In the Darkest Night: Dark Beginnings

Disclaimer: The Mass Effect universe is the property of Bioware/Electronic Arts. No infringement of these copyrights is intended as this is a not for profit fan fiction work.

Warning: None

Authors Note: Alternate Universe in which the Protheans won a Phyrric victory over the Reapers, destroying both their Empire and nearly destroying the Mass Relay system. Mass Effect Universe with no Reapers, no Citadel, and no Citadel Council or Citadel race alliance. Many thanks to PMC65 for letting me use the Asari culture and characters from her "Thessian Whisper" and "The Shepardess and the Questing Beast" in this story. The timeline is in both Earth time in Anno Domini (AD) years and in Asari Republics Republic Era (RE) years which is marked from the beginning of the League of Republics upon Thessia, the first unified Thessian government. The story begins in 4714 RE/2190 AD.

Race Notes: Accurate weights and heights will be used as per the ME1 game information and not the visual depiction in the game. Thus the Krogan average over 7 foot tall, Turians and Hanar are next at just over 6.5', Asari range from 6.5' to 6' as that is how PMC65 described them in her stories, Salarians, Batarians, Quarians and Humans average at just under 6' in height while Volus and Vorcha are among the shortest races at 5 feet and under. In all races with two genders males will be taller than females and average height is for both males and females of a race.

Rating: Mature

Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike about the story.

Revision History: 9/14/2014; 9/15/2014 (minor); 9/16/2014 (grammar)


Chapter Eight – Plans and Kindness

Only the light in the main area of the guest quarters assigned to Vasir was on, illuminating a decently sized room with a large video display screen on one wall, a couch and a few chairs across from it, and a work desk with a terminal where the intelligence agent was currently working upon her notes for the recently completed mission. Tela looked up from display screen of the terminal, leaned back in her chair, turned her head and glanced though the doorway of the second bedroom of her guest quarters, verifying that the human within was still sleeping. The still form of the female under the covers of the bed had moved from lying on her side to lying on her back, one outstretched arm slipping out from underneath the comforter to lay pale against the dark blue sheets of the bed. Pale that was except for the dark violet finger shaped bruises upon her upper forearm.

Tela's dark brown eyes narrowed in anger as her gaze dwelled upon them. Besides the bruising discoloring the human's face from where Daf'feer had struck her, the batarian had also left evidence his cruelty elsewhere upon the human's body. There were more, many more bruises upon the female's thighs where the batarian had gripped her harshly as he raped her. Tela had observed the extent of the recently freed slave's injuries during the human's medical examination upon reaching Fortis. It had angered the intelligence agent to such an extent that recalling T'Louck's lack of gentleness with the slave overseer as the Commander ripped through the batarian's mind searching for information had given Tela a sense of vengeful satisfaction.

The intelligence agent turned back to the display screen and glanced at the time. It would probably be several hours before the human woke as she was still under the effects of the sedative/pain relief medicine the doctors had given her following her surgery to repair as much of the damage done to her body as possible. What remained, the extensive bruising and now sutured injuries, would require time and proper care to heal and it was Tela's responsibility to ensure that was provided to the human.

When she had first accepted this mission from the Matriarchs, both she and they had left unspoken the assumption that she would need to seduce the slave she freed in order to discover the information they needed to make a decision on the enslaved race. The reason behind this assumption was simple, she needed to meld with the human and there was one difficulty in melding with non-asari that almost all aliens, and quite a few Asari unless they had previously melded with a non-asari, were unaware of - the other race's minds instinctively fought the joining, struggling against what was not a natural process to them. Even when the asari initiating the meld did not intend it, she could cause intense pain and discomfort in her non-asari melding partner by joining with them too quickly and without enough care to ensure they were accepting and not struggling against the meld.

Tela did not want to hurt human when she melded with the female. Not only because she simply didn't want to cause the former slave any more pain, but also because it would lead to the human being fearful of melding with her and struggling against it even more over time. That left the most common method used to facilitate the meld, sharing physical pleasures with the human. Sexual desire naturally caused the non-asari meld partner to be more receptive to the joining. That receptiveness along with going slowly and gently into the meld eased the process for the non-asari partner in the meld and ensured that they did not suffer any discomfort from 'embracing eternity.'

This would hardly be the first mission in which Vasir chose to seduce her target as a means to obtain intelligence from them. One of the easiest ways to search through someone's mind for information without them being aware of it was to seduce and then meld with them for pleasure. The asari always controlled the meld with a partner of another species, giving away only what she desired while the non-asari's mind was largely open to the asari. A fact that they did not speak of to the other species, the galaxy was a dangerous place and the Asari did not freely give away their secrets or advantages over the other races. It was a lesson they had learned over forty thousand years ago when they were visited by a scout ship belonging to an alien race whose name had been lost over time.

The primitive Asari had warmly welcomed their alien visitors, but the Matriarchs were cautious of the aliens' intent. One of them had melded with the aliens' leader while sharing physical pleasure with him and while joined searched his mind for his true intent. From his mind the Matriarch discovered that the aliens intended to enslave the Asari and force them to mine the rich deposits of eezo on the planet. The night after her discovery, the Matriarchs danced the nectpir, a dance of seduction, for their guests and when the aliens' minds were clouded by the dance Huntresses attacked and killed the alien scouting force in its entirety. Fortunately no other aliens followed the initial scouting force to attack Thessia and the discoveries on Feros made historians suspect that the Reapers had wiped out the aliens which had attacked them prior to the Protheans final desperate attack against the Reapers with the Crucible.

The knowledge that the aliens had intended to enslave their race taught the Matriarchs a sharp lesson of caution when dealing with other races lest they prove to be deceptive and hiding ill-intent toward the Asari. The tale of the aliens, and the lesson they had taught the Asari, was carefully passed down from Matriarch to Matriarch through the millennia until the current time. That ancient lesson of caution had guided the Matriarchs in their initial diplomatic dealings with the Salarian Union, and proved its wisdom when the salarians proved themselves both duplicitous and murderous in their dealings with the Republics. The same lesson of caution was guiding the Matriarchs now with the Humans and drove their need to know more about the species before deciding whether to aid the enslaved race.

Tela expected to feel sympathetic toward whichever human she freed for she knew how the Batarians treated their human slave soldiers both from what she had witnessed firsthand during various intelligence gathering missions, and from the mission reports of other agents. What Tela hadn't expected was that the human would elicit far more emotions from her than just sympathy. The female's shorter, leanly muscular, yet femininely curved figure, the sight of pale, delicate appearing skin where the bluish blood veins could be seen underneath, and the fear in green eyes with a rayed halo of light brown stirred feelings of protectiveness within her...and yes, sexual curiosity as well and desire to touch that pale, delicate appearing skin and see not fear within those green eyes, but clearly evident want, need and willing acceptance of her touch.

The human female, even with the bruising on her face, was very beautiful, and now that the intelligence agent acknowledged how attractive she found the former slave she had to admit to herself that the female's beauty had played a significant part in her picking the woman over the male humans they had captured. In the back of Vasir's mind, the knowledge that she would have to seduce the human influenced her to chose the one out of all of those they had captured who she found most attractive as it would make the task far more pleasant for her. Yes, Tela found the human's features pleasing to look upon and the thought of showing the female that her touch would bring pleasure and not pain, and that pleasure could be shared instead of just taken was...personally enticing as well as necessary to her mission.

That left only the question of how to seduce the human in such a way that she didn't add to the trauma that the female had already experienced at the hands of her various Masters. Tela certainly didn't want the human female to simply submit to her, she wanted the former slave to not fear her, to trust that the asari's touch would bring pleasure to them both and not pain and torment. The intelligence agent sighed as she turned her head so that she could look into the bedroom again at the sleeping form of the human. What she desired would not be easy to obtain, it would take time and patience for her to get the former slave to feel anything but fear in her presence. In any case the human needed time for her injuries to heal, currently as bruised and damaged as the human's sex was even if she touched the female as gently as possible she would hurt the woman.

Her gaze sharpened upon the still form of the former slave as a possible course of action came together in her mind. Instead of acting upon it immediately however, Tela took a quiet moment to mull her idea over, consider the myriad possible ways in which it could go wrong and make the current situation worse instead of better. Should she or shouldn't she, wondered the asari intelligence agent. Would she make things worse or could this move things in the direction she desired? Eventually, the asari matron turned back to the data terminal at the desk. Tela glanced over the reports she had completed, made a few corrections and then ensured they were saved to her omni-tool before powering off the terminal.

Heading first into her own room the agent stripped off her clothing, revealing that the purple markings upon the asari's face continued down her neck and onto her shoulders, upper arms, back, and the outside of her legs. Her body was leanly fit, finely honed by constant training and the challenges of field work. Underneath her blue skin, muscles rippled in her arms and back as the asari tossed her soiled clothes into the laundry hamper next to the closet and then moved over to the wide double drawer dresser across from the bed to pull out her preferred sleepwear, a set of loose pants and shirt in a soft, silky fabric.

Pausing she looked over at the wide bed, considering abandoning her plans for tonight and just sleeping in it and then shook her head. Currently the human had no idea what to expect from her or from their interactions. Therefore now was the perfect time to take advantage of being a complete unknown to the female and defining the parameters of their relationship to the ones Tela desired instead of the ones to which the former slave was more familiar and accustomed. A small, but sad smile curved the matron's dark blue lips. It wasn't as if the human was going to argue with where her new 'Master' chose to sleep after all, and getting the former slave used to the idea of Tela being close to her and not harming her would be very beneficial for the asari's future plans.

Finally resolved in her decision, Tela quickly pulled on the clothing she had taken out and made her way back out of her bedroom and into the one next to it where the human was sleeping. The former slave hadn't moved from the last time the asari had looked in on her, she was still on her back with one pale arm outstretched. Moving to the side of the bed, Tela paused for a moment to simply look at the sleeping human. The cold compresses and healing salve they had applied to the former slave's face during the surgery had already had a positive effect, reducing the swelling of the woman's features. Her pale skin was still marred with dark bluish bruising around her nose, cheeks and mouth, but it at least seemed no worse than earlier in the day.

Giving into her curiosity Tela reached out and touched the human's bare arm, trailing her fingers along the smooth, soft and warm to her touch pale skin. Her brown eyed gaze flickered up toward the female's face to see if the human would react, but under the sedative effects of the pain medicine the doctor had given the former slave the human remained still and asleep, apparently completely unaware of her actions. The asari could see the short pale-colored hair that covered the pale skin under her fingertips, but she could barely feel them they were so fine and soft to the touch. The sparse hair seemed useless in either protecting the female's delicate skin or in providing any additional warmth and Tela had to wonder what evolutionary advantage such a fine light covering of hair provided to the human. The asari lifted the human's forearm and took a moment to examine the female's long fingered, fine boned hands. Marveling at their delicateness and the thinness of the human's skin as she brushed her fingers underneath the human's palm and then fingers to lift and support them. Afterward, her curiosity satisfied for the moment, Tela reached down to pull up the sleeve of the cream colored shirt which had bunched up by the human's elbow and then placed the now covered arm on across the former slave's stomach.

Once they had reached Fortis, Tela and the female human had immediately been transported to the military base's medical center. There the intelligence agent watched as the human was stripped out of her armor and underlayer down to her pale bruised skin by two nurses and then bathed in preparation for her surgery. Tela had remained near the frightened human, talking to her in a calm, reassuring tone, letting the former slave know what was happening to her until the point when the anesthesia for the surgery rendered the female unconscious. Following the surgery, the human had been dressed in what she was wearing now, a long sleeved shirt and pants in a soft fabric designed for warmth, as a humans body temperature was naturally a few degrees warmer than an asari's, and to not irritate the female's injuries.

Tela pulled back the covers and moving carefully slipped onto the bed and levered herself over so that she was laying close to the woman before pulling the sheets and comforter up over her body. Settling into the bed and arranging the pillow to suit her, the asari allowed herself to finally begin to relax as she turned her head to gaze at the human next to her who was thankfully still asleep. This close she could actually feel the warmth emanating from the alien female. There wasn't so much of a temperature difference between them that the human felt unpleasantly warm - quite the contrary, the human's slightly higher body temperature felt quite pleasant. Pleasant enough that after a moment Tela rolled onto her side, closing the remaining distance between her and the woman and carefully fitted herself against the human. The asari closed her eyes and savored the feel of the slighter, smaller, and warmer body next to her.

Warm, soft...medicinal, Tela's nose wrinkled at the unmistakable smell of disinfectant left over from the surgical prep on the human. The scent wasn't strong enough or objectionable enough for her to roll back over on her back and put more distance between her and the female however, instead the asari distracted herself from the smell by opening her eyes once again and focusing her attention on the human's face. The female's face was smoothed out in her deep sleep, free at this moment of the cast of fear and tension that seemed to be the human's constant companion, and she looked young and oddly innocent. Using the medical information they had obtained over the years of spying on the Batarians, the doctors had estimated the former slave's age. The female human was fairly young, definitely in her maiden years and around seventeen to twenty years old. To Tela that sounded exceedingly young considering that an asari of the same age would still be a child, but humans were a short lived species and this one was fully grown and capable of bearing children.

Or at least she should be able to bear children, thanks to the Batarians practices with their female human slave soldiers whether or not she actually could bear children was uncertain at this time. While the human was sedated and the surgeons were repairing her injuries and removing her control chip, they had also taken the time to remove the female's contraceptive implant. It had been there for years; perhaps even before the female reached full sexual maturity and because of that the doctor's weren't certain if the human's reproductive organs had been given the time to fully mature before it was implanted. If they had then all should be well, if not...Tela frowned as she thought of the doctor's prognosis, then the female would likely be infertile and there would be little they could do about it given the cause. If that was the outcome, then it did not bode well for the minimalist scenario (a fallback idea in case the race proved worth saving, but the Republics could not free the Human homeworld) of providing a safe haven for at least some humans through freeing a few units of slave soldiers if those slave soldiers could not bear children.

The mission had already included plans for closely monitoring the human's health, including what seemed to Tela like every medical and blood test known to the Asari medical profession as part of the human's daily, weekly and monthly testing regimens. Now additional to those, even more in depth reproductive organ health and reproductive hormone level testing would be added to the long list of weekly health checks. Tela's brow quirked in wry and somewhat pitying amusement as she gazed on the sleeping female, between the health monitoring bracelet the human was wearing on her left wrist and the weekly and monthly testing schedule there should be very little medical wise about the human that escaped the doctor's notice. Now that they had an actual live human to examine, prod, and take blood from the doctors seemed intent on answering to all of their remaining questions about the species from this one human.

Tela's gaze finally focused on the oh so familiar and yet unfamiliar features of the human. Asari, Batarians and Humans all shared a common bipedal, five-fingered body shape and female Humans and Batarians were especially similar in body shape to the Asari, but only the Humans shared similar facial features with the Asari. Facially, the only dissimilar features between Asari and Humans were skin texture, different ranges of skin coloration, the presence of hair instead of a cartilaginous crest, and external ears. The sheer amount of similarity in appearance between the two species was startling...and somewhat eerie, especially when one added the fact that facial expressions and emotional displays between the two races was also very similar. Her gaze rested on the straight brow and then moved to the long aquiline nose, high cheekbones, full reddish lips and then slightly squarish chin of the female all within an oval shaped face. Tela didn't know what standards of beauty were among Humans, but an Asari with the same facial features as this human would definitely be considered beautiful.

Tela's gaze dwelt a moment longer upon the female's features before drifting downward to where a small square white bandage covered the area where the surgeons had removed the former slave's control chip. That part of the surgery had actually taken the greatest amount of time, removing the implant from where it had drilled into and through the human's skull and the nanofine wires embedded into the human's brain. The intelligence agent did not think she would ever forget the incredulous and then pleadingly hopeful look on the female's face when she had asked the human if she would be continue to be obedient without the control chip. The former slave, naked after being stripped of her armor and underlayer by the nurses, had dropped to her knees and bowed until her forehead nearly touched the floor while ignoring the surprised looks and then protests of the nurses at her action. The female barked a strangled sounding confirmation to her new asari 'Master' and then another and another.

To stop her Tela ordered in Batarian, "Enough 29045," as she strode over to stand in front of the kneeling female who was now cringing in fear and doubtlessly expecting that she would now be harshly punished as well as the control chip remaining inside her head. The intelligence agent knelt down next to the former slave and lightly touched the side of her head where a squarish, rough-looking scar showed where the control chip had been implanted. The asari ignored the human's brief flinch away from her hand before the female controlled herself and remained still under her touch. Gentling her tone, Tela said reassuringly, "I believe you. When you wake up this will be gone."

Her hand still gently cupping the side of the female's head, Vasir had then looked up narrow eyed at the two nurses and in common dialect sternly warned them to not interfere with her handling of the human. The idea of freedom would be introduced when the Matriarchs overseeing the mission indicated that the human was ready for it and not before, and certainly not by them. Simply the statement that multiple Matriarchs had an interest in the mission was enough to completely quell the nurses' protests and, in an abrupt change of attitude, elicit their quick assurances that they would certainly not question the wisdom of the Matriarchs and would leave dealing with the human strictly to her.

The place just behind and above her right ear, where the control chip had been implanted, had been the first thing the former slave had tried to reach when she awoke only to be stymied by the fluid lines still inserted into her arms and hands and then the sternly worded order by Tela to remain still until they were taken out. As soon as one hand was freed the female reached up and pressed upon the bandage verifying by touch that her control chip, the one that had been there since she was a very young child given the bone growth around it, was no longer present. The female had taken one deep shuddering breath after another as her green eyes brightened and then welled with tears which seconds later rolled down her cheeks. Then the human's heart monitors had started beeping as the female realized she was 'wasting water' in front of her new Master and her attitude abruptly shifted from deeply grateful to terrified within the space of only few seconds.

Tela saw the look of abject fear upon the human's face, and then saw the female glance toward the floor. That was all the indication the intelligence agent needed to predict the former slave's next action. Tela lunged forward just as 29045 moved and wrapped her arms around the female, physically restraining her from getting off the hospital bed and kneeling upon the floor for punishment. A sharp and unequivocally stated order was sufficient to get the human to lie down once again upon the bed, but words were not enough to persuade the still terrified former slave to calm down, not after the years of abusive conditioning applied by the Batarians.

After a few minutes, the doctors who were monitoring the human's vitals were concerned enough about the amount of physical stress the former slave was experiencing that they decided to go ahead and give her the dose of post-operative pain medicine they had originally intended to give her just before releasing her from the hospital. The medicine was also a powerful sedative and would act to calm the female. It worked, indeed it worked so well that the former slave could barely manage to walk and finally Tela had just picked up the female and carried her both to the waiting vehicle and then, once they had arrived, into her guest quarters.

Tela sighed, reached up and lightly stroked her finger tips along the smooth skin of the female's bruised face, hopefully tomorrow would be less stressful for the human. She planned for them to remain in her guest quarters except for a few excursions for food and gentle exercise depending on how the human's recovery from today's surgery progressed for the next few days. That should give the former slave some time to get used to her changed circumstances and new Master without any interference from anyone else. Tela understood that the Huntresses in the shuttle and the two nurses had meant well, but ultimately their behavior had been confusing and frightening to the human. Perhaps in a few months the former slave would be ready to take her first steps into independence and freedom, but she was definitely not ready for it now and probably wouldn't be even in the next several weeks.

The asari matron rested her head against her pillow; her hand stroking the warm, smooth skin of the human's face stilled, rested against the female's cheek for a moment before Tela lifted it away and let her arm settle to her side on top of the covers. At least she was no longer as worried about bringing the human home with her to live with her mother and daughter. The former slave seemed oddly gentle and mild-natured now that she was not fighting against them. Perhaps the young maiden Huntress from the shuttle today was right and Humans were simply ill suited as warriors thought the intelligence agent. Or at least those who were still alive were ill suited to it - Tela grimly corrected herself, thinking that the Batarians were certain to have killed any human who dared resist them when they first subjugated the species. Only those humans who had either been too cowardly to fight or smart enough to yield and submit to their new Masters would have survived the invasion of their homeworld.