"You know," I half-shouted to Kelly as she led me through the press of bodies. "This actually feels kinda familiar."

"Go out to clubs a lot?" She called back to me, turning her head so I could hear her better.

I shook my head. "Nope. But add in a few colorful characters in superhero costumes, and this could be Halloween at the Cactus."

"Just don't go trying to pull anyone's masks off here," she said, having to raise her voice even more as we crossed in front of a pair of speakers. "Probably wouldn't go well."

"I'll keep that in mind!" I shouted as I looked around.

Club Afterlife was huge. Back, home, the Cacus could hold a couple of hundred people on a Thursday night. Afterlife was easily two or three times that, if not more. I craned my neck as I peered up at the three additional floors above us, taking in the view. People moved and talked, and danced all over. Overhead, suspended platforms held more dancers, writhing in time with the beat. Several of the walls to different sections held troughs of orange flame. In a few corners of the clubs, the flickering firelight was the only light.

Other sensations tugged at me. The air smelled of smoke, sweat and other things I didn't have names for. More than once I brushed past someone and could feel the roughness of their clothing or skin.

It was darker here, more intense than I was used to. The residents of Omega had a hardness to them that I was unfamiliar with. But the beat, the music, the need to relax and pretend the rest of world didn't exist for the night? That was something I knew.

A hand slipping into mine drew my wandering attention back to my immediate surroundings. Kelly looked up at me, brilliant green eyes searching. "You were wandering."

"Sorry, got distracted." I tried to think of something more to say, but for a second my ability to speak seemed to just vanish.

She squeezed my hand just slightly before she started to pull me back in the right direction. "We're almost there."

The crowd abruptly parted in front of a flight of stairs, which we hurried up to a to find several familiar faces. Kelly let her hand slip from mine as we reached the table, and for a moment a little pang of regret went through me as she did. It was a simple thing, but between the last few days, the fear and confusion, a little tiny piece of human contact felt very important.

"About time you two showed up!" shouted Joker from the far side of the table, his hand waving in a welcoming gesture. "Did tall, dark, and spiney come with you?"

"Garrus said he might later, but wanted to check on something," Kelly called back as we sat. "Did we miss anything?"

A woman's voice came from behind us. "No, you're right on time."

I turned to look as a beautiful, blue-skinned woman leaned between Kelly and myself to set a tray of drinks and shot glasses on the table. She flashed a grin at us as she pulled back. "Let me know if you all need anything else."

Joker, Kenneth, and Gardner almost simultaneously leaned back to watch her go. I glanced back as well, not really comprehending for a moment.

It didn't take me long to figure it out.

The server who had brought our drinks started to descend the stairs with a seductive grace. Her dress did very interesting things to her curves, accentuating them in a way that made it very hard to look away.

At least until a sharp cry of surprise yanked my attention back across the table. Ken rubbed his side with one hand. "What was that for?"

Gabby just crossed her arms and stared at him without speaking. Joker and Gardner both reached over and snatched drinks off the tray, trying to hide their silly grins behind the glasses.

Which reminded me that I was in a bar and club, and I had yet to begin to partake in the festivities. Couldn't have that now. I reached over and snagged a short glass about the size of a coffee cup filled with an azure blue liquid, and eyed it speculatively.

"I think that's Icewine," Kelly offered as she selected a glass that was a mirror to mine and took as sip. After a second she shivered and nodded. "It's good. Just … little strange. Try it."

As I raised the glass, I paused and inhaled, catching a faint fragrance from the drink. It smelled like a tropical fruit of some kind, foreign and a little spicy. Like something I would find on a white sand beach, the sun baking down.

I took a slow sip, letting the liquid roll across my tongue. It didn't burn like I expected from alcohol. It left a sensation that was more like a peppermint, cool in my mouth, but retained that tropical fruit taste. I looked at Kelly as I involuntarily shivered from the drink. "Okay, that is really a weird combination."

I must have made a face, because Kelly laughed and set her drink down. "Not a fan?"

"Jury is still out on that. Definitely new though."

"Well, then you need to down that and keep trying things," Joker said loudly. As if in challenge, he raised his glass then tipped it back, draining it.

"We'll see. Night's young." I took another swig of the cool liquid, then looked around at everyone. "Okay, so, this is a bit, belated, but uh … hi everyone?"

Joker snorted. "Socially awkward much?"

"Sorry, been a while since I have been out and about," I deadpanned. I dimly registered Kelly leaning back in her chair, still holding her glass as she observed the conversation.

Gardner apparently appreciated my witty repartee, and leaned over extending his hand. "Nice to actually meet you. Call me Rupert."

"Micah," I said as I shook his hand." Nice too meet you as well. And yeah, I've not exactly eaten a regular meal the last couple days, but I've seen you around."

The mess sergeant smiled and waved a hand dismissively as he sat back "Yeah, we haven't been really organized lately when it comes to meals, so I've just been throwing things together. You haven't missed much. I'll see about actually makin' something decent soon though, especially since these yahoos seem to think they are supposed to be fed or some nonsense."

Ken chimed in, leaning forward as well now. "We're hard-working folk here, Rupert! Of course we deserve to eat—and eat like kings when we can manage it."

Joker looked at the engineer like he had gone insane. "You realize that we don't eat like kings, right? I mean, you have eaten since getting on the Normandy?"

As Ken and Gardner both turned on Joker in defense of Gardner's meals, Gabby leaned over and stuck her hand out. "We got off on the wrong foot the first time, I'm Gabby."

I took her hand as well. "I think I stepped in it worse than you did, so don't worry about it. Nice to actually meet you."

"I think you're doing better than I would be. I'm sorry about your family."

A sharp jab of loss pulsed through me again, one more little twist of that knife. "It's alright. Ancient history really."

"Well, I guess that's true. But anyway, if you need to talk, you can always come find me or Ken."

"I'll keep that in mind. Thank you. I'm coping though, honest." I drained the last bit from my glass and set it down on the tray. It might not taste like what I would expect from alcohol, but I could feel it starting to work on me already, like a trickle of warmth running in my veins.

Kelly shrugged out of her jacket and draped it over her chair, a small frown on her face, and I found myself staring at her. She froze after a moment, meeting my eyes. "What?"

I narrowed my eyes in mock anger and pointed at her. "You're doing it again."

"Doing what?" she said, confusion making her crinkle her eyebrows together as she looked first at me, then at Gabby when I didn't immediately elaborate.

"You, are psyching me. In a club. When you're supposed to be relaxing," I accused. "Stop working."

She smiled apologetically, and set her glass down. "Sorry, habit. New social setting and surroundings. I didn't even think about it."

"Uh-huh. Well, considering you know all kinds of things about me, and I know nothing about you, I think it's my turn." I narrowed my eyes and looked at her. "Where are you from?"

The question seemed to startle her, but then she narrowed her eyes and smiled. "Question for a question."

"I go first," I countered, and reached for a second drink, selecting one at random from the tray. "Where is home for you?"

"Benning … though that means absolutely nothing to you. It's an agricultural planet, near Arcturus Station."

"And Arcturus is the headquarters for the Alliance, right?" I asked, jumping back to some of the very brief history I had read while on the Normandy.

Kelly beamed, wrapping her hands around her glass. "Right. Though that would be two questions now."

"But only one of them was about you."

"Oh, fine. Why did you study psychology?"

That rocked me back slightly. I had been bracing myself for questions about my family, about my personal life. Asking about school, especially when I hadn't done anything with my degree, hadn't been one I expected.

"I ... wanted to be a counselor originally. I didn't trust myself to be able to handle medical school, but I loved figuring out how the brain worked. When computer technology stuff made me tear my hair out, I finally swapped." I mulled over that a moment, and took a sip of my drink.

Fire burned all the way down my throat. "Holy crap," I said as I hacked, trying clear the sensation. I eyed the green liquid in the glass, blinking back the tears that had welled up, and set it back down on the table. "Have any family?"

"Both of my parents are on Benning still, along with my little sister, Erin," she answered immediately. "Why didn't you go for your master's?"

"Money and timing. I'd planned to, but life got in the way. Rather than bury myself in debt, I was trying to work my way to being able to. Didn't go as planned." I hesitated, thinking my answer over. I hadn't thought about my master's in years. Well, relative years, anyway.

Kelly shifted in her chair, and I realized that I had gotten quiet for longer than I had meant to. I felt my face flush in embarrassment all the way up to my ears. "Sorry, reflecting a bit. Um, ship psychologist, so psych degree? Or do you have a PhD?"

"Dr. Chambers would be mom, not me. I have a master's degrees in Psychology, Xenopsychology, as well as minors in Sociology, Anthropology, and Biology."

I did my best to fight off the stunned sensation. Kelly Chambers looked a couple of years younger than me, and I didn't even have my master's. She had two, and two more minors than me, to boot.

I apparently failed on the whole "masking expression" bit; Kelly's grin widened. "Surprised?"

"Impressed," I answered, leaning back as I tried to imagine going through that much school. It was distracting, so when she asked her next question, I was completely broadsided.

"Who's Sylvia?"

The bottom dropped out of my stomach like someone had pulled a lever and opened a trap door, and I couldn't breathe for a moment. I finally took the glass I had set down, and took a long drink. Fire poured through me again, and I welcomed it, focused on it as I tried to orient my thoughts.

First love? Eight years of my life? My first ... everything?

I couldn't meet Kelly's eyes. Instead, I stared into the bottom of the glass, as I tried to form some kind of response. A little part of me wanted to just scream in impotent rage and frustration at it all.

"Micah?"

I looked up as Kelly touched my hand and squeezed the tips of my fingers. I drew in a shaky breath. "Boy, you know how to pick 'em, don't you?"

"Maybe, but I didn't expect that reaction."

"Me either." I looked away from her, over to the others who were still boisterously arguing. Gabby had joined them, and leaving me and Kelly to our own devices. "How do you even know about her?"

"EDI helped me do some research. The name came up several times and I played on a bit of a hunch," Kelly answered. She brushed hair out of her eyes with her free hand.

"Good hunch," I said. I opened my mouth to finally choose the words to explain and stopped as a breathless Jenny Goldstein bounced into view, dragging a tall dark-haired man. Kelly and I released each other's hands at the same time as she came to stop next to us.

"You all must have your omintools on silent," Jenny said, pointing down at her Kelly's wrist. I glanced down, and finally noticed that a little orange light pulsed on the nearly invisible band, on her right hand.

"Miranda's ordered everyone back to the Normandy immediately. Something's up."

"But we just got here!" groused Joker. He looked around the table belligerently, but the other crew members just shrugged and started to stand. I joined them, and he sighed, pushing himself to a standing position. "Oh, Shepard is a dead man. I didn't even get half as plastered as I planned to."

"I'll let ya in on my stash when we get back, Joker," offered Ken as we started to filter towards the door, making our way back through the sea of people. "Just don't go and tell Miranda or Shepard about it."

"You've got a deal!" the pilot crowed.

It took us a lot longer to get to the doors of Afterlife than it had to get in, the already-thick crowd packing in so close that any fire marshal would have had a seizure just looking at the number of people. When we did get outside, the atmosphere of Omega felt ten degrees cooler and I paused for a moment, feeling a breeze from a vent somewhere.

Someone behind me gave me a little push and I started moving again. As I started to walk, I looked over my shoulder. Jenny had her arm looped through her dancing partner's elbow, a man I dimly I recognized him as her sparring partner. She was saying something to Kelly in a low voice, laughing as she did.

It felt almost normal. I had done this before. We would walk back, split up, and go sleep. The end of our evening of partying. Little bit of partying anyway. The alcohol in my body buzzed, a pleasant hum that relaxed me, letting my mind wander as I followed behind Gabby, Ken, and Gardner.

I glanced left, looking out past several parked skycars at the rest of Omega, down into several sprawling streets. It was actually a rather interesting view, in a urban, artificial way.

So I was looking right at it when twenty feet away from us, a skycar exploded in an incandescent fiery bloom of fire and shrapnel. Something whistled past my face, leaving a burning line of pain across my left cheek. At almost the same time, something tugged at my hip. I had an odd sensation of disconnection before pain blazed out from that small point of impact and enveloped my entire side, driving any coherent thoughts from my mind. The world tilted, like some giant hand turned Omega on its side, and the ground rushed up to meet me as the world faded from view.


A/N: Special thanks to TenyumeKasumi for being kind enough to help with the lion share of betawork on this chapter, as well as thanks to MizDirected, Palaven Blues and Lady Amiee for the suggestions help in clarifying things!