Commander Jane Shepard was never scared, she had faced down Reapers, Thresher maws and charging Krogan. But the one thing that currently scared her was the Drell that sat in the room just behind the doors she currently stood in front of. Thane Krios... the Drell assassin that had killed three guards and his target in under five seconds, with only using two bullets, the rest was neck-snapping and larynx crushing.
He had been more than happy to join her team and join the suicide mission, to Shepard, it was by far the easiest of all the squad members she had recruited. Not doing any favours in return to joining. He shook her hand and agreed to do the mission for no change, her curiosity as to why someone as infamous as himself would join without any persuasion was quickly answered when the words "I'm dying." Left his mouth.
Shepard was disturbed to hear the words, he was happy to either die on the mission or let his disease kill him. Something so dark was normal to Shepard, she faced death every day and an open mind to dying of just about anything was needed for their profession.
But that Drell sparked something in her, Shepard wasn't one for romance, she was a hard woman to please. Previous team members Kaidan Alenko and Liara T'soni both tried to start something more than friendship with Shepard, but she turned them both down. Not for that, she wasn't interested, but for the fact that she only saw them as friends, they didn't excite her in a way no man or woman had ever been able to do.
"Pull yourself together," she whispered to herself before finally biting the bullet and knocking on the door. There was some silence before the drowning deep voice spoke.
"Enter," he huskily said. Shepard gulped, but finally pushed the green hologram and the doors swished open for her. The room wasn't very big, being the life support room it held most of the stock needed for well... life support. The only possessions of Thanes were the glass cabinet that he held his guns inside, his cot and the two-seater table that he was currently sitting at with an empty cup at his side. He sat facing the window that bestowed the drive core, he was leant forward into the table, his green-scaled hands laced together as he held them close to his red finned neck. "What do you need, Commander?" he harshly asked.
Shepard thought she might as well just leave with the tone of his voice, but she decided to see if it was just his normal tone and started the conversation. "Do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions?"
Thane made no attempt to look at her, but partly nodded, "not at all," he said in a softer voice. Shepards tensed shoulders dropped slightly.
"You mentioned you were dying when we met you?" Thane nodded again, he continued to stare at the drive core as he dropped his hands to the table. Shepard wasn't used to talking to someone from the back of their heads, she liked to talk face-to-face.
"Yes, it's called Kepral's Syndrome. It is not contagious, even to other Drell." Shepard fiddled with her hands as she listened to him, the name sounded horrifying to whatever it must be.
"So, how exactly does it affect you?" she asked, now curious. Thane finally turned to look at her, his pitch-black eyes met hers, she could see the slight tint of green in his iris, it matched the green colours that covered most of his visible body.
"My people are native to a very arid planet, now that we live on Kahje, the Hanar homeworld, our bodies struggle to keep out the moisture of the humid, rainy weather the planet suffers from. Other times the tissue in our lungs loses the ability to absorb oxygen. It becomes harder to breathe, eventually, we suffocate." He turned back around, looking down at his hands on the pristine, white table.
"Is there anything we can do? Normandy has a state-of-the-art medical bay," she asked with some hope they could help him. She thought maybe Cerberus might have some sort of files on how they could help him. The pro-human group may hate aliens, but they were drawn to also finding treatments from other species that might help their own.
"No, thank you. If the best minds in the Hanar Illuminated Primacy can't solve the problem, I doubt your ship's medic could." Shepard sighed slightly, she had never met someone who was so relaxed about the thought of their own impending death.
"How long do you have left?" she depressingly asked. Thane closed his eyes, breathing and thinking to himself before answering.
"I should be fine for another nine to twelve months, by then I'm sure we will either be victorious or dead," he grimly replied. Shepard wasn't sure how she could get the conversation back to a better topic without making it more depressing, but she wasn't one to step away so easily.
"Do you have some more time to talk about something else?" Thane laced his hands back together, breathing in heavily, it seemed he was almost sighing at her.
"Ask," he simply said. Shepard had just then lost all confidence she had at that point, not sure what to even say without getting some sort of shitty response from him. She felt angry, but also sad, she wanted to get to know him outside of being the best assassin in the galaxy.
"The Drell are now living on the Hanar homeworld?" she asked, after already being told. Thane looked at her before answering, narrowing his eyes at her.
"Yes, our own planet was dying and the Hanar rescued as many as they could before the core of the planet collapsed," he replied, still narrowing his eyes at her. Shepard didn't know if he was trying to judge her or see how she was so stupid to reask the question of something she had been told just moments before.
"The Hanar speak using bioluminescence, which is harder to grasp than just by the way they speak with such politeness." Thane turned back in his seat, clasping his hands back together to the bottom of his chin.
"Indeed, many Drell have had reconstructive surgery of their eyes to pick up the swift flashed from Hanar's body. I myself had the surgery. I now cannot tell the difference between dark red and black, but I can see ultraviolet light as silver." Shepard looked at the back of his head for a moment, then was about to speak again, but she was cut off. "If you ever get close to a Hanar, you may learn of their soul name."
"I thought Hanar only gave their soul names to family and friends?" Thane turned back around, a small smile on the corner of his full lips.
"Correct, many of my contracts were Hanar, I would learn the soul names of my most regular contacts." Shepard nodded in understanding, she had never known of a Hanars soul name before, but she had met many Hanar on her journey, all were kind to her. "If that is all, Commander. I would like to return to my meditations."
Shepard's mouth dropped open, and Drell looked at her with impatient eyes. "I- yes, of course. Thanks for the chat," she said with a struggle as she quickly departed the room. Her stomach was tight in anger and embarrassment, she stumbled over her feet as the door closed behind her.
The great Commander Shepard was a nervous schoolgirl around the green alien, she thought of reasons why. Yes, he was attractive, but she had never been with another species before. Relationships were not her thing, just the casual hook-up and one night stands on shore leave.
"Get yourself together," she whispered as she scurried along to the lift, hoping some distance from the assassin would do her some good, missions were the best place for her to get that distance. "Joker set a course to Tuchanka."
"Aye, aye, ma'am," her pilot replied. Tuchanka, the Krogan homeworld and their next step in helping her crew settle some personal issues before their final push to the Collector homeworld.
A/N: Hello everyone, welcome to the first chapter of The Commander and Assassin. This will be going into depth of the moments between missions, the moments we wanted from Bioware with our Thane romances. The chapters will become longer the further into the game I go, there will be little written about actual missions unless I feel they make some sort of impact on their relationship and story. I hope you all enjoy it!