Chapter 14: Old Friends

Date: December 2, 2183
Location: Omega

Ann walked up towards Aria's couch and saw two very nervous looking salarians. One had a scar bisecting his left eye, making him look a bit tuffer than most salarians. The second one had a more golden coloring to his skin and wore metal gauntlets. "Mierin and Weaver?" she asked, bot salarians gave a curt nod, but didn't speak; which for a salarian was unusual.

"You did as I asked." Aria said dismissively. " So I found want you wanted, just like I said I would."

Ann nodded. "Thanks and it wasn't a problem in taking down the Talons." She then tapped her omni-tool. "I found some intel on one of the computers in the Talon Complex and I think it'll buy me something else from you."

Aria's eyes narrowed towards the human commander. "What kind of intel?" she asked as she leaned forward ever so slightly. Ann tapped the holographic display and sent Aria the information. Aria looked at her omni-tool and growled slightly at what she was reading. She then shook herself of her anger. "Thank-you for this Shepard. These groups will learn very hard what it means to fuck with Aria." She then lifted her chin toward the Commander. "What do you want?"

"Mostly supplies." Ann said. "Refugees need a place to go that's be safe and I'm sure you know where that is."

Aria leaned back. "Nobody can know it comes from me though. I can't let the merc groups think I'm going soft for a bunch of refugees."

"Of course." Ann nodded hearing a chirp from her omni-tool. Upon opening it she saw three system names that could be used by refugees. Nodding Ann turned to leave. Just as she stepped down the last of the stairs away from Aria's "throne" one of her turian guards spoke. "If you're in the helping mood, you may want to go down the lower level of Afterlife and speak to an old krogan named Patriarch." The turian shifted from foot to foot. "He may not have that much influence on Omega these days, but he can tell you what krogan clans may be interested in talking to you about fighting these reaper things that have been causing us headaches as of late."

Ann nodded. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it...ever." he said before turning away from her and back towards the endless see of faces."

Grunt looked up at his battlemaster as she headed towards him and the old timer Grim. "Shepard." He said acknowledging her.

"Grunt." She said back as he a Grim fell in line behind her and began to travel through the bowels of Afterlife. As they came to the lower level and more smelly area of Afterlife, Grunt took notice of several things. Like the lack of krogan in the area and that there were at least ten vorcha in the lower level. Something smelt off about them, but of course vorcha always smelt funny to him. They entered a VIP area where another old krogan was telling some tales of the old days, before the genophage. Grunt smirked as the old one came to the part of tearing the flesh from his enemies.

Ann cleared her throat, which was when the old krogan paused in his tale. "What do you want human?" he asked

"You Patriarch?" she asked, though she knew he was.

"Who wants to know?" came his reply.

"Commander Shepard." She stated.

The old krogan looked her up and down and then began chuckling. "Nice try." He said. "Shepard is male." He turned his back to her.

"I'm the other Shepard." She said. "I was told you may have some connections that I can use,"

"Who said that is drunk." He said sadly. "I have no connections. When Aria stripped me of my clan name she stripped me of my connections."

"Bullshit." Ann said. "Once a krogan, always a krogan. Krogan have krant. I'm sure you have a few of those left."

"No krant would be caught dead with me." He stated.

"Maybe it's time you look for them because soon, not even Omega can stay out of this war." She looked at him. "You are still a strong krogan. I'd be your krant."

That made the old krogan's back straighten. "You'd be my krant?" he asked in disbelief.

"You bet your old ass I would." She smirked when he laughed.

"You're alright Shepard." He paused. "Okay. I do know some Clans on Tuchanka that'll help you."

"Great." She smiled. "Give me the Clan names-"

"You misunderstand." He paused. "They'd want to authenticate that it's me sending you."

"Okay." She said with a nod.

"Good. Let me take care of some things and I'll meet you at your ship." With that the old krogan headed off.

"Did you just gain another krogan on this voyage Shepard?" Grunts asked in disbelief.

"Yep." She then looked behind Grunt and Grim and spotted the two salarians. "Okay, let's head back to the Normandy."

"Wonder if your turian mate got his team." Grim grunted as they made their way through Afterlife and off towards the Normandy.

"Knowing him," Grunt said, "yes."

Nyreen stood off to the shadows as she watched this Shepard woman talk to Aria, gain to salarians to her group and walk off towards the underbelly of Afterlife. Deciding to wait outside for her, Nyreen stood leaning against the side of the building which was Afterlife and as she waiting she spotted a turian she thought she'd never see again. The blue and white clan facepaint was easy to find in the crowd. Behind him were two male turians, each with different facepaint; though it looked like they were following him. Next to him on either side was a male human and a female turian trailing behind the one bulky human. On the right of the female was a drell. She smirked and pushed off from the building and headed off towards the group. As the group came upon the airlock to a ship she spoke.

"Garrus Vakarian." She said his name with an affectionate trill to her double vocalcords, causing said male to turn his head towards her. "I always knew you were a groupie, but I'd never have pegged you as the one to have the groupies."

His face showed shock at seeing her. She smirked and sashayed towards him. "Nyreen Krandos." He said offering her his arm for a wrist clasp and a friendly hug which she accepted. "What are you doing on Omega?"

"I could ask the same thing." She said eyeing each of his associates.

"Recruiting." He said simply.

She cocked her head. "Because of what happened to the citadel?"

He nodded. "The reapers are a force to reckon with." He paused. "Do you still fight dirty?"

She smirked. "Is there any other way?"

That caused everybody, minus the drell, to laugh. No, no there isn't." he looked over his shoulder. "Come with us. It'll get you off Omega and back to doing what we always did in the military."

"Prank the CO and cause problems for the nightcrew?" she teased.

"That was one time." He defended.

"Uh-huh." She said disbelieving. She looked over her shoulder towards Afterlife. "Okay." She walked past him. "But you still owe me a couple drinks."

Garrus chuckled. "Not a problem."

M-Angel: That was fun…. Oh and to Nallie, I fixed those problems in chapter 9. Thanks for telling me about them.

Xoxoangii: Please remember to R&R! Hope you guys enjoyed this :)