AN- Thanks to Reikson and Drakepandragon ...
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Xander was on the planet less than five minutes before its most obviously visual traits began to grate on him. Broken and twisted wrecks of spacecraft from ages long forgotten covered the landscape.
"Over on your right you'll notice the charming vista of… crap. To your left we have the iconic view of… crap. Korlus, ladies and gentle-beings; your next vacation hotspot."
"I think it has a certain stark beauty," Morinth sighed. "The Elcor artist Forta does work very much like this."
Jacob snorted in spite of himself. "I grew up around ships like these. Dad spent most of his time on one ship or another for years. Well, before he disappeared, anyway."
Xander only scoffed. "At least your dad had the good grace to get lost BEFORE he could really screw you up. Trust me; no father is better than bad father any day of the week."
The former Corsair really didn't want to know what the wisecracking Tech Sergeant was talking about, so he stayed silent.
As they moved through the twisted hulks of metal dotting the landscape, they heard a loudspeaker crackle to life and a female voice yelled aloud, "There's only one measure of success! Kill or be killed!"
"Canned orders?" Jacob winced. "Who does that?"
"Ooh, I'm getting some major crazy vibes off this chick," Xander groaned. "I can hardly wait to see what this crazy bitch has up her sleeve."
"Lookout post ahead," Mordin hissed. "Undoubtedly ready for combat."
"Well, let's see if we can't accommodate them," Shepard sneered. "Xander, hang back and keep an eye on the good Doctor and Morinth. Jacob, you're with me; we can flank these idiots."
"Understood, ma'am."
The five-person squad hit the group of mercs hard, scattering the weaker troops and killing anyone stupid enough to not run at the sight of them. One of the Suns muscled a missile launcher onto his shoulder and fired it at Shepard.
Morinth saw him and her eyes blackened with powerful rage as she reached out with her flaring biotics and snatched the shell from the air.
"You won't have her!" Morinth growled, her eyes shimmering and black.
She reminded Xander of a junkyard dog; possessive, territorial, and every bit as dangerous when chained up as when set loose.
The Ardat-Yakshi hissed, "You hear me, little man? No one will ever touch her, especially not a pathetic telpish like you!"
Her biotic field seethed and pulsed and the rocket exploded, and the force of the blast hurled the soldier to the ground.
She fell to her knees, panting. Shepard ran over to her, looking her over carefully. "You all right, Morinth? You seem…"
"I'm fine, I just… the power to repel that explosion was draining."
"You did fine," the revived Slayer patted her on the shoulder before standing up. Xander was the only one of them who caught the look of lust and desire on Morinth's face as her fingers trailed across her shoulder where Shepard had touched her.
"Oh, yeah, THAT'S a look that brings back memories," Xander muttered to himself with a shudder. "Still… better the devil you know."
The Blue Suns trooper struggled up from where the exploding rocket had thrown his body.
Shepard strode up the young merc. She picked him up like he was a child, slamming his body up against the rusting hull of a defunct starship.
"All right, junior," Shepard said icily. "Are you going to make me ask? We both know that you're going to tell me what I want, one way or another."
She reinforced her point by bashing him against the ship hull before dropping him to the ground like a sack of garbage.
Jacob bristled. He wasn't a shrinking violet, and didn't balk at violence when it was necessary, but he had his limits and this rookie Suns trooper… "Ma'am, he's basically just a kid. An extremely scared and stupid kid at that."
"I don't know anything," the kid whined, grabbing at his leg where a fresh wound wouldn't stop bleeding.
His radio suddenly squawked. Zaeed's access to Blue Suns com-frequencies meant that both Shepard and Xander could hear every word. Mordin had already used his omni-tool in order to access the frequency, and helped both Jacob and Morinth do the same.
"Squad 2-7, status report!" the dispatcher barked. "Come in! Jedore wants to know if the doctor's dead yet! Come in, 2-7!"
Mordin blinked, musing aloud, "Appears mercenary more knowledgeable than would like to admit."
"Doctor Solus, I don't suppose that you have anything in your medical pack that would… persuade him?" Shepard asked.
"Of course. Numerous chemicals. Have personal favorite right here," the aging Salarian bent to inject something into the rookie's neck.
A minute later, the kid started patting himself. "It's hot… why am I burning?"
"Yes. Apologies. Injected chemical has acidic base," the former STG operative nodded knowledgeably. "Burning sensation is actually nerve clusters in skin liquefying."
Xander smiled thinly, a cold and heartless leer more than anything else. "I'd tell the man what he wants to know, if I were youKid. " he said. "I've actually seen what the Doc here did to some Blue Suns that pissed him off back on Omega… things did not end well for them. I don't see you doing any better."
The kid was obviously panicking, given the way his gaze kept darting back and forth between Shepard and her four squadmater.
For her part, the revived Slayer was impressed. Mordin, that mad scientist, certainly knew how to play to the audience. Xander certainly knew how to back the aging Salarian up in just the right way so that maximum psych-warfare was being delivered.
Mordin leaned over and injected the kid again. "May want to speak quickly now. Gave you ten CCs; usually, only five are required. Overdoses often fatal."
As the kid began to panic, his breath coming in short pants, the former STG agent then twisted the metaphorical knife. s"Might notice increasing shortness of breath. Seizures also common."
"Ma'am, is this really necessary?" Jacob demanded.
"One, this isn't your call, Taylor; it's mine," Shepard snapped, turning on the former Corsair with a hiss of irritation. "Two, he's holding valuable intel that's crucial to the completion of our mission."
Then the revived Slayer got into the biotic's face. "Three, this KID, as you call him, was going to kill us all only a few minutes ago when you used your biotics to slap him and the rest of his idiot brigade around."
"That was self-defense," he retorted. "Torturing prisoners seems a little excessive."
"The Krogan," the boy gasped, rendering the impending argument moot. "The old guy in the lab, he's been growing Krogan for Jedore! But there's something wrong with them. He tosses them and lets us use them for live ammo training."
"You're out hunting these test-tube Krogan?"
The trooper nodded, "Jedore wants us to take care of the doctor as well."
"What doctor?"
"That tiny mouthy chick, Burkle," the trooper muttered. "Jedore hates her so she got sent out here. Our orders are to arrange a… friendly fire incident."
"Well, that's not going to end well," Xander said dryly. "We have to find Illyria before she levels the place."
"Are we done here?" Shepard asked.
"Quite," Mordin replied, stepping away.
"Aren't you going to give him the cure?" Jacob asked.
The aging Salarian only held up the auto-injector as he said, "Nerve stimulant and medigel; neither are dangerous. Quite safe, really."
"You were messing with him?" Jacob gaped.
"Indeed, thank you for the help, Mister Harris," Mordin replied. "Your aid, as well, Mister Taylor. Tone of moral outrage in voice really helped to sell deception."
"Sorry, it's just… I heard about what you did on Omega and I thought…"
"Wait, you mean that I'm not gonna die?" the trooper asked.
The radio crackled to life again, just as Shepard and her squad was about to leave him to his own devices.
"Squad 2-7, we still can't find Burkle," the Blue Suns dispatcher barked. "Plus, the Krogan are off our screens. You got anything?"
"Central, Central, this is 2-7, we have hostiles-" the rookie began.
Mordin spun about quickly and pulled out an M-6 Carnifex pistol that barked once as he shot the rookie in the back of the head.
He'd reacted so quickly that Xander had only just seen him turn around, and only Shepard had seen the aging Salarian extend his pistol and actually shoot the rookie in the head.
Central's repeated requests for additional data and actionable intelligence went unanswered, even as the Normandy's insertion squad reacted to the sudden and impromptu execution.
Xander was unfazed by the scientist's ruthlessness.
Shepard just ran a hand through her dreadlocks, sighing to herself.
Morinth was openly appreciative of the impromptu execution.
Jacob, on the other hand, was somewhat more predictable; agape with shock and outrage.
"But… but you just healed him," the former Corsair sputtered. "You gave him medigel, you were helping him."
"Lots of ways to help people, Mister Taylor," Mordin shrugged, unfazed by the human biotic's indignant outrage. "Sometimes heal those in need, sometimes execute dangerous people. Either way helps."
The amusement on Morinth's face was obvious to everyone there. "Impressive, Doctor Solus," the Ardat-Yakshi murmured appreciatively. "You have hidden depths. It makes you all the more… intriguing."
"Let's move," Shepard snapped, at the end of her patience. "I want to get to Burkle before something bad happens to her."
"Or because of her," Xander snorted.
"Lead on, Commander," Morinth cooed. "I am yours to command. I will always be yours to command."
Jacob shook his head. "I've got a bad feeling about this," he mumbled.
Xander winced. "Jacob, buddy… if we're going to hang out with each other, then you've got to stop using THAT phrase."
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The squad hurried through the twisted wreckage, hoping to head off disaster BEFORE it reared its ugly head.
The sounds of battle, and the frenzied screaming of men that were clearly out of their depth, were all the warning that Team Normandy had before they rounded a corner and realized that they'd been far too late to stop trouble.
Xander caught sight of Illyria, clad in her usual red leather battle outfit and looking much as she had two years ago when she'd had run into him on Virmire while working for Saren.
Illyria stood next to a Krogan warrior, who was roaring as he fired an M-300 Claymore shotgun at distant foes. The humanized Old One had a hand held up in the air, generating a non-biotic Barrier with an ease and nonchalance usually associated with boredom.
Periodically, the hail of repelled weapons fire would abate and the primordial God-King would wave a hand through the air, tearing open a portal that revealed a group of frightened Blue Suns warriors looking off to the left or right.
Illyria would step through the portal and unleash seven kinds of Hell by picking up some of the men and throwing them around whilst punching others with just enough strength to knock out at least four teeth per blow.
Shepard's enhanced vision allowed her to grasp the sheer implausibility of what Illyria was doing; warping herself across to the far side of the battlefield before returning to stand with the Krogan in the span of a split-second of time.
She was all but bilocating herself to the unenhanced eye.
The Krogan warrior saw them and turned his weapon in their direction but hesitated. Illyria stepped back through her portal to regard them with suspicion.
"Waffles!" the Old One suddenly barked. "They're friendly," she said, pointing at the group.
The Krogan sniffed at them before responding in an odd, deep voice, "Friendly… No. Not friendly. But still… not like the others. I… I will wait."
Xander approached the two carefully. "You named a Krogan… Waffles?"
"Okeer did not imprint a name on it and I like this one," the forcibly-humanized God-King of the Primordium grunted.
"Smart enough to do as I command, without question, and obedient." She rubbed its head, where its head-plate would be attached, and it seemed to lean into her touch, like a cat looking for attention.
"He shall serve as a guardian to Rana," Illyria pronounced. "She tends to whine when there is violence."
"Considering the company she keeps, I wonder why?" Xander grumbled.
Illyria ignored him in favor of perusing Shepard with her usual unblinking stare, cocking her head to one side much like a bird as her electric-blue eyes assessed the revived Slayer with that usual unnerving air about her.
"You're awake now, and have become marginally less useless than when last we saw each other." She finally pronounced.
Shepard snorted reflexively. She remembered Illyria having a very black-and-white view on life and the world. To the God-King; if you did not have great power, then you were a pawn to be used and discarded by those who did have great power.
So her back-handed insult was actually her version of a begrudging compliment.
"Last time I saw you, you were working for an obsessed genocidal madman and now you're working for an obsessive genocidal Krogan warlord," the revived Slayer quipped.
Illyria's lips curled into an indecipherable expression. Finally, she said, "Okeer is not genocidal, but a megalomaniac."
Xander snorted. "Well, I guess that makes all the difference, doesn't it?"
"Such people are notoriously results-oriented," Illyria lectured them pompously. "I find it… refreshing… to deal with those who care so much about the bottom line that they can be flexible in deciding how one reaches it."
"What's Okeer doing here, anyway?" Sheaprd asked. "Why work for a loon like Jedore?"
"Jedore is a fool," Illyria sneered. "She desires an army of mindless slaves to do her bidding without question. A laudable goal, but she's barely capable of controlling her own madness."
"Not exactly the type that I could see being able to pull off a serious bid for world domination," Xander muttered.
"Perhaps Krogan knows way to reach lab," Mordin speculated, "preferably pathway that bypasses remaining Blue Suns resistance."
Shepard nodded as she turned to the unlikely duo of Old One and tank-bred.
"Illyria, do you think that you and… Waffles, was it? Can both of you guys get us to Okeer's lab? He made some sort of deal with the Collectors and I want to know as much about them as I can before I have to meet them in battle."
"Okeer's obsessive quest for the perfect Krogan has blinded him to everything else," Illyria sneered. "I barely needed to pretend to be Fred around him because he was so focused."
"The perfect Krogan?"
"You will see. Waffles, come. I grow tired of Jedore's idiocy. Time that I was rid of her."
The loudspeaker crackled to life. Jedore was obviously talking to someone in full rant, screaming, "What do you mean, they're still alive? It's only a few random soldiers and a useless doctor! Anyone can be killed if you do your damn jobs!"
"Ahh, yeah, Illyria, I don't think Jedore's just going to roll over and die," Xander observed.
"No, she won't roll over. She'll be more like a puppet with its strings cut," the Old One hissed, her lips curling into an alien leer of predatory anticipation.
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Shepard's Thoughts
It'd been two years since I'd last seen Illyria, and she was just as oddly terrifying as I remembered her.
On Korlus, she'd taken one of Okeer's rejected Krogan for a pet, naming it Waffles. She'd wanted it to keep Rana Thanoptis company while she went to town on the Blue Suns.
By the way, kids, important safety tip; don't ever declare war on a God. She won't like it.
Even if you are certifiably crazy, she's still going to wade through your army.
Plus, when Illyria the God-King of the Primordium says that she's going to show you your still-beating heart before she kills you, then you can be damn sure that she's going to show it to you and that it'll still be beating.
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Jedore's body crashed to the ground, as Illyria looked at the organ that she'd ripped out from the loud and annoying woman's chest.
"That was a great deal more satisfying than I had expected," she said coldly, carelessly tossing the organ to one side.
"If you're done tearing up the merc armies, can we go see Okeer now?"
Illyria only shook her head. "Jedore will have no doubt killed him by now. But his precious test subject will be here, if you would like to see it."
"What was he working on?" Shepard asked.
"Originally, he was working on a cure for his people's genetic sterilization. But he seemed to get it in his head that his people needed to be stronger."
"Genophage ensures only one in every thousand pregnancies, stillbirths are far more common. Perfect target; quite difficult to reach, let alone maintain." Mordin said aloud.
"The problem with that, however, is that not every surviving child should actually survive in a warrior culture," Illyria sneered at the elderly Salarian mad scientist. "The strongest alone are entitled to breed and thrive, but when there are so few that are actually born… all are saved, even those who should not be."
"So… what, is this Krogan of Okeer's immune to the genophage?" Shepard asked.
"Better by far," Illyria sniffed. "Okeer's magnum opus is immune to the inbred genetic weaknesses caused by the genophage."
At the collective expressions of mystified stupefaction on her audience's faces, she groaned and said, "The process is hard to describe in terms that a mind like yours could understand."
Then, upon noticing Xander, she called over to him. "You, the fool. Do you recall Serpentor?"
Xander gaped at the Old One, definitely understanding her reference. "Are you-? That's what he did?" he squawked.
"You understand what she's talking about, I assume," Shepard theorized dryly.
"Boss, Okeer took the DNA of some of the most-powerful and most-infamous Krogan warlords in galactic history and then mixed 'em up to create our little guy in the tank," the immortal Scooby sputtered, staring up at the tank-confined Krogan in awe. "This guy's gonna the living embodiment of everything that makes the Krogan feared across the galaxy."
"The ultimate Krogan warrior, huh?" Shepard echoed, looking up at the pod's tenant with longing in her eyes. "I could definitely use something like that."
"Dangerous mix of genetics. Could cause instability. Krogan… could be dangerous," Mordin warned, sniffing reflexively.
"No 'could be' about it, Doc, I'm hoping that's exactly what this guy will be," Shepard murmured appreciatively, her imagination already creating fantastic dream sequences of the tank-bred Krogan plowing through a Collector platoon all by himself.
"He'll be dangerous, lethal, and maybe… just maybe, it'll be something that the Collectors will never see coming, and aren't going to be prepared for," she giggled.
Xander watched the exchange before turning his attention back to Illyria.
"So, any chance we can get you to hang around?"
"What, you wish me to expend myself against the Old Machine's new slave race?"
"Old Machine slave race?" he parroted, frowning.
As if she realized something, she sighed. "What date is this?" the Old One demanded.
Xander informed her, and she hissed in annoyance.
"This is what comes when you insist on spending time with those who insist on living on a linear temporal pathway," Illyria snorted. "Suffice it to say that my advice to you is to convince the witch to accompany you. Her skills are undiminished."
"The witch? You mean Willow? What's she got to do with this?"
Illyria's lips only curled into a brittle smirk, the closest expression to amusement that he could ever remember her affecting. "If you don't find your spirit in time, boy, then your precious Commander will never find her heart's desire."
"Find my spirit? Now I know that you're talking about Willow, where is she?"
"It is as the Turian says, Alexander; do things right or do them not at all. You must follow the order of things; find the assassin, he will lead you to the witch, the witch will save the Commander's heart's desire, and the answer to your question is yes."
"But I haven't asked you anything."
"I know and it will be bothersome, but… yes, I will take care of Cordelia."
With that, she opened another one of her teleport-wrinkles and disappeared.
Xander could only watch as she disappeared with Waffles the Krogan.
8
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Later, on the Normandy, Shepard looked up at the young Krogan suspended in the weird nutrient chemical bath.
Tapping on the glass, Xander stood beside her and said, "I still can't believe the Old Guy threw his life away for THIS."
"A baby Krogan," Shepard mused. "I wonder what's so important about him? Well, other than what we learned from Illyria, anyway…"
Xander rubbed his hands together. "Well, there's one way we can find out."
"Cerberus protocols concerning unknown, and possibly dangerous, scientific technology are quite clear," EDI reminded them both.
"These would be the same protocols that you guys were following when you were experimenting with Husks and the Rachni," Xander pointed out.
"Technically, it was lack of adherence to those protocols that lead to the accidents that you are doubtlessly referring to."
Shepard snickered.
"Did I just get burned by a computer?" Xander sputtered. "I have no response to that."
"I do," Shepard replied. "EDI, no offence, but I won't be second-guessed on my ship by my ship."
"Of course, Commander, the controls are yours." EDI paused. "As are the consequences."
Xander gaped. "Okay, never mind her burning ME, I think that she just called you out on your shit. EDI just totally called you on your shit, that's amazing."
Shepard just shook her head. As fascinating as she might find EDI's evolutions in behavior, she had a more-immediate crisis to deal with.
She keyed in the pod's activation code and watched as the pod bubbled to life and cycled through several modes. The contents of the pod began draining out through its bottom as the door of the pod hissed open.
The Krogan was carrying a fair amount of bulk. Unlike his matured brethren, this Krogan's skull plate was a series of grayish pebbled segments that were quite unlike the solid plate that was seen on most Krogan.
He wore a set of armor, bone-white in color.
"How the hell did they get him inside that armor?" Xander muttered.
The baby Krogan dropped to the floor, coughing up a thick viscous slime as Xander approached him slowly.
"Hey, there, big guy. Can you understand me? We're all friends, no need to do anything violent," he coaxed. The Krogan boy only looked around in confusion and then at Xander, scrunching up his face in a confused scowl.
"I'm… not sure he understands what I'm saying," the immortal Scooby muttered.
"The rest of Okeer's test subjects could understand and speak galactic standard, why not him?"
Suddenly the Krogan lashed out, batting Xander aside and hurling him into the glass window overlooking the shuttle bay, cracking it but not breaking it.
He moved fast, charging Shepard and hitting her with the force of a pick-up truck.
Gritting her teeth and snarling with effort, Shepard slid back several feet before digging in and arching her back, carrying the Krogan over her head with a roar of triumph and slamming it down upon the deck HARD.
Flipped herself over the Krogan, she brought the hard-light construct of her omni-blade to bear, its blade hovered inches away from the Krogan's throat.
"Human. Female," the young Krogan rumbled, its voice a deep bass that made her teeth rattle. "Before I die, I need a name."
"Commander Shepard," the revived Slayer hissed, raising her omni-blade back in preparation for a killing thrust.
"Not your name, mine," the young Krogan shook his head. "I have been defeated. If I am not the strongest, then my death is to be expected. But I need to know who I am, and what I am."
Shepard paused, "You ...you want a ... name?" She asked.
"Okeer's imprints are hollow. They have no meaning and they are obviously wrong."
"How do you know they're wrong?"
"It says humans are weak, yet you conquered me with little difficulty," the young Krogan rumbled coolly. "If Okeer is wrong about humans, then I can trust nothing that I saw in the tank because he may have been wrong about other things as well."
Shepard paused. If her time with Wrex and, later, the Patriarch had taught her anything at all, it was that the Krogan valued strength above all other things.
But they didn't just value strength of arms. If she wanted this baby Krogan's respect, then she'd have to earn it the hard way. So she resorted to taunting.
"Okeer's great Krogan warrior lies grubbing on the floor because of a single defeat?" she sneered.
"I had victory over the male," the young Krogan growled. "He was weak."
"Are you sure?" she asked coolly, gesturing behind her with a nod of her head. "Look at him. Does he seem defeated?"
The Krogan looked past her and saw Xander standing several feet away, looking unharmed and with an M-5 Phalanx heavy pistol in hand.
"I struck you as hard as I could," the Krogan rumbled, confused. "You should not be able to move."
"Yeah, well, trust me when I say that I've been hit harder," the immortal Scooby said, shrugging. When Shepard stared back at him, somewhat incredulous, he said, "I've been hit by the warhammer of a troll god and lived to tell the story. I think that I can handle being smacked around by some Krogan grunt."
"Grunt…" the young Krogan suddenly murmured. Shepard turned to regard the heavy-hitting alien berserker as it continued. "That was amongst Okeer's last words. It has no meaning to me. It'll do. I am Grunt. Now, Shepard, strike Grunt down and end this. If I am not the strongest, then what am I for?"
"Maybe I should strike you down, boy," she sneered. As Grunt's bluish eyes glared back at her, she added, "You do realize that there's at least three ways for you to break my hold and attack me. You had at least six ways to gain the advantage over the both of us before you rushed blindly to attack me before you were prepared. Know your enemy and you will win about half the time. Know your enemy AND yourself, and you will win most times."
"I know neither myself nor my enemy," Grunt rumbled. "What else can you tell me?"
"I thought you wanted to die. Didn't you give up after your first defeat?"
Grunt's hand latched onto a deck plate and swung it up at Shepard's head, forcing her to roll out of the way. The revived Slayer landed on her hands, thrusting upwards with enough strength to explode off the ground and land a fierce drop-kick to the Krogan's chest, even as the young male was rising from the deck. He fell backwards, crashing to the deck floor even as Shepard stood over him.
"You are stronger and faster than you ought to be," the young Krogan rumbled, awestruck and wary. "Are all humans as you are, or are you special?"
Shepard snorted. "A good question. One that you should've asked BEFORE you attacked us both. Knowledge is…" she seemed to be reaching for a right turn of phrase.
Xander shook his head. "Knowing is half the battle," he winced.
Grunt's eyes brightened. "Knowing is half the battle… yes, that is wise. Knowledge makes you stronger. With strength comes victory," the young Krogan rumbled.
"To be as powerful and skilled as you are… your enemies must be powerful indeed," he mumbled speculatively, his nostrils dilating in anticipation.
"My enemies threaten galaxies," Shepard sneered, crossing her arms. "Those who fight at my side, even the weakest, have proven themselves against the most dangerous of foes."
"Then I wish to test myself against such enemies," said Grunt.
"We'll see if you're worthy of such battles soon enough, boy," Shepard snapped. "In the meantime, you need food. After that, let's get you some proper weapons."
The Normandy's cook, Mess Sergeant Rupert Gardner, was freaking out a little. He was already struggling to keep up with the various demands of a ship filled with humans and a growing amount of aliens. Now he had to feed a baby Krogan who seemed to possess a bottomless stomach in addition to his incredible strength and imprinted skills.
As Grunt continued to scarf down fourth helpings of Gardner's calamari gumbo surprise, Xander surreptitiously poked Shepard and hissed, "Are you sure that the whole 'establishing dominance' thing was the right way to handle Grunt? I mean, he's just a little volatile."
"He's strong, and he's fast," Shepard shrugged. "Give him time and he might even be as good as Wrex."
"Thems be fighting words, you know," Xander snorted. "Wrex'd snap this kid in two."
"I need all the help I can get. One of the names on my Dossier list is a master assassin."
But Xander only snorted inelegantly. "Do you know how many 'master assassins' that I had to put down in my time on Omega? Trust me, boss, every Tom, Dick, and Harry with custom body armor and some skill think they're a master assassin."
"His name is Thane Krios," Shepard said, rolling her eyes.
As Xander suddenly choked on the water that he'd just been drinking, "Wait did you say Th- Thane Krios?" he sputtered. "The Thane Krios?"
"You've heard of him, I take it," Shepard deduced aloud. "Wait, is this guy going to be a problem? Is HE after you?"
"Boss, the people who could afford Thane Krios' very large fee generally tend to be the kind of people that he won't work for anymore," Xander marveled. "Guy's got a personal code."
Noticing that she looked puzzled, Xander explained. "Guy's all over C-Sec files, I found out about him from Garrus. Apparently, Thane started out by killing for the Hanar Illuminated Primacy back in the day, but eventually went freelance. About ten years back, though, rumor says that he went on some big crusade that took out a bunch of big names in the galactic slaver underground."
"Is he good?"
"Is he good, she asks," Xander rolled his eyes. "Boss, this guy's like the David Copperfield of assassins. Nobody can figure out how he pulls off his hits, he's gotten into some of the most secure buildings in the galaxy, and made kills that'd be impossible for anybody else."
"Well, buildups like that means that I have to meet this guy," the revived Slayer shrugged, rolling her neck. "The dossier says that he's been on Illium for some time. If he's on Illium, then that means that we can look up some old friends while we're there."
As she turned to walk away, Xander pressed a hand to her hip to stop her. She shot him a warning glance, but he only looked past her and said, "Just so you know ahead of time, boss, Liara's… kinda focused these days. I'm warning you right now; you might not get the heartfelt reunion that you've been hoping for."
With his ominous words issued in warning, he headed towards the elevator. She noticed a grim and weathered expression on the immortal Scooby's face, a rare and uncharacteristic demeanor for him.
Something big had happened with Liara, something that Xander had seen happen and didn't like. Now that she thought about it… back on Omega, both Garrus and Kasumi had indicated something big was going on with Liara.
Now she was officially worried.