Early morning sky. Pink oceans, the sun was reflecting off of it as it rose higher into the sky. The sand was almost pure white, almost. Areas of it were stained pink from the natural colour of Erroz's sea life. Crowds were beginning to form along the shore line, big enough to where he could make out their shapes. There seemed to be some sort of party going on, a celebration. He picked up his old sniper to look down the scope to get a better look.

They were certainly hardly wearing any clothing. The men were all topless, and the women had their midriffs exposed, wearing small skirts. Well, given it was an island full of beaches, this was to be expected after all.

He set the sniper back down back on the table while he looked through the wardrobe that had been prepared for him. He certainly couldn't go in there in full armour, he would stand out too much. Surely there would be something in there he could wear on a beach…

A beach, if only Kolyat could see it. It had sand like a desert, but there was so much water. He would have to take pictures with his omni tool to send to him, he would love it. Did Kolyat travel much? What kind of places did he favour?

He eventually did manage to find a pair of black swim trunks, which he slipped on immediately. The fit perfectly. Perhaps Pheonix had taken his measurements while they were reviving him, it would only make sense, given everything in the closet seemed to be tailored for him.

The only problem would be that with so little clothing, there would be no space to hide a weapon. If they did run into the assassin, he would be forced to rely on hand-to-hand combat, unless Ivy had some sort of plan. Judging by everything the others had said about her, she likely did. But there was no sense on relying on a single person, he would have to come up with something himself just in case. Perhaps he could stow the weapons somewhere beforehand for easy retrieval… but where?

He stepped back to the window, scanning the area for any clue that could spark his mind. They could always bury their weapons in the sand, but there was a chance that they could get clogged and not work when they needed them to most. That was something he had learned on one of his first jobs, fortunately he had also been taught to always have a backup.

It was then that he heard a knock on the door, "You may enter."
He was greeted by Kyre, who had pistols and some sort of straps. "Here, your weapon for today. The Professor doubts that there will be engagement, but wants us to be armed anyway. The only person who won't be armed his Ra." He handed Thane the pistol and the strap, "You strap it around your thigh, underneath your swimming trunks. There's a waterproof plug in it that will come out when you fire it, but try not to get it too wet."
"Isn't it dangerous that Ra won't have a weapon? He should at least have a spare in case one of ours don't work." He attached the pistol to the strap, setting it on the bed. "He's not that much of a klutz… hopefully."
"He shot himself in the foot last time we gave him a gun… Literally. Of course he didn't mean to, somehow the safety ended up being turned off, and I don't know what happened from there." He headed back towards the door, "See you in the main room when you're ready, try not to take too long. The miss doesn't like to be kept waiting, especially while our killer runs wild." He turned around and left. Thane could tell that he was quite the serious individual.

He quickly secured the pistol and the belt to his inner thigh as instructed, carefully inspecting the gun to make sure it wouldn't fire on him. He then threw on a coat to cover his chest, feeling quite bare roaming around such a nice ship half undressed. The hall was empty, so he went straight to the elevator, operating the controls like he had seen Ivy do. He even remembered her password from when they went down to the engine room. Perhaps there were more places he could access using that password, but that was an adventure for another day.

The others were waiting in the main room. Ivy was lounged on her red chair, Kyre standing beside her, watching the Turian standing at the window, gawking out of it, Ra's face pressed against the glass. The woman looked about to doze off, slumped against the side of her chair. There were bags under her eyes that she had tried to cover with makeup, but Thane could see right through that. Kyra was fine, as Salarians, and their subspecies in this case, only needed an average of an hour of sleep per night. Judging by how much Ra was jumping, he had slept well and was fully prepared for the day.

Thane cleared his throat, and the others became aware of his presence. Ra jumped for the Drell, pulling him into a hug, "We're gonna see an ocean!" He then released Thane, jumping back off towards the window. Thane stared for a moment, a bit baffled.

"Well if anyone is going to help us look like tourists, it's Ra-"

Kyre interrupted her, "We're a group of four different species, I'll be surprised if we don't get caught right away. That's why I truly suggest we take my plan."

"Your plan exposes you and Ra. He can't shoot."

"Yes, but it leaves you and Thane mobile. I'm not exactly an assassin. We'd also be less likely to get caught."

"You do realise even holding hands with a Drell can cause humans to break out in terrible rashes, right? I'd have to be on immunosuppressants, which aren't exactly a good idea when travelling on a planet with foreign species, and foreign bacteria. Acting as if we were on some sort of honeymoon… and I'm barely clothed…" She pulled at her sarong. It was longer than the ones the other girls at the beach were wearing, it's black and blue fabric stopping just below her knees. "I'd have rashes everywhere. I should have neutralized that damn venom in the lab."

Thane moved closer to the group, standing on the plush black rug, his arms folded gently behind his back, "If it is any comfort, I rinsed off the membrane last night-"

"It's a membrane?!" She jumped up for a very brief moment, before plopping back down, "You all do realise if I somehow end up ingesting the stuff, I'll hallucinate. You do know that, right? I don't have the metabolism of a Salarian to clear it out of my system that quickly, nor the Dextro-proteins of the Turians for the toxin to bypass me altogether. I could end up putting all of you in danger if-"

"Ma'am, I've never seen you so flustered-"

"If you interrupt me one more time I'll make you a woman."

Kyre sighed, looking to Thane, "I suggested that you two scout the beach, pretend to be a lovey dovey happily married couple, which Ra and I line the shops."
Thane nodded, though he sensed Ivy had some sort of hang up about it, and he doubted it was the membrane. "It'll work, but just who are we looking for?"

The professor sighed, getting up and composing herself with a stretch, "Who ever is tailing Mister and Miss Vakarian, and Kaidan Alenko. The Normandy is here for some reason… and if we can along the way… I would like to know why." She finished one final stretch, and motioned for Ra to come over, but the boy didn't see her wave at him, as he was far too preoccupied with that was happening along the shoreline. "But Thane, do try not to interact with them too much.."

"You're concerned my judgement will be compromised because of the Commander, I assure you, I will remain completely partial. Though how can we be sure the assassin will come here?" Shepard was here. I wouldn't admit it, but he still loved her. He was happy that she had moved on, and especially that she had chosen someone he trusted as much as he did Garrus, but the thought of her being with anyone else still unnerved him, but who was he to claim her? He had died after all. "Do we have any leads at all on who this assassin might be?"
"We think this will be a top priority to whoever they are, to take down three spectres that undoubtedly thwarted the Reapers. Especially Shepard. Her head is worth a lot of money." She paused, her mind running, trying to remember any clues they may have come across. "They leave so little evidence behind, we really have no idea who the assassin may be, so we have to be alert."
Thane nodded, and once they had double checked that they had everything that they could possibly need, they headed out the airlock, straight onto the sand. Once they got to the trees just before the shoreline, they split into the two teams. Ivy seemed particularly nervous. "You're pretty bad at pretending to be in love with me." He joked, watching her face for a reaction, but there wasn't one.
"Sorry, I need to focus. We need to find-"
"Don't say their names, let me handle it." He smiled, taking her hand. It wouldn't to do blow their cover by acting distant after all. Holding her hand, he could feel how sweaty her palm was. She really was nervous. Perhaps it had been too long since she had been out on the field, if she had been at all. She was a professor, perhaps she was self taught in all of the skills he had heard about. Hand-to-Hand combat, wielding a sniper rifle. If he remembered correctly what Kyre had told him, which he always did remember correctly, she wasn't too good with weapons for closer range, like the pistol underneath her skirt.

That had to be what was making her nervous. She was scared of getting in a firefight.

"Honey, you may tell me if you are not feeling well. I can tell you barely slept a wink too… I would hate for you to hurt yourself." The felt the terrain beneath his feet change as they stepped onto the fine white sand, "Perhaps we should get something to drink."

"I'm feeling fine, it's just it's so damn hot out here, Darling." She glared up at him from behind her smile, ordering him not to say one more word on her condition. She would be fine. He was just a man, she needn't get so worked up, although apparently he had misinterpreted how she was feeling to be a physical illness. Typical man, even alien men couldn't seem to understand women. "Perhaps we could just walk the shore. I want to pick up some seashells."

Water would wash off the membrane. So apparently that was what was bothering her so much. He couldn't really blame her. Some humans even turned out to be particularly allergic to it. "Sounds good, but I doubt we'll be able to find anything near all of these people. We should walk up for a bit until we see something." They would definitely not be able to spot any of the Spectres here, let alone peg who was possibly tailing them. There was a lot of cover for an assassin to take here.

"Sounds good. I hear quartz washes up on the sands often, there are a lot of gems underneath the ocean here, quite literally. Perhaps tomorrow we could swim down there and get some samples!" Her eyes lit up like a child who just received a new toy, "I would love to study the gems, perhaps some water got trapped in them and preserved some sort of microscopic life! I'm sure it's been tested for that dozens of times, but… I want to!" She looked up at him, eyes sparkling with the thought of something new to experiment on, but then she remembered their mission. The assassin, and the fact that she was holding hands with… "But perhaps we should stick to the seashells."

He pulled her closer and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, smiling, "Well perhaps we could find a bit of quartz along the shoreline along with the seashells."

She nodded with a sigh, and he returned his grip to her hand, and they headed further up the beach. Her wristband never vibrated, which meant that Ra and Kyre still hadn't found any of the spectres. Maybe they had gotten sidetracked by a gift shop. Knowing Ra, it wasn't impossible, and Kyre would do anything for the boy.

They got to an empty part of the beach, there were no civilians there, except two asari lounging underneath the trees towards the end of the sand. Ivy let go of Thanes hand to run her fingers in the water, pulling out a small amethyst crystal,holding it up to the sun, "Pretty huh?"

He stepped forward, kneeling beside her, "It is rather pretty… Think there are any of those water pockets in it?"
She shook her head, still smiling at it, "It's way too small, and see how light the purple is? That means there is low iron where this was formed, and considering a lot of the iron was mined here about a couple hundred years ago, it's relatively safe to say that this formed around this time, and got dislodged at the start of the tourism boom." She twirled it in between her fingers, watching as the light caught the stone in different ways. "It's still very pretty-"
"Thane?"
The Drell in question looked up towards the voice that he knew oh so well. The voice he would never forget, especially when he heard his name carried by it, "Siha-" He cleared his throat, "Commander-"

Shepard reached up to cover her mouth, seeing his face, confirming that it really was him. "You're… You're dead. There's no way. I was at your funeral Thane…"

"I was dead… but… It's complicated." He bit back his words as soon as he said them, seeing the pain and grief on her face. She was reliving her loss of him, "Jane… I'm sorry. I wanted to tell you, but I found out about you and Garrus, I didn't want to hurt you or him. You two deserve to be happy together…"
Shepard wasted no time running up to Thane, pulling him close, collapsing into the sand, "I'm just happy that you are alive…"

Garrus cleared his throat, making eye contact with Ivy, both feeling rather awkward. "Perhaps we should give them some space. Jane, Thane, we'll be over there at that..." His eyes scanned the shoreline for the nearest establishment, "Bakery? Is that a bakery?"

Ivy stood up, looking at the crying woman with pure sympathy, "That's a confectionery, which is kind of like a bakery. They sell sweets. I'm guessing they also sell local foods… Thane, if you need me, I'll be over there." She followed Garrus, not looking back or speaking until they were a distance away. "This must be particularly awkward for you."

Garrus sighed, but there was a faint smile on his lips, "You have no idea. I know how much they cared for each other, and I also know I could never replace him in her heart. I imagine you feel the same."

Ivy covered her cheeks as blood rose to them in a blush, "We're not a thing… We're colleagues, kinda, well… He works for me."
"You hired an assassin, and then took him out to a tropical resort? Odd choice. Especially the dead assassin thing. I'd hate to know what you're up to."

"You brought a military ship designed for stealth to a tropical resort, sounds like you're in an equal pickle."

"A pickle?" He looked at her puzzled, opening the door to the confectionary for her, which she gratefully accepted and headed in.
"You know… Like being in a jam… Ugh that's not any better It's a human idiomatic expression, meaning to be in some sort of trouble." They sat down on a pair of barstools.

"I see, but why a pickle?" He questioned, generally curious. At least Turian expressions made sense, humans had ones about fish in barrels. Who puts fish in barrels?
"Because a pickle is trapped inside a jar I guess. It can't get out on its own." She called the waitress over for a pair of Shirley Temples, "But then again, it's a pickle. Not like it could get out of the jar anyway."

He laughed, looking out the window to see the two on the beach, "Well what has an assassin and his employer out here. Especially… An employer that works for Phoenix." He looked back at her, taking a sip of the drink that had been remade for Turians. Science certainly had come far these past few years in terms of genetically altered food.

"My being with Phoenix has… Well very little to do with it. We're not Cerberus, we won't make their same dumb mistakes. Second, I'm actually Firebird, a subdivision of Phoenix that specializes in the application of genetic engineering into combat situations." She popped the cherry from her drink into her mouth, trying to ignore the sense of suspicion radiating off of the spectre. "And we're here… Well, you and your fiance are in danger. As well as Kaidan Alenko."

He laughed again, this one way more sincere than the last, "You mean to tell me three spectres on shore leave to a resort like this are in danger. That's a joke."

"Someone has been assassinating spectres." She whispered, leaning in towards him to ensure no one would hear, albeit there was no one else present in the room. "The council has yet to take action, fearing social distress if the public learns its most highly trained individuals are being killed en masse. But we believe you're next, because as of right now, this little planet has the highest concentration of spectres in the galaxy."

This definitely seemed to have gotten the Turian's attention, as he wasted no time getting off the bar stool and looking outside, "So you followed us here in an attempt to find him and take him out. Do you even know who the assassin is? If they're targeting spectres, there would have to be evidence of a fight at the scenes. There's no way spectres would go down quietly."

"I'm now going to lie, we have no idea who this person is. That's why we were following you, although you found us first." She paused, watching him watch his fiance. He obviously wasn't going to take his eyes off of her now, "All of the victims died in different manners, although what was always consistent is that how they died was the statistical majority for murders in that system. Which contradictorily, is a statistical abnormality across so many victims. So whoever it is knows the numbers, but not well enough to account for their little slip up. That would lead me to think a rogue C-sec agent, but there's no way someone from C-sec could take out spectres this easily."

"There's only one group with that kind of power." His eyes narrowed at the thought of it. There was no way someone from within had restarted the organization.
"Yes, but your lovely lady made sure they were completely destroyed." She checked the records. There was not a single facility still in operation.

He cleared his throat, finishing his drink in one giant gulp, eyes locked on Shepard. "There's no other explanation, it has to be Cerberus."