As 47 began to open his eyes, he expected to wake up back at one of his homes on Earth but dreadfully remembered that he was on the Citadel. He peeked over his shoulder to see if Tali was still asleep on the bed before he got up himself. As he sat up to check on her, he saw that she was sitting on the bedside and staring out the window that overlooked the presidium. Tali didn't seem to notice him waking up and just decided to sit there.

"Good morning." He said to Tali. 'Did she really stay in her suit the entire night?' He thought to himself, not knowing much about Quarians.

"Good morning." She replied.

47 didn't waste time to start getting dressed for his hunt and grabbed his suit and went into the bathroom to change. After he put his clothes on, he realized that getting his equipment from under the bed was going to be a challenge especially putting his holsters on under the coat. He stepped outside to find Tali already packing her things in a suit case, most of which included what looked like cleaning kits and a bunch of documents.

Tali just looked up at him and said, "The hotel's check out is in thirty minutes. I'm sorry that I can't do anything else to help you." Tali had just finished zipping up her suitcase and went into the bathroom giving 47 the chance he needed to start pulling his stuff out from underneath the bed silently. "I have to go back to Rannoch to help rebuild." She shouted from inside the bathroom while 47 frantically took off his coat and started to put his holsters on, starting with his Silverballers.

"It's ok. I still want to thank you for your hospitality." He said back to her. He had just finished putting the P22Gs inside of his belt slide holsters and looked to see if Tali was still in the bathroom, not that it would have mattered if she was standing there watching him if he didn't look.

Tali was still checking her veil in the mirror, getting the creases out, and making sure that she looked presentable before they left. "Like I said before, it was no trouble at all."

47 had the G36 along with the custom concealment holster and started to put it on. "But what if I wanted to repay you?" All that he was doing was trying to buy time to get everything he needed before Tali was done. "I could walk you there if you want."

Tali thought about it a little, she knew that he insisted to repay her for what she did but didn't want him to. 'All he wants to do is walk you to the shuttle.' She thought to herself, 'He just wants to thank you'. "Ok, if you want to." Once she was done fixing her attire, she left the bathroom and saw that 47 was just sitting on the bed while waiting on her. "But if you want, I can get us something to eat before we get there."

"Ok, thank you." 47 replied. He got up on his feet then they both walked out the door together and walked to the elevator. As they rode down the eleven stories to the ground level, 47 asked Tali about the construction on Rannoch and just acted as though he knew about recent events, still being sure he never said the wrong thing that would lead to suspicion.

They just talked all about Rannoch as they left the hotel and were walking towards the docking. 47 just listened and asked as many questions as he could so he got as much information as he could. Even though he dreaded being there, he couldn't deny that the place was very interesting and had a very long history. Tali would talk about their future plans and expansion, along with repurposing the fleet for hauling supplies and trading with other races and colonies.

During their walk, 47 was looking around for different types of transportation that could get him to a different part of the Citadel. The rest of the walk was spent talking about anything that came to mind with no real subject; this went on until they reached a restaurant that Tali had picked out and went inside.

The staff immediately recognized Tali and greeted her by name; they exchanged greetings then Tali introduced him to one of the Turian cashiers that came up to them. She explained to 47 that the place was owned by a friend of hers and that they could eat for free. They were both seated at a table for two that was located on the restaurant's balcony instead of sitting inside.

Looking of to his right, 47 could see rows of buildings that went on alongside of a large lake that the balcony overlooked. While they were both looking at their menus (a levo to 47 and a dextro to Tali) , 47 kept an eye on the different people that were seated around him just as he normally does. There was a group of four humans that were two tables down from them along with three Salarians that were eating by the door to the restaurant.

"And what will you be having?" The human waiter asked 47, breaking his train of thought.

He scanned the menu one last time before picking he actually recognized amongst the other choices. "I'll get the chicken stir fry without anything to drink." The waiter nodded and took both of their menus back with them.

The time that they spent waiting was spent talking about her friend who owned a chain of different restaurants including this one; she said that it was owned by a man named Jacob who used to be a former team member of hers. She told him that ever since he left Cerberus he became decided to retire and to use the money that the Alliance gave him to buy these places while he raised his daughter. 47 still didn't know what Cerberus or the Alliance was so he just played along like he was earlier.

As she was speaking, he noticed that the group of four humans were eying them both suspiciously and it looked as if they were making remarks about them both; he continued to watch them every once in a while as he spoke to Tali because after being a professional killer for most of his life, he knew when something wasn't right. If it were just one person, he wouldn't have paid as much attention to it but when four people are doing it together it didn't seem right.

Another thing that made him cautious was that they didn't stop after a while, even when their food came out they was still talk about her; even though he couldn't hear them clearly, he thought himself how to read lips in his line of work and decided to let Tali know about what was going on. "I think that you might have a bit of a fan base going on behind you." He told her.

Tali shifted in her seat to look at them then turned back to him. "Don't mind them. This happens every now and then." He was still wary about them eying them but decided listen to Tali.

The waiter came out a few minutes afterwards with their food along with a blue drink for Tali. 47 looked at the food that she ordered, if he could call it that; it was just a tube full of paste while his food came out looking like it would from any dine-in place on Earth. Tali just opened a slot on her helmet and started eating so he thought it was normal for it to come like that.

47 started eating his food and started another conversation about why she would carry her gun with her all the time. "What kind of gun do you have on your hip?"

Tali cleared her throat before speaking, "It's the M-27 Scimitar, I prefer to carry shotguns." She then set down her food and took the shotgun off of her hip then made sure that it was unloaded with the safety on. "Would you like to see it?"

He was surprised that she offered him her gun; if a homeless man asked to hold any of his weapons he would have just gotten far away from him. But to see someone offer their gun to him really showed him how different gun laws were. "Sure." He told her. She handed the weapon to 47 then continued to eat. He inspected it closely, admiring how unique it was but didn't like how it was so bulky for its short length and only having a pistol grip with no butt stock. Without knowing the recoil of the weapon, this would not be a shotgun he would choose to use in the field, much less conceal. After looking it over a few more times, he handed it back to Tali and continued eating his food.

Then something about the group of humans caught his eye, one of them looked like he had just gotten a call from someone and held his hand up to his ear while the others were listening with very serious expressions. One of them was sweating profusely, another was shaking a bit in anticipation, the third was calm and eying them down and the fourth was constantly looking back at the same bush that was right next to him. "Ok." 47 heard him say. At once they all got up and walked over to them, two of them keeping their hands at their waist level instead of letting them swing.

47 had seen this enough to know what was going on so he got up and walked in between the group and Tali who gave him a strange look, questioning what he was doing. As he predicted, one of the men drew a pistol and aimed it right at 47's chest at point blank range. "Step aside if you want to live." He said while two of the others drew their pistols and the fourth guy pulled a rifle out of the bush that he was staring at. Tali also had a gun pointed at her but stood behind the table and 47.

47 held his hands up and said, "What's going on?" 47 made sure that he was lined up with another one of them while he spoke. "What do you want?"

"Just listen to them." Tali said.

The human who was in front of 47 motioned for one of his crew to go to Tali then said, "I'm giving you one last chance. Go now or I will-" He was cut off when 47 slammed his left hand into the man's wrist and pulled him forward to use his body as a shield, also making him unbalanced while he used his right hand to grab the barrel of the gun and push it to the side to clear the man's finger of the trigger. He then used the barrel as a lever to rip it from his hand then took a step back while being mindful to make sure that the man was in the line of fire from someone else.

During this, the man that was sent to Tali looked back at them while 47 was disarming the man in front of him. Tali took her chance and gave him a swift kick to the groin and pulled out her shotgun then slammed the side of it into his temple. Afterwards she quickly flipped the table she was standing behind, took cover and loaded her shotgun.

47 corrected his grip on the pistol and fired at the man with the rifle who started to fire at Tali, the rounds hit their target but it seemed to him that he had some kind of shielding and the man took cover. Then the one who he disarmed threw a kick at him that struck his hip but 47 quickly wrapped his left arm around his leg. He pulled his leg closer into him, again messing with his balance but also putting him in something called 'conditional stability' if he remained like this he could hold his balance and try to strike him again or break free. He then followed up by taking his leg and swept him from behind the attacker's other leg and drove him to the ground.

As he fell, 47 raised the gun and fired repeatedly at the one who was behind him until he broke through his shields and killed him. He then pointed the gun down at the initial attacker but the gun was empty so he dropped the gun and got behind cover with Tali. "Who are these guys?" 47 asked.

"You think I know?" She replied while wishing that he didn't drop his gun. "I can distract these two while you run."

47 ignored her last remark and took out one of his P22Gs and flipped the safety off. Tali looked at him questioningly as she saw him with his handgun. "Where did you get that?" She shouted over the gunfire from the man equipped with his rapid-fire rifle.

"I can explain later; just draw his fire while I circle around." 47 peaked around the corner and saw the guy whom he disarmed, got another pistol from his teammate and had already taken a well covered position.

Just as he instructed Tali, she began firing her shotgun, giving 47 the distraction he needed to run towards the left and started to fire at the man with the rifle. Unlike the first pistol he used, his round cut through the shields much easier but still taking a few shots to drop them completely; three more shots in the chest brought him to the dropped his target to the ground.

That just left the one with the pistol who wasn't firing at them at all. 47 signaled for Tali to get up and circle around to the other side while he did the same on his. He held up three fingers and counted down when Tali acknowledged him.

Three... two... one... they both moved at the same time and aimed their weapons at the human who held up his hands with his gun on the ground. "Kick it over here!" Tali shouted at him. He obeyed by sending it her way with his right foot. Tali picked it up and saw that he had ran out of ammo then holstered it on her thigh.

47 didn't waste time and went up to him and grabbed him by the wrist then put him into an arm lock and applied pressure so that the attacker could feel everything in his shoulder. The man started screaming as the pain intensified and never eased. 47 put his face right next to his for intimidation and said, "If you like where your shoulder is then I would start talking."

He didn't need much more convincing, "Ok, I'll talk." He was expecting 47 to let off the pressure but was going to be very disappointed.

"Who sent you?"

"Eclipse, we were told that Tali was going to be here and to kill her but to take her alive if possible."

Tali didn't like what she was hearing from this merc, she decided it was time to ask her question, "Who hired you?"

"I don't know I wasn't told." It was then that 47 dislocated his arm with one swift motion followed by screaming. "I told you I don't know!" he shouted. "I'm just a grunt, they don't tell me these things."

"Ok, let him go." Tali told 47 who released him. "Come on we need to get out of here before more of them show up." 47 then went up behind him and brought his arm around his neck and tucked his elbow underneath his chin while he pulled back. Tali saw this then shouted, "What are you doing? Don't kill him."

"I'm not." He replied bluntly. He knew how to make someone black out, all he needed to do was cut off blood flow to the brain by applying pressure to the carotid arteries for ten seconds, if he wanted to kill him then he would just wait a bit longer. The man soon went limp and 47 set him down on the ground. "He'll live I just made him pass out."

Tali looked down at the merc then back up to 47. "Who are you really?"

I may already have a plan of how I'm going to write this story but I've still made plenty of room for suggestions and I would really like to hear anything that anyone would like to say about it. I would also like to say that I've officially gotten an Air Force D.E.P. discharge and in the process of joining the United States Coast Guard, just letting everyone know.