "Not the best place, but it's better than a kick in the quad, that's for sure."

"Uh-huh." It was all I could do to nod as she spoke, still trying to process everything attacking my senses. I suddenly have no doubts at all as to the game's assertion that the Asari were a social species, the amount of them just talking with each other as they walked past us or below us or across the way from us was fucking staggering.

And... I also rather realized that I was the only human in sight. Scratch that, I was the only non-Asari in sight.

"Figured it would be better to get you used to it now." My companion apparently noticed my sudden discomfort, "Not many aliens in this part of town."

"Ah... I see." It wasn't hard not to be ridiculously self-conscious as more than a few of the of the passers-by were not quite staring at me. So this is what it feels like to be an animal in a zoo.

She laughed as I sort of hunched in on myself, and again took one of my elbows with her hand, "Come on, I'll keep 'em at bay for you."

Not terribly assured, I let her guide me along the footpath as she showed me the local sights.

Once you got past the fact that everyone in sight wasn't human, and the preference towards silver-blue, curving architecture, it honestly felt like any other city. There were a few sit-down restaurants, about twice as many fast food joints, and a wide variety of stores. Trena took the time to point out which ones were fairly well run where I wouldn't get ripped off, and then the ones I should avoid for a variety of reasons.

"Don't go in there, she's not a fan of humans."

"Avoid this one, head two floors down instead unless you want to just hand your money to the Eclipse."

"This one's not bad, just try not to sleep with the waitress. She's... clingy."

We did duck into a local marketplace, and she quietly explained how to work paying for things when I sheepishly admitted that I had no idea. Apparently the Matriarch had already opened an account in my name, and deposited a modest sum there. From what Trena told me later, it was enough for the first month of rent plus food, with enough left over to pick up some new clothes and basic equipment if I was stingy about it.

Eventually we made our way back to our building, my new boss making sure that I was able to get back into my own apartment before leaving for the night.

I managed to heat up what was left of dinner without burning myself or destroying anything, which I took as a win, before heading to the bedroom. I'd initially shuddered at the idea of sleeping on a dead woman's bed, but that was before I'd sat on the couch. Any thoughts of sleeping on that thing had vanished within the first few minutes.

Damn thing must have been designed for a Krogan or something.

The first night was.. hard. Can't really lie about that. Everything that I'd managed to bottle up during the day washed over me, the locks inside of my head breaking open. More than that.. well, that's for me to keep to myself.

The first week of my new life was hectic as hell... in a good way. I was too busy to break down further, and sleep became a luxury as I spent all of my time glued to my extranet terminal, frantically tearing through the different sites that Trena had sent me.

Thankfully, the basics of programming were still familiar enough, though the syntax that the Asari use was annoying as hell. Still, the old adage about ninety percent of all problems having already been solved seemed more like ninety nine percent. It was practically trivial to pick up a dozen useful scripts with an hour or two of work, and with another few hours of coding I finally managed to get a reasonable amount of control over my own home. I'd loaded a few more that I thought would be helpful in the future into my omni-tool, mostly synchronization routines for various motors along with a few eezo monitors.

And the fact that command line work is considered esoteric is thoroughly amusing.

While the programming flowed easily, the physical engineering remained a massive hurdle to get over. I'd never really been a gearhead, mostly leaving that to my friends when I needed something fixed, so I had to spend twice as much time to make sure that I got it straight. It didn't help that Trena hadn't been exaggerating when she said that she fixed what people brought her. I had links for everything from batarian firearms (durable and simple, if underpowered) to asari car engines (over reliant on element zero and complicated as fuck).

Although just how much work I was going to have didn't really become clear until the third day, when I was checking over common problems for personal shield belts. I'd just finished going over the most popular Salarian design, and flicked to a Turian model only to find that they had almost nothing in common with one another. A few minutes more of checking had revealed that every other species' designs were almost as different.

Suddenly I have a whole new respect for Tali and her people.

Honestly most of what I was able to learn came from a collection of Quarian articles. I had no idea where Trena had found them, but I'd made sure to save them to my new omni-tool to ensure that I had them on me at all times.

"Yeah, you can learn a lot from the bucket heads." Trena had come over six days after my arrival, and it was the first time I'd seen her in the flesh since that initial day. We'd talked a bit over our omni-tools, but she'd largely trusted me to do my own thing. As before, she was in what I was guessing were her work clothes, and I idly wondered if the chair was going to get stained. "Lot of people look down on them, but trust me, no one can make tech dance like they can."

"So I should be worried about a Quarian pilgrim replacing me?" I checked to make sure the ketchup on my burger, apparently made of an Illium version of a manatee, was sufficient before taking a huge bite. There weren't all that many humans around, but thankfully some human food at least had managed to infiltrate Asari cuisine. Burgers and Gyros were both hugely popular in the River District, though I was led to believe that Indian cuisine dominated Nos Astra proper.

She snorted, waving her own sandwich as she spoke, "Hardly. Most of them know to avoid Illium, not exactly a friendly place."

"Doesn't sound like many are for them."

An Asai shrug accompanied her words. "True enough."

"So," I paused as I took another bite, working my way through it before I spoke again, "You going to test me or anything, or just tell me when to show up?"

"You get another week of poking around, you'll get your first paycheck after. I owe the Matriarch that much at least." She took a long pull of demon juice, which actually wasn't alcoholic but was apparently rumored to be filled with addictive substances, along with enough caffeine to give you a heart-attack, "After that I'll expect you ready and waiting when I stop by in the morning, we can head to my shop together."

"Sounds fair." And mildly nerve-wracking. No pressure Cieran, just one more week to get ready before you get the chance to blow this. Somehow I doubt that the Matriarch will show up to give you another chance somewhere else. You'll probably get stuck being indentured and ending up a janitor somewhere... or worse. "Mind telling me what you're working on right now? So I can get a good idea."

"Why not?" After that she followed up by telling me all about her last week, which had apparently been fairly slow. A few extranet pages had been setup for a Batarian restaurant in a nearby district seemed simple enough, and I was pretty sure I managed to impress her with my observations on her coding. She'd also had to fix some rich girl's speeder after she slammed it into a building on a red-sand trip, which sounded like an ongoing project.

"I'll be lucky to get everything back in place before you start." Her voice was an irritated growl at the thought of the car, "And of course she's a pureblood from the Citadel, so her parents barely want anything to do with her. Getting enough money just to afford the parts I need is like.. what do you humans say, like pulling teeth? Athame's tits, I'll be lucky to make any credits at all on it. Should have told her to find someone else."

I grunted, shaking my head in sympathy. "That a common problem?"

"Unwanted kids slamming cars into skyscrapers?" She chuckled, "Not exactly. Purebloods ostracizing their own children? Yeah, but that's mostly limited the big shots. Most of us in the lower classes are thrilled just to have children, never-mind who the father is. Course, sometimes that bites us in the ass, but that's life on Illium for you. Speaking of life here, I don't suppose you've found any weapons laying around?"

From the way you say that, it sounds like I need one. "Nope."

"Damn. I'll grab one of my back-ups from the shop. This is one of the safer districts, but the Eclipse and the True Sons are going at it in the manufacturing zone."

I licked my lips slightly, not liking the sound of that at all. "I take it that's nearby?"

Trena gave me a little Asari shrug, "It's not far, that's for sure. I was planning on taking tomorrow off anyway, I'll bring you over to my place and put you through your paces. Paperwork is basically just a permit we have to mail in, Matriarch probably already did that but we can check to make sure."

Which was something. I'd been worried about having to both get a weapon and obtain whatever license was needed. But then again, this was Illium, I probably shouldn't have bothered being concerned. Hell, as long as I didn't shoot anything, I could probably have walked around carrying a missile launcher and not really have been bothered by anyone.

We talked a bit more, and I couldn't help but smile as she complained about her favorite clawball team getting viciously demolished in their season opener. There was a brief spec of pain as I recalled countless similar discussions with my friends back home, arguing before hockey games, or debating about the upcoming football seasons with my father.

Eventually we wound down, Trena heading out to her own place after telling me to make sure that I was dressed my mid-morning, while I started cleaning up the remains of our meal. Anyone who thought that Asari were dainty, elegant creatures had apparently never had to clean up after Trena T'laria eating.

Seriously.. how much of it did she actually manage to eat, and how much ended up on the floor?

I was debating about whether or not to risk trying to use something labeled as a 'Sonic Cleaner – for all your domestic messes!' when there was a knock at my door.

Now, all things considered, I usually dislike it when unexpected company arrives. When I've woken up in an alternate universe on a fairly dangerous planet, with no weapon and no training, I had to struggle against the anxiety that reared up.

Said anxiety didn't exactly go away when the voice carried over the intercom, "It's the Matriarch, Kean. We have something to discuss, and I would rather not have to destroy your door to get in. That would lead to awkward questions."

I'm sure.

Still, I checked the vid-screen before opening the door, though how useful that was I didn't really know. It only covered the area right in front of the door, meaning there could have been people lingering on either side and I'd have no idea they were even there.

Memo, get some more cameras in place there when you figure out how to do that.

"Ah, I see from the debris that Trena was here. She never could learn proper manners.. such a shame really." She brushed past me the moment the door slid open, barely even acknowledging my presence. Her dress was far more formal this time, something closer to what you saw Benezia in. Layers of black and gray cloth hid her body and legs from view, with more thin black leather keeping any skin from showing outside of her face. "Now, I believe that this will be the last time that we ever speak, for both of our sakes."

I blinked slowly and frowned, following her towards the cramped living room after making sure the entrance was shut and locked, "For both our sakes? You're saying you're in as much danger as I am? And why would I be in danger of us talking?"

"Danger is perhaps an overstatement, let us say instead it would cause complications if we continued to associate. A Matriarch should not be spending all of her time doting upon a single human, it would bring attention to us that, I believe, we would both rather avoid." She gracefully lowered herself onto the abomination of a couch, appearing perfectly content. "Now, there are a few final ground rules to cover, and a small selection of questions that I should have asked before."

I motioned for her to continue, moving to lean against the wall rather than sit.

"First, a question. You are positive that it is this human woman, this Shepard, that will be the key to the future?"

"Yes."

Her eyes narrowed slightly, "You must be convinced without a doubt."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at her, "I am."

"Good. You must have nothing to do with her, or her crew."

Not going to lie, that one caught me off-guard. "Huh? Why?"

"Because the true chosen one must join her on her quest. I cannot allow you to interfere." Great, rub in the fact that I'm the test-dummy why don't you. "Did she ever journey to Illium? You said you knew of it."

"By reputation." I waved her concerns away, lying my ass off as I did so. "She'll end up recruiting a Justicar who compares Omega and Illium to one another."

She nodded slowly, "In that case you will be able to remain here for the duration, should you wish. Although that does bring me to the next rule, as it were. You will not meld with any Asari."

No sex with the natives, got it. At least I can understand this one. "I can't imagine they'd take seeing my memories very well."

"No, I doubt very much that any explanation you could come up with would suffice in that situation. To that end, I have already spent my last favor for you. You will shortly receive a certificate from a prestigious medical facility, indicating you suffer from a rare condition known as Floating Mind syndrome." My complete confusion must have shown, because she went on to explain. "It's a side-effect from a forced melding, a rape if you will. The victim's mind is damaged by the unwanted intrusion, and reacts viciously to defend itself against further attempts. Unfortunately, this usually leads to more damage to the victim, often leaving them in a comatose state for weeks or even months. It makes bonding extremely difficult and dangerous, and can take years for a member of your species to overcome."

I have no idea why it had never occurred to me that something like rape could exist amongst the Asari. Probably my own natural bias as a male human showing through, although didn't really make it any better. Come to think of it, it would be an even more brutal violation to hem, having their mind itself invaded and their memories ransacked... I shuddered as my stomach churned.

"If you are.. approached, you can politely decline and tell them of your condition. Most of my people will be extremely sympathetic upon learning of it."

Great. So not only was I the only human to be found in walking distance, but I was the poor, crippled human they couldn't even sleep with.

Although, maybe I could use that sympathy a bit.. worth considering at any rate.

"I suppose I should thank you for that, but I don't suppose you'll be willing to answer some questions I have in return?"

"That would entirely depend on what you ask."

I bit my lip slightly as I nodded, "I'm guessing you won't tell me anything about your order, or just who this chosen one is?"

"Your guess is correct."

Figures. "What happens if I run into Shepard, or her one of her crew? Not on purpose mind you, but I have no idea where most of them are before or between the games."

Her eyes narrowed slightly, but she inclined her head gracefully all the same. "In that case I would have you avoid them as soon as is politely possible. That would be the same for the Chosen One. I am sure you will be able to deduce who they are once they events are in motion, and I would rather they avoid the temptation to.. bond with someone with similar experiences."

Well aren't you the nice little puppet master. "Yeah.. fine. I've got a good idea of what you'll do to me if I don't."

"As you humans say, I shall leave it to your imagination."

At the time, I was suitably shaken by the implied threat of a very painful death, but if I'd known just was coming in the following weeks, I'd have considered it par for the course.

Next up is Chapter 3: The Life

More early arrival and setup material here, introducing the next major original character in Trena T'laria, jack of all trades mechanic. I wanted to get away from the typical Asari mold for her, and thought a short, buff, grease-monkey was about as far a cry from Liara or even Samara as you could get. We'll get into why she's like that and who her parents are later.

The major ball of the first arc will start rolling in the next chapter, now that we have the basics out of the way. I will be following Victoria's three-arcs per story mold, with a bit of stretch time in between the arcs, so expect a pleasant variety of things to happen over the course of this fic.

The chapter names will of course have something to do with what's in that chapter, so hopefully people can have some fun speculating on what it will be about :)

Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."

Thanks, Kat

Author's Fun Facts: The River District

The River District is one of the greater suburbs of Nos Astra proper, laying further inland than the coastal city (stretching between the two main rivers that feed into the ocean nearby). It's roughly a middle class type of place, but has some worse off areas near the Manufacturing District (which is less of a city and more of an industrial zone stretching north).

The Western Reaches are further inland, but still within the Nos Astra urban area, with Khar'shan Minor (an enclave of Batarian exiles) sandwiched between the Reaches and the River District. The next largest city after Nos Astra is Nos Irrail, located on the far side of the local ocean, and is effectively run by the Eclipse.

Review Responses:

Rigel100 –Most of that was the situation he found himself in. Waking up in another world, with an Asari next to you and another Asari's corpse on the couch, wouldn't be good for anyone's state of mind. If he'd shown up alone or had more time to think things through, he likely would have revealed quite a bit less. As it was, he was mostly fixated on not giving away things that would lead to her wanting to kill him.

XRaiderV1 - Male, sorry, thought it was obvious.