MASS EFFECT

JUSTICE

BOOK ONE

WARDEN

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DISCLAIMER: This story contains DARK HUMOR, INTENTIONALLY EXCESSIVLY DESCRIPTIVE GRAPHIC VIOLENCE, SEXUAL CONTENT, ALCOHOL and DRUG ABUSE CONTENT. It is not intended for immature readers.

CHAPTER 9

NORMAL

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It's about mid-morning on January 29th, 2174. As with every day, I begin it with exercise. Today, I've decided to go to the gym, but I don't want to go to the one I usually go to; it was too noisy, too crowded, and the people kept bothering me. So now I'm at a different place, and hopefully it's better.

I walk into the building with a condescending scowl etched into my face. This place doesn't seem much better compared to the other place. This place isn't a dedicated gym, it's actually a community center that has a pretty well stocked gym. The rates to use the building's facilities are cheaper and it happens to be near to my apartment, not on the Strip, but close by in a residential sector favored by a variety of species.

I frown at a pair of asari passing by, laughing loudly and obnoxiously. Maybe this wasn't a good idea. Maybe I should just leave. No, I'm already here. The gym is right there, I'll just go use it.

I walk into the gym, pleased that the place is pretty well stocked but not immensely populated. It's not deserted, far from it, but there's room to breathe at least.

I find an open leg press machine and put down my water source and bag down before moving toward the rack to retrieve weights. I used to never lift before. I would if it was available to me, but I always found I wasn't ever excessively good at it. I've always been more of an endurance and finesse fellow over a sheer power sort of person. Believe me when I say that I can lift a significant weight but I won't say I'm as good as somebody who does this daily.

After putting on enough weight for me to do about 5 to 7 reps with, I settle into the machine and adjust it to my liking. I begin, pushing my legs but not locking my knees. I point my toes slightly as I complete the movement, engaging my calves as well as my quads. I slowly return to my starting position before exploding out again. I continue with this until I have finished my set with 6 reps. I relax and take a small sip of water and check the time even though I don't actually need to know the time. It's just something I do, I guess.

I complete three more sets before re-racking the weight and moving over to the next exercise at the squat rack. I have regular and front squats to do now.

"Hey man." I hear from behind me as I arrive at the squat rack. I turn around and frown at the muscular individual standing there. "Need a spot?"

"Not for squats, thanks." I say dropping my things again. "I don't power lift for squats."

"Oh, no problem bro." He says with a nod. "A word of advice though?"

I know he's going to comment on my form for my leg presses but I hold up a hand. "No thanks, guy. I'm here to exercise, not talk. If you're going to comment on my form, save it. I know what I'm doing."

He frowns and leaves.

Thank goodness. I hate people who come and talk to me at the gym. If I need a spot I'll ask for a spot dammit. I do my 4 sets of squats with high weight and 3 sets of front squats with moderate weight.

People are starting to gather around and watch me do my sets as I complete a relatively high number of reps with an extremely high weight. Of course it doesn't seem like that much to me. I do weigh about 500 pounds after all.

I move to the next area so I can do some deadlifts, some power cleans, and some snatches and then I'll call it a day.

For the rest of my time, nobody comes to bother me, though people do come to watch every once in a while. I do regular and sumo deadlifts with very high weight, I do power cleans with high weight and I do snatches with moderate weight. By the end of my work out circuit, I've killed 2 hours, and burned myself out thoroughly. I gather my things, my empty water source and my gym bag and I head to the showers. The place is crowded, filled with people of all species, shapes and sizes, all having finished some kind of activity, whether that be exercise at the gym like me, use of the pool, the rock climbing room, or one of the courts. Yes the place has all of that. Cool right?

What's not cool is how crowded this place is. However. It is helping me bury my curiosity surrounding alien biology, particular of the reproductive nature, even if this is exclusively the male sort.

It's all very disturbing to say the least. I shower and change and leave quickly. Now out of my gym clothes, I'm wearing a simple t-shirt and jeans with some casual shoes. I walk into the café to purchase something to eat, as well as one of their protein supplements.

As I slowly approach the counter, staring at the menu, deciding what I want, I notice the lone person working the café doing something somewhat out of sight behind the counter. I look at them as I approach and immediately turn away when they straighten.

Ok… Maybe I just didn't get a good enough look. I peek over my shoulder and look away again. Yeah. Really, really, really attractive girl working the counter. Yeah. Uh… Right. Yeah. Um. What. Do. I… do… I could… talk to her. But I'm shitty at that. But. I'll go ahead and try that anyways.

I turn around and find that the girl is staring at me. She smiles at me and I smile back but instinctively look at the ground between us before walking forwards to the counter.

"Uh hi, I'd like a blueberry scone, some water, and a protein shake please?" I say, clearing my throat first.

In all my years, I think I've only met a few people who I have found attractive from the instant I saw them and this is one of those people. I'm good with people, not with attractive girls.

The girl smiles at me, she nods. "Yeah! I'll get those for you right away. What kind of shake do you want?"

I frown and look back up at the menu, feeling stupid for not deciding in the first place. "Uh, sorry uh… How about… chocolate, I guess?"

"Ok!" She says, collecting the scone and water for me. She places them on the counter and starts making the shake, mixing the ingredients. She places them in the blender.

As odd as it may seem, I watch her work. She has… really, really awesome hair. It's incredibly curly but not straight so it isn't an afro or anything. No it's just super curly, long bouncy hair that sits around her head and bounces around like crazy every time she moves. It has dark roots but gets lighter quickly, becoming a dirty blond sort of color. Every time she leans over to do something she has to keep a hand on it to keep it out of the way. It's terribly adorable. She's sort of tall for a girl, probably about two inches or so shy of 6 feet. She has lightly tan skin and a very petite form with slightly wide hips and a narrow waist. As she runs about behind the counter I notice her incredibly nice legs thanks to the shorts she's wearing; long, tone and smooth. She returns to the counter and looks at me, smiling slightly. Her eyes are uniquely amber colored and big, with square thin framed glasses sitting on her small nose. Her cheekbones are high and prominent, her brows are thin and maintained, and her lips are full but widen when she smiles. Her smile is sincere and lovely and slightly shy. I notice that her teeth, though really nice and white, aren't perfectly straight, some just slightly crooked. Thanks to her hair, it's completely impossible to see anything but her face when she comes up to you. All in all, she's clearly got some unique genetics going on for her and her entire demeanor is unbearably cute.

"Your shake will take just a second." She says. "That's going to be, 14 credits."

I hand her a credit chit and she scans it before handing it back to me.

I take my other items and put the water bottle in my bag, leaving my scone on the counter. I take my time putting away my water bottle, doing it slowly so that I can think of something to say, unnecessarily slow, now that I think about it. I rearrange some of the other things in my gym bag before closing it back up and taking a second to retie my shoe.

You might be curious why I'm so damn dedicated to trying to talk to this attractive young lady. It's because I'm terrible at it and as a perfectionist, I'm always seeking ways to improve myself. Also I'm a little lonely and seek companionship. I have few friends and the more that I have, the better.

I'll start simple I guess. Alright, here goes.

I straighten and face her to find her holding the protein shake, ready to go. She holds it out to me and I take it, a little disappointed. Now if I try to talk to her it'll be awkward. I sigh and nod, saying thanks and that I needed it.

"Did you just finish a workout?" She asks.

Suddenly invigorated I nod and smile. "Uh, yeah. I just got out of the gym."

She rolls her eyes. "Ugh. I need to start going to the gym. I've been so lazy recently."

I shrug. "Well, I'm new to the community center. If you need a workout buddy, I'm happy to help. I'll be here about this time, most days."

She smiles. "Damn! I work this shift all weekdays."

"Well… uh… what time do you get off work, maybe you and I could… um." I stop and look down at my feet and go to scratch my head but only succeed in spilling some protein shake in my hair.

She gasps and retrieves me some napkins quickly, handing them to me. "Oh gosh! Gross! Those things don't smell really good."

"No they really don't." I say with a loud sigh. "I'll uh… I'll see you around I guess."

Well. You fucked that up like a king who… fucks shit up. Goddammit you sound like a fucking idiot in your own goddamn head now too.

"I get off work at 5:30." I hear the girl call to me.

I turn around, napkins still rubbing my hair, staring at her in slight surprise.

"If you want… you can come meet me here and we can go get something to eat… if you want." She says not really looking at me but smiling.

I nod but realize she's not looking at me. "Uh yeah… That's… That'd be great I'll see you tonight then."

I turn to leave but come back, going to the counter. "My name's Jack."

She smiles at me and brushes her hair out of the way of her face. "Kimberly. Or… you can call me Kim, if you want."

I smile and nod. "Kim. Okay. I'll see you tonight."

I turn and leave, proud of myself for having accomplished something today. I walk out of the building and decide to take a short cut back to my apartment. On the way I have to go through some alleys, but I'm more than accustomed to that by now.

A fair ways down the alley, a guy gets in my way and a pair of salarians appears behind me. I sigh out of my nose.

I put my gym bag on the ground and frown at the person in front of me.

"Just hand over your credits and there-" I interrupt the human blocking my path by stabbing him through the clavicle with my omni-blade.

I spin around and slash one of the salarians across the face before kicking him in the chest as I lunge for the other one. I grab him by the neck and slam him against a wall, stabbing him in the torso repeatedly. I toss him aside and throw myself at the other salarian whose face I cut. I drive my shoulder into his chest and slam him into the wall as hard as I can before backing away again and slamming my foot into his chest repeatedly. I hear bones shatter but I'm not done yet. I throw myself at him again and pin him to the wall and slice open his thigh before backing off a step and stabbing him in the gut before slashing open his throat.

I back off, breathing heavily. I look at the corpses surrounding me. Why did I go so hard this time? Unnecessarily bloody, unnecessarily violent. That's atypical of me.

Come to think of it, why are there so many fucking muggers around? I swear, if they keep popping up around me like this the murder rate on the Citadel is going to be at least 3 a day. Which is absolutely ridiculous.

I cut their eyes before gathering my things and leaving. As I continue to walk through the alley I look down at myself. Blood. Hm. The chute to the Warehouse is in this alley complex, I can go there and change into some of the spare clothes down there before heading home.

I find my way to the chute and head to the Warehouse. I notice Draco doing something in the yard but it doesn't seem particularly interesting nor mischievous so I have nothing to say about it. Inside I find my clothes and change, putting the bloody ones in my gym bag.

I put my gym bag down and decide I'll go talk to Senna.

I find her fiddling with something near the back of the Warehouse.

"Senna." I say, getting her attention.

She looks back and me and smiles. "Hey, Jack. Just replacing some old couplings. This place is old, but the new couplings were easy to install, despite the fact that this place uses old tech."

"Good. Any progress on restoring power and water?" I ask.

She shrugs. "Kind of. I got the water to flow."

"Really?" I ask with a grin.

She nods, also smiling. "Yeah! It was easy. Just hacked into the water management systems and redirected some minor flows. It'll give us what we need with plenty to spare and nobody will even notice."

"Good. And what about electricity?" I ask.

She frowns. "That's the tricky thing. You see, this place would have a pretty significant power draw and I can't just siphon electricity off of stuff like I can with water. I thought maybe we could bring in some hydrogen generators and use those instead but they're super expensive, even for a small one it's still a lot of credits. And we'd need a few large ones to keep up with the electricity we need."

"Well how much electricity could we possibly need?" I ask with a shrug.

"Well, the lights is one thing, but heat is also a factor. This place needs life support as well which is active now but running on residual backup power from emergency generators which run on ion replicating power no matter what. That's also what works the chutes, that I found out are only running on partial capacity. Supposedly they should function like full on tram systems not part slide-part missile launcher. The emergency generators won't power the whole place though, we need something bigger. Also if you want to be able to fully employ my services I need computers, terminals, and servers. Which I can get no problem, but they need power to work obviously." She says and shrugs after a while. "So unless you can figure out a way to power the place without drawing from the Citadel, which can be noticed and traced very easily, I can't help you."

I think for a second. "Did you look up those energy corporations like I asked?"

She nods. "Yeah. There's a big one called Damascus Energy based here on the Citadel."

I check my watch. Still a long time. "I'll be back."

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Paying a visit to Vaas and then Turok. I have a plan to get power to the Warehouse but I'll need help.

As I walk towards Vaas's workshop beneath the restaurant, I notice the streets are atypically barren. Nobody around. That's not right. I frown at the restaurant as I approach. There are vehicles parked outside. I'm not liking this…

I spot someone exiting and notice a weapon in their hand. I duck into a dark alleyway to my right and peek around the corner. Two men, one batarian, one turian, both armed.

I open my backpack and retrieve my revolvers, putting them in my shoulder holster under my jacket. I'm not wearing my armor, it's too early. Too many people. But I am wearing the plate carrier suit which is resistant to damage. And the suit has the exo-central nervous system spine on it. Which does have my helmet attached to it.

I put the helmet on and approach the restaurant.

The two guards don't notice me until I'm pretty close and they shout in alarm and point their weapons at me.

I roll to the side and crawl underneath one of their cars, which hovers slightly off the ground. The pressure underneath this thing sucks dick but it's bearable.

I roll onto my back and draw my revolvers. I shoot each guard in the leg, taking one of their feet off entirely before shooting each one in the face. I crawl back out from under the car and holster my revolvers picking up one of their guns. It's an SMG of some kind I think.

I walk into the restaurant.

Oh no! They killed the old turian guy who sold me chow mein and the nice old lady who cooked it for me! Bastards!

I shiver in slight fury and hurry down the stairs. A gang member rounds the corner and starts heading up the stairs but I fire a long burst into him as I descend, throwing him against the wall.

The SMG fires fast and accurately with little recoil. Not very much punch, though.

I enter Vaas's workshop and kill a guard who rushes at me on my right. Another gang member appears on my left and I fire on him but he manages to avoid the onslaught of rounds. Instead of seeking cover and picking him off, I head right and walk around. I see him as I pass by and kill him from behind. A pair of criminals appear in front of me and I dive to the side as they fire at me.

I get up quickly and sprint away, utilizing the numerous partition walls for concealment. I round the last corner and find two men, one with a knife to Vaas's throat, the other facing away with a shotgun. The guy with the shotgun notices me immediately but I pump him full of rounds and approach the guy with the knife. He tries to move around Vaas and use him as a hostage but I get there quicker and stab him in the face with my omni-blade. I drop the SMG and pick up the shotgun and blast the last two criminals that I avoided earlier.

I drop the shotgun and untie Vaas.

He looks up at me, eyes hazy. He has a bleeding forehead wound.

He blinks and groans. "Cartel… Found me."

"I see that." I say. "Good thing I found you when I did."

I help him up and hand him a pistol from the corpse of the interrogator. "Can you walk?"

He nods. "Yeah."

"Alright, I have a place for you to hide." I say. "Do you need anything before we go? You won't be able to come back here for a while."

He nods. "Yeah, let me get a few things."

I nod and wait for him to wander away before I kneel next to the interrogator and take his omni-tool and credit chit. I take his knife and cut his eyes and toss the knife away. I open his omni-tool and start going through his messages.

The most recent one is one telling him where to find Vaas. But the one that worries me is the most recent outgoing message with an attached file containing Vaas's client contact sheet.

I have to go get Turok.

I grab the SMG again and hurry to find Vaas.

"Vaas!" I say quickly sending him the coordinates to the nearest chute. "The Cartel has your contact sheet. I'm going to find Turok. Go to these coordinates. There's a little handle at the base of the wall. Open it. There'll be like a chute filled with darkness. You won't want to go in, but you have to. You're going to have to trust me on this. Once you get to the end, talk to Senna and tell her what happened. Ignore the little shit wandering around the Warehouse. Got it?"

"I'm lightweight confused but yeah I got it. Go find Turok." He says.

I nod and rush out of the restaurant and to a nearby cab terminal. I take it to Turok's home, not too far away from here.

I exit the cab and head into his apartment building. It's a shabby place. I enter and see blood. I take a quick scan of the area. Three enemies in the room. They see me as soon as I see them. I turn towards them and start firing at the same time that they start firing at me.

I take plenty of hits and fall but manage to kill the three of them.

"Agh!" I grunt, looking at myself. More than a few rounds punctured the suit but they're pushed out of me within a few seconds.

I even took a few rounds to the head. Good thing this helmet is tough. I find the building directory and head to Turok's apartment. Once I reach my floor, I peek into his hallway. Some rounds start hitting the wall near my head and I flinch away. They're waiting for me.

I blind fire down the hall with my SMG, firing madly until it overheats. I ditch it quick and draw my revolvers and start sprinting down the hall.

As my targets start poking back out of their cover time sort of slows down. I'm choosing my targets, assigning an order of death in my head. The second I start shooting, time speeds up again. I shoot the closest three targets all in the head, all dead instantly.

Another enemy further down the hall takes a shot at me and it hits me in the shoulders and I stumble but sprint harder. I'm too close to take an accurate shot so I leap and plant my foot against the wall and push. I use my forward momentum to carry me towards him as I whip myself around and plant my boot into his face.

Blood sprays and he collapses. I land, stumble and roll to regain my balance. Another target appears and I shoot him a few times in the body before slipping into cover. I exhale a long breath and peek back out into the hall. I see one more enemy, ready with his assault rifle. He shoots at me as I peek and I recoil. I take a breath. This is going to hurt.

Just as I'm preparing myself to charge out of cover and take my chances attacking him head on, a door explodes off its hinges and crushes the enemy aiming at me. On top of the door is Turok, covered in blood of various colors. He roars and rolls to the side and gets to his feet.

A pair of turians exit the apartment Turok was in and rush him. Turok charges the turians and slams one of them into a wall, blood spraying out of the turian. The other turian shoots Turok in the back of the leg with a shotgun and aims for his head once Turok falls to his knee. I'm about to take a shot when Turok flips around and grabs the turian by an arm and… well the meat on his stomach. Turok proceeds to swing the turian around like a ragdoll, slamming him into the wall and the ground. Turok roars and takes a bite of the turian's body, before lifting him over his head, holding him by his neck and the meat of his belly. Turok roars again and I see the muscles in his scaly arms jump and writhe before the turian is ripped open and his gore spills over Turok.

Turok drops the mangled carcass and roars a blood curdling roar of fury before he collapses back against the wall, breath haggard.

I check the hall once more before stepping out of cover and walking towards Turok. I holster one of my revolvers as I approach and peek into the apartment he was in. The apartment is full of mangled corpses and blood. Turok is a fighter but his fight may be up.

I kneel in front of Turok and remove my helmet.

I touch his shoulder and he grunts and growls and tries to grab at me but I knock his arms away. "Turok. It's me. Jack."

He looks at me and spits blood out of his mouth. "Took you… long enough…"

I shake my head. "You're looking pretty rough."

Turok waves me off. "Just… I'll be ok. Just need a minute."

I help Turok to his feet with some difficulty and we start heading down the hall. I get the SMG I was using earlier and Turok stoops down to get a shotgun along the way. We get to a taxi terminal without much difficulty, just a large krogan weighing down on me.

I help him inside and set it to take me to the nearest chute to the Warehouse. I look at Turok, bleeding in the cab as we go.

"You going to survive?" I ask with a frown.

Turok shrugs. "Probably. Never been this hurt before to be honest. Krogan… regeneration is fast. But. Yeah. Never been this bad before. Too many of them."

I nod. "We'll get you somewhere safe where you can rest."

He nods.

The cab jolts violently. I look around and see another vehicle next to us. It reels back and slams into us again.

I sigh out of my nose and draw my revolver. I take aim and wait until the enemy vehicle is approaching to slam into us again and take the shot. The shot shatters the window of my car so I can't see what effect it had. But since there's not another slam I'm assuming I'm good.

I hear a dull explosion and nod with a smile.

"Alright." I say.

"Good shot." Turok says, breathing heavily. "You got him on your first try."

"Probably luck." I say. The cab touches down and I help Turok out, helping him to the chute. I open it and he looks into the abyss.

"You don't expect me to go in there do you?" He asks.

I nod. "Yeah I do."

He sighs. "Well… Don't got much to lose anyways."

He sits down on the edge and scoots forward until he starts sliding, his shout of alarm disappearing into the distance. I look around once more before following him, closing the chute behind me.

Once I arrive, I help Turok to his feet and I lower the lift. I help him into the Warehouse and look up to see Vaas and Senna arguing.

"Fuck would you get out of my face asari?" Vaas hisses at Senna.

"Fuck you!" Senna shoots back.

"Hey!" I shout, silencing the both of them. "Both of you stop shouting, will you?"

Vaas approaches me. "Good, human, you're here. Would you tell this short minded fool that you told me to come here?"

"Senna." I say looking at her. "I told Vaas to come here."

"Vaasarah to you." Vaas adds, glaring at Senna with all four of his eyes.

Senna glares at me. "Jack, why are you bringing people here? Do you know how dangerous that is?"

"We can trust them." I say, helping Turok sit onto a crate.

"Why?" She asks.

"Because they have no choice but to trust us." I say. "The Cartel is hunting them."

"No thanks to you." Turok grunts.

"Not to mention that that puts us on the Cartel's list too!" Senna shouts in anger. "I don't want to be hunted by the Cartel! C-Sec is already looking for me. What if they find us?!"

"They won't." I snap back.

"What makes you so sure?" Senna asks, crossing her arms.

"Because now that you're in danger too, you won't let them find us. You'll cover our tracks, wipe the slate clean..." I say stepping closer to her. "Isn't that right, hacker?"

"You're pure evil." Senna hisses before storming away.

"I like you, human." Vaas says with a laugh. "You know how to manipulate people."

I shrug. "Comes with experience. Now I have some more business to take care of but I need your help Vaas, seeing as how Turok is too injured."

"What the fuck can I do?" Vaas asks with a shrug.

"I… well. You are being hunted by the Cartel it may not be safe for you yet. Eh, fuck it. I'll just go solo and wing it." I say with a shrug.

I take off my jacket and put my armor on. I strap my belt around my waist.

"You know, this… battle skirt or whatever it's called really did something. The general public thinks I'm batarian." I say to Vaas as I prepare my gear.

"It's called a Da'Sha. I told you it'd work." Vaas says, sitting on a crate.

"Where'd you get it?" I ask.

Vaas shrugs. "Don't worry about it."

I shrug back. "Alright. I'm off."

As I going through the door, I turn right back around and remove my armor again.

"What are you doing?" Vaas asks.

"I forgot I had a date." I say, checking my omni-tool. Still enough time. I'm going to go home, take a shower and change.

"A date?" Senna asks, suddenly reappearing.

I nod. "Yeah."

"With a girl?" She asks, crossing her arms.

"No with a Keeper." I say. "Yes, with a human girl. What's the problem?"

"She's jealous." Vaas says, clearing his throat.

She turns to him very quickly. "I am not jealous! I am simply angry with him, putting aside dire priorities to go out with random bimbos! I mean, look at all the shit that happened today! And you're still going to go out?"

I shrug and just stare at her for a second with wide eyes.

"Or she could be jealous." Vaas says, looking at me and shrugging.

I nod at him.

"Fuck you guys." Senna says, throwing her arms up. "And fuck you too."

Vaas frowns at her, having pointed him out. "You already insulted in the first sentence, vermin. Or are there too few neurons creating synapses in your shit-all brain that you can't remember what your said two seconds in the past."

"Fuck you! You cum-guzzling pyjak-sodomizing labia-faced piece of fucking pointless shit!" Senna shouts at him, storming away. "Fuck. You!"

Vaas watches her walk away.

"Did you have to push her?" I ask him.

He shrugs. "Not really. But I did. She called me labia-faced. That's clever, I'll admit that."

"Well. I'm going to go before Senna starts stabbing things or people. Please attempt to get along. Also, uh, don't kill each other?" I ask, frowning at Vaas.

Vaas shrugs again. "I'll give it a shot but I'm not promising anything."

"Are you talking about getting along with Senna, or not killing each other?" I ask frowning at him and anticipating the response.

He shrugs once more. "Whichever answer that'll make you happy."

"The last thing you should worry about is my happiness." I comment, exiting the warehouse as I do.

I take a chute to the Upper Aroch Ward and head to my apartment with a haste. Not a whole lot of time. I have to go meet her in like an hour. I'm nervous. It's rare for me to feel like this. But yeah.

I'm nervous.

I get to my apartment and head upstairs to the bathroom. I take a fast shower and go back into my bedroom. And I can hardly call it a bedroom since it's open air, but that's what it is I guess. I approach my wardrobes and they rise from the ground, ready for me to select my clothes for the evening. I choose to wear a pair of dark brown boots, a pair of slim fit dark blue jeans, a nice belt, a white collared shirt, a black tie and I decide to stay inside the casual zone by wearing a heavy knit cashmere and wool sweater with a shawl neck. I put my clothes on and go back to the bathroom to make sure my hair looks ok. I have a bit of stubble, but that's ok…

Nah better shave. I quickly shave, but manage to cut my face, near my jawline, in my haste. I wince and watch a bead of blood fall off my face as the cut closes.

I return to my bedroom and look at myself in the mirror. I take a deep breath. I start mentally encouraging myself. Then I run back into the bathroom to apply cologne before returning to the mirror and continuing my mental preparedness.

Alright, man. You can do this. This is basically your first date. FUCK! I didn't even think about what I should do! Ok. Well. I'll take her to dinner. We'll go get sushi. Hopefully she likes sushi. Then maybe we can just take a walk and talk for a while. That sounds fine. That'll work.

Should I buy her flowers? Yeah, I will. That's a nice touch. Nothing serious though. Just a half dozen somethings. I don't know flower breeds. I know roses were the go to romantic flowers in the pre-war world but I'm not sure of any others. In my era most were dead. Oh well. We'll see when we get there, I guess.

I check to make sure I have all of my things before leaving my apartment. I take a few deep breaths as I look up the location of the nearest florist and make my way there. I enter and I am treated to a wide variety of visual stimuli.

An asari smiles at me from the counter. "Hello! Welcome! Can I help you find anything?"

"Maybe." I say. "I'm going on a date tonight, and I'd like to give her some flowers. But this is our first date, so I don't want to give her anything too serious. Just something that'll make her smile I guess."

The asari beams at me. "I'll put a little bouquet together. How many would you like?"

"Just a half dozen I guess." I say.

She smiles again and runs around, picking flowers out for me. She wraps them up in a paper sleeveand then wraps that in a plastic sheet. She decorates the bouquet with a bunch of like long blades of grass and displays the bouquet to me.

"Is this to your satisfaction?" She asks, showing me the arrangement of purple and blue flowers with delicate petals folded together in a large fluffy manner.

I nod and smile. "That looks beautiful."

The asari smiles again. "Ok! It's going to be 17 credits."

I hand her my credit chit and take the bouquet. I inhale it and blink. Flowers smell weird. I've never smelled flowers before. I take my credit chit back.

"Thanks." I say before turning around to leave. "I'll come back here if I need flowers."

I take a few more deep breaths before checking the time on my omni-tool. Crap! I'm going to be late! I start running, keeping the flowers close so they don't get smashed or anything as I run towards the community center where Kim works.

I arrive a few minutes later, and I check the time again to see that I'm a few minutes late. I look through the glass doors and see my date standing in the middle of the room, a different shirt on and a purse hanging off a shoulder. She's standing with her feet close together, hands crossed and clasped together in front of herself. She's glancing around the room, waiting.

I take another deep breath and check the bouquet before putting it behind my back. I walk into the community center and walk towards her. She spots me as she's bouncing up and down on her toes. She sees me, and she smiles, brushing some hair out of her face and looking bashful. She looks at her feet before walking towards me to meet me halfway, keeping her eyes on the floor before looking up at me as we get closer.

I smile back, looking at the floor then back at her as I reach her.

"Hey." I say, giving her a hug with my one free arm, my arm wrapping around her waist.

"Hi." She says as returns the hug, but I keep the hug brief.

I step back and present her the flowers. "These are for you."

She gasps lightly and takes them. She looks at them for a moment before taking a deep breath of their strange aroma.

"Oh my gosh." She says taking another breath and then looking up at me, blushing slightly. "I've never been given flowers before!"

I smile and look at the ground before looking back at her. "Ok. Do you like them?"

"I love them!" She says laughing a bit. "Thank you so much."

"You're welcome." I say laughing too. "I'm glad you like them. So do you like sushi?"

"I love sushi!" She says with a smile. "Are we getting sushi?"

I nod. "Yup. But… I'm pretty new to the Citadel, do you know any real good places nearby?"

She thinks for a moment. "There's a place on the Summit, but it's really expensive."

I shrug. "That's ok. I live on the Summit actually. I think I know the place you're talking about. Let's go there."

"Ok…" She says shrugging too. "Yeah, let's go."

I nod and turn around putting my arm out for her to take. She does so and pulls herself close to me. We start walking together towards the Summit Strip.

"So how long have you lived here?" I ask as we walk.

"All my life." Kim responds. "Well… I mean. I was born on Earth and I lived there for like 5 years, but my father was one of the first to come here to the Citadel. He took me here and we built a life here. I'm going to school here right now. My dad offered me a job working at the company he works at, but I prefer to work at the center. It's a nice experience."

I smile. "I can understand that."

"What about you?" She asks. "What's your story? How old are you by the way?"

I think about the answer for quite a while. "23."

"Oh. You look a lot more mature than that. You look like you could be in your late 20's." She responds.

"I can understand that." I say. "I definitely don't look my age. What about you, how old are you?"

"21." She says. "But you didn't answer my question."

"Which one?" I ask.

"What's your story?" She asks, once more.

I think about my response again. "Well. I was born on Earth. Only child, and my mother died when I was a few years old. My dad raised me but he died a long time ago as well. I did well in school, enough to graduate early, and went to a good school in England studying law. I then started work for a company that handles the administration of justice globally on Earth. They set up an office here on the Citadel and I got sent to run the branch. I like my job. I travel a lot. I've been to many of the major Earth cities."

"Like where?" Kim asks.

"Singapore, Seoul, London, Versailles, Paris, Montreal, Vancouver, New York, Sydney, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Rome… There are a lot more. Most recently, I was in San Diego, California." I say.

"That's amazing. You've been to a lot of places for someone so young." She says. "What's your favorite place?"

"Huh… nobody's ever asked me that before." I say. "I don't know. I spent more than a little bit of time in San Diego… The weather is just glorious. But I can't beat home."

"Where's home?" She asks.

"I was born in a little place outside Montreal, and I grew up outside the city. I lived near the woods, in a quiet place." I say, being fairly honest. "I liked the summers, the nature outside the city. It was a very beautiful place. It was green, foggy. Gorgeous in its own mysterious way."

"Sounds nice." She says, sort of playing down my appreciation of my home. "Can you speak French?"

"Un peu." I say. "A bit."

She smiles. "That's cool."

I shrug. "It's alright. How about you? Is there anything cool I don't know about you yet?"

"Um. Well… Let me think." She says, thinking. "Um… nope. I'm pretty ordinary."

"I'm sure that's not true. You know I think everything is pretty cool. Like knitting. That's pretty cool. Do you knit?" I ask.

"No but I can sew." She says.

"Cool." I say smiling.

We arrive at the restaurant. I walk inside with her still on my arm. The hostess smiles at us and shows us to a table. The restaurant is lit primarily by candles on the tables. How high class!

I sit across from my beautiful date and place my napkin in my lap. The waiter comes very soon afterwards and we order our food right away. I also order two glasses of wine along with our water.

I look at her after the waiter leaves. She looks around nervously, looking around the restaurant, hiding part of her face with her hand and letting her big hair cover some of her face.

"Is something wrong?" I ask.

She looks at me and nods. "Kind of. I feel underdressed."

I look around, she is pretty underdressed for the establishment, and in comparison to me. I shouldn't have worn a tie.

Even so, I shrug. "Whatever, that doesn't mean you don't belong here as much as any of these other people. If anything, it just says that you came on a whim rather than after a plan. It just says you're spontaneous. That's a good thing."

"I guess." She says looking around again.

I sigh. "It doesn't matter anyways."

She looks at me. "Why?"

"Because you're not trying to impress anybody here." I say. "In all honesty, the only person whose opinion you should care about is mine, because I'm the person you're on a date with. And I don't think it matters if you impress me because I think you could wear rags and still put all these other women in here to shame. You're beautiful."

She blushes. "Oh gosh. You're really charming."

I smile. "Am I?"

"Yeah, and it just makes you more handsome than you already are." She says, not looking at me and hiding her face with her hand a bit. She's still looking around the restaurant, looking for gazes.

"Hey." I say, taking her hand away from her face. "Just look at me. Talk to me."

She looks at me, looks away and looks back. "Okay."

"Tell me about your day." I say.

"I didn't really do anything today." She says.

"That's definitely not true. Because sitting around and staring at the wall is still something." I say. "Please don't leave anything out. I do want to hear all of it."

"Fuck, why are you so goddamn cute?" She asks rhetorically. "Um. Ok. I woke up this morning and got some coffee before work. Then I worked all day, and met you about halfway through. Then I struggled through the rest of the day, being anxious for this date. And now this is happening and I don't know what to do."

"Don't worry about what to do." I laugh and let go of her hand. "But that sounds like a nice day."

"So far." She says smiling nervously. "I'm sorry if I'm acting anxious."

"That's ok." I say. "I get nervous about things too."

"It's not my fault." She says. "I have an anxiety disorder."

I raise an eyebrow. "Really? So you get anxious all of the time?"

She just nods.

"That must be difficult." I say. "I did some research and I think I suffer from a depersonalization disorder."

"Really?" She asks. "That can get pretty serious."

I nod. "Yeah. I have out of body experiences frequently. Also, sometimes I'll do things, just react in the moment and I won't feel like it's me doing those things. It's like I'm watching myself do it, or I won't realize that I'm doing it. Or as if my actions weren't mine. It's odd, to say the least but it's not serious I don't think. I can still look in the mirror and know that it's me staring back. Sometimes I don't recognize myself though. Sometimes I'll look at myself in the mirror and just frown. Like, is that me? I look in mirrors a lot."

"Are you narcissistic or something?" Kim asks, watching me as I look at myself in my spoon's reflection.

"No." I say frowning and feeling like my brain is getting warm. "More like… Checking to make sure that I'm still here, that I'm still me, and that I'm not somebody I can't recognize."

It's quiet for a moment before I put my spoon down and sigh.

"Are you ok?" She asks.

I nod. "Yeah, just thoughtful. I'm thinking about how, everyone on some level, is crazy in their own way. Some, definitely more than others."

"Well…" She starts. "Have you been keeping up with the news?"

I nod. "A bit."

"Have you seen the new thing about the Citadel Vigilante?" Kim asks. "He's all anybody talks about but it's kind of neat to get everyone's opinion on him. Everyone seems to have a different opinion about him, either they're for him or against him."

"I don't really have an opinion." I say. "I mean I can get that he's trying to make a difference in the crime, but it's bad for my business so I'm sort of opinion less."

"I personally think he's doing the right thing in the wrong way." Kim says. "I mean he's doing a great job, stopping criminals. But why go so far? Why can't he just like, beat them up? Like Batman? Just rough them up and scare them into not doing crime?"

"It won't stop them though." I say with a shrug. "If he just roughs them up, they'll just heal and do bad things all over again. And then he'll never be done with whatever it is he's trying to do."

"What do you think he's trying to accomplish?" She asks.

I shrug again. "Peace? I don't know."

"You can't achieve peace with death." She says.

I shrug again. "Sure you can. If you eliminate all of the elements that could possibly cause death, then by process of elimination you have achieved peace. If you throw two angry dogs into a pen, once they hurt each other badly enough, they'll both back away and leave the other be, for the time being at least. If one dies, then there is nothing left to kill so peace is there."

"So you're saying peace is temporary?" She asks.

"I would say fleeting. But so is everything." I say. "But like a sunrise, it can be glorious, all the same, and it'll always be there again, no matter how fleeting it is."

She just hums a small sound to that comment and seems to think for a while. The food arrives after a short silence. I eat one of the pieces of my sushi roll, and it's out of this world delicious. I offer Kim one of my pieces and we exchange to try each other's sushi. I eat the piece she gave me. Mine is better. I fumble with my chopsticks. I'm still pretty new to these things and sushi is definitely difficult to pick up with chopsticks. My tongue protrudes slightly from the corner of my mouth as I focus on getting the delectable morsels into my mouth but gosh darn if it isn't challenging to do so.

"Having some trouble there?" She asks, watching me struggle with my food.

I notice she's already finished and I'm barely halfway done. Embarrassed, I take a sip of wine and try to laugh it off.

"Just a bit." I respond, chuckling a little. A little awkwardly, I should say.

She laughs, despite my awkward discomfort. "Do you need some help?"

"No, no." I say. "I can handle it. In fact I think I'll just take this to go. Would you like some dessert?"

She shakes her head. "I'm ok."

"You sure?" I ask.

She nods. "Yeah, I'm fine."

I nod and wave the waiter over. "I'd like a box to take this home, and the check please."

"Here you are, sir." The waiter says, handing over the check. "And I'll be right back with your container."

I look at the check. Wow, this was some expensive crap.

"How much is it?" Kim asks.

She must have noticed me change expressions upon examining the bill. I look at her and see her with her purse in hand, digging through it. She produces a credit chit.

"No please." I say, waving her off. "I'll take care of it."

"No way." Kim says. "Let me at least split the check. I can pay for it I think."

To emphasize her point, she puts her credit chit on the table and slides it towards me.

"I'd like to take care of the bill." I say, waving her off.

"I do not like to accept gifts." Kim says shaking her head. "Or things in general that I don't deserve. Please, let me split the check."

"Kim, all beautiful girls deserve a nice dinner once in a while." I sigh out of my nose. "Please, allow me just this one dating norm: Let me, the guy, handle the check on the first date. And if it makes you feel any better, we can call it an IOU, not gratuity or obligation. So if you must insist, you can pay next time, maybe."

She looks at me reluctantly and only takes her credit chit back once I've given the waiter mine along with the check. He places a box on the table and strides off for a moment.

Kim sighs and looks at me. "I enjoyed this evening, Jack."

"I did as well." I say. "Thanks for being here with me."

"Same. I mean, you too. Is that the right thing to say? Yeah." She says, talking to herself through half the sentence.

"But it's not over yet is it?" I ask.

"It's not?" She asks.

"No, I mean, unless you want it to be." I say. "I was thinking we could just walk for a while, and talk, you know?"

"I don't know…" She says. "I mean I really would love to walk with you, but the streets can be pretty dangerous."

"Well… We can go to my apartment. It's just up the street and it's really safe. And it's got a gorgeous view of the Ward." I say, knowing how absurd it must sound for me to ask her to my apartment on the first date. "I won't try anything, trust me."

"Ok." She says, sounding a bit nervous but still eager to spend the evening with me.

Appropriately, of course.

The waiter returns with my credit chit and hands it back to me. He thanks me for the evening and I lead my date out of the restaurant. Even though it's getting a bit late, the Summit Strip is still bustling with activity.

"So where do you live?" Kim asks.

I point to my building. "There."

She hits me on the stomach. "Don't joke. Where?"

I frown at her and point again. "Right there."

She gives me a look but laughs. "Ok. Sure. Let's go."

I shake my head and just keep walking. We walk into my building and to the elevator. There is a retinal scan that opens it.

I lean towards it and she stops me.

"Come on." Kim says. "Enough fooling around. Very funny, ha, ha. But you can't expect me to believe that you live here."

I frown at her and just let the retinal scan do its job.

"Greetings, Mr. Carmine." A virtual intelligence says. "How was your evening, sir?"

"So far so good." I say looking at Kim who stares at me wide eyed.

I step into the elevator but she doesn't follow. "Aren't you coming?"

She nods and hops into the elevator just as the doors close and the elevator automatically takes me up to my apartment. It doesn't take long for the elevator to arrive at my floor, seeing as how it is on the fourth floor. The doors open and I walk towards my apartment.

"Welcome home, Mr. Carmine." The VI says as my apartment doors open.

"Thank you." I respond, turning back to Kim who slowly walks into my apartment as I gesture inside.

"Holy shit." She says, looking around the spacious main room. "You're rich as fuck."

"I know good people." I say, removing my sweater and placing it on a chair.

"Like, is this really happening right now?" Kim asks, rhetorically, turning to me.

I frown as I walk over to my bar, rolling up my sleeves, loosening my tie and undoing the top button of my shirt. "What do you mean? Would you like a scotch?"

She nods. "I mean, like is this really happening? Am I really on a date with a gorgeous, young, rich guy who isn't mean?"

I shrug. "I guess. That's not really for me to decide."

I pour two fingers of scotch for the both of us and put in some ice and I return to her as I lead her out onto my patio, towards some of the chairs.

I gesture to a seat and sit next to her and light the fire pit with my omni-tool. I take a sip of my scotch and put it down.

She holds her drink tight and close to her chest, like a cross. "This whole night I was trying to find something wrong with you. Like… There has to be something wrong with you. You're too handsome, so I was like maybe he's got a flabby stomach. So I did an ab check and normally I could care less about abs but holy shit dude. It felt like I was hitting the back of my hand on a pile of rocks. Like. Literally. And nobody has abs like that nowadays just movie stars. And when we were walking and I was holding your arm, my arms barely fit around them. Like what the fuck. So I was like, he's got to be a retard, like he has to be so stupid. A meathead, dumbass. Nope. Apparently you graduated high school early. So he's got to be a douche pants. But no, you're super nice. Then you take me here, and it turns out you're rich too."

"And this is a problem?" I ask with a frown. "I mean I'm completely flattered, and I don't really think I'm as great as you make me out to be. I'm alright. I mean…"

"And you're modest too." She sighs and puts her drink down. "It is a problem. Because what am I? I don't deserve somebody as great as you! I've been on maybe 3 dates total. Including this one. And the first two barely counted and they never became anything and the guys never even called them dates. Like what the fuck! I mean, fuck! I don't deserve this! I'm not-"

"Hey." I say, interrupting her. "Shut up."

She stops and looks at me with sadness in her eyes.

I sigh and frown, sad that she's sad. "Look at me. You need to stop. There's no such thing as karma, there's no such thing as divine influence. The universe does not decide a damn thing for you. It's not up to the universe or anybody but you when it comes to what you deserve, ok? You deserve kindness, and happiness and whether or not you seize it when it comes to you is up to you. And don't you ever say you don't deserve somebody, because everyone does but it's never up to you whether you deserve a person or not. It's never up to you and it's never up to me. When it comes to people, for once it's not up to you or anybody. I came to you because I deserve companionship, somebody I can spoil and care for and because I deserve something beautiful to look at in this bleak miserable world. It's not up to you whether you deserve me or not. It's not up to me either. It isn't up to anybody. If you're the person to give me what I deserve then, so be it, and I hope that is true. You deserve kindness, happiness, love, and affection. And if I'm the person to give you what you deserve, then so be it. I hope that is the case."

She looks at me for a long time and she takes a huge breath. "This has to be a game. You're too charming. You're trying to make a move."

"I give you a heartfelt speech and you play it off like I'm trying to make a move on you like some typical bar pick up artist." I shake my head. "I have to say, that makes me a little upset. I'm not making a move. I'm a gentleman."

"But I swear to God, that's something that would come out of a crappy romance movie but you said it and I fucking swooned. I swooned. Like I've never swooned in my life." She says, looking at me.

"So?" I say with a shrug, shaking my head. "Listen, if you don't believe that I'm just genuinely interested in being in a relationship with you, that I'm just trying to get into your pants then I don't know why you're still here. I wouldn't have come up to you today if I didn't think you were beautiful and nice and that I don't want to be with you, ok? I'm not a pig. I just want to talk with you and spend time with you and figure out if you're the right person for me or not."

"I'm confused." She says.

"Me too." I say looking at her.

We stare at each other for quite a while, palpable tension between us.

"Are we supposed to kiss now?" She asks.

"I don't know." I say. "You've been on more dates than I have."

"Shut the fuck up." She says sighing, the tension completely evaporated. "You're kidding me!"

"No." I say with a shrug. "I mean I've been with people but I didn't really ever date them like this. I didn't take them out to dinner and buy them flowers and… are confusing conversations part of typical dates?"

"Dude, a date could be as simple as watching a movie at home together." She says.

I nod. "I know. A date could be a lot of stuff, but I never really went on dates, I just sort of met people and got together with them."

"So you're a slut?" She asks, sounding confused and looking at me.

"Not like that!" I exclaim looking at her. "Way to ruin the moment."

I sigh and get to my feet but she grabs my hand and we meet eyes again and I sit back down, closer this time.

"Uh oh." She says, looking at me in the eyes. "Here's that tension again."

"Yeah." I say getting lost in her eyes once more.

The tension builds like before and we both find we're leaning in really, really, really slowly.

"Your hand is on my thigh." She says as we continue to bring our faces closer, millimeter by millimeter.

"My hand was in my lap." I say, the tension still climbing. "But your thighs found their way to my lap."

"How did that happen?" She asks, our lips just a few inches away.

"I dunno." I mumble. "You're shaking, are you ok?"

"Yeah, just freaking out." She says her lips about three inches from mine.

"Why?" I ask, my eyes drifting shut.

"This is going to be my first kiss…" She says, breathlessly, her lips just touching mine.

Despite the electricity that fires through my face, I recoil and grab her shoulders, moving to arms distance. "Wait what?"

"What the fuck you tease!" Kim exclaims in protest. "I was ready to sploosh my pants by how fucking tense it was there! Dude! We like just started kissing."

"Our lips just touched." I say letting go of her shoulders. "Doesn't count."

"It so does!" She protests.

"Does not!" I say. "You've never been kissed?! How old are you?!"

"20." She says with a shrug.

"Oh thank God." I say. "I was afraid you were going to say like 16 or something. Wait, you said 21 earlier!"

"I lied and I'm not totally sure why I did!" She says, a bit angrily. "I don't look 16!"

I nod. "Yeah, you don't, you look 20! That's why I asked you out! But I assumed that you've done all… this stuff already."

"What stuff?" She asks.

"Dating, kissing, all that stuff!" I say. "I mean I've been around the block more than a couple times and I'm not all that experienced when it comes to all that but I've done it!"

"Am I supposed to be impressed or something?" She asks, crossing her arms on her chest.

I shake my head. "You're really confusing."

"Me?!" She exclaims, making me jump in surprise. "A normal boy would love to kiss a girl! Who cares if it's my first kiss?!"

I pat my chest. "Me! I'm nervous, I'm scared, and I'm exposed here! What if I suck? I don't want to disappoint you! And I'm definitely not a 'boy'!"

"Dude." She says with a small laugh. "You could have put your tongue up my nose and I still would have juiced in your lap from all the tension."

"That was pretty fucking intense." I say thinking back. "Are you pissed at me?"

"Yes!" She exclaims. "That was such a fucking tease! I'm just ticked off! It's like you were standing on the galaxy's tallest mountain and I built the galaxy's tallest most awesome tower in my mind to get to you at the top and when I get up there and I'm an inch away from you, you jump off the mountain and parachute down! And here I am like, goddammit, I was so excited to see you, I forgot to build stairs. So yeah, I'm pretty pissed off at you."

"Well shit…" I say, hurt but then I notice something and grin at her. "But I mean I must still be doing something right."

"Huh?" She frowns at me.

"You're still sitting in my lap." I say, rubbing her lower back, where my hand has been this whole time, gripping her thigh slightly with my other hand.

"Goddammit." She says, not even attempting to get off me. "And I was about to win this and save face."

"Looks like we're both crappy at this." I say. "I'll call you a cab."

I use my omni-tool to call a cab to my patio and I stand, picking her up as I do, but putting her down immediately.

The cab arrives just seconds later and without her noticing I pre-pay the trip.

I open the door for her and she enters.

Kim looks at me. "This was a weird first date."

"And it was going so well." I say sarcastically. "But I had a good time."

She's quiet for a while before sighing loudly. "Yeah. Me too."

"We should do this again, sometime soon." I say with a smile.

She's quiet for a while again before again sighing loudly. "Yes, I suppose we should."

"What was that?" I ask. "Do you not want to?"

"Yeah. But only because I somehow know this'll end up hurting me." She says then looks at me. "But I'd be stupid if I didn't keep going with this. I'd be stupid for ignoring this stuff going through my head."

"What kind of stuff?" I ask with a frown.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Kim says with a small laugh, shutting the door and sending the cab away.

I watch the cab fly away.

Fuck.