Chapter Six:
Ishtar had no destination in mind as she wandered about Zakera Ward - she paused by shops that caught her eye, using the slightly reflective windows to keep watch over her shoulder. The majority of the time, however, her view was blocked by a hulking form of a krogan. He always seemed to stay two krogan steps behind her, mirroring her actions as if she was a puppet he was controlling. Narex's weapons stayed holstered, but within easy reach if anything were to happen.
Not that Ishtar thought anything would - everyone had been targeting Allison and Alenko, her presence was just a very unhappy coincidence. Still, the fact that it necessitated she have a krogan bodyguard behind her rankled. She wasn't the one that needed protecting; Narex would have been better off standing at Allison's side and keeping her safe.
Ishtar passed by a supermarket quickly before pausing. Miss Priss being pregnant and all, she needed better food than the crap that was lining the shelves of the apartment, especially with all the other stuff that seemed to be contributing to her acidic mood. Good food would hopefully bring Allison out of her bitchy mood.
"Hey, Narex. You got credits on you?" Ishtar didn't even turn to look behind her, knowing that the krogan wouldn't have wandered off. When a low, grumbly voice answered her, she knew her assumptions were correct.
"Yeah. Alenko gave us credit chits before he left. Said if we needed anything, we could get it."
Ishtar held her hand out, fixing her gaze on the krogan. After a few seconds Narex grumbled and dug into his pockets, flicking a credit chit towards Ishtar. She deftly caught it, glancing down at it before moving on.
"Come on, we need to get the apartment some proper food, not that crap that's already there."
Ishtar turned and moved towards the entrance of the supermarket, not checking to see if Narex was following her. A blast of cool air hit as soon as Ishtar crossed the threshold, and she immediately scanned the local area. She took in the placement of people, their current path and expected destination, and Ishtar turned down to the fruit and veg section.
Ishtar grabbed a random selection of veg, belatedly realising when she had her arms full with five bags that she'd not picked up anything like a shopping trolley; a quick trip back to the entrance resolved that and she continued on. She continued down the veg section, grabbing anything that looked halfway decent, and did the same along the fruit section.
Breads, she tossed in a couple of types; dairy and refrigerated area, milk, yogurts, and some smoothies made with names Ishtar would have trouble pronouncing and decorated with holo devices to grab your attention from halfway across the store. Meats and poultry, Ishtar spent way too long debating between a few packs of steak, finally choosing the better-looking of the four; she bypassed the cereals but ducked into the snack food aisle, picking up a selection of cookies and a box of goldfish crackers. For drinks, she got Narex to pick up a six-pack of two-litre bottles of soda - a fancy-ass brand Ishtar didn't get her hands on often.
At the frozen section, Ishtar tossed in some posh ice cream, topping it off with some Italian ice and a few packs of mixed fruit. By that point, some things were precariously placed on top of the pile of food in the small trolley, and Ishtar winced as she considered that this was probably going to cost a shit-ton of money. Still, she and Narex went through the checkout section and she passed over the credit chit while avoiding seeing how much everything actually cost.
Ishtar grabbed a couple of the bags of shopping, taking care to leave her dominant hand free. That, naturally, left Narex to grab the remainder of the items, piling them into his arms with Ishtar only just hearing a muttered comment of complaint before they moved on.
With arms full and with items that would defrost pretty quickly in the consistent temperature the Citadel was kept in, Ishtar plotted a faster, more direct route back to the apartment. Ishtar's eyes did slide towards Moda Café, a coffee shop she'd gotten well acquainted with on her visits to the Citadel; after a quick check of their items, Ishtar realised that they had more than enough time to quickly pass in and grab a drink to go.
"Not a word of this to anyone, Narex," Ishtar said in a harsh whisper as she and Narex made their way to the counter. Ishtar had visited so often that she knew her own order off by heart, and occasionally she was recognised beyond being the Commander Shepard and instead of as the person who ordered...
"Large hot chocolate, full-fat milk. Whipped cream, chocolate shavings, chocolate bar." Ishtar didn't let her wince show, and once the person behind the counter plugged her order into the terminal, Ishtar turned to Narex. "You want anything?"
Narex shook his head; Ishtar grabbed a two-pack of cookies and added those to the order. She moved over to a corner of the room as her order was prepped, trying to look for all the world that standing around with a krogan and carrying a ton of shopping with them.
Eventually, Ishtar's order was ready; she grabbed it on the way out, balancing the cup with the bags she'd been carrying. She couldn't walk, carry the bags, and start drinking with any semblance of coordination, so she saved it for when they'd be back in the apartment.
[ - ]
Allison looked up as the sound of something heavy sounded, seeing Ishtar and Narex at the front door. Narex exchanged looks with Karag and the two swapped places, Narex moving to stand by the door and Karag moving to help with the shopping bags.
Ishtar practically flung the ones she had been carrying onto the kitchen table, somehow keeping a hold of the coffee cup she had in her hand. With the bags on the table, she breathed a sigh, took off the lid, and took a deep sip of her drink, wiping white froth away with a quick flick.
"Got you some stuff," Ishtar said, placing her drink carefully on the side and moving to unpack the food. Allison frowned as she looked over the amount Ishtar had brought back with her.
"Where'd you get that?"
"Supermarket, where else." Ishtar busied herself with the bags, almost ignoring Karag as he busied himself helping to put items away in their expected places. The only exception was when he grabbed a box of goldfish crackers; Ishtar grabbed it back, levelled Karag with a glare, and moved over to Allison, settling the box down on the table in front of her.
"Ya hungry?" Ishtar asked after she'd returned to the kitchen and finished unpacking all the other items. Freezer and chilled foods went into their respective sections and Ishtar stepped back with a rather pleased looking expression. She turned to look over at Allison, who had ditched her game and had been watching Ishtar working.
"I'm not -"
Ishtar snorted. "Come on, you don't expect me to believe that. You biotics run through food like anything, and I've only see you eat once." Ishtar trailed her gaze down to Allison's stomach. "And you're pregnant. Doesn't that fuck with how much you need to eat as well?"
"I've been eating," Allison said, levelling a slight glare at Ishtar.
"Uh-huh, sure. I'll believe that when I actually see you eat something." Ishtar started up her omni-tool, bathing her in a faint orange light as she tapped through. "I got a shit-ton of stuff, some of it you'll like." The glare that Ishtar gave Allison was of a similar intensity to the one she'd just received. A moment later, Ishtar sighed in frustration and shut down her omni-tool. "Not a Spectre any more, don't have high priority extranet access."
Ishtar turned back to the kitchen, all but shooing Karag out of the area and busying herself with the cupboards. Allison shook her head and returned to the game on her omni-tool as Ishtar seemed hell-bent on causing as much noise and chaos in the kitchen as she could.
[ - ]
Twenty minutes later, just as Allison was on the verge of a victor with her turian-led troops, Ishtar strode across the living room area.
"Your dinner is served, Ms Spectre," Ishtar said, with lots of pomp and fuss and a very long and drawn-out bow. Allison stayed still, raising an eyebrow at Ishtar when she finally stood back up. "Though it might be more like breakfast for you if it's your first meal of the day." When Allison still refused to move, Ishtar sighed. "Come on. Don't make me drag you to the table like a kid. It's done and it's hot right now; keep being stubborn and you'll be eating cold mush."
Allison shut down her omni-tool and stood up warily, cautiously following behind Ishtar. The small table, realistically suitable for only two people despite the two reasonably-sized bedrooms in the place, had been laid out. Cutlery on one side of a plate that held steak, a pile of veg, and some mashed potato; empty glasses with a bottle of soda between them. Ishtar folded herself into the far seat, letting Allison take the nearside one.
"Hey, Karag, Narex!" Ishtar called out; the two krogan looked up at the sound echoing across the apartment. "There's a shit-ton left over if you wanna have some!" Ishtar grinned as she turned back to Allison; the grin disappeared when Ishtar saw a completely untouched plate of food, Allison sitting with her hands in her lap.
With a sigh, Ishtar picked up her fork and speared some of the veg off Allison's plate. With a slight flourish, she ate them and gave a 'see?' shrug.
"C'mon, you really think I'd do something to you?" Silence. "Even if I did, it wouldn't affect the krogan and they'd kill me for it." More silence. "Urgh, fine."
Ishtar cut out a random piece of steak and took a dollop of mashed potato, following the exact same flourish she'd done before. "Again, why would I wait until now to try and kill you? Makes no sense."
Ishtar poured herself some soda; Allison declined and got herself some water instead. Eventually, Allison picked up her own cutlery and began to eat, inclining her head and letting out what sounded like a surprised "huh".
"Been looking out for myself for a long time. You think I didn't pick up a few life skills along the way?" Ishtar cut off a large chunk of her steak and ate it. "Just don't believe what Garrus says, he'll make it sound like I burn the apartment down on a regular basis. Him and Grunt, although unless something's charcoaled to a crisp Grunt'll eat it." Ishtar frowned over at Allison's plate and reached her fork over to tap the pile of veg. "C'mon, I didn't go to all this effort to have half my food ignored. Veggies are good for you."
"You certainly don't seem to believe that for yourself." Allison gave a pointed look at the much smaller pile Ishtar had, largely supplemented by a more generous portion of mash.
"Biotic with a biotic pregnancy, right? You need more food that I do." Ishtar settled back into her seat, glancing over at the two krogan. As expected, while they had taken the plates she'd left out, they'd moved to a section of the living room and had sat on the floor, tearing into the steak with their teeth, spearing the veg with their claws, and only deigning to use a fork for the fluffy mash. They chatted between themselves, although Ishtar did note that they send more than the occasional glance towards the two of them.
"C'mon," Ishtar said, tapping the side of Allison's plate again. With an eye-roll that would make any five year old jealous, Allison relented and began eating some of the veg. Ishtar grinned and continued eating her own meal.
When they were almost done, the front door cycled open. Allison immediately glanced over, seeing Garrus and Kharrium walking into the apartment. That visual check done, she turned back to her meal.
Ishtar's check-over was a little more thorough. Check for any dents and scratches in his armour, any new wounds that weren't there previously. Check the status of Kharrium - any signs of damage or 'injuries' on their body, any changes in the walk cycle or expected behaviour to indicate a hacking attempt. Nothing. All clear and good.
"Hey, Garrus. You need something to eat? I tried to grab some dextro-food but the supermarket didn't have much."
"I'm fine," Garrus said. Kharrium split off and turned back to the front door while Garrus moved towards the kitchen area. "I got some food out." Ishtar turned back to her food with a quick nod; Allison frowned.
"So, wait. You don't believe me when I say I have been eating, but all it takes from Garrus is a few words?"
"I trust him," Ishtar said, finishing off her meal. She poured herself another half-glass of soda and offered the bottle to Allison. With some reluctance, she took the bottle and poured herself some. Ishtar took the bottle back, looked at Garrus, and said in a stage whisper, "she thinks I was trying to poison her."
Garrus snorted, mandibles moving in amusement. "Did you try and explain that you've had plenty of chances if you so wanted to do so?"
"Uh, yeah." Ishtar turned back to Allison, still grinning. "No offense, but you sleep like a fucking log. Bet drills didn't even wake you up."
"Comes with living your whole life on a ship," Allison said, turning her attention to her mashed potatoes. She absently poked the pile with her fork. "Noisy places. You either learn to shut out all the excess noise or...well, you don't." Allison finished up her food and pushed her plate closer towards the centre of the table. She drained her glass, stood up, and was halfway out of the kitchen before she paused and looked back at Ishtar and Garrus.
"Er, thanks. For the food, I mean."
[ - ]
Ishtar sighed as Garrus ran a talon through the strands of her hair. He was sitting up against the backboard, Ishtar straddling his hips, alternating between talking and musing and touching the other.
Garrus ran a talon through Ishtar's hair a couple more times before he tucked it behind her ear, letting his hand fall down to her hip instead. "I managed a good search of the Citadel today."
"Anything useful?" Ishtar moved a hand up and traced it down along Garrus' neck before splaying her hand on his chest. She let it rest there for a few seconds before running a nail along gently. She sighed again, this time from annoyance than being content.
"Nothing. I updated the map on my omni-tool and looked at some new businesses, but everyone's happy to go on with their own lives."
"Anything from the geth?" Ishtar asked innocently. Garrus' eyes narrowed and she moved her hands away, holding them up in surrender. "I meant about stuff like other universes. Liara's not exactly been forthcoming on her information so far."
"Sweetheart, I'm not going to go up to the geth and ask them something like that. Nor am I going to try, as subtly as I can, to ask them about the end of the Reaper war."
Ishtar sighed again. She placed her hands back on Garrus' chest and let her head fall forwards. "I just-we're stuck here, Garrus, until someone gets a bright idea. If the Reapers were still around, I'd comment that we'd be more likely to see through to their next cycle before we had a chance of making it home to our own universe."
Ishtar shifted and rolled off Garrus, twisting so that she stopped on her side, facing him, head on the pillow. "I miss Grunt and Tali. I miss Ash and Vega. Seeing the geth around? I miss Legion, too. For me, it's only been a couple of weeks since I saw him sacrifice himself to give all geth consciousness.
"Fuck, you know what? I miss everything. I have no idea if anyone's safe, if time is running differently back home. For all I know, the Reapers could be slaughtering everyone. They could have finished their harvest, their cycle, gone back into dark space and when we return we're the only ones still around." Ishtar closed her eyes, squeezing back tears that were threatening to spill. "Here, I own nothing. Allison's been all nice and shit, offering to buy me a shit-ton of stuff? I'm just waiting for her to call in the favour because I owe her and there is nothing I can do to change that."
Ishtar got off the bed, ignoring the small squeak of protest it gave. Self-admitted, Allison would sleep through anything. Ishtar began to pace across the length of the small room, contrary to all her thoughts told her. She was in a small room with her lover, both decent fighters. Four guards were in the apartment, and Allison herself had biotics.
"And you're worried about keeping up your Commander Shepard persona in front of everyone. Including me."
Ishtar turned to look at Garrus, slightly shocked. Her shoulders sagged. "Yeah. It's...it's me, you know? This is the face that came through Akuze, the face that saved the Citadel, the face that is massing forces to fight the Reapers. Only...fuck. It means nothing here."
Garrus shifted on the bed, lightly patting the mattress. "Sleep. Rest up, and we'll deal with this tomorrow. Or," Garrus grinned over at her. "If you're having difficulty taking your mind off things, I can help."
With a small grin, Ishtar moved to curl up under the sheets. Garrus moved to his side, wrapping his arms carefully around Ishtar as she snuggled down next to him.
[ - ]
The next few days followed in a similar fashion - the krogans and geth rotated who was guarding which section, Ishtar overhearing comments on their guard duty schedule. She suspected the geth did the same via their own private comms network. Alenko had arranged the bodyguards well - geth unable to be hacked for any length of time, and if they were taken out of commission even temporarily, the krogan would take over. Given what she'd heard, there was practically no chance a krogan would try and take a job against Allison.
Garrus took regular trips out of the apartment, usually accompanied by one of the geth and almost always gone for a few hours at least. Every time he returned he inputted new data into his omni-tool, answering Allison's questions with either noncommittal answers or doing his best to deflect to other areas of discussion. Each night, he shared the information he found with Ishtar, putting together a map of the Citadel that was more focused on the people than the architecture. Garrus managed to map out patterns and routines, but nothing that indicated anything out of the ordinary. If it hadn't been for the Cerberus attacks, he wouldn't have thought anything had been amiss.
"So there's nothing?" Ishtar said quietly, looking over the map on Garrus' omni-tool. The layout close to the apartment was intricately detailed, becoming less so the further out it went. Garrus had marked points of interest on the map, but more relating to places to visit than to any anomalies.
Garrus nodded, flicking over to another screen. "No unusual activity since the attack on the Strip. C-Sec is still investigating the cause of it, talking to ex-Cerberus employees to see if they have any insight into the attack, but no one's yet come forward with any concrete evidence."
"So...what do they think it is?"
"Same as everyone, I'd suspect. A rogue Cerberus cell, motives so far unknown."
The next morning was more of the same - Garrus busily preparing for another day out of the apartment not long after Ishtar managed to pull herself out of bed, neither Narex nor Karag commenting about it. Metis and Kharrium stayed in the background, almost indiscernible from the wall coverings if they weren't geth constructs.
However, by the time Ishtar had roused and pulled herself out of bed, and scrabbled around in the cupboards for something resembling breakfast, Allison had still yet to show her face. She frowned to herself as she munched on cereal, directing Metis to look over the coffee machine in between bites - she wasn't worried or paranoid about the whole thing, not at all. Coffee machines just liked to explode around her.
When Metis returned a statement saying that there was no danger involved, Ishtar made herself a cup of coffee and alternated sips with the cereal. When finished with both, she left the empty bowl, mug, and cutlery in the sink and sidled over to Garrus where he was sitting on the sofa.
"Think I should go and check?" Ishtar kept her voice low and concealed. She glanced over at the krogan and geth, but none seemed to be interested in their conversation.
"I'm sure she's fine." Garrus made no move to look at Ishtar, instead focused on his omni-tool and continuing to make up a map of the local area. "If she's even remotely like you she's probably bored and annoyed at being locked up."
Ishtar 'hmm'ed at that, glancing across the room to Allison's bedroom door. The lock indicator was green, and aside from Miss Cheery and Perky at 3 in the Goddamn Morning not being up and awake before Ishtar, everything looked normal.
Without a further word Ishtar stood up from the sofa and walked over to the bedroom door. She waited a split second as the door hissed open, slapping a cheery grin on her face and all but bounding in.
"Rise and shine, Allison! It's too nice a day to spend it cooped up in your bedroom when you have a whole apartment to be cooped up in!"
Ishtar had to squint to be able to look around the room; the lighting was on but at its bare minimum, only just illuminating the outline of the various things in the apartment. Two bedside tables, one medium sized chest of drawers, and a reasonably-sized double bed. Soft music was also playing in the room, set to concentrate sound in the middle of the room - where the bed was - than to fill the whole room with sound. Ishtar saw a dark lump in the middle of the bed, sighing softly to herself and rolling her eyes.
"Come on, Allison. I'm serious." Ishtar huffed and put her hands on her hips, trying her best to actually seem as serious as she sounded. When the lump didn't move nor verbalise anything, Ishtar moved to turn the lights up. As she did so, the music faded out, replaced by the quick-fire syllables of a salarian.
"-celebration for the second anniversary of the end of the Reaper Wars is still to go ahead despite security concerns-"
Ishtar ignored the rest of what the announcer was saying and moved closer to the bed. Allison was on her stomach, sheets tangled up around her waist. Her arms were tucked underneath her pillow and she was facing away from both the door and Ishtar. Steady breathing indicated that Allison was still alive, but Ishtar wasn't sure if she was simply deeply asleep or just ignoring her.
Ishtar stood still for a moment, mentally debating. Annoyance told her to just turn around and head back out and leave Allison to mope, but a small part of her whispered to stay there, that Allison might need someone to talk to. Ishtar quashed the urge to squash that small part of her and took a small step towards the bed.
"Allison? You okay? Baby's not causing you any harm?" When Allison didn't answer, Ishtar shifted onto her left foot, hands unconsciously clenching into fists. Ishtar took another step towards the bed, the mattress sagging slightly when she sat on the edge of it. She let out a breath, let her fists relax, and moved a hand across to touch Allison. She hesitated before her hand reached its target, debating.
What the fuck am I supposed to do?
Before Ishtar could decide, the salarian had finished up the news report, a new song starting up. At her position on the bed, she could hear everything a lot clearer. The new song was a slow, melodic, almost mournful piano piece with no words.
Allison's head jerked up and she looked around, half-panicked and half-frantic. She barely glanced over at Ishtar before her focus was on a small contraption in the wall.
"Radio. Skip to next station." Allison's voice was calm, but her face anything but. As the song filtered out and was replaced by a more upbeat, rock-based song, Allison sighed and placed her head back on the bed.
"The fuck was that about?"
Allison turned her attention back to Ishtar, almost seeming to notice her for the first time. Her eyes flicked down to note Ishtar sitting on the bed; while her eyebrows moved down to a frown, she didn't say anything about Ishtar's placement.
"What song was that? Must have been something pretty major to make you react like that." Ishtar had moved both of her hands to her knees, keeping focus to ensure they stayed flat and didn't clench up into fists again. Allison pressed her lips together and stayed silent. "I can look it up, you know." Ishtar loaded up her omni-tool, the orange glow seeming excessively bright even with the lights in the room turned on. Ishtar was in the middle of scanning through the list of Citadel radio stations when Allison sighed and began talking.
"Back in '83, the fight against Sovereign and Saren. Did you save the Council?"
"Uh, yeah. Fucking saved their asses, and they owe me for it. Fuckers refused to believe the Reaper threat until it was right there. No wonder I hung up on their sanctimonious asses more than once."
"You hung up on them?" Allison's face was wide with a mix of shock and panic. "You-damn."
"What?" Ishtar shut down her omni-tool and folded her arms across her chest. "Are you saying they never pissed you off?"
"Pissed me off? Yeah, of course. Sparatus especially with his 'ah yes, 'reapers'. We have dismissed such claims' aspect." Allison mimicked the turian councillor to a scary degree. "Did you ever have them on your side?"
"Sure. They gave me my Spectredom back in '85, and I got apologies from the turian Councillor after the coup." Ishtar shifted on the bed. "So, the deal with that song?"
"Well, I saved the Council as well. After I woke, in '85, I saw an ad for Citadel, the movie they'd made about the events." Ishtar nodded and Allison continued. "All the events with Sovereign being a geth ship, anyway." Allison settled back down onto the bed, placing her head on the pillow facing Ishtar. "Well, after the Reaper War, people knew the truth about Sovereign. Couldn't exactly cover it up any more.
"Citadel was remade. Well, 'remade' is probably a false term. They made a trilogy of movies, redoing Citadel with the actual aspect of Sovereign being a Reaper ship, the initial wave of the Reaper attacks."
Ishtar nodded. "Yeah, very nice. Where's all this going?"
Allison smiled wanly. "That trilogy weren't the only movies made of the whole events. When news - official news - broke of the relationship between myself and Kaidan, the extranet went into a frenzy. There were rumours and speculation about what had been going on between us, how long it had been going on.
"Between that and half the stuff that happened on the Citadel, most people suspected the beginning of the Reaper War, at least. Some people swooned over it, the forbidden romance blossoming and coming into being during what could have been our remaining time. One, a salarian named Arorla Leus, decided to make a movie. Compressed the events of the Reaper War, focused entirely on our relationship.
"That song you heard, that I had to skip over? That was the iconic piece for the movie, The Sentinel and the Vanguard. I think you can guess who it referred to."
Ishtar snorted. "You really moping over a song from a movie based on your love life? Hell, if it was me and Garrus they made a movie of, I'd be snarking the hell out of that shit. Can you imagine? Garrus being all suave and well spoken, and they'd probably tone down my swearing a lot. No use for a mostly family-friendly film with a shit-ton of swearing, right?"
Ishtar moved away, tugging at the sheets on the bed. Allison grabbed the top of them, pressing them close to her chest and sending a strong glare over at Ishtar.
"The hell are you doing?"
"I am sick of you moping around!" Ishtar tugged again on the sheets, succeeding a little and pulling away. Allison strengthened her grip on the sheets at that, and no matter how hard Ishtar tried, she couldn't tug them away any more. With an exaggerated, exasperated sigh, she threw her hands up in the air. "Fine, you win the tug of war. Probably using cheaty biotics anyway, cheat." Ishtar turned away, pressing a finger to the top of her nose. She took three breaths before turning back around.
"You," Ishtar pointed a finger at Allison, getting another glare in return. "Are getting your ass out of bed, getting dressed well enough that you won't embarrass yourself heading out of the apartment, eating some food so that you don't keel over and I have to haul you to Huerta."
"Why?"
"Because we are heading out. Don't care where, we're just getting out of this place for a few hours."