Chapter 13

"Jason where the hell are they?" I angrily asked him, catching the red eyed deserter off-guard. It had been a whole week since last I'd talked to Gilo and the two salarians, and not a word was to be heard from them. He and I were standing in one of the lower markets, far enough away from Aria's territory that I wasn't concerned with someone recognizing me. For the past week, I'd been sneaking around trying to make contact with the group, but much to no avail.

I was pretty certain Aria knew what I was up to, but she'd hardly shown face since the event with my head. Maybe she found out things she didn't like, I don't know but I still lacked answers. She'd send me on a job through some contact or an email, never face to face. I missed the interaction, a void filling in my chest anytime I thought about it.

Damn woman and her lack of explanations.

"Dammit Jason they better get here soon." I growled to him, and he instantly held his hands up in defense.

"Shit Athena, what put you in a bad mood?" Jason asked me back playfully, though I could almost pick up on confusion. I shouldn't have been this mad at him, he wasn't the reason they weren't there. As far as I knew anyways.

I clenched my jaw as I tried to keep from decking him, anger rising as I found my hands balled into fists. "If this was a set up-"

"Calm down Athena, they'll show." He gave a sigh, and turned back to the crowded street we were beside, leaned against an ally. Throngs of aliens mixing together to get to the different destinations, not a care for the several hundred that they bumped into and shoved past so long as their fingers stayed off the triggers. "Here they are now!" He triumphantly said, pointing at some face in the crowd I couldn't see.

And then there they were here, or really then she was.

Gilo came running up to us, her amber eyes wild. "Athena! Jason! We've got some serious trouble!" She shouted, and half a second later a heavy set krogan came up from behind her and gripped her by her crest.

"Shit!" Jason swore and ran at the krogan, a pistol drawn. My feet went still, and for some reason I couldn't bring myself to do anything but watch as the krogan bent her back, and bring a shotgun from his free hand and press it into her back. "Gilo!" Jason shouted a moment before the shot rang out and Gilo's body exploded with a spew of blood. Her scream was just louder than the shot as her eyes rolled backwards, and then she crumpled to the ground.

Jason shoved the krogan, though it did little to stumble him and shot several times at point blank, a sick colored liquid exploding from each impact. But he turned on his heels, and with a single arm tossed Jason away and onto his side. "Puny human." He snorted, kicking Jason square in the side to send him rolling.

Something snapped.

I at last got my feet to agree with me and I charged the krogan head on with my shotgun drawn, blasting him multiple times until he stumbled in a sick puddle. I watched him die, taking a good few minutes for the life to fade from his eyes and a gurgle left his scaly lips. Looking up, I was shocked to see the entire street had been cleared out, not a single person daring to show their face in case more bullets flew off. Then someone turned the corner, looking pissed as hell.

Pec stumbled towards me, clutching his chest as blood dripped down from his weird concave torso. "You! This is all your fault!" He shouted, pointing a trembling finger at me as he stumbled. What the hell was he talking about? "This bitch isn't worth all this trouble! They're both dead now! And I won't be far along at this rate!" He coughed, his dark large eyes sending as much hate as possible in a few long moments.

"What the hell are you talking about? I did my half of the deal, you're the one who did this to yourself!" I growled back, shoving the shotgun in his face. He was completely unfazed but the weapon so close to his face. "I thought you said you could get me the info, get me what I needed. But instead you obviously failed!"

"Jason this woman isn't worth any of this!" Pec hissed at the red eyed man as he at last got to his feet. "None of those damn credits will bring back my brother! Nor will they bring back Gilo!"

Jason placed a forceful hand on Pec's shoulder. "First of all... What the hell happened?" He said lowly.

Pec looked at the two of us wildly, my finger was getting itchy on the trigger. If he thought he could just blow up at us and not explain why Gilo was just executed before our eyes, I didn't know what I'd do. And then he spoke. "We were investigating that organization like agreed to but we were coming up completely dry, like they knew someone would one day come looking. Then when we'd just gotten a lead from a reliable contact of ours, we went to his home and it was completely blown up!"

"Blown up?" Well shit.

"Yes Jason! Blown up! As in there was nothing but dust left and a huge scorch mark!" Pec scowled. "Slap some medi-gel on me already will you?" He gestured at the blood he was barely keeping in his body, seeping between his fingers.

Jason moved to apply it, but I just shook my head and glared coldly at Pec. "Give us all the information, or I'll tear you a near hole to bleed out of you here me?" I growled, pleased with the salarian's expression, jaw agape.

"Alright!"

I nodded my head, and the medi-gel took only a few moments to apply. Pec gave a sigh of relief and straightened himself out as his body mended itself. "Now talk, all of it." I demanded.

"Alright alright..." Pec drawled. "We got to his house and like I said, it was nothing but dust and burns. Our contact is assumed dead, as I haven't seen or heard anything from or of him since." He looked around nervously. "This organization of yours is pretty serious it would seem... They started sending people after us, all sorts of different kinds. Mostly humans at first, but then that damned krogan showed up and nothing we could do seemed to stop him. He got Sil, skinned him right there in front of Gilo and I." The yellow salarian shuddered. I couldn't help but feel a little bit of pity for him, to see that happen to his brother... "Gilo used her biotics to buy us some time, to try to warn you. But obviously that wasn't enough." He gazed at the torn body of the blue asari longingly.

"Alright Athena, we've got the intel. We need to get him to a medical ward." Jason said, taking a step towards the salarian. "Mordin's clinic is still operational, down in the Gozu district." Pec nodded his head in agreement.

"I'm not going, take him. I have some hunting to do." I replied, gaining a frown of disapproval from Jason near instantly. "Cut me some slack, who ever this is might not be willing to just give up chasing Pec, and now that I've got the intel that he had managed to acquire," though goddess was it hardly anything, "they might come after me now. Which is what I want."

"At least talk to Jorvan about it."

Why does he always want me to talk to Jorvan about things? I frowned. After the events in his apartment, and the chase by Eli in the streets that led me to these people, Aria had had me doing more hacking to find out who was setting him up and really stealing her shipments. Though it was always through some underling that she'd assign me my missions now. As it would turn out, the other man was some batarian by the name of Yulim Turkna. Shot him in the face myself.

Jorvan had proven to be quite the asset, and once Eli got over his brother's death by my hands, even he'd seemed to prove useful. Having the krogan in a fight had already come in handy a few times around, and Jorvan wasn't half bad with a gun either. They agreed to aid me when I was hunting down Yulim, and kinda decided to stick around afterwards.

"Dammit fine! If it'll get you off my back!" I growled out, and began to walk away when Pec shouted.

"Wait! We did manage to find out one thing specific about this group!" He called.

Quickly I turned around. "What?"

"The organization is called Cerberus."

Cerberus. Why was that so familiar? Why did that-

"Wonderful, the rapid advancement in her reflex time is quite forthcoming to the potential results." A voice said somewhere in a room behind me. I shifted where I stood, awaiting the next volley of electrical attacks. The machines popped up from behind a half wall, sending tiny little bolts of energy at me. Instantly I pulled up my shield, the orange energy materializing at my wrist to cover my body from the assault before I dropped it back down and lashed out with the sword I wielded in my right hand. Energy arched off it in a brilliant wave, crashing right into the machines, short circuiting them. The clatter of them dropping was music to my ears.

"Increase the voltage, next wave."

I gritted my teeth as my shield redeployed, the machines coming up again almost immediately after the order was given. I rolled to the right, ducking behind a crate that was conveniently present.

Looking over it, I counted ten machines currently hovering in the air firing continual waves of energy at me. I reached for my 'popper grenade', a perfectly sized ball of wonderful technology capable of overloading numerous minor machines or electrical systems to crash all of them down simultaneously. It was perfect, the only problem was getting an opening, and actually getting it to stick to one of the robots.

Time wasn't my friend here, the tests were always supposed to be quick and precise, a clean cut. I had to hurry if I wanted to impress them, make them think I was still worth it all. Taking a giant breath of air, I bolted out of the cover as quick as I could and once at the other tactically placed crate stopped and focused. And threw the popper, instantly being met with the sound of electricity discharging and the heavy hunks of metal dropped to the ground.

"Well done Subject One. But try to be faster next time."

Dammit.

"-thena? Athena can you hear me?" A long, boring voice asked from somewhere. I blinked, and was met with the startling sight of Jason's red eyes mere inches from my face as he observed me. "Ah, you're back." He grinned, though worry swelled in his eyes. "What the hell was that about? More of those visions?"

"Yeah... You can say that." I replied, out of breath for some reason. "I guess this means I'm on the right track huh?"

He just shrugged. "I suppose so. Stop by Jorvan's place or call him up. I don't want you doing this alone, but someone has to get Pec to safety and Marco is still running around doing god knows what for Aria. You know since she's put him under her 'protection' he's been trying so fucking hard to please the woman. Make sure she's treating you right. You might wanna thank him some time, or put in a good word with Aira."

"Yeah, I don't think that second bit is gonna happen."

He frowned, and then nodded his head as if remembering. "Right, the cold shoulder still? Well, I'll get going. Stay safe Athena." Jason gave my hand a squeeze before turning to start off with Pec close at hand.

I waved goodbye, the traffic was finally starting back up on the street as people realized it was safe again. Though that was a relative term here.

I typed a few things on my omni-tool, and quickly got a ping on a nearby place suitable to meet up with Jorvan and Eli, a bar about ten minutes away. Though in this traffic it could take thirty. Typing up the message took me a minute, and all I had to tell him was the coordinated of the bar, and to meet me with Eli.

Five minutes later he responded, a simple message saying, 'Okay.' I couldn't help but grin, I was getting closer to the truth. And I wanted it bad.