Chapter 36

Frustration Release

The elevator ascended to the Crew Quarters allowing Ty get out and walk to his room to get his gear real quick in preparation Shepard got back. As he got in his room and to his counter of gear he called out to EDI. "Hey EDI, I need a quick favor."

He didn't see if EDI's hologram popped up but he did hear her synthesized voice. "Yes Ty, what can I do for you?"

"Can you get me a comm link to Jack and tell her it's me?"

"One moment."

Ty heard the distinct sound of her hologram disappearing then, as he finished getting his pistol holders and all his tomahawk holders on, Jack's voice entered in his room. "What do you need, dick?" Jack asked.

"Nice to hear from you too, sugar plum." He replied with a lot of sarcasm.

"Are you fucking serious! Sugar plum?!"

"I thought it matched. You don't like it?" Ty asked while trying not to laugh.

"Oh you are so lucky I'm actually beginning to like having you around."

"Actually beginning? Come on Jack, I thought we had something going here. Anyway, on a serious note, you mind doing me a big favor?"

"No way in hell am I helping you do those guns. You're on your own for that one, dick."

"Wasn't going to ask you to help with that. The favor actually requires really nothing from you except to stay out of the Cargo Hold until I give you an all-clear."

"Are you working on some explosives?"

I wish. I need to get my hands on some boom-booms. I miss being the one shooting the explosives. "I wish, but no. Shepard wants me to get the Princess out of her bitch mood so I'm going to try and get her down there."

"Did you tell Shepard that's just her permanent attitude and it's never going to change on the Cheerleader." Jack stated.

I wonder how that would've worked out. Actually that probably wouldn't have been good to do. "No, didn't have much of a choice since I guess my unique 'people skills,' as Shepard put it, are the only thing that will ease her up a bit until we got off Tuchanka. So you mind staying away until the Princess is gone so I don't have a death fight between you two while Shepard's gone?"

"Yeah, sure, I'll stay away so I don't biotically rip her in half on your watch."

The former mercenary put the remainder or his gear on then said sarcastically, "You're such a sweetheart. Thanks Jack."

"Shut up, dick. Later." Jack said then shut the comm off.

Ty turned around as EDI's blue chess piece appeared. "The comm was shut off." She informed.

"I know. Thank you for the help EDI. I'll talk to you later."

"Logging you out Ty." EDI said then disappeared.

Ty left his room and walked around the corner then down the hall to Miranda's office. He opened the doors revealing Miranda with an extremely frustrated look on her face as she was rubbing her temples and staring down at her table. She glanced up and saw Ty then shook her head and looked back down at the table while still rubbing her temples. "What can I do for you, Ty?" She asked in a flat voice.

Geez she really needs to lighten up some. "Thought we'd hang out." He jested.

Miranda scowled but still didn't look at him. "I'm busy."

"I can tell. You missed that joke completely. You seriously need to get off that terminal and come with me down to the Cargo Hold to release frustration."

"I've got other ways to vent then going down there with you."

Apparently you need new ones. "Yeah and those seem to be working so well." That got the Cerberus Operative's gaze to fixate on him. To a weaker willed person, they might have caved at the knees and attempted to back out, but it really didn't faze the warrior. "You know Miranda, I thought you would have remember what I said when we first met through interrogation but I'll repeat it for you. I've dealt with murderers and psychopaths; your stare doesn't intimidate me."

She shook her head and began shuffling data-pads on her desk. Ty put his hand on the next data-pad she was going to grab stopping her momentarily. "Come on Miranda, I'm not that bad. I mean honestly you can say that I'm good at helping people release their frustration."

Miranda tugged the data-pad from under his hand with a glare as she said in an agitated tone, "Of course, you usually just screwed them to do that. I'll pass."

I most certainly have no- wait, no, that did happen once, but it was just once. That shouldn't count and not like she would know of that one time. I guess I should've just seen that dig coming though. "Ouch, that hurt Miranda. Do you seriously think that's what I was going to try? I would've picked a classier place then the Cargo Hold to try that since I got standards I hold up to. I've got the perfect plan and I know you'll enjoy it and feel a little better afterwards." She gave him a 'really' look through her death stare causing Ty to roll his eyes and use his most fake professional tone. "I promise it won't put you in any predicament that would compromise your job as the XO for Shepard or complicate anything between us or the crew and I also promise you'll feel less stressed afterwards. You know I don't break promises."

Her eyes remained on him a little longer then she let out an exasperated sigh. "Fine, but you better be right."

Mission accomplished. He smirked and couldn't resist mimicking her. "I'm always right, aren't I? Oh if you don't want to get physical on the Normandy in that catsuit then you should change and no we aren't lifting stuff, I'll explain when we get down there."

"I'll be fine in this unless you have a problem with that." Miranda said but Ty could hear the underlying 'fuck you' behind it.

He shrugged as he began walking. "Just offering, I mean you seem to wear that all day and all night and its spandex so it's obviously tight. I was just saying maybe you wanted to wear something loose and let you hair down a little bit, figuratively speaking."

Miranda didn't say anything to him after that. They just walked to the elevator and got in. Ty hit the Cargo Hold button and the elevator started to descend. "Why are you armed?" She asked to break the silence since the elevator was going slow as usual.

"Grunt wants me to go for whatever it is he has to do when Shepard takes him down to Tuchanka. Shepard wants me armed and ready to go when they get back with Mordin."

"Any idea what is causing his erratic behavior?"

"He's just being Krogan." Ty responded.

The raven-haired woman gave him the look that everyone he had said that to so far had given him. It was the look of "what does that mean?" but there was no answer aside from that as far as he knew. It was just what it was, a Krogan being a Krogan. The elevator stopped and the doors opened letting them both exit and walk out into the large room. Ty took all his gear off and set it on the table where he usually worked then started pushing some of the crates across the room to get some open space and create an arena of a sort.

As he finished Miranda was looking around at the make shift arena with an uncertain look on her face. "What was your plan now?"

"You ever spar hand-to-hand with someone without protective gear?" She nodded slightly. "Good, 'cause that's what we are doing."

It seemed to catch Miranda off guard but she began to shake her head no. "That's a bad idea."

"How do you know when we haven't even tried to do it yet? Only rules are no extreme full contact hits to the face and for you no biotic's except for pushes, I can take those."

"We don't need fighting in the crew."

Ty rolled his eyes, what a lame excuse. "Really? That's the best excuse you've got? If it gets to rough we'll stop or if I hurt you we'll stop."

"What if I hurt you?"

There's the opening I needed. When in doubt, attack the ego. "I doubt that will happen. Come on, Cerberus had to teach you some hand-to-hand combat and we all know I'm good at close quarters fighting. Let's see what you got."

Miranda contemplated her decision for a moment but then she began to walk into the arena he made but she didn't look like she was getting ready to fight. Ty was prepared for any strike coming since that was the easiest feint to do. He watched her body language and waited for the foot plant or something of that manner to show her attack. Instead of a physical identifier to tell him she was about to attack he saw a blue hue begin to form around her hand and if he hadn't begun to sidestep he was sure he would've been sent flying with a broken jaw or a concussion. She sprung her attack nearly hitting him in the face with a biotic fueled punch but as it came at him Ty dodged around her and made her swing at thin air.

She recovered at inhuman speeds but seeing as they were both genetically created they were going to be faster than most with reaction times. She went for another strike since he wasn't ready for her quick reaction time, allowing her to close the short gap between them and attempted to strike with her knee but Ty swiftly dodged it and got around her giving her a slight push making her stumble forward. "Is that it? Is that all the Illusive Mans prize possession can conjure up? Two strikes then get ambushed from behind? I'm nearly positive you trained better. You forced yourself to be better right? Daddy's little science experiment doesn't seem to be doing very well."

Miranda snarled at the taunt and closed the distance between them even quicker than before and went for three more quick strikes but even though they were quick, her frustration level was getting in the way of her actual fighting ability. The warrior blocked and dodged them easily and had to fight back a sigh of boredom.

He was able to get behind her again and give her a slight push again. As she caught herself he put up his index finger to create a one. "Okay first off, if we are going to spar correctly you have to focus because at this rate I'll be bored before you get pissed off so badly that you'll want to kill me." He raised his middle finger making a two and continued. "Secondly to my firstly, the only person aside from me that can gain focus from anger is my brother and since you lack his neon green eyes and you don't have either of our sparkling personalities, that means you don't focus when you are angry so getting angry is counterproductive for you. You have to relax and let your training come natural. Thirdly, and I can't stress it enough, try to have some fun."

"You are such an asshole!" She shouted at him.

Ty scratched the back of head. "Why does everyone seem to think I need the reminder of that? I really don't need the reminder. Come on, stop trying to hit me and hit me."

Instead of waiting for her to attack he went on the attack to put her on enough defense so her instincts would take over. He wasn't full force punching or kicking, but he was able to get her a few times before her instincts started to take over against his simple strikes. She blocked a few then got his arms out of the way for a second letting her nail him in the chest with both her palms knocking him back a few steps. Before he could remark on it she was on the attack, forcing him to actually have to try and dodge it all. As he dodged punches and blocked them he said, "There you go. Now it's coming back. Here I was beginning to think I was going to be fighting with myself between pissing you off to want to attack me or just saying fuck it and punching you as hard as I could to make you fight me."

"Shut up." She growled.

Ty was met with the heel of her boot hitting him in the chest making him stumble back and grab at his stomach where it hit. That's why she wears those damn things, he cringed, fuck that actually hurt. His cringe faded for a pleased smirk. "Good, good, you actually made me feel pain, but now it's my turn." The raven-haired woman had closed the distance while he was talking which was unfortunate for her. He feinted a punch making her attempt to dodge the punch that was never coming allowing him to sweep her legs out from under her and plant a boot on her stomach. "Why did that happen?" Ty asked as he loomed over her with his smirk firm on his face.

"I am going to kick your ass!" Miranda yelled as she attempted to get his boot off of her, which wasn't working at all.

"Wrong. That happened because, well, I'll spare you the technical explanation since I'm just agitating you at this point. That happened because I'm damn good and you thought for some crazy reason you had me on the defense permanently and that you actually had a chance. Crazy right?" He goaded her.

What came next he had coming but he didn't see it coming. She growled as she hit him with a biotic orb that suddenly lifted him up then slammed him down into the ground. Instead of questioning how he ended up on his face down on the Cargo Hold floor, Ty rolled himself onto his back and kipped up just as his opponent was attempting to stamp on his back and likely rub his own comment in his face. "Good one, but don't go one hundred percent yet save that for later this is just the beginning."

She retorted by hitting him in the stomach with a strong right but then she followed by grabbing and twist his right arm back towards him wrenching it a little. It didn't last long because Ty flipped himself in the direction his arm was facing making her lose her grip and opening her up for an attack which he took continuing what was to be a long battle.

An Hour in a Half later

The sparring had gotten intense but in a good way, or as good as beating on each other can be. It became like an actual fight except they weren't trying to kill each other or hurt each other, or at least Ty wasn't. Miranda had used her biotic's more than a few times to throw a crate at him which he'd have to dodge very quickly.

Through the intensity though Ty's eyes had turned completely purple and his veins did their usual transformation. He hadn't actually realized it until Miranda asked him during the fight about it out of worry that she had severely pissed him off. He wasn't even near being angry, he was actually enjoying himself with waves of nostalgia of the old days with his brother when they were training and pushing each other to be better fighters, just without the biotic's Miranda had. The biotic's made him reminisce about the days of sparring with Darian. He assumed it was just his mind being at a peak of focus that he normally didn't attain unless he was extremely pissed or meditating, but the fight seemed to get his mind going so he didn't mind it.

He wasn't sure why his body transformed now and back on Pragia without taking his mind to the point of no return like it used to, but maybe this new occurrence was a good thing or just a warning of a big blow out about to happen. He couldn't be certain. This was good training for him as much as it was a stress release for Miranda so he couldn't complain, but he'd have to ask his brother about this new occurrence. He'd know more since he had more experience with it all.

They were both huffing and puffing balls of sweat with soaked heads of hair which was an abnormal look for the raven-haired. Whether it being perfect was natural or her spending hours in front of a mirror, he did not know, but it didn't matter at the moment since he had to roll on the ground as another crate came flying at him. He narrowly dodged it and got himself ready for her strikes that she was sure to throw right after.

The warrior was on his toes and hands as she came at him quickly with a kick. He used his left arm to block to ensure he did not hurt her leg with whatever made hitting his right arm more painful. Her kick had come at nearly full force but he pushed her away with his right arm and got on his feet again. She came again with punches that he dodged and blocked until he got the chance to give her a slight kick to the gut pushing her back again so he could get back on the offensive, though offense was the last thing he was going to be on.

It all happened quickly but Ty was able to see the blue field appear on her arm as what felt like a train hitting him collided against his body and sent him flying back through the air. "Whoaaaa!"

The sudden weightlessness felt funny but it ended quickly as he crash landed into some of the crates she had tossed earlier. The boom echoed across the room and all that could be seen of Ty was his legs lying on top of a crate. He had crates on all other sides of him and his torso was wedged in the little space his body made when he landed against the crate.

There was haste from Miranda based on the sound of her heels clicking across the room signaling her approach. "Ty? Are you alright?" Miranda asked as she approached.

"Owwwwww." He managed to get out.

Her head popped into view with her arm extended to help him so he grabbed it let her help in pulling him out of the hole. He got himself off the crate and sat down on the floor with the help of Miranda who rested his back against the crate.

The former mercenary wasn't injured badly, mostly out of breath from the fight and the landing, but otherwise he had very little bruising. The Cerberus Operative knelt down next to him and said, "Sorry about that. I didn't mean to use that much force." Ty nodded and she continued. "You're lucky that fall didn't break anything. You hit those crates hard."

"You don't have to tell me I hit hard, I know I did. Feel a little better now?"

Miranda nodded slightly. "Yes, it was a good release. Do you want me to get Doctor Chakwas for you?"

"No," he shook his head, "I'll be fine. I just have to catch my breath. How close is he?"

"What?"

"Your father, is he getting close to your sister?"

Miranda looked shocked at his question but it made sense because hardly anyone knew about her past. "Did you hack Cerberus files again Ty?" She asked in a serious tone.

Ty shook his head. "No, well, not again that is. When I was on that Cerberus facility getting information, I came across yours and Jacob's personal files and I hacked my way into finding out more about you since you had some locked stuff. I found out about your father and the genetic tailoring and your sister Oriana. Don't perceive me as a threat, I don't go after innocents, especially my friends family and I'll take most of that information I found out to my grave unless you tell more people."

She nodded in a thanking manor. "Your father is fucked up. If it gives you any comfort I might hunt him after we're done with the Collectors and Reapers. If you need more help with your sister I'll do what I can."

Miranda gave a small smile. "Don't worry about it. I'll handle him when I get the chance. I don't like asking for help, but you know a lot already. If you wanted to come, you could I guess."

"Sounds like a blasty blast. I'm going to go take a quick shower before Shepard gets back so I'm not a ball of sweat before I go on a mission. Are you going to head up as well?"

"Yes, I need a shower as well. Do you want help up getting up?"

The warrior shook his head and pushed himself against the box and onto his feet. Miranda stood up completely and they both walked over to the elevator, well Ty wasn't walking as straight as he usually did, but he was walking. The elevator took them up and they walked out as they reached their destination but before they parted ways the Cerberus Operative stopped him. "Thank you for helping me release some frustration."

He gave a slight nod. "You're welcome, but that's what I'm here for aside from my charming personality and dashing good looks. Oh, and thank you for biotically tossing my ass across the room into some crates."

Miranda rolled her eyes. "You are such an arse."

"You're an arse." Ty mimicked.

Miranda shook her head with the small show of a smile before she walked away. The former mercenary walked to his room, but before he jumped in the shower he walked over to EDI's terminal. "EDI, you there."

Her hologram popped up. "Yes Ty, I am here."

"Can you tell Jack that me and the Princess are no longer in the Cargo Hold anymore so she can travel about freely if she feels spontaneous enough."

"Would you like me to use those words?"

"Yeah but make sure you tell her that's what I said."

"I will."

"Thanks EDI, also if anyone comes looking for me let them know I'm in the shower and will come find them when I'm done."

"Would you like me to make sure Kasumi doesn't sneak in your room while you shower?" EDI asked.

He nodded with a smile, he wasn't sure that she actually would but it was a good precautionary plan. "That would be nice. Thank you EDI."

"You are welcome." EDI said then disappeared.

Ty hit the shower and cleaned himself up then got out, got dressed and brushed his hair again. Ten minutes had passed while he showered and got ready again so he decided to head back down to the Cargo Hold and get all his gear back on that he left down there then wait for Shepard to return. He took the elevator down and when he arrived at the Cargo Hold he was met by Shepard, Mordin, and Garrus with dirt and some blood smears on their faces and on Mordin's outfit. "Wow. You guys look like you had fun." He said sarcastically.

"You missed out on a real party down there, Ty, almost everyone came except you. The Bloodpack were there and they brought their pet Varren, some fire spitting creatures and Vorcha showed up. We even got to fight through a hospital." Garrus said in a joking tone.

"Hospitals aren't that fun to fight through though." He replied.

"What is fun to fight through?" Shepard asked.

"Well some electronic stores are." Ty said.

"Antique shops, but only if they are classy." Garrus responded.

Shepard looked at them both with a smile. "You guys are one of a kind. Mordin, Garrus head on up. I need Grunt down here so we can finish up on Tuchanka. Garrus make sure Miranda knows to let on the supplies I bought."

The Turian nodded and he and Mordin got in the elevator as Ty walked out to his table where his gear sat. Shepard called on EDI to get Grunt armed and on his way down to their floor so they could get going as he was arming himself again, putting all his weapons in their specific holders and making sure they were secured tightly.

As he finished he saw Grunt's new gun he customized lying on the ground folded up. I'll bring it just in case we need it and so I can test it out before I give it to him. Ty strapped it to the middle of his back between his regular tomahawks and his sniper then put his hood up since he hadn't yet. Now he was completely ready but he was hit by a sudden memory from a few days before he and his crew hit the Thresher Nest.

"We'll be there in a few days Capitan as long as Valera doesn't crash us." Carson said with humor in his tone.

"Cute, Carson." Valera responded and then stuck out her tongue

Ty chuckled at the two and patted his Turian pilot on the shoulder. "Play nice you two."

"Fine." Valera breathed out exasperatedly.

"If we make it out of this, are you going to take Brad up on his party idea, Capitan?" Carson asked.

Ty nodded to himself. "Yeah, we would've done it before just in case but my family matters mixed with all the other stuff kind of took all the time I had planned for a longer shore leave."

"Hey, sooner we're there the sooner we'll be back right?" The Turian stated.

"Damn right. I'm going to head up to my room and sort out the rest of the mess from that shit on the Citadel." The purple eyed warrior said.

"C-Sec should thank you for solving their own damn problems. 'Ah yes, let's sit on our asses while a known group of murderers are planning to murder one of our officers families, you know just because we are a bunch of incompetent idiots who can't stop someone from preaching on the Presidium let alone stop a real crime.' Fucking idiots." Valera spat.

"Is that how you feel?" Carson asked.

"No, I was keeping it censored for your tender sensibilities."

Ty smirked as he walked away hearing the two begin to bicker with one another. As he passed through the CIC the purple eyed warrior saw Darian leaning against where the Galaxy map was, staring at the Galaxy hologram in deep thought. When he neared him, the Turian looked over to him. "Are you sure about this? And don't give me the crap you give Gallick."

"I'm sure I'm going down onto a planet where there is a Thresher Maw that apparently has useful resources around it." Ty responded.

Darian shook his head. "Fuck Tarak and this mission, Ty. We don't need to do this."

"It'll be fine, Darian."

"This is such bullshit."

"Darian, we've been fighting alongside another for a while now. Have I ever picked a mission that I thought was going to kill all of us?"

Darian chuckled. "I don't think you've ever thought a mission was going to kill us, let alone ever thought through a mission plan." Ty released a laugh and shook his head. "No, you never have. I'm just worried this might be a suicide run."

"It might be, but working yourself up about it isn't going to make it better. If the worse happens, you know what to do, but I doubt the worse will happen."

His best friend nodded then snapped into a salute. "It's been an honor to serve with you Ty."

"And it's been an honor to know you, my friend. Now go cause some trouble with the guys, but try not to break the Setting Sun. Valera will rip your mandibles off for that."

Darian chuckled as he let his hand fall. "She hasn't let me forget yet."

"Nor will I Talin. You break my baby and I'll break your face." Valera said over the intercom.

"Our baby." Carson chided.

"Carson don't sa-"

Valera was cut off by both Ty and Darian. She was too late. "Darian, did you know they had a baby?" Ty asked.

"No, I had no idea. I mean I always knew they had a thing for each other, but never had I suspected…Spirits, what did you name her Carson? I hope she has more of you then her mother." Darian responded.

"Crap. Darian, run! She's coming for you!"

Much to Ty's surprise Darian actually did run back to the elevator and began pushing the button frantically causing the warrior to begin to laugh hard and stroll to the elevator calmly since he needed to use it. "DARIAN TALIN! YOUR ASS IS MINE!" Valera roared as she came running up from the cockpit.

Ty got in next to his friend who was still frantically pressing the button. "Why the hell isn't this working?" Darian asked.

"Oh, I left the safety lock on." Ty said with a smirk forming.

"You what?" Darian asked as he turned his head to face him.

A blue glow surrounded Darian. "Good luck buddy." The warrior teased as hit the unlock button.

"Wha-" His friend was pulled out of the elevator right before the doors closed. Ty fell to the floor…laughing his ass off.

The memory faded as suddenly as it came and Ty shook his head slightly in an attempt to get his thoughts straight. He looked around the Cargo Hold to see that Shepard had finished doing a check on her gear. Mere seconds had passed but the memory always made it feel longer. The warrior got his wits about him and walked over to where she was standing. She looked up at him and gave a slight smile then finished checking her shotgun over. "You always check your guns then recheck them before you do a mission?" Ty asked pointing out she had looked at each weapon twice.

"Yeah, it's like second nature. Alliance drills it into your head to always check your weapons twice to make sure the safety is on or off and that your heat sink was still good. At least back before thermal clips the heat sink was a big deal, now, though, you check to make sure you have ammo in your clip." Ty chuckled a little which made her smile. "What's so funny?"

He shook his head and waved her off. "Nothing, just you and your Alliance habits."

Shepard put her shotgun back. "Did you get Miranda cooled off?"

"She'll be fine until we get to Illium unless she gets bad news about her sister."

She gave him a questioning look. "She told you about that?"

"No, I knew of her sister from reading her file and I put the pieces together. Not that hard to figure out once you put her sudden mood swing with a sibling she's protective over."

The N7 gave a slight nod and Ty's ears picked up the sound of the elevator coming down. "Have you given it any thought?" She asked suddenly.

"Geez didn't figure you for the impatient type." He jested.

"I'm usually not, but it's something important to me and patience with something like this is hard. Have you thought about it?"

Before he could answer the elevator doors opened and Grunt came stomping out. "I'll answer you later when we don't have crew members around."

Shepard sighed. "Always when it's something serious to me someone has to interrupt."

Ty smirked and looked back over to Grunt who he could tell was very tense. "Grunt are you ready to go find out why you're so tense and probably kill some things while we do it."

He seemed to perk up at kill some things but he nodded and Shepard motioned them to the shuttle which they all boarded. The shuttle left the Normandy and headed down into Tuchanka's atmosphere and as it did Ty couldn't help but feel like something bad was going to happen.