Chapter 5

Citadel Blues

000

Location: O.S.I Headquarters, Citadel Iridium vaults. (Office of Spectre Intelligence)

Date: September 26th, 2183

Time: 1200 CST

Waiting for the Deputy Director of Clandestine Operations to call him into his office, Saren pleasantly chatted with a few of the Asari secretaries. As they controlled the scheduling book and knew intimate details about his superiors private lives, Saren made a point to be on good terms with as many of the girls as possible. Leverage was something that always came in handy.

"Saren, come in." said Kuril, holding his door open. Saren could tell from his sub-harmonics that he wasn't too enthused by the meeting. The feeling was mutual. Leaning over Cassandra's desk, he whispered, "Wish me luck." to the Asari, and she whispered back, "Don't be an ass." The two shared a small smile.

Everyone in the office knew that neither Turian held the other in high regard. Saren saw Kuril as a micromanaging paper pusher who couldn't see the forest for the trees, and Kuril saw Saren as an annoying son of a bitch that spawned mountains of paperwork every time he drew his gun.

Shutting the door, Kuril offered him a seat, but Saren declined. Pulling a fresh cigarette, the deputy directed reclined in his chair and exhaled a puff of smoke. "I know it was difficult to come in here hat in hand, that's not the kind of... Upbringing, I guess is the word I'm looking for. It's not the kind of man you are... I understand that... I'm not looking to humiliate you, or exact a price in any way. So why don't you just apologize, we'll call it water under the dam, and we'll go back about our business."

Saren stopped pacing, "Excuse me, but what the fuck?"

Kuril blinked, surprised at the statement, "What?"

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Jondum Bau said you were coming in here to apologize."

"I'm supposed to come in here so you can apologize to me."

"According to whom?"

"Jondum Bau."

"You told me to go fuck myself! I'm supposed to apologize to you?"

"Also, water goes over a dam and under a bridge, you poncy schoolboy."

Brushing the ash off his desk, Kuril's mandibles jostled, "Clearly there seems to have been a miscommunication between Jondum Bau and somebody." there was a knock at the door and a Drell in a janitors uniformed entered, "Excuse me, does this look alright to you?"

"Yes, its fine."

"Cause I can sand it down if you-"

"I don't, I have no fucking idea who this is." blustered Saren

"He is here to fix the glass window you broke the last time you were here." Kuril guided the Drell out of his office, "Excuse us for a second." turning around, he bore down on his fellow Turian, "You told me to go fuck myself, and I'm supposed to apologize? You broke my window and I'm supposed to apologize!"

"The Arcturus job was mine!"

"The Arcturus job was not yours! IF IT WAS YOURS YOU'D BE ON ARCTURUS!"

Saren raised his voice to match Kuril's, "AGUSTUS WOLF STOOD IN THIS OFFICE!"

"AGUSTUS WOLF IS NO LONGER PART OF THIS OFFICE!"

"IT WAS ON THE BOOKS!"

"AGUSTUS WOLF, is no longer director of Earth operations. He does not make appointments, I do!"

"Promises were made!" shouts Saren, jamming his talon'd finger onto Kuril's desk.

"Not by me!" Kuril shoots back and smothers his cigarette in his ash tray.

"I've been with the company for twenty four years! I was posted in the Skyllian Verge for fifteen! Papendreiue wins his senate election, if I don't have T'Loak take him prisoner! I've Advised and Armed the thirteen Exodus Armies! I've neutralized champions of Cerberus!... I've spent the past THREE years learning English! Which'll come in handy on PALAVEN!" Saren sarcastically yelled, "And I'm immune to Levo food... So I want to know why I'm not going to be your Arcturus stations chief!?"

"You're coarse." Kuril shot back rather calmly.

"Excuse me!"

"For Arcturus; I need someone with diplomatic skills... You don't have them."

"Is that right."

"That is right. And I don't know why the hell I didn't fire you when you BROKE MY FUCKING WINDOW!"

"Oh yes, sure you do, Kuril." Saren placed his hands on his hips.

"Look, Saren-"

"Yeah, you're fucking Mathis's bond-mate, and you know I know."

There was a pause before Kuril said rather flustered, "I'm not, I'm not, I'm not even going to dignify that with a response."

"Yeah, yeah, you're dignifying her in the ass at the Silversun hotel; room twelve-ten, but let me ask you," stepping forward, Saren adjusted his belt, "the two-thousand agents Sevetion fired, was that because they lacked diplomatic skills as well!?"

"You're referring to Councilor Sevetion Sparatus."

"Yeah, the two-thousand agents, to each and every spirits damned one of them a first or second generation Hierarchy citizen. Was that because they lacked the proper diplomatic skills?.. Or did Sparatus not think it was a good idea to have spies, who were the same species, and could speak the same languadge, of the people they're fucking spying on!"

Kuril laughed derisively, "I'm sorry, but you can hardly blame the Councilor for questioning the loyalty to the Hierarchy, of humans; who were just barely citizens in the first place!"

"Yeah, well, I'd like to take a moment to review the several ways in which you're a douchebag."

"GET the FUCK out of my office! Before I end your career, asshole!"

"Yes sir!" Saren gave a mocking salute and going to the Drell's toolbox, picked up a pipe-wrench, "Hey, my friend, I'm gonna need you in a second." slamming the wrench against the newly installed window, a few people around the office shrieked. On Saren's third strike, the window shattered spectacularly.

"SPIRITS DAMMIT!" yelled Kuril.

"MY LOYALTY!" shouted Saren, stepping over broken glass to chug the spanner onto Kuril's desk. "FOR TWENTY-FOUR YEARS, people have been trying to kill me; people who know how!... Now, do you think that's because my mother owns a chain of moderately successful bathhouses on Palaven!? Or do you think that's because I'm a Council Spectre!... Go fuck yourself! You fucking child!"

Storming past the onlookers, Saren stopped at Cassandra's desk and whispered, "How was I?" she gave him a big thumbs up. "Yeah," he sighed, "I'm gonna go pack my bag."

"Probably should." she replied, and the two shared a grin.

000

Location: Citadel, Liara's Apartment

Date: September 26th, 2183

Time: 1430 CST

Covering a yawn with her hand as she entered the apartment, Laira worked at the kink in her neck while she waited for the decontamination unit to finish its business. The knot had formed sometime before lunch and had been gnawing on her nerves the entire day. This type of stress injury was rather commonplace for the maiden; she had received her fair share in medical school, mostly after pulling an all-night study session in the library, and, over the decades, Liara had learned how to suffer through them: Sometimes through force of will, Sometimes with a hot bath, or Sometimes with a few glasses of wine.

However, in recent months, Liara's favorite antidote came in the form of the foot and back massages that Johnathan gave. He was a very skilled masseuse in that regard; his fingertips had a wondrous ability to find every tension point in her body and relieve it. He even had a way of not tickling her feet when he rubbed them. And when he used his biotics, By the Goddess! Her body became a boneless puddle of mewling relaxation.

Sighing contented at the thought, Liara closed her eyes as the sterilizer's blue lattice screen of ultraviolet light passed over her body. The oscillating sonic scrubbers made her skin tingle in a pleasant sort of way, cleansing her of any foreign microbial biomass she may have inadvertently picked up on her way home. When the system was finished, the orange box of kinetic barriers that enclosed her melted away like thawing ice water, shimmering for a brief, fleeting moment, before vanishing back into the eight foot tall pylons from which they came; as the barrier fell, there was a minuscule, whooshing hiss of air as the pressure differential between the air in the clean-room, and the air in the apartment, normalized. The pylons themselves, rapidly telescoped backwards towards the door on guide rails mounted into the floor and ceiling.

As peculiarity went, it wasn't the most unusual thing to have a portable decon unit in ones domicile. Aside from sterilization, it also served as a makeshift airlock, allowing for the several races who's bodies had special, atmospheric needs, to artificially create an environment where they could live outside their exosuits for extended periods of time. It wasn't unusual, but it was far from commonplace.

"Hey, Liara. How was work?" she heard Tali lackadaisically ask from the couch. "Exhausting," she replied with another sigh, "But no one died, so all in all it was a good day." Tali chuckled, "That's good. Death is bad. I hear people do everything they can to avoid it all their life." Liara's lips curled up in a grin at Tali's sarcasm. From the kitchen, she smelled the delicious aroma of simmering meat, "I have good news though!"

"Oh?" Tali put the vidscreen on pause and swiveled in place to give Liara her full attention.

"I bribed Katie to switch shifts with me, and I managed snagged myself a three day weekend." The Asari did a happy little shimmy, "So break out the wine, cause we're gonna party!" Tali halfheartedly threw up her hands, "Woo-hoo!" Liara was taken aback. "It may be the ten hour shift talking, but I don't detect much Woo in your Hoo, Tali... This is cause for celebration; What gives?"

"Sorry," Tali sighed with a despondent huff, "It's just that Shepard's been in a bit of a mood all day and it's rather infectious." she lowered her voice, "He received some bad news from home."

"What news?" Liara asked, concern lacing her tone.

"It's best if you hear it from him. Or just ask one the neighbors. Ancestors knows he was yelling loud enough." The facial lines above Liara's eyes arched upwards in stunned surprise, "John. Our, John. Yelled?"

"Yuuuuup." Tali clenched her fist dramatically, "It was like he erupted with seething fiery rage... See that?" She glanced at the crumpled ball of metal Tali pointed at. "That was a nicely refurbished DP-4 Tokmakov-particle regulator. Pricey one too. Bio boy went a bit psychotic and crushed it with his mind."

"By the Goddess!" Liara stammered, at a loss for words. She had never seen Shepard express his emotions violently before, he normally navigated conflict through persuasive debate, not with brute force like a Krogan. Joining her roommate on the couch, Liara folded her hands in her lap and softly asked, "What happened?" praying things sounded worse in her head than what they actually were.

"No one died, if that's what you're worried about." Came Tali's timid reply, she rather disliked playing the messenger. It was a role she played previously for others, info-brokers mostly, and if experience had taught her anything, it was that the messenger almost always got shot. So, shifting uncomfortably in her seat, she continued. "You know how John's been working to schedule QEC time with Mindoir?"

Liara nodded, her mouth suddenly feeling dry.

"Well, today, he managed to snag about ten minutes of open bandwidth." Tali spoke in a hushed tone that forced Liara to lean in close, "And found out that his eldest sister, Elizabeth; I think that's her name? Tall. Redhead. Greenish blue eyes." Liara nodded. "Well... She, and this other girl, Ashley-"

"John's ex-girlfriend?"

"I believe so." Tali tilted her head uncertain, barely recognizing the name and recalling only sparse, fragmented, snippets of information that Shepard had told them about his failed attempt at coupling. Unlike the typical males Tali encountered, her slave wasn't the most braggadocios when it came to his sexual conquests, which lead the Quarian to believe that he didn't have much, if any, to speak of.

"They went off and did something he thinks is absolutely idiotic."

"What did they do?" Laira asked, in the same low whisper as before. Tali looked over her shoulder one last time, making sure the coast was clear before continuing, "They enlisted." Liara was taken aback, confusion evident on her face, "In the Alliance Auxiliary?"

"No, not the Auxiliaries... The Legionary."

"Legionary?" Liara's jaw dropped in disbelief, "They enlisted in the Turian military!" Tali nodded. "As what? Cacula?" Tali shook her head, "No, not Cacula... Centurions." The Asari sank back into her seat, dazed and speechless. "I even overheard them say that because of their parents military accomplishments, two spots will be reserved for them at Hastatus Decurion."

"The elite Officer school on Palaven?" Liara swallowed, "But I thought the Hierarchy kept their armed forces segregated? What changed?"

"Who knows?" Tali shrugged, "They aren't rushing towards full integration just yet. His sister is part of something called: Reforged Sword... After he stormed off, I did some digging and discovered that Reforged Sword is an experimental military personnel exchange program. 150 Human cadets are integrated into the Legionary, and 150 Turian cadets are integrated into the Alliance Auxiliaries."

Liara massaged her brow and shook her head, "This sounds like a bloodbath waiting to happen."

"I think the authors of the program hope it'll be a step towards healing the wounds of the last war."

"I see..." Turning her eyes towards the back, "Where is he?"

"In the garage." Tali replied and shifted in her seat again, her suit made a squeaking noise as she did, "Been out there most of the day, comes in every so often to check on dinner, but then heads back out... Pretty melancholy about the hole thing now. You should probably go talk to him."

"Haven't you?"

"I tried, but I can't stay focused for very long." Tali's voice trailed off at the end, hinted at something. The line above Liara's left eye arched sharply upward, "What does that mean?"

"I have a type okay." The Quarian replied after a pregnant pause. An exasperated sigh escaped her lips, making her mouth port light flicker rapidly as she tried not to squirm under the Asari's gaze, "He's been working on the car all day... And his muscles are all greasy aaaaand glistening." her docile, dual-toned voice turned heady as a predatory purr rasped the back of her throat, "Keelah, Liara! He just looks So. Fucking. Sexy!"

Narrowing her eyes into accusatory slits, Liara smacked Tali's suit covered arm repeatedly with her hands, swatting her cowering and squealing perverse roommate in the hopes that it would beat some modesty into her. Her slaps weren't hard, more playful really, but they weren't light feather falls either.

"Ouch!-Ouch!-Ouch!-Okay!-Okay!-I-Get-It-I-Get-It-Stop!-Stop!-Stop!"

Finishing her assault with a coup-de-grace slap to the back of Tali's bucket head, Liara all but shouted, "By the Goddess; What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"What?! I said I have a type, okay!" Tali emphatically stated and massaged her arm and shoulder, "Don't look at me like that. I can't help it if grease monkeys get my engine revving."

"Tali, that's offensive!... Human's aren't monkeys." There was an audible thunk from Tali's face-mask planting hard onto the back of the couch. "Why did you; Are you alright?"

"Keelah... It's... Never-mind." Liara shook her head, "Why do you have such a filthy mind? Someone outta clean your mouth out with soap."

"If someones going to wash out her mouth, I volunteer. You hold her down, and I'll get scrubbing." said Shepard as he entered the kitchen and poured himself two fingers of whiskey. Going to stove, he gave the pot a good stir to make sure nothing burned and sucked his teeth as fire raced down his throat. Perhaps hard liquor wasn't the best of choices. Looking past the chemistry set on the counter that Tali used to make her antibiotics, he idly commented, "Dinner should be ready soon. Well, ours is. I still have to start Ms. Potty-mouth von naughty child's."

"It's Vas, not Von." said Tali, "Von, means one who has a weak bladder."

"Learn something new everyday." he hummed and started on a smaller version of the stew with dextro vegetables and meat. "By the way, Tali, the cars ready for painting. I took the liberty and began rebuilding the drive core."

"ALREADY!" she gasped in utter surprise, "It shouldn't be ready for painting for another week!"

"I was motivated." John shrugged as he washed and sterilized his hands with a special soap. "How was your day, Liara?"

"Better than yours, from what I've heard."

"Yeah," he lamented as he chopped vegetables, "Lizzy's as stubborn as a mule. When her minds made up, there's nothing no one can say to change her. But I lover her for it... Should've seen it when ma' said she couldn't have a gun." John shook his head and lowly chuckled, "Tell a child she can't have a gun, and she goes off to join the military. Lesson in parenting right there folks."

Liara spoke up. "If your sister is half the soldier your mother and father are, I'm sure she'll be fine."

"I know she'l be fine, that's not what I'm worried about."

"Then what are you worried about?"

"There are things worse than death, Tali. Wounds that, no matter how much time has passed, will never properly heal." Taking another sip of whiskey as he walked over to the girls, Liara noticed the pensive expression on his face, "By the time Lizzy came around, my parents were on the mend. I was neigh five years old when she was born, but I remember: My fathers spells, the nightmares, him screaming out in the night... God, there was so much yelling." finishing his drink, Shepard peered at the bottom of the glass hoping it would magically refill.

"He sought treatment, and, as the years passed, things got better; He adjusted to civilian life, even started to laugh and crack jokes again; be the man my mother fell in love with. But every time he took two steps forward, he always fell one step back." Tali noticed John's eyes had a distant, somber look in them. "A thunderstorm would spark an episode, or the sound of rain on the tin roof... There were times when I would sit on our porch playing with wooden blocks, and he'd be in his rocking chair, and he'd just have this, this, this thousand yard stare."

Shaking his head, John pulled a rag from his pocket and wiped the grease from his brow. "Even now, though his episodes are seldom few and rare, I know that I will never truly know the man my father was before the war... To everyone else, my father is every bit the war hero the newsreels made him out to be. A General who valiantly commanded tens of thousands of men and women into battle. A man who did the impossible... I just don't want Lizzy to end up the same."

"Anyway, the only thing I can do is help her, and if the worst happens, pick up the pieces... Speaking of which. Liara, I hope you don't mind, but I registered for the Kepesh-Yakshi open tournament going on this weekend at the Silversun Casino."

Liara's mind was sent spinning at the abrupt topic change, "Why would I mind?"

John scratched the back of his neck and sheepishly replied, "Cause I used your credit chit to pay the entrance fee." he saw her face puzzle and he added quickly, "It was only a hundred credits, and the grand prize is ten thousand. The bio-amp I want to buy Lizzy costs a few grand, and the winnings will more than cover it.

"When did all this happen?" asked Tali, a deadpan curiosity in her voice.

John shrugged, "I was going to bring it up during dinner. Originally, my plan was for us to spend tomorrow on the town, taking advantage of all the free activities the strip provides, and perhaps catch a few of the matches at the Casino. But then the call came and, yeah, plans changed."

"Why would your sister need a new bio-amp?" Laira asked.

"Cause the Turian military doesn't provide them." the girls heard the scowl in his voice, "Something about rarity of biotic Turian's, and how its a specialty item, and how every family sends their kid to boot camp with some equipment." John cocked his head, "I guess it's like a right of passage or something... Personally, though, I think it's cause the Hierarchy is stingy and wants to pinch credits."

"Is the amp she currently has no good?" Tali asked.

"It's not that it's not good; the one she has is the same as mine," he smirked, "Mom pulled some strings and got a bulk batch of L3's for the family. But the amp I have is a civilian model, and Lizzy's gonna need something with a bit more kick."

Doing her best to process this new information as it came, Liara asked, "And what makes you so sure you can win?"

A confident smirk spread across his lips, "My mother was a Rear Admiral in the Navy, my father was a Two-Star General in the Marines, one of my uncle's was a Four-Star General in the Army, and the other uncle was the Admiral of the Alliance's Fifth fleet... And for the past fifteen years, I spent many a night playing Kepesh-Yakshi against them... And I've never won once."

"Not exactly filling me with confidence." giggled Liara.

He rolled his eyes with a small smile, "What I meant to say is that I've been tutored by people who've actually been in a war. I doubt half the people in that tournament can say the same." Sniffing his armpit, John's face contorted in a mixture of pungent disgust, "Damn, I'm ripe... Can we continue this after I take a shower?"

Liara nodded and sniffed herself, "Actually, I could use one as well."

He clapped his hands, "We can shower together!" Liara blushed at the notion, but wasn't adverse to the idea. Reaching behind his head and pulling off his hair tie, John's grease and sweat laden black locks fell to his shoulders. Examining their long length with his fingers he added, "You know, I think I could also use a haircut while were at it." bobbing his head foreword, his hair fell over his eyes, much to Liara's amusement.

"I have an app for that!" he cocked his head curious, "On my Omni-tool, I mean." Liara explained.

"Fantastic. It's been too long since my last trim."

With that, the two of them retreated to the master bedroom. Behind her mask, Tali smirked, "She goes off for a romantic shower with a man and I'm the one who has the dirty mind. Keelah, yeah right."

Chapter 5 End

A/N: Sorry for the long delay, life's been busy and shit's getting to me. Hope to update more frequently, but, it is what it is.