Apparently, Mordin wasn't the only person sending her weird messages. Anya's second one was far more appreciated, though.

After ridding the world of Vido's grossness, the entire crew had been on the hunt for the two final members of their suicide squad: An Asari Justicar and a Drell assassin. Miranda had been poking more sketchy Cerberus channels than Anya dare ask, she'd been asking Anderson and her mother as many questions as they could legally answer, Tali made contact with her people, Garrus, Kasumi, and Zaeed tried Omega contacts, Mordin even got in touch with a STG agent.

But nothing.

That is, until they got a cryptic message from someone they hadn't seen since Illium. The mystery that was the space-warping Sam sent a simple: "Look on Illium :)" from an untraceable email that didn't even seem to have a source. At this point Anya wanted to email back, but she was pretty sure even trying to hack the message's route gave her computer some bizarre viruses.

She figured after the seventh spam email about supporting something called the "Ex-Templar Recovery Program" that it was time to back the fuck off. This Sam could keep her secrets.

While Anya had a lot offucking questions for her, at least they finally had a lead.

When they were in the neighborhood, she had Miranda go to an information broker (she daren't ask if it was the blue one who hated her) and get some more dirt.

Luckily, one based on Illium had just the right details to fill in the blanks.

Last someone heard, the Justicar was looking into an Eclipse den where some information on her Drell target may be hiding. Hang-up was, the den might've also been hiding the Drell himself.

So, as quickly as she could, Anya had Garrus, Miranda, and Kasumi suit up and get out there. They needed a quiet, quick team to respond as swiftly as possible. Garrus wasn't too pleased when she told him he was playing team tank for the day, but other than some snarky complaints he took his new role in stride.

Miranda led the way, but that meant Kasumi was free to do some color commentary. And boy did her commentary sometimes get... colorful.

Humming along to some song Anya didn't know, Kasumi leaned into "I haven't been on a good manhunt in a minute."

"Wait, what?"

"Most of the time I stole items, but if a client paid well enough and the person deserved it enough..."

Anya narrowed her eyes before gesturing towards Kasumi's slightly unsettling smirk. "I don't know if I want to hear the end of that statement."

Ahead, Miranda was doing a pretty good job of listening to their conversation but actively ignoring it. Case and point, her prompt response of, "People-hunting aside... my contact says that the Justicar was last spotted asking questions about this eclipse safehouse. Hopefully, we've got here before her, if we were fast enough."

If it wasn't so weird to have someone fifty feet in front of them jump into the conversation so smoothly, she would have been impressed. Well, truth is, Anya was impressed. She just was a little tired from some recent... exercises that were getting her less sleep than normal.

But speaking of being tired, Anya finally caught onto that tail end sarcasm in Miranda's voice.

Stopping in her tracks, Anya frowned. "If you're giving me that side-eye of yours, don't. I already know I took too long getting my bun straightened. I'm sorry."

As he passed her, following Miranda's lead, Garrus patted her back. "I think it looks nice."

Kasumi sniggered. "Safe to say you have a biased opinion, Garrus."

"So?" Anya crossed her arms and puffed her cheeks, but kept tracking behind the group. They had to get to this Eclipse place eventually.

No matter the bickering that kept them from getting twitchy, Miranda was right. If they were fast enough, they could make it to the Eclipse den before her and have a fairly clean mission. Maybe they could find the Drell, reason with him first, and then be properly prepared for the Justicar when she came.

Unfortunately for them, though, the blood started at the door.

The carnage would be impressive if it didn't also make Anya feel kinda sick. All the battlefields she saw in her life, even the Reaper ones, felt like a fight. People struggled tooth, nail, and the occasional groin to make it out alive.

Three steps into the place, and it was clear this wasn't a fight. It was an execution. There were only eerily clean bullet-holes through skulls or crushing biotic throws.

Shepard could barely tell if the Eclipse mercs even got to fire their guns. And to think, this damn fight wasn't even about them in the first place.

None of them said anything about it; the atmosphere was enough to get the damn point across. They were after possibly the scariest dossiers in their roster, and putting themselves in their crosshairs in the process.

While none of their missions ever went easy, this one was definitely already changing the game before they even got in a firefight.

If the rest of the scene wasn't so grim and depressing, it would've been cute, how Kasumi gracefully tip-toed over a couple of jumbled bodies. The thief said, "I guess it's also safe to say somebody got here before us."

Across the room, Miranda was on her haunches, surveying the black and burnt red burst of human residue and crumpled metal on the wall, courtesy if a certain Justicar. Her fingers traced the lines like they were art, not a crime scene. "These biotic impacts are impressive." At Shepard's raised eyebrow, though, the liaison stood and shrugged, but in the twitchy, guilty way. The kind of idiot way Anya herself did everything that got her flustered. "I-in a technical sense, of course."

Before Miranda could stride off in her unfortunately biologically programmed hip swaying way, Anya smirked and asked, "Are you getting turned on by biotic murder?"

"Absolutely not!" Crossed arms and pouting didn't make up for the resounding yes written all over the rest of Miranda's face. Feeling Garrus walk up behind her to check out what the hell she was giggling about, Miranda seemed very annoyed and over it all.

Unfortunately for her, Anya was just getting started enjoying the show.

Miranda furrowed those brows of hers and said, "That would be highly inappropriate. I'm just feeling respect for a very powerful biotic. A professional admiration."

Watching the liaison stomp out with her biologically engineered hip-swaying, something they had a few too many morning coffee sessions bitching about. Apparently, dark caffeine brought out the parental angst.

When Miranda was far enough away so that Anya could whisper and not get chastised about it later, she leaned over to Garrus. "She's into it, isn't she?"

The turian shrugged, but said, "It'll be fun to see how she reacts to the Justicar when we meet her, then."

"I bet we see her flustered for the first time."

Normally, on anyone else, that phrase was innocuous. But after countless bets between them, and even throughout the entire previous Normandy crew, the word "bet" was a trigger.

And even though Garrus was shaking his head, like he was thinking "here we goddamn go again", he smiled at her. "You're on." Tilting his head, like trying to assess Miranda a little better, he added, "I bet it'll be the handshake."

"From that biotics blush? Psh, I bet it'll be love at first sight."

"Hmm. What are the stakes in this bet?"

Pinching her lips for a moment, trying to think of something worthy of the bet, Anya was tired of it always being credits. They were new people, a new Normandy. This shit needed to get more interesting.

Well, and she didn't really want to take his credits. Anya was already a tragedy idiot, she didn't need to torpedo the relationship with financial threats. Her stupid old Spectre/Alliance pay and now dirty Cerberus money kept her a little more well-stocked than she deserved, and a vigilante's salary really couldn't hold a candle to that.

And anyway, it was more fun to offer up something more valuable. "Winner gets control of movie night for a month."

"Now I'm definitely interested." Garrus chuckled under his breath and said, "Can't wait til I win."

"You wish, Vakarian."

From the open doorway to the next room, Miranda shouted, "What are you two giggling about?"

"Nothing."

As they finally joined their teammates in the four square walls that held all the computers and data, Miranda scowled at them. It felt like being scolded by their mother. At least, that's how Anya felt. But the disgruntled liaison just muttered to Kasumi, "I hate when they do that."

"I love it. Look at those sparkles in her eyes and his little smirk. It's like I get to see an adorably terrible romantic comedy every day."

Anya blushed at that more than she liked to admit. "I don't know if I take offense to that or not."

"Just be happy somebody finds all that-" Miranda gestured to them, and Anya realized she and Garrus were standing close, their crossed arms and head tilts identical. Her own cheeks turning red, she released her arms and walked a few paces away. "-cute."

They couldn't really be that bad, could they?

Swallowing down her embarrassment, instead choosing to focus on how annoying it was that Miranda found her annoying, she went back to surveying the room. Unlike the one before them, there was only one dead body; a purple asari with one bullet through her ear.

They didn't have the best data security here, did they?

Garrus hummed when he walked up to the body, but not in his normal, satisfied way. "Shit. Between the bullets and biotics..."

In agreement, Anya nodded gravely. "They really did a number on this place. These Eclipse mercs never stood a chance." Exhaling until every molecule of air exited her body, Shepard looked over to Miranda and Kasumi, who were fiddling with the console. While she was a decent hacker, more sophisticated programs were just out of her depth. "Any clues, BT?"

Miranda narrowed her eyes at the nickname (shortened from her first unfortunate one picking up Garrus), but otherwise didn't seem to react much. And Shepard new that, for Miranda, that wasn't good. At least a displeased frown was customary, not complete dead-face. "Nothing. Except..." A few quick commands were plugged into the keyboard and Miranda tilted her head up. "Here. The database isn't in great condition, but there are searches for the names Marala and Morinth. And these files were accessed before and after the attack." When Anya walked over, Miranda added, "Seems both the Drell and the Justicar might be looking for someone, not just hunting each other."

Next to them, Kasumi giggled and elbowed Garrus in the chest. He winced, but luckily Kasumi didn't notice. "Oooh. So the plot thickens."

Anya would have to apologize more for that bruise she left him later.

But of all damn things, she did not need to tell her gossip-loving thief that sometimes her alone time with the turian ended with some mild injuries. She was still playing dumb about the cut on her neck. Probably just nicked it while sparring, right?

Shaking her head, because boy did her already pink cheeks not need to think about that any longer, Anya said,"Guess there's nothing for us here. Except for a lot of body bags and a clean-up crew. Glad that's not our job." Waving an arm towards the exit, she accepted this tip was a bust. The Illium part was useful, but the assassin and Justicar were gone.

Hopefully the Illusive Man didn't spend too many credits on that slow as fuck information broker.

"C'mon folks. Sorry to get you all dressed up just to do nothing with that sparkling armor of yours, but let's go back to the ship."

Garrus caught up to her side and gave a playful eyeroll, where his smirk never left his face. Turian smirks were so annoying with how charming they were. After all, turians were serious military people. Smirks always showed off another side of them, a kind that Anya liked. Perhaps a little too much. "Darn, and I was so looking forward to playing bodyguard for you squishy humans."

"Shut up, you are so happy you didn't ruin your streak of hiding in the back with me."

"What can I say, it's got a good view."

Miranda made a disgusted noise behind them. "I miss when you two were at least trying to hide it." If anything, Miranda's constant annoyance only made flirting with Garrus more fun. Alone and serious they were a mess, but on the battlefield? Banter had always been easy. So it was nice to have a place where telling him he was handsome was easy.

But before she could make an idiot sap of herself, Kasumi said, "I don't."

That didn't make Anya want to talk about their "annoying relationship" anymore.

Who knew that creepily enjoying another couple vicariously would be more of a turn-off than blatant distaste?

She and Garrus just stuck to more typical banter after that, walking out of the eclipse den and back towards civilized life. Though, it was debatable how civilized Illium really was. Between this, the two trigger-happy idiots they were following, and the damned secret tunnel system, she was starting to like Omega better.

Sure, it was a cesspool. But with Aria, at least it was a cesspool that made sense.

Just as they walked out of the place, an Asari was already outside, walking up to them.

Miranda already had a fistful of biotics ready, and Garrus had a hand on his assault rifle. And Kasumi was-

Wait, where the fuck did she go?

Trying to act normal after one of her crew casually vanished, Anya tried to be the most hospitable of the bunch. After all, the Asari didn't look like she felt all that safe, walking towards two scowling and armed companions.

Shepard smiled, and the stranger gave a weak, wavering little grin back. "Um, Commander Shepard?"

"Yes?"

With tentative friendliness (since Anya's own friends still looked ready for murder) the Asari extended a hand. Anya took it. "My name is Detective Anaya. Me and my... colleague have been collaborating on finding two persons of interest. Seems you got here before us."

"Seems. Also seems like we might be after the same people." Though it wasn't the safest move, the two were on a rampage, so Anya tipped over her proverbial cards and let the Detective see her hand. "How do you know the Justicar and assassin?"

Shoulders loosening up, Anaya let her hands hang at her side while she said, "I was assigned as Justicar Samara's liaison when she came to the station. When I discovered she was hunting an assassin, I dug a little deeper and met the Hanar I've been working with. The rogue Drell, Thane Krios, is from his planet and he wants to resolve the issue as cleanly as possible. We've been tracking them for weeks now." Before Shepard could ask any more questions, Anaya looked down the alley to their side and her face lit up like Omega on a discount booze night. "Ahh, there he is. Commander Shepard, this is my partner-"

But as Anay moved her face to look at the approaching person, her jaw fucking dropped. She knew that from the pink skin fading into purple-tipped appendages, the slight white freckling of the front tip of his abdomen, the fifth tentacle that was slightly shorter than the rest.

And as the adrenaline rushed through her veins, she squeaked out her question like a girl meeting a boy band, asking, "Spectre Blasto?"

/

Hello guys! Sorry for missing a week! I was taking a short break so that I could get a back-log set-up so that if I have bad weeks, I still have things to post. I have notes and dialogue done for this entire 4-chapter arc, so yay! I love cute, post-sex tension Anya and Garrus and I love their mission banter. AHHHHH Also I am so hype to bring my favorite Mass Effect meme (Blasto) into my story. I have CEREAL BOWLS of him so he deserves it Thanks you so much for reading and triple thanks to my patrons: Danyell Jones Amy Connolly PS: Dany, using Sam in this way was awesome and I was so hyped to add something that Sam would TOTALLY use to make people not pry into her time-travelling. It was such a fun inciting incident to write. Thank you! See you guys next week!