Woo! New chapter! To all my fans, I didn't expect this to get nearly as many fvourites as it has. I seriously thought this wouldn't get anywhere. So well... thanks.

On with the chapter!

The four of them carefully made their way through the undercity, avoiding rakghouls as they went. They were almost ambushed by a particularly large group before Mission pulled them into a dark alley, without speaking she gestured to a nearby hatch in the ground and motioned for the others to follow her. Upon closer inspection the hatch was revealed to be a drain with a murky brown substance seeping through it.

"We're going down there?" Tali asked, rather shocked she knew that she would have to adjust her air filters so that she wasn't completely contaminated.

"At least you have a suit to protect you." Nick whispered as he eyed Carth who was holding his nose in disgust.

"Shh you guys! They might hear us." Mission whispered while climbing into the hole, "You want to get into the base right?" The other three grimaced before nodding slowly "Then let's go!" Mission added as she lifted the grate.

As they climbed down the rusted ladder, deeper into the core of Taris, Nick and Carth started to react even worse to the smell. Tali stayed silent, but she uttered various Quarian curses under her breath as the smell permeated her adjusted filters.

"How are you not affected by this?" Carth questioned Mission as they continued down the drain with no end in sight.

"After spending most of your life exploring down here, you learn to live with it." Mission shot a smirk up at Carth after saying this, Carth frowned slightly.

"We're nearing the bottom, I'll go first." Mission whispered, she slid down the last section of the ladder and hit the floor with a light thud. Tali could see her poking around at the bottom of the ladder, "It's clear!" She whispered up while pulling out a blaster from her jacket.

As the other three dismounted from the ladder, they also pulled out their weapons. Tali gripped her shotgun tightly as they started to move through the dark and dreary pipes, their feet squelching with each step. "Keelah, my suit will smell for years." Tali held back a groan as the smell permeated her filters, she debated turning them off just to get some relief.

"Be thankful you have that suit, it's much worse without it." Carth said while slowing up to walk beside Tali, the pipe was wide enough to have the two walking side by side.

"That bad?" Tali said, turning her head to look at Carth, for a second their eyes met and Tali shot her gaze forwards.

"It is, wish I had a suit like yours." Carth smirked while turning to Tali, she continued looking forwards.

"I would let you borrow mine... but I can't live without it." Tali shot a look back, she grinned and although Carth couldn't see it he suspected as much.

"Stay down." Mission said as she stepped towards an opening, Tali, Carth and Nick were close behind her with their weapons drawn and ready for a fight. Mission activated her stealth generator and stepped out of the pipe, she was gone for what seemed like hours. She stepped back in and gave the group a jump "It's clear, follow me." As the four of them jumped out of the pipe, Carth and Nick breathed a sigh of relief as the smell mostly dissipated. The room they were in was very large, the floor just below the exit to the pipe was grated and a large hole could be seen below them. There were several other pipes with refuse spilling out of them deeper into the sewers. "You don't want to fall down there!" Mission smirked while leaning over the railings and staring down into the depths below. Mission quickly averted her attention and started unlocking a nearby door.

Tali was conversing with Nick while Carth was pacing around behind Mission.

"Ugh, it shouldn't be taking this long-" The door shocked her and a red symbol flared on the lock, Mission fell over backwards and held her hand in pain. Carth ran to her aid but she shrugged him off assuring him she was fine. Suddenly they heard an echo of laughter behind them, all four of them whipped around to see a figure clad in black materialize out of thin air.

"Who the hell are you?!" Nick asked, flared with anger as he pulled his rifle out and aimed it at the assailant. The man held a small detonator in his hand but refrained from using it.

"I know of you, Nick, Mission, Carth." The man said, he turned to Tali "You I do not know."

"Shut up! What do you want?!" Nick shouted as the rest of the group pulled out their weapons and trained them on the assailant, "How do you know us?!"

The assailant ignored the last question "I want you." He pointed straight at Nick and continued pointing for several length less seconds.

"Me? Why do you want me?!" Nick shouted at the stranger, he gripped his rifle even more tightly than before.

"You're worth a lot of money Nick. Brejik wants me to collect." The bounty hunter smirked as he fingered the detonator.

"Shit." Nick muttered under his breath.

"This is between me and Nick." The hunter regarded the other three who were aiming their weapons at him. "I'm giving you the chance to leave while I collect." He held the detonator tighter "Get going I won't have to kill you as well."

"No!" Mission shouted as she fired her blaster straight at the bounty hunter. He stood unflinching as the bold drove towards him, there was a flash of blue energy as his shield absorbed the bolt and started running visibly. Mission looked on, defeated as she readied herself.

"You had your chance." The bounty hunter squeezed the detonator and there was a large explosion behind the group, knocking them all to the floor.

Tali's vision was black, her ears were ringing and she was lying face down on the floor. Her mind started to wander away, her arms and legs started to feel numb, she felt as though she was drifting away and watching herself lying on the floor. Shapes started appearing in her mind, then colours and the shapes started to take form, she could see the silhouettes of people. She saw Liara, Garrus, Joker, Ashley, EDI and James. She could see one more person, shrouded in darkness, the figure started to whisper her name:

"Tali..."

"Tali..."

The voice got louder and the figures retreated into the darkness, Tali could feel her eyes opening and the ringing in her ears returned.

"Tali!"

Tali woke up completely, she felt dizzy and could hardly move. She lifted her head to check her surroundings. The floor in front of her was jagged and destroyed, sparking wires and scorched metal had curled back around the centre of the explosion. She turned her head to the left to see Nick with his back to a wall and his rifle in hand, he had a cut on his head and his face was bloody. He leaned out and fired two bolts of energy towards two crates, shouting something that Tali could not hear.

"TALI!"

Tali turned her head to the right to see Carth sitting with his back to another crate, he was facing her and it was obvious he was the one calling her name. When he saw her move her head he gestured for her to join him, Tali looked around again, making sure she wasn't gunned down the second she stood. She couldn't see Mission anywhere near them, she waited a second before starting to crawl towards Carth, trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible, she was quite sure the assailant wouldn't spot her, he was too busy shooting at Nick.

As Tali neared Carth she started to pick up the pace and lifted herself to a crouched position as she moved towards him. The bounty hunter looked up and saw the Quarian waddling along straight into his line of fire, he quickly took aim and fired a powered burst of energy in her direction, Tali didn't see it and she was taken by surprise as the bolt tore through her barriers and melted a large hole in the shoulder plate of her armour. She was knocked to the side, but was out of sight of the bounty hunter. Carth scrambled to grab her and pulled her back to his position.

"Are you hurt?!" He shouted as he dragged her into a sitting position. Tali shook her head as Carth checked the hole in her armour, the bolt didn't go the whole way through.

"Wh- What happened?" Tali asked, shaken by the experience. She had been shot before, but the sheer force of the bolt knocked her to the ground and scrambled her senses.

"He hit you with a power blast, your shield didn't stand a chance." Carth looked over his cover to see Nick fire a barrage of shots into another crate. "I might be able to get an angle on this guy, just got to get over there." Carth pointed to a nearby support beam that he could use as cover.

"Where's Mission? I didn't see her." Tali asked as she peeked over to have a look at the crates Carth was talking about.

"I don't know, she disappeared after the explosion." Carth readied his pistol and held the top of the crate ready to jump out.

"Well go then, I'll be fine." Tali assured him while she sat up more firmly and grabbed her shotgun from the magnetic holster.

"If I get up now, I'll be right in his line of sight. You'll need to cover me." He looked up over his crate once more. "When I say so, start shooting."

"Right." Tali grabbed her shotgun and readied herself, she still felt a bit shaky from the fall but she paid it no attention.

Carth got up and vaulted over the crate, Tali immediately stood and started shooting at the crates where she had spotted the hunter last. She glanced over to Carth who was close to the support, suddenly he dropped to the floor and his blaster slid away from him, the hunter materialized out of thin air and aimed his rifle at him. Tali scrambled for her pistol, but it was not in her magnetic lock, at her distance her shotgun would have little to no effect. She was just about to throw her attack drone when she saw the hunter get impaled by a sword from behind. Mission appeared behind him and withdrew her blade as quickly as she had impaled him with it, blood spurted from the hole in the hunter's chest as he fell forwards as Carth rolled out of the way.

Carth propped himself up on his elbows, panting and taking quick breaths. Mission sheathed her blade as Nick ran up to the three with his blaster in hand, he lowered it as he spotted the bounty hunter bleeding out on the floor. Tali ran up and lifted Carth of the ground, he stood and looked down at the hunter.

"Well... thanks. If you hadn't shown up I'd have been done for." Carth spoke up, Mission grinning proudly.

"Don't mention it." Mission winked at Carth and shot her gaze to Nick who sighed and held his knees "How you doing Nick?"

"Where the hell were you?!" Nick shouted in fury as he looked up and pointed at Mission almost oblivious to the wound on his forehead.

"Hey! When you all got knocked down I just activated my stealth generator and waited." Mission replied calmly, hands behind her back with a smug grin on her face.

"Really? Well what if one of us got killed while you were playing hide n' seek! What then?" Nick asserted, accusing Mission.

"It didn't happen though, did it?" Mission pointed back, Tali and Carth just watched the display. Carth inspected the body of the bounty hunter, while Tali looked over his blaster pistol before attaching it to her suit, replacing her old pistol.

"That's not the point, it's the principle. You just shouldn't have done it." Nick backed up, rifle in hand.

"Stop." Nick and Mission turned around to see Tali holding a datapad "It says here that your bounty was only put out a few hours ago and it is for an extremely large sum of credits."

"Let me see that." Nick grabbed the datapad out of Tali's hand, she flinched backwards slightly "Damn... Every bounty hunter on this rock is going to try an collect." Nick added, all the anger flushing out of his eyes, he froze in place as thoughts consumed him.

"How can we get the bounty cleared?" Carth asked as he took the datapad out of Nick's near limp hand and looked it over.

Nick snapped back to reality as he answered "The only way we could clear it is if we paid Brejik off, but he wouldn't agree to that. Killing him would also clear the bounty, but that's next to impossible."

"Why don't you go back to the Beks, they'll protect you... right?" Mission asked, her voice dripping with fear.

"No... I'll just be a danger to them, I need a place to hide out for a while." Nick backed off, he wiped blood away from his eyes as it dripped down his face. Mission tried to help administer medpacks, but Nick just waved her away.

"We have a small hideout in the upper city, you could use it while we head for the base." Tali quickly asserted.

"Upper city eh?" Nick started pacing "Well there'll be Sith everywhere so bounty hunters will think twice about starting any fights, I don't know the way there either."

"Carth, go with Nick. Take him back to the apartment, me and Mission can go without you two." Tali interrupted Nick who stood with his mouth open, ready to say something.

"Are you sure?" Carth quickly asked, walking over to stand by Nick who had wiped most of the blood from his face and injected meds into the wound.

Before Tali could speak, Mission interrupted her, Tali narrowed her eyes at Mission "There is no debate, more bounty hunters could be on their way. Just go now."

Before Nick could protest, he was being pushed away by Carth and they were moving back to the pipe they had used as an entrance. "Great... now we have to go back through that cesspit."