A visit to Omega

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach and Mass Effect

AN: This chapter was proof read by Zanthraxone . Thanks!

Part 1. The Queen...

Tia awoke refreshed. Whole night's sleep without nightmares, which was a welcome change. She stretched, her mind already spinning and planning. Shepard went to the bathroom for a quick shower, making a mental check list. Her stomach growled anointing item the first - breakfast, and item one point one, avoiding chief Rupert cooking at all costs.

Five minutes later she was ready. In a moment of inspiration, Tia went to her armor locker and found an emergency supply of energy bars. They were harder than cardboard, with similar texture and most importantly - bland and tasteless. Compared to the patented "Chief's Surprise TM" , which without a doubt awaited her at the mess hall, the bars were close to five coarse meal. She finished her snack and headed to the armory. It was time for her inner Gun Nut to play. Tia nodded absent-mindedly to Jacob, her eyes shining brightly as she was ogling the goodies. She had to apply a lot of conscious effort to close her jaw and stop drooling. Apparently Christmas came early this year. First, every girl's best friend, the pistol. (It should be noted that all of Shepard's best friends are under the WMD category) The espada pouted. There were just predators and a case with Phalanx guns. Phalanx it is. Tia took one weapon from the case and went to the closest workbench. She disassembled the gun and inspected its parts before checking the available mods. She added advanced heat sink and a close range stunner. You never know, when you'll need to bring in someone alive.

Next were the assault rifles. This time, Shepard managed to keep her drooling to bare minimum. There were cases with Avenger, Mattock, Vindicator and even the new Falcons. She grabbed a M 96 Mattock . With her enhanced strength it was light like a feather. Shepard added better heat sink and a stability dampener, which combined with the rather good integrated scope, made one mean gun. Forty shots on full auto before overheating, each nearly as strong as a sniper. Just beautiful. The heavy weapons selection dampened her giddiness a bit. Only grenade launcher and couple of experimental - a singularity projector and an arch thrower. She picked up the Projector. Being able to fry shields and electronics (and People!) was always good. Next were the snipers. Lots of drooling insured! Tia was ready to start bouncing from the walls. An actual M-98 Widow antimaterial rifle. There was no contest. Last but not least , her favorite! All nice, heartwarming toys that go Boom! in the night. (AN: Did I mention that our dear Commander Shepard is a bloody pyromaniac ?!) " Aww" Tia crooned looking over a selection of frag and incendiary grenades. She got four of each and a couple of flashbangs. A bit of old fashioned Shock and Awe can come in handy. She added four blocks of politique for a good measure. They were a present for one specific gunship. Now she needed to pick up ammo mods and the fun was over. She made her choice fast - shredder for the pistol, incendiary for the AR and finally an explosive for her sniper (With that ammo, she should be able to handle light vehicles if it was needed) . Shepard finished just in time for their arrival at Omega.

Few minutes after docking, Jacob and Miranda arrived at the airlock. It was a miracle! Tia shook her head and blinked owlishly at the unearthly sight. Miranda had gotten out of here two sizes too small cat suit and was wearing a black armor with orange markings. Jacob was wearing a suit of Kestrel armor, just like Shepard. The only difference was his recon hood, while Tia had once again a targeting visor. The Commander waved them into the airlock and followed suit. While the pressure was equalized she declared: "Welcome to the most wretched hive and villainy in the explored galaxy!" She added in deadpan tone "Cerberus excluded of course", which earned her a glare from Lawson while Jacob chuckled. 'Yup, he's salvageable. However our dear cheerleader will need a work. So little time and too many people whose heads I need to mess up' she thought.

'Yupee! The bloody airlock opened. The damn thing was slower than that on the old Normandy. Shepard and her team finally disembarked, only to be accosted by a greeting committee, before taking a dozen steps of the ship. First was an elder salarian that had barely enough time, before being scarred of by one of Aria's thugs, a fucking batarian. If there was one species, which Shepard hated with a passion, they were it. She suppressed the urge to strangle him and just glared. He was just telling her that she wasn't as subtle as she thought. That statement caused a raised eyebrow. 'Me, subtle? I should shoot this slandering bastard! 'She ranted mentally. 'Must not kill! Must not kill! "She chanted silently.

After ordering them to Afterlife to meet Aria, he left. Tia's right hand was twitching towards her pistol. Before she can draw and shoot the smug bastard in the back, EDI decided to add her two cents. Apparently, after a bit of inconspicuous hacking she found out that Mordin Solus had clinic in the lower parts of the station and was dealing with an honest to god plague. On the other hand Archangel, a.k.a Tia's buddy, Garrus Vakarian, had managed to piss off the three premier merc outfits on the station, and they were together gunning for his scaly ass. It was good to know, that Garrus was still able to piss of people almost as good as her. EDI added one last bit of useful info - Zaeed Massani was on the station.

While heading to the lioness den, Shepard spotted a scruffy looking human dragging a wounded batarian. 'Ahh, good old Zaeed, making great first impression.' The wounded batarian won the mercenary lots of good will'. Grinning , Tia made a beeline to her favorite merc ( Wrex would have had that title but he was a clan leader these days ) . When she got near she asked exuberantly " Zaeed Massani?" . He looked at her suspiciously. " Yes, that's me. You must be Commander Shepard. I heard we have a galaxy to save." She nodded and asked "You've been briefed, right?"

"I've done my homework. Cerberus sent me the relevant data."

"Splendid. You ready for action?"

"Just need to deliver this package" Zaeed pointed to the batarian.

'No time for that. Can't risk Garrus getting himself shot. Time to lay the bait.' "No problem. You wouldn't like to be on the current mission anyway." Zaeed's answer was a raised eyebrow. "Yeah. Well need to kill lots of Blood pack, Eclipse and Blue suns mercs and save their target." Massani perked up. "Blue suns, you say?" "Yeah, as I said you won't want to be part of this mission, professional courtesy right. After all we'll have to kill them all." she added cheerfully. Zaeed drew his pistol and shot the batarina between the eyes. "Dead it is" he murmured. "Lots of Blue suns to kill, you say? I'm in!" he exclaimed with bloodthirsty grin.

Shepard answered with similar, but more sinister grin. Massani went for it, bait, hook and line.

Miranda shuddered. 'Sweet, mother of god, there are two of them!" she though. Lawson started thinking that she may have to reconsider her chosen line of work.

Short time later, they arrived at Afterlife. The team was immediately admitted trough the front door. They entered a lined with sofas tunnel shaped room, leading to the club. On the left , at the middle of the room were trio of armed batarians. When Shepard passed by them, their leader growled at her "What are you looking at?". She smiled sweetly and hissed "Trash". Before anyone can act, she exploded in action. Tia struck their leader with enough force to cave in his skull. He hit the wall, already dead, with the sickening sound of breaking bones. Next was the shotgun carrying goon on the right. He fell after a lighting fast elbow strike crushed his trachea. Shepard grabbed the assault rifle of the last one with her left hand and drew him closer. She grabbed his neck with her right hand and broke it with a deft motion of her wrist.

"Well, that was therapeutic." Tia declared.

AN : If you are wondering, after Mindoir, when the batarians are concerned , Shepard's reasonable side, leaves through the nearest airlock and mayhem ensures.

Afterlife looked like a typical night club. Low lighting, neon lights, too loud music and scantily clad assari shaking their blue asses. The last one wouldn't be half bad if it wasn't for one glaring omission. They were not Liara!

Shepard headed to the back of the club, where heavy armed men were guarding the staircases. Time to meet Aria. When they got near the queen of omega, a batarian guard holding a scanner stopped them. " That is close enough." the lone assari at the top of the stairs commanded. A cue for armed standoff. Shepard's team against a dozen bodyguards. Deciding that this is not the best moment to piss off Aria, Shepard said : " I'm guessing, that he isn't scanning for weapon." , patting her pistol. Aria turned her head to the right, looking behind her shoulder. "Can't be too careful with dead specters. It could be anyone wearing your face." Tia waited to be cleared by the scanner, before saying " You are the woman to ask, if you need questions answered on this rock."

Aria turned around and looked at the specter. "Depends on the questions." Shepard smiled. " Lets cut to the chase. You are Omega.", she declared. Aria paced in front of Tia while talking " But you need something, more. Everyone does."

Forestalling the coming tirade, the espada said "The Omega's golden rule - don't fuck with Aria." The queen gave her a small smile "And if you forget, someone will throw your pretty ass of the nearest airlock."

Aria sat down and motioned to Shepard to do the same. The assari matriarch asked what she can do for Tia. The espada asked about Archangel and Mordin , receiving basically the same info which EDI was able to gather. At least she got permission to go into the quarantine zone for the doctor, and direction for a recruiting station for freelancers, basically a cannon fodder to be thrown at Garrus. Aria's declaration that "Omega" didn't care what Shepard did, was pure bullshit. For the assari it was a win-win situation unless the spectre was after her. It was guaranteed that Mordin won't leave until the plague is dealt with in which case it was clear who would take the credit. As for Archangel - no matter what happens, Shepard a spectre, would be able to take out lots of mercs, thus strengthening Aria's hold on the station.

The recruitment station was a small room on the first floor of Afterlife. Complete with batarian blue suns merk, acting as a recruiter. All she needed to hear was the location of the shuttle pad from which the freelancers will be transferred to Archangels location. She tuned out the rest of his sales pitch. As she was heading to the exit, a kid, barely eighteen entered. Shepard shook her head sadly. "How old are you, kid?"
"I'm old enough!" the boy exclaimed, and then told her that he had grown on Omega, the poor bastard. "You know enough to get yourself killed" Zaeed grated. It wasn't the first time he saw a dumb kid ready to throw his life away. Not that he'll listen. Nope. Instead he drew a gun to show off.

"Besides, I just got a gun for fifty creds! I want to use it!" he boasted.

Young and reeeally dumb. Shepard grabbed his pistol and growled "Get your money back. Trust me kid you'll regret it otherwise. "She tapped the gun lightly with the palm of her arm and the cheap knock off fell apart in a shower of sparks.

Part 2. and the Angel

A short flight later, the team disembarked in the mercs staging area. The resident batarian merc, in the colors of the suns, cheerfully declared that they will be a cannon fodder. He at least was straightforward. Noting like a suicide charge to make one's day!

The staging area was a bloody circus. Shepard wondered how the mercs haven shot each other yet. And decided to help them. She was a real Paragon of virtue after all! You see! She was able to finish that thought with straight face!

A bit of mingling with the freelancers followed. Small talk, little mischief and few well placed grenades. All in a day's work. Some recon work later and Shepard was a proud owner of a data pad containing information on an alliance between the three mercenary outfits. Surprise, surprise - after dealing with Garrus, they had decided to pay a friendly visit to Aria. Yeah, the visit that includes shooting up her club and throwing her remains out of the airlock after they have had their way with her. Nice chaps.

After looting everything in sight and a hacking session with a heavy mech, Shepard found the damned gunship. 'Ahh! Sergeant Catha!' Tia thought. The bastard was in for a terminal surprise. The specter waited for the attack and while everybody's attention was captured by the futile assault, she snapped the engineer's neck. Then she packed the practique on in the gunship, grinning madly. Shepard, decided that she doesn't have to wait for the next group of freelancers. She gave a signal to her team to take out the mercs, manning the barricades. In the same time she radio-detonated the grenades planted at the greatest concentrations of mercenaries. Utter chaos insured. Shepard's team was able to cross the bridge with no resistance whatsoever.

Tia ordered Miranda and Jacob to take positions on the ground floor, while she and Zaeed went upstairs in search of Archangel. There he was, clad in blue and white armor, sitting on a coach, facing the door. Despite his obvious exhaustion, he had an amused look on his face. "Shepard. Thought that you were dead. But after that stunt you just pulled off... "He gave her a toothy grin. "Garrus! Good to see you, buddy! "she exclaimed , literally bouncing in the air. " Heh, same old, excitable, bundle of destruction, I see." he chirped. Tia glared indignantly. 'She wasn't that old! Just couple of millennia in Hueco Mundo... 'She trailed off. 'Ouch. She wasn't that old, Riiight!? '

Shepard shook her head in exasperation. Time to pull Garrus back to the ground , before he tries something more adventurous. Like hunting thresher maws on foot. She was ready to lay it on him for getting himself in this mess, when she remembered. They were going to face a damned maw on foot. Fucking Tuchanka. Tia heard a giggling in her head. She briefly wondered if she was finally loosing it. Nope, it should be her zanpakuto spirit, who decided to stop with the silent treatment. She should keep telling herself that. The giggling became full-fledged laughter. Yup, her bloody soul cutter, was laughing its ass off, at her expense.

She took the high path and ignored it for now, focusing on the half asleep turian. "You okay? " she asked with concern. "I've been better. It is good to see a friendly face. "Then he looked at Massani, "Right now, though, even his is not half bad. Killing mercs is a hard work." he deadpanned. This caused an amused chuckle from Zaeed.

"How did you get yourself in this mess?" Tia asked. She couldn't remember the details. Besides, she always loved a good war story.

"It wasn't easy! I had to really work for it!" he declared with a tired smile.

"There is a story behind that! I can tell! "Shepard bounced once more, while Garrus grinned at her." Let's make a deal. After we get out of here I'll tell you all about it! "He smiled tiredly.

Tia looked of the window. The mercs were still reorganizing themselves. She could still hear sporadic gunfire. Shepard pouted. She should have brought more ordinances. This way she might have been able to take out the assembly area. Well, she still could use a Grand Ray Cero, but she wasn't sure how powerful it will be at her current condition. Worst case - she could blow up this level of the station, themselves included. Besides, she wasn't quite ready to reveal her espada abilities for everyone to see.

Now, that her team was reinforcing this position, they should be able to hold without accident. Oops. Good she didn't say that out loud. Then the daemon Murphy would have surely heard.

"So, what is the plan?" she asked.

Garrus joined her by the window. "This place has held them so far. With you four, we should be able to hold until there is a crack in their defenses. Soon the Eclipse mercenaries sorted their shit together, and attacked. It was a turkey shoot. None of them made it halfway across the bridge. This was before their leader decided to deploy the heavy mech. Yes, you guessed it - the hacked one. Hilarity insured. Shepard could see Jaroth, the salarian , Eclipse leader raging behind the barricade. She grinned evilly and lined up a shot with her sniper. She gently pulled the trigger, the Widow's retort sounding like an artillery piece. The results were more than satisfying. The salarian flew apart, his shields and armor proved inadequate in the face of such firepower.

Garrus on the other hand... His mandibles were hanging open, drool leaking on the left side of his face. He was looking at her sniper hypnotized. Shepard couldn't help it . She fell to the ground laughing. After calming down, she saw that the turian had cleaned himself. But his eyes were still darting to her sniper. She opened her mouth to make a joke, when the building shook from an explosion.

"Damn! That came from the tunnels!" Garrus hissed. "They had to use their brains eventually. They are coming through the basemen."

Shepard didn't waste any time. "Jacob, Miranda hold your positions. Massani, with me!" she ordered. Minute later she and the mercenary were racing through the basement. They had to close three shutters to block access through the tunnels. Why Garrus had not done so, before the arrival of the mercs, she had no idea.

She was able to close the first shutter without accident. When she headed to the second, however, she hit a snag. Close quarter fighting with a horde of vorchas. Vorchas with flamethrowers. It was mind-boggling. Who the hell gave them heavy weapons, anyway?! Tia didn't want to be cooked! She growled loudly, scarring Zaeed who took a step backward, despite having to leave his cover in order to do so. Shepard's eyes had become black pools with yellow irises. She holstered her AR, and drew her katana. To the mercenary's amazement she vanished with a buzzing sound, only to reapear on the other end of the corridor. The nine vorcha, she had passed by in split second, fell to the ground decapitated. Zaeed looked at the scene in shock, wondering what the hell Shepard was.

Tia was propped on a wall, panting. Apparently, being a hybrid had its disadvantages. The burst of Sonido had taken its toll. The muscles in her legs were steaming in pain and she was trying to catch her breath. To make things worse, a bunch of vorcha, this time led by a krogan in crimson armor were making their way to her position. Shepard cursed. She drew the Singularity projector and aimed it at the overgrown lizard. It took four seconds to charge, an eternity while under fire. Her shields flashed out and gunfire splashed on her armor. With a loud whine the heavy weapon spat a spinning sphere of dark orange and black. The mass effect field slammed in the charging krogan, lifting him and his closest vorcha sidekicks in the air.

The Commander, dragged herself to the shutter control panel, while watching fascinated how the artificial singularity was ripping apart both metal and flesh. The screams of the vorcha and the krogans angry bellows were oddly distorted. Tia finally reached the controls and activated the shutter. As the metal door was descending, she took out her pistol and aimed at the twisted and bleeding remains of the krogan. The poor bastard was still alive. Tia aimed at his head and pulled the trigger, putting him out of his misery. The damage caused by the collapsing singularity had been too great even for a krogan .

The last entry point was across a garage. Lots of cover, few explosive power cells and fuel container. Oy, yeah. Vorcha again. With couple of krogans... 'And what is this? A trio of four legged shark! They are so cute!" Tia thought. Those bastards were sending the cute puppies as a meat shields! She was pissed off! A stray round blew up a fuel container just as two of the varren were passing by. Their burning corpses were thrown in the air. With a scream of rage, Tia charged shooting Balas indiscriminately. Seconds later, all that remain from the vorchas was burning pieces of meat. That left the krogans, who were able to exploit Tia's rage, hitting her with couple of Carnage rounds. The combined blast fried her shields and threw her on the floor. She was in agony, struggling for breath. Her shields and armor might have been able to protect her from single round. But the second had messed her up. Tia could feel pieces of shattered ribs, piercing her lungs. Her last thoughts were 'Damn! That was stupid!'. She heard Zaeed shouting something before blacking out.

Tia found herself on the Citadel, during the battle for Earth. The station was in much worse condition than she remembered. Thorn, half-melted bulkheads, deep gorges on the floor and walls, twisted and broken support beams, hanging from the ceiling. The cradle of humanity, once a blue, breathtaking sphere, was a patchwork of charred ground and still burning areas. Outside, elements of the combined fleet were duking it with Reapers. For a moment, Shepard thought that her life as an espada and consequent events, were noting more than a hallucination. She was back, presiding over Apocalypse in progress. The sense of helplessness was about to break her, when a melodic, hypnotizing voice, grabbed her attention. "So, that the end in your timeline." The voice was coming from all around her, like a song, reverberating with a pleasant echo. It sounded like a chorus, speaking in a single voice. In a flash of forest green a figure appeared to her left. "It was a valiant effort." The voice continued. It was a female, clad in deep crimson, samurai armor. She looked at Shepard , nodding in acknowledgement. The woman features were hidden behind a hollow mask, which was decorated by black intertwined lines, forming stylized "V". The woman, who Tia believed to be her zanpakuto spirit, waved to their surroundings and spoke in chiding tone "Behold, your inner world!"

Shepard did not need to be told twice. The mindscape was a reflection on the condition of her mind. Considering the utter mess around them, well she probably was clinically crazy. Tia looked at the armored woman with a bored expression and deadpanned: "Technically I haven't been quite sane since Mindoir. What is your point?"

"You are dying. Again!" Shepard winced. The krogan accident somehow slipped her mind. Probably, because it was so embracing. She had charged like a blithering imbecile. And suffered said imbecile's fate.

Her zanpakuto was angry. The spirit pointed an accusing finger at her. "Of all the stupid, suicidal, stunts you've pulled this takes the cake! Who do you think you are?! Wrex? Who made you a specter anyway?" her sword ranted.

Tia had the expression of a little girl being scolded by her mother. The zanpakuto was right. She had acted like an out of control berserker. That wasn't her. She had never pulled such a stunt either as Commander Shepard or Tia Harribel . What was wrong with her!? (Besides the obvious)

The answer manifested itself in the form of white, carbon copy of herself, wearing espada uniform. "Yo, Queen! What the hell was that? You trying to kill us or something?" her doppelganger asked in distorted voice.

Shepard groaned. "This can't get any worse, right?" she asked.

Her copy looked at her like she had soured a second head. Then it dawned to Tia, what she just said aloud and she winced.

It naturally goes worse. Her Doppelganger grinned dementedly, drew her katana and attacked the espada with a buzz of Sonido.