Biotic Beginnings

by 10tonsoffun

Who in their right mind would even consider hiring Jack as a teacher? Right! But somehow, she is the new instructor at Grissom Academy, and she will have to work hard to fit in. Meanwhile, the new kid in class is having some serious issues with his biotics. But Jack finds her own way of helping him. Read 'The Psychotic Biotic' for Jack's backstory.

38. Alpha On Omega

Chapter Thirty-Eight – Alpha On Omega

Since operating on Hilary's leg fracture would be a lot messier than Kurt's thigh injury, Matriarch Lita decided that it was better to put some sheets on the floor of the crew sleeping quarters and performing the operation there.

Vera had taken it upon herself to hold Hilary's hand all the way through the operation. At first, the freckled girl had stubbornly denied that she needed her hand held, but as soon as Lita brought out the needles, she squeezed Vera's hand tightly. Charles and Jack was sitting on one of the beds, looking at Lita work. It wasn't pretty, watching a bone being reset and put together with an organic adhesive. But watching a pro like Lita work was a true privilege. Hundreds of years of experience as a surgeon was impressive to witness.

"The glue will keep the bone in place while it regrows," said Lita to Hilary, while she cleaned up the wound where the bone had pushed through the skin. "But you'll be on crutches for a while."

"How long?" Hilary asked, making sure not to look down at the leg that was being operated on.

"A couple of days," the asari doctor answered. "Then you can walk by yourself, though your leg might be sore."

Then Lita closed the wound with a couple of stitches and applied a thin layer of medi-gel.

"I'll take out the stitches again in a few hours, when the medigel has regrown the skin and fully closed the wound," Lita explained and gave Hilary a shot of another syringe in the leg. "You will regain feeling in your leg again in about ten seconds."

Exactly ten seconds later, Hilary groaned and grabbed her left leg.

"It stings," she whimpered, as a single tear rolled down her cheek.

"I'm sorry, child. But it's important that the nerves in your leg aren't blocked for too long," Lita said, putting her blue hand gently on Hilary's forehead.

"Thank you," Hilary said, brushing away the tear that was crawling down the side of her face.

"Don't mention it," Lita said and left the room to help her assistant with making dinner.

"I'll go and help Kolyat clean the pistols," Charles said and kissed Jack softly, before he got up.

"Whoa!" Hilary said, now sitting up on the floor.

"What?" Charles asked.

Hilary looked from Charles to Jack and back to Charles.

"You two?" she said. "I thought she was your teacher?"

"You got a problem with that, Moreau?!" Jack said, quickly standing up.

"No! No!" Hilary answered just as quickly. "I was just… surprised."

"Okay," Jack said, calming down. "But that's how it is!"

"Fine," Hilary said. "It's none of my business."

"It's okay," Charles said. "It's not like it's a secret or taboo within our group. But we're trying to keep it within the team."

"Yeah," Jack said. "Your brother knows about Charles and me, and, not surprisingly, he's already made about a thousand jokes about us."

"And Kurt does it all the time too," Charles noted.

"But I thought you said that my brother was dating an AI?"

"You would think that would make him keep a low profile, wouldn't you?" Jack said. "But he just kept going! But don't worry, I told him that it's better to be fucking one of your students than fucking the auto-pilot."

"Ha ha," Hilary laughed. "I still can't believe that he would date a robot!"

"Wait till you meet her," Jack said. "She's not like any other synthetic I've ever met. She's smart, funny and really nice. And she has the body of a bikini model."

"Except she's made of titanium," Vera pointed out.

"I'm happy to tease Joker about his relationship with EDI, but actually I think he's dating out of his league. So I have to give him props, though obviously, I would never say that to his face," Jack laughed. "And EDI is smug enough as it is."

"Do you have a boyfriend, Hilary?" Vera asked.

Hilary blushed slightly.

"No. Remember when I joked about Kurt resuscitating me being my first kiss. I wasn't kidding. That really was my first kiss – well, sort of," Hilary said.

"Oh, I feel so bad for you," Jack said. "I hope he hasn't ruined kissing for you forever."

"I did almost die," Hilary shrugged with a small smile. "No, honestly, I don't really remember anything about it."

"Lucky you," Jack said.

"Can I ask you a question?" Hilary asked Jack in a much more serious tone.

"Sure."

"Do you think my brother is still alive?"

"Absolutely," Jack answered immediately. "He's on the Normandy with Shepard."

"We were on the Normandy with Shepard for a short while," Charles added. "I've never felt so safe in my life. I'm sure your brother's just fine."

"Maybe I can meet him when we get to the Citadel," Hilary said hopefully.

"Maybe," Jack said. "But you have to remember that Shepard travels all over the galaxy and is very busy all the time. And we're not going straight back to the Citadel."

"We're not?" Hilary said.

"Nope," Jack replied. "The matriarch wants to go to Omega to help the people there. We'll see what's going on there, and then maybe we can catch a transport to the Citadel."

"Omega?" Hilary asked. "Isn't that place… bad?"

Charles was quietly thinking the same thing. Everything he had ever heard about Omega was bad. Supposedly, the station had crime rates that dwarfed even the roughest neighborhoods in the worst cities on Earth. Actually, he couldn't remember having ever heard anyone speak positively about Omega. But according to Jack, it wasn't that bad.

"It's a wonderful place for those who dare to take advantage of the opportunities that Omega gives you," Jack said.

"Don't you mean 'take advantage of other people'?" Vera asked skeptically.

"Sure," Jack said. "It's how Omega works. The strong fight each other for dominance. And the weak get destroyed or become stronger."

"Doesn't sound very nice," Charles said.

"You are strong," Jack said, giving him a satisfied smile. "You'll be fine. And besides, Aria and I have kinda agreed that we don't bother each other."

"Who's Aria?" Charles asked.

"Aria T'Loak basically runs Omega," Jack explained. "Obviously, there's no official title of leadership. But she is the strongest, the apex predator if you want. She's an asari. Not very popular with her own species. But they respect her, because she is powerful and charismatic. The same goes for the three main criminal organizations on Omega: The Blue Suns, the Blood Pack and the Eclipse. They all hate her more than they hate each other, which is a lot. But they have not been able to knock her off her 'throne', and it's not that they haven't tried, so she remains in control of Omega."

"I've heard many stories about Aria T'Loak," Vera said. "But how do you two know each other, Jack?"

"Well," Jack sighed nostalgically. "We first met when I was 15 years old. I had just joined a pirate gang, and we had boarded a turian freight ship. The turians were dangerous for us as pirates, because even the merchants are always armed to the teeth. But this freighter was worth the risk. We really hit the jackpot, because this particular freighter was moving a shitload of eezo. We docked at Omega to sell our loot and we made enough credits to buy another ship. After that, we snorted a ton of red sand in the club called Afterlife. Then, a heavily armed krogan who called himself Patriarch came up to us and required that we paid 50 % of our haul to some bitch called Aria. The other pirates just accepted this, but I just thought they were a bunch of pussies. So I asked Patriarch to take me to see this fucking Asari."

"You were a pirate and did red sand when you were 15?" Hilary asked, when Jack paused.

"And I killed people for money," Jack said. "But that's a long story."

"So did Patriarch agree to let you talk to Aria?" Vera asked, wanting to hear the rest of Jack's story.

"Oh yes," Jack said. "He laughed at me and asked me if I was sure I really wanted to meet Aria. My shipmates tried to talk me out of it, but I had made my mind up. So Patriarch took me to a VIP room to see Aria. I told her that I would rather die than give my hard-earned credits to a fucking stripper. 'fair enough' she just said and threw a warp field at me. It was incredibly strong and would have ripped my body apart if I hadn't put up a barrier just in time to absorb most of the force. Still, I was thrown across the room and slammed into a wall. I fractured four ribs and fell to the ground, where two of Aria's men picked me up and dragged me back to their boss. She asked me if I wanted one last chance to pay her. I told her to go fuck herself and killed the two bodyguards that were holding me. Then I punched her in the face."

"You punched Aria T'Loak in the face?" Vera asked in disbelief.

"Sure did. And I put a good bit of biotic power into it too. But Aria just shook her head at me. 'Kids these days,' she said and punched me back. I was knocked out completely, and I woke up two days later on one of the couches in the VIP room. I remember thinking that I must have been dead, but the pain in my face told me that I wasn't. In the two days that I had been out, Aria had killed every single one of my shipmates and claimed our ship and all of our credits. She said that she was impressed with my spirit and my biotics, and that she would let me go, so I could return once I had become a worthy opponent. She also offered to kill me right there and then. I told her that I didn't like any of the options and that I'd rather fight her to get back my credits. She just laughed and patted me on the head, before she left the room. And every time I've visited Omega since, Aria's asked me if I'm finally back to take her on. But she's never attacked me, and I've never challenged her, though I thought about it a couple of years ago."

"That's insane," Vera said. "You have an open invitation to become the next queen of Omega!"

Jack chuckled.

"I have an open invitation for a fight against Aria. But as much as I hate to admit it, she's among the people that I'm not very eager to fight. Not just because she's incredibly strong, but also because I've come to respect her. She's not my friend. Not at all. But I don't exactly hate her either."

"Even after she killed all your shipmates?" Hilary asked.

"They didn't mean shit to me," Jack said. "If Aria hadn't gotten involved, I had already planned to kill them all myself, so I could get the ship and all the credits."

Hilary looked absolutely shocked, and even though Charles had heard several stories from Jack's criminal years, he was quite upset as well.

Jack looked at him and frowned.

"I'm sorry," she said. "But you know I'm not like that anymore."

"I know," he said. "But it's still hard to think about."

Charles fully believed Jack when she said that she had changed. But hearing how she was responsible for getting her shipmates killed and how she would have killed them herself anyways was still very disturbing. In his head, he imagined Jack brutally murdering Vera and Kurt. He didn't truly believe that she was capable of doing it, but his brain was creating the images. And just a few years ago, Jack had obviously been willing to do just about anything for any reason she could think of.

"Hey," Jack said, bringing him out of his dark thoughts. "I was just a child."

"That's what scares me the most," Hilary said. "You were as old as I am now."

"I had to grow up a little quicker than most kids," Jack sighed.

"Why?" Hilary asked in confusion.

"It's a long story," Jack said. "And I have to take care of something. Vera can explain it to you."

Jack and Charles left Vera and Hilary alone in the room, where Hilary no doubt asked a million questions. Charles also felt that Jack's story about her history with Aria T'Loak gave him the right to ask a few questions, but Jack was way ahead of him.

"I know you don't like it when we talk about my past," she said, taking his hand. "But if you do want to talk, we can talk. Or I can never mention it again."

"Just one question," he said. "When you remember all those things now… How does it make you feel?"

"I assume you're looking for an honest answer?"

"Of course, Jack."

"I don't feel bad, if that's what you're looking for. Well… Perhaps we shouldn't have stolen that eezo and killed the turians… And I'm not crying any tears because my crew got killed, but I would have really liked to kick Aria's ass back then."

Charles sighed. At least Jack was showing a tiny bit of regret about killing the innocent turians.

"Hey," Jack said, giving his hand a little squeeze. "I've got thousands of stories like this one. And to be honest, this was one of the softer ones. Please don't try to make me feel bad about all the things in the past. I'm really happy with you now, but if I had to start feeling bad about all the shit I've done, I would end up killing myself."

"I'm sorry," Charles said. "Let's just not talk about it?"

"Are you sure that's the best idea?" Jack asked. "Don't we have to work on stuff like this?"

"Yes," Charles sighed. "But I won't say that I'm happy about the stuff you did back then."

"You don't have to," Jack said. "Just tell me how happy you are that I'm not like that anymore, and we'll be fine. You have to trust me, when I'm saying that those days are over."

"I am really happy that you are the way you are now. If everything that happened in the past is what it took to form the Jack that I know, I guess I can't complain," Charles said, putting his arm around her and holding her close as they walked towards the cockpit.

Jack leaned her head on his shoulder, and he enjoyed having her so close for the first time in many days.

"I've got to make a call," Jack said, as they entered the cockpit, where Lita's pilot was safely steering them towards Omega.

"Yes, ma'am," the asari pilot said and almost jumped out of her seat to give it to Jack.

"You can stay where you are," Jack said. "Just put me on the vid comm and give me Aria T'Loak on the line."

Charles stared at Jack in disbelief. Surely she wasn't going to start something with Aria right now. Perhaps, retelling her story had made her want to try and fight Aria again.

The pilot reacted even more strongly than Charles. Instead of doing as Jack requested, she just gaped at her. Telling another asari that you were going to deliberately contact Aria fucking T'Loak was outrageous.

"Aria T'Loak?" The pilot repeated.

"Yup," Jack said, obviously enjoying the moment a little bit.

"Jack?" Charles asked. "What are you going to do?"

"Oh, nothing that's going to make her hate me more, I promise," Jack said, as the pilot finally began entering Aria's contact data into the ship computer.

Then a hologram of an asari looking very relaxed in a couch appeared in front of Jack and Charles.

"How are you, Jack?" Aria said. "Not too great I hope."

Aria sounded bored and arrogant, but she was addressing Jack with a surprising amount of politeness.

Aria continued:

"It's been some time since I last saw you. Somebody told me that you had become a teacher. Of course I didn't believe them. But then I saw you and your little friends on the news. It's a cute little project you have there. Oh, and you've brought one of the little fuckers with you," she said, noticing that Jack wasn't alone.

Charles glared at the holographic asari.

"He doesn't look quite as unstable as you, Jack," Aria said, leaning back and taking a sip of her drink. "Perhaps he could come and work for me. I could use another stripper."

Charles snorted.

"No?" Aria said. "Suit yourself. So, why are you disturbing me, Jack? I'm afraid, that if you're coming to get killed in front of your students, I'm not actually on Omega at the moment. I'm at Purgatory on the Citadel these days. So if you want to die, I'll be waiting for you here. But I have to warn you: Running Omega can be stressful."

"Why would I want to control your shitty little station?" Jack countered. "I'll kill you some other time, but your people can fight for control of Omega once you're dead. I don't want it."

"So why the fuck did you call?" Aria asked, running out of patience.

"I'm going to Omega, so I just wanted to make sure that your men are still under orders not to attack me? I would hate it if I had to kill the poor bastards," Jack replied.

"My people will leave you alone," Aria promised. "They're under strict orders to leave you to me."

"You're a bitch, but at least you're doing what you said you'd do," Jack said. "What's this I hear about you jumping in bed with Commander Shepard?"

"Hah, he wishes," Aria laughed dryly. "But apparently, the T'Soni kid has claimed him as her mate. Benezia always hated me, so maybe I should seduce him just to piss off her daughter. However, you've heard correctly. I've allowed refugees access to Omega, and Shepard and I did work together to get the Suns, Blood Pack and Eclipse to join the fight against the reapers."

"I'm surprised you're getting involved in the war," Jack said. "And on the good side even."

"I could say the exact same thing about you, Jack."

"I guess you could."

"Have fun on my station," Aria said. "Come and see me at Purgatory the next time you're at the Citadel. If you don't try something stupid, which would no doubt end with you being dead, I may have some work for you and your toddlers."

"What makes you think I'd work for you?" Jack asked.

"You'd get to murder people, or is that no longer enough for you?"

"Depends on the people," Jack said. "You I'd kill for free."

"As I said, Jack. The invitation stands. You can come here to fight me, or you can come here if you'd like to hear more about this job I need someone to do. I don't really care either way."

"We'll see."

"Later, Jack," Aria said and disconnected the call.

The asari pilot kept staring at the place where Aria's hologram had been. So did Charles.

"That was weird," he said. "You both kept talking about killing each other, but you were both surprisingly polite and calm about it."

"I'll admit that we have a complicated relationship. We both hate each other. But for some odd reason, we've never really had that final fight. And honestly, I'm not sure that I want to fight her anymore," Jack said.

"You respect her," he summed up.

"In a way," Jack agreed.

"I can see why," Charles said. "You two are very much alike."

"What are you talking about?"

"You're both powerful biotics with impressive criminal records. And now you're both fighting for a good cause. And you both seem to enjoy the banter, which tells me that you share the same sense of humor and that you both enjoy… threatening people," Charles explained.

"Hmmm…" Jack said. "You may have a point, but I'd like to point out that I'm investing a little bit more of myself into this war than Aria is."

"Then you've already won the competition between the two of you… At least in my book."

"But you still think I could take her in a fight, don't you?" Jack asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You'd crush her," he said quickly.

"Good answer," Jack snickered and slapped him in the butt.

They turned and walked out of the cockpit.

"Do you think she meant it when she offered me the job as a stripper?" Charles jokingly asked and took off his uniform jacket in a deliberately slow and sensual way. "Don't you think I'd make a good stripper?"

"I wouldn't quit my day job if I was you," Jack laughed.

-X-X-X-

Jack had always seen Omega as a sort of land of opportunity. But she realized that those opportunities were only really open to those who were willing to get their hands dirty. There was simply no way to make it on Omega, if you didn't get involved with some kind of organized crime.

Many of the inhabitants of Omega were extremely poor, but on Omega, being poor wasn't what forced you to do criminal acts. In many cases, people were poor, simply because they refused to get involved in criminal acts, that could otherwise have made them some money.

Jack had tried to explain Omega to Charles, whom she knew would be shocked and probably want to help everyone. But she couldn't explain it all, he'd have to see it for himself.

For the poor and the homeless, Omega had never been the best place to be, so things had to be pretty fucking bad out in the colonies, if people were coming to Omega as refugees.

Matriarch Lita's ship had barely docked, before the doctor was rushed to a makeshift operating room that the refugees had made for themselves in a dirty alley.

"Stabbed or shot?" the asari matriarch simply asked the Blue Suns member who came to get her.

"Both," the turian said casually and followed the asari off the ship.

"Thank you, doctor," Hilary shouted after Lita, who had just cleared the girl for action after just two days on crutches.

"Have any of you ever been here before?" Jack asked.

"Obviously not," Prangley said.

"Right," Jack nodded. "Here are the rules for Omega: There are no rules! So don't think that you can do anything that you might be able to do on the Citadel or at home, because on Omega someone might try to kill you, if you look at them the wrong way."

"Lovely," Kurt said sarcastically. "What are we doing in this place again?"

"So," Jack continued. "Try not to do anything that might provoke anyone. Or I will have to kill a bunch of people who would otherwise have killed you. But… That being said… If someone tries anything against you, don't hesitate to punish them… Hard! That's the only thing they respect, and there's no C-Sec or anyone to hold it against you."

"What might they try?" Charles asked.

"Anything, really," Jack shrugged. "Vera, if someone tries to grab you or touch you, break their fingers. And then call me, and I'll break their fingers again. Kolyat, if someone calls you anything racist, you have my permission to fuck them up in any way you like."

"Even if it's Prangley or Kurt?" Kolyat asked.

"Especially if it's Prangley or Kurt," Jack said.

"Relax, Lizzard," Prangley said, clapping Kolyat on the back. "We love you, and you know it."

"Thanks, monkey boy," Kolyat replied instantly, which made Kurt double over with laughter.

They left Lita's ship, and Jack immediately recognized Omega's smell. The air was warm and breathable to humans, but only just. The scent of shitty street food was mixed with the stench of stale urine and the smell of something burnt.

"Ahhh," Jack said, inhaling deeply. "Omega!"

"How can you honestly like this place?" Vera asked, holding her nose. "It stinks!"

"You'll get used to it," Jack said. "For me, it almost smells like home."

"How much time have you spent here?" Hilary asked.

Jack knew that Vera had told Hilary everything about Pragia and Jack's youth, and fortunately, Joker's sister seemed to be dealing with that information just fine.

"A year in total, maybe," Jack said. "But some of the most interesting things in my life have happened here on Omega."

"Such as?" Kurt asked skeptically

"Killed my first krogan here," she said. "First tried red sand… Oh, and all that business with Aria I guess was pretty interesting as well."

"Are you not at all worried that she might attack us?" Hilary asked.

"Nah," Jack replied. "I've been here at least five times since then. And two of the times we talked without trying to kill each other. She hasn't attacked me any of those times, so I don't see why she would now."

"But she's not here," Charles pointed out. "Maybe her people will attack you without her permission."

"Unlikely," Jack said. "The people who are most scared of Aria all work for her. If you ask a random guy on the streets of Omega, he'll say that he respects Aria and doesn't want to get in her way. But if you talk to the people closest to her, they're absolutely terrified of her. The thought of doing something without her permission - something she's explicitly ordered them not to do – scares them shitless. We'll be fine."

"Great," Charles said.

"Aria's staff is the least of our worries. Remember what I just told you. Take care of each other, and if anyone messes with you, you put them down… hard!"

"Roger that," Prangley said, cracking his knuckles.

"Hilary, I want you to stay right next to Kolyat at all times," Jack said and turned to the young drell. "You take care of her, okay?"

"Of course, ma'am," Kolyat said and stepped closer to Hilary, who pouted.

"I'm not vulnerable," she moaned.

"You've got pride," Jack said. "Just like Joker. I understand. But you have to know your strengths and your weaknesses. When we were in the shuttle back on Tiptree, you did some sweet flying and protected us from the harvester. Now, you have to allow Kolyat to protect you when we're out on foot, understood?"

"Alright," Hilary sighed. "But I'm not holding his hand! I'm not a kid being walked to school!"

"You don't have to hold his hand," Jack said. "I think Kolyat will need both his hands anyway."

Jack was right. They haven't even left the docks, before a man walked closely by them and managed to remove the bracelet around Hilary's arm without the girl noticing anything. But Jack saw it, and so did Kolyat, who was walking just behind Hilary.

As the man passed with Hilary's bracelet already hidden, Kolyat 'accidentally' bumped into him.

"Watch it, drell!" the man shouted.

"I'm sorry, sir," Kolyat said.

"I should kick your fucking ass!"

"If you did that, I would have deserved my punishment, sir," Kolyat said politely. "But could I ask you to return the bracelet you just stole from my friend first? It's in your inner jacket pocket I believe."

The man reached in his jacket, but Kolyat was already dangling the bracelet in front of his face.

"I took the liberty of removing it myself," he said and handed the bracelet back to Hilary, who still couldn't understand how the man had been able to take it off her arm without her noticing it.

"Not bad," Jack said to Charles, who was equally impressed with Kolyat's speed and dexterity.

"You son of a bitch!" the man roared and swung at Kolyat.

But it was like trying to punch smoke. The drell disappeared and then he was there again.

"Walk away, sir," Kolyat said calmly.

The man didn't walk away. Instead he tried to tackle Kolyat to the ground, but Hilary tripped him, so he fell over.

"Bitch!" the man said and jumped to his feet and tried to grab Hilary.

But Kolyat caught his wrist before he could get to her.

"Last chance," Kolyat said. "Leave, sir!"

"Fuck you!" the man spat and tried to punch Kolyat with his other arm.

But Kolyat had had enough. He pinched the man on the neck and he blacked out.

"I told you…" Jack said. "Don't hesitate to get a little rough with these fuckers. You can't reason with them and there's no police force to hand them over to."

"I thought I'd play with him a little," Kolyat said. "And give him the chance to just leave."

As her team moved on, Jack looked down at the sleeping man on the floor. For good measure, she kicked him in the balls. She thought that it was only fair. When he woke up, he would be in pain, and maybe he would remember not to mess with them.

"Thank you, Kolyat," Hilary said. "I didn't even notice that he took my bracelet."

"Don't worry," Kolyat said. "He was pretty good… For an amateur."

They continued to Afterlife without too many problems. Jack was recognized a couple of times, which was usually enough to discourage anyone from trying anything.

A single turian took offense with the way that Kurt was looking at him, and he pulled out a long knife.

Kurt had very simply shoved his gun in the turians mouth and asked him:

"'Sup?"

The turian dropped his knife and ran away, allowing Jack and her team to move on.

"That's the way you do it," Jack said proudly and patted Kurt on the back.

Two human bouncers were guarding the entrance to Afterlife. Both were armed as if they were going to war.

"Hi, Jack," one of them said. A tall, muscular and dark-skinned man, whom Jack had met many times. He was cool.

"Kevin," Jack said, giving him a courtesy nod.

"Long time," Kevin said. "Finally here to square off against Aria?"

"Nah," Jack replied. "Would you like me to kill her, Kevin?"

"I don't really care, to be honest. I'll work for whoever's the strongest. If it's you or Aria giving the orders doesn't really bother me," he shrugged.

"Spoken like a true soldier of Omega," Jack said and moved past them.

The other bouncer slapped Vera's ass, when she walked by. And she turned around.

"Is he your friend?" she asked Kevin.

Kevin shrugged.

"Not really."

Vera spun around and punched the other bouncer straight in the face, breaking his nose.

Kevin laughed.

"You had that coming," he chuckled. "You should know not to mess with one of Jack's companions.

Jack smiled, glad that she still had her reputation intact.

"See ya, Kevin," she said and led her team into the club.

Dark and pulsing rhythms hit them hard, when they entered. Jack had spent so many nights here, drunk and drugged out of her mind, dancing and having sex with dangerous strangers in the bathrooms.

Half of those times, Aria had witnessed her behavior. The asari could easily have killed Jack on several occasions where she was too messed up to defend herself, but she hadn't. Such was the nature of their complicated relationship. If one was to kill the other, it would be in a glorious fight and not a knife in the dark.

She hadn't told Charles all her stories from Omega, and certainly not the worst ones. There was no reason to tell him about some of her most violent and sexually irresponsible memories. She was afraid that he would finally realize how fucked up she really was. She didn't want to scare him away, so she kept a few secrets to herself.

"Wow," Kurt said, staring at the sea of sweaty, semi-naked bodies writhing on the dance floor.

Afterlife was always open, and this day was no exception. Generally, the club was busiest at night. But the dance floor was never empty.

"They're riddled with STD's," Jack whispered to Kurt, who'd been close to drooling at the sight of Aria's platoon of strippers dancing around with the customers.

This wasn't strictly true. Most of them were asari, who didn't really get sexually transmitted diseases. Well, except if you counted the Ardat-Yakshi condition.

"Kurt!" she shouted to drown out the loud music. "Focus!"

"On which one of them?" he asked.

Jack just shook her head and grinned. She should have known that this would happen.

"There's no way that I'm allowed to be in here," Hilary noted.

"Hah," Jack laughed. "You won't find many age limits on Omega."

"What now?" Charles asked.

Jack could tell that he was doing everything in his power to keep his eyes off the strippers. She couldn't blame him for looking though. She had known what Afterlife was like, and she was the one who dragged him in here.

"Drinks," Jack said simply.

"Shouldn't we look for a way back to the Citadel?" Vera asked.

"You can't visit Omega without trying a few of the local specialties," Jack said.

"I can see a few special locals I'd like to try out from here," Kurt said, earning himself a solid punch in the arm from Vera.

Afterlife had several bars. And since Jack didn't know the bartender in the first one they passed, she continued to the main bar. She wasn't taking any drinks, unless she was certain that the bartender had worked for Aria for some time. The queen of Omega was okay with the bartenders sneaking a few drugs into the drinks from time to time – even to drug rape someone. But Aria didn't accept poisoning of the customers, since this was too bad for business.

Jack finally spotted an old man who had worked there as a bartender ever since Jack started coming to Afterlife. She was fairly certain that he wouldn't try to poison them or sneak anything into their drinks – unless they asked for it of course.

"Alive, huh?" the grumpy old bastard said, when Jack approached. "I thought Aria had killed you, since you stopped coming."

"I got an honest job," Jack said.

"Good one," He laughed dryly.

"Whatever," Jack said and turned to the others. "What are we drinking?"

Not knowing what they had to choose from, they shrugged.

"We'll take seven beers," Jack told the bartender, who groaned and started working on her order.

Hilary poked Jack in the back.

"I've never had beer before," she whispered to her.

"About time you try it out then, isn't it," Jack said. "And what better place for your first?"

"I guess," Hilary said. "I'll just tell Jeff that you made me do it."

"What's he gonna do?" Jack asked. "Break his arm at me?"

They were handed their beers and found a booth overlooking the dance floor.

It wasn't long before a massive, old krogan stood in front of them.

"Patriarch," Jack said. "Running the place while Aria is away?"

"Sadly, that's the position I'll have to settle with," he said in his rumbling voice. "And it's too damn easy these days, since Aria and Shepard got the gangs under control."

"What's up?" Jack asked. "You're blocking Mr. Nielsen's view of the dance floor," Jack said.

"Oh," Patriarch said, lowering his face, so it was right in front of Kurt's. "Am I bothering you, whelp?"

"N-no, we're cool," Kurt stuttered.

Patriarch may have been bested by Aria. But he was still enormous and extremely terrifying.

"I thought so," he boomed and returned his attention to Jack. "How come you've never challenged Aria?"

"You're just bitter because she kicked your ass and made you her puppet," Jack said. "So you're hoping that I'll beat her, so you can challenge me. Because for some crazy reason, you think that you might be able to handle me better than Aria. And if I take care of Aria and you kill me, you would be the big cheese once again. Or perhaps, you're hoping that I would do what Aria refuses. Perhaps you're hoping that I would kill you, so you can have your glorious warrior death?"

Charles stared at her, silently begging her not to taunt the mountainous krogan. But Jack knew Patriarch well. She knew how far she could go with him.

"So you don't plan to take on Aria any time soon?" Patriarch asked.

"No," Jack said. "I'm busy enough with Cerberus and the reapers. And besides, when I killed her, I would be responsible for this pisshole. Don't get me wrong, it's a lovely pisshole. I just don't want to be in charge. Why don't you just challenge Aria yourself?"

"Krogan tradition dictates that an overthrown chief cannot take back his position from the one who took the throne from him. But on Tuchanka, the overthrown chief rarely has to bear the shame of remaining alive."

"So you're waiting for Aria to be overthrown, so you can challenge the next one," Jack said. "Well, sorry, old boy. But it's not going to be me."

"Too bad," Patriarch growled. "You're one of the only people I could see standing a chance against Aria. I mean, if she could beat me, she must be something special, right."

"Obviously," Jack humored him.

"Someone like Shepard could probably take her down as well," Patriarch mused.

"Yeah," Jack muttered. "But I wouldn't put money on Shepard as the next king of Omega. Not really his type of gig, is it?"

"Damn boy scout," Patriarch grumbled. "Oh well, my time will come again. Until then, I'll have to enjoy being in power, while Aria is away. Which reminds me, I have a meeting with Darner Vosque."

"Did that asshole ever get anywhere with Aria?" Jack asked, remembering that the Blue Suns leader on many occasions had tried to talk Aria into having sex with him.

"What do you think, Jack?"

"No."

"Bingo! And today, he'll have to deal with me instead," the krogan said and turned to walk away.

"Don't fall for his charms," Jack called after him.

"Fuck you, Jack," he said and marched out of the club.

"That was a big fucking krogan," Prangley said, once Patriarch was gone.

"Yeah," Jack said. "I would have liked to meet him, when he ruled Omega. He's old now, and he knows it. But he likes to relive the good old days. I think, secretly, he's very excited that Aria's giving him the chance to run the place while she's away. But he also knows, that she doesn't even see him as a threat. That's why she's not worried about putting him in power. He's actually pretty smart, for a krogan. He knows that he's not a real threat to Aria any longer, but he likes to pretend that he is."

Jack took a sip of her beer.

A young asari stopped in front of their booth. She wore less clothes than the strippers, but she wasn't one. She looked at Kurt, who was having a hard time keeping eye contact.

"Do you want to dance?" she asked, swaying from side to side, showing off her tempting body. Everything about her screamed, that she wasn't used to being rejected.

Unlike most of the other people on the dance floor, this one didn't look like she was off her tits on either hallex or red sand. For an omegan, she actually looked pretty normal.

"M-me?" Kurt asked, pointing to himself. He was already mesmerized.

"Smooth," Jack sighed and pushed him out of their booth.

"What's your name?" the asari asked. "I'm Adina T'Loak,"

This was Aria's little sister. Jack had never met her, and she'd only heard about her from one of the bartenders a long time ago. Aria never talked about her, not to Jack at least. It wasn't like Adina was next in line for the throne. Omega didn't work that way. But as long as Aria was the queen of Omega, Adina was the princess. And anyone who messed with her would have to deal with Aria.

"My name is Kurt," he answered.

Adina gave Jack a look that told her that the young asari was fully aware who she was and what her relationship with Aria was like.

"Have him back in one piece, T'Loak," Jack told her in a slightly warning tone.

"Don't worry," she said. "I don't want to get involved in whatever game you're playing with my sister. I just want to dance."

"Have fun," Jack answered, satisfied with that answer.

Adina nodded respectfully, turned and walked towards the dance floor, swaying her hips a little extra for show.

"I'm warming to this place already," Kurt said and followed her.

"Can we really trust her, if she's Aria's sister?" Vera asked worriedly, watching her best friend and Adina dancing.

"Maybe, maybe not," Jack shrugged. "But I think we can trust her with a dance."

"I guess," Vera said, watching as Kurt and Adina absolutely owned the dance floor.

"And do you think that Kurt would ever forgive me, if I refused to let him dance with her," Jack said, just as Adina grabbed Kurt's hands and placed them on her hips, while grinding her ass against him.

"I wouldn't if it was me," Prangley said. "She is smoking hot!"

"She is quite attractive, I guess," Vera admitted.

"What about you, Ice Man?" Prangley said to Kolyat. "If she doesn't stir something in you, I'm truly concerned for you, man."

"She's pleasant to behold," Kolyat said in his croaky voice. "But she seems a little spoiled."

"You're so strange, dude," Prangley sighed. "If she's Aria T'Loak's sister, it's no surprise that she's spoiled. And who cares!? She's so hot, I would drag my balls through a kilometer of broken glass just to get her to talk to me."

"Why would mutilating your scrotum make her more likely to talk to you? Is this one of those strange human mating rituals, like the vibrator thing you told me about the other day?"

"No," Prangley laughed. "Vibrators exist. It's a thing. I know you remember everything I said, so you can review that memory, if you're curious. Or perhaps you should ask one of the girls. The balls on the broken glass was just something I said to point out how hot Adina is."

"Why the fuck are you telling him about vibrators?!" Jack asked. "Why not teach him something useful about humans? And Kolyat, if you ever ask me about vibrators, I'll kill you."

Prangley laughed even harder, while Vera shook her head.

"I thought you were engaged," Hilary said to Prangley, who was keeping an eye on Kurt and mostly Adina.

"I am," he said. "But Sophia is a sensible woman. I'm allowed to look."

"What about you, Kolyat? Are you single?" Hilary asked and pointed to Vera and Prangley. "Or are you in a long-distance relationship like these two?"

"I have not yet chosen a mate," Kolyat explained.

"Do you even want to?" Prangley asked. "You never seem particularly interested."

"We haven't come across a female drell," Kolyat said with a small smile.

"Oh, that's why!" Prangley exclaimed. "You only dig your own chicks!"

"Not exactly," Kolyat shrugged. "I find females of other species attractive. But I feel like it's my obligation to make sure that, if I decide to sire children, they will be drell. There are not so many of us you know."

"So you could have some fun until you find a drell girl who will have kids with you, right?" Jack asked.

"I could," Kolyat said. "And though many drell choose to remain celibate until they find their mate, I've not put down such barriers for myself."

"So why don't you try to get laid?" Hilary asked. "You know, for someone who's green with two sets of eyelids, fused ring- and middle fingers and scaly skin, you're not ugly."

"I'll try to take that as a compliment," Kolyat said. "And to answer your question, drell are generally not as sexually motivated as other species. I probably feel the same urges as you humans, but not as often and not as strongly."

"But if the right girl came along…" Jack said.

"…I would drag my testicles through glass for her," Kolyat said, looking to Prangley for approval and receiving a confirmative nod.

"So which species do you like the best beside your own?" Hilary asked. "Humans tend to go for asari."

"Good question," Kolyat said. "I should meditate on this, but as I'm learning more about humans, I'm beginning to appreciate your culture."

"Screw that," Prangley said. "What we want to know is: Would you rather bone a human, an asari, a turian or a salarian? Don't say krogan, elcor or batarian. That might make me puke."

"If you must know, I would probably go for either a human or an asari. But I wouldn't rule out anything," Kolyat said. "But as I said, I'll have to think more about it."

"Well, you're single too, Hilary," Vera said, looking at the other girl.

Hilary pushed her copper blonde hair behind her ears and gave Vera a quizzical look.

"What are you looking for?" Vera asked. "Should we find a little boy for you to play with, or perhaps you're more into aliens? An asari perhaps?"

"You certainly shouldn't look for a little boy for me. I'm fifteen, most boys my age are still afraid of girl cooties. And who says I'm looking for anything?"

"Aren't you?"

"Not in this fucking place, no," Hilary huffed. "Everyone in here seems to be either psychopaths or drugged out of their skulls, or both."

Jack looked at on the dance floor. Hilary was right. Everyone except Adina and Kurt were dancing around with their eyes fixed in a mysterious thousand yard stare, occasionally swatting away invisible bats around their heads.

"Good point," Vera said, having made the same observation. "But a human though, right?"

"Yes," she answered. "Or perhaps a geth. I'll have to trump Jeff."

"Are you all about the muscle like Vera here?" Prangley asked. "Or are you more into the sweet guys like Jack?"

"Hey!" Charles said.

"Sorry, bro. But you're not getting me to call you a bad boy,"

Charles frowned and Jack chuckled.

"You two really are a weird couple though," Hilary said to Charles and Jack. "Charles, you're way too sweet for someone with Jack's lifestyle.

"Maybe I'm not as sweet as you think," Charles said, trying to sound mysterious.

"Stop it, man," Prangley laughed. "You just have to admit it. You can't pull off a hard attitude."

"You dodged the question, Hilary," Jack said. "You still haven't told us what kind of boy we're looking for."

"I don't really know," Hilary said with a shrug. "The usual stuff is good I guess. Someone with a good sense of humor. And it doesn't hurt if he's good-looking too."

"And what does good-looking mean to you?" Vera asked.

"Athletic, slightly taller than me, nice clothes," Hilary explained. "But I don't really have any preferences when it comes to hair color or anything like that, if that's what you're looking for."

"That should be easy enough to find," Vera said.

A few minutes later, Kurt and Adina returned to the booth. They were holding hands, and Kurt was sporting the biggest, fattest smile, Jack had ever seen on a man. Jack was glad that he was having a good time. Since Terra Nova he'd not been his old self, and Jack hadn't seen his signature Cheshire Cat grin for quite a while. Adina seemed to have awakened the old Kurt Nielsen, and Jack appreciated that. Even if her last name was T'Loak.

Surprisingly, Adina decided to sit with them.

"Is it okay?" she asked, but Prangley had already, quite eagerly, scooted over and made room for her.

As soon as Adina's well-formed ass had touched the leather seat, a bartender was by their booth with a tray full of drinks. The princess of Omega was never thirsty, and she never had to pay.

"On the house," she said, and handed them each a drink. "As a show of goodwill and as thanks for letting me borrow Kurt for a while."

"You can have him," Prangley said, when he had tasted his drink. "This is delicious."

"My own invention," Adina said with a satisfied smile.

Kurt then introduced all of them properly to Adina. She shared some of Aria's mannerisms, Jack noticed. The way she was leaned back in her seat made her seem very confident and relaxed. Aria could be so relaxed, because she felt untouchable, and Adina clearly felt the same. Just like Aria, Adina also seemed to talk to people as if they should feel lucky that she was spending her precious time with them. But she wasn't anywhere near as self-important as Aria.

And just like with Aria, Jack found it hard to really honestly hate Adina. In fact, she liked Adina better than Aria. But then, Adina hadn't nearly killed her.

"Good news," Kurt said. "Adina is going to the Citadel tomorrow. And she has agreed to let us come with her."

"Really?" Vera said. "That would be great."

"Hang on," Jack interrupted. "What's the catch?"

"No catch," Adina said. "There's more than enough room for all of you."

"This isn't usually how it goes, when deals are made in this club," Jack said. "Aria never does anything for free."

"Well, I'm not Aria, am I?" Adina asked. "My ship leaves at seven in the morning, whether you're on it or not. If you want to find another transport to the Citadel, I'm sure you can."

"Come on, Jack," Kurt said.

"She gave us drinks," Prangley pointed out.

"You're sure you don't want anything for the trouble?" Jack asked.

"Oh, it's no trouble," Adina assured her. "I'm sure."

Jack really didn't want to be in debt to the T'Loak family. But they did need to get back to the Citadel somehow, and Adina seemed genuine.

"Okay," Jack said. "Thank you for your offer. We accept."

"Splendid," Adina said. "I'll have my people move your shuttle to my ship. You can sleep at my place tonight."

An hour later, Jack was standing in the last place she'd ever imagined she would be.

She was in the T'Loak Mansion. More precisely, she was in the entertainment room of the T'Loak Mansion.

This mansion was easily the most luxurious place on Omega. But probably also in the high end across the entire galaxy.

Omega was a space station built into an asteroid. The station was always growing, and new sections were being added to the station every week. The entire T'Loak Mansion was actually a single section that was installed on the asteroid and linked up to the rest of Omega. The mansion was ordered by Aria back when she first came to power, and now it was home to the two T'Loak sisters and their staff.

The entertainment room was big with loads of couches, screens on all the walls, and several games. There was something that looked like a pool table, but instead of using pool cues, you'd use biotics to move the colored balls around the table. According to Adina, she had once beat her older sister in this game, and Aria had become so angry that she killed someone.

Jack was walking around the room, looking at the all the different games and artworks. Suddenly, a screen on the wall in front of her turned on, and Aria popped up on the screen. She was sat on a couch, looking relaxed as ever.

"Adina, I need you to bring…"

Aria stopped, staring straight at Jack through the screen.

"You're in my house, Jack," she stated in a tone that demanded an explanation.

"It would seem so," Jack answered. "Nice place."

"Why, thank you," Aria said with faked glee. "Now where the fuck is Adina!?"

"I'm right here, Aria," Adina said, joining Jack in front of the screen.

"I see she hasn't tied you or anything, sister. Which makes me think that you and I need a long, hard talk."

"I invited them," Adina said. "I'm taking them with me tomorrow."

"Are you drunk?" Aria asked. "I thought I had told you about Jack."

"I know, I know," Adina said. "But there's this boy I like."

"Fuck me," Aria sighed. "Here we go again. Don't tell me it's one of Jack's students."

Adina nodded.

"Damn it, Adina! I leave the station for a few weeks, and then when I call home, you've got fucking Jack in my house. And what a surprise, you've found another boy that you like."

"Please don't kill this one," Adina begged.

"Show me the kid," Aria ordered, and Adina pulled Kurt into the frame.

"Hmmm…" Aria said. "Not too bad… For a human. Your affection for their species I'll never understand, but I might not kill this one."

Kurt released a sigh of relief, and Adina smiled happily.

"But we're still going to have a long talk when you get here," Aria told Adina. "Oh, and I called because I wanted you to bring Gigi with you tomorrow. The bartenders here are shit!"

"I will," Adina promised.

"Good. Now fuck off and take the blond bastard with you. I want to talk to Jack."

Aria waited until Adina and Kurt were safely out of earshot.

"If he harms her in any way, I'll kill him," Aria warned.

"If she harms him, I'll kill you both," Jack replied. "She came to him, not the other way around."

"I'm not surprised," Aria sighed. "It's a new fucking kid she drags into the house every week!"

"Maybe you should stop killing them then," Jack suggested.

Secretly, she was more than pleased with the fact that Kurt had secured them a visit to the T'Loak Mansion. It obviously bothered Aria to no end, which was something that Jack would have paid a lot of credits for. She wondered why Aria didn't just order Adina to send them away again.

"This really is a nice house, Aria," Jack said, looking around the entertainment room. "Does it come with the title? Because then I just might come and challenge you one of these days. Perhaps I could live with being queen of Omega, if this was my house. By the way, your sister is not as much of a bitch as you are, have you noticed that?"

"Which is why I'm the powerful one and she's the one who comes up with names for drinks and seduces weak humans."

"I think I'll sleep in your bed tonight," Jack taunted, stretching.

"You're making it more and more likely that I'll kill Adina's new boyfriend, Jack," Aria warned.

Jack looked over her shoulder, Kurt was on one of the couches with Adina sitting on his lap. They were both laughing together.

"I'm going to try something new here, Aria," Jack turned and said to the screen. "And since you cooperated with Shepard and even allowed refugees to come here to Omega, this might be the right time for this… How about a truce?"

"You're in my fucking house, Jack. I command thousands of heavily armed mercs on Omega, who would like nothing more than to kill you. If we didn't already have some form of truce, don't you think I'd have those mercs coming for you as we speak?"

"Good point," Jack said. "Why don't you?"

"Same reason I didn't just kill you that night ten years ago. You entertain me, Jack. I fucking hate you, but at least I find you a little bit interesting. Which is more than I can say about most humans, who I don't give a shit about. So I'm not going to let you get killed by some mugger in an alley or one of my idiot guards. If you die, it will be by my hand."

"If?" Jack asked.

"Yes," Aria said, "You being dead is not important to me, but as I've always said: If you want to challenge me, I'll be happy to take your life. But can we at least agree that you'll keep my naïve sister out of it, and I will leave your students alone?"

"Deal," Jack said immediately. "I have nothing against your sister. I'm just wondering how the two of you can possibly be related."

"Me too. Well, Jack… I have business to attend to. But I'm warning you, I have cameras all over the house, and I will be checking them frequently. One wrong move, and you'll have an army of mercs so far up your asshole that even you won't enjoy it."

"We'll play nicely," Jack said, looking back at Kurt and Adina again.

"Good. If you don't give me any reason to kill you on sight, I still have a job for you and your cubs."

"I don't do murder contracts or robberies any longer," Jack said.

"Haven't you heard?" Aria asked. "Neither do I. Well, not exclusively. Apparently, I'm responsible now. Collaborating with Shepard and the Alliance and shit."

"It's a weird feeling, isn't it?" Jack asked, knowing exactly how strange it was for her to get used to.

"You don't say," Aria grumbled. "Once all this reaper bullshit is over, business will be as usual though."

Aria disconnected the call and Jack returned to the others.

"You two are really childish," Adina told Jack. "Either you should just fight and get it over with, or you should stop threatening to kill each other all the time."

"It's complicated," Jack said with a shrug.

"I think you both secretly like each other," Adina said. "Maybe you should just fuck and get it out of your systems."

Charles coughed, sounding like he was choking.

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Jack said. "I hate Aria, and she hates me. Although, I think she's more angry with you right now, Adina."

"I don't know if you've noticed," Adina said, sounding not at all worried. "But Aria's always at least little angry."

"Is she going to kill Nielsen?" Prangley asked.

"No," Jack said.

"Shame," Prangley sighed.

"Don't you think that would have been a little drastic for a bit of dancing?" Kurt asked Prangley.

"She's killed for less," Adina shrugged and kissed Kurt on the cheek.

"You're dangerous," he said and tickled her stomach.

"How can Aria not expect you to get some attention, when she allows you to go clubbing dressed like that?" Vera asked.

Jack agreed with Vera. Adina's body was at least on par with Vera's, but Vera's was covered by her uniform, which was from the Ascension Project and therefore lived up to Alliance regulations.

Adina's clothes didn't leave much to the imagination. From her shiny black stiletto heels two long, smooth legs led to her white hot pants, which were so tight, they seemed to be painted right on her ass cheeks. Her stomach was bare, and her perky breast nicely presented by a white and almost transparent crop top. And Jack fully agreed with Vera. Anyone looking like Adina and dressed like that was bound to bring some attention to herself in a place like Afterlife.

"Aria doesn't allow me to do shit," Adina said. "I make my own decisions. And what's wrong with the way I dress?"

"Nothing," Vera said quickly, not wanting to offend their host.

Adina smiled, as an asari servant brought them a round of drinks and snacks.

"This is better than staying at a luxury hotel," Charles said, thanking the servant for the drink.

"Wait till you see your rooms," Adina said and ordered the servant to come straight back with more drinks.

A few hours later, everyone was tipsy, but not quite drunk. Adina had asked them questions about their work. Her interest seemed genuine, and she happily told them about her own life as the little sister of one of the most notorious criminals in the galaxy.

Apparently, Adina was fully aware of the business that Aria got up to. But she didn't really get involved in it herself. She wasn't interested in drugs and violence like most other young people on Omega. Instead of taking part in Aria's business, she preferred to hang out at Afterlife, where she was the manager of the VIP section. This job was only symbolic really, because Adina had hired another asari to take care of paperwork and day-to-day business. Adina only took interest when big decisions were made. She spent most of her time in Afterlife, but rather on the dance floor than in her office.

Between what Aria had said and what Adina told them herself, Jack understood that Adina had made it a habit to seduce young humans. And if they played their cards right, she would occasionally bring one of them home.

Jack tried to gauge Kurt's reaction to this admission. He didn't seem put off by Adina's habits, instead, he seemed proud that he'd been chosen. Especially since Adina could have asked Charles or Prangley to dance, but didn't.

"It's getting late," Adina said. "My ship is scheduled to leave in seven hours. I think it's time I show you to your rooms."

Each one of them was dropped off at their own personal room, where beds had already been prepared for them.

Jack hadn't planned to tell Adina that she and Charles were together, but the young asari was smart enough to see through them on her own.

"How did you know?" Jack asked, standing in the hallway with just Charles, Adina and Kurt. She and Charles hadn't even touched each other in front of Adina, but she had asked the butler to prepare a room with a double bed for them.

"He was the only one who looked me in the eyes all the time instead of my tits or my ass," Adina said, as if it was obvious. "Kurt, Prangley and even the drell kept stealing glances. But Charles exhibited the kind of self-control that a man only has when his partner is in the room."

"And how did you know that the partner was me and not Vera or Hilary?" Jack asked.

"Simply," Adina giggled. "You kept glancing at him to make sure his eyes didn't wander."

Kurt, who had his arm around Adina's waist, chuckled.

"Good job, mate," he said to Charles. "Don't know how you did it."

Jack smiled. She wouldn't have blamed Charles for sneaking a peek at Adina's curves from time to time. She had to admit, that she had caught herself staring a few times. Kurt looked like a man who couldn't believe his luck.

"Goodnight," Adina said, as she and Kurt continued down the hall to Adina's room, leaving Jack and Charles alone outside their door. Hilary, Prangley, Vera and Kolyat had already been shown to their rooms.

Charles opened the door and allowed Jack to enter first.

The room was amazing. On the walls were beautiful paintings, probably originals made by famous asari artists. Aria was incredibly rich, but it was highly unlikely that she had actually paid for most of these things. They were most likely objects that she had ordered someone to steal for her or gifts from business partners who wished to please her. Around the room were a lot of different water sculptures, and Jack and Charles could constantly hear the sound of rippling water.

"What's this about?" Charles asked, as there were more than ten different stone and metal sculptures with water coming out at the top and running down the sides. The biggest one was about the size of a krogan.

"It's an asari thing," Jack said. "I've seen it before."

"The sound makes me feel like I need to pee," Charles joked and hung his jacket on the back of a chair, before going to the en-suite bathroom to brush his teeth.

Once they both were ready to go to bed, they crawled under the soft silk sheets, which felt terrific against the skin.

"We've got to get a bed like this," Charles said.

"To place where?" Jack asked.

"Doesn't matter," Charles said tiredly. "If I had you and this bed, I'd be happy to live anywhere."

-X-X-X-

Charles woke up and looked at the clock, which was built into one of the many water sculptures in the room. It wasn't very late, and he couldn't have been asleep for long after he and Jack had eventually stopped touching each other.

Jack was now sleeping tightly with her head resting on Charles's arm. He gently rolled her over on her side and pushed some of her increasingly long hair behind her ear. Then he got out of bed and put on his pants and a t-shirt before leaving the room to find the kitchen. His throat was dry and he needed a drink of water, and he didn't dare to drink from Aria's art works.

He yawned and scratched his stomach, as he made his way down the hallway on bare feet. He rounded a corner, but stopped dead in his tracks, when he noticed that he wasn't the only one not fast asleep in the mansion.

In front of him were humans dressed all in black with masks over their faces. They were facing away from him, but Charles could tell that they were armed with assault rifles equipped with sound suppressors and red laser sights.

Before he could do anything, someone grabbed him from behind, put a hand over his mouth and dragged him into a dark alcove. He struggled, but they were stronger than him. The hand over his mouth prevented him from making any noise, and as hard as he tried, he couldn't wriggle free.

"It's me," a very familiar voice whispered ever so quietly in his ear. "Stop fighting and stay quiet."

Charles stopped moving, and the powerful grip was released on both his body and his mouth.

He turned and found a pair of deep, dark eyes staring back at him.

"Who are they?" he asked. "Aria's people?"

Before Jack could answer, they heard the sound of a door being kicked in and a very surprised Kurt shouting: "What the fuck?!"

Then everything went quiet.

"Go!" Jack hissed and sprinted towards Adina's room with Charles right behind her.

When the two of them entered the young asari's room, they encountered a total of six mysterious commandos in black uniforms, aiming their assault rifles at Adina and Kurt, who both had red dots on their foreheads. They were also both naked except for their underwear.

"That's her!" one of the soldiers said to his buddies. "You can kill the other kid."

All of a sudden, Adina's room exploded in blue light coming from Jack, and the six black-clad soldiers were thrown up against the far wall with enough force to shatter their bones. Four of them died immediately, one was knocked out and would die slowly from internal bleeding. But the last one, the leader, had luckily survived. He pulled out a stun-gun and fired it into Adina's back, before Jack gave him another dose of her biotics, which sent him flying back into the wall, where his dead body collapsed on top of the others.

Adina had been knocked unconscious by the massive voltage going through her body, and Kurt was trying to get her to wake up.

"Leave her," Jack said. "She'll be out for at least twenty minutes after a shock like that. Put some clothes on instead! Charles, go wake up Prangley and the others! There might be more!"

Charles nodded and left Jack alone with Kurt and the unconscious asari.

He snuck back down the hallway, careful not to make too much noise. They didn't know if those six soldiers were all, or if anymore had managed to get past the guards and into the mansion.

He reached Hilary's room first and didn't bother knocking before sneaking into the room and closing the door behind him.

He turned on the lights and quickly checked Hilary's bathroom for any intruders.

"W-what's going on?" Hilary asked, sitting up in bed and rubbing her eyes.

"Get dressed," Charles said and handed Hilary her farmers' girl overalls. "We're under attack."

Thankfully, Hilary didn't ask any questions. She simply did as she was told.

"Ready?" Charles asked, when she was fully dressed.

She nodded with a concerned facial expression.

"It's going to be fine," Charles said, patting her shoulder.

"Who's attacking us?" she asked.

"Don't know," Charles said with a shrug. "But I think they're here for Adina."

Charles opened the door slightly and peeked out into the hallway, which was still dark and empty.

"Stay right behind me," he whispered and snuck out the door.

Luckily, Vera's room was right next door.

Charles pulled out his pistol and entered the room, making sure that Hilary was always safely behind him.

Vera's room seemed to be just as empty as Hilary's apart from the girl sleeping on the bed.

Charles handed Hilary his pistol.

"I want you to guard the door," he whispered, realizing that they would be vulnerable, if someone suddenly entered the room.

Hilary quite awkwardly took the gun and stood where Charles pointed.

Meanwhile, he crouched next to the bed and lightly shook Vera.

"Hey," he said and shook her until she opened her eyes.

"Charles!" she hissed, making sure her breasts were covered by the sheets. "You shouldn't be here. Jack's gonna kill us both."

"He's not here to seduce you, woman!" Hilary sighed from her place by the door.

"Someone's attacking us," Charles elaborated. "I think they're here for Adina. Jack and Kurt are with her now. You need to get dressed though."

"Turn around," Vera said, making a circle motion with her finger.

Charles turned around to face Hilary, while Vera crawled out of bed and put on her uniform.

"Right," she said, taking the pistol from Hilary and giving it back to Charles. "No more guns for you now, I think."

"What?!" Hilary huffed. "I haven't accidentally shot anyone yet."

"Yet," Vera pointed out.

"Actually, I think she should probably keep it," Charles said. "The mansion could be full of intruders. She should be able to defend herself."

Vera nodded in agreement, so Charles handed his pistol back to Hilary, before all three of them rushed to Prangley's room.

"I must be dreaming," the second lieutenant mumbled sleepily, when Vera finally managed to wake Prangley up. "I knew you couldn't resist me indefinitely, Rodriguez!"

"We're under attack," Vera told him.

Prangley's mood immediately changed, and he put his game face on. He tossed his sheets away and jumped out of bed to grab his uniform, which he had folded neatly and placed on a chair next to the bed.

Charles couldn't help but smile, when he noticed how Hilary blushed as Prangley jumped out from underneath the sheets just wearing his boxers. A close encounter with Prangley's impressive physique could be quite overwhelming for such a young girl, he guessed.

"Let's go!" Prangley said as soon as he was fully uniformed.

Then he noticed that Hilary was holding Charles' pistol. He cocked an eyebrow at Charles and Vera who both nodded back at him.

"Do you know how to use that?" he asked her with concern.

Hilary shrugged.

"I point it at a bad guy and pull the trigger?"

"Basically," Prangley said. "But only on my command or in self-defense, alright?"

She nodded.

Then Charles told Prangley everything he knew.

"…Adina was hit by a stun gun and passed out, but Kurt and Jack is with her now," He ended his explanation.

Prangley nodded, before giving his orders.

"Hilary, you stay right behind me at all times. Don't shoot me in the ass! Charles and Vera will take point," he said. "Move out!"

They were almost at Kolyat's room when they suddenly heard commotion in the dark hallway up ahead. Charles and Vera rushed forward and found two men in black uniforms lying on the floor with Kolyat standing over them with his hands in the air.

"It's me," he croaked and showed them his empty palms.

"Of course it's you," Prangley whispered, joining them with Hilary in his shadow. "You're the only green dude in here!"

"Very well," Kolyat said and looked down at the two on the floor, whose necks he'd just broken with his bare hands. "But who are these gentlemen?"

"You mean were?" Hilary said, disgusted by the way their necks were unnaturally twisted.

"Who were they?" Kolyat corrected.

"We don't know," Charles said. "Are you okay?"

"Perfectly," Kolyat croaked.

"Excellent," Prangley said. "We're going to find Kurt, Jack and Adina. Kolyat, you cover our six,"

"Naturally," the drell said with a respectful nod, and they snuck back to Adina's room.

When they entered Adina's room, Kurt was fully uniformed and struggling to put some clothes on Adina, who was still out cold. It wasn't easy dressing someone, who was completely unable to cooperate in any way. And Kurt's job was made even harder by Adina's tight clothes.

"Great," Jack said, when she saw that Charles had brought them all back safely. "Vera and Hilary, help Kurt out. Don't worry, she'll wake up soon…"

Jack ordered Kolyat to guard the door, while she talked to Prangley and Charles.

"Did you see any more?" Jack asked.

"None. The halls are mostly empty. But when we found Kolyat, he'd just killed two more," Charles answered and nodded towards the pile of dead soldiers on the floor.

"No dead guards either?" she asked.

Charles and Prangley both shook their heads.

"Strange," Jack mused.

"You're thinking this was an inside job, don't you?" Prangley guessed.

"Either that or these people were incredibly well-prepared. This place is supposed to be very secure," Jack mumbled thoughtfully.

"What's the plan?" Prangley asked.

"I think we should get out of here," Jack said. "We haul ass for the docks, and when Adina wakes up, she should be able to get our ship to take off early."

"You don't want to stay and fight?" Prangley asked, sounding surprised by Jack's plan.

"That wouldn't be smart," Jack said. "We know nothing about these people or their plans. For all we know, they could have the entire place rigged to blow in two minutes."

Prangley nodded.

"Have them ready to move in five minutes," Jack told Prangley and nodded towards Kurt, Vera and Hilary, who almost had the still unconscious Adina fully clothed. "If she's not awake by then, Nielsen can carry her. Charles and I will scout ahead and come back for you."

"We'll be ready when you return," Prangley promised with a determined nod.

Charles and Jack snuck back out of Adina's room and towards the foyer of the mansion. They needed to make sure that they had a clear exit route.

Unfortunately, the extravagant entrance, that, as far as Jack knew, was the only connection between the mansion and the rest of Omega, was guarded by at least fifteen people in the same black uniforms.

Jack and Charles crouched behind a couch in the opposite end of the foyer to the entrance. Jack wanted to observe their enemies for a while.

"Perhaps there's another way out," Charles whispered.

"Perhaps," Jack said. "Adina will know."

"We can't get through here," Charles whispered.

"Not unseen," Jack noted. "We could probably smash our way through, but with Hilary and perhaps Adina to protect, it would be one hell of a risk."

They hurried back to Adina's room, where Prangley had kept his promise. Kolyat, Kurt, Vera and Hilary were all ready to go, but unfortunately Adina was still unconscious.

"Damn it," Jack cursed.

"I guess we're walking out the front door," Charles said. "Unless anyone knows another way out?"

The silence in the room told him that that wasn't the case.

"What did you see?" Prangley asked.

"Loads of bad guys," Jack said. "Guarding the only known exit."

"We can take them," Prangley said confidently.

"You haven't even seen it," Vera commented.

"Well, we can't just stay here either. Right, Jack?" Prangley said.

"No," Jack sighed and tried slapping Adina across the face. The young asari didn't move at all, but her cheek blushed and turned slightly purple.

Jack shrugged.

"Worth a try."

Eventually, Jack decided that they would have to try their luck with the foyer. Kurt carried Adina in his arms, leaving him completely defenseless. Hilary still had Charles' gun, but she was still very vulnerable. Jack therefore assigned Kolyat to take care of her, while Vera kept an extra eye on Kurt and Adina.

Like this, their fighting force was greatly reduced, and when they had almost reached the foyer, Charles wasn't particularly confident in their ability to defeat their enemy.

"Hey!" someone suddenly shouted from behind them.

Charles spun around and put up a barrier just in time to prevent them from being mowed down by three soldiers that had stepped into the hallway just behind them.

He was almost blinded by their laser sights, but he managed to maintain the barrier against the three silenced assault rifles.

Boom!

A gun went off right next to Charles and one of the three soldiers went down. Charles looked to the side and saw Hilary with her arms outstretched and holding on to his pistol with trembling hands and one finger on the trigger.

Kolyat had already shot the two remaining soldiers, when Charles looked back up.

"Are you okay?" he asked Hilary, who looked a little shocked.

She nodded, but remained quiet.

"Thanks," Charles said and clapped her on the back. "Well done."

Hilary finally lowered the pistol and gave him a nervous smile.

The soldiers had silenced weapons, but Hilary and Kolyat had fired their pistols inside the mansion, which pretty much alerted everyone.

"Go!" Jack said and led them towards the foyer. They needed to get out before the building was shut down completely.

When they entered the foyer, the soldiers were ready for them.

"It's not just the girl!" one of them shouted. "There's someone else after her too!"

Charles realized that these men thought that they were there to kidnap Adina, just like they apparently were.

"Watch where you shoot!" one of them ordered, while Jack led her team to cover behind a row of pillars. "We need the girl alive! You can kill the rest!"

"No you can't!" Jack yelled and spun out from behind one of the pillars and released a massive amount of biotic energy, so powerful that Charles could feel the nerves in his spine tingle. All the nearest soldiers had their limbs ripped off.

"It's Zero!" someone shouted and ran for his life.

"Shit!" another one screamed.

"Non-lethal weapons only!" Charles heard one of them yell. "He wants Zero and her students alive!"

Charles was pretty sure he knew who these people were now.

"Cerberus?" he mouthed to Jack.

She nodded and cracked her knuckles.

"Non-lethal force?" Kolyat asked. "How do we respond?"

"Lethally," Jack said. "They don't want to kill you now, so they can get you alive and do things to you that would make you wish you were dead. Kill them all!"

A few seconds later the soldiers had switched the ammunition in their assault rifles to miniature capsules with an extremely potent sleeping agent. If one them were hit, they would fall in a deep sleep and probably not wake up until they were given the chemical antidote.

Charles jumped from one pillar to the next, narrowly avoiding being hit. Their options were very limited, and they seemed to be stuck behind these pillars for now.

Kurt had put Adina down behind one of the pillars, where Hilary had taken it upon herself to look after her. This meant that Jack had her entire team available to fight the Cerberus would-be kidnappers. However, they were still very much pinned down and heavily outnumbered.

The Cerberus troops were moving in, but just as everything looked the darkest and it seemed like the Psychotic Biotics were about to be overrun, the entrance to the foyer exploded in an inferno of flames.

Through the flames marched a giant krogan followed by four other krogan. Patriarch had arrived with his krantt.

Patriarch stopped in the middle of the foyer and glared at the humans in black uniforms.

One of them fired a few rounds at the massive krogan, but the chemical in the capsules only worked when the round actually pierced the skin. And this type of ammunition simply wasn't designed to travel fast enough to go through the hide of a krogan. Still, Patriarch definitely felt the hits.

"Rarhgh!" he roared and raised his enormous shotgun and took aim at the Cerberus soldier who had fired upon him. "My turn," he growled and shot the man's head clean off.

The rest of the Cerberus bastards foolishly started shooting at Patriarch and his krantt, but achieved nothing more than to further piss of the five krogan, who mercilessly returned fire.

With the arrival of Patriarch and his people, Cerberus was unable to keep up the pressure on Jack's team.

"I'm not letting them have all the fun!" Jack growled and started throwing biotic attacks at anyone in a black uniform.

The Cerberus soldiers eventually realized that they had to switch back to conventional ammunition to deal with the krogan - even if it meant risking shooting one of the young students or even worse, Subject Zero.

Even more Cerberus soldiers entered the foyer from several different directions. They had been sneaking around the mansion, but now everyone was called to the foyer.

Although the krogan put up a heroic fight, they were in the middle of a room filled with enemies. They had no cover, and now that Cerberus was no longer using non-lethal ammo, they were in serious trouble.

Patriarchs four companions fell, and he would have gone down too, if Adina hadn't woken up at that exact moment and joined the fight.

She threw a massive ball of biotic energy at the black-clad agents, knocking them down like bowling pins. This created a path for Patriarch who dashed to cover behind the pillars with Adina and the Psychotic Biotics.

"Good to have you back," Jack said to Adina, as Patriarch caught his breath.

"Who the fuck is in my house?!" she asked angrily.

"Cerberus," Prangley told her.

She snarled and jumped out from her pillar to attack the intruders, but Kurt pulled her back in before a hail of bullets ripped apart the wall where she had just been. Since Patriarch and his krantt arrived, Cerberus had completely forgotten that they were not supposed to kill Adina or Jack and her team.

They were completely stuck behind the pillars, which were slowly becoming less and less useable as cover, as Cerberus continued to fire at them, shooting big pieces off the pillars.

"For fuck's sake!" Jack hissed, as a bullet grazed her arm, slicing a thin wound across her bicep.

Kurt was holding back a struggling Adina, who was infuriated by the hostile presence in her home. She didn't much like hiding, while her home was being taken over by someone else. It was a disgrace. But if she didn't stay behind cover, she would have been cut down immediately. However, they had to do something.

-X-X-X-

"Jack!" Patriarch called from behind his pillar. He was bleeding from a few bullets holes, but he was quickly regenerating.

"Not now," Jack said, trying to come up with a plan.

"Jack! My shuttle's outside!" Patriarch growled. "I'll take care of these cowards!"

"Bullshit!" Jack shouted over the noise from the bullets that were slowly disintegrating their cover. "There's way too many. You won't last five seconds."

"Want to bet?"

"I won't get my money, 'cause you'll be fucking dead!" Jack complained.

"Sweet freedom!" Patriarch sighed. "Tell Aria I died with honor!"

With those words, the giant krogan spun out from behind his pillar, flinging biotic attacks with one hand and firing his shotgun with the other.

"No!" Adina shouted and struggled even harder to get out of Kurt's grasp.

Patriarch was tearing into the Cerberus soldiers, but also taking several very critical hits that would have brought down a lesser warrior.

"RUN!" Jack shouted and sprinted towards the door.

"RAAARGHGAHHHARRGHH!" she heard Patriarch roar, as a burst of projectiles hit his shoulder hump.

"Patriarch!" Adina screamed, but Kurt kept pushing her towards the door. They had to get out, or Patriarch's sacrifice would be in vain.

"GO! GO! GO!" Jack shouted, as bullets ripped up the floor in front of her.

She reached the door first and looked back to check on the others. Kurt and Adina sprinted past her at full speed followed by Prangley, Vera, Kolyat with Hilary on tow and, to her great relief, Charles.

"Come on!" Charles shouted and grabbed her wrist.

The last thing she saw was Patriarch falling to his knees. He'd been shot in his remaining heart – the other had been crushed by Aria. Amazingly, he was still trying to fight, but the thermal clip in his shotgun was overheated, and his biotics was failing him.

"HONOR! GLORY!" he shouted, before he fell forward with a dull thud and died right there on the floor of Aria T'Loak's mansion.

Jack and Charles reached the others, who had already jumped into Patriarch's shuttle. Adina was in the pilot's seat.

"Move over!" Jack yelled and pushed Adina to the co-pilot's seat.

She then pulled Hilary out of her passenger seat and placed her at the controls.

"Trust me," she told Adina, who looked confused as to why Jack had placed a child in the driver's seat.

"Hold on!" Hilary shouted, as Jack heard the bullets hitting the side of the shuttle.

Hilary took off like a bullet, pushing everyone painfully back in their seat. She was accelerating so quickly, that it was becoming hard to breathe.

They zoomed away from the mansion and flew over the asteroid that Omega was built into.

"They're following us!" Hilary screamed, as a missile flew right past them.

Two gunships with Cerberus logos were chasing them. Unfortunately, they were much quicker than Patriarch's shuttle. And they had weapons.

Jack felt the shuttle go zero-G for a moment, when Hilary suddenly nosedived into a deep chasm in the asteroid.

"Watch out!" Adina said, when the bottom of the chasm became visible.

"PULL UP!" the young asari squealed, when Hilary just continued her dive towards the dark center of the asteroid.

At the very last second, Hilary finally yanked back on the steering column. And Jack felt like she weighed a metric ton. The G's almost made her pass out.

Unfortunately, the two gunships also managed to pull up in time and continued to follow them, as they raced through the narrow chasm.

Hilary rolled the shuttle to avoid a protruding rock, and another missile flew past them.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" Hilary cursed, as she dodged another obstacle. "Why can't this thing go any faster!?"

"Faster?" Vera asked incredulously, holding her stomach, trying to prevent herself from throwing up.

"There's an old mining facility coming up!" Adina warned. "If it explodes, Omega might be history!"

Hilary gritted her teeth and made sure to stay well clear of the mining facility. They flew back out of the chasm and towards the docks with the two gunships in sharp pursuit.

"We're too slow!" Hilary complained. "I can't lose them!"

"Just get us to my ship!" Adina yelled and grabbed the headset from the console in front of her.

"This is Adina T'Loak!" she shouted into the microphone. "I'm in Patriarch's shuttle! We're coming in hot! Two gunships following us! Human signatures! Fire at will!"

Hilary flew straight over Adina's ship. The two Cerberus gunships were very close now.

"Firing! Danger close!" and asari voice rang through the shuttle.

They saw the flash of light, as one of the gunships was blown to pieces, and they heard the shrapnel hitting their shuttle. But the explosion itself was completely silent.

The shuttle suddenly shook violently. Jack didn't understand this. They were in space, so they shouldn't be able to feel any blast waves.

"We're hit!" Hilary shouted. "We're going down!"

Their young pilot struggled to keep the shuttle relatively under control, as they rapidly descended towards Omega's docks.

"Firing again!" the asari from Adina's ship called over the radio, but Jack's focus was more on their shuttle plunging towards Omega than anything else.

"Good hit! You've got clear skies, Ms. T'Loak," the radio said after a few more seconds.

"Brilliant," Adina said sarcastically, holding tightly onto her seat, while Hilary worked hard to slow down the shuttle.

"Here we go!" Hilary shouted, as they became able to make out the details on the docks.

People jumped out of the way, when Patriarch's shuttle approached the docks at high speed.

Wham!

The shuttle hit the surface and slid across the docks, with Hilary masterfully controlling their emergency landing. They finally crashed into a pile of crates right next to Adina's ship, where the shuttle came to a halt.

"Nice flying," Adina sighed, finally relaxing.

"Yeah," Jack said. "Now, let's get the fuck outta here. We don't know if there are more of them coming."

They jumped out of the shuttle and ran aboard Adina's ship. Safely inside the cargo bay, where the Shit Shuttle was already parked, they met with the ship's captain.

"Good shooting, Captain T'Kila," Adina greeted the asari captain. "I'll tell my sister that you did a good job. If you get us to the Citadel in one piece, I'm sure you'll be up for a big pay raise."

"Thank you, miss," Captain T'Kila said, clapping her heels together and saluting the much younger asari. "Aria usually doesn't allow ships to fire their cannons while docked."

"I'm sure she'll forgive this one time," Adina said, visibly calming the captain. "Now, get us to the Citadel as fast as possible. Oh, and I want you to establish a comm link to my sister."

"Of course," Captain T'Kila said and nodded towards Jack and her team. "And your companions?"

The captain was obviously nervous about having one of Aria's most notorious enemies on her ship. Adina had brought Jack with her, but Aria was the one she was worried about. If her boss found out that she had allowed Jack to come aboard, she would almost certainly end up dead. But right now, Aria wasn't there and Adina was. She was obligated to follow Adina's orders, until Aria gave a counter order.

"Make sure they have everything they need," Adina said. "You're not fully staffed right now, right?"

"Negative, miss. We're almost down to a skeleton crew."

"So there should be more than enough empty cabins," Adina said.

"Absolutely," Captain T'Kila confirmed. "I'll get them ready."

"Good," Adina said. "You are cleared for takeoff whenever you're ready."

"Yes, miss T'Loak. Welcome aboard," Captain T'Kila said and saluted the princess of Omega once more before turning on her heel to return to the bridge.

Jack and her team were given two four-bed cabins. They split them up by gender, so Charles, Kolyat, Prangley and Kurt shared one cabin, while Jack, Vera and Hilary took the other.

Jack walked down the corridor to find a bathroom. She needed to rinse the cut on her upper arm. She finally found a bathroom and splashed some water on the wound. While she was using the sink, one of the ship's officers entered the bathroom.

The asari officer froze, staring at Jack.

Jack turned to face the officer, who flinched.

The corner of Jack's mouth curved upwards.

"Boh!" she said, taking half a step towards the officer, who spun around and sprinted out of the bathroom, where she nearly ran straight into Charles.

"Must you do that?" he asked, entering the bathroom.

"Oh, come on," Jack said, splashing some more water on her arm. "It was pretty fucking funny."

"It was," Charles admitted, pulling some medi-gel and bandage out from behind his back. "Look what I found."

"Great," Jack said, reaching for the medi-gel.

Charles pulled it away.

"Allow me," he said, grabbing her wrist and pulling her towards him.

He then smeared some medi-gel on her wound and wrapped the bandage around her arm.

"There, all good," he said and kissed her shoulder.

The PA system beeped, getting their attention.

"This is Captain T'Kila speaking. Jack, please refrain from scaring anymore of my officers."

Jack smiled deviously.

"Also, Miss T'Loak would like you to join her in her personal cabin," Captain T'Kila added.

Jack flexed her arm. She still had good mobility, and the medi-gel was taking care of any pain she might have felt otherwise.

"Wanna come?" she asked Charles, stepping out of the bathroom.

He nodded and followed her.

Not surprisingly, Adina's personal cabin was extremely luxurious.

"Drink?" she asked when Jack and Charles entered.

Without waiting for an answer, she handed them each a glass of high end Thessian wine, which they both accepted.

"Excuse me," Adina said. "I've got Aria on hold. She doesn't like being on hold."

She pointed to a huge screen on one of the walls and Aria's face appeared on it.

"I don't care, stupid motherfucker! Get back to Omega and sort this shit out, or I'll find someone who can!" Aria yelled to someone off screen.

"Hey again, Aria," Adina said to get her sisters attention.

Aria looked at Jack and narrowed her eyes.

"I swear, Jack. If you had anything to do with this…"

"She didn't," Adina interrupted. "Jack and her team saved my life."

Aria sighed.

"Damn it, Jack! You're making it so hard for me to really hate you!"

"Would you have preferred it if I had let Cerberus take your sister?" Jack asked.

Aria broke the glass in her hand. She was shaking with rage.

"I can't believe the Illusive Man had the balls to try to fuck with me and my family," she growled, throwing the broken glass away. "It seems we have a common enemy, Jack."

"What do you think he was after?" Jack asked.

"I'm thinking that he wanted to trade Adina for control of Omega," Aria said, wiping her hand with a towel.

"He's an asshole," Jack said.

"He's a racist piece of shit, who thinks he can fuck with the queen of Omega! I'll show him who he's dealing with!"

"How did they get past your guards?" Jack asked.

"They were either bribed or killed," Adina explained, and Aria nodded. "It's hard to know who we can trust right now."

"And Patriarch finally got what he wanted," Aria sighed.

"Yes," Adina said with sadness in her voice. "He died, so we could get away."

"He got his warrior's death," Jack agreed. "An honorable death."

"Him and his fucking honor," Aria sighed. "Too bad. He was always happy to attend the meetings that I didn't want to go to. Made him feel like he was still important."

Jack took a sip of her wine. It was excellent.

"Enjoying my sister's hospitality I see," Aria said. "I gave her that wine."

"Good choice," Jack said. "It's delicious. Well, is there any particular reason I'm a part of this call?"

"Of course. Since what happened at my home, I can't trust my employees. I don't think T'Kila and her crew are going to betray me, but I can't take any chances. So, as it turns out, you're the person I trust the most right now, Jack. I'm not delusional enough to think that you have any kind of loyalty towards me, or to anyone for that matter. But I'm absolutely 100 percent certain that you can't be bribed by the Illusive Man," Aria said.

Jack snorted and Aria continued.

"Which is why I'm asking you to make sure that Adina gets here safely. If she does, I'll consider you stricken from my 'to kill'-list… And I'll even pay you back everything you think I stole from you all those years ago."

"I accept," Jack said, enjoying fully that Aria was in a position where she needed her help. It obviously pained Aria to ask, but Jack couldn't keep herself from smiling. "Adina will be slamming down drinks with you before you know it."

"Okay…" Aria said. "T… T… Tha… Than… Fuck! I can't do it, Jack!"

"She means 'thank you, Jack'," Adina translated with an entertained grin.

Jack gave Adina a courteous nod and smiled at Aria.

"So," Jack said. "What are you going to do about Cerberus?"

"I'm going to kill them all," Aria said simply. "And I'm going to take my sweet time with the Illusive Man himself! I fucking hate humans! How can you stand being around them all the time, Adina?"

"I think they're adorable," Adina said.

"You want adorable? Get a pet! I'd even let you get a human as a pet."

"Humans aren't pets," Charles complained.

"And to be honest," Adina giggled. "I'd probably end up screwing my pet."

Aria looked like she was about to puke.

"I'll see you when you get here," she said and disconnected the call.

-X-X-X-

Charles was back in the cabin with Prangley, Kolyat and Kurt, while Jack stayed with Adina to discuss the likelihood of someone onboard the ship being on the Illusive Man's payroll.

"So," Prangley asked Kurt. "You and Adina… Last night… Did you…?"

Kurt shook his head.

"We kissed a lot… And talked… She's really funny and smart actually. But Cerberus interrupted us, just as things were about to get interesting," he explained.

"Cock-blocked by Cerberus," Prangley sighed. "I bet you hate them more than Jack right now."

"Not their biggest fan, no," Kurt said.

"Doesn't it feel weird killing other humans?" Kolyat asked.

Prangley shrugged.

"Humans have been killing each other since the dawn of time. And with Cerberus, it doesn't even feel like we're fighting other humans anymore," he explained.

"We told you about the Bellarmine twins," Kurt said. "Since that happened, I just can't see them as real humans anymore."

"But of course it would be best if us humans could stand together for once and realize that we would all benefit from concentrating on the reapers," Prangley sighed. "I guess the Illusive Man has other plans though."

"I can't believe he tried to kidnap Aria T'Loak's sister," Kurt said. "And almost succeeded."

"I can't believe you almost banged Aria T'Loak's sister," Prangley said. "You are a brave man, Nielsen. I'm not sure Aria likes you much more than the Illusive Man right now."

"But Adina does," Kurt argued.

"I'm pretty sure that if Aria really wanted to kill you, Adina's feelings wouldn't get in her way. I don't think she's that kind of sister really," Prangley pointed out.

"You're probably right," Kurt said.

"If you had actually banged her, at least you could die with a big stupid grin your face," Prangley said.

"It's not too late for that," Kurt said.

"Planning on sneaking up to her cabin during the night?" Charles chuckled.

"Sneaking?" Kurt huffed. "I'll walk there with long, proud steps!"

They all laughed.

"Why don't you go now then?" Prangley dared.

"Maybe I will," Kurt said. "When I've had a shower."

Kurt grabbed a towel from a cabinet and walked out of the cabin, trying to find the bathroom.

Charles yawned. They had barely fallen asleep when Cerberus snuck into the mansion, and he'd been running around and using his powers, not to mention their crazy escape from the T'Loak residence. Kolyat was already crawling into bed, and Prangley was getting undressed as well.

Then Jack entered the cabin.

"Oh, good," she said. "I was going to tell you boys to get some sleep. Vera and Hilary are already sleeping. Where's Nielsen?"

"You have three guesses," Prangley said, slipping under his blanket.

"Horny little bastard," Jack sighed, shaking her head. "Well, Adina's already gone to bed, so she might be asleep."

Jack left the boys' cabin to get some sleep herself, and Charles and Prangley laid down on their beds as well.

"Lights, off," Prangley commanded and the cabin lights were turned off automatically.

Just as Charles was about to slip into deep sleep, the cabin door opened, bathing the room in light from the hallway. Kurt entered the cabin, got undressed quickly and crawled in bed.

"She was asleep," he whispered. "I'll see her tomorrow."

"Bad luck," Prangley said sympathetically.

"Goodnight," Charles said. "You better get some rest so you can perform your best tomorrow then."

-X-X-X-

Jack woke up with a horrible feeling that something was wrong. Was someone on the ship trying to get to Adina?

She jumped out of bed, noticing the both Hilary and Vera were still fast asleep. She pulled on her pants and shirt and sprinted out of the cabin barefooted, pushing aside some startled crew members as she ran for Adina's cabin. She reached the door and slammed her hand onto the 'open'-button.

The door was sucked into the ceiling and Jack barged into the dark cabin. Through the darkness, she could see that Adina was still in her bed, with a dark silhouette looming over her.

"Bastard!" Jack said and tackled the intruder to the ground, preparing to punch his face in.

"Please don't kill me!" Kurt screamed, covering his face with his hands.

"Damn it, Nielsen!" Jack hissed and released him.

"What the hell going on?!" Adina shouted, turning the lights on and finding Kurt and Jack wrestling on her floor.

"I thought you were in danger, but it was just Kurt touching you in your sleep," Jack explained, getting back on her feet.

"What!? No!" Kurt shouted. "I was… I was just… Jack!"

"Okay," Jack sighed. "He was just looking."

Adina just stared at them.

"I'm going back to sleep," she said, lying back down. "Kurt, you can stay if you'd like."

"O-Okay," he stuttered, approaching the bed.

"As long as you let me sleep right now," Adina said. "Maybe you can touch me later."

Kurt crawled on the bed next to Adina, who allowed him to join her under the comforter. She pressed herself against him and kissed him on the nose.

"Goodnight," she said.

"I'll just… Hmm… I'll just leave you two alone then," Jack said awkwardly.

"Please do," Adina mumbled sleepily.

Jack walked back through the ship, trying not to enjoy it too much as the crew jumped out of her way whenever they saw her.

She met Captain T'Kila, who was on her way to the bridge.

"Captain," Jack said with a small nod.

The asari looked at Jack as if she was some sort of highly volatile explosive that could go off at any time.

"Is everything in order?" the captain asked.

"No mutiny so far. But I've placed one of my guys in her cabin just in case," Jack lied.

"One… One of your people?" T'Kila asked nervously.

"Yes," Jack said impatiently. "One of my people… A human… Working for me… Is that a problem?"

"No, no," T'Kila assured. "Maybe I should post one of my officers there as a guard as well."

"I'm afraid I can't allow that," Jack said.

"Can't allow!?" T'Kila hissed. "This is my ship, human!"

"I thought this ship belonged to Aria," Jack shrugged. "But if you disagree, I guess we could call her…"

"No need for that," Captain T'Kila quickly said.

"I thought so," Jack said with an evil grin. "Because, as messed up as it is, Aria trusts me more than you right now. So here's what you'll do: You and your crew will leave Adina and Mr. Nielsen alone for the rest of this trip, or you'll have to deal with both me and Aria."

'You owe me, Kurt,' Jack thought to herself, while Captain T'Kila tried to figure out how she'd lost control of her ship to one of Aria's worst enemies.

"Have a good day, captain," Jack said with fake politeness and left the asari standing in the hallway.

Back in the cabin, Vera and Hillary were both awake and getting dressed.

"Did you already get breakfast?" Vera asked, closing her uniform jacket.

"Nope," Jack answered.

"Wanna come?" Hillary asked.

Jack nodded.

"Let's get the boys as well," Vera said.

Jack, who had left the cabin with no shoes on, put on socks and her boots, and the three girls went to the cabin next-door to wake up the boys.

Charles was already awake and in his pants, trying to find his shirt. Jack covered Vera's and Hilary's eyes with her hands and pointed towards the corner of the room with her foot.

"Oh," Charles said, finding his shirt. "Thank you."

He put it on, and Jack removed her hands from Vera's and Hilary's faces.

"As if I don't know what a boy looks like without a shirt on," Hilary huffed.

Prangley woke up and jumped out of bed, just wearing boxers. But Jack didn't care if Vera and Hilary saw him without any clothes on, so she didn't cover their eyes this time.

He dropped down to the floor and started doing his usual morning routine of pushups and crunches.

"You're staring," Jack laughed, as Hilary gawked at Prangley maintaining his muscular physique. "I thought you had seen it all before?"

"Breakfast?" Charles asked. "Or you can stay and enjoy the show… But let me warn you, he will continue for quite some time."

"Let's go," Jack said, dragging Hilary and Vera out of the cabin.

Charles and Kolyat followed, leaving Prangley to his workout.

Vera groaned and stretched, as they walked towards the mess.

"I need a vacation," she said. "Somewhere warm with water and beaches… And someone to give me a massage… I'm sore all over."

Jack would have laughed at her for being soft and called her a princess, but she kind of agreed. Since they landed on Palaven they had been fighting reapers, travelling, rescuing Hilary, traveling some more, fighting Cerberus and now they were traveling again. A few days in a safe place would be nice. But with the reapers waging war across the entire galaxy, places like that were hard to find.

Breakfast was some sort of asari porridge. As with most food from Thessia, it tasted incredibly sweet. Hilary really liked it and had three and a half bowl of the stuff, while the rest of them couldn't eat more than one without being overwhelmed by the sweet taste.

"I'd kill for some bacon right now," Jack said, watching with disgust while Hilary was finishing her fourth bowl of porridge. "Just anything salty."

"What are you talking about?" Hilary said, pointing her spoon accusatorily at Jack. "Don't knock whatever this is… It's like eating molten candy!"

"Disgusting!" Jack mumbled.

"How come the asari are all so lean?" Vera asked with a hint of jealousy. "Their foods and drinks are all so sweet."

"It tastes really sweet," Jack said. "At least to us humans. But it's actually really healthy… For us too."

"You're kidding me?!" Hilary said, spraying porridge out on the table. "I was holding back because I thought it would make me fat. I'm getting another bowl."

Jack sighed.

"How does it taste to you, Kolyat?" Vera asked.

"Like saiie grass," he answered.

"Saiie what?" Vera asked.

"Saiie grass," Kolyat explained. "It's an edible type of seaweed that only grows in the oceans of Kahje."

"Yeah," Vera said. "That reference tells me nothing."

"How can you explain taste if not by references?" Kolyat asked.

"Is it sweet, sour or spicy to you?" Charles asked.

"It's relatively bland," Kolyat said. "With a hint of saltiness."

"Salty!" Vera exclaimed. "It's one of the sweetest thing I've ever tasted."

"I think it may be a waste of time comparing our taste experiences, Vera," Kolyat said. "Our taste buds are clearly too different."

"That's a little weird," Hilary said, finally done eating. "What else is different? Do you see colors?"

"Yes," Kolyat said. "Better than most humans."

"Thane once explained drell senses to me," Jack said. "And they're vastly superior on almost all accounts: Better eyesight, better sense of smell, better spatial awareness, better balance, they can sense body heat… Not to mention the memory thing."

"You can't sense body heat?" Kolyat asked in surprise.

"Not really," Jack said. "but our hearing is supposed to be better than yours."

"That makes sense," Kolyat nodded. "Drell do not have external ears like you humans do."

Moments later they were joined by Prangley, who was now done with his morning workout.

"So Kurt's with Adina?" he asked, sitting down at the table with a bowl of porridge.

Jack nodded.

"Lucky bastard," Prangley muttered.

Jack could tell that her executive officer was missing his fiancée, Sophia. But there wasn't much she could do to help him.

Jack stayed in the mess until Prangley had finished his breakfast at which point they were joined by Kurt and Adina.

"'Morning," Hilary snickered.

"Good morning," Adina said, not a hint of shame. "I hope you're all enjoying yourselves. This is one of our smaller ships, so there isn't much onboard entertainment. There's a spa down at the lower decks and a room with game consoles and a gym on this deck."

"If this is one of the smaller ships, I'd really like to check out the entertainment on one of the big ones," Vera said. "This is amazing. Can I use the spa?"

"Absolutely," Adina said. "My masseuse should be down there, she'll sort you out."

"Thank you so much! I was just saying earlier that I really need a massage," Vera said happily and left the table with Hilary.

"I have some work I need to do," Adina told Kurt and gave him a quick kiss, before grabbing some food and walking back towards her cabin. "I'll invite you up later."

"You two still haven't…" Prangley guessed.

"No," Kurt sighed.

"Oh well," Prangley said. "Stuff some food in your face and come with me to the gym. Maybe we can check out the spa afterwards. A massage could be nice."

"Can I join you?" Kolyat asked. "In the gym I mean."

"Of course," Prangley said. "Charles?"

"Sure," Charles said with a shrug. "Why not."

Jack decided to join them as well, and after a few hours in the gym they went down to the lower decks, where Vera and Hilary were just done with their full body treatments.

"You're in for a treat!" Vera told them. "Full body massage, facial, nails… All of it! Pure luxury!"

Prangley snorted.

"I just have some tightness in my shoulders that I'd like her to loosen up," he said. "She can leave my nails and my face as it is."

Jack had never been to a spa before, and she wasn't sure she liked the thought of some stranger giving her a massage, doing her nails and giving her some sort of deep asari facial cleansing. On the other hand, she felt like the war was starting to take its toll on her, and she didn't want to look like shit. Especially since Charles managed to look as hot as ever, so she figured that she should at least make an effort.

So when Jack went to bed that evening, she had been properly taken care of by the masseuse. In the beginning the asari masseuse had been more than a little concerned with having Jack in her spa. But luckily, she was able to relax and gave Jack a very professional treatment. Prangley, Kurt, Kolyat and Charles also had massages.

Jack had made sure that the masseuse only gave Charles the back rub he'd asked for and didn't put her hands anywhere they weren't supposed to be. She remained a complete professional, so Jack didn't have to reprimand her.

When Jack woke up the morning after, she felt refreshed and almost like she hadn't been fighting in a war for weeks. They were just minutes away from docking at the Citadel, so she quickly got dressed and met with her team and Adina in the airlock.

"We're meeting Aria at a place called Purgatory," Adina said. "I trust that you won't cause any trouble, Jack?"

"I'll behave if she does," Jack promised.

"Atmosphere equalized," an automated voice said and the doors opened in front of them.

"Ah! It's good to be back here," Prangley said, stepping off the ship.

"Miss T'Loak!" a turian in formal clothes called. "Your ride is just over here."

"Splendid," Adina said and led them across the docks to where the turian driver had parked his luxury shuttle.

"Did you enjoy your trip, Miss?" the driver asked, opening the shuttle door for Adina.

Adina just mumbled an answer, as she and the rest climbed in the shuttle

"Take us to Purgatory," Adina ordered. "Don't stop for anything."

"Of course, Miss T'Loak," the driver said and started the shuttle.

Jack almost started laughing when she thought of what C-Sec would think if they stopped this shuttle at one of their routine checkpoints. Jack and Aria T'Loak's sister in the same shuttle – that was definitely an arrival that would worry C-Sec if they knew.

After a short ride they rolled up in front of Purgatory, where several people were queueing to get into the popular night club. From inside they could hear the bass thumping away.

Kurt went to stand in line, but Adina just laughed, took him by the hand and led him past the other disgruntled clubbers.

"What the hell," a man shouted, as a young asari guided a group of humans and a single drell right past the queue."

"You have to wait in line like everyone else," the krogan bouncer said, when they reached the front.

"No, I don't," Adina told him. "Do you know who I am?"

"Yes," he said. "You're the spoiled little bitch. But this isn't Omega. Here, you're just like everyone else. So you have to stand in line like everyone else."

"Hey!" Kurt said. "You don't talk to her like that!"

"What are you going to do about it, Blondie?" the Krogan said, stepping up in Kurt's face.

Kurt shoved him hard in the chest, and the krogan, obviously surprised by Kurt's use of biotics stumbled backwards but stayed on his feet.

"Rargh!" The krogan said and stomped towards Kurt, but was suddenly encased in a biotic field and lifted into the air.

Aria stepped out of Purgatory's front doors, holding her hand out lazily, as she kept the krogan in stasis with her biotics.

"Terrible staff in this shit hole, huh?" she said, releasing the krogan who had somehow become unconscious. "Maybe it's time I return to Omega."

"I'm sure a lot of people here would appreciate that, sister," Adina said, greeting Aria with a smile.

"Can't I leave you alone with the business for a while without Cerberus storming my fucking house?" Aria asked.

"It's nice to see you, Adina. I'm glad you weren't killed or kidnapped," Adina said, imitating Aria's voice.

"Yeah yeah," Aria said. "Is this your new boyfriend? Not too clever, is he? Brawling with a krogan…"

"I thought it was pretty hot," Adina said, winking at Kurt.

"You're so weird," Aria said, looking disgusted. "Why does it have to be one of Jack's students?"

"Hello, Aria," Jack said, taking the mentioning of her name as her cue to join the conversation.

"Jack," Aria said coldly. "How come my house is fuckin invaded the same night my stupid sister invites you in?"

"I had nothing to do with that. And you know it! You should be happy that my team and I was there," Jack said. "If we hadn't been there, you would have been negotiating with the Illusive Man over Adina's life right now."

"Another way to see it is that, although you claim to hate Cerberus, you are human after all," Aria said. "And when you came to Omega with Shepard last year, your ship had Cerberus logos all over it!"

"Are you fucking kidding me, bitch?!" Jack said, clenching her fists. "Do you seriously think that I work for Cerberus?"

"Shut the fuck up!" Adina shouted. "Both of you!"

Jack glared at the two asari sisters. A big crowd had gathered outside Purgatory and was enjoying the argument.

"Aria," Adina hissed, lowering her voice down to prevent anyone in the crowd from listening in. "Jack and her team saved me. I was unconscious, and they could have left me, but they didn't. I know you two insist on keeping this weird hate going, but if you kill each other over this, you're both more stupid than I thought."

Aria sighed.

"Did you really bring her with you?" she asked Jack, who nodded.

"Why?" Aria asked.

Jack shrugged.

"Nielsen quite likes her… And she did give us a place to stay and promised to take us with her to the Citadel," she explained.

Aria nodded.

"Okay," she eventually said.

"Great," Adina said. "Now apologize to each other."

"Fuck off," Aria and Jack said simultaneously.

"Well, it was worth a try," Adina laughed. "Let's go and get some drinks."

After a few drinks, Jack and Aria had finally stopped exchanging constant death glares and Aria had even thanked Kurt for carrying Adina when she was knocked out. And when Hilary was asked to leave Purgatory for being under age, Aria threatened to have the entire staff murdered, so Hilary was allowed to stay.

"So you just hitchhike your way around the galaxy and fight the reapers?" Aria asked, when Jack had explained a little bit about their team.

"Pretty much," Jack said.

"It sounds like you've become some sort of heroine, Jack," Aria said, making the word heroine sound like an insult.

"Not really," Jack said. "I just kill for the Alliance now, and everyone else still hates me."

"I wonder why…" Aria said, pretending to be genuinely puzzled.

"What about you?" Jack asked. "You're working with Shepard and welcoming refugees on Omega. What's up with that?"

Adina sighed at Charles.

"I can't believe they're actually fighting over who's still more evil, when they've both obviously gone soft," she said, face palming.

"Soft!?" Aria spat, while Jack snorted at the insult.

Adina and everyone on Jack's team giggled, but stopped quickly when Aria and Jack gave them some very dangerous looks.

After a while just sitting and talking in the lounge area of Purgatory, Adina was starting to get bored.

"Want to dance?" she asked Kurt, who nodded immediately and followed her out onto the dance floor.

Vera dragged Kolyat, Hilary and Prangley to the dance floor as well, leaving Aria, Jack and Charles alone on the couches.

Charles looked more than a little nervous about being alone with these two powerhouses, and Aria noticed almost immediately.

"I'll give you a fair warning, if anything kicks off," Aria said, not calming him down the slightest. "Who are you by the way?"

"My name is Charles Magnus," he answered nervously.

"So, Charles. Can you tell me what it is about you human kids my sister finds so entertaining? Because I honestly don't think you're that interesting," Adina said, leaning back in her couch.

"I don't know," he said with a shrug.

"Jack? Any ideas?" Aria tried.

"Maybe someone she knows has caused her to really hate other asari," Jack said.

Aria laughed dryly.

"Maybe..."

-X-X-X-

Charles was saying goodbye to Kurt and Adina, who were leaving Purgatory and heading to Aria and Adina's penthouse apartment on the Presidium. Aria had a late business meeting at Purgatory, and since Kurt and Adina were already leaving, Charles and his friends had decided that they wanted to go home as well.

While Jack was trying to hail a cab to take them to Kolyat's apartment, Charles was talking to Aria.

"Thank you for your hospitality, Miss T'Loak. Adina was really nice to us, so I'm happy that she wasn't hurt," he said.

"Good," Aria simply answered. "Tell Jack to come and pick up your blond friend tomorrow. I obviously can't keep my sister from fucking him, but I'm not paying for his breakfast too."

"I will," Charles said.

"And when she picks up the kid, I might have a job for you guys," Aria added. "I could use some more human employees."

"I thought you hated humans?"

"You are hopelessly under-evolved for a spacefaring race and yet you are unbearably cocky. But you have your uses," Aria admitted. "Adina also thinks humans are useful, but she tends to use young humans such as yourself in a slightly different way."

"Yeah, I got that," Charles said. "Please don't kill my friend."

"I won't," Aria promised. "This one actually saved her and I saw him trying to fight that krogan outside, so in my book he's already better than all those other fuckers she's brought home over the years. But if you're really his friend, you should probably tell him not to expect too much from Adina. She rarely stays with the same partner for long… And not just because I tend to kill them."

"Which you won't do to Kurt, right?"

"I already promised not to, didn't I?" Aria asked. "Don't make me regret that."

Charles smiled and gave her a respectful nod.

"Have a nice evening," he said and joined Jack, who had managed to find them a cab.

"What could you possibly want to talk to her about?" Jack asked suspiciously, as Charles entered the shuttle and sat down next to her.

"I just tried to save Kurt's life," he said and kissed her cheek, as they took off, heading for Kolyat's apartment.

---

A/N:

Okay, so I'm back with another long one. Hope you liked it. But let me know what you think. As always, I'm more than willing to hear your input and good ideas are always taken into consideration.

Attention:

I'm looking for a new cover image for this story. Let's be honest, the current one isn't really selling any tickets, is it?
Sadly, I'm not artistic in any way. But I've noticed that many users of this page are also doing amazing stuff on .com.

I bet that every single one of you are more creative and artistic than me (whether you're on deviantart or not), so I'd like to know if I could take advantage of your talent? If you like this story, please create a nice cover image for Biotic Beginnings and PM it to me. I will choose the one I like the best and use it as the official cover image for this story. Don't be shy, your contribution can't be worse than the shit I made.

I sure hope someone sends me something, so I can get rid of this boring thing I'm using at the moment.

I wish you all the very best, and I already look forward to the 39th chapter, which will feature at least three of the characters that played important roles in the first part of Biotic Beginnings. See if you can guess who!