I don't own the Mass Effect.

Chapter 7: A Demon's Rise

Voya went on ahead to scout out what the nearby area looked like, totally ignoring me when I reminded her to keep her head down. Which showed just how focused she was, normally even saying something as mildly protective as that would have gotten me hit. Or at the very least glared at.

While she did that, I did a final round of weapons checks, only half listening as our new friend Lieutenant Kyatia drilled her people on Blood Pack fighting 101. Her voice easily carried over the distant sounds of combat, the sounds echoing and fluctuating through the station. It had been going on since we'd move through the barricade, and I was seriously praying to Athame and the Pillars that it was the Talons counter-attacking rather than the Blood Pack storming Trisren's place.

"Leave the Vorcha to the Reyja'krem and his sniper." Her voice was muffled by her helmet, the visor shifting as she swept her gaze over her people. "Only engage them if there aren't any Krogan in sight. Soon as one of those humpbacked herd-beasts shows up, concentrate all of our fire on it until it dies. Understood?"

"Ma'am." The chorus was in time enough to make me think that she'd been with them for a while. Well, that and the fact that nobody had argued when she'd told them they were going right back to the place they'd just run away from.

Collapsing my submachine gun, I swapped it out for my heavy pistol, triple-checking the new coolant mods I'd installed to give me a few shots before the primitive cannon overheated. To my right, the Turian gang officer continued to pace, continuing her reminders. "Aim for the head at all times. Both of them will regenerate damn near anything so don't waste your time with anything but killshots."

"Ma'am."

My cane looked all right, fully loaded with incinerate mines. A few flicks on my omni-tool confirmed that my tech-launcher likewise had one of the fiery explosives loaded first. Not charged, obviously I didn't want to have another one of the fucking things explode right next to me, but it would only take a finger flick and a second to get it prepped.

"We're ready to move Kean." I glanced up as Kyatia stepped over to me, a Phaeston held confidently in her hands. "I've moved the wounded into that shop over there, owner isn't around and it will give them some cover."

"Good." I let out a slow breath, then winced as something exploded in the distance. It really wasn't more than a deep whump, the deck plating barely even moving beneath our feet, but even that meant a lot of fucking explosives had probably just gone off. Maybe nearby? Maybe below us...Shit. With this stupid station I wasn't even sure where it had happened. "All right, let's get to the top of the ramp and hold until Voya gets back."

"You heard him, move up!"

My helmet covered up my wince at her words. I didn't have a problem advising people in fights, Nynsi had trained me rather well at that, it was something I was comfortable with. Actually commanding people I didn't actually know was something entirely different. Unfortunately the Turian woman hadn't given me a choice, and seemed to have simply assumed that Nyreen had hired me to lead the counter-attack.

So yeah. My friends in danger, people's lives riding on me, no fucking pressure.

Athame's ass I needed a vacation.

Blowing out a final long breath, I nodded tightly to myself and got my ass moving. Making my way up the ramp, I kept my eyes warily on the corpses as I stepped over them. Everything I'd heard said Vorcha could regenerate from damn near anything, and apparently it wasn't uncommon for them to get back up not long after seemingly being killed.

None of the ones I stepped over did, though a few of the Talons were appropriately paranoid, putting single shots into the heads just to be sure.

I was near the top when Voya came jogging back, her body hugging the wall before she dropped down the ramp.

"Hold up." Dropping into a crouch, I focused as the Quarian did the same, setting her gun down before tersely signing keywords at me. "We've got an open block to the main avenue. Then... a few dozen Vorcha, and two Krogan holding the intersection."

Kyatia had dropped to one knee beside me and Voya, her helmet flicking between us. "She... just said all of that?"

It had actually been closer to open, one, block, twenty small, two big, crossroads. I'd had to infer the rest, though a year plus of translating Ghai's clipped words into conversations, and then working with Voya had made me rather decent at filling in the blanks. "Yes. Is there any cover between us and them?"

A tight nod, followed by another gesture.

"Two thirds of the way up. Here's the plan, we get to that location, then try and draw them to us. We clear them out, then move up to the intersection and find the next killzone."

"Repeat until we make it to the Blades base, or they overwhelm us." The Turian nodded in approval. "Understood Reyja'krem. Talons! Prep for a sprint!"

Swinging my cane up, I let it rest against my shoulder and I stood back up. Bouncing on my heels once, I started moving as Kyatia motioned for her people to start moving.

The thirteen of us crested the ramp and accelerated, the cover Voya had promised proving to be a pair of trashed aircars along with a balcony that had collapsed off two-level structure. It was maybe a hundred meters ahead, and fifty more beyond that was the broad opening where this street met the level's main road.

Along with distant figures that seemed to be wandering back and forth until the watchful gaze of something that I first thought was a statue. It wasn't until the thing moved that I realized it was an armored Krogan, even at this distance the alien was so large compared to it subordinates that my brain hadn't initially processed it correctly.

Not all species are created equal when it comes to sprinting. Kyatia and her fellow Turians quickly left most of us behind, while was Voya laboring to keep up with my and the other humans' longer strides. Behind us the two Asari struggled to keep up at all, muttered cursing almost making me grin as they bitched to one another.

"Enemies!" The hissing shout removed any mirth I might have been feeling, a cracking gunshot whipping overhead as the Vorcha brought its carbine up. "They return!"

"Good!" The Krogan's booming voice nearly made me flinch. The guy was basically on the other side of a football pitch and it sounded like he was next to me. "I was getting bored!"

Ahead, the Turians had already reached the wrecked aircars, bounding behind them as their leader shouted. "Focus fire on the heavy!"

Hunching down a bit, I ground my teeth as I kept running, flashes of tracer fire whipping overhead as the steady cacophony of battle began. A few rounds skidded off of my shields as I moved right, altering my course to get to the trashed balcony.

Dropping into a soccer slide as I approached, my armor left streaks of paint and sparks as I slid behind the wonderfully thick metal and stone. Voya joined me a few moments later, her chest heaving beneath her armor and suit as she tried to catch her breath.

Grimacing, I shifted myself to one knee, rising above what had once been part of a ledge. The games apparently had one thing right, the Blood pack weren't interested in staying back. Nearly all of them were moving in our direction, firing as they came. The sole exceptions seemed to be a few Vorcha that were lurking with carbines and rifles, trying to make like snipers as they picked at the Turians on my left.

"Voya, knock off those fucking sharpshooters." Shifting my cane around, I brought my right arm in front of me and balanced the heavy stick across the back of that forearm. "I've got the close ones."

My first incinerate exploded above three Vorcha rushing towards Kyatia, the blast throwing one of them to the ground while the others screamed as they burned. More fires began to burst into existence as I swept the area in front of the Talon's makeshift fire-base, covering the rest of them as they moved up to join their comrades.

For their part, they stayed true to the plan, concentrating all of the fire on the hulking Krogan as he fired back with the almost delicate looking shotgun in his hands. One Talon went down with an annoyed shout of pain, clutching his shoulder, but that was the only damage their target managed before the combined firepower of his hunters brought him down.

"Kean, be a friend!?" Kyatia shouted as she shifted to start finishing off Vorcha I'd left to burn.

An incinerate promptly struck the collapsed Krogan, making sure that he stayed down. "Thanks!"

"Not a problem!" I shouted back, reversing which weapon I had on which wrist as I started using my pistol to conserve my mines. My companion's viper cracked rhythmically, dropping a target with nearly each shot.

The skirmish didn't last much longer, our opponents more or less just running into the intersection to be shot down rather than trying to group together to rush us. Tellingly, the second Krogan never appeared, apparently having enough intelligence to pull his leathery ass back rather than just blood raging like his friend had.

Kyatia started to motion her people to advance as the attacks slowed, a pair of Turians escorting one of the Asari forwards. "Voya, move up and cover them. And make sure there isn't anything on the right."

The Quarian nodded gamely, clambering over the rubble as I carefully stood up and shifted over towards the Lieutenant.

"Nath, Jalus, support her." Two Talons gave nods of their own before scrambling to follow her, leaving myself and the female Turian to stand behind the wrecked aircar she'd chosen. Her voice lowered as I stepped closer, trying to pitch it so it wouldn't carry. "Lucky first strike. They were busy looting, not grouped up."

"Agreed." My eyes narrowed as the Asari on the left glowed with biotic light, the rythmic thud-thud-thud of a shockwave sounding as she hurled an arm around the corner. "And we might not have as good a position ahead."

"How far to the Blades headquarters?"

It took my a moment to pull up the mental map in my brain. "Block and a half, they're in one of the main courtyards."

"Spirits. Kean, that area has the main side-streets. It's where we retreated from." The 'so there's going to be a fucking army there' went unsaid.

Ahead of us, the Asari flinched after a round screamed past her head. She quickly stepped back, letting one of the Turians move up to start taking potshots with his rifle as she called back to us. "I could see the entrance to the hub. There's... a lot of movement down there sir, ma'am. I got a few Vorcha that were pulling back."

I grunted. "Is there anything we could use for cover between here and there?"

Her helmet shook in the negative. "Not unless we want to try and move through the buildings."

"Suicide." Kyatia muttered it before I could, but I nodded to show that I agreed. Fighting Krogan and Vorcha in the open was one thing. The latter didn't wear armor and could be killed rapidly, so long as you had cover to operate from. In the open... they might die like the True Son kids had, but unlike those poor idiots Vorcha could actually shoot back with rather unnerving accuracy. And Krogan were... Athame, it had taken the entire squad to bring down one with any sort of speed. Fighting one in an enclosed space would leave any of us just a smear on the ground.

"Voya, is there anyone the other way?" The Quarian risked sticking her head out, ducking back as she shook her head. "Anything we can use?"

Another shake, her and the Talons falling back so as to not be exposed from the other direction.

Shit. SHIT. There had to be something around here. Whipping my head around, I tried to come up with something. Anything. We could move the wrecked aircars maybe? Only two Asari made that a difficult prospect. Cars weren't light and they both had the awkwardly youthful movements of maidens, their control and stamina wouldn't be as good as it would be in a few centuries.

"Kean... I don't think we can go farther."

Go farther? We'd barely gone anywhere at all! I snapped my mouth shut before I could actually vocalize that, forcing myself to count to ten in all four of my languages before I was able to articulate myself without being a moronic asshole. "You, Asari. Did you see any signs of fighting? Any sign that they're being pushed from the other direction?"

"The walls... I couldn't, I'm sorry sir."

Goddess damn... "Lieutenant, get your people back into cover. Voya, shift left. We're going to try and piss them off."

Kyatia glanced past me, watching her people start to pull back. "I'll move up with you, I'll alternate with your sniper."

There wasn't enough time to argue, so I jerked my head in a nod, the pair of us moving up to joining my companion. While she knelt down on one knee, I leaned out above her to take a long look.

Sure enough, about a block ahead was the sprawled opening to the courtyard. The Talons had apparently attempted to raise barricades like at the markets, but they'd locked only a meter or so up. There were plenty of bodies from both sides, but even as I watched Vorcha were pulling at the corpses, scrounging equipment as numerous Krogan loomed over them from watch posts once occupied by guards.

One of them had casually brought his gun up, a long burst sending sparks off the wall and across my helmet as I jerked backwards.

"How many?"

Shaking my head a bit to clear the flashes of light, I grunted. "Six Krogan. Three high, three more lounging behind the barricade. You tried to raise it?"

"They shot the motors out with carnage rounds and grenades. High or low?"

Stepping back, I motioned for her to take my spot. "High, easier targets on those platforms. Voya, take the lead."

Her armored mask nodded, and then her rifle was snapping as she quickly started to pick away at her target. Not bothering to manage her heat, she kept yanking the trigger until the weapon refused to shoot, pulling back amidst a flurry of return fire as Kyatia moved up to take her place.

While the Turian female leaned out into the incoming shots as if she didn't notice them, I shoved my pistol on my belt before focusing on adjusting my cane's settings.

When the Talon's assualt rifle clicked in protest, I moved up to take her spot. Metallic shards promptly began to rain against my chest and arm as I leaned out, my cane held in two hands like a rifle as I triggered as quickly as the small power core could load new mines into place.

The distance and fact that I was getting battered didn't help my aim. Explosions detonated on the ground, on the wall, other streaks of orange sailed overhead to explode in the hub proper. A few were more on target, making Krogan bellow with anger and Vorcha shriek in pain.

My shields failed after perhaps fifteen or twenty seconds, forcing me to rotate with Voya as she banged my leg with her rifle's barrel.

She took over. Then Kyatia took her turn. Then me. Rinse and repeat.

But the Krogan wouldn't fucking move. They actually started their own rotation, shifting people with fresh armor and shields into place.

The Turian's weaker equipment gave way first, clutching at her arm on her third rotation as she hissed in pain. My own shoulder plate cracked mere moments after I moved up to take her place, the heavy shotgun round that broke it sending me spinning back as I snarled.

Hands grabbed me, one of the Asari hauling me away from the edge as another Talon took my place. She directed me to where her superior officer was already sitting and being treated, making me take a spot on the ground beside her.

"They'll lose... their tempers eventually." Kyatia spoke through ragged breaths, her head leaning back as one of her people poured medigel into her exposed forearm.

Closing my eyes, I lowered my head and tried not to grimace as the Maiden carefully inspecting my shoulder. "They... no. Stop shooting, get back from the edge."

"Sir?"

"Fall back. One of you check every thirty seconds or so." I couldn't bring myself to open my eyes. "They aren't coming. And someone keep watch on the buildings."

"We have been sir." The Asari murmured, something rustling before the cold relief of medigel started to relieve the dull ache. "No sign of anything so far. No civilians, no Blood Pack moving up, nothing but empty businesses."

I don't think I'd ever really failed before. Not like this anyway. I'd failed at building things. Failed at repairing things. I'd failed rather spectacularly in a relationship.

I'd never really failed in a fight. I'd always had a plan. A way to get the objective complete, even if it didn't quite always work. It hadn't on Korlus, but we'd had a chance. We didn't even have that hope here. There was a hundred or so meters of open space between us and a barricaded wall manned by Krogan. Even if any of us did make it that far, we had no idea how many there were beyond them. Enough that they could rotate people to take potshots at us without seeming to be bothered.

Trisren was out there. Under siege. And there wasn't anything I could fucking do about it.

Rane was out there. Fighting her way in this direction.

And I was sitting on the ground, getting a tiny little flesh wound patched up, and was thoroughly useless.

"Sir, please relax, I need to bandage this cut."

Opening my eyes, I glanced at my shoulder and tried not to snort at the small tear in my under-armor. "It's nothing. Take care of the Lieutenant."

"But... it could get infected."

"I'm-"

"Kean, shut up and let her do it." Kyatia cut me off, her voice tired. "A good officer knows when to let his subordinates handle things they're equipped to do."

I wasn't a fucking officer, but I shut up and waited for her to finish applying a tiny patch. A few moments later she had scurried back, grabbing the plate that had been shot free and pulling an omni-gel canister from her belt.

Swallowing several things I wanted to say at the sight of an amateur trying to patch my armor, I turned to my left. "Voya."

The Quarian turned to glance at me over her shoulder, shuffling over and dropping to a knee as she set her weapon down. Her freed hands rose, tiredly gesturing.

"Physically fine." The mentally not went unsaid. "We need a plan. Do you have a local map?"

She seemed to sigh, then fired up her omni-tool. But rather than a floating graph of the area, a text file opened. Cieran, we can't fight them in utility tunnels. They like flamethrowers.

Biting my tongue, I accepted that as a bad idea and tried to find a new one. "The road to the right?"

"Leads to the food concourse above the slave markets." The Lieutenant on my right sighed. "Kean..."

Athame's fucking... Trisren was my friend dammit. Yes she was a tit sometimes, and a brutal trainer, but she was brutal because she wanted us to survive. There had to be something we could do. Something we could improvise, something...

Shit.

The fifteen minutes that followed were some of the most miserable of my life. Kyatia eventually hauled herself to her feet, grabbing my arm to make sure I did the same. She checked on her people, making sure they'd tended to the flesh wounds they'd gotten in the skirmish. In the background the sounds of fighting continued to grow steadily, but the lookouts consistently reported that there remained a sizable Krogan presence waiting for us to try anything.

I kept trying to come up with plans for the first five minutes or so, stopping only when Voya simply pushed me against a wall, leaning her small yet solid frame against me to make it clear that she wasn't going to let me try anything stupid. She also made sure to hit me when I didn't thank the maiden for putting my shoulder plate back together quickly enough.

Around twenty minutes after we'd stopped trying to lure them out, the lookout finally reported that the Krogan were pulling back, and that tracer rounds were starting to become visible.

It took everyone a few minutes to get organized. Attaching my cane to my back, I prepped my omni-tool with one hand while keeping my pistol in the other. As soon as the Turian, I think he was Nath, nodded that we had a chance, we got moving again.

We didn't really have a plan beyond rush the barricade and use it as cover, so that was more or less what we did. Only one Krogan was even facing us, and he didn't last long. Voya skidded to a stop to hammer at his helmet, while I triggered an incinerate from my tech-launcher. The kill went to the Asari though, both of them glowing as warpfire swirled through the air before immolating the massive alien in biotic light.

It was the only real contribution that we made to the fight. By the time we made it to the barricade the Blood Pack were in full retreat, Krogan lumbering down another main avenue while Vorcha died in droves to cover their master's retreat.

A small horde of Talons and, bizarrely, the white-clad forms of T'Ravt's regulars were in full pursuit. I watched the fighting move in that direction for a few moments, then wordlessly vaulted the barricade.

"Follow the Reyja'krem, we'll get orders from whoever is in command after we know the Blades are secure." Kyatia barked, easily clearing the wall and moving to join me. "Execute any wounded Vorcha, but leave Krogan alive for questioning."

"Um... how ma'am?"

"Shoot their arms and legs." I spoke up, not bothering to look back. "And keep their weapons away from them."

"Sir."

Mercenaries and the warlord's troops called out to us as we moved past, but I didn't respond. They didn't matter.

The ruined wall that I could see even from here was all that mattered. Someone, I think it was Voya, pulled my cane off of my back and shoved it into my hands.

I didn't really remember limping across the hub, or pushing my way past soldiers who weren't quick enough to get out of my way. Kyatia and Voya had to tell me about that later.

They'd used explosives to blast their way in. Or maybe the Blades had tried to blast their way out, it was hard to tell. Pretty much the entire front of their home had been blasted apart, a normal sized doorway replaced by something the size of a garage door.

It was carpeted in dead Vorcha and pieces of the same. Many were badly singed, either killed by the initial explosions or from flamethrower packs detonating. Maybe even incinerates. Here and there were the massive forms of dead Krogan, orange blood covering their broken armor and bodies.

Stepping over and around them, I could only stare at the interior.

A single person was there, sitting with her head in her hands on a couch that was more blood and viscera than furniture.

"Rane."

"Reyja... Cieran." She let her hands drop, her head drooped listlessly to the left. "You're... Pillars. It's..."

"Tris?"

All four of her eyes shifted away. "She and Dorvahn... are in their room. They blew the link before... before."

Something... broke inside of my head. I don't know what it was, but I felt it snapping in the back of my skull. My cane struck the ground with far more force than was necessary as I moved, walking past where she was sitting to the room in question.

Stepping through the melted and shattered workbench that they'd dragged in front of the door to use as cover, I forced myself to look inside.

"Cieran...?"

Red flashed across my vision as I turned away, my right leg snapping out to viciously kick an already broken chair. Wood cracked when the thing hit the wall behind it, my throat tearing as I snarled. Moving after it, I was fully intending on smashing the fucking thing into goddess-damned splinters before Rane moved in front of me.

"Reyja'krem!"

"What!?" I snapped furiously. "What the fuck does it matter Rane!?"

She sucked in a breath, forcing herself to remain tall. "Reyja'krem. It's a chair. It did not kill them."

I stared at her through my helmet, the words only slowly making their way through the rage. When they finally did, I nodded tightly and then turned to my other companion. She'd apparently followed me in, though the Talons were remaining outside. "Voya! Are any of those Krogan still breathing?"

The Quarian blinked, then nodded and turned away, picking through the corpses.

"Cieran..."

Wrapping both of my hands around my cane, I stomped it in front of me and leaned on it as I tried to breath. "Rane... go ahead. I'm sorry for my outburst."

"I understand." The lowborn very carefully stepped forwards, an armored hand rising to press against my chest. "I'm glad you're all right, my Reyja'krem."

"I'm glad you are too, my Rane'li." Still breathing slowly, I leaned forwards until our mouths met in a soft kiss. It lasted a moment, no longer, and then we were stepping back from one another. "How long have you been here?"

"A few minutes before you arrived." The lowborn exhaled heavily. "The Talons pressed them to the main ramp, but couldn't advance farther. I.. don't know why T'Ravt's people showed up, but they started landing on shuttle and aircar pads around Fumi and Tuhi before joining the fighting. They had enough Asari to tear through the Vorcha with biotics alone, leaving everyone else to focus on the Krogan."

She paused, clearly expecting me to tell her what had happened on my end of the fighting.

Heh. Fighting.

There was a snapping sound behind me, both of us turning as Voya snapped her fingers again and pointed at a Krogan half buried by Vorcha with the other.

A survivor.

Good.

"Kyatia! We've got a live one. If you could help us get those bodies off of him?"

The Turian female had turned around from where she was standing like a guard, but nodded as she saw who the Quarian was pointed at. A minute later had her two Asari subordinates using their minds to hurl the dead bodies away, leaving a groaning Krogan to weakly flail an arm as he tried to process what was happening.

"Reyja'krem... what do you intend to do?" Rane asked quietly as we watched the Talons carefully kick his weapons away, the Asari standing ready to pummel him as the others yanked at his helmet.

"From what I remember, the Pillars have a few things to say about people who kill the companions of a Harath'krem or Reyja'krem." My breath whistled through my teeth. "I can't think of any that are pleasant."

There was a few moments of silence before she replied, her voice perfectly level. "Neither can I."

"You aren't going to stop me?"

"They were my friends as well, my Reyja'krem. And I am not Illyan." She let out an angry hiss of her own. "And I am a faithful Batarian, exiled or not. The Pillar of Heart dictates when and where mercy should be shown. I don't believe any of its lines apply to those who have killed our friends."

My lips curled at the edges. "Me either."

"What are you going to do?"

"I am going to ask him questions."

"And then?"

I merely smiled a vicious little smile inside of my helmet, stepping forwards once the Krogan's helmet was free and the Talons had backed away. "Can you hear me?"

His native language was little more than a deep rumble, something like grunts connected occasionally by vowels. My translator smoothly overlaid it in my ear, turning that into something I could understand. "Why am I alive, four eyes?"

"To answer questions. Why did you attack this place?"

"They affronted the Pack, the true followers of Emperor Ganar Yulaz." Emperor? Goddess, someone had quite the ego. "They accepted money from the courtesan whore who fancies herself powerful. Soon all of your kind will know the penalty for doing so."

So they were going after everyone T'Ravt had hired. Not surprising. "Garm order that? Or Ganar?"

"Does it matter?"

"Not really, no. You know anything else interesting?"

He snorted heavily, his labored breath almost gusting out. "Get it over with."

"As you wish. Voya?" The Quarian blinked confusedly at me. "Have you ever taken a Krogan's plate off?"

Silver eyes blinked a few more times, then curled as her mask hid her grin.

"A Krogan's... my pla..." Our wounded prey tried to thrash, his eyes focusing entirely on the petite Quarian as she slowly walked towards him. Her hands dropped to her sides, knives sliding free from her belt as she cocked her head, visibly considering the best way to proceed.

In any other situation it would have been almost comical. Even barely breathing and collapsed the Krogan dwarfed her.

In this situation? He tried to hit her. Tried to bite her. Tried to crawl away. The screaming really got started when she started working her blades around. Either she couldn't find the right angle to start prying, or she was just enjoying the sounds he was making.

I didn't look away. Neither did Rane.

Next up is Chapter 8: A Demon's Path

Yeah. The breaking has begun. And when you break, people can change you. Places can change you. Cieran is definitely broken right now, but this time he doesn't have Illyan or Trena or Nynsi to help him step back from the edge.

Starting next chapter the Author's Notes will be expanded to include some of the thoughts I've had over the series, much like the last ones in AR: Arrival did, as well as some of the plans I have going forwards.

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

Thanks, Kat

Review Responses:

Shinkansen → Good to hear from you, and hope that catching up as at least enjoyable. :)

Tusken1602 → It certainly would not be pretty.

Fan-Rei → That will be explained next chapter.

WomanSlayer → He could be.

Elidan1012 → It does seem like I am, doesn't it?