Second Life
Chapter Thirty-Five – Halica Vets
The louvers on the large window were open. Aria stared at the blinking lights in the city below her white tower. Her top floor comm room wasn't small, but under the warm yellow light, the richly furnished room felt intimate. A beep sounded behind her and then Aethyta's holo appeared above the large comm table.
"This better be good, Aria. I'm busy." Aethyta didn't hide her impatience.
Aria turned from the window and walked to the table. "Ox is loose." Before Aethyta could react, Aria added. "I let her go."
"Why?" Aethyta couldn't hide her surprise this time.
"I knew she was running drugs for Cerberus, but the amount of money was too high for it to be a normal drug run. Her grudge against me changed her true mission given by Cerberus, I intend to find out what that mission was and who might have taken it over after you captured her."
Aethyta settled in a chair. "Didn't you torture her for all these months? You couldn't make her talk?"
"I don't think she knows what she was being used for either. That's why I cut her loose so that I can follow her trail. Something big is happening on Omega, I can feel it. First the Talons refused to pay their cut to me on red sand trades, then there was the plot to overthrow me, and Ox's appearance after all these years…"
Aethyta cut her old friend off. "How many times I've told you, Aria, that I'm not interested in your little power play on Omega? I have much bigger things to do."
Aria's eyes sharpened. "Aethyta, this is bigger than Omega! Between the Collectors' appearance on the station and the return of Commander Shepard, we're in the center of all this. I fear what might lie beyond the Omega 4 Relay and I don't fear a lot of things. Even if you aren't interested in Omega, I've got something you should be interested in." She paced the length of the table before facing Aethyta's holo again. "Have you heard of the battle of Halica?"
Aethyta thought for a moment. "I think one of my commandos was involved in it, but that's classified information. Why?"
Aria sneered and her voice turned cold. "Talk to your commando and find out what exactly happened, then we'll talk. You'll not like what you learn. I want Matriarch North's head. That old witch had been publically humiliating me ever since I took over Omega." She took a deep breath to calm herself down. "One of my workers at the dungeon was a veteran from that battle and Ox took her when she escaped. I didn't expect that. We need to get her back and I don't trust anyone else to do the job."
Aethyta stood up. "This is starting to sound interesting. If she were one of ours we'd want to get her back regardless. I'll have a talk with my commando. If I agree to do an extraction, we do it my way with my people and you'll give me full access to Omega. You'll tell me now if you trust me to do this or not. I don't want to hear ifs and buts once I set the gears in motion."
Aria huffed at Aethyta's remark and downed a drink sitting on the edge of the comm table. "There're only two people in the entire galaxy I trust. You, I trust my life with. Liselle, I trust myself not to ever betray her. When you're at it, why don't you have your commando pick up my daughter? She's getting awful close to a human who works for me. I don't like the look of that one."
After Aethyta's holo disappeared, Aria hit the intercom link. "Liselle, could you come up and see me in the comm?"
Liselle padded in a few moments later in her nightgown, barefooted. "What is it, Aria? I'm about to change and hit Afterlife."
Aria walked to the window and stared at the city lights once more. This was her favorite view: the intersection of three largest districts converged at a large spaceport, turret towers stood behind the port, giving the imposing backdrop. The sight gave her a calm that soothed her troubling thoughts. She turned around and saw her daughter fidgeting by the door. "I've asked Matriarch Aethyta to take you to her ship. Her people will be here in a few days. Wrap up what's on your plate and leave the long term deals with Anto until I find a replacement."
Liselle knew this day would come but she needed more time. "But I'm not ready!"
"You'll get ready in a few days. That's an order." Aria firmed her voice. "I know what you're up to. That human, Johnson! I don't trust him!"
"I do, okay?"
"You trust only your own loins!" Aria took a breath and calmed her voice. "All you see is his tussled hair and your knees go weak. But let me tell you, he's hiding something and I don't want to risk your life or your heart with him."
"What do you know about my heart? You don't have a lover. You don't understand what 'in love' means!" Liselle spat. Paul reminded her of Benjamin in so many ways. He had an unerring sense of her needs and Aria was right about one thing, his tussled hair made him look stunning under the flashing lights in Afterlife. She knew she wanted him.
Aria looked up sharply at her daughter's comment and felt unspoken words on her tongue. I have my one and only lover, Omega. You have no idea what it does to me. I can have an orgasm watching my cruiser dock on the station and the captain tells me, "My lady, your warship is here for you to command." I can get hot and bothered when I smell the sweet scent of eezo ores in the mines and … She paused and searched the table edge for another drink, buying time to ask herself the question: what would I do for the one I love?
Shepard stared at the new holo picture on her desk next to the one with Liara. Feron and Nightshade had framed it and given it to her before she left the Big Whale after their bonding ceremony. In the picture, Mimi T'Soni hid behind a stack of datapads and jumped out when Liara passed by and made her drop a Prothean artifact she was carefully holding. Liara had to take a dive to save the delicate artifact. Shepard chuckled at Liara's terrified face when she dropped the artifact, and amazed at how long she could stare at this picture and how it calmed her.
The terminal on her desk beeped and Shepard hit the kinetic button immediately. "When can I see you again?"
Liara's holo flickered on. "Can you not see me on this line?"
Shepard replied. "I meant see you in person."
Liara laughed. "Is that how you answer all your calls? How's your leg?"
Shepard smiled. "You already know how my leg is doing. Dr. Chakwas confessed to sending you a daily report. You know that woman, can't hold any secrets after a few shots of Serrice Ice Brandy. But to tell you myself, I'm back on the training floor. Jacob's been helping me with muscle conditioning."
Liara flipped a button on her console and changed the subject. "I looked into Halica as you requested and so far only found bits and pieces. One thing that's interesting though, the information was of no interest to anyone for centuries and all of sudden in the past two weeks, several different Shadow Broker's agents received requests for information on that battle."
Shepard sat up straighter in her chair. "Aethyta said she's busy on Thessia and she'll send Onyx to handle the extraction. Aleena will join the mission, as it turned out she was in that battle. I can't go there myself. Jacob approached me about his father, after he lost touch for ten years, his ship Hugo Gernsback has sent a distress call. I've agreed to help him. So I'm sending Garrus, Mordin, Zaeed and Dr. Chakwas on the shuttle to help Aethyta's commandos. They all have their own contacts on Omega. You said other people were interested in the information. Who are they?"
Liara typed something on her keyboard, "One of them I had dealings with on Omega when I tried to track down your body, I can safely say he's working for Aria. Another contact might work for Cerberus. Ox was working for them and they might want to check out her new partner's background. The last one I can't be sure of."
"Can't you take an educated guess?"
Liara shook her head. "It's dangerous to 'guess' in the information business. Guessing can lead you to the wrong conclusion however educated it might be. We see sources of information, but the key has yet to be found."
Shepard suppressed a chuckle at her lover's stubbornness. "Okay, how about pretending you're Mordin. Follow one line of logic and just run with it?"
Liara laughed. "I'd say the buyer of the information might come from the matriarchy. Since I've already shared the information I've dug up with Aethyta, the Grand Matriarch should have it in addition to the official records. So it's someone else from the matriarchy that has an interest in this. My money is on the one who handled the Halica operation."
"So it's political." Shepard thought for a moment and then changed subject. "Kasumi seems quite taken to you."
Liara tilted her head. "She just learned the fate of her lover. She's going through some tough times. It wouldn't hurt to have someone to talk to. I feel somehow responsible for her, after seeing Keiji die. She is very talented in her trade."
"So says Zaeed."
"So says everyone who knows about her." Liara knew Shepard's hesitation to keep Kasumi aboard but she sensed the thief had more to offer than swiping valuable items from fortresses that were impossible to infiltrate. "Maybe you can find a spot on the team for her."
"A thief? What do I need to steal from the Collectors?" Shepard shook her head. "You still haven't answered my first question. When can I see you again?"
Liara moved her face closer to the holo port. "Soon, I hope. But in the mean time, I'll check on the missing ship Jacob's father was on. I don't like the idea of you going into any mission blind."
Shepard ended the call when EDI informed her that the "Omega Ops Team" was waiting to see her in the conference room. She updated Garrus and Zaeed with some background on the mission while waiting for Mordin. Garrus asked. "Do we know who this hanar is?"
Zaeed perched himself at a spot closest to the door and answered Garrus unhurriedly. "Can't say I know much about him, but I know enough hanars to know this one is different."
"Different how?" Shepard noticed the mercenary veteran scanning a room when he walked in and picked a spot where he could get out the quickest.
"For starters, the bastard's got connections and damned mysterious. Can get in anywhere, even has access to Aria anytime. And damned strong too, almost choked me to death once in a fight."
Garrus asked again, "You think he's Aria's spy?"
"Can't say for sure. Done plenty of favors for Aria, though once he was in a deal with Aria's enemies. Can't say for sure if it's a he or she either. Calls himself 'it'. Like I said, damned mysterious."
"Mysterious and Omega, almost redundant statement." Mordin walked in. "Solved 23 mysteries while on Omega in spare time. New phenomenon appears faster than time allows to investigate. To which are you referring?"
Zaeed answered. "The preaching hanar."
Mordin nodded. "Oh, that one. Very mysterious on surface, answer obvious." Seeing everyone staring at him, Mordin said in a serious tone. "It works for the STG!"
Zaeed squinted his eyes. "You bastard! You almost got me there!"
Mordin's lips curled up. "Attempting jokes to ease tensions. Joker's tutoring shows progress."
Shepard's eyes widened. "Joker is teaching you to tell jokes?" Then she shook her head. "Never mind, do you know anything about this hanar?"
Mordin's face returned to its usual expressionless pose. "Nobody knows. I did hear that its soul name is 'when stars aligned with moons'."
Zaeed knitted his brows. "Is that another joke?"
Shepard didn't wait for Mordin to answer and instructed. "The Blue Sabre is stuck with some business on Thessia and Matriarch Aethyta has asked us to provide cover for the mission and transportation off Omega after the extraction. But this is their operation. You'll be there as backup if they need help, and keep Dr. Chakwas and her team safe. We don't need to make noise on Omega right now."
Garrus nodded. "You want us to take back the commandos, and be stealthy and blend in. Got it!"
Zaeed shook his head. "Stealthy and blending in? You've proved it quite difficult to achieve during your time on Omega, Archangel."
Onyx paced in her small office on the Blue Sabre. Her transport to Omega would be here in a couple of hours and she was all packed and ready to go. Her talk with Matriarch Aethyta was a difficult one and she could tell that the Matriarch sensed the burden of Halica on her and told her that she'd bring this up with the Grand Matriarch for further investigation. The Matriarch had arranged for the Normandy to provide tactical backup and medical help but she was to keep this operation quiet and stealthy. Onyx left the hardest task for last but she knew she had to do it now. She hit the comm link and Aleena's holo appeared on the wall projector.
"I'd like to ask you to meet me on Omega." Onyx started.
Aleena paused for a brief moment and teased. "Oh, a romantic gateway, in a place such as Omega no less. I like it already!"
The remark eased the tension in Onyx's voice. "Not quite."
Aleena chuckled. "I'll take what I can get. Name the time, I'll be there."
Onyx paused. "I'm tasked to bring back a Halica vet who has been a slave since the battle."
Aleena's smile disappeared and she stared at Onyx, and finally asked. "And she's been on Omega all this time?"
Onyx tapped a button on her desk and a short vid played. Aleena gasped. "I knew her! She was a trainee medic and she saved my life! Her name is Elisa. We were captured by the batarians together and she treated me during the brief time we were kept in the slave pen together."
Goddess, why haven't we tracked down every single one of the Halica vets? Onyx closed her eyes and asked silently. She took a deep breath and said simply. "We have to get her home."
Aleena nodded. "I'm getting Klang to arrange my transport to Omega immediately."
Four hours after the sunset chime, a strange sound came from the vents above her head. Ox put her senses on alert and she listened to the sound that reminded her of raindrops drumming on metal crates. Clever! She thought. Omega mines had the largest ventilation system that was built with composite steel pipes that were as tall as the tunnels in the center main. The sophisticated sensors could detect poisonous gas and fire, two biggest dangers for mineworkers, and vent out the gas or oxygen to put out fire then circulate in freshly processed air from iced O2 storage. Pumping nerve gas directly into the vents would have been detected and vented out by the system before it reached any outlet, but water dripping would be ignored unless there was a flood. Except, this dripping liquid from the vent holes wasn't water. As soon as it hit the ominous cement surface in the dungeon, a small column rose from contact and those who didn't wear breathing masks fell limply on the floor.
Ox heard rumbling sounds in the vents and then someone kicking the grate. The caretaker's face appeared in the vent hole, her mouth and nose behind a mask and a small oxygen capsule holder covered her chin. She dropped down a mask, "Put this on quickly. We need to crawl through the vents."
Ox put the mask on and struggled to stand up. She looked up at the vent hole, too high to reach the caretaker's hand. She had to use her biotics. Excruciating pain pounded on her nerves, but Ox ignored it and focused on the blue energy surrounding the caretaker's hand that was reaching down for her. They linked energy and she climbed into the vents. She let out a scream that was muted by the mask and panted to regain her breath.
The caretaker crawled next to her and put her body under the large asari's and helped her move. All sensors had been tripped and the ventilation was now sucking up the poisonous gas that made it hard for them to see where they were going. "We don't have a lot of time. These masks only have an hour of air. If we don't make it to the other end before the ventilation returns to normal, we'll die in here from the freezing air."
Ox nodded, "I'll be right behind you. You lead ahead and make sure we're heading to the right direction." She pushed the caretaker to take the lead and watched the smaller woman firing up her omni-tool. After a long period of agonizing crawling, they came to the junction that linked to the main ventilation tunnels and opened up like main corridors in the Omega mines. The caretaker jumped into the tunnel and caught Ox as she dropped down. The smaller woman put the large asari's arm around her shoulders and hurried them into a light jog.
The omni-tool on the caretaker's wrist beeped. She stopped and saw an entrance on the sidewall. "This is the exit. Hurry, we don't have much air left in our masks!" She used her biotics to pull the vent cover and thanked the people who arranged this that it wasn't bolted down. She leapt into the vent hole and extended her hand down. Ox sat on the bottom of the main tunnel and couldn't find the feeling in her legs. The implants were setting her back on fire and sending stars dancing in front of her eyes. The warm glow of yellow lights in the main vents streaked when she looked up, and she heard words dragged above her head. "Give me your hand … Hurry … Oxygen …"
The caretaker saw Ox's legs buckle and her body fall to the tunnel floor. Goddess! She quickly glanced at her omni-tool. The entire route in the vents shouldn't have taken them more than half an hour but they'd already run behind and they were cutting dangerously close to the freezing air that was about to spread in the mains. She dropped back down to the tunnel. "Can you feel your legs?" Ox shook her head. The sound of a powerful generator came, and the caretaker looked at the tunnel beyond the junction. The blower was about to turn on. "Can you feel your arms?" A nod.
The smaller woman heaved the large asari's body to lean against the wall and lifted both legs of the wounded asari and pushed her into the vent hole. As they started crawling in the small exit vents, they heard the air swooshing by the side opening they just came through. The good news was the small side branch they were in was downdraft outlet and it would be the last to get the cold air. The bad news was the last of the poisonous gas was still being vented through this subsystem and the O2 capsules in their masks were almost depleted. The caretaker helped Ox move her body by pushing her legs behind her.
It was true that Ox could feel her upper body but she wished she couldn't. The stabbing pain in her back had spread to her head and arms. Every touch on the metal surface felt like putting flesh on a hot cooking surface. She could see sweat dripping from her face onto the vent floor but she couldn't feel it. The only thing that kept her moving was the persistent push she felt from behind. Up ahead she could see an outlet grill and she felt excitement surged through her body as she quickened her arms crawling towards the exit. Like the entrance grill, the grated cover wasn't bolted and it dropped out when Ox pushed it with her hand. She turned back to tell her companion to drop down first in case it was a big drop and then help her, but the smaller woman wasn't behind her. Ox swung her arms around to position her body facing back to the vents and saw the smaller asari had stopped a few feet back and her arms had stretched to brace the sides of the vents and her head yanked back as though she was struggling for air. Ox checked her own mask and saw the air was almost gone. The smaller asari's air must've been depleted from heavier exertion of heaving more weight. Ox crawled back and grabbed the smaller asari by the collar and dragged them both back to the exit.
The other end of the vents opened above a buttress in an alley outside of a warehouse. Ox thanked the goddess silently and dropped her body on the angled cement, her hand still clutched to the caretaker's collar. Both bodies slid down the buttress and Ox suppressed a painful grunt when the caretaker dropped on top of her. She quickly ripped both of their masks off, and saw that the caretaker gasping for air as her body arched back. Forgetting her own pain, Ox gripped the caretaker's shoulders. The smaller woman's lips were turning a frighteningly deep color and her eyes were rolling up. "No, no, no!" Ox put her own lips on the caretaker's and blew a long breath, and then she looked up. Where the fuck are the people who are supposed to meet us? Just as she thought that, the sound of shuttle engine came around the corner and a small medical craft landed a few feet away. A salarian jumped out of the shuttle and rushed to the asari. He grabbed Ox's arm and dragged her to her feet. "Come on! We have to go before they find us."
Ox shook her arm free, "Help her!"
The Salarian gave a quick glance at the slave gasping for air to her collapsing lungs. "I'm paid to deliver you alive, nobody else."
Ox took the pistol on the caretaker's hip and pointed it at the salarian. "Save her or you die!" The terrifying timber in her voice brooked no dispute.
"Fine." He scooped up the smaller asari and raced to the shuttle and dragged the large asari in, and then he quickly shut the door and shouted to the shuttle driver. "Go, go, go!"
He came prepared as though he knew his charge would need medical help. He covered the caretaker's face with a mask that was hooked into a machine and quickly cut the sleeve of the asari's dress and gave her a shot. The caretaker's body relaxed and her lips started to return to normal color.
Ox didn't lower her gun. "I'll need a small operation to take out two implants."
The salarian scanned the smaller asari with his omni-tool. "Yeah, my boss told me. I've prepared my lab to do just that." He shot a quick look at the gun, "You don't have a use for that anymore. She'll be fine. Her lungs didn't take much damage but she'll need time to rest and heal."
Ox lowered her gun. "Who's your boss?"
"A hanar with many names. But those are the names others gave him. Nobody knows his real name."
Ox woke up after the surgery and felt the odd sensation of her body without the pain that had been there every moment for months. She could almost feel the energy growing with each new breath and she hopped down from the bed and saw a set of medium armor prepared for her on top of the footlocker. She smiled and changed into the armor. Now that her escape plan worked, she needed to set her old scheme in motion and get in touch with her contacts that she prayed were still available after all these months she spent in Aria's dungeon, but first she had to get rid of the caretaker. She walked over to the caretaker's bed and looked at her sleeping form. She could use a fighter like her, but not as her mistress. It was a role she had to play to get out of the dungeon and it was sickening to even pretend to be a slaver. But was it a weakness on her part to save the caretaker's life after she was freed? No, they helped each other to get out and they were no longer in each other's debt, Ox reasoned. She couldn't afford any weakness and she must get rid of this woman.
"Mistress…" The caretaker woke up to her mistress' stare.
"You don't have to call me that. I feel like Athame will strike me down any moment for committing an atrocity when you call me that." It was one thing to feint ownership but it was downright gross to play it out like some sick fantasy. Ox's mother was very religious bordering on superstitious and had never allowed her to walk into a temple on the right side because she said it was bad luck, to which Ox could only shake her head. But to this day, she still wouldn't step on the third cobble stone step in front of her hometown temple. Why tempt fate?
"But I like being your …" The smaller woman saw the expression on her owner's face that could be interpreted as disgust, and she caved in. "What would you like me to call you then?"
"Ox is fine or my real name …" A chime on her omni-tool stopped her and the orange glow unfolded into a map with an audio attachment. Ox stepped away and brought up the message. Then she came back, "This isn't over yet. What I'm about to face will be dangerous. Now that we're out, what would you do if I set you free?"
"Did I do something wrong?" The caretaker looked nearly in tears and the pathos in her voice was unmistakable.
How do you free someone who doesn't want to be freed? Ox thought. She stared at her companion intensely and groped for words but found none.
"I took oath to watch your back." The caretaker could see the hesitations in her mistress' eyes whenever the subject turned to her ownership, and she didn't fool herself to think that she hadn't forced her upon her mistress. But what was she to do? Without the safety of a master, she'd be a stranger in strange land, with no one to attach to and she didn't know how to survive on her own, at least that was what her batarian masters always told her. "Who would feed you? You don't know how to do anything else. You didn't even become a real commando, not that the asari military would take you back anyway after they left you to die in Halica. We saved your life and you have to repay the debt."
"I'll prove my worth to you." The eagerness in the slave's voice was almost sickening. "Just tell me what I have to do!"
Ox felt the need to retch, fucking batarians! "We'll need to get you some new clothes." She pointed at the sleeve that the salarian had cut open on the caretaker's arm.
Shopping for clothes was a foreign experience for the caretaker and she was only too happy that her mistress made all the decisions for her. "I don't want you to wear visible armor. When you're armored and armed, you're telling people you're a fighter and you invite violence." Ox walked around her companion, examining the tight pants with hidden pockets, taut butt under the hugging fabric, and the narrow waist where the two-layered bodice ended.
The soft and silky fabric felt slick on her skin, it reminded her of the dress she wore when she turned one hundred and the priestess at the temple had given her the new dress as birthday present. Brushing her fingers on the fabric, the caretaker felt a touch of homesickness throbbing through her, completely unexpected but something in it felt familiar. She was looking out the window in her small quarters in the temple, and saw the mountain range in the distance, shrouded by a descending veil after the sunset, and crushing waves on the ocean shore directly below her window, and night birds had started their crooning. Presently she traced the patterns on her dress. "Night birds. They look like the night birds on the sea cliffs." For a moment, her smile made her look like a maiden again.
"You like sea birds that come out at night?" Night birds! Ox couldn't hide her surprise. When she reached her own maiden age, she left home for commando training. Her mother had given birth to a little sister by another father. When she came home in between training camps she was often charged to watch the little sister, and the only thing that stopped her crying was the song of night birds. Staring at the smile on the caretaker's face, Ox sighed at the rushing sense of sisterhood she'd once experienced. Goddess, what are you doing to me?
Ox looked at herself in the mirror and saw the sudden change in her that she had never noticed before. A cold stare looked back at her, what have I become? Every person she came across now was evaluated for their weaknesses and strengths in their skills, stripped of their personal connection. Loyalty, a useless thing when you knew you might betray the person on a whim. I am a wolf among sheep and I want wolf's share of bounty. She turned her gaze back to the smaller asari who was admiring the fabric of her clothes. I will have to teach this one how to become a wolf. Ox took out a dagger from a hidden sheath in her sleeve and tucked it into a slot in the smaller woman's vest. She smoothed the fabric over the hidden knife and instructed. "Don't draw this knife unless you can bloody it. Remember that."
The caretaker smiled widely and launched her omni-tool and pressed a button. Night bird calls came from the orangey glow. "I recorded this before I joined the commando training and when I couldn't sleep I'd play it."
Ox was once again amazed at the freedom the batarians had given to this slave. "Your previous owners let you keep your omni-tool?"
"They took it away at first, but then my master saw me willingly gave my services to him, he gave it back to me. I even have a recording of the battle and how I saved a commando's life. If you saw that clip you'd realize I can be very useful."
"Play it." Ox sensed the oddity in the whole Halica battle and after watching the vid clip that showed the chaos of the battle and the comm chatter that said an asari warship was in orbit yet no rescue force came. The large asari had served in shock trooper unit and she knew something went wrong there. But that was someone else's worry; she had to get in touch with her old contacts again quickly.
The map she just received on her omni-tool led them to the upper level of a busy plaza. Shops and restaurants had just started serving dinner and a large balcony opened to a taxi port. Bright nightlights shone from the district below. The message said to meet on the balcony but Ox led them to the second level that the shops used as storage. A beep sounded on Ox's omni-tool and a message came in. "We arranged your escape from Aria's dungeon, that settles our old score. Wait for the map drop tonight, then all our debt is paid with this transaction. Watch your back."
The caretaker asked. "What does it mean?"
Ox cursed. "It means someone either paid them off or scared them off. Either way this isn't good. They're pulling out. We might be on our own for now."
"But you said you had a contract with them."
"This isn't Thessia or the asari military. Out here, there's no contract or promise that can't be bought off. You only rely on your wits to survive, not on mercy of others."
Kai Leng grumbled his way through the dirty streets on the lower levels of Omega. The Illusive Man had pulled him from his pursuit of Paul Grayson to chase down some asari who might have dirt on a powerful matriarch on Thessia. No doubt his boss would want to blackmail her but why did he have to send him? He was so close to finding out where Paul Grayson was hiding, he'd been searching for him for too long to let one of those Cerberus infiltrators to take credit for his capture. But the Illusive Man was clear, "Don't harm the asari. Aria is interested in her as well but we'll get her first."
"What about the other one?"
"I have no use for her. She betrayed us on a simple drug run and cost us a lot of credits. See what you can squeeze out of her and then get rid of her."
From behind the crates, the two waiting asari could see the blinking lights from the streets a level below. Darkness filled the space beyond the cityscape in the distance and the noise from the busy plaza didn't carry this far up. The stillness brought a sense of uneasiness to Ox as it entered the assassin's hour. All her instincts told her to get out of here, but she knew she needed the map. Without it, her centuries' planning would have been in vain. But she couldn't suppress a sense of peril that had crept up. Ox had to take a deep breath to calm herself.
The caretaker saw the nervousness in her mistress from behind a crate across the isle and tried to easy the tension. "I find myself enjoying the quietness here."
Ox almost chuckled. This one's naiveté was almost adorable. Just then she heard a small rustling sound of soft-soled shoes stepping on the floor behind her, but before she could turn around a knife rested coldly on her neck. "You move, you die." Few people had ever snuck up on her with such ease. Ox tensed her body.
"Put your hands where I can see them and turn around slowly." Ox gave the caretaker a slight shake of her head, stay put, she signaled, and she put her hands up and turned around. A human male held a long narrow blade, eyes hiding behind black implants, well conditioned muscles readied in pre-striking stance. An assassin! Ox cursed inwardly. Without his eyes betraying his intentions, she had to keep him talking.
"What would my death provide?" She tested the assassin.
"We paid for drugs that we never received, we need the location of that shipment. If you can't repay us with information, you'll have to pay us with blood." He sprang the sword, drawing a quick circle in the air.
So Cerberus sent him. "That's not the only information that's valuable." Ox eyed the Cerberus man. She indeed had something to offer – the map she was waiting for was an updated version of locations where all major drug gangs stored their stashes. Even the older version she had was priceless. It was a part of her plan to take over Omega from Aria: raiding the stockpile. Take away the pirate queen's most lucrative business and you take away her power. Ox only needed to gather enough troops to do the raids all at once. She was so close before she was captured. If Aethyta hadn't shown up, Ox would have blown up the drill in the mines and crippled the mine operation long enough to give her the chance for the drug raids. And without the production of the mines and losing drug trafficking, Ox would have beaten Aria without shedding blood. She even fancied where she'd put Aria – perhaps she could replace the patriarch in the back room of Afterlife. But the map of the stockpile would only be her last resort, she couldn't bring herself to contemplate giving that up so easily. She must find another way to escape from this assassin. The movement of his muscles on his forearm and biceps through his tightly fit armor told her how quickly he could wield that knife, and the way he handled it said he rarely missed his target. Even without seeing his eyes, she knew the smallest betrayal of her intentions would set off a swift action that no doubt would draw blood.
"Take my blood and spare my mistress." The caretaker's face had gone pale, watching her mistress stand defenselessly at sword point. She stood up from hiding and unbuttoned her shirt to expose her skin above her chest.
"Mistress? So you're also a slaver." The assassin's mouth lifted in the corners. "That makes things easier. I'll be happy to take her and the information if I deem it valuable, consider it a trade for your life. A bargain, don't you think?" Ah, here's the slave, my true objective. The assassin moved to get closer to the slave.
"Her life isn't for sale, you jackass!" Ox moved to block the assassin's path.
"Touchy!" The assassin returned to his pre-strike stance. "Or, I can just kill both of you and be done with this whole thing."
So this one has the capacity for casual killings, Ox thought. The quickness in his decision to kill spoke of the lightness of conscience and lacking of discipline. There were patterns to his kind - they were easy to anger. Seeing the assassin's constant glances at the smaller asari, Ox sensed his focus changing. Do they want to take her? Why? "You want her you have to go through me." She tested again.
"What happened to no loyalty among mercenaries and no honor among thieves."
"Then you don't know about either profession. Did your mother teach you disloyalty or did you come out of her womb this way?"
The assassin's lips thinned into a tight line and he tilted the tip of his sword in striking pose. "Talk like that, you won't be a mistress for long."
"You don't agree with me, yet you serve your own master."
"I'm my own man."
"You wave no pennants but you're most certainly a slave to your master."
His blade shone in the lights as it struck her waiting shield. Ox let her omni shield absorb the impact of the assassin's quick strike as she dropped down on one knee and thrust her boot knife into the man's leg. At the same time, she turned her head and shouted to the caretaker, "Run!" She put her weight on the ball of her left foot and swiped her right leg across the assassin's legs. As he fell down on his back holding his wound, Ox took off for the door.
It was dark behind the short wall that divided the plaza and the taxi port. The caretaker squatted down and tried to calm her frantic heart. Her mistress told her to wait here should anything unexpected happen and make a quick get away via taxi. The taxi port was on an open platform that extended to a ledge where one could step on and get into a skycar. She was relieved when she saw her mistress appear at the large door to the plaza.
"I've called for a taxi." The smaller woman said.
Ox dropped down behind the wall and buttoned the caretaker's shirt. "That was a foolish move. He could have killed you without a thought."
"I thought I'd buy you time to kill him." Through the reflection of metal platform, Ox could see that the smaller woman was trembling.
"Don't take killing lightly." She rubbed the small woman's arms to sooth her tremor. "There're conventions of killing among the working class of mercenaries. You only kill when it's necessary or you invite brutal violence upon yourself." Ox sighed at the thought of killing Rouge to take over the drugs and the gang. She had opportunities to kill both Aria and Aethyta back then but she only scared Aria away and injured Aethyta to slow her pursuit. Now that she had slowed the Cerberus assassin she'd get away again and regroup.
"Not so fast!"
Ox's breath caught. How did he walk with the knife wound I gave him? She peeked over the wall at the assassin's leg.
Kai Leng drew his sword once again. "You picked the right place to stab me, bitch! You got my implant. Would you like a rematch?"
"It'll be my pleasure." Ox whispered to the slave, "Wait here," then moved away from the short wall and stepped into the balcony.
The assassin twirled his blade with a swordmaster's ease and waited for the asari to draw her own knife. They circled each other and the assassin lunged at the asari as he switched the sword from one hand to another in midair and slashed at the asari's knife arm. Without waiting for the asari to turn around, the assassin landed a kick on her leg that sent her back over the short wall and landing on the ledge that served as stepping platform for taxis. Ox pushed herself on her feet. "Who brings a knife to a gun fight." She drew her pistol and pulled the trigger.
The assassin kicked on his good leg and did a butterfly flip but bullets still hit his shield. Angered, he raised his arm and shot a string of armor piercing bullets at the asari. "Who said I didn't have a gun?" Kai Leng watched the asari's widened eyes when she looked at her bloodied hand that had covered her chest wound. "Don't feel bad. Very few people know about Phantom implants and when they do it's usually too late." He retracted his gauntlet.
"No!" The caretaker wailed as she rushed to the fallen asari on the ledge. She didn't see the relentless bullets firing from Aleena's pistol and hitting the assassin's shield or the biotic push from Onyx that sent the assassin into a wall where he triggered the fire alarm and then limped away. Her only attention was on the exit wound on her mistress' back that gushed a purple stream and the shaky breaths that racked the blood splattered face.
"Don't leave me, please! I'm yours. If you leave me what am I to do?" The smaller asari's pleading started to lose its meaning in Ox's mind, but one thing remained clear - her desire to free the slave. It might seem cruel before to take away her anchor when reality was an unobtainable truth, but Ox could feel her life slipping away and she wanted her final act to be of kindness. She wanted to smile at the revelation - what common ground cruelty and kindness shared! And she was standing right on that intersection. Was this what the goddess wanted her to see at the moment of passing? We're all the goddess' children. She remembered her mother used to say. Go with the goddess, were her mother's last words to her.
She wanted to lift her head but found she couldn't, so she searched with her eyes and pushed the words out. "Listen to me …" Panting, she could see the caretaker bending near her face, and she saw terror in the small woman's eyes. "I release your contract …" Each breath getting shorter, she could feel the smaller woman's warm hands under her head. "Draw a contract with yourself … Never again let anyone else take that from you …" She held an intense stare at the smaller woman's face when she whispered, "Don't ever let go of your own deed. It's the will of the goddess."
Her entire body slacked in her former slave's hands and overhead sprinklers went on as the fire alarm blared. The busy plaza suddenly turned into chaos.
The caretaker swiped her wild glances at the scattering crowd and her voice lost in the fire alarm. "Help me! Someone please help my mistress!" Just then, she saw two commandos in uniform rushing at her and then stopped when they saw the woman in her grasp. The caretaker looked down and whispered. "She's dead, isn't she?"
The lost and pleading expression on the caretaker's face made Onyx want to kneel by her side and take her in her arms like she should have done with Misha's mother. But she saw the asari on the ledge put down the dead woman and draw a dagger from her vest. "My mistress said I should not draw my knife if I didn't draw blood. I'll go after the one who killed her and avenge her death."
Onyx felt intense pain in her chest that usually followed her thoughts of guilt, but she felt this time the grip of guilt didn't originate from the usual dark place in her mind, but from the sight of this asari with a bony frame that reminded her of Misha's mother. "We're from the asari military and we're here to take you home."
"I had a home with her. Now she's dead. I have nowhere to go!" She stood on the ledge and looked down at the steep fall below the taxi port. "I'm homeless. I wish to go to the goddess with my mistress."
Goddess! There was enough blood spilled already with the Halica crew, please don't let this one die. Onyx didn't anticipate the prayer that had slipped into her mind and she took steps towards the Halica vet.
"Don't come any closer, or I'll draw your blood!" The trembling blade in her hand told the experienced commandos that the one who wielded it could do no major damage but her desperation couldn't be ignored.
Aleena suddenly got down on her knees and used the butt of her knife to knock on the floor in a strange rhythm.
The caretaker stopped her back stepping and swiping of her knife. She canted her head to seek out the sound amongst the noisy background, and then she closed her eyes, it was just an echo of her memory, she told herself. When she was first captured she had heard the code in this rhythm against white noise of comm systems, it'd send her heart into a ball of flutters, the sound of hope that someone was making contact with her in a rescue effort. But every time, as it turned out, there was nothing there but mere wishful thinking, a trick played by her own mind to cope with the fact that each morning she woke to a new day in the grasp of her captor. Her master told her that the batarian ship shot down the rescue ship in orbit and that no help was coming and she was forgotten. She had no choice but to accept a life with her master. Hearing that sound again after all these years still sent her heart into frenzy, but she told herself it was a dead signal that her mind had called up. But this time the sound was different. It had a metallic quality in it, not accompanied by white noise but standing out from the voices of real people shouting and the hissing of sprinklers and the humming of the generator below. It sounded real. She traced the sound to the commando who looked familiar. "Are you a phantom?"
Aleena continued with signaling. "You saved my life in Halica, remember? I was shot and you found me at the edge of the forest. Don't you recognize me?"
The caretaker nodded slowly. "You told me there was a ship in orbit that came to rescue us."
Onyx stepped closer, "I was on that ship. I'm here to rescue you."
The caretaker shook her head violently. "You're lying. That ship was destroyed by the batarians, my master wouldn't lie to me!"
Aleena stopped knocking and stood up. "They were not our masters. They were slavers. I escaped and found a new life. You can too. We promise."
The caretaker's eyes turned dark sharply. "You betrayed your own master?" Anger edged her voice and she stared at Aleena with such intensity that Onyx saw the depth of hatred. What have they done to her? The thought ached but she kept her eyes on the knife in the caretaker's hand.
Aleena saw it too and she knew she had an opening. She moved back a step on the balcony, "I did betray my master and that was punishable by death."
The caretaker moved a step towards Aleena, knife tilted up in striking position. Another step and another, she followed Aleena who was back stepping. As soon as the caretaker moved off from the ledge and onto the balcony, Onyx rushed at her. She opened her arms and wrapped the caretaker's body as she rammed into the smaller woman. Aleena quickly approached them and pushed a syringe in the caretaker's neck and watched her body relax. She turned to Onyx who still held the smaller asari's relaxed form while crooning words of comfort, the caretaker's knife planted in her right arm.
Aleena turned away. She couldn't bear the sight that she had imagined countless times when she was in the batarian's captivity that someone, a friend, a family member or even a stranger, would storm in and hold her and tell her everything would be alright.
Dr. Chakwas and the Normandy medical staff dropped out of a shuttle that landed at the taxi port. The doctor wrapped the small asari in a blanket and signaled two medics to put her in the shuttle, and she knelt down next to Onyx and scanned her arm. "It isn't bad. The knife didn't touch a bone or damage any major blood vessel. I'll patch you up."
Getting up with help of the doctor, Onyx stood in the sprinkler rain and searched for Aleena in the crowded plaza. Someone shouted into a terminal in the corner for the service people to shut off the sprinklers. Onyx saw Aleena standing by the corner, a hand on the wall and her head bent slightly. She suddenly realized what memories this event might have stirred up in the Halica vet and what resentment might have been renewed. She felt empty; not even the slow throbbing on her bandaged arm could give her a tangible sensation to hold on to. She just saved two lives, why couldn't she feel anything? Aleena's form became blurred as Onyx felt moisture in her eyes. Because I didn't save Misha's mother!
Aleena held a hand on the wall and took a few deep breaths to steady her racing heart. When she saw the Halica vet thrusting the knife at her, she froze. The feeling of her immobilized body after she was shot in that forest suddenly seized her and her legs threatened to give her away. She saw clearly the glinting of the blade and then Onyx's arm enveloped it and the blade was gone. She could still feel perspiration on her forehead and the hurried heartbeats in her chest when she saw the Normandy crew carry the caretaker to their shuttle. She finally felt steady enough to turn around and look at the one who saved her life, and she saw only a distant stare. Does she still think I should hate her?
Aleena pushed through the crowd with urgency, and she put both hands on Onyx's face and her lips on the commando's. After a brief moment of shock, Onyx pushed Aleena away. "Please don't." I don't deserve your kindness.
Aleena let her hands drop but kept her eyes on the commando's face. "We've both suffered wounds for each other, what would it take for you to trust me?"
"How can I trust you when I don't trust myself?"
Hearing the unshed tears in Onyx's voice, Aleena's shoulders sagged. The sprinklers had stopped raining. Aleena moved her eyes to the lights below the tower that outlined the cityscape. Without looking at Onyx, she said. "There's only one way to fix this and you know what it is."