I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE BELOW CHARACTERS 'CEPT THE WANDERER AND ALL OTHER CHARACTERS / NAMES BELONG TO BIOWARE
Sorry for the long wait, school just finished and so I will be updating much faster.
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"Crashing a party?" he said looking down at a data-pad. "Now that's something I have not done in many, many years..." His voice trailed as his eyes scanned the pad in front of him. "I suppose this was included in the data Aria sent you?"
"Correct. The Eclipse leader, Dominic Solis, is holding a gathering at one of his villas." Shepard said excitedly. "He's invited all major investors of the revamped Eclipse group. Were talking about a bunch of rich bad-guys in one room. Not only will it give us a chance to find out who this guy is, but there's a good chance we can find out what they were hiding back at those refineries. We're killing two birds with one stone and looking spiffy while doing it. Of course I need someone to talk to the man besides me. I can get through security, but a face to face conversation is obviously out of the question." She paused for a breath. "So what do you think? Can you handle taking the Commander out on a date?" she said with a smirk.
"What I think?" he looked up. "I think no sane man would pass up the opportunity to take THE Jane Shepard on a fancy date. When is all this happening?"
"In a few of days. We're stopping by the Citadel quickly to get some appropriate clothes. Kasumi can help setting up our alias's and the rest is up to us. I would take a look at some of Dominic's background info while you have the time. He has quite the history."
"Will do Shepard."
.
"There he comes now"
The Wanderer stepped through the doors to the briefing room. He was cleanly shaven, hair cut, and impeccably dressed. A dress suit custom tailored to meet his tall muscular stature, it was midnight black and modeled after a 21th century earth style at his request. His deathly pale skin from when he had first boarded the Normandy had now warmed to a darker shade and his emerald eyes sharply contrasted with his attire. He was striking; the ladies on board found themselves staring and their imaginations spinning.
"Looking classy man."
The Wanderer turned to see Jacob and Garrus nearby.
"Thank you gentlemen," he said as he adjusted his cuffs, "have either of you seen the Commandan..."
Commander Jane Shepard entered the room followed by some of the Normandy's female crew squealing behind her. All at once the air was filled with whistles and drool. She had her hair done, hands manicured, some light makeup (at kasumi's request), and a skin-tight black dress that left nothing to the imagination.
Thane blinked a few times. "Oh.."
Garrus' mandibles fluttered in surprise. "My.."
Jacobs mouth was hanging open. "Sweet..Mother..of..."
She rolled her eyes but couldn't hide her grin. "Guys, pick your jaws off the floor and your eyes off my chest unless you want a missing tooth and a black eye."
Joker averted his eyes thinking of his brittle bones, but gave into temptation and then looked back. Garrus completely forgot about calibrations. Jacob could be heard saying "the priiiiize...". Mordin was indifferent as usual. Only Thane and the Wanderer kept their composure, although giant smiles were shamelessly plastered on their faces.
"Jane, might I say you look absolutely divine this evening." He stepped forward, and with the grace of gentleman, bowed forward and kissed the back of her hand.
Shepard was take aback by the gesture; a life in the military left little time for courtship.
"My, my, flattery will get you anywhere. You're looking quite sharp yourself you know. You should wear this stuff more often."
"Forgive me, but I can't see myself raiding a mercenary base wearing a tux. Imagine if footage surfaced on the extranet?" He laughed softly and ran a hand through his hair. "Lets go over the details again, just to be sure."
"Alright. Your name is Solomon Farren. You're the head of Cryptox Industries. Your company mainly specializes in weapons testing and development. You were born on Earth but have spent the majority of your life among the stars. Kasumi fabricated several papers, witnesses and a couple of articles regarding you and your company and circulated them around the net. True to your nature, you've been described as a 'strong, silent type', who's prototype weaponry has become legendary among mercenaries and Spectres alike."
"Not bad. Not bad at all." he remarked. "Alright, your name is Allison Gunn, freelance mercenary, you run a small but talented band of mercs in the Terminus systems. Naturally, you're a bad ass, credited with taking out archangel himself when no other mercenary group could, and Donovan Hock when he screwed you over on a weapons deal," He said, glancing over to Garrus. "You know, it's really not much different than what we have here..."
She shrugged her shoulders. "Eh, it's good enough. If anyone asks us questions, we don't have to stretch our minds too far for an answer." She checked her omni-tool. "Its time. Lets go."
.
Both the Wanderer and Shepard looked out of the shuttle window as they exited the Normandy and descended upon the planet. Two moons orbited this planet, a ball of rock and water. It was little more than giant grey slabs of bedrock surrounded by churning waves and towering cliffs. A strange place for a home.
His attention was soon drawn toward Shepard, who sat across from him in the shuttle. The dimmed lights cast a faint glow upon her features and her dark dress, amplifying the sense of allure and simple beauty that seemed to resonate from within her. Any guy would have killed to be in his shoes right now. From her body language he could tell she was nervous; she was constantly adjusting/fidgeting with her appearance and tapping her finger against the seat, which was surprising considering that she was never nervous. Ever. Even before a firefight she would more often get excited or impatient rather than fidgety. It was interesting to know that such a strong woman would rather jump into a deadly crossfire than attend a social gathering.
"Is everything alright?" he asked, "You seem agitated."
She rubbed the back of her head. "I don't know, it been a long time since I stepped into a dress. Kinda nervous. Kasumi gave me some makeup to hide some of the scars on my neck," she rubbed her right cheek. "and there's still this scar..."
He reached up to stop her hand. "Its fine." he said smiling. "You look beautiful."
She opened her mouth to say something but decided against it. She didn't want to ruin the moment. Outside the window, the ground rushed up to meet them before leveling off. They had landed.
The Wanderer rose, adjusted his suit and held out his arm. "Shall we?"
They linked arms and stepped out of the shuttle.
.
"Well, at least Mr. Solis has good taste."
Upon landing, the couple realized just how massive the villa was. Entirely made of glass and steel, it stretched across the barren rock like a giant crystal formation.
"It looks incredibly expensive, and incredibly fragile." she said, eyes squinting to see the rest of the structure as rays of light reflected from the cut glass. It was evening although the sun had not yet set.
The Wanderer looked around. "I'm surprised by the location. There's nothing else on this desolate rock." Noticing several guards approaching them, he pulled her closer.
"Lets hope Kasumi lives up to her reputation."
Heavily armored mercenaries stood sentry by the entrance and checked their identification. Upon scanning, the guards omni-tool gave two affirming beeps.
"Mr. Farren and Ms. Gunn, welcome to Mr. Solis' estate." The guard looked down at his omni-tool once more before continuing. "Mr. Farren, the private showing will commence at 2200 hours sharp. Please meet in the pre-arranged room at that time. An associate will assist you when the times comes. Both of you, please enjoy your time here this evening."
Both nodded and stepped into the building. Both were impressed with what they saw. Sprawling and majestic glass staircases spiraled from ground to top floor. A raised platform in the center, on it - an antique piano. Tasteful artwork adorned the walls and a bar stretched against the far wall. Crystals and all manner of light refractive lenses hung from the high ceiling. All and all, quite the place. After drinking in the magnificence of their surroundings, the duo slowly trotted toward the center of the grounds, where the majority of patrons present had congregated.
"So, what was the guard talking about before about a private showing? Care to enlighten me?" Shepard asked, surveying their surroundings.
The Wanderer slowed their walk until it was a snails pace. It had to seem they were there to enjoy themselves, not planning a raid. He looked up at a piece of artwork as he starting talking.
"As you know, this party was thrown to officially announce the new Eclipse to investors. Around half of those here at this party are. Additionally, I learned that those who hold the greatest amount of shares or who have invested massive sums of credits are specially invited to a private showing by Mr. Solis himself. From what I've filtered from Kasumi's sources, the tech is going to be impressive. An invaluable opportunity." They continued to walk.
Shepard pretended to be interested in a large statue they walked past and they paused once more. "So you made Kasumi conjure some creds out of thin air for you?"
He laughed and pointed to a painting to make it look like he was talking about it. "I wish it was that easy. No. I actually invested nearly 50 million credits last minute to get a spot in the showing."
Shepard laughed this time. "You can't be serious."
"I am."
The laughter stopped.
"You're full of surprises. If you don't mind me asking, how do you happen to stumble upon such a large collection of money? If I remember correctly, you gave us over 10 million to help with repairs and upgrades. 10 MILLION."
The Wanderer led her by the arm around and they strolled through the grounds under the wandering eyes of others at the party.
"When I left Earth after your species discovered the mass relays, I converted all of my Earth currency and precious metals I had saved up into credits to which then I divided up and placed in many separate banks across the known galaxy. How much interest do you think you can collect after a couple hundred years?"
"Hm, Smart. Unfortunately not all of us have the endowment of such a long life. You know before I..." the word always brought a shiver down her spine, "... died, I had quite the sum accumulating from selling all the extra loot I'd find lying around on missions. After I came back, the account was empty. Gone. Not a single credit left. I have no idea where it went or what happened to it."
The Wanderer gazed out of one of the windows into the blue sky overhead and Shepard immediately recognized his state of thought. When he was thinking, his face would be void of all emotion, and an intense expression would be carved onto his features, as if in stone.
"What if you could go back and leave off right when you woke up on the Cerberus station with all your credits sitting on your lap." He paused. "Would you do it?"
She wasted no time thinking about the question.
"No."
Surprised by the answer he received he turned back toward her.
"You know, that answer is what separates you from the rest of those at the party tonight. You have no idea how many times I've asked that question, and how many times people wished it were different." he said, "Just out of curiosity, why say no?"
"Why? Because if I had, I'm sure we would not be where we are now. If I had, I don't think I would have met you."
A small smile formed on his lips.
Shepard propped herself onto the railing in front of him. The sun shone from behind her as it began its decent downward.
God, she looked absolutely stunning.
She leaned forward. "Let me ask you a question."
"Shoot."
"What surprises you the most about the galaxy? Past-present, anything at all."
He rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"You're the first person to ask me that." He paused as he collected his thoughts. "What surprises me? Well, two things. First up: stupidity. You would think after all these years, people would exercise some common sense once in a while. I am constantly dumbfounded by the stuff some people do."
His response brought forth a fit of laughter from her.
"And the second," his face returned to the contemplative expression from before, "... is, for lack of a better term, love."
Shepard did not expect his answer. "What do you mean?"
"Romantic or otherwise, it seems to pop out of the most unlikely places and the most unlikely times. I've seem a lot of things from just about everywhere, and nothing quite surprises me like love. Able to connect complete strangers from two different worlds and create a bond that defies conventional reasoning. It's truly remarkable."
Shepard motions him to sit next to her. He props himself up next to her on the railing and they both face the interior of the building where the majority of the gathering is taking place.
"If I have to say one thing though, your have an insane amount of self control." She said leaning on him for support, "That is what separates YOU from the rest at the party. Despite millions at your fingertips, one would never think you had such large funds. You arrived on the Normandy with nothing except what you wore and food supplies. I'm sure you've seen the corrupting power of money and power. Don't call me creepy for telling you this but I did some background checks on some of those here tonight. You see that man in the gray suit, the one talking with the batarian? He's the CEO of Syntex Co. He made nearly 100 million last year, at the cost of working 14 hour days. He lost his wife and his kids from his work addiction. You see that guy in the black and purple suit at the back? Before he got into the arms trade he was a middle class guy with a simple but happy life. Was engaged, good worker, everyone liked him. After he got involved everything went to hell and he turned into a complete prick. I'm surprised Solis invited him tonight, they are not on good terms. Anyways my point is that people forget that although money makes the world turn, it's love that makes the ride worthwhile."
The Wanderer reached around her waist and pulled her closer. "You know, your starting to sound more and more like me."
"What can I say? You seem to be rubbing off on me" she said, resting her head on his shoulder.
"Is that a good or a bad thing?"
"Good, definitely good."