Eclipsed
Chapter Twenty One: Shattered

A/N: While I said I was going to take a break from this story to work on From Ashes, I suppose I couldn't stop thinking about this chapter and the one that will prolly come after it. With that in mind, enjoy :)

The next few weeks went by without incident. Anaya took the recovery well enough, and had returned to work within a week and a half of the incident. Restricted to desk duty, she was dealing with paperwork while her partner and half of her other colleagues were out on the streets. They were all being watched by internal affairs after there was a massive arrest of "crooked" cops. It turned out that Wasea's information had been very accurate. It wasn't just their station, either. There was at least one lieutenant that was arrested. That was what Anaya was looking over at the moment; the list of Eclipse mercenaries that had been placed within the department was lying there, and she was cross-referencing it with the recent arrests to pass the time.

"Be advised: Shots fired, west district, south of commercial spaceport."

"Copy that. West district responding." Anaya had received the quick radio call and responded to it by looking up sharply from her paperwork. It appeared that two other detectives heard. They were looking her way. "You two, go." At Anaya's words, they nodded and walked out; they didn't need telling twice. Once they were gone, she dropped the datapad she had been looking over for the last half hour and leaned back in her chair; raising her hands to run them through her crest ridges. "I hate this…"

"Hate what?" Her partner had come back from his run out. "Sitting at a desk all day and telling the grunts what to do?"

"Grunts nothing." Anaya waved Tavis off. "They're the same rank as I am, and they hate when I tell them where to go. I'm not a dispatch officer presiding over beat cops."

"They're considering you for a sergeant's post." Lorin said as he sat down across from her. "How'd that suit you?"

"It wouldn't." Anaya said bluntly. "I don't want a promotion."

"You deserve it, according to the brass, for your work on that Eclipse job."

"It wasn't me." Anaya countered. "I didn't do anything."

"You believed her."

"And that justifies a promotion?" Anaya dismissed it with a wave of her hand. "She did all of the leg work."

"You know what this is really about." The turian gave his partner a hard look for a moment. "This isn't about personal merit. They want strong cops to make the department look good after this scandal."

"I don't want any part of it." Anaya said, and for a split second, she was back in that apartment after the explosion; hearing herself speak those exact words in a different situation before she brought herself out of it. "I just want to do my job without people looking at me like I'm going to pull a gun on them for no reason."

"It would help if you weren't on edge all the time." Tavis began typing up a report while still regarding his partner. "Something's been going on with you now for the past few weeks. You're not yourself."

"There's nothing going on." She said before going back to her own paperwork.

"There is." Lorin persisted. "Every time a call comes in, you look like you're ready to bolt. You expecting something to happen?"

"It's not that." Anaya muttered. She finished looking over the lists again and nodded. They had cleaned house as far as she had seen. Everyone on the list had either been caught in office or they had been forced into a confrontation. Either way, they were all in lockup. "I'm not on edge; I'm just tired of nearly going stir crazy. I come here and do paperwork, I go home and I sleep, but it's just the same day repeating over and over."

"Next call, you're going out with me." Tavis finished up with his report. It was a simple drunk and disorderly. "No arguments; you're going out with me."

"Cute, Lorin. You'd go against orders to keep me from snapping someone's head off."

"Worth the risk." His mandibles twitched as Tavis stood and went to refill his coffee cup. "I'd rather have a snap dragon as a partner as to breaking in a new one."

"Yeah, I think I remember you mentioning that before, but I think snap dragon is going a little too far." Anaya actually laughed. "I think I'm all bark as far as that goes."

"Depends on who pisses you off." It was the first time that a smile or a laugh had reached her eyes in a few weeks. Lorin leaned back in his chair. "So, who do you think would look better with the sergeant's badge? You or me?"

"I think you'd do better with it." Anaya continued to laugh as she did the same. "You're the responsible and more sound one for the job."

"This is about what makes the department look good, and you're more concerned with the literal factors in it?"

"You bet. This job is all I've got, so when they offer the position, you're going to modestly accept it and then you'll come back here and never gloat about it."

"Oh, and you'll actually call me Sergeant, huh?"

"Nope."

As luck had it, there was another call that evening before the end of shift. An assault in progress came over the wire, and the two detectives were the ones that were available to take it. Getting out of the car, the two met a pair of patrol officers who had also just arrived on the scene. Three people were shouting and throwing punches outside a trading firm. At least one looked as if he was intoxicated.

"Ready?" Tavis asked as they were joined by the two patrolmen.

"Divide and conquer?" Anaya asked under her breath.

"Sounds good."

"Let's do it." The two stepped forward, Lorin fired off a concussive shot, and the three stumbled backward from the impact. Anaya took one and cuffed him while Lorin did the same. The third was gotten by one of the patrolmen, but there was a hitch.

"Gun!" The second patrolmen called. Anaya turned on her heel and saw the third man reaching for his hip. Both she and Tavis booted their charges in the shin and caused their knees to buckle. Before Before any of the cops' guns could be drawn however, Anaya had spun on her heel and hit the human drawing his gun with a biotic field that flattened him against the closest wall.

"Real mistake, you pulling a gun on cops." She said coldly. "How did you think this was going to end?" The pinned human was tight-lipped as he narrowed his eyes. "Whatever you've got to say, say it." She said, but he didn't take the bait. Anaya nodded toward Lorin, who stood just to the human's right. When she dropped the field, his gun fell to the ground; the turian picking it up quickly. The other patrolman cuffed the remaining man, and they got him and his fellows off of the ground.

"Get those two back to our station." Lorin motioned to the ones he and Anaya had cuffed. "We'll take this one." From there, they returned to their cars and had their prisoners put in before they went back toward the station. Anaya sat down in the passenger's side and stared out the front glass. Lorin holstered his gun and started the engine before closing the hatch and lifting off of the shuttlepad they had parked on. Only when they were in the air and headed back, did he speak. "I've hardly seen you use your biotics on the job." He kept looking ahead at the traffic while speaking. "I saw that look." His eyes glinted as another car passed them.

"What look?" She asked without looking at him.

"Like you wanted to strangle the guy. I get that you're tired of sitting around and doing paperwork, but this…"

"I didn't do it." Anaya finally said. "I had half a mind to toss him across the alleyway." She admitted; eyes flitting toward the back, where their prisoner was still restrained.

"Why?"

"I don't know." This was the truth. She didn't know why she had felt a second's urge to flatten the man.

"I'll give you some advice whether you want it or not." Lorin said simply as he started his descent out of the stream of traffic. "Whatever this is, deal with it fast. You don't want it to escalate."

"There's nothing to deal with."

"Yeah there is."

That was all that was said between them. When the car was settled on the shuttlepad, the two got out and escorted their prisoner into the station. The other two patrolmen had arrived with theirs as well. All three were put in separate cells and made to cool off before they were led away and spoken to by other officers. The one with the gun was brought up on charges and booked. After, the paperwork was filed, and the shift ended. This left Anaya and Lorin to go their separate ways; he went home while she left for a bar that tended to cater toward cops for a nightcap. It was mostly empty aside from a few beat cops.

"What'll it be, Ma'am?" The asari bartender asked as she came back from serving the others their drinks. "What district you from?"

"West." Anaya answered. "Nothing too strong. I've got to work tomorrow."

"Heard that." The bartender passed on a light blue drink, and Anaya took a slow sip from it. "Heard there was some serious house-cleaning in the department. Serious fallout from the Eclipse bust."

"That's an understatement." Anaya said dryly. "At least twenty arrests."

"Damn, and they say we need to keep faith in the police."

"Yeah." Another drink started easing the tension that had built up after the conversation with Lorin. "The fallout is a mess, but it's worth it, I guess; keeps us busy."

"What happened out there?"

"Enough to make your head spin." That was all that was said about it, but it kept going in Anaya's head. Cigar smoke hung lazily in the air, but it took on the aroma of burning chemicals and crumbling stone. Only her eyes being open kept her where she was. Turning away from the two that were smoking, she downed the remainder of her drink and had one more before finally leaving at around midnight.

Anaya was never much of a drinker; she had always stayed away from alcohol for the most part due to the memories she had as a kid. Her mother's sister had been a falling-down drunk. Every now and again, she would drink something very light on alcohol, but she'd never gone down that one-way pipe and hit anything heavy. Now, she could see why some did. That little amount had made her calm down more than anything else had over the last weeks. She had tried many things: taking a sleeping pill, working out in the gym in her building, working over her punching bag, or even going for a two kilometer run before attempting to sleep. None of it had worked. She returned to her apartment ad dressed down into comfortable clothing before leaning back against the pillows of her bed. Only now did the reality of what happened earlier kick in; she had been prepared to toss someone across the alleyway with whatever force she could find. Aside from the excessive force complaint that could have come from that, Anaya didn't like the thought of the internal consequences. She would hav been one of those cops who lost control; one of the ones that tarnished the reputation she herself worked to maintain.

"What the hell was I thinking?" She muttered as she looked up at the ceiling through half-opened eyes. "Could have jeopardized my career, gotten sentured, hell…" Finally turning her head so that she saw the glittering Nos Astra skyline, Anaya closed her eyes completely and hoped that sleep would come. When it did however, it came with uneasy dreams. There had been nights when she saw twisting and burning aisles between smoldering warehouses. Tonight was different; voices echoed around in the blackness. Questions that had been raised after the incident, remarks other officers had made, and her own words all came at her in sharp detail.

"I want an answer, Detective: Why were you even involved in it?" That had been a question posed in the inquiry that was still ongoing. "You took part in something that could easily be seen as vigilante justice. Tell me, whose side are you on?"

"I did what I thought was best." That had been her answer to both questions. She hadn't elaborated more than necessary during her day in the dock. IA had taken over the investigation after the ethics committee had their say.

"I told them what I knew," Her partner's voice filtered in distantly. "Which still isn't much." That part she remembered. Lorin had come from the hearing looking a bit ruffled. He hadn't had to defend his actions like that before. This was where the dream parted from reality. His next question was one she hadn't heard. "What is it about this that has you keeping secrets? Do you not trust me?"

She was standing out on that same street as they had been earlier in the evening. The trading post was closed, and there were bodies on the ground. Two were still moving and struggling against their bonds. There was a third person that was being held against the wall nearest by Anaya's own biotic field that she had sent crashing into him to stop him from shooting either her, her partner, or the two patrolmen. Lorin was standing not too far away from her with his gun drawn. He was looking at her with a slightly raised brow. Meeting his gaze, Lorin repeated his question, and it took some effort for her to find the words to answer him. "I'm not keeping anything from you."

"You're keeping something." The turian said almost immediately. "Anger like that doesn't just happen overnight."

"Who said I was angry?" She asked this just as quickly; still keeping her prisoner pinned to the wall, but she wasn't looking at him.

"Oh you're angry, Detective." This voice made her turn her head in the other direction too quickly; her neck popped, and a warm sensation shot up the nerve as it did. Where she had been focusing solely on her partner, Anaya hadn't noticed the shadowy crowd that had gathered. None of them had real form or definition; they stood as silent observers to this spectacle. As she scanned the crowd for the one that had spoken, she saw a salarian step out; his eyes cold and narrowed as he regarded her. The Eclipse emblem on his chest stood out sharply in the limited light. "The question is: what pisses you off more?" His voice grew more and more clear as the salarian spoke, and Anaya found herself reaching for her gun, which she did not have on her hip. It was locked away in the station until she was cleared for active duty. The salarian spoke again. "Was it the fact that you were caught with the wool pulled over your eyes, or could it have been that you killed someone without mercy?" This last suggestion left Anaya knowing exactly who this was.

"Korlan."

"Took you long enough."

"What are you talking about with the wool over the eyes comment?" Anaya asked with a definite frost in her tone. "What would you know about that?"

"A lot, seeing as she played me too." Korlan snapped. "Thought you were doing the noble thing, didn't you; working wit an Eclipse traitor to bring down the organization? Turns out that she was playing you just as well as she did all of us. She got what she wanted, didn't she?"

"I wouldn't know anything about that." Anaya shot back. "She wasn't pissing around-"

"You wouldn't know if she was or wasn't."

"Because you're an honest source of information, aren't you?" Anaya backed away from the salarian and narrowed her eyes. "I'm done with this."

"Are you sure about that?" Korlan motioned with a pointed finger back toward the wall where Anaya had pinned the third man to keep him from drawing his gun. In that second, Anaya realized that she had let her concentration lapse and the field had fallen. Before she could turn her head back, a gun was pressed into her chest, and her blood ran cold. The voice that cut through the air wasn't what she expected to hear.

"A pity, Detective;" The subject of her and Korlan's conversation spoke quickly. "The first thing you ever learn as a biotic is that you never… lose… focus." With the last word, a heavy throw field collided with Anaya and she was sent backwards to the ground; the crowd in the shadows disappearing like smoke as she went.

"What the hell!" Anaya managed through gritted teeth, although her words were still without force due to the wind being knocked out of her suddenly. "Where did you-"

"I told you that this bullet was not meant for me." Wasea crossed the distance between them and aimed her heavy pistol at the downed cop's chest again. When the shot was fired, there wasn't any pain. Anaya's body jerked violently as if it were a joint hit dead center by a lunt object. It wasn't the cold upper street that she felt against her back as her eyes shot open.

Anaya sat bolt upright in bed; the thin blanket tangled around her as she struggled to regaina sense of where she was. Breathing more than a little ragged, she found it a struggle to steady it. Cool air was coming in from somewhere other than the ducts around the apartment, and it was damp; as if a storm had just passed or was on its way in. With the dim light of a nearby lamp, she could just see the weak silhouette that was cast on the wall, and it didn't put her mind anymore at ease. Her posture held no confidence, there was a visible tension in her shoulders and back, and though she hadn't consciously noticed it, she was shaking. Turning away from the wall and the reality of the state she was in, Anaya shifted so that the blanket wasn't a hinderance anymore. When she moved her right armto throw it off however, she was met with a searing pain. It caused her to squint and look down for the source.

"Blood?" She questioned this aloud as if the empty apartment would confirm it. "I don't remember being injured on this arm…" And she hadn't. The only real injury she had was when metal had gone through just below her left shoulder, and that had practically healed over by now. Moving closer to the lamp that hung over her bedside table, she took a closer look at her right arm. There was a streak across it that she didn't remember having, and it was a fresh wound; blood still easing down her skin. With the blanket still a bit in the way, Anaya kicked it off and stood without moving her arm too much. She walked slowly around toward the washroom to at least get it somewhat cleaned and sanitized when the sound of skycars met her. They were much louder than they should have been, but that didn't hold her attention. What did was the glass on the floor that she just barely stepped on. When she felt the jagged piece just brush her bare foot, she pulled it back and looked down. There were several piees, thick and misshapen, scattered across the floor. She followed the path they created and realized just why traffic was so loud and the air felt so damp; two panes were in varying stages of shatter. They were part of the door that led out onto a balcony. Staring from the glass on the floor to the spider-cracked remains of the panes, Anaya voiced her question in a voice that was far more shaky than she realized.

"What happened here…"