I don't own the Mass Effect.


Midnight Revelations

(Jona Sederis)

The floor was cool beneath my bare feet, and the air bit at my skin, easily penetrating the opened silk robe that I had thrown on. That bothered me far less than it had mere months ago, Cieran's preference towards colder climates having begun to infect me as well. I supposed I had no real reason to complain, especially as it left my daughters in a perpetual state of discomfort whenever they were home on business.

Striding down the dark hall by memory, I slowed as I reached my destination. Not bothering to announce myself, I simply pressed the concealed door aside and entered my bondmate's lair. It was a long, rectangular room, filled with the various tools of his trade. Weapons, many that he had designed himself, others that he had merely modified to his like, lined the long wall. One corner was entirely given over to grenade storage, including several Batarian razor-filament types that would have seen him jailed for life in 'civilized space', while the space opposite held racks for both his heavy and light suits of armor.

At the far end was the skeletal framework for his latest battlesuit, the construction looming over an unmarked cabinet that I knew contained poisons and venom. Beside that were several shelves holding his more specialized equipment, mostly re purposed slaver's gear for those occasions where he wished to avoid killing his target, or bystanders. In neat stacks below those was his personal cache of explosives, each little container neatly and precisely labeled.

And for once the floor was entirely clean of debris, meaning he'd finally let the staff inside to maintain it.

Cieran himself sat at the workbench that dominated the center of the room, his hands slowly assembling a pistol. He was shirtless, and his long hair was entirely loose for once. He stiffened slightly as I drew close enough for our bond to reach him, feeling more than hearing my approach. Unfortunately, I could also feel his in return, including the single irritated pulse of anger that let me know he was still in a mood.

"Jona." His voice was as cold and cutting as the air around us, "I though I had disabled your access."

"And I," I retaliated, "Had thought that this was my home, and that you have no authority over where I might go within it. This brooding is becoming irritating, Cieran."

"I believe it entirely justified." He snapped back. "Considering what you did."

My teeth ground together as I fought the urge to simply smash him about the walls with my biotics, his own anger causing a responding surge of my own. "I am in your mind, human. You are not as opposed to the idea as you are presenting."

There was a low growl as he set his project down, turning and rising to glare at me. A low pulse of heat crawled up my spine at the sight of him doing so... the lean whipcord strength of his body, the wild hair... it gave him an almost feral edge. And, while I largely preferred to lead, those times where I let him bear me down and take me were always more than merely good.

"Stop." He all but growled the word as my arousal reached him, "Jona, stop."

"You consented in the meld." I replied, lowering my voice and letting base emotion replace anger. "You had no objections in those moments."

A definite pulse of annoyance came at my words, and I grinned as I began to slowly walk towards him. My thin robes covered nothing at all, and I indulged in my appreciation of his body to excite myself further, making sure to let the lust carry across our link. Nearly any other lover that I had ever taken would have given in at once, but Cieran merely closed his eyes and straightened his back. The mixed anger and desire faded surprisingly rapidly as he forced himself to calm down, to relax and rely on the cool logic he so prized.

"We were melded." He spoke the words as I stopped in front of him, our bare toes touching slightly. "It could have just as easily been your own desire warping our thoughts."

I lifted my chin, "You believe that I would do such a thing?"

"I believe that you've wanted this for a while." He replied calmly, not opening his eyes. "And that you tend to let yourself go during sex."

My angry retort died quietly as some of his irritating calm seeped into my own waters. "I would not have changed your thoughts on purpose. I desire you for your defiance, your disturbance, your skill. Mentally adjusting you would destroy the very things I find attractive."

There was a quiet exhalation as he considered that. "Your word?"

I reached up and quietly rested a hand on his chest, feeling the scars beneath my skin. "I genuinely believed that you consented. In a moment of weakness, perhaps, but consented all the same."

"Dammit." The word was barely a mutter. A moment later one of his own hands was reaching through my open robes, warm flesh touching my stomach and then sliding down, resting just beneath my navel. "This is going to be a mess."

"That is what the staff are for." I replied, my nose wrinkling in disgust.

Cieran finally opened his eyes, snorting. "And your jokes remain terrible."

"I was hardly joking." I shook my head, taking a step back from him. "Now, are you going to return to bed willingly, or am I going to have to force you?"

"I am in the middle of working on something." He turned his back to me and settled down into his chair, "A new weapon for you, in point of fact."

I tilted my head a little, and padded forwards cautiously. "Considering your prior state of mind, I feel as if I should refuse."

There was a soft snort. "I started on it two days ago, so you're safe. It won't blow up in your hand or anything like that. It was... supposed to be a gift, since I haven't actually made you a weapon yet."

I hardly needed another gun, I could buy an army's worth of them whenever the mood struck me, but... "Customized or scratch built?"

"The latter, obviously." His eyes rolled as I looked over his shoulder. "I know you like that Acolyte model, but I thought you might appreciate something with a bit more power."

"I would." I allowed, frowning at the weapon on the table. It was a typical Cieran design, resembling the old Krogan weapon his pistols had once been based off of, and the aesthetics did not seriously appeal to me. "I see your sense of style remains impaired. I can only hope that it is functional."

"Based it off of my Blade cannon, then adjusted it a bit." He picked it up and offered it to me as he spoke, "I used ultra-light materials wherever they were useful, and also ran with an eezo lattice to lower the weight further. Round size is a bit smaller than my own as a consequence, but still heavy."

Reaching down, I carefully picked the pistol up. It was far lighter than I would have assumed, given that it looked only marginally smaller than his own oversized weapon. "Heat capacity? I see that your disdain of thermal clips continues."

He snorted quietly, then reached up and tapped the top. "It has a rotating assembly, two cores, ten shots at rapid fire, which is overkill for anything but a pissed off Elcor."

"Interesting." I hummed softly, turning it over. As he had indicated, there were slight points of separation, and I casually thumbed a small button near the grip. The top-rear of the pistol abruptly whirred and rotated, clicking back into place almost instantly. "I note the lack of a secondary assembly, however."

"That's because it isn't done yet." Cieran sighed, taking the weapon back and returning it to his work area. "I was thinking an omni-bayonet to save on weight, and I know you like the option to get up close."

"I do." I agreed, still looking at the pistol. "Human, I hardly need-"

"Another standard gun, I know." He shook his head, "That's why I'm not going with the bayonet. Not sure what to put there yet, but it'll be something suitably vicious and horrifying. "

My lips curled a little, "I look forwards to seeing what you come up with. Was that why you came to work on it, in your mood? Hoping that it might inspire you to develop a weapon that you could imagine using on me?"

"Perhaps." He replied noncommittally, his emotions giving me nothing to work with. "I also find working on weapons to be relaxing, and I definitely needed to relax."

The smile faded as I glowered down at him, some of my own annoyance returning. "Human, that discussion is over."

"No, it isn't Jona." Hair flowed as he shook his head, "What are we going to name her?"

"Reshi." I responded promptly.

A low pulse of confusion, "Not Yithina?"

I inhaled sharply as a bitter memory broke through the dams that I had erected within my mind. "No."

He winced at the snap in my voice, and the emotion he likely felt through our link. "...shit. Jona-"

"Cieran, no." My jaw ached as I clenched it shut. I had not thought of Yithina, my sister, or Yithina, my daughter in... a very long time. I didn't care what Ghai or Musio said, I was not going to relive those memories. What had happened to them both had been...

Warmth abruptly surrounded me, and my eyes snapped open as the room spun around me. Cieran finished hauling me into his lap, irritably pushing my robes aside to expose all of my chest with one hand, while his other left my waist in favor of snapping up to rip the amplifier from the back of my neck. I hissed in irritation, and then in a different fashion when he simply grabbed the back of my crest and hauled my head backwards.

I tried to snap a hand between us, to grab the impertinent alien by the throat, but he had already pressed himself against me and buried his face into my own. The soft scratching of his hair was joined by his teeth as he roughly bit at my skin. I'd trained him too well, each nip was above my arteries, a reminder that he could try and tear them open if he wished, and I felt my arousal crest higher.

"Human." I growled as my hands settled on his bare shoulders, "I did not give you permission to lead."

A definite wave of amusement echoed from his mind as he pulled back just enough to speak into my skin, "Are you going to stop me? I thought it would be a pleasant diversion from your thoughts."

It was. It very much was. Sex had become our therapy, whenever one of us stumbled across something that would have destabilized us. It was also very much not what either of my mind healers would consider good therapy... not that I really gave a shark's shit what either of them thought.

Especially in the moment, as Cieran's free hand slid around my back and began to trail fingertips over my azure. Asshole that he was, he made no effort to apply pressure, instead simply seeking to arouse me beyond rational thought. Knowing what he was doing and stopping him from doing it were different things, especially as my hind-brain began to clamor to join our minds together.

"Fine." I allowed as I my breathing quickened. "But I am not servicing you. I am the one who needs attention."

"You always need attention." He retorted quietly. "Robe off, ass on the workbench."

Two hours later the pair of us were sitting out on a balcony together, properly dressed for the warm night, the soft scent of chelaha curling around as we smoked and gazed at the distant lights of Nos Astra. As much as I hated tradition and ritual, this had become one of ours in the last several months. It only occurred after therapeutic sex, and often lead to more.

I puffed slowly on my pipe, enjoying the intoxicating effects of the leaves. "Yithina... was my first. Eldest. Had her too young, when I was a stupid maiden falling to her back whenever an old bitch wanted. She got me high, drunk, and fucked me until I made the link."

He grimaced, leaning back and exhaling a long stream of smoke. "That common?"

"Not common, but not rare either." I glowered at nothing. "My biotic potential was known, even then, and there was large amount of interest in securing my long-term services for various agendas. She was of a high fucking house, had orders from her Matriarch to seduce me, beget a kid onto me, then make sure I was loyal to her. Might have worked if her mental defenses weren't crap. She was my first kill, broke her neck while we were fucking."

"Athame's ass..." There was a quiet sigh, but only tired emotions. "Why keep the daughter?"

I frowned, turning my pipe over slowly in my hands, looking at the delicate Batarian runes that had been carved into the wood. "Trena's mother convinced me... we were friends, even then. Took her with when I left for the Terminus, raised her as a mercenary. She came back with me when we formed the Eclipse."

Cieran took another slow puff from his pipe, his eyes turning away from the city to look at me. "And then?"

"Died with her namesake, on Thessia." Real anger swirled, only partially abated by the pleasant exhaustion of my body and the smoke in my lungs. "Sacrificed on the alter of old Thessian whores who couldn't stand the idea of not controlling us."

"Shit." He muttered softly. "Every time I think my life has been shit I remember yours."

"Your life has been shit human." I reminded him, shifting my chair a little before kicking my legs up to rest them in his lap. "I at least had spans of comfort and luxury as long as your entire life to make up for the shit."

"That doesn't really make up for anything." He replied, his free arm draping over my shins. "Shit. In some ways that's worse... you've had bloody decades worse than even my shittiest year."

I exhaled a slow stream of chehala smoke. "True."

There was a quiet grunt as we fell silent, simply smoking companionably and returning our gaze to the distant lights. It was as strangely pleasant as it always was... our bond offering nothing but quiet companionship, Cieran neither casting judgment nor offering unwanted sympathies. He was simply present.

Half closing my eyes, I allowed my mental defenses to drop just enough to let him feel a single wave of affection before raising them once again. The human smiled slightly, but said nothing in reply, simply refilling his pipe before holding out his small bag of leaves for me.

We smoked until the sun's light made the downtown spires glitter.


Probably two chapters to go in this very strange story.

Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."

Thanks, Kat