Notes by Author: Writing this story has been such a challenge. Anyway, just want to warn you guys and gals, there is a mention of rape, nothing too graphic this time around. Thank you all for the reviews and the support and please forgive the mistakes.


Glancing down at the red headed female, the batarian grimaced when his eyes landed back on the male human in front of him. "Hey, I thought you said she was asari?"

The twenty-something-year-old human named, Ben, just held out his hands in an I don't give a damn gesture saying, "Ooops."

Deppix, the batarian, growled; his four eyes almost squinting with distain.

"Humans are like asari."

"No-they're-not!" Deppix rebuked.

"Take it or leave it."

After a few short seconds of thought, Deppix reached into his pocket. "Fine. How much?"

"Two hundred."

The batarian scoffed, offended by the price but not overly for what he was about to do.

"Is there a problem?"

Saving his anti-human rhetoric for another day, Deppix ignored the question by asking his own. "And you're sure she's pregnant?"

A hundred plus years ago, this would've been a stupid question, but nowadays, anything could be faked with technology, and or prosthetics.

"Yes," Ben huffed with agitation.

"She better be. Because I remember last time, when the belly fell off…."

Ben reached down, interrupting his dialogue by sliding up Rage's white gown. "All genuine flesh. Here, feel for yourself."

Deppix did so begrudgingly, his rough, grayish brown hand surfing the curvature of Rage's protruding belly, sending electricity to his groin.

His demeanor was slightly altered by the warm, soft skin under his grimy fingers. "And she's heavily sedated, right?"

With a taxing sigh, Ben replied, "She is like the dead, my friend." A second of silence eddied between them before the human broke it. "So, is it a yes or a no?"

Deppix licked his fat, gray lips, staring down at the helpless human, made pale by the drugs and lack of nutrition; her limbs, strapped down to the bed.

He grumbled under his breath as he handed Ben, his credit chit.

"I'll take that as a yes." Ben softly intoned as he started for the door. "You got ten minutes."

"That's fine. I only need five." Deppix spat.

"And do try to keep it down. The others are trying to sleep," obviously being sarcastic.

The batarian let out another guttural sound of discontent before undoing his pants, the door opening to let in the faint amount of white light.

When the human stepped out into the hall, Deppix was already on top of Rage, positioning himself; the door closing behind Ben.

#

To say that Nihlus's last words didn't have an effect on Nyreen would've been a lie. For the remainder of the night, she threw back shot after shot of a wide variety of alcohols; bottles of which she had vowed not to open for many years. It meant nothing now. Nothing made sense anymore. How, how could she have let one person bring her to such lowly state? Where did it all go so wrong?

Her career was over. Her life was over. And it was all her cousin's fault! Nyreen felt her blood began to boil. Three rough, shaky fingers, wrapped around the neck of a bottle; talons scraping against the glass—Quinoleya was going to pay.

Yes, if she was going down, Quin was sure as hell going down with her! Nyreen's mandibles spread into a malevolent grin. Her eyes, now water from sheer exhaustion, were dead-locked on Quins shuttle ticket which had been resting on the floor; just a few feet away from where Nyreen was.

The artificial sun was coming up, pouring over the many walls that made up Nyreen's apartment. She didn't care, still in her armor, smelling of booze, room spinning uncontrollably.

"I'm not… gonna le-er win! Nope! Not this time." Nyreen sneered aloud, back pressed up against the bar. Her speech was heavily slurred.

But what if Nihlus was bluffing? What if that video really was all he had? And his words were just a last-stitch effort to get her to crack? Well it had worked. If sitting on the floor, drinking beyond the heart's content wasn't any sign of defeat, what was?

She had been thinking about Garrus, and the fact that she hadn't visited him was eating her up inside. It had been for quite some time.

"I gotta fine Quin." Nyreen blurted out with a sudden urgency.

She rolled onto her knees, crawling like an infant, toward her omni tool. Once she reached, it took several attempts to pick it up off the floor, and even more to find the right buttons to press.

"I'm… nnnot gonna ssstop'til I fine-er."

Eventually she stood up, but her legs felt like jelly and she constantly staggered from side to side in a meek attempt to stay up.

Looking to the ceiling, Nyreen shouted, "You hhhhear me Quin? I'ma hunt you down like'a vvvvorcha!" With her legs giving way, Nyreen tried to back step in order to stabilize herself. Her plan failed as Nyreen stumbled, failing back down. She landed butt-first, back crashing against the bar; empty glass bottles and a shot glass, protesting loudly as they rolled out of the way.

"Shiiiit!"

#

"Okay, talk to you then, Ex. Pallin out." The holo on Pallin's desk dissipated. In the same instant, Nihlus marched into the room. "Nihlus," Pallin's eyes wide, mandibles loosely hanging apart from his mouth.

"Sir." Nihlus greeted, tipping his head as well.

The younger, green-eyed turian looked refreshed, clean, and alert. It was a blessing to see in all honesty.

"You look…," before the executor could finish, Nihlus handed him a data pad. The older turian took it while Nihlus took a seat in front of the desk.

"I'm requesting that all charges on Jane 'Rage' Shepard be dropped immediately."

Ex. Pallin's eyes went from the turian's to the data pad, moving rapidly with the digital symbols, mandibles resting away from his jaw, slowly moving in closer.

After a minute or two of deafening silence, Ex. Pallin finally spoke, letting out a short sigh, first. "I would've never expected this." He grew quiet again before speaking. "Quin, yes, but… Nyreen."

More silence filled the room; Ex. Pallin's eyes finally leaving the data pad. They recaptured Nihlus's penetrating stare.

Ex. Pallin's mandibles pressed against his jaw, sub-harmonics clicking. "I can't do that, exactly."

A disappointed trill went through Nihlus like an invisible wave. Shifting his weight in the seat, Nihlus objected saying, "Why not?" His mandibles were also touching his face.

"Have you not been reading your messages?"

Nihlus's sub-vocals click, sharply. "I've been hunting Garrus's attacker!"

Pallin dropped the data pad. "And while that is important, it's not a priority."

Nihlus growled, hands tightly gripping the armrests on his chair in an attempt to hold himself down. "Not a priority! How can you say that?" He yelled.

"Because of the terrorist attack we traced back to Rage's brother." Nihlus's mandibles began to loosen up as the new revelation settled in.

"What does that have to do with Jane?"

Ex. Pallin's jaw almost dropped. "Well, we were going to find out, but then Jane, had to start a brawl in prison, so now she's been classified as a Section 5.

Section 5 was just another way of categorizing a prisoner who is mentally unstable.

"So, drop the charges, and let her go." His grip on the armrests had loosened.

"Let her go! Are you insane? Rage is our only line to Ryu." Now Pallin was yelling.

"So free her and use her as bait."

Ex. Pallin's sub-vocals were rapidly clicking with sudden frustration. "I will do no such thing. She is a danger to the public as well as herself."

"So your plan is to punish her for something her brother did?"

Ex. Pallin's mandibles pressed tighter to his face, almost painfully so. "Have you forgotten what she is—what they are?"

Nihlus's mandibles bounced off his face, a similar gesture to a human licking their lips in while pissed off. His weight again shifted in the chair.

"Rage is a whore-junky and a dealer, Ryu is a murderer, and now a terrorist."

Nihlus looked away from Ex. Pallin.

"We wait for him to come to her. Then we'll trap them both."

Nihlus stood up at that moment. "Right, then you'll be off somewhere, sipping on expensive asari wine with a bunch of stiff-necked assholes, watching yourself on the evening news." he said in a facetious sigh.

"Nihlus, Rage chose her path." Nihlus was in the process of pushing in his chair.

Making his way to the door, the green-eyed turian turned around to face his superior. "This isn't about Rage," he said, condescendingly. "You're worried about Quin's father," stating matter-of-factly.

His statement wasn't far from the truth.

Ex. Pallin sat back in his chair, mandibles clapping against his face again; eyes moving down to the data pad. "Don't make the same mistake Garrus did. Rage is still a conniving, manipulative, bitch."

"And she's also not the one who shot Garrus. But like you said, it's not a priority." He then marched out of the office.