I don't own Mass Effect.

Chapter 3: The Clash

"Cieran, you have to wake up." Nynsi's voice was affectionately prim, a tone that I'd heard all too often over the past two months. "I have to prepare for our departure, and you need to get ready for your therapy session. And you have your own assignment tonight as well. Best you wake up now so that you can rest later. Otherwise you'll have a hard time during the evening."

At the moment, I didn't care about any of that, so my only response was to groan and pull her warm body a bit closer.

"Cieran.." My Tarath'shan let out a quiet little sigh, following that by reaching up with a hand to stroke my hair. I'd let it grow long again, to both Aethyta and my new trainer's displeasure. In the end though, it had been one of the few arguments that I'd managed to win. I wasn't going to be fighting anytime soon, after all.

"Nyn." I covered a yawn by pressing my mouth against her shoulder. "One more hour."

A quiet chuckle escaped from her lips. "Do I have to order you to get up, Harath'krem?"

The noise I made could probably be described as a protest. I shifted a bit, but rather than get up I simply draped myself over her. She let out a warning growl that subsided when I placed a soft kiss on her neck.

"You are impossible sometimes." Despite her words her other arm slid around my waist, carefully holding me against her. "You are aware of this, yes?"

"Probably.." My body began to relax again, sleep tugging at me as I let her pulse and breath lull me along.

At least it was until the hand playing with my hair slowly wrapped the strands around her fingers before pulling it back. A hiss of discomfort escaped my lips as my neck and back arched, trying to relieve the pain against my scalp. She'd managed to get a good grip near the skin, and made good use of that leverage, shifting her arm until I slid off of her and onto my side.

"No more sleeping love." The tension eased as she lessened the pressure, the bed shifting a bit as she rolled onto her side so that her body was pressing against mine. "Are you going to get up now?"

Mindful of the fact that she hadn't exactly let go yet, and fully awake now, I gave her a tight nod. "Yes."

"Good." Warm, earthy lips pressed against mine for a short moment before she pulled away, thankfully letting go of my hair as she did so. "Now up."

Heaving out a sigh, I forced myself to sit up as she slowly extracted herself from the bed. I couldn't resist watching her stretch and walk over to her dresser, entirely enjoying the way muscles rippled beneath her skin. "Where are you going this time?"

"Erinle." She began to dig through drawers as she spoke, extracting dark clothes as she found them. "A Salarian colony that apparently once had several Blue Sun outposts that received protection money from the planetary government. They.. 'quit' when the war began, but have maintained their monetary demands. Removing them would endear the locals to the Hegemony, at least enough to open trade negotiations."

"Awesome." I muttered, swinging my legs around before covering another yawn. "More people indebted to the Hegemony."

"I am not indebted to them, they are indebted to me." Nyn's voice became a bit waspish. "In increasing amounts since we're shuttling the Commander and his teams to their targets."

Indebted or not, she hadn't seen a credit yet. Not that I was about to say that out loud. Instead I focused on grabbing my leg brace, rolling my shorts up enough so that I could get the massive thing on. The scarring was both impressive yet minimal. Thin white marks up and down my left side from my knee to my ribs hardly looked traumatic at a glance. Sayran had tried to explain just what the hits had done to me internally, but she'd lapsed into medical speak that I couldn't understand in the slightest.

As I worked the straps and buckles, I tried to steer things in a more positive direction. "At least other things are going better. And it isn't as if you'd be doing anything with the Noln even if you weren't."

"True." Her voice became a bit muffled as clothing rustled, "The tech mine plant is finally operational, and the initial orders have been rather positive. A few Spectres have even sent requests through their agents."

Blinking, I turned back around. "Seriously? Which ones?"

She'd already pulled loose black pants and a matching shirt on, and was comparing earring selections as her shoulders rose and fell in a shrug. "Fethen and.. Bau I think his representative said. Vasir has made inquiries through her sister as well. Apparently my pricing is superior than the human corporation they've been using."

"Huh. Good advertising material if nothing else."

"Provided that they actually make the orders. And approve of the quality."

"Provided that." I agreed, reaching down to grab my own shirt. "How long are you going to be gone?"

"It is only a one day trip, but there are several outposts that apparently need to be removed." Nyn shook her head irritably. "We will likely be stuck in orbit for several days while the Commander conducts his operations."

I had to resist the urge to rub at my face. I'd heard that tone when it came to Balak's schedules before. "So I'm going to have to deal with his crew for a week, at best."

"No. Captain Vasir is aware that we will be gone, she is.. quite eager to deal with any issues that might arise." That didn't shock me. I-Sec was already holding more than a dozen of them for minor violations. All they had to do was pay the fines for the petty things that they had done.. but thing was, none of them had any money.

And alas, Nyn simply didn't have the capital to spend to get them out.

Her dark eyes glared at me in her mirror as she paused pulling a simple necklace on. "I mean it Cieran. If I find out that you tried to get involved.."

"I won't." My lips twisted as I stood, fighting back a groan.

The glare faded into a familiar worry. "Are you all right?"

"Nyn, you ask me that every day." I stretched slowly, rotating my torso and trying not to wince as aches and pains made themselves clear. "I'm as good as I could possibly be right now."

Teal lips curled a little bit. "Liar. I'm wearing clothes."

My cheeks burned slightly as I grabbed my cane. "All right. I'm normally good then. Things would of course improve for me if you weren't though."

"Perhaps when I get back."

"Perhaps?"

It was her turn to blush slightly, walking back towards me as she corrected her phrasing. "When I get back."

As much as I enjoyed her words, I didn't miss how tense she was when her arm slid around my waist in the familiar way. She tried to steer me quickly towards the door, but I kept my pace deliberately slow so that we had some more time to talk before we had to separate.

"You're stressing again." I kept the reproof in my voice as light as I could. "You sure you don't want to take our vacation sooner rather than later?"

Her right eyes glanced over at me as we exited the bedroom, "We will have time to relax after our guests leave. Until then-"

"Until then you need to delegate more. Ghai can handle at least some of it."

"She can't manage the business interests." She countered, her voice lowering as she brusquely opened the chamber's outer doors. "Or negotiate with Balak."

"She could liaise with Captain Vasir." I tried again, letting her guide me into the hall. "At least get that out of the way for you."

"Cieran." Her arm tightened a bit around my waist in warning. "I am fine. We aren't going into battle, I can handle things for a while longer."

Swallowing my opinions, I shut up at that point. Disagreeing further wouldn't change her mind, and would only lead to more fighting later. Whatever progress I'd made before Korlus had apparently been worn away by the simple presence of one Ka'hairal Balak. The Hegemony born asshole might not have been directly going against everything Nyn said and did, but he was proving to be very adept at subtly pressing her buttons.

And even though Nynsi knew what he was doing, actually being able to control her reactions was proving to be easier said than done.

Small comments about the successes of her business interests in the city had led to her micromanaging the midcaste exiles who weren't used to her direct oversight. Irritated remarks about how Captain Vasir treated his people had led to Nyn supporting I-Sec all the more, but also personally involving herself in matters that Ghai or I could handle. And of course his requests to use the Yare Noln to shuttle his teams to their missions, plus glowing praise of its traditional Captain, had led to her insisting that she and almost all of our remaining security people go with to supervise each trip.

Not that it was entirely bad. He'd quickly stopped mentioning me to her when it became clear that the only thing it did was piss her off. And her own retaliatory commentary often left Balak fuming in his room for a few days.

Those days were becoming treasured by the mansion's lowborn staff, as they didn't have to deal with him. Nyn might consider herself superior to them, but they were still very much hers. She treated them as important cogs within the machine that was her affairs, and made sure that their lives were comfortable enough not to impact their ability. In comparison, Balak and his people just treated them like shit.

The Asari on staff had been spared some of the vitriol in the first few weeks, but as I-Sec increasingly cracked down on the crew even the SIU teams had started to heap verbal abuse on them. They were careful not to take it too far, but they were leaving pretty much everyone on edge.

She paused as we neared the dining hall. "Regrettably, I will be having my morning meal with the briefing."

Which meant we were parting ways here. Turning, I leaned my cane against my leg before carefully wrapping my arms around her waist. "Be safe Nyn."

My Tarath'shan leaned in, giving me a soft kiss. Her lower eyes glanced down at my leg while her upper set stayed on mine. "You be safe Cieran. I will be safe enough on the ship."

"And I will be safe enough in the mansion." My right arm slid up her back, pulling her closer against me so that I could press our lips together again. Her throat vibrated with a quietly pleased note, and she seemed to relax for the few moments that I held her. Then time moved on, she pulled away, and for a brief moment I could see just how much all this crap was wearing on her. But as quickly as it came, it vanished, buried beneath Highborn pride and confidence.

"Pillars be with you, my Harath'krem."

"And with you, Tarath'shan."

Ritual farewell complete, she turned away and left me there. I leaned heavily onto my cane, watching until she vanished within the conference room. I kept staring vacantly down the hallway for a few minutes, trying to work out how the hell I was going to get Nyn to take some time off. She wasn't going to do it voluntarily, that was for sure. But it was also clear that if she didn't get some kind of relief soon that she'd break down again, and this time more than some furniture would get trashed. If she and I weren't, more or less, back on the level I didn't doubt that she already would have.

Dammit.

Of course, my worries took a backseat to a near heart attack when someone spoke up from a foot or so behind me. "You worry about her."

"Fuck!" I actually stumbled as I tried to spin, and only managed to stay upright because Rane grabbed my shoulder with the hand that wasn't holding a plate full of food. "Rane.. did you really have to sneak up on me like that?"

If she'd had eyebrows they would have gone up. The corners of her mouth did curl a bit in amusement. "I was hardly sneaking. I've been here for three minutes now, wondering when you were going to notice that your food was waiting."

My free hand rose to rub at my face as she let me go. "I could have gotten it myself."

"Probably." Her head tilted a bit to the left, "But it seemed polite."

I gave her an exasperated look that bounced off of her innocent expression. We'd had a conversation during one of our stakeout missions a few weeks ago, well, sort of a conversation, where I thought she'd accepted that she and I weren't happening. That I was, for lack of a better phrase, a one woman kind of guy.

But apparently I was wrong, because she'd actually started doing more things to get my attention. Not overt things, most of them were actually very subtle and almost subservient. If I hadn't spent the last year more or less downloading Batarian culture into my head I wouldn't have even realized what some of the stuff she did meant.

Then again, getting me breakfast was rather obvious. And that made me nervous. "Rane..?"

Her lower eyes blinked slowly before glancing down. "Nothing is wrong Cieran, just.. trying to be friendly. Although you might not want to eat in the dining hall, one of the SIU teams is still in there."

Ah.

"So you got me food as an excuse to leave as quickly as you could."

Copper toned cheeks muddied a bit, her lower eyes shifting to her left. A quick glance of my own revealed another plate and two glasses resting a windowsill. "Maybe."

The maybe turned into a definitely when Illyan threw open the doors, muttering under her breath as she practically stomped out of the hall. How angry she was became apparent when we both only received tight nods as she stormed past.

"Illyan.."

One of her feet hit the ground harder than necessary, and she didn't slow down in the slightest. "Fine boss. Just need to work on something."

I had to count to ten in three different languages, and force my fingers to relax from where they'd tightened on my cane before I could resist the urge to go after her and figure out what the fuck had happened. "That bad?"

Rane's voice lowered appreciably. "They know they're leaving, and since Shaaryak and Trena are stuck in the briefing.."

"They had a window of opportunity." Hefting my cane up a bit, I thumped it hard onto the floor as I bit back a growl. "Dammit. If I had my armor.."

"You don't Cieran. Nor do we have four full combat teams." A hand carefully touched my shoulder again. "Right now you have to eat before Trisren gets here."

Letting her steer me aside, we ended up heading to the small training room in the west wing. We settled into chairs at the room's only table, which was usually only there to throw bags and equipment on. Still, it was more than large enough for us to eat at, and even better the seats were angled to that neither of us had our backs to the door.

Fucking Illium.

"Now you're worried and angry." Rane sighed as I picked at my food. "I'm sorry. I was hoping to head you off before you could get there, but you were with Shaaryak so.."

"If Illyan had stormed out just a bit earlier, Nyn could have done something about it. They must have said something about Erana. Again. Fuck.." My fingers started to curl again before I dropped the bit of bread I'd been eating. "Fucking.. Athame fucking take them into the deeps!"

"Cieran.."

"I know I can't fucking do anything about it Rane!" Her dark eyes flashed and I grimaced, lowering my voice and my eyes. "Sorry.."

She let out a slow breath. "You worry about how much stress Shaaryak is under, but Trena and I are starting to worry about you."

I wanted to deny it, but I'd more or less just shown that I wasn't exactly operating at my best. Awkward flirtations and crush or not, Rane was still a friend of mine, and a girl besides that. And I didn't like snapping at either of those.

"It's not like I can take a vacation Rane. I'm pretty much on an enforced one right now." A hand waved vaguely at the leg that I'd left stretched out by way of explanation.

There was a slight nod as she sipped from her cup. "That's your problem. Shaaryak might be overworked but.. I think you've got the opposite issue."

My eyes blinked as I absorbed that. "So.. what? I start showing up to the garage again and bossing people around?"

"Not exactly, even if that would probably lift Shaaryak's spirits." Her lips twitched a bit behind her glass. "Something more practical. A new powered exoskeleton maybe?"

I felt my mouth drop open a bit.

"Trena may or may not have brought in everything that should be needed for you to get started." It was clear that she was having a hard time not giggling at my response. "It's going to be even more scratch built that your last model, but we thought you might enjoy that aspect of it."

"She.. you.. " Eventually I manged to get my brain functional again. "How the hell did you pay for it?"

A shoulder twitched bemusedly. "Illyan helped us raid the city's scrapyards, and she arranged for a few trades with other sites around Nos Astra. Some of it might not be usable, but it should have most of what's needed."

"You.."

"Even a Harath'krem should thank a lowborn when they put in as much effort as we did." Some of her mirth faded. "Though..you might want to wait a bit for Illyan, even if she'll probably appreciate helping you to keep her mind off of things."

"I.." I shook my self a bit. "Rane.. you didn't have to do this."

She flushed a little bit again, her head dipping a hair to the left as her lower eyes avoided mine. "I didn't do it alone Cieran. I just told you that Trena and Illyan helped."

Which I didn't doubt. Illyan was more than capable as a mechanic, and Trena had been the one who'd helped me first fix and then modify the construction model suit whose wreckage they'd left behind on Korlus. But I had a pretty good idea who's idea it had been.

Any advice Trena could have given to help my stress levels would have started with either alcohol or sex, and ended with the other. And while Illyan and I were friends, I knew that she spent most of her free time acting as a surrogate mother to her younger sister.

"Rane.."

The lowborn shifted her upper eyes down to her food as well. "Just because you aren't going to kiss me doesn't mean I don't want to help you."

Not going to lie, her words combined with her tones to make me wince. "If you know then why.."

"The flirting?"

I nodded.

Her mouth opened, then closed, and she let out a strained exhale through her nose. Recognizing the signs, I winced again as she tried to work her way past the ingrained societal rules that said that there were things that she shouldn't speak of with someone of my station. It had probably taken her weeks to work up enough will to even get out as much as she had.

After a few moments her spine straightened a bit, and her voice again took on the forced politeness that I hated hearing. "Hypothetically speaking, a lowborn female such as myself, especially as an exile, wouldn't have many rights against demands from a male of the military caste. Regardless of his level. But if those warriors were under the impression that the female had caught the eye of a Harath'krem, alien or no, they might direct their attentions elsewhere."

One of my hands clenched slightly. What the fuck was with these people? And if this is what they were like, what the hell was life actually like inside of the Hegemony? I mean sure, I'd understand that things like that could technically happen, but Xerol had always made it clear that he considered those who abused the system to be barbaric.

I'd thought that his attitudes were close to the norm for men of his station on Khar'shan. Lately.. I had to wonder. "Crew or SIU?"

"It's been handled Cieran." And I didn't doubt what she meant by that, which probably meant it had been a regular crew-member. Ghai and her people didn't have any issues handling them, but they weren't exactly eager to take on their Hegemony counterparts unless lives were literally on the line. That put the body count up near a dozen known so far, nearly a full fifth of the starting total. So far Balak hadn't raised a fuss about it, which struck me as odd.

Odd, and very, very worrying.

My head dipped in a nod, and I blew out a breath of my own. "That's a nice explanation but somehow I don't think that's all of it."

Her upper eyes glanced up at me, her shoulders slumping a bit as she managed to shake off the societal rules for a few more moments. "It couldn't also be because I think that you're attractive, especially with your fur long like that. I also enjoy seeing your skin turn red."

Some of the tension eased as I groaned, resisting the urge to bury my face in my hands. "Rane.."

There was an almost apologetic smile. "I know it.. that it isn't happening Cieran. Can I have this, at least?"

"Have what? My friendship you already have Rane. We've saved each other's lives enough times. And been stuck on RI missions together, which is almost the same thing." I pointed out. "And if you're talking about the flirting, Illyan's been doing it non-stop since scales stopped bringing her along to their bed."

"I know she does, but she's an Asari." A hand rose palm up. "Sand in the desert. I'm.."

"You." I finished before she could inject any demeaning statements in there. "And I don't see why anything has to change between us right now."

Her upper eyes glanced up at me, holding my gaze for a long moment before she gave a slight nod of thanks. Thankfully the rest of our breakfast passed quickly as we moved onto less.. personal topics. She was apparently the only squad leader remaining behind, largely because she didn't have a squad to actually lead anymore. The few survivors from Marn's team had been folded into Chen's, and what Asari that Nyn had been able to hire had been put under Ghai's command.

There had been some hope of being able to recruit more Batarians from the district, or from some of the refugees fleeing from the chaos in the deeper Terminus, but no one had been able to spare the time to make the effort yet. That Rane wasn't exactly over losing her team in a matter of hours also had us dragging our feet a bit.

We were finishing our meals when Trisren made her own appearance. Like me she was in shorts and a loose shirt, though hers were gray instead of black. The shirt was cut low enough to expose bits of her stomach as she moved.. what little of her abs you could see beneath the burn scars anyway.

"Kean." She tossed her bag into a corner as she glanced at us. "Rane'li. Late meal?"

I gave her an Asari shrug. "SIU team was in the dining hall."

That earned us an understanding grunt. "Thought they were gone already."

"Most of them are. This was the last group." Rane supplied, taking a moment to finish her drink. "They'll be leaving with their Commander I believe."

"Thank Athame for small favors I suppose." Tris's dark eyes glanced at my plate. "We'll have to stretch a bit more before we really get you started."

"I figured."

"And what about you girl? You going to get some work in as well?"

Rane shook her head slightly. "I should see if I can catch Shaaryak before she leaves, make sure there aren't any last minute instructions for us."

The former bartender narrowed her eyes a bit. "She can leave you a message can't she? Or is she heading off planet without an omni-tool?"

Well used to Tris's surprisingly commanding style, I settled back in my chair to enjoy what was unfolding.

"I... I mean, of course she can, but-"

"But what?" Rane straightened in what had to be reflex at the snap. "You're in RI now girl, and with Aethyta on her own assignment that means I'm responsible for keeping your tanned ass afloat. You have workout clothes?"

"Yes. I can be back within a few minutes."

The thin Asari jerked her chin in permission, and Rane was out the door as quickly as I'd ever seen her move. And then it was my turn.

"Aren't you supposed to be stretching that leg?"

I gave her an arch look as I stood up and limped towards the training mats. "I liked you better when you were a bartender. You were friendlier then."

Blue arms crossed her chest, revealing more scarring as the motion tugged her shirt up a bit more. "We are friends Cieran, but sometimes friends have to push if they want you to keep breathing through another fight."

After Korlus, I couldn't really deny that. Well, not even Korlus. Sederis's mansion. Our mansion. The treatment plant. The warehouse...

Sighing, I settled down and did as she instructed.

Next up is Chapter 4: The Retreat

So.. this chapter was surprisingly hard to write. It turns out that it was hard enough to get in Cieran's head when it was basically just him and Nyn. Adding Rane back into the mix really made it difficult, especially as I kept hearing Trena's voice in my head screaming at him to shut up and do things to her. So yeah. Bit more exposition on how life is proceeding in the new normal, for as long as it can last.. which doesn't honestly feel like all that long. This was the last of the major time skips (we're now three months out from Korlus), and the pace should tighten up a bit as the ball resumes its inexorable roll again.

Also, because I haven't said this since Arrival.. Cieran Kean is not Tony Stark. He won't have his armor built in a matter of days/a few weeks. What Rane-Trena-Illyan dumped in his lap is a several months level project, and that's assuming he has help.

Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."

Thanks, Kat

Authors' Fun Fact: The Warlords of the Terminus II

Warlord Ganar Yulaz

Self proclaimed as the only 'True' Warlord in the Terminus systems, Ganar Yulaz is the de-facto head of the Blood Pack by virtue of the fact that he controls the largest warbands. Like most Krogan in this age, he lives for himself and his legacy, and yet only has the roughest grasps of the long-term consequences of his actions. To date he has managed to avoid several pitfalls that would have killed a lesser being solely thanks to his own prodigious biotics and personal skill at arms.

Where once he was fairly content to simply expand his slave pens and enjoy conflict amongst his own kind, the war against the Blue Suns seems to have lit a fire within him. Something that his contemporaries are rather worried over. Infighting within the Blood Pack has hit an all time low as he has brought 'lesser' Krogan leaders to heel, going so far as to execute those who performed poorly in the conflicts to seize the newly available territory.

Many Citadel 'experts' predict that the Blood Pack will quickly return to its old ways. But some Warlords are growing concerned that his rhetoric at establishing himself in Krogran history may be backed up by an army of Krogran and Vorcha, ready to swarm over anything that stands between Yulaz and glory.

Review Responses:

envy34I → Don't think Cieran would, but it Trena could think of a way to get away with it..

Legendary Junk Mail → What he was doing while he was stuck in bed will be expanded upon, some of it was spent on concepts to be sure, but a lot of it was spent worrying about Nyn.

BJ Hanssen → Always good to hear. :)

cmitts93 → Tough going is putting it mildly.. it's pretty fucking hard to switch first person perspective like that, at least for me.

Spiritstrike → Nope, that's pretty much all accurate. I will tease a bit and say that yes, the 'Chosen One' was already brought over, but they won't be affecting things for quite a while yet.

Guest #1 → I think this chapter will clear things up a little bit.. again, I'll spoil things a bit and say that Cieran isn't the kind of person who would cheat on Nyn. So while Rane might be crushing on him, she also knows there isn't anything happening so long as they're together. Now, whether or not they'll be able to stay that way remains to be seen.

Terraaa13 → I thought they could use some time in the spotlight. The possible dichotomy of what you see from their refugees in ME3, and a few of Balak's lines made me wonder if they weren't, at their core, very much a divided people that were both honorable yet savage in their own human-esque ways.

Ari989 → That one was a bit of a setup chapter.. and then so was this one. Dominoes should start to fall soon, promise. They pretty much have to if I'm going to have any chance to staying on my outline. :)

Guest #2 → Yes, eventually we will be getting to the actual ME storylines, though probably not in the manner you'd initially think. Do expect more main-line character cameos as the stories progress, more than that I'm not saying yet. :)

Puppystomper → Glad that you do, and I will. :)