Chapter Ten: Cover

The Asari smiled playfully as she walked a distance away from Shepard holding her small pet between her fingers.

"Don't move." he said pulling up his pistol.

Lily giggled as she turned to him.

"I think I have heard of you before. Shepard? Commander Shepard? The savior of the Citadel? Yeah, you fit the bill. Ever since that I lost a lot of business you know? It's bad enough I have to go after petty thieves just to make things meet."

"Fact of the matter is you killed officers and you need to be brought down." he said.

"Oh, I don't think that's possible. I like to be free and occasionally do some dirty work with my friend here to earn some credits."

"You're a mercenary?"

"That's right. Didn't think this gorgeous Asari didn't know how to pick a fight?" she said running her fingers down her sides. She took Lumie within her palms and gently pushed it into her chest, again, it liquefied, entering her body. Seeing this Shepard didn't know what to make of it, all he could do was watch as this strange phenomenon was occurring. He stared feeling a sense of unparalleled uneasiness come over him. Her head hung low as if staring towards the floor and her body lifted slightly off the ground like a puppet being pulled by its strings.

"What the hell is going on?" he whispered.

Her head jerked up and with that her body became engulfed in a whirlwind of blue light, blue flames hovered over her eyes.

"Ready for me? Shepard?"

Shepard couldn't prepare for the blow he would sustain. Before he could react to the sudden theatric appearance of the Asari he felt a hardened punch to the side of the face forcing him to soar several feet into the air. As he landed with an incredible thud he was quickly swept up and slammed into a column with a thunderous roar. He couldn't even let out a gasp in pain because the force was so great. Blood trickled down his lips. Lily hovered up to him, a smile spread across her face in delight.

"Just to let you know... I stand down for no man."

Shepard noticed the Asari's biotics were the thing holding him up with such force. How did she manage to amplify her biotic skills so immensely? He felt himself being hurled back onto the floor, his gun falling from his grip and under a nearby bench.

"The mighty Commander Shepard is getting his ass kicked? This is very disappointing." she said as she sat herself over the bench where his gun laid.

"You're strong, I'll give you that." he said forcing himself to his knees, "But... I'm nowhere near done yet. I've had worse."

The blue aura around her disappeared and her pet hovered aimlessly around her shoulder. She stared at Shepard in deep satisfaction.

"Well, what are you going to do? You know very well I can kill you in a second."

"Bullshit."

"What did you say?" her voice harsh.

Lily heard the cock of a gun behind her, turning around in panic she found herself being confronted. Ashley stood with her shotgun pointed straight at the Asari whose face was full of surprise.

Shepard sat with his arms folded, he knew he wasn't going to get any answers from this Asari. Her eccentric personality was far too unpredictable to rely on her word alone and since there wasn't a strong enough police force to deal with criminals he would have to resort to keeping them for the time being. He leaned over the small desk keeping his eyes on this "Lily" who seemed to be asleep sitting straight up in her chair. The Commander quickly glanced under the table making sure her restraints were securely fastened. He came up from under the desk and gasped shortly when he saw her staring at him.

"What are you doing?" she asked monotonically.

"Don't flatter yourself." he remarked

"What the hell do you want me for? Besides the fact I did away with a few C-Sec officers? Are you gonna ask me to be part of your squad or something? My going rate is 300 credits an hour."

"Shut up, damn, your annoying."

He got up slamming his chair into the desk.

"That's mean. Why not let me help you find the Reapers?"

Shepard stopped pacing for a moment when the word struck his ears.

"How do you know about them?"

"I actually don't know much about them,"she smirked, "I just heard something about this from some Salarian. Anolais, I think his name was. He hired me to do some job but before I could do it, you had to deal with that Saren character and my target was killed during the attack so I lost business. Pretty much that's it. I think you could use another hand."

"I'll consider it."

"Then can you do me a favor?"

"What is it?" he asked.

"Can I go to the bathroom?"