Author's Note: GUESS WHAT CAME OVER A WEEK EARLY! That's right my lovely readers, it's my laptop! Hopefully I will be able to update much more frequently and with much less spelling errors now. I have already run the chapters I posted when I was using my 360 to post and corrected the alarming amount of errors spellcheck found. Thank you so incredibly much for your patience. Without further ado, I give you parts 1-3 of Chapter 21 (apologies to those who have already read part one). Brace yourself it's a long one.

Chapter 21: Curiosities and Quarians

As they wound their way to Thane's mysterious restaurant of choice, the low growling coming from Shepard's hungry belly became increasingly pronounced. Just as she thought she was at the end of her rope, he guided her down a tiny side street at the end of which stood a low unmarked doorway. Bowing slightly, the drell stood next to the entrance, gesturing for her to enter as he stooped to brush the collection of worn, colorful curtain's that acted as the door aside to reveal the dark and smoky restaurant within.

It was unlike any place Shepard had even been in, with what seemed to be an open food preparation area with a low, rectangular area in the center of the room. larger, slightly higher rectangles framed the kitchen forming steps that progressed outward toward the 8 or so booths that lined the walls. At least she thought they were booths from the little she could see through the thick curtains composed of hanging strings of carved wooden beads that ripped in the slight breeze brought by their entrance.

As Shepard took in her new and exotic surroundings, a tall, thin quarian emerged from one of the side booths. She moved gracefully in the light of the smoldering oil lamps that adorned the walls, capturing Shepard's attention immediately. In addition to the simple mantle and suit Tali had told her many adult quarians opted to wear she was draped in yards of intricately embroidered shimmering fabric. The entire outfit reminded Shepard of the Indian sari one of her friends from the Alliance had once worn to a formal dinner.

The quarian inclined her helmeted head towards the drell as she noticed Thane and headed immediately towards them, the bells encircling her narrow wrists and ankles tinkling softly at each precise step.

"Ah! If it isn't our good friend Krios back for a visit," she said when she reached them. "It is so good to see you again, it has been far too long." Shepard was surprised to find that the voice, although elegant and pleasing, belonged to an older woman of perhaps fifty. Thane smiled gently, clasping his hands gently behind his back and bowed in his customary manner.

"Indeed it has, Nora'Rima. I am glad to see you are doing as well as ever," he replied, gesturing at the largely occupied booths. "How is Tsala'Naru? Is she here?"

"No actually, she has already departed on her pilgrimage. I may have chosen a life outside of the flotilla, but my daughter must make her own choice as to what is best for her." Thane nodded his agreement.

"If only more parents were as wise as you, Nora,the galaxy would be a better place for it."

"Nonsense," she said swatting at his shoulder,"I'm just doing my best for her, same as any mother would. But Krios, you seem to have forgotten your manners. Miss Shepard I presume?" she said laughing lightly at Shepard's raised eyebrows as she turned to the Commander standing awkwardly at Thane's side.

"Did you think a simple chef would not recognize the savior of the Citadel when she saw her? I should think not. Well, Welcome to The Pika's Den. Nora' Rima ka Lhya, at your service. Folks around here just call me Nora, feel free to do the same." She reached out and took the armored hand Shepard held numbly out to her and shook it in the manner of the usual human greeting.

"What brings you to us on this fine evening?"Nora asked.

"Shepard was looking for a good place to eat as it is her first time on Illium so she asked me to show her around. And after all, no tour of Nos Astra would be complete without trying your delicious cooking. I don't suppose we could impose upon you to squeeze us in?" Nora scoffed and waved away his politeness.

"The man who saved my daughter's life needs no reservations. By all means come, you must be famished." She herded them into an open booth, deftly pulling aside the beaded curtain to reveal a
rather surprising set up.

Before then lay a sizable fire pit, complete with smoldering coals and actually wooden logs (though their color seemed a bit strange). Around the fire, many large and brightly colored cushions were arranged; it was towards these that their hostess gestured.

"Please make yourselves at home. I'll be back in a minute to find out what you'd like to eat but until then what would you like to drink? Your usual tea Krios?" Thane nodded. "And for you, my dear? Perhaps some water or a nice soft drink?" While usually Shepard would have jumped at the chance to have a nice glass of cold water after a good fight, something about the quarian's assumption awakened the human's competitive streak.

"Actually, I'd like to try some of what he's having. Thane has such remarkable taste and you only live once after all (well, twice in my case, she corrected herself mentally)." She smiled sweetly. "Yes, I think some tea would hit the spot." Surprised but too polite to comment, Nora nodded.

"Very well, I'll be with you shortly," she said, sharing a look of mild amusement with the enigmatic assassin before ducking out of the booth to leave them in private.

Determined not to be outdone, Shepard crossed the small room and plopped herself down in front of the fire, doing her best to get comfortable despite the restrictions of her armor. Thane moved and sat across the fire from her, settling in with his usual infuriating smoothness as he watched her,mischief twinkling in the depths of his large midnight eyes. It gave her pause, to be sure, but not enough to prompt her to question him as to the cause.

"So 'Krios'", she said with a flair, mimicking the quarian's odd pronunciation of his name, "How does an assassin come to save the life of a little quarian girls?" He blinked slowly, giving her a rare glimpse of his second lids as they opened out of sync with his out ones as he seemed to consider how to answer her.

"Perhaps there is more to this particular assassin than meets the eyes, Siha," he answered carefully. Shepard laughed.

"Of that I am sure , but that does not answer my question." Thane shifted on his cushions before sighing his acquiescence, frowning slightly.

"There was the small matter of... retrieving her daughter from a group of Eclipse mercenaries. Back then Nora' Rima had a small booth in the markets where she sold her food, but it had been a difficult year all throughout Illium and she had been unable to come up with what the gangs leader at the time felt was a 'suitable amount of credits to cover the protection of your livelihood and precious family'." Shepard could hear a growing rumble emanating from his chest like distant thunder as his lip curled up in disgust revealing a single perfect row of unusually sharp eye teeth.

"To prove that they meant business and to try and squeeze more money out of Nora they kidnapped Tsala... tied her up and threatened to do... unspeakable things to her." For a moment Shepard thought she saw the glint of a pair of long, slightly hooked fangs, but the thunder stopped abruptly and Thane seem to return to the present, blinking rapidly before reaching forward to add more wood to the fire.

"I was already in the area, hunting on of the gangs ranking members. I merely 'took care' of the problem and returned Tsala home to her mother." The finality with which he said it as he gave the embers one last fierce poke, stirring them back to life, caused a shiver to run down Shepard's spine.

"...I see..." she stammered, desperately trying to think of a way to change the subject as she stared down at her hands, playing with the clasps on her gauntlets until the movement caught his eye. He waved her off slightly.

"Do not worry Siha, it is in the past. Tsala and her mother are safe now, and with the money I recovered during my mission they were able to start this place. They are happy, and that is what matters. We, on the other hand, need to decide what we want to eat before Nora returns or I for one will not be responsible for the consequences. Unless of course, you have changed your mind and are no longer hungry," he said, the glint of mischief reappearing, if somewhat diminished, in his eyes. The Commander shook her head emphatically.

"Not at all. It's just, I don't know what they serve here and I have yet to see a menu anywhere."

"There are none," he said evenly, amusement creeping into his deep voice.

"Ah, of course. Well then, it appears you have me at a disadvantage." the hungry biotic's exasperation were starting win out over her desire to maintain control as she worked her jaw in annoyance. "Perhaps YOU should decide what to order then, since you are the expert."

"On the contrary, Siha, it is your beauty which puts me at a disadvantage." His keen eyes glittered as he held her shocked gaze and he seemed, just for a moment to have dropped all pretense and removed his assassin's mask. Sadly for Shepard, it was not to last as the drell cleared his throat and continued on as though he had said nothing out of the ordinary, "...but I will order for us if you wish." Still reeling from his momentary lapse, the Commander blushed furiously. Damn that infernal composure of his, he was going to be the death of her.

Thankfully, a rap on the post that framed the beaded entrance to their private booth gave Shepard the moment she needed to regain her composure before their hostess reappeared carrying a beautifully carved rectangular tray with two small cups, a pretty jade tea pot, to clear glasses and a pitcher of water.

"Just in case either of you wants a change of pace," Nora said reassuringly as she unfolded a leg from each corner of the wooden tray forming a short table which she set down between them beside the fire. "Have you two decided what you would like to eat?" she asked, looking back and forth between them.

"The Commander has granted me the privilege of ordering for us tonight, Nora, but first, I was wondering, do you have any of my favorites in stock currently?"

"Why yes, Krios, we do, several in fact."

"An order of each please, and if you have any new levo dishes, we would like to try those as well."

"I'd be honored," the quarian said, bowing gracefully. "Will there be anything else?"

"No thank you, that's all for now."

"Alright. I'll bring everything out as soon as it's ready." Thane nodded and Nora slipped off to prepare what apparently was going to be quite a feast, though considering both she and Thane were biotics, Shepard very much doubted that there would be much left over.

With Nora gone, Shepard felt Thane's attention turn, once again, to her. Deciding to make the most of the wait before they would be busy eating (full mouths not being the most useful for talking clearly), she decided it was time she brought Thane up to speed on the reason for her visit.

"I suppose it's time I explained why I'm here," she began, sighing with apprehension when he nodded his agreement. "I've already told you about how I was killed in the attack on the Normandy over two years ago, but as you can see, my story doesn't end there. Have you ever heard of the organization known as Cerberus?" She watched his face darken subtly as he shifted on his cushions before carefully answering.

"By reputation..." Shepard swallowed, feeling even more ashamed than usual of all that she owed the less than squeaky clean group; she was suddenly very tired.

"I am well aware of the shadiness of their reputation. I am, after all, the one who filed the reports with the Alliance exposing the sick experiments that I discovered during my hunt for Saren." She took a moment to swallow the bile that rose in her throat at the memory of the twisted forms of the humans warped beyond recognition after falling into the hands of the Alliance back op gone rogue. She took a long drink of water before continuing her story.

"Under normal conditions, I would sooner kill any Cerberus agent who tried to get their grimy little paws on me and lay waste to all of their little 'projects' than let myself fall into their hands, but when they recovered my body I'm told I was little more than some charred meat and bones found in the middle of no where on some obscure planet." She closed her eyes as hot tears began to prick at their corners, determined to maintain control. She took a deep breath before once again opening them to stare into the smoldering fire.

"It took them two long years, the best medical science had to offer, and millions of credits, over 4 million supposedly, to revive me, but even then I awoke too soon," her long, agile fingers reached up to trace the ghost of the scars that had once covered her face, "I wasn't ready... I wasn't finished." She was grateful for her dinner partner's patience as she paused to collect her thoughts.

"The first time woke up early, two of their agents were there and they were able to put me back to sleep to finish reconstructing my body. The second, I found myself alone in a room on a station under siege with the same Cerberus agent that had stood over my body the first time I awoke shouting instructions at me over the intercom. It hurt to blink let alone move, and I still wasn't finished, but I managed to stumble to the nearby weapons locker and amidst the blaring alarms and bright lights of the lab I donned the suit of armor I found there."

"I still had the use of some of my biotics, though it seemed it would be some time before they were at the level they had been before my death, but I also managed to secure a weapon, a M-3 Predator heavy pistol to be precise, that was still in working order. The woman's voice shouted at me to take cover, and I barely managed to to dive behind a nearby crate before an explosion rocked the room. I made it out the door relatively unscathed, and inserting the thermal clip I found discarded net to the body of a dead agent outside of the lab into my newly acquired gun, I vaulted over a makeshift barricade to survey my strange surroundings."

"It was chaos really, the bodies of dead Cerberus operatives were scattered across the station covered fires and explosions. The rogue security mechs were constantly attacking me, but with the female agent's voice on my comms guiding me, I managed to fight my way through room after room managing to pick up a grenade launcher on the way. Suddenly, the woman's transmissions began to sputter and die out, leaving me on my own as I wandered through the empty labs." Shepard's voice, which had remained level and monotonous through her monologue, wavered momentarily as she continued.

"As I moved forward, I found some audio logs that belonged to the researchers Miranda and Wilson. I listened as they prattled on about the difficulties of rebuilding me and the exorbitant cost while I hacked open a nearby safe recovering the credits I knew I would need if I ever wanted to be self sufficient. I watched from the other side of bullet proof windows as heavy mechs advanced on some of the remaining lab techs, mowing them down as they screamed, one of them calling out my name and reaching out to me as he fell dead." She shuddered.

"It wasn't long after that that I came across another Cerberus agent, Jacob Taylor, fighting off waves of mechs from across a chasm. I found, conveniently enough, that he was both a biotic and a soldier like myself and while he was surprised to see me, he gave me a brief summary on how I'd gotten there and promised to fill me in on what was going on once we managed to get to a shuttle. He was skilled enough, and good at following orders, so we made quick work of the remaining mechs before taking a moment to catch our breaths."

"The first chance I got, I questioned him about my crew. He said that aside from a few service people and Navigator Pressley who I already knew had died in the initial attack, the rest of the crew, including the non-Alliance members were alive. Relieved, I turned to the more pressing matters at hand. He told me that while I had only been 'meat and tubes' when he first saw me, I was largely my same old self, plus a few cybernetic enhancements to aid my recovery. After that he introduced himself, explaining that he was a former Alliance soldier, now Miranda's top lieutenant in charge of the station's security. When I asked him about Miranda, he informed me that her full name was Miranda Lawson, ranking officer and agent in charge of my recovery through what Cerberus called "The Lazarus Project". No, he didn't know what was going on, but he suspected an insider had hacked all the mechs, turning them hostile."

"I had just suggested we get moving when a call came over our comms. It was the doctor, Wilson, who Jacob explained was the chief medical tech under Miranda, and while he too was surprised at my consciousness, he told Jacob that they needed to get me out of there and to the shuttles. Following the directions he gave us over the radio, we entered the next room in which we found yet more security mechs. Jacob ordered the doctor to find us another route, but before he could finish, we heard Wilson call out that the mechs had found him. We ran towards his position as his panicked cries filled our ears, bursting through the doors to find him sprawled on the floor with a bullet wound in his leg."

"I grabbed some medi-gel from a nearby dispenser and applied it to the injury before helping him to his feet. After he thanked me, Wilson explained that he had been trying to return the mechs to normal when he had been attacked. Jacob didn't believe his story, however and questioned him further, causing them to waste time bickering about whose fault this was. I, on the other hand, didn't trust either of them and just wanted to get to safety and said as much, with which the both of them agreed. Despite Wilson's insistence that Miranda was beyond our help, Jacob didn't want to leave without her behind, and I was loath to abandon the person who had worked so hard to save me." Thane's breath hitched as his Siha's eyes raised to meet his own, seeming to reach out to him. "I don't make a habit of leaving my debts un-repaid, regardless of the circumstances under which I may have incurred them..." His heart raced at the look she was giving him, and he began to move to sit at her side.

"Siha... I-"

"Please!" she interrupted, holding up a hand for him to stop, "let me finish." He hesitated for a moment, but gave in to her request, lowering himself back down into his seat.

"They were still arguing when another wave of mechs came crashing through the door. Jacob called for Wilson to use his tech abilities to overload the barrels of fuel near the doorway and the robots exploded in a rain of metallic bits. It was then that Jacob decided it would be a good idea to throw a wrench in everything and tell me who they worked for."

"Cerberus," her drell companion dead-panned.

"Yeah... it wasn't exactly a convenient time to be suddenly confronted with a moral dilemma being as how we were already fighting for our lives, and my exposure of them during my fight against Saren made things awkward at best. I said as much but Jacob argued that they had brought me back when the Alliance had left me for dead, which I guess is fair enough but still... Jacob promised that once we got out of there, he would take me to the Illusive Man, the one in charge of their whole organization, and I would get some answers. But all of that didn't really matter unless we survived, so we continued to fight our way through the station until we finally reached the shuttle."

"It wasn't the doctor turning out to be the traitor that surprised me, I had never had trusted any of them, it was more the way that as soon as she saw him as the doors to the shuttle bay opened, she shot him between the eyes. Jacob was livid, but Miranda was unfazed. She said he had betrayed them, sabotaged their systems and killed her staff, and that she was 'never wrong'."

"Some things never change, she's still like that. She even had the nerve to chastise Jacob for coming clean with me about who they were. When I tried to suggest we help any remaining survivors, she just brushed me off, saying that the only one worth saving was me... that everyone else..." she swallowed the lump in her throat, "that everyone else was expendable." While he could see his brave Commander was hurting, he privately thanked the gods for the Cerberus woman's insistence on saving her. Without Shepard, he would still be asleep, still killing without thought for who or why. He was brought back to the present by the crack of a log as it split and fell, throwing up a tiny shower of sparks as it joined the rest of the embers.

"Even after we boarded the shuttle, Miranda wouldn't leave me to my thoughts. She kept questioning me, 'to evaluate my condition' and to 'make sure my personality and memories were intact' she said. They even brought up Virmire, where I had to leave one of my crew-mates behind..." Thane looked up from the fire. While he had read reports that Shepard had been a part of the strike against Saren on Virmire, he hadn't taken particular notice of any such event as it hadn't been relevant at the time. He made a mental note to look into what had happened.

"They did inform me that the Council had accepted my nomination of Captain Anderson as humanity's representative on the Council, and that he was currently serving in that capacity. I was glad that someone I could trust was somewhere out there making a difference, but I still felt a bit guilty for selling my friend and father out to a life of political games and making nice with diplomats."

"Forgive me Shepard, but I wasn't aware that Anderson was our father," Thane said, a look of mild confusion on his face. "Your files didn't mention your parents..." he trailed off as Shepard shook her head gently at him.

"He isn't, not really, but Anderson took me under his wing after I joined the Alliance. Before that, I was on my own." Thane hummed sympathetically but did not press her further, for which she was grateful.

"Anyways Jacob, Miranda, and I arrived at the other Cerberus station without incident and I went to get answers from the so called Illusive Man straight away. Apparently he couldn't even be bothered to meet face to face, instead I found myself standing on a holo vid sender while I talked to some sort of virtual rendering of him sitting in front a rather overly dramatic background. He gave me some bull shit line about people like us needing to take extra precautions, whatever that means, but all I really cared about was getting answers anyway so I played along with it."

"He tried to make nice, asking how I was feeling, saying he was glad to see my memory was still intact, but I wasn't fooled, I told him he needed to earn the right to ask me those kinds of questions. He of course, went off on some sort of tangent about how Cerberus wasn't as evil as I thought, how we were on the same side but just had different methods. He said we were at war and that while nobody wants to do anything about it but that we were under attack. He told me that while I was 'sleeping', someone or some things had been abducting entire colonies of humans, and he believed it to be the work of agents of the Reapers and that he chose he because I had bested them before."

"I asked him why Cerberus was involving itself in a war, he said that they were committed to the advancement and preservation of humanity and that if the Reapers were targeting us or trying to wipe us out, Cerberus would stop them because no one else would get the job done, certainly not the Alliance or the politicians on the Citadel. He told me hundreds of thousands of colonists had vanished, but no one was paying attention because it appeared random and was occurring in remote locations. Later on, we found out it was this other rather, the Collectors, who were responsible. He said he had brought me back to fight for humanity once again as a symbol of humanity and hope. He..." Thane could see Shepard's armored hands curl into fists as she stared down at them. "He practically accused me of bringing humanity to their attention by killing Sovereign..."The assassin felt a low growl vibrating through his ridged throat.

"If colonists are disappearing, Shepard, I am sure it is no fault of yours." He said firmly as he looked at her with his jet black eyes.

"But they are! I've seen it! First I saw the empty settlement of Freedom's Progress, and if that wasn't enough I was THERE on Horizon! I watched helplessly as a Collector ship with almost half the colony on it flew off and there was nothing I could do but scream." Pain and sadness were etched into every line of her beautiful face as she grasped at her hair and rang her hands in dismay. "Thane, I failed them..."

"No Siha, from the sounds of it, it would seem to me that you managed to save many, to once again succeed where others had failed."

"But I wasn't fast enough! If only I had gotten there sooner..." a tear slid her cheek and he longed to brush it away but he remained still, knowing she would not accept his comfort, at least not yet.

"You did all you could, and that is what matters," he said softly, "and in the end, you will be victorious, I am sure of it."

"Not alone, " she said, her voice no longer quivering but instead, full of meaning. "I am gathering a team, the best of the best, to fight the Collectors. I have already found a fair amount of specialists, but we aren't nearly ready... I'm not used to asking favors of others, particularly those I barely know," she said blushing slightly in the low light of the fire, "but I want you on my team Thane. I need your help if I am to succeed." Thane smiled at the Commander's bashfulness, so uncharacteristic of the way they portrayed in the vids, yet he found the rosy tint it brought to her cheeks so incredibly fetching.

"You need only have asked, Siha. I will gladly join you," he said confidently, tilting his head slightly to watch her reaction. He was not disappointed. The Commander's eyebrows flew up in surprise and she stuttered for a moment before regaining her train of thought.

"I don't think you understand what I'm asking here," Shepard said, gently biting her lower lip in consternation. "This mission, defeating the Collectors and hopefully retrieving the missing colonists... it would require passing through the Omega 4 relay." He only chuckled, the sound tickling her ears and deepening her blush.

"Indeed. I am familiar with the Collectors, by reputation at least."

"But no ship that has tried to pass through there has ever returned!" she argued, desperation beginning to seep into her voice as she tried to impress upon him the seriousness of her undertaking.

"I am aware," he said simply.

"Then why would you risk everything to join us?!" she exclaimed, confused and concerned that perhaps she failing to explain herself clearly. Not 'us', YOU, Thane thought to himself, but did not say aloud.

"It is difficult to explain, Siha, perhaps one day I will be able to tell you. For now, know that I will work for you Shepard, no charge. Until either the mission is successful or I no longer draw breath, my gun is yours."

And with that, the Assassin had been recruited.

I hope you liked this chapter, it was a bitch to write. Sorry if it's a little redundant for those who have played ME 2 recently but I hope I managed to make it at least peripherally enjoyable. Please review, comment, or PM if you have the time!