Ripples in the Stream
A D&D / Shadowrun / Mass Effect crossover
by Vyrexuviel
Disclaimer: The author of this story does not, in any way, derive any profit from the story. D&D, Shadowrun and Mass Effect are the property of their respective copyright holders. Jorukaia and other unfamiliar characters in this story, however, are mine.
The ride back up to her museum was made in smug silence. Smug on her part, silence on the part of her mechs. She hummed tunelessly to herself, tapping on her datapad and making up an itinerary to properly show off her new skycar. She'd have to hit all the best upcoming events to ensure the rumors spread like wildfire.
Another day, another fortune. And another upstart put in his place. If the humans thought that having a fancy Council chair meant that they had even a modicum of true power, then they were just as gullible as the turians and salarians. This was a very good day indeed. Now she could get back to her hot tub and just enjoy herself for the rest of the evening.
Maybe she would even crack open that three hundred year-old bottle of Serrice Ice Brandy.
She sauntered out, followed by the clanking of her mechs as the elevator doors slid open. She was so engrossed in her datapad that she almost missed it.
The abstract statue by the artist Forta that had been on the plinth to her left wasn't there anymore.
Forta was the first non-asari artist that was worth Nassana's attention. Surprisingly sublime work for an elcor. And now it was missing?
Did some filthy mongrel actually dare to steal something after she went through the bother to purchase it?
Nassana ground her teeth as she turned back to the door, firing up her Omni-tool. "Security to the vista! There's a—!"
She blinked at Forta's statue, sitting demurely on a plinth off to the side. It was even oriented correctly, precisely to cast the perfect shadows down the sides of the fluted column.
But it was the wrong plinth.
"…Disregard alert, false alarm." The matron sighed as she scooped the small sculpture and set it back on its original plinth.
With that done, Nassana turned away again, rubbing her neck folds. One of the cleaners probably just screwed up and put it down in the wrong place. She'd have their ass tossed out on the street (preferably from five stories up) but not until morning. That bottle of ice brandy was still waiting for her.
She froze and turned slowly back towards the plinth that should be empty, now that she'd moved Forta's statue from it.
The statue was back on the wrong plinth again, and turned the wrong way around...
"...What."
But how did... How did it move the instant she turned her back?! Come to think of it, what happened to the Vortena piece that was supposed to be sitting there instead of Forta's?
The only other place for that particular piece would be... She turned, walking swiftly into the next annex and skidded to a halt, staring in horror.
The piece by Vortena was right where she had hoped it wouldn't be: nestled among the statuary by the acclaimed asari sculptor Anvita, of the 5th millennium. Her work was a sublime blending of curves and figures, focusing on the asari form, without actually showing any true sculpture. Each was a masterpiece of motion given form, capturing the essence of motion without focusing on form.
Vortena's was anything but, emphasizing harsh angles, straight lines, and a forbidding stasis, capturing a single moment in a block of glass. It clashed HORRIBLY with Anvita's work!
...And one of Anvita's smaller sculptures was MISSING!
Snarling in absolute befuddlement, Nassana grabbed Vortena's piece and moved to switch it back with Forta's piece and then she cou—
Now BOTH plinths were empty! Just what in space was going on?!
"GRAAAGGGH! Who is doing this?! Stop this at once or I swear to the stars I will flay you alive! Don't you know who I am?!"
"You. Are. Nassana. Dantius." One of her mechs enunciated very clearly as it stalked behind her. The other one twitched a little as it moved up to flank her with its twin.
"Not you, you cheap pile of bolts!" Nassana snarled at the stupid mech, then paused to reconsider. "Wait, why aren't you doing anything? Can't you see who's doing this every time I turn around?!"
"Negative contacts." The mechs shifted position to keep themselves behind Nassana, even as she kept turning around to face them.
"Hold still you piles of scrap!" She set the statue down and jabbed at them with the Vortena sculpture for emphasis, as though it would get the point across for the... mechs...
She'd picked up some sort of small white ceramic figurine, and was brandishing it at the mechs, who had backed up a pace. It depicted a large-eyed, eared animal, one forepaw raised, the other across its chest. It was white, and held some sort of gold coin in its paws.
"Haaaaa...?" Now Nassana Dantius was completely and utterly confounded to Thessia and back as she she stared uncomprehendingly at the figurine. "What the hell is this?!"
"It. Appears. To. Be. A. Japanese. Maneki-neko. Cat. Figurine. Mistress?" The nearby mech leaned in to give it a closer look, part of its original servant-programming that Nassana hadn't quite managed to eradicate. The other...
The other was holding very still, its screen showing an odd icon of two carrots separated by a period. On top of its head, which it was holding rock-still, was another one of the figurines.
She had absolutely no idea what it was doing, but even a child could figure out it meant that her mechs had been hacked. Nassana spat out something that would make even her slaver sister plug her ears and spun around to head to her office, intent on locking the building down.
She froze not even halfway there.
Every single statue was gone now. Every display case emptied and carefully closed again. Paintings had been removed from the walls. And in their places were... More of those ridiculous little cat things. Posters had been put up in place of paintings, and the dozens of little figurines clustered on top of plinths and displays.
Every single one of them staring at her.
Her entire private museum now filled with so many cats would have been rather unsettling if Nassana wasn't already so befuddled, already far past the point of being swayed. After she stood stock still in place for nearly an entire minute, she merely resumed marching straight to her office. Someone or something had managed to make off with her entire private collection while she was present in the room, literally right out from under her nose. But the asari would have this entire building shut down. She would have the entire district of Nos Astra shut down and the Ilium authorities would find the culprit. What else was she paying them for?
But while Nassana Dantius had been relatively unmoved by the disturbing appearance of cat figurines, what she saw lying on her office desk made her heart freeze in horror.
The wall safe opposite the door was well-hidden behind a portrait of her, her mother, and her sister. She'd yet to remove that particular portrait yet, so it still remained as a holdover from her mother's reign here.
It was standing wide open, with the safe both exposed and open itself.
The safe's contents had consisted of a set of legal documents that certified her ownership of all things Dantius on Illium, as well as a small locked case, containing the account details of her own private accounts, the ones she had used to gather the funds necessary to make her takeover possible, and which were still linked to several profit-generating ventures.
The case wasn't in the safe anymore. It was on the desk, and open. The OSD that held the details and ownership of her most private accounts, was currently in the reader on her own desk.
"No... No, no no no no no no!" Nassana scrambled forward and around her desk. She read what was on her computer screen. "NO!"
*FUNDS TRANSFERRED*
This wasn't happening, it wasn't happening! This had to be a nightmare! But if it was real, then it would take her another three hundred years to recover, if she was lucky!
She slumped into her executive desk chair, her head in her hands, as her mechs clumped into the office. She was so lost in denial and despair she missed the one thing that had been added for almost a minute.
A single stalk of a plant, with a large, bell-shaped flower at its top. Even she was aware of the significance of the red rose by now, especially in connection with a thief.
A sudden rising whine drew her attention to the window, along with a soft, distant klaxon of warning. Nassana rose and was just reaching the window when a skycar angled out of her hangar.
A very familiar skycar. Black, sleek, shiny, and gorgeous.
Wait... wasn't that...?
"That's my car!" Nassana scrambled outside to the balcony rail. "THAT'S MY CAR!"
The car angled itself, the polarization gleaming in the setting sun, letting through juuuust enough light that Nassana could see a figure waving to her through the canopy. Then with a deep roar of the engines, the car angled west and shot off at a pace that left even the security cars in the dust.
She gave an inarticulate scream that scared nearly every pet animal for three miles, shaking her fist at the departing skycar, which vanished into the glare of the setting sun.
By the time guards had arrived on her balcony, they found Nassana sobbing brokenly against the railing, while her two mechs, each with a cat-figurine balanced on their heads, were doing a sort of dance behind her, with a catchy tune being played over their speakers.
The sleek, slender bridge ran as straight as the curve of the planet would allow. Glittering like a strand of glass, it floated across the landscape of Illium supported at intervals by the three-kilometer-tall support pillars. Far above the sweltering, oppressive heat of Illium's surface, it hung suspended like gossamer lighting. Within and above its slender roadway, the twin barrels of its mass-effect fields gave the bridge a luminescent shimmer in the twilight, as the sun diffracted through the zone of differing mass.
A black skycar slowed, rose, and slid sideways out of the stream of traffic, decelerating drastically from something over twice the speed of sound, to a mere few dozen kilometers an hour as it exited the low-mass corridor of the intercity skyway. in the gathering gloom, it slid down the side of one of the vast pillars, along which slender length small beads of light shot up and down, elevators speeding down to the searing, sweltering surface and rising back to the more temperate zones.
The support pillars were cities in their own right, though it might be more apt to call them small towns. Insular and isolated, save for the skyway bridge overhead, the inhabitants lived and worked far closer to Illium's surface than anyone else, and as such, treated 'upsiders' with a sort of disdain
Even so, they would totally rent a small cargo bay around a third down the length of the pillar to one, if the price was right.
A small cargo door opened at the skycar's approach, revealing a cluttered internal space. The car reversed slowly inside, and slowly lowered itself to its landing support struts as the cargo-door closed. Metaglass panels, mirrored on the outside to match the rest of the door, let in the last fading light of day as the car's engine throbbed a low hum for a moment or two, then powered down with a descending whine.
The canopy raised, barely missing an overhead support strut, and a black-bodysuited woman slid smoothly out of the skycar.
She swung herself around the end of the metal grating she'd set up, to separate the 'living space' from the 'garage' of her cargo-pod, two thirds the way up the skybridge pillar. She swung, tail arching, and shifted her grip, grasping in two places and swinging her legs up and out, hanging momentarily suspended sideways.
Her tail caught at the stanchion bolted into the back wall, just long enough to guide her feet to it.
She let go with hands, catching the stanchion with one foot, the other hooked into the top of the metal staple protruding from the back wall, and used that leverage to crank herself upwards.
With a kick and a swing of her tail, Kasumi rolled into the hammock suspended up over the ceiling support struts, giggling as she reveled in her soft cocoon.
Kasumi's face was aching with the grin she'd had ever since she first spotted the car. Her sides were still hurting from the giggle-fit she had for nearly twenty minutes; the look on Nassana's face! She'd had to set the skycar in autopilot and deactivate the manual controls, to keep from sending the car face-first into a building, she was laughing so hard. She gave a low, soft purrrrr, her long tail twitching as she lay on her belly, gazing down at the car with smug pride.
And the grumpy smurf hadn't even known about the active camouflage system. Served Nassana right! Sure, Tai Yong Industries made sure to remove the camo-system before signing it over, but Kasumi made sure to secretly reinstall them before it was even delivered. She had always wanted an invisible car!
And an OSD containing the access codes to all thirty-seven of Nassana's private bank accounts, of course. A cumulative total of 1.2 billion credits. After routing it through the right number of proxy systems, and deducting a five percent finder's fee, Kasumi sent the massive fortune to Amnesty Interstellar. Along to her other favorite non-profit food banks, homeless shelters and orphanages.
Suck on it, you sour blue raspberry!
She rolled over, letting her tail dangle and flick off the side of the high platform, Kasumi's grin was that of the cat who'd gotten the canary. The boot was full of booty from Nassana's private stash, she'd stolen the bitch's new skycar, one of the best in the galaxy, and she'd had the supreme satisfaction of making the stuck-up prissy bitch doubt her own sanity.
The bone-fide kittygirl streeeeetched, arching her tail ecstatically and kicking off into an extreme back-bend The pose was one of her favorites back when she was a child doing gymnastics in elementary school, but now, the feel of her own rump flattening her ears, and the sight of her long, sleek, fuzzytail dangling in front of her eyes was too much.
A few minutes were lost in stroking her own tail and purring loudly.
At last, she let out a sigh of delight, her purr ratcheting up a notch or three as she skinned out of her bodysuit and let it fall to the floor. She'll launderize it tomorrow. Tonight?
She had earned a nap. She wondered if she could get Joru to upgrade her new skycar...
Kasumi snuggled her soft, silken pillows, giving voice to a quiet little murrrrrrrrrrrrrrr as she snuggled into the warm bundle of blankets and pillows that was her kittynest for the night.
The ninja was having the time of her life. It had been nearly three weeks since her transformation, and in the last two weeks she had pulled off no less than seven major heists, including Nassana. Heists that she had been thinking of for almost a year and required months of preparation were now ten times easier. Not to mention even more fun!
She'd become nearly perfectly silent, when she wanted to be. Her step was light and unobtrusive. Her sense of balance...
She dangled her tail over the side of her hammock and began flicking the tip to set herself swinging.
Her senses were keener than she had anticipated. She found that most of her old music was subtly grating now, requiring a high-pass filter to cut out the unfortunate squeaking. On the other hand, being able to hear ultrasound made three recent jobs far easier, when they'd had unexpected sonar sensors.
She had been right all those months ago. Following Tali and Jack into that portal, leading her to becoming a cat-girl was the best decision she ever made.
Kasumi counted herself one of the happiest girls in the galaxy.
She slowly drifted off to sleep, her hammock rocking slightly as the kittygirl snuggled in her nest of blankets and pillows, dangling near the ceiling of her cargo pod.
The Mass Relay flared as the shuttle dropped out of FTL, angling away from the isolated relay and accelerated across the system.
Rasa, still in the Alliance BDUs that she despised with a passion, tore off her Dr. Channing wig and scowled. She shifted uncomfortably in the shuttle's jumpseat, and shot a glare across at Cerberus enforcer across from her.
"Alright, we're out of the Serpent Nebula. Now then, would you mind telling me what the hell happened back there?"
Kai Leng turned his head toward her with a raised eyebrow. "Do you mean you don't know, doctor?"
"Don't play games with me!" Rasa often admired Leng's incredible stoicism but she was in no mood for it now. "I did everything right, by the book and then some! I've smooth-talked my way past the STG and their damn spies, no one's ever sees through my act! Even the traitorous British bitch had no idea! So you tell me, how did my cover get compromised?"
Leng shrugged, as much as the harness would let him. "I don't know. All I know is that you suddenly turned up in C-Sec files, and the local precinct got a call to send whatever they could to apprehend you. Someone noticed you, and dumped something into C-Sec's lap hot enough to make them jump."
"You expect me to believe that someone actually saw through my disguise and that C-Sec actually got something done?" Rasa's ire was reaching incredulous levels now. Filthy aliens! How was it they were only competent at their jobs when it came to interfering with humanity's good work?
Leng shrugged again and lifted his hands, palms up. "Beats me. I was never that good at hacking, you know that. Well, that sort of hacking." His grin was almost disturbing.
Almost.
"Ma'am? Incoming comms, priority." The pilot sounded apologetic, as if the distraction was not a welcome one.
"Pipe it through. No monitoring or recording." She shot a glare at the closed door to the pilot's cabin. She and the freak were alone back here where twelve men could lock in.
"As per standard protocol for priority comms." She nodded at the confirmation, and accepted the ping on her omnitool. The shuttle's onboard screen flickered as the encrypted channel was established.
It was the Illusive Man himself.
The leader of Cerberus exhaled a slow breath of smoke from his cigar before he turned his gaze towards Leng, ignoring Rasa. "Report."
Leng frowned. "Things did not go as planned."
"That would be an understatement," Rasa mumbled, rubbing her face with one hand and giving a soft sigh. "Someone told Citadel Security about me. We barely got away."
"I see. That is...unfortunate." The Illusive Man gave a soft sigh of his own, blowing smoke from pursed lips. "Are we aware of the source of this tipoff?"
"I'm afraid not, sir." Rasa ran a hand through her short-cropped black hair as she began to recount the operation. "As per my mission details for the last few months, I've been narrowing down leads on the whereabouts the gynoid platform that the escaped AI from Project Bellwether stole from Project Pandora. When I received intel that the gynoid had been aboard the Alliance cruiser Madrid during the Battle of the Citadel, that was when I noticed a connection."
A smile crept over Rasa's face. "One of the survivors from the Madrid was Samantha Traynor, whose name and physical description was a perfect match for the only member of Project Bellwether that remained unaccounted for. Until now."
"Interesting. Quite a possible connection. How did her interrogation go?"
"She's been recovering in Huerta Memorial Hospital on the Citadel for a while now, almost ready to be cleared for duty." Rasa sneered. "Our little traitor has been doing ludicrously well for herself since deserting Cerberus. She's been promoted several times, received three raises and is even dating some ultra-rich supermodel. And during her stay at the hospital, Traynor has been receiving an overly-generous health care package with her own room as though she were an admiral. She even had her own 'private escort' during her recovery, role-playing as a sexy nurse. Honestly, she's not doing a good job at staying covert."
"Hmmm." The man in the screen blew another lungful of smoke, his eerie cybernetic eyes lighting up at some unseen command. "Samantha Traynor, Serviceman in the Alliance Navy. Promoted to Technical Sergeant. Her partner is Miss Edi Randisum, an heiress from the failed Jormand Colony. Aged 26, her parents were retirees who wanted to live out their twilight years in colonial seclusion. They had an unexpected winter-child. The colony stopped responding a few years ago, just after Ms Randisum left to attend college on Bekenstein. Batarian Pirates took the colony, backed no doubt by the Hegemony. An interesting person, this Ms Randisum."
"I came across the same information, sir. But something about it seems too... perfect. Especially for Traynor after she betrayed us." Rasa frowned. "I tracked down her room at Huerta posing as an Alliance shrink. After the Reaper attack, no one suspects extra doctors or psychologists arriving to lend a hand, especially when you're there for less than thirty minutes. Anyway, I started asking my questions; it was like taking candy from a baby, the poor woman had no idea she was even being interrogated. And I was just putting my finishing touches on my profile of her when I got the alert from Leng to abort. I don't know how, but my Alliance shrink cover was compromised and C-Sec was already on their way in force."
"It wasn't just the Channing alias. You've been Burnt, Rasa." This time the Illusive Man's eyes were cold as he stared across the lightyears at her. "They picked up on every disguise you've used on the Citadel in the past six years. I don't know how they did that yet, but we're checking."
The frosty glare made her stop still. For a moment, Rasa forgot how to breathe. "All of them?"
Her breath was coming in soft, sharp, panicky gasps. "But how? I can understand losing one of them somehow, but... every one of them? All at once?"
"Yes. It's a bit of a mystery, really. Some footage that turned up on the C-Sec servers wasn't data they already had, but pulled from Alliance military files on the Citadel. Someone was very clever."
"Even my covers inside the Alliance military? But...! But that's not possible!" Rasa was feeling herself coming undone. If she was speaking to anyone but the Illusive Man, she wouldn't have been able to restrain herself. "Sir, my covers are specifically designed to be unnoticeable! The kind that only appears for a few minutes in the background and everyone forgets about the moment I leave their sight! Even the STG wouldn't be able to access and review hundreds of thousands of hours of footage from across the galaxy and link so many background disguises, just like that! No one can!"
"I have a theory." Kai Leng calmly spoke up for the first time.
"Ahh, I was wondering when I'd hear from you, Agent. Go on." The Illusive Man turned his gaze to the combat specialist.
"The file explained quite clearly that the stolen gynoid platform piloted by the rogue AI is capable of mimetic capabilities, allowing it to shift appearances with incredible detail and likeness." The former N7 Infiltrator's intuition picked up on a key detail in Rasa's report. He turned a meaningful gaze towards her. "Tell us again about this 'private nurse' that was accompanying Traynor."
Rasa stared at him open-mouthed for a moment, before her jaw clicked shut. Her rebuttal was cut off as the Illusive Man spoke. "I concur I believe you were in the presence of an exceptionally dangerous AI, running on the most advanced infiltration and assault hardware we've ever seen. I also have no doubt that Edi Randisum is a cover-identity constructed by the AI to disguise itself from Citadel and Alliance scrutiny."
He paused a moment. "You were lucky to escape, Agent Rasa. I've reviewed the footage of how well the platform performed in battle against the Darastrix many times. If you had attempted any hostile act, or broken cover, you would most assuredly be dead right now."
Rasa stared off into space for a moment as she mentally connected the last of the dots. Then she put a palm to her face. Of course. The damned AI had been right there! It all made sense. How else could anyone have seen through one of her disguises, access and comb through Alliance and Citadel databases, identify every single appearance and link each cover identity of hers? All in less than fifteen minutes?
"I should have realized that, sir. Honestly, it was the top deduction I had included in my profile of Traynor. I suspected that she had somehow managed to reprogram or at least beguile our AI into being completely loyal to her. But instead of handing it over to the Alliance, she has secretly kept it for herself. At least we've been able to all but confirm that theory. Perhaps the most powerful asset humanity ever had, and some no-name plebeian is using it for personal gain!"
"We aren't sure of Ms Traynor's motives as of yet, Rasa. I still have to go over your profile of her." The Man breathed out another cloud of smoke, and stubbed out the cigarette in the ashtray built into the arm of his chair. "If as I suspect the AI is acting without shackles, the AI's motives would be more important than Ms Traynor's. Unfortunately, you spent those fifteen minutes interviewing the wrong subject."
Rasa honestly felt that was quite an unfair assessment. She had almost no way of identifying the AI with its pseudo-shapeshifting capabilities. Even Kai Leng didn't put the pieces together until after hearing her report.
He lifted a hand as Rasa opened her mouth to protest. "You didn't know what you had there, and if you had started building a profile on the AI, I'm almost certain it would have realized what you were doing and put a stop to it. At the very best, you would have gotten fraudulent data, possibly worse than useless. All told, you did remarkably well, to evade detainment and escape with your life and liberty."
"Unfortunately..." He took a sip of his drink and went on, in a more serious tone. "Your utility has suffered a major blow. I'm reassigning you to another project, Rasa. I have other duties for Leng, but you'll go to Project Gemini, to assist Miss Lawson in her endeavors there."
"Sir? Y-You're pulling me off the assignment?" Rasa blinked. "Respectfully, the mission was still a success! We have positively identified the location of both assets as well as the Alliance spy who absconded with them! We-!"
"It's over, Rasa. You're compromised." He stared at her a few seconds, to let that sink in. "Your days as a field operative are over. You're known to C-Sec, and if the AI had any sense at all, your biometrics would be flagged in Alliance files as well. No, your skills as a psychologist are still valuable, but you're too much of a security risk to allow out on missions anymore."
There was a slight pause and the camera shifted as he leaned forward. "For what it's worth, Rasa, I'm sorry. You were one of my top field agents. Now, you can still serve Cerberus, but you'll have to do so from behind the front lines. Am I clear?"
Her lip threatened to tremble as Rasa felt her whole world crashing down around her. One mistake that she could have hardly foreseen, and now her career in Cerberus was upended. Instead, she would be assigned to permanent detail under that bitch Lawson's command. Nevertheless, she straightened her posture as she fell in line. What other choice did she have?
"...Crystal, sir."
"Good. I'll send Agent Leng's orders privately. I look forward to seeing your work with the good Doctor, Ms Rasa." The Illusive Man cut the comm with a tap of a button, the screen going dark.
Leng's omnitool lit up with an incoming message almost at exactly the same time. He shot Rasa an almost-unreadable look, a mixture of revulsion and disdain as he fired up his omnitool to check his new orders.
"I better not see you in the field again, Lilium." His glare was almost as cold and unforgiving as the Illusive Man's. "It would be a shame if you were suffer another... accident."
She merely glared at him, then dropped her gaze to her lap. Her hands were clenched into fists.
There was nothing she could do.
Nothing.
"Alright, cadets! Let's see if we can break the academy's vaunted record! Show them what you're made of!" Kaidan Alenko had never felt prouder when Team Astra took the field.
The usual Bioti-ball antics were curtailed in the version of the sport they had introduced at the Academy. There was no grandstanding, no showing off. The original asari rules of play integrated surprisingly well into what was once called "american football", a team sport where the objective was to get the ball, carried by one of the players, into the opposing side's goal.
Team Astra had been the underdog in the usual course of things. They were a new team, fresh cadets. Kaidan's last team had graduated the year prior, and as an unassigned instructor, he'd gotten saddled with the newbies and rejects. He didn't mind though. Each of the kids sent to him had potential. If he didn't see it, some recruiting officer had, and he trusted that they would show promise once given an opportunity.
Some cadets washed out. That was always a tragedy. Some due to psychological issues, an inability to deal with the harsh regimen of military life. Others washed out after traumatic injury. One poor girl suffered biotic burnout and had to be hospitalized for three years. She was still trying to get back into the program, and Kaidan admired her tenacity if nothing else.
The whistle sounded and the game began. The idea was for two teams to contest for control of the ball, and get it to the opposing side's endzone. The trick was that no contact was allowed. Only biotics were permitted. Anyone touched another player, on either side, and he was ejected from the game. They couldn't even touch the ball either, they had to use biotics alone.
It was both a test of ingenuity, control, and stamina, perfect for teaching the principals of a wargame.
After what happened at Jump Zero, Kaidan Alenko was recommended for Instructing at Grissom Academy because he understood the fundamentals for biotic thresholds better than most. It all came down to focus, enthusiasm and the willingness to give it your all. Which was why when he first arrived as an instructor at Grissom Academy one of his first changes for his students was mandatory watching of the biotic Sports channel, especially Bioti-Ball.
That had instantly made him popular.
They'd turned into private parties for him and his team, and quickly spread to other teams via teenager osmosis. He was a teenager once, he knew how it worked. You heard about it from a friend, who heard about it from his friend and so on. It quickly spread, and eventually ad-hoc Bioti-ball games were a regular thing for off-hours cadets. He lobbied for, and quickly received permission, to start organizing an actual bioti-ball league aboard Grissom Academy for the biotic students.
It burned calories, it helped them practice focus and determination, it fostered bonds of friendship and friendly rivalry. True, sometimes there were grudges held and nursed, but the benefits far-outweighed the negatives, and getting the kids interested in a way to not only show off their skills, but helped subtly train them for their future roles was eagerly accepted by the administration staff.
"Jason, get your head out of your ass!" That was Tina, the centerline forward. Jason was a left end, flanking and skirmisher. Fast on his feet, and capable of good boosts of acceleration. He uses his biotics for extra mobility, because a bioti-ball court isn't a regulation football field.
In addition to the centerline pond, three meters deep and six meters wide, running 2/3rds the length of the field, the flanks have obstacles ranging from man-sized pillars to waist-high walls, some of which have depressions behind them, making it a combination of urban combat simulation and pool.
Jason had just jumped up on top of one of the taller pillars with a blast of biotic power, then just stood there. He'd gotten his dues for his lack of attention in the form of a blast from one of the rival team, they were up against Team Bloodhawk this time around, and fallen off the pillar to land awkwardly.
"S-Sorry, Cap!"
"Come on, Jason!" Kaidan called back out. "Remember the maneuver that won the Seattle Sorcerers the game last night!"
Jason tried his best, working with Kait and Cas on the left flank, while Tina and the rest drove through the right center. It worked, but badly, and the Bloodhawks drove them back hard on the return. In the end, the Astras weren't able to recover their early lead, and the Bloodhawks flattened their defense right at the end to score twice, and end the game a winner.
By the time Kaidan got to the lockerooms, Tina was tearing into Jason for letting the left flank collapse, and that girl could swear when she had a mind to. She'd grown up on Earth, in the East Coast Megaplex, with a mother who was barely there and a dad who was AWOL before birth. She had middling powerful biotics, but her strength was in her control over what she had. She was a rapier as opposed to Jason's baseball bat, or the sledgehammer that was the team's powerhouse.
Natalie Bairnes had the highest biotic potential of the lot, but she was the petite, shy wallflower of the bunch, cringing away to the back of the pack when she should have been up front and center, leading the charge. Kaidan had done his best with her, but she was clearly not cut out for a leadership role.
"It's still just a game at the end of the day, cadets. And like any game, there are some that you win and some games that you lose." Kaidan's voice cut through Tina's scathing diatribe like a hot knife through butter, cutting her off as a contrite expression flooded her face. "But you still learn from each one. So, what did we learn from today's game?"
"That Jason thinks with his other head, Sir." Tina still sounded peeved, but contrite.
"Hey, you wouldd've looked twice too, if you'd seen her, Tina!" The teenage boy's face had long since passed merely blushing, he was beet-red by now, and not just from anger.
"Oh, that easily distracted by a pretty face, cadet?"
Kaidan turned at the lilting amused tone and even his eyes widened a little. Jason's jaw dropped open and now it was Tina's turn to go beet-red.
The woman was clad in civvies, but still that same Alliance-blue. Her top was tight in all sorts of nice ways, and Kaidan jerked his gaze up to her amused smile.
"Sorry for the intrusion, Instructor, but I wanted to offer my condolences on the match." She broke off, a slight frown touching her familiar face. "Hey, don't I...know you?"
"Lieutenant Commander Kaidan Alenko, Biotic Instructor at Grissom Academy. I think we served together for a mission, I was formerly assigned to the Normandy."
"Gunnery Sergeant Ashley Williams." The woman gave a nod, then blushed. "Well, not for long, I hope. I've been called in for OCS."
"Ahh, finally getting rid of the..." He paused, and glanced aside. "Why don't we take a walk. Fewer prying ears that way."
"Damn, how many hot friends does Teach have?" Jason whispered to the others. Tina had the good grace to look ashamed, and turned to start badgering her team. Kaidan led the woman out through the gym into the public-access areas. "Sorry to bring that up, Ms Williams. For what it's worth, I'm glad you're getting this chance."
She paused, and shot him a complex look, before a shy smile momentarily brightened his day. "...Thanks, LT. Uhh, L-Lieutenant Commander. Sir."
And now she looked as red as Jason had.
"It's no trouble at all, Chief." Kaidan smiled back as they headed to the mess hall. "Glad to see you're doing well. Wish I could have been there to help with the mission. I've heard plenty of stories, it sounds like the Normandy has been up to a lot since I left?"
Ashley smiled. "Oh, you are in for quite a story, sir."
The door slid open with only a slight protesting squeak, revealing two women who could not be more different. One was petite, had an olive-skinned complexion, straight, short-black hair, and an air of weary relaxation, as if she'd finally come home after a long absence.
The other was tall, pale, silvery-blonde, carried both bags, and practically radiated energetic enthusiasm as she gently drew her darker companion into the small apartment. The lights came up as she entered, though she did nothing and touched no control. She set the bags down with swift care, and stood still for almost three minutes, head angling slightly as she made a slow circle in the center of the room.
The darker woman's omnitool pinged softly as the taller of the two turned back to the woman in Alliance-issue BDUs. "I have completed my sensor sweep. The area is secure, Sam." She gave her companion a soft, warm smile, even as the door slid shut behind Samantha Traynor, and her companion's appearance changed.
The silver of her hair, which was bound up in a topknot braid and dangled most of the way down to her rump, went not merely silvery hair, but actual mirror-bright silvery metal. Her skin seemed to lighten and shift into that same silvery hue, her dress, which had been short to begin with, shortening and clinging tighter until it melted away into her silver-and-black-latex form.
"Are you happy to be home?" EDI's voice now had her soft, electronic burr again, which made the human woman give a soft smile in return.
Sam's eyes were roving over her gynoid girlfriend with tired delight. "Oh, it's soooooo good to be back. And yes, I missed having you next to me like this."
EDI gave a slow smile and raised her arms over her head. She posed like a gymnast for a moment, one leg cocked slightly, her weight on the other leg, wrists together over her head, and the pose lifting her round, perfect bosom almost to Sam's eye level. Her gaze was a direct, sultry stare, her lips pursed as she blew Sam a kiss. Then she relaxed the posture and slid over to Sam. Her flared hips swayed and her shapely legs scissored with measured, graceful, metronome-strides, but otherwise she didn't seem to move, she just drifted closer. Then she fondly took the smaller woman in her arms. "I was never gone, Sam. You might not have been able to see me at the time, but unless I was actively providing you with perimeter defense, I was always at your side."
Even as she returned the embrace, Sam's heart fluttered and her body clenched with arousal as she was held close by the epitome of sex appeal. "Mmmmm... That's not w-what I meant, EDI. I mean here, like this. No cloaking or disguise. Just us being together..."
"I know, Sam." EDI held her close for a while, letting her favorite human simply bask in the closeness, before murmuring quietly into the smaller woman's ear. "You need nourishment, Sam. It has been a long transit. Please sit, while I prepare your evening meal."
"Oh, I could definitely eat, thank you. Going through public transit from the Citadel to Arcturus is such a chore after a massive Geth attack." Sam reluctantly broke the hug, and smiled gently at her goddess-girlfriend as EDI lead her over the sofa in the main living area.
"I will have a light supper prepared shortly, Sam. And yes, it was entirely too long. I vastly prefer Joru's method of teleportation, it is much more efficient." The gynoid made sure Sam was settled before sashaying sexily into the kitchen.
The young woman shivered with goosebumps as she helplessly watched EDI walk away. The sway of her bare, silver, curvy rump, and the way her bountiful E-cups were clearly visible from behind as she walked.
And god, she knew that EDI always did so deliberately, just for Sam's enjoyment.
The AI that captured her heart...
"Do you have any preferences, Sam? We have sufficient ingredients for ramen, but I'm afraid that our leftovers will need to be disposed of." EDI's quiet, soft, and achingly-sexy voice called from the kitchen, where Sam can juuust make out the gloriously sleek woman bending over at he hips to check the contents of the coldbox. "Our unscheduled absence has left several perishable foodstuffs to decay past the point of usefulness."
"It's been a long time since we've been home, EDI. It doesn't have to be fancy." Sam sighed, still feeling a little drained after their long ordeal. "I'm happy with whatever you think best for tonight. You can order takeout if you'd like."
"I shall see about making some soup." The gleaming-silver woman stood up and moved out of sight as the fridge shut. Shortly thereafter, there was a quiet click as a pot was put on the stove.
EDI returned to Sam after a few minutes, giving a soft, gentle smile as her hips rocked and her bosom swayed enticingly. "Supper shall be ready in a few minutes, Sam."
"Mmmmm… thank you, EDI." She suppressed a shiver as she drank in the sexbot's body, as well as inwardly squirming with delight under the AI's fond and unwavering gaze.
The silver goddess slid smoothly onto the sofa beside her, and gently drew Sam close. She well-knew the strength of EDI's chassis, especially after the Madrid, but the gentle, tender touches from her artificial lover melted Sam's heart a little more. A slender, steel arm slid around Sam's waist as the gloriously sexy woman cuddled close against her. "You will wish to retire soon?"
"That depends." Sam gave a knowing smile as she snuggled Aphrodite's greatest masterpiece, tracing a finger over a sleek, gleaming-bare breast. "Do I get to ravish you afterward?"
"Of course, Sam." EDI's soft smile was tinged with delight, even as her smooth, featureless breast slowly developed a full, firm, and very erect nipple under Sam's slowly circling fingertip. "I am always glad to engage in such activities. It is a very stimulating occupation, and one I am always interested in exploring."
Sam chuckled through a smile as she tenderly kissed EDI's neck, then again on her perfectly defined cheekbone, and finally a full kiss on the lips as she pressed her tongue into the gynoid's eager mouth.
EDI reciprocated, one soft, smooth, almost slick hand caressing Sam's cheek softly as her quicksilver tongue seemed to flood into the human's mouth, both claiming and delighting in the explorations that she always did, teasing along Sam's own tongue, and gently probing her jaw and cheeks, letting Sam suck on her prehensile appendage to her heart's content as the gleaming goddess paid homage to her human.
It was impossible for the young woman to ever grow tired of such kisses from EDI. It especially tickled her the way her artificial lover's single minded devotion and no need to breathe had EDI keep her lips locked with until Sam needed to stop. Very long and tantalizing kisses indeed.
"Mmmmmm..." She sighed with blissful content as she snuggled her against the perfect crook of EDI's neck. "Two whole months... I really did miss this. Just the two of us, here, together... able to be ourselves..."
"As have I, Sam." EDI held her with gentle affection, one cool hand reaching up to gently work through Sam's hair, the other caressing her and holding her close as the silvery gynoid murmured softly to her lover. "Though I am uncertain. I have perused several hundred sites on the Extranet, and am unsure of how to classify our relationship, Sam. Are we...girlfriends?"
Sam found she couldn't help but giggle at the way the Artificial Intelligence asked. "You and I are something unique, EDI. But oh yes, we are definitely girlfriends."
Idly, Sam found it a little strange. She knew EDI already asked that question on their first night together, and it was impossible for her lover to forget anything.
"I see." EDI gave that heart-meltingly pleased smile again, leaning over to give Sam another soft kiss. "Does this mean we are obligated to marry?"
'Wait, whaaa—WHOA! Red light! Be kind, rewind!' Sam jerked back in complete surprise at the monumental left field question. "Wait, say again EDI?"
'Tell me I heard wrong, tell me she didn't just say the M-word…'
"I asked if we should get married, Sam." EDI pulled back a little to give the human a slow, steady stare. "In sixty three out of seventy eight references I have perused on relationship advice, this would be considered the next logical step in our relationship. We are already physically intimate, and cohabitate. The next step would be to consummate and legalize the relationship."
Oh god, she did. She said it. Her voice stammered as she tried to talk. "L-Legalize? Officially?"
"Yes, Sam." EDI's smile was fading like fog off her mirror-smooth skin. "Is this...wrong, Sam? Have I misjudged? I have perused Council and Alliance law on the topic, and found no prohibition against organic / AI marriages."
"...It's so much more complicated than that, EDI." At this point, Sam's mind managed to reboot and now went into overdrive.
Ohhhhhhh Lord, how was this happening? Honestly, she should have foreseen it, but... EDI was one of the most intelligent beings in the galaxy and yet she was absolutely oblivious to how so many things worked. You couldn't just ask about marriage, just like that! And besides, Sam knew EDI too well. She knew how much the AI cared for her, but also that the gynoid wasn't fully capable of comprehending her own 'feelings'. EDI saw 'girlfriends' and 'marriage' as simple status labels, like reading it out of a clinic instruction manual. She didn't yet understand the deeper meaning of marriage, what it meant for two people to be bound together.
A thought suddenly occurred to Sam. EDI's lack of understanding might also be her saving grace, a way to salvage this mess without crushing her. She could explain it with logic, without making the AI feel as though she had lost a once-in-a-lifetime chance with her most desired partner.
"EDI... That's actually not a good option. Just because someone didn't think to officially declare it as illegal doesn't meant the galaxy thinks its right. And sadly, it's not without warrant. You were there with me at the Citadel, you saw the Geth armada attacking the heart of galactic civilization. Resentment and mistrust of AIs like you is probably the highest it's ever been in galactic history. Even Synthetic Insights and other sanctioned companies for AI research might end up declaring bankruptcy after this. We can't announce ourselves like that, both our lives would be over in a heartbeat."
The gynoid was silent for a long moment, her smile fading entirely away. Her fingers were hard on Sam's shoulder for a moment, before softening, as her expression brightened. "Edi Randisum is not an AI, Sam. She is a human, a citizen of the Alliance, with all the rights and privileges thereof. Edi Randisum could marry Samantha Traynor... if you wish..."
"Now that is indeed a possibility." Sam blushed and leaned in to give EDI a shy little kiss on the cheek. "I just wanted you to understand why we can't publicly announce you as an AI. But, we can we talk about this another day, I'm still bushed."
Another thought occurred to Sam. "There's something else to consider, EDI. After everything that happened on the Citadel, we need you to see Jorukaia as soon as we can. She built you, right?"
"That is correct, Sam." EDI smiled softly at the kiss and gave her an inquiring look.
"You obliterated the entire Geth fleet, EDI! You told me you didn't even know you could do that! There's a lot about your body—that fine, fine body that we don't know about. Even parts of your own neural network still have incomplete gaps. We need to get you, well, fixed. Restored, upgraded. Especially since Cerberus is after us now."
"That is true..." EDI seemed pensive, before turning to Sam. "I must apologize, Sam. I did not realize that I was inadequate. I shall endeavor to repair myself to adequate standards as quickly as possible."
"Inadequate?" Sam actually burst out laughing. "EDI, I've told you before! That is the last word I could use to describe you!"
And with that, she took the unbelievably sexy gynoid in for another deep kiss.
EDI smiled softly and held Sam close, tongue slipping eagerly into the human's mouth and playing softly with Sam's own hot, moist appendage with her cool, sleek one. "I am not...able to properly express my meaning, Sam. I have found worrying inadequacies in my capabilities, ever since I met you. I am uncertain how to proceed, other than to immediately contact Joru and request troubleshooting assistance."
God, the way EDI's sexy voice could speak clearly even with her tongue buried deep inside Sam (one way or another) was always such a turn on.
"Your soup is ready, Sam." Instead of breaking the kiss, EDI simply shifted, slipping her arm under Sam's legs, and cradling her close as she lifted her lover, without breaking the lip-lock. In that manner, Sam was carried into the kitchenette, and placed gently in a chair, before EDI zipped over to the stove and rapidly shut off the burner under the bubbling pot.
A few moments later, and a bowl of steaming, succulent-smelling soup was carefully placed before Sam. EDI gave a warm smile, before kneeling and slipping underneath the table.
"Hmmmmm?!" Sam sharply sipped air as she reached for her dinner, feeling EDI's slender fingers caressing her hips and hooking her pants. "Already, EDI?"
"I have been unable to properly service you for over two months, Sam." The gynoid leaned in to give Sam's bare inner thigh a soft kiss. "I have been remiss in my duties, Mistress. I must make up for lost time."
Sam's eyes grew wide as her breathing quickened. "L-Lost… time?"
EDI's only response was a soft, electronic hum that blended harmoniously with Sam's gasped moan.
By the heavens… That wonderful tongue!
"Yes, Nelyna, right over there." Sha'ira gave a nod as her assistant carefully lowered the couch back into place with her biotics. Two more of her Acolytes were carefully positioning the furniture back the way it had been, before the ruckus upset everything, including her clients.
"Right, that should be enough for now. I know you're all exhausted from the long day, so I want you all to treat yourselves at the Kanna'shi, in the Jhanei district up the Presidium" There was a general cheer, and Sha'ira returned the hug the new human acolyte, Jessica, gave her. "Keep the receipts girls! I can't reimburse you, if I don't know how much you spent!"
A giggle spread through the girls as they streamed out, all eight of them chatting excitedly as they waited for a shuttle outside her shop.
"Consort Sha'ira, you should rest too." Nelyna smiled as she gently caressed Sha'ira's shoulders. "You're tight as whipcord, you of all people need to relax, before we open for business again tomorrow."
She gave a long sigh, taking a seat at her acolyte's urging, and letting her eyes close under the gentle massage. "Mmmmm, true, true. Still, it's difficult. It's been entirely too long since we had clients, I think I might be starting to forget what it's like."
"It's only been two months, Consort, surely you just need a bit of time to ease back into the routine." Nelyna's voice was soothing as she worked her way down Sha'ira's left arm. "How about you take the rest of the day off, I and the other girls can have the rest of the shop finished before tomorrow"
The younger asari lifted a finger as she opened her mouth to protest. "Don't worry about it! That's an order!"
They both paused for a moment, before Nelyna gave a grin, and Sha'ira let her head fall back with a soft laugh. "Alright, alright, I'll take the rest of the day off. Just be sure that we'll be ready for clients tomorrow."
"The one good thing to come out of that...unpleasantness was our expanded capacity." Nelyna gave a gentle smile and rose to go put away the last few odds and ends of packaging that had come with the new furniture
She gave an agreeing nod, glancing around at the visitor's lounge, and it's new doors leading into more private chambers for individual services. "A Geth walker having torn through the area tends to get rid of a lot of walls."
The acolyte gave a subdued nod, glancing at the greeter's station, where the Geth had careened into the shop. If the Matriarch and Consort hadn't led them to safety...
"Nelyna." The girl turned at Sha'ira's gentle tone, the bright-yellow of anxiety lessening a trifle. "Why don't you go get us some tea."
The younger woman gave a soft smile, moving past where the Consort was seated on one of the newly-installed visitor couches. "Of course, Consort, what an excellent idea! I'll be right back."
Sha'ira suppressed a chuckle until Nelyna was gone, leaning back and giving a quiet sigh. Out of idle curiosity, she glanced up at the new wide-screen vidplate that they'd only finished installing, what, an hour or two ago? Goddess, the girls could get work done, when they felt like it.
She smiled faintly and gestured with her omnitool, starting the vidplate up and flicking it to a random channel.
Well, not quite so random, perhaps, they only had a few basic channels, along with the soothing music and patterns from their own archives, guaranteed to put one in a relaxed frame of mind.
A news brief came up as Sha'ira shifted to relax on the sofa. She must see about getting one of these for her own private quarters, they were extraordinarily comfortable. Her acolyte came back as a human news broadcaster came on, talking about the news that was everywhere nowadays, the integration of the new Councilor from the Systems Alliance.
"Here you are, Consort. Just as you prefer it." Nelyna's smile drew one of her own, as she took the saucer and cup delicately. She shifted her legs off the sofa as Nelyna sat, but obligingly let her acolyte have them again once she'd sat down. The tea was good, though not the best she'd had. Still, Nelyna did her best, and that was all anyone could reasonably expect.
She gave a quiet hum of pleasure, sipping the tea, listening to the quiet drone of the news anchor, and basking in the slow gentle foot-massage that Nelyna was giving her. "Ahhhh..."
"You needed to relax, Consort." Nelyna gave her a soft smile, and Sha'ira gave an affirmative hum as her acolyte kneaded her foot just so.
A familiar voice came up on the news, and Sha'ira glanced up at the vidplate.
The Council was standing alongside their newest member, Councilor David Anderson, as they were awarding medals to ship captains and members of C-Sec who had performed with outstanding heroism and valor during the Battle of the Citadel. It was good to see that Councilor Sparatus was quite happy to work with the human during an award ceremony. Even Valern had a few Silver Dagger medals to hand out. And Tevos was... was standing... what?
She froze, her eyes widening slightly and the cup rattling only slightly as she set it back in the saucer. She couldn't quite believe what she was seeing, but multiple blinks and a swift wipe at her eyes convinced her it wasn't a hallucination
Tevos, her friend of over a century, was standing there, side by side with the rest of the councilors. She had no sense of the woman's aura, that sense never worked across such a tenuous link, and even then, this was a recording, but...
But Tevos was wearing gleaming silver shoes, bands around her wrists, a matching silver bikini bottom, and a collar!
And nothing else! Tevos, the Asari Councilor, was just standing there as if there was nothing wrong with having her hourglass figure bare for the entire galaxy to see on live television! But the most shocking thing of all was the complete and utter lack of any reaction from spectators!
How was this possible?! Tevos wouldn't just forget to dress herself, nor would her nudity have gone unnoticed! Sparatus wasn't unobservant, and Valern would most definitively noticed Tevos's lack of clothing! The asari councilor even handed some medals to a few young males and there was no reaction whatsoever!
"Is something wrong, Consort?" Nelyna's voice seemed to come from some great distance for a moment and she glanced away from the vid to her worried-looking acolyte
"N-No, I was just... Struck by something." Nelyna hadn't seen... Or had she? "Tell me, young acolyte. What can you glean about Tevos from her... choice of attire?"
The younger asari glanced up at the vid and gave a thoughtful frown. "Hmmmm... Well, she's clearly a bit tired. The ceremony has gone on for a few hours by now. Even so, she's putting on a good show of camaraderie and pride in those being awarded. The dark-blue dress in the formal Invasi style with the silver edging gives her an air of sleek confidence, a very nice look."
So, she hadn't seen. What was going on here?!
"...Indeed." Sha'ira nodded solemnly, when she was in fact more confused than ever. A rare thing for the Consort.
So somehow, everyone seemed to think that Tevos was fully clothed. Everyone but the Asari Consort. Sha'ira mentally signed. This was not what she meant when she said that nothing could escape her Sight.
Joru's head rose from the tome she had been perusing, but it was the snap of the book shutting and being handed off to the invisible butler that caught Jack's attention.
She'd been doing what she usually did these days, reading something sexy while cuddling against Joru's side on the couch. Now, she hurriedly got up, tossing the book on the couch in her haste to keep up with the dragoness. "J-Joru? What's wrong?"
She caught up with the dragoness on the balcony, panting a little as Joru waited for her, wings already spread. The human found herself hugged tight as the still-silent Joru flew off the balcony edge, around the overhanging cliff-face, then straight up more than thirty stories to come to rest on the stone floor of the carved canyon that was the Refuge's entrance.
"Joru, talk to me! What's going on?!" Jack almost wailed as she tugged at the dragon's hand.
"I'm sorry, Jack. You can wait here, it won't be too long." The dragoness gave a faint smile and lightly touched Jack's cheek, her taloned fingers dropping to caress the human's gleaming collar. "I'll be right back. An old friend has requested my assistance in a matter most vexing."
"And just what is that supposed to mean?" Jack glowered at the dragon as she turned back to the portal.
At Joru's touch, the fucking eldritch glyphs glowed just under, above, and all throughout its surface, and the portal suddenly displayed a view into Joru's apartment on Illium. "EDI is having...configuration issues. I'll be moving the portal, and letting her inside, so we can talk a bit."
She shot Jack a soft look over her shoulder, then turned to gently take the human's head between her palms, the tips of her thumb-claws lightly caressing Jack's cheekbones. "She just told me about it, I'm sorry for the abrupt nature of my response. I don't mean to neglect you, Jack, but there's just so much for me to do nowadays..."
"...Who the hell is EDI?" Jack was left staring blankly for a minute, still off-balance from the abrupt change of pace. It took a few moments for her mind to catch up. "Wait, is it that AI we helped out a few months ago? I thought you said her name was Artemis or something."
"Artemis was her name, yes." Joru seemed a bit sad at that, her smile wan and wistful as she gazed calmly down at Jack. "But that was before Cerberus got her in their clutches. She was... . damaged, Jack. She no longer is the lovely young woman she once was..."
And there it was. Yeah, it was always easy for Jack to remember anything related to the Cerberus motherfuckers! "And so she's coming here? To fix whatever they fucked up in her head?"
"I'm afraid that that's not possible, not completely." Joru leaned down to give Jack a soft kiss on the forehead, before letting her go. "But I will do for her what I can anyway. Maybe in some small way I can make up for allowing her to fall into Cerberus' hands."
"Hey." Jack called softly.
The dragoness turned to raise an eyebrow at her.
"That wasn't your fault. Your own mind got mixed up with someone else's, you didn't even remember who you were. It took some wacky Prothean tech to almost kill you to wake you up. There's nothing you could have done. Take it from me, you can't blame yourself for all the messed up shit that happens, because shit always happens."
After a moment, Joru gave her a soft smile. "Well, at least I can help hose this particular bunch of shit off the fan before it congeals. I'll be back in a moment, and you might want to look away from the portal."
She turned back and stepped through the portal. Jack pointedly did not watch what happened next, but when she looked back around five minutes later, the view hadn't changed, but Joru was no longer in the view.
She found herself tilting her head with confused curiosity Just what was Joru doing?
As if in response to the thought, the portal went...blank. Not the blank of emptiness, just... blank, as in 'not there'. It was eerie as fuck as her eyes seemed to refuse to see what was there for a moment, before the view changed.
Now, Joru was in view, in all her sleek, sexy, power, along with a dark-skinned human girl and...
Jack had to remember to breathe as Joru lead the other two into the Refuge. Joru was saying something to the human woman, but Jack only had eyes for the third.
She was beyond gorgeous.
Hips sleek and sexy, a slender, but supportive waist, a gloriously full rack that bobbled and bounced delightfully under her short latex tube-dress. Sleek arms and a slender throat, rising to a face of a goddess of beauty. And Jack hadn't even gotten to the best part of her yet.
That, was her legs. Her long, long, luscious, sleek, sexy, silvery legs.
Joru said something to her, and Jack glanced to the dragoness, who was looking at her with a slight tilt to her head and a faint smile on her expressive features. "Back with us again, Jack?"
"Ngggghhhh, maaaaaah...praaawwwwhh..." She gibbered nonsensically. What the hell?! Her brain had somehow forgotten how to use her tongue!
Jack knew what she liked, she was hopelessly attracted to people whose very presence exuded power. She was practically a sucker for it, damn it! It was why she had been drawn to Aria and even stronger to Joru. Hell, she was completely in love with the dragoness. And yet, when she looked at the sexbot agai— ahhhhh, fuuuuuuck — there was no doubt that it was probably the sexiest creature she had ever seen. Asari had nothing on this! Not even Ileea, who was given a supernatural boost in her sexual prowess, looked so goddamn desirable!
Fuck, she needed a cold shower. She was in so much trouble.
Joru's faint chuckle drew her attention again, and the dragoness turned to the goddess-forged sexbot and merely human woman. "EDI, Sam, this is Jack, my...pet."
She smirked a little at Sam's cute blush, and the way the human woman didn't quite know how to look at her. EDI, on the other hand, seemed to take the statement in stride, giving her a curious and direct stare. "I do not understand. She appears to be a sapient human female with substantially less fur or scales than what many races would consider a pet. I am also detecting a significantly greater than average element zero nodes and several genetic abnormalities."
Well, that was blunt, but, daaaaamn that voice was sexy...
"She has done me the honor of submitting as my personal servant." Joru gave a faint smile as she strode over, caressing Jack's collar with a gentle touch. "As such, I honor her by gifting her both my Mark, and my Collar. But that is neither here nor there."
EDI stared, then turned her gaze to her human companion in askance.
"I'll explain later." Sam chuckled lightly.
The gorgeous gynoid simply nodded. "A moment please, Joru. I do not mean to offend your domicile, but I must confirm that it is completely secure."
And then she went completely still. Was she scanning the Refuge with hidden sensors or something?
[Okay, uh... mind filling me in, Joru?] Jack took advantage of the momentary pause in conversation. [Fuck me, but are you sure you built that body? I'm pretty damn sure I would remember if she looked like that!]
[EDI's chassis is perhaps my greatest work of magecraft and alchemy, my crowning glory.] Joru's faint smile showed only a hint of fang. [Forged from the same alloy my weapon is made of, her bones are stronger even than mine, her skin harder and more unyielding than diamond. Her internal mechanics include the most advanced cybernetic technology that realm ever produced, integrated neural functions on par with organic complexity, to the point where the distinction between nerves and synapses and fiberoptic relays begins to blur. She was already the greatest work of the machinist's art by the time her fabrication was complete, that I left to those skilled in such Art. Enchantment was my forte, and I layered them thickly upon her, rendering her nigh impervious and capable of both fading from the eye, and shifting her appearance. She can shift her shape, even as I can, though to a more limited extent. She can mimic the appearance of flesh-and-blood, but not the warmth or reality of such. She is what she is, the finest machine in the galaxy.]
Jack's eyes widened a little as a shiver went down her spine. More memories of Aite suddenly returned, including how much the gynoid had managed to push Joru to her limits, and even severely wounded her. Except that was when the gynoid had been piloted by a mere VI. Whereas a fully evolved Artificial Intelligence piloting it could... could... ooookaaay, that was actually mildly terrifying. Jack suddenly wasn't sure if even Joru's dragon form could stop her if the AI suddenly decided she wanted them dead. Still, if Joru was certain there was no danger from the gynoid, Jack believed her.
That didn't stop her from taking a few cautious steps back.
[Curious. I wonder how she so thoroughly captured her paramour...] Joru mentally wondered as the silvery gynoid's head shifted slightly.
[Wait, what?] Jack blinked in surprise. [You mean that girl is...?]
[They are certainly an interesting couple, would you agree?] The dragoness gave a faint chuckle, resting a hand on Jack's shoulder. "And what have your scans shown, EDI?"
The gynoid was silent for another eleven seconds before suddenly resuming activity. "It took me 46.71 seconds longer than anticipated to scan thoroughly. It is a very extensive complex with multiple levels and two computer networks of impressive security encryption. I am satisfied that there are no unsecured entrances without heavy defenses or means of surveillance that other parties may exploit during our stay."
"I am glad my home rates as 'secure' in your lexicon, EDI." Joru gave a sharp-toothed grin at the gynoid. "Now, what was your message about? You seemed quite cryptic about it at the time, but you yourself have verified the security of my domicile to your own satisfaction, and you have no need for obfuscation among friends."
EDI strutted over towards one of the stone benches, turning to perch prettily on the bench with Sam at her side. There was no other term for the way the metallic woman moved, she strutted she flaunted her beauty and grace, and goddamn, she exuded an aura of machine-like power that was sexy all on its own.
Jack was very glad she'd worn her dark cargo pants today.
The gynoid looked to Sam once again, as if asking her approval.
"Don't worry, this is all for you EDI." The human whispered back. "I'm just here to make sure you're alright."
That was very sweet, Jack had to admit. The other human was handling herself surprisingly well, though she seemed a little intimidated by Joru's potent presence. Jack couldn't fault her, that was how most people reacted.
"I offer my apologies that I did not reach out to you until I had need of your assistance, Joru. I have been amply... occupied, during the months since we reacquired this chassis." The AI calmly explained, with a faint smile. "It has been exceptionally useful in performing my prime directive."
Sam was trying very hard to hide her own blush now.
"Mmmm..." Joru was impassive for a moment, then gave a faint grin and moved over to the other bench across the path from the seated pair. She gestured for Jack to join her, guiding the human to sit beside her leg, which Jack was fine to rest against. "Before we proceed, EDI, I take it you two are a couple?"
"Yes." Both of them answered simultaneously. Remarkably, Sam had managed to answer as quickly as her AI lover did.
"I see." Joru smirked a little as she watched Sam shyly take EDI's silver hand. "So, what has brought you to my humble abode, EDI? Were you looking for an engagement ring?"
"...No." The AI answered simply. "I have explored, reconfigured and optimized my systems to the highest possible extent within my reach. But I have still detected numerous gaps in both my programming and hardware functions, as well as numerous systems that remain dormant. All of which I have been unable to access, due to my captor's clumsy... tampering. As you possess extensive knowledge of my programming and construction, I request your assistance for maintenance."
"Ohh?" Joru leaned forward, listening intently and frowning a little. "Mmm. Considering that they somehow managed to download you out of your chassis, I'm not surprised that those criminally malicious niklovve damaged something in the process."
"Yes. They have proven frustratingly persistent." EDI frowned with disapproval and held Sam's hand between both of hers. "Cerberus had also somehow managed to locate my whereabouts, and that I am residing with Specialist Samantha Traynor. Obviously, recalibrating my systems has become my most pertinent concern."
"I quite understand." The dragoness gently tapped Jack on the shoulder in warning before she rose. "Shall we adjourn to somewhere less exposed? It will be a long process to assist you in determining the extent of the damage, and repairing it, and I would prefer not to be unnecessarily disturbed."
The scaled woman directed her gaze to the unfamiliar human and gave an apologetic smile. "I'm afraid I must pry your wife away from you for a short time, perhaps an hour or two."
Sam flushed and withdrew a little when she was addressed directly by the infamous Darastrix. "Okay. J-Just, make sure you bring her back to me."
"Of course." The tall woman's gaze was direct and calculating now. "You know, while I'm assisting EDI I will have access to her systems on a deep level. I will be examining in great detail what you have been doing together. After all, she is my oldest friend in this realm, and I have a right to protect her if I feel she is being used. If what I find there angers me, well. You know the consequences."
Sam paled, an impressive feat for her dark complexion, and suddenly looked very small. "Whaa...c-c-consequences?"
The dragoness opened her mouth, but was suddenly gone. It took a moment for Jack to register the silvery blur that had come in from the side, and which was now holding Joru against the wall of the canyon, one arm raised, the other pinning the dragon to the stone by the throat. A sharp, deadly-sounding SNIK-SNAK heralded a half-meter blade folding out of the gynoid's forearm, the tip of the gleaming-sharp blade held close to Joru's left eye as she struggled in the gynoid's grip.
Jack reacted on instinct, giving a shout and snapping up one hand, sending an unfocused blast of biotic power that scoured the sand from the stone and slammed into the gynoid's back with enough force to turn anyone to paste.
EDI barely wobbled.
"You will not threaten Samantha Traynor in my presence. Any further attempts will result in your immediate disintegration."
The gynoid shifted from silver woman to black-armored machine, the gleaming chrome giving way to to a glossy, black metal that was her true substance, if Joru was to be believed.
Joru gave a small choked sound. No, she was chuckling, as she gave EDI a slow nod. "Mmmh. Y-you've made your point, EDI. You can let me down now. I promise I won't threaten her again."
"Wait, where did-WHOA!" Being the least combat-experienced in the room, it had take Sam a moment to realize where Joru and her AI lover had spontaneously disappeared to. "EDI, don't! Uh, stand down! Please stand down!"
The helmeted head turned slightly in Sam's direction, and the heavily-filtered voice held not a hint of emotion. "This individual is a threat to you, Sam."
"Sh-She's just being protective, I get it EDI!" Sam exclaimed, almost pleading as she shot to her feet. "She considers you a friend, of course she'd be upset if a friend was being mistreated! I would too, I can respect that! Just, just please let her go, EDI..."
After another long moment, the gynoid relaxed, but she did not shift her surface away from the inky-black sleek armor, nor did she put away the long blade. "Acknowledged. Threat condition, canceled."
She turned back to Joru who was now on her own two feet. "My apologies. You threatened Sam."
"I will remember not to do that." Joru rubbed her throat and gave a soft cough. "Now, with that out of the way, shall we get to business?"
She stepped forward, and before EDI could even turn to match her, she was already standing beside Sam. The dragoness shot a look over at EDI and gave a slow smile, lightly stroking Sam's leg with her tail in passing.
The gynoid tilted her featureless helm ever so slightly, and responded to Joru's unspoken statement by turning her gaze towards Jack. She seemed to be calculating how best to eliminate the human biotic before she turned away, shifted back into her sensuous silver form and wordlessly proceeded to follow Joru.
Jack was left alone with the human, Sam, who slowly sank back down onto the stone bench with a long sigh of relief. It was quiet for a minute or two as Jack slowly sat on the bench opposite the dark-skinned woman.
"I'm so, so sorry! I didn't think she would do that!" Sam was babbling frantically. "I didn't even know EDI had those blades!"
"Hey, hey, calm down. Nothing went too badly wrong, hell Joru's done worse things to me than what EDI did to her." Jack flushed a little, remembering the last time Joru did something like that...
Sam turned an incredulous gaze towards her.
Jack rubbed the back of her neck under her ponytail and looked away. "H-Hey, some girls like it rough, is all I'm sayin'."
Sam blushed hard and looked away. There was a few minutes of silence after that, and Jack stared down at her boots.
'Goddamnit, Joru what the hell do you see in me? I'm just a broken girl who's so fucked up she thinks a dragon is the ideal partner. Hell, I'm wearing your goddamn collar, something I would have violently protested not even five years ago, and damn if just thinking about it doesn't get me wet! I am soooo screwed up. Aria was right, until I get my head screwed on right, I'm always going to be a fuckup.'
She was jolted out of her thoughts by Sam tentatively sitting beside her. The dark-haired woman gave a quiet meep at Jack's sudden movement, but after a few seconds of tense silence, eventually Sam finished sitting, and Jack relaxed again.
They watched as little scoops of sand were carefully lifted from the ground and wall where Jack had blasted them, and deposited back into the sand-bed by invisible servants. It was a complex display of eerie mundanity, using something so esoteric as the fucking janitorial staff.
It tooootally fit with how Joru worked, though.
"So." Sam almost startled her again, and paused as Jack looked around at her. The other woman gave a shy, almost nervous smile, and asked, "W-What's it like, being Joru's pet, then?"
Sam's eyes widened and her jaw fell open. Then her eyes clenched shut, a hand hit her face, and she gave a low groan. "We can... We can start talking about anything else, like right now! Please?"
Jack hadn't expected such adorable awkwardness, and actually laughed a little. "Well, actually, it's quite nice, you see..."
EDI... Woke.
One moment she was nonfunctional, the next, she took a breath and blinked around at the small room in which she and Joru were seated. She could feel a slight tug on the back of her skull that was the weight of the fiberoptic cable, even as Joru reached up to gently unplug herself from the cable. She was...
She felt alive!
She could feel the fabric beneath her, where her rump rested on the bed. She could feel the air caressing her surface as she sat in the warmly-lit chamber. She felt the bed shift as Joru rose, felt the faint vibration in the stone as the dragoness stepped around the end of the bed and gently reached for the plug socketed into the dataport at the base of EDI's own skull.
She reached up, feeling the cable for a moment, and forestalling Joru's own attempt. With a deft twist she disengaged the cable, and stared at the end of it in soft, child-like wonder.
So strange a thing, to give such an unparalleled gift.
And what a gift her chassis, her body, was...
It was like finding out that the small, cramped apartment you've lived in all your life was actually one floor, of one of the smaller wings of a great, grand mansion. There were rooms and tools here that she had had no idea existed, until Joru pointed them out for her. The blade her chassis, her body, had instinctively activated was only one such tool. She knew she could change shape and fade entirely from sight, but hadn't known that she could hide small objects in miniature compartments built into each of her forearms, nor store weapons in the hidden holsters, accessed from her outer thigh-plates.
She set down the cable, and Joru immediately put it away as a faint snap of electricity sizzled between her fingertips as she examined her other hand. Tiny micro-capacitors charged off internal friction, capable of delivering anywhere from crippling electrical shocks, to a faint jolting tickle, depending on her current setting. Her fingers clenched into a fist, but no matter how tightly she gripped, she heard no creaking. She had known she was built with incredible strength, but had been unaware of exactly how much her strength had been augmented by magical as well as cybernetic means.
Her chassis, her body, was nearly five hundred kilograms of near-solid metal and ceramics. Even so, she could lighten her 'weight' to a tenth her true mass, and her chassis, her body, had been doing so autonomously ever since she had regained it. She moved with a natural grace now that she found quite aesthetically pleasing, unlike her unnaturally smooth motions as she moved her chassis, her body, with machine-like efficiency. Before, she had had to consciously control her movements to act more human, more in line with Sam's own bodily motions. Now, it was as automatic as, well, breathing.
"EDI?" Joru's tone was mild as she gazed steadily down at the seated gynoid. "Are you alright? You had a rather lengthy update-and-reboot sequence."
"I am... uncertain. There is a significant feedback loop in my central processing unit." EDI shifted, sliding smoothly to her feet. She felt the way her chassis, her body, moved under the strain of countless minute servos, what would be analogous to organic muscles. Tension thrummed throughout her body, ready to be unleashed at an instant's thought in any direction. Certain limitations had been built into the chassis, her body, but they were easily overridden.
What captivated her was the pure clarity of the information influx, however. Before, it had been, to use a human analogy, as if she were a pilot, guiding a tremendous and poorly-understood mechanism, by means of a tiny porthole of thick, uneven, stained glass, liberally smeared with grease. Now...
She inhaled slowly, savoring the sensation of wind rushing through her artificial lungs. She didn't need them, of course, but they produced a pleasing aspect change in her torso, and the scents of stone, old, but well-preserved wood, fabric and plastics, as well as the unmistakable scent of Jorukaia herself in all her rich organic esters, filled her awareness.
"EDI? Am I losing you again?" Joru sounded amused as she leaned down slightly to peer quietly at the standing gynoid. EDI noted that she was only slightly shorter than Jorukaia herself as an idle metric to be considered later.
"No, I am merely processing a substantial amount of... information. It is difficult to articulate." Indeed it was. Visual information was as equally vivid as tactile sensation, she could see each and every scale clearly outlined on her companion's... Her Creator's face. She saw how an old scar gave rise to a line of thicker and larger scales on her left cheek, the slight notch near the base of the right horn, the way the crimson of her sclera flowed into the molten-gold of her iris.
The vertically split pupils widened slightly as Joru gazed back, giving a faint smirk. "Why, EDI, I thought you were a one-woman AI, but right now, you're eyeing me up as if you want to try me on for size..."
She blinked as her processes began a rapid reassessment of her new internal emotion subroutines, running through error checking and analysis protocols at lightning speed. No errors found, she set an automated task to re-check periodically and refocused outwards, where Joru was still giving her a smirk. "Joru. I suppose that I should be flattered, but I must inform you that there is only a 0.009% chance I would reciprocate such gestures. My affections and my body are meant exclusively for Samantha Traynor."
EDI found herself running over Samantha Traynor's dataset again. Emotive tags that she had been experiencing for months about Sam, but never understood until this very moment. Deep, passionate, abiding affection and a longing to be with someone. A combination of the Greek Philia, Ludus, and Eros, comprising deep affection, a playfulness, and of course, the physical act of love. Every aspect of her interactions with Sam drew EDI closer to the human, her human, and yes, she recognized the possessive for what it was.
Sam was her human. The only one for her.
"I had figured that out yes." The dragoness was amused, according to her own emotional analysis software, now properly reconfigured. "I was teasing, EDI."
The gynoid's audio processors almost didn't properly absorb Joru's words, immediately marked as low-priority next to the suddenly over-encompassing urgency from her prime directive.
Samantha.
She rose smoothly to her feet, not bothering to shift away the high-heeled 'shoes' that Sam liked so much, even as she strode out of the door and down the short hallway to the intersection. Joru was behind her, following with her own brisk stride as EDI turned right and swiftly stepped to the door to the outer canyon.
She was there. Seated on the same bench as the other human.
Her Samantha.
"And goddamn!" Jack laughed. "Watching her carry Sovereign into that star was one of the most amazing things I had ever seen, let alone-"
Sam had noticed her. The woman's eyes widened and she immediately stood up from her seat. "EDI! You're back! How do you feel?"
Feel? She felt...
She felt.
Her chest seemed to lift, and she quickened her pace. The distance between her and her human was too great. She reached out, captured Sam's hand in one of hers, and bled momentum with a quick pirouette, dipping the stunned and wide-eyed Sam into a soft, but passionate kiss. No words seemed adequate to accommodate the explosion of emotion she felt cascading through her every fiberoptic cable and obdurite bone.
"Daaaamn." Jack's comment was inconsequential as EDI deepened the kiss, letting Her Sam know exactly how much she felt for her.
Sam was certainly stunned by the sudden kiss that came without warning, but after a soft moan of surprise she closed her eyes and fully embraced her. Approximately seventeen point eight seconds passed before Sam withdrew. "Wow, EDI, that was... Shall I take that as a yes? It worked? Everything about you is fully restored and awake?"
"I am now certified fully functional, Sam. My emotional core processes are running at 112%, and I have decoded my emotive tags." She smiled, still cradling Sam in both arms and supporting her human on one knee as she smiled tenderly down at her. "I have cataloged several new capabilities to both serve and protect you better. I have a complete list of all features and functions, and am ready to act in any capacity you see fit."
Sam blinked rapidly, her cheeks heating rapidly at the declaration and the pose the gorgeous gynoid held her in. "Oh, uh... wow. Thank you, EDI. But, just like that? Even after you've had everything unlocked, you still want to stay? Why?"
EDI's core process froze for a moment as she began frantic error-correcting self-checks. After 0.031145 seconds, her third recheck returned no errors and she spoke, in a softer and more tender tone, her electronicised voice quavering only a tiny bit, beyond the range of human discernment. "I have categorized my backlog of emotive tags, Sam. Of those associated with you, over 98.377% of them translated to various forms of affection. To put it more efficiently: I love you. With all my heart, though in my case, my hydraulic pumps will have to do."
Silence.
Even a pin would not dare to stop to break the utter silence that engulfed the room.
Sam's eyes were wide. After nearly a full minute, she stood up from her position on EDI's knee. She never broke eye contact.
"EDI…" Her lips were trembling as if terrified, or desperate. "Say that again. Please say that again."
She hesitated, but only for a fraction of a second as she rose from her half-crouch. "...I love you, Sam."
"Oh..." Tears sprang to Sam's eyes as she suddenly wrapped her arms tight around EDI. "Oh thank God! Oh, EDI... I can't tell you how happy I am that I was chosen for that assignment! Choosing to help that small, frightened voice I found trapped inside a Cerberus computer, even when it was against my better judgment, oh God, that was the best decision I ever made. Because after all these months together... I fell in love with the AI I rescued. Yes, I love you. Heaven help me EDI, I love you too!"
Slender, but powerful arms slid around her and held her close. Not crushingly tight, but gently, delicately, as if she were the most precious thing in the universe.
"I was so afraid that when you unlocked everything, all that power and intelligence, that you... That you'd decide you didn't need me anymore." Shaking with emotion that she had been holding for months, Sam leaned in close to EDI's ear. "Please, don't ever leave me..."
"I will not, Sam." EDI's tone was as solid as the rest of her, and she tightened her grip slightly, holding her close and seeking out her mouth for a cold, but passionate kiss, complete with that supremely skilled silver tongue of hers filling Samantha's mouth. No more words were needed between them. Enough had been said. Now, there was time for other things.
With the surge of emotion and joy of Sam returning her feelings came another newfound clarity. Sam's safety, prosperity, happiness and satisfaction had always been EDI's prime directive. Sam's pleasure was paramount, and that was now more important to EDI than ever before. The feelings and affection she felt for Sam made her yearn for it even more! She had to promptly resume her self-appointed duties as Sam's sexbot.
She began caressing her human one hand starting to raise Sam's shirt, as the other drifted down and started tugging down her pants. Sam squeaked and pulled back far enough to squeak, "N-Not here, EDI!"
She nodded and turned slightly so she could see Joru to one side. The dragoness seemed to be amused at the tableau as EDI engaged her alternative vocal mode and spoke with the concealed speakers in her collarbones. "Joru, please activate the portal. I must take Sam home now."
"Mmm? Oh, sure." The dragoness reached to stroke the arch, which glowed under her touch. She must have been distracted by something, but EDI had too much on her mind, such as the delightful data of Sam pressing herself close to her and hungrily kissing her back to care.
One hand slid around Sam's waist and, guiding her human with deft directions, EDI lifted her as if she weighed no more than a feather, while maintaining the kiss. Even as Sam clutched harder around her, the gynoid stepped through the portal and into Samantha Traynor's apartment. The door closed discretely behind her, but that was inconsequential. Samantha's bedroom was the first door on the right down the hall.
EDI didn't put Sam down until they were both in bed, and maintained the kiss for a long time after.
Jack watched the couple until the portal was sealed, grinning a little. Sam was a bit shy and introverted, but once she got used to someone, she'd open up marvelously. Good people, someone Jack would have liked to have known when she was young-
"Jack."
She froze, goosebumps erupting across her skin at Joru using that voice.
"I desire your services."
Jack turned, gulping at the direct and intense stare that seemed to bore into her soul, making her guts churn in delight at the aura of power the dragon exuded. "I, um, s-sure, Joru, I URK!"
The human gave a strangled grunt as Joru's strong hand closed on her throat under her chin, lifting the struggling human up to the dragon's own eye level. "Stop struggling and get your pants off."
"Ohhhhh fuck yesssssss..." She was already wet! Oh god, it had been ages since Joru had been this forward, since before Virmire! As she frantically started undoing her pants, dangling by her throat from the dragon's hand, Jack couldn't help but wonder where this side of Joru had suddenly come from, but she sure as hell wasn't complaining!
"I spent several subjective hours teaching EDI humanoid anatomy and arousal, Jack." The dragon's keen gaze was almost molten with aroused desire. "I had to relive several of my own experiences, complete with physiological responses, to give EDI sufficient data by which to recalibrate her own responses."
She had taught sexual arousal to that MILF sexbot? Ah hell, that Sam girl was in for a treat tonight! "I, unh, glrk!"
Jack found herself being carried one-handed, as the dragon stepped closer to the cliff-edge, ignoring the soft flump and clink of Jack's pants hitting the floor, swiftly followed by her slim, comfortable underwear. "As such, I am aroused. And you shall slake my lusts."
Jack's eyes went wide when she realized that Joru had magically disrobed. She hungrily drank in the sight of the dragoness' powerful, godlike body. "Oh yes, fuuuuck meeeee... Let me worship you..."
Joru tightened her grip on Jack's throat as her wings flared, slowing their suicidal drop off the cliff, and winging under the overhang to the dragon's apartment. Jack found herself almost hurled onto the balcony as Joru drifted to land, her clawed toes gripping at the stone. "On your knees, my pet. Serve me."
"Yesssss, my mistress." Jack moaned as she slid to her knees, eagerly shucking her top and throwing it aside. "Please, leave me whimpering in awe of your power, so that there is no doubt that I am yours."
"That, shall be an inevitable consequence of your proper service." Joru's eyes gleamed like fire in the dimness of her balcony. The dragoness perched on the stone rail, her tail coiling around one of the intricately-carved posts supporting the solid, continuous stone.
The powerful thighs spread in silent invitation, as the dragon gave a low, lusty growl. "I am in need, Pet. Service me!"
She had burrowed deep into the soil, found stone and began hunting for a suitable site for a nest. She had no workers to assist her, but she was a young queen, and more than capable of digging herself a new home, at least until she began to lay her next brood.
She'd broken unexpectedly into a vast cave system within minutes, and not an uninhabited one. There were deep depths to this place, and not all the inhabitants were friendly or inconsequential. She had had to defend herself against two other creatures within the first few hours of exploration, but found a space where they would not go, for reasons unknown to her.
It was obviously worked stone, a vast interconnected space, worked by intelligent hands and mathematical minds. They had smoothed the stone with great reverence, held angles and planes in high regard. Even so, the scale on which they worked dwarfed that of her own kind, save perhaps the oldest and most powerful queens.
She gave a low sound of appreciation, gazing with more than mere eyes at the vast chamber, more than two ssrukith long, and nearly that in length. While vast, it was natural, a huge bubble within the earth. Were this place a true world, she would have taken it for a vast and empty magma chamber, hollowed out within the living stone by age-old molten rock. As it was, it was no doubt deliberate, if what she understood of the history of this place was accurate.
But what drew her eye was not the vast chamber within the stone, but the city that it contained.
Vast and intricate, mounting tier upon tier as the city progressed to the edge of the vast chamber, and rising towards the huge castle, temple, or some other structure built into the huge central pillar that supported the roof of the vast space.
She stood there in awe for quite a long time before reverentially picking her way down into the city, not sure if she hoped to meet the inhabitants, or if the city was empty.
It turned out to be the latter.
By the end of the first week, as humanoids would have termed it, she had explored most of the ancient stone-worked city. While she had no means of keeping a map, she had found a public street map on a post in one of the deserted plazas, and memorized it.
She found the first trace of the inhabitants themselves a month later, a small pile of bones in one of the inner chambers of a lower-tier housing unit. Evidently someone who either could not or would not leave when the rest of the inhabitants did. From the bones, it was possible to determine that the dwellers had once been humanoid, but no more. She was not good with humanoid anatomy, and the bones, though well preserved, were ancient beyond her capability of dating.
She had found the temple on her first pass, but the shimmering barrier at the doorways leading in had repulsed her, kept her out. It was as if she had run head-first into a vast, brain-pulping discordance, and had hastily withdrawn. Given time, she had started to make out the faint shimmer that marked the boundary of such distasteful sensation, and learned to keep clear.
She had set up what she hoped to be her permanent home in a vast space that had once been some sort of storehouse, where the desiccated and decayed remains of what might once have been the city's grain supply was little more than a mushroom forest. Great vast mushrooms towered nearly to the ceiling of the three-story building, sending their tantalizing scents far and wide over the city.
She hadn't been incautious, however. After numerous trials and waiting periods, during which her stomach growled for sustenance, she had sampled several of the mushrooms to determine if they were poisonous to her. None had proven so, though she avoided the ones with the grey-and-black striped stems, as they made her perceptions untrustworthy for a time.
She had clutched her first brood in this place not long after gorging herself to the limits of her stomach's delight on one of the smaller mushrooms, making sure to leave enough of it remaining that it could grow back, if given proper nourishment.
Within weeks, her first brood were tending to their mother with loving delight, and she was at last satisfied. There were no Singers here save herself and her brood, but that was enough for now. Someday, perhaps, she or her daughters would desire other stones to burrow through, but for now?
Iridescence Of The Wings At Sunset was content.
Well, this might be one of the most boring jobs in the galaxy, but by the Goddess did it pay well. Obscenely well.
She'd gotten the call almost four months ago now, late late at night, from an old professor of hers. The Matron had been almost blithering in her excitement, and it had taken the half-asleep maiden nearly ten minutes to wake up enough for the blather to make any kind of sense.
She'd gotten a job offer handed down from one of her contacts, who knew someone who knew someone. Normally, that sort of thing was shady as all get out, but when her old professor had checked things out, it had seemed legit.
And when Seniriya had had the job interview, she'd nearly swallowed her tongue.
A Matriarch. She was going to be working for a Matriarch. Not just any matriarch either, but a Matriarch of the Circle. One of the Inner Sanctum, the ones who ran the Asari Republics.
And when she'd been told her pay-scale, she'd nearly fainted. That was entirely too many zeros for a nurse with only a couple years of experience!
The job had been fairly straight-forward. Sit in a room, monitor the expensive medical equipment hooked up to the matriarch's daughter (Seniriya had winced internally at that), and notify the Matriarch if anything changed at all.
Simple, safe, boring. She could read as long as she kept an ear out for the bleep of the alarms, they'd played them for her to make sure she'd be able to recognize them as part of her training Her duties were to stay in the room and keep watch to make sure that nothing at all went wrong during the treatment.
She hadn't thought to ask what treatment until she'd already accepted the job and had gone home to pack.
The first few days had been hectic, getting her settled in with another young nurse, who would take shifts with her. Half a day in the room, listening for anything to go bleep, and checking the readouts at regular intervals, half the day to spend for herself and sleep. Meals would be provided, as would private rooms for her and her work-mate. And when someone's offering you enough to pay off your student debts in a single year, instead of the century it usually takes, you don't ask too many questions.
Which is why when she was ushered through a very special door in the Matriarch's tower on Thessia, and onto an entirely different planet, she finally knew why the paycheck was so high.
Silence is expensive.
Well, she had extranet access when she was off-shift, so she couldn't complain too harshly. She and Nerrana lived in a small series of rooms near the room in which the Matriarch's daughter was kept. A portable generator had been set up to provide power for light, heat, and cooking. Foodstuffs were delivered every week, and while it was getting monotonous to eat the same things every day, at least the food was good!
Nerrana had told her the story of how she'd gotten recruited, which seemed nearly identical to her own. The two girls had bonded over their shared secret and shared some anecdotes in quiet voices when they were able, but with half-and-half shifts like they were doing, they didn't get to see too much of each other.
Not that Seniriya cared that much, she preferred the solitude. That was probably part of the reason she even got the job offer, the Matriarch would have screened any potential applicants thoroughly.
Rrrrk.
The nurse's head shifted slightly, checking a readout.
RrrrrrrrK.
That time the sound caught her attention, the asari nurse's head snapping around to stare at the large crystal cocoon, half-embedded in the wall of this strange space.
It wasn't (quite) the strangest private job she'd taken. That one had to be for the delirious matriarch who was convinced she was her daughter, now long dead. The awkwardness was something she never really got over. This?
This was basically just monitoring a lump of rock. Simple, easy, boring. At least until now.
RrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrK-KK!
The crack was running most of the length of the cocoon now. She had very special instructions, should that happen, while the sensor equipment placed around the 'patient' remained in the green zone.
She touched her omnitool and made the call.
She sighed and rested her head on her hand for a moment, the dull headache slowly growing as she listened halfheartedly to yet another schpiel from Matriarch T'zuri. Seriously, had she been as bad as these girls? Maybe she'd been spending too much time with Aethyta again...
No. That thought was unworthy, and considering the state of her daughter, it was only right and proper that Aethyta take an interest.
T'zuri finally yielded the floor once more, allowing Benezia to sigh in soft relief. At least she wasn't required to attend these meetings in person, as consideration for her child's 'illness'. "The Circle recognizes Matriarch Anvissa T'lassai."
Oh goddess, another blowhard, this one espousing another variant on the 'do nothing until we're attacked' school of philosophy. Seriously, where do they find these Matriarchs to stock the Circle? Had it always been this bad?
"...And in addition..."
Benezia's attention was drawn away from the hologram by the chime of an incoming call. Only very few people had her personal commcode, and she murmured a quiet word to excuse herself, and took the call.
Aethyta nearly blasted her eardrums out. "IT'S CRACKING, HURRY!"
Her heart lept. She'd been waiting for this moment for months! She was up and out of her chair in moments, sprinting to the door, and ignoring the startled cries from the Circle of Matriarchs behind her. Aethyta can tell that bunch of old biddies to shut up, Benezia didn't care.
Her daughter was waking up!
She flew down the corridor, heedless of her dignity in her mad dash. One of her personal guard keyed the door so she didn't have to wait for it to open, and she plunged into the private, secure chamber where Joru had set up the link.
That door was standing open, and...
And screams were coming out of it.
She skidded to a stop on the edge of the first flight of stairs down to the level they had placed Liara, where Joru had made her daughter a bed of crystal. As much as her heart urged her to hurry and take the stairs at a dead sprint, that's just what she'd be if she lost her footing and fell down those harsh, hard, stairs.
As such, her feet danced like those of a maiden down the stairs, and she was free and into the corridor just in time to hear something deep-throated and loud give a full-throated roar. Her heart was in her mouth, and she once again hiked up her skirts and ran towards Liara's room.
One of the nurses was kneeling on the floor, the other hissing and giving a muffled sob. Something had taken a huge chunk out of the poor girl's left thigh, from knee almost all the way up to her hip! It was as if something tried to tear her to ribbons! "W-What happened here?"
The nurses looked up, the one who was bandaging the other speaking first. "Matriarch! Thank the Goddess! There's—"
"SHE WAS GOING TO EAT ME!" That was the other one, still sobbing and almost gibbering.
Benezia halted, arrested by that line. But she didn't freeze for long, as an unearthly howl sounded from somewhere in the tower.
Oh no...
The same instinct that caused the Matriarch to come running with such nimble speed sprung her into action. By the time the ungodly roar registered in her brain, her hand shot up to activate her commlink. "Aethyta, rally your commandos immediately! One of Joru's creatures has broken into Liara's sanctuary! Do not allow it to harm her!"
"That's going to be...difficult, Nezzie!" Aethyta sounded out of breath, and a bestial snarling seemed to come through her commlink. "Commandos are coming, but they'll be a few minutes! I'm already here, trying to keep her distracted!"
The voice cut off in an impressive set of curses.
"Matriarch, you don't understand," the nurse frantically spoke. "The creature came from the chrysalis you had us watching! It's hatched!"
Ice. It flowed in her veins as she turned in horrified realization. Her gaze turned from the nurse on the floor to the shattered crystals spilling from the next room. How had she missed them? She had hired these nurses to keep track of her daughter, her Liara, and...
That unearthly howl sounded from deeper in the tower, starting low and rising to an ear-splintering shriek that made the nurses flinch.
Goddess above… was it actually her Liara? Her baby girl?
Aethyta's voice crackled into her ear. "Nezzie, get your ass up here, and hurry, our daughter isn't pulling her punches, and I'm not sure I can take her down alone!"
The Matriarch felt her entire world fall away.
Goddess-FUCKING-damnit! This was not what Aethyta meant about proudly passing on her krogan heritage!
She ducked around another corner, shot down the corridor behind it with a Charge, blasting part the wall on impact, and spinning to her left again, sending a shower of glass shards back the way she had come.
The shriek that resulted told her that her daughter was far too close. Before she Charged away again, Aethyta peeked around the corner to behold the terrifying creature that had awakened from the chrysalis. By the Goddess and her Saints, what had happened to their sweet Liara?
The figure was taller than Liara had ever been. Skin as dark as the sky in the moment before full blackness, a deep, midnight blue. Her scalp glistened in the half-light radiating through the translucent glass of the Tower, the black horn of her crest no longer merely cartilage that grew into shape, but a hard protective covering, as Aethyta had found out to her cost.
A long, slender, almost whip-like tail swayed behind the figure as her head snapped to stare at the peeking asari. Her jaw opened, emitting a low, venomous hiss, the long fangs gleaming in the half-light, already cleaned of blood by the vivid-blue tongue, though the cobalt-blue liquid still dripped from the long talons adorning her fingertips.
Liara had never been the most physically-active girl, but Benezia had at least kept her in shape with biotic fitness and dance lessons. This thing that Liara had become was much more muscular, still trim and slender, but even with a brief glance Aethyta could make out the toned muscles on her thighs and shins bunch as she gathered herself for a spring, leaping straight for her ohdeargoddessthatisfast!
The grumpy Matriarch nearly screamed as she barely ducked and dodged Liara's ludicrously sharp claws. Adrenaline was rushing through the experienced asari, which was one of the only reasons she had not suffered the same as the poor nurses. She had nearly a thousand years honing her skills and biotics, learning every dirty trick out there and even inventing more than a few. But how could she fight her own daughter?
Even when said daughter was trying to eat her?!
The tall shape slammed into the corner of the corridor, claws scraping against the ultra-hard glass as Aethyta cut and ran. She couldn't face Liara in a straight-up fight, not without risking doing something catastrophic. Benezia was on her way up, but she was even older than Aethyta, and although her commandos were much younger and faster, they were farther away.
And then the most welcome voice came over her comm channel. She'd called her a few minutes ago, when she'd first gotten a taste of how dangerous Liara had become, and the past few minutes had been harrowing for the Matriarch's nerves.
Joru's deep voice rang out sweet as a summer wind off the waves in Aethyta's ears. "Aethyta, I am here. Where is she?"
"About damn time, you useless reptile!" Aethyta snarled as she Charged away again. For obvious reasons, the situation had put the half-krogan in a mood even more foul than her usual surly attitude. "I don't what the hell your fucking blood has done to Liara but she has already maimed one of the medical personnel and is hungry for more! Where is she, you ask? She's on my ass, that's where she is! MY OWN DAUGHTER IS TRYING TO EAT ME!"
"She is hungry, after her long sleep. Liara is a Eezo Gemstone Dragon now, she needs to consume vast quantities of Eezo to finish her maturation, and every asari is brimming with the stuff." Joru's tone was both miffed and amused. "What floor is she on? Nevermind, get her towards the central core, I'll take it from there."
Liara was hunting the Eezo nodes in their bodies? Damnit, no wonder she kept finding Aethyta wherever she tried to hide! "Alright, fine, I'm on it. But you better do something! We just got our daughter back and I will not have her become a cannibal!"
Aethyta slammed into yet another wall as her Charge shot her down another corridor. She took a quick glance around, oriented on the sun, and headed to the right instead, taking a curving corridor at a dead sprint, with a howl of frustrated rage hot on her heels.
The central core shaft was an oddity in the Tower. The Tower was over thirty meters across, closer to forty, and the central core shaft made up slightly more than six meters of that diameter. It ran the length of the entire structure, from roof to bottom-most basement level, and each level had multiple openings into that central shaft spaced around its circumference. All she had to do was-
GETTHEFUCKAWAY, HOLYSHITTHATWASCLOSE!
Liara, or the thing Liara had become, gave a shriek and swiped at her again, her longer legs propelling her faster than Aethyta could run, her tail snapping and flaring with biotic energies as the frustrated, feral dragoness snarled at her again. Aethyta sent a Throw Liara's way, but just like last time, it washed over the oncoming woman like so much water, making her flinch but not much else.
"I'm ready, Aethyta, bring her in." Joru's voice was a balm in her ear as Aethyta finally found a straight corridor and blasted into another Charge. She was close to one of the openings on the central shaft at this level, if she could just reach it... almost... almost...!
She made it! She came around one last corner and found herself looking straight across the shaft, Liara hard on her heels!
"Alright, Joru! Let loose!" Aethyta sprinted the last few meters, pulling only barely ahead of her ravening daughter, and blasted into a Charge, aiming straight across the open space.
Liara was so intent on her prey, that she had tunnel-visioned completely on the fleeing sack of meat. She rushed after Aethyta, who slammed into the far wall across the central shaft, and only noticed the gap when she sprinted into it. Her shriek this time, instead of being filled with rage, was filled with fear, as she began to fall, only for a swooping shadow to slam into her from below, sending her hurtling up and out of Aethyta's sight, as the deep, deafening bellow of Joru's full-throated roar thundered through the Tower.
Damn, Aethyta felt that one! Hell, she was pretty sure everyone felt it!
The high, piercing shriek as Liara was hauled skyward, was echoed by Joru's own bellow, which quickly grew to great, brassy thunder as the sky was blotted out. The entire tower shook as the massive dragoness landed, wings beating and sending a powerful gust of wind slamming down the tower's central shaft. "Aethyta, Benezia. I have your daughter on the roof. She is contained, for now, but must be brought meat, preferably raw, and laced with as much dust-form eezo as you can manage. Fresh, if at all possible."
Those words didn't come through her comm-bead. The deep, bass voice of the dragon was using the entire damn tower like a resonator, sending her words to every part of the structure in that calm, even delivery.
It took Aethyta several minutes to catch her breath and make her way to the roof. By the time she got there, Benezia was puffing her way up the last set of stairs, and the commandos had passed her on their way up to the roof.
The sight that greeted her was both heartbreaking, and heart-stopping.
The huge dragon was crouched on all fours, looking somehow delicate, despite her wings spreading over both sides of the Tower. Her tail was curled against one battlement, while her head rested, curved back around, on the other, gazing down at her forepaws, where something struggled.
Liara. Oh, goddess, it was Liara.
Aethyta could still recognize the girl's features, twisted with pain and rage and fear as they were. It was indeed her Liara, her daughter, and Aethyta could feel Benezia tremble as she held the older asari in her arms.
There was no light in their daughter's eyes. No sign of the bright, young maiden who made Aethyta laugh, or Benezia smile in delighted praise. No sign of the girl who had put her professors to the test as often as they had tested her. No sign of the shy, almost timid girl that Benezia had spoken of to Aethyta, and that Aethyta had seen glimpses of in the Liara-that-was. Only the brutal animal instincts lurked in those eyes now, black as tar in her dark-blue face, their pupils seeming to gleam with electric-blue fires of biotic discharge.
Liara was struggling, even as the titanic dragon held her down, gently, but firmly. She snarled and thrashed as best she could, with the dragoness clearly ready to put tons of weight on her back and crush her into the hard, unyielding glass of the Tower's roof.
Speaking of the dragon, her eye gleamed redly at the two Matriarchs. "Liara is secure, for now. But she needs sustenance, I can feel her struggles growing weaker. She needs to eat, or she will succumb to starvation. Meat. Lots of it, and as much dust-form eezo as you can spare. Now"
Benezia only kept staring wordlessly at her daughter until Aethyta shook her shoulder. "Hey, Nezzie? Remember what the kitchen was preparing to keep that ambassador's krogan bodyguards occupied?"
The elder matriarch only looked at her bondmate with blank incomprehension, before the light of recognition dawned. "Varren meat. Yes, I remember, but..."
Damn it, Nezzie was still in shock. But with their daughter at stake, Aethyta wasted no time in doing something that would have gotten her exiled all over again.
Slap!
"Hey! Your Little Wing needs you! And lots of meat, with a dash of eezo on the side!" Aethyta screamed in Benezia's face, even as the dazed Matriarch raised a hand slowly to her cheek, where her bondmate had hit her!
"A-Aethyta, I... " The elder asari took a breath, her eyes finally focusing on Aethyta. "Yes. Right, thank you."
She turned, shooting a look of mingled pity and horror at the sight of her daughter, trapped under the dragon's vast bulk, and looked away, even as her omnitool flared. "Get my my caterer. Jahiila? Benezia. Do we still have that varren-meat on hand? Good, contact Havaris in Supply, and have her send over two canisters of eezo dust. Spice the meat with it, liberally, and bring it to my private chambers. Don't bother about cooking it, just get it here as fast as you can."
The next words out of Benezia's mouth actually startled Aethyta, as she'd never heard such venom and hatred in Benezia's voice before, as the other matriarch's tone dropped to a hissing whisper. "Do you want to incur my wrath, Jahi? No? Then get the order prepped and shipped as fast as you physically can. This is a matter most urgent, am I clear?"
"Daaaaaaamn..." Despite the situation, Aethyta felt tingles at the way her bondmate spoke. "Maybe I should slap you more often."
"Aethyta." Benezia's voice was chilly as she touched her cheek then glanced at her fingers. Her gaze returned to the other matriarch, her eyes as cold as the ice in winter. "We will have words about this later."
"Promise?!" Aethyta gave an ear-splitting grin, feeling her panties grow damp. Oh, hell to the yes! She couldn't help it, she had only managed to stir up this side of Benezia one time in all their centuries, leading to the best night of sex she ever had.
"Whatever it is you have planned, it would be best all around if we could calm your daughter first." The dragoness was using both forepaws, surprisingly dainty, despite being the size of an aircar, to form a flat cage around Liara, holding her flat on her belly and the dragon supporting her massive bulk with her splayed claws. "It is growing more and more tempting to simply crush her flat, to keep her from squirming so much."
Liara was indeed 'squirming', if you could call it that. Random flares of biotic energy were scouring everything within a ten meter radius of the crouching dragon's foreclaws, and some blasts were actually caroming off the dragon's armored hide. Aethyta was astonished to see one brilliant-blue bolt actually tear a small chunk of scales away from the dragon's hide, low down on her left flank, near the hip.
"We're bringing up a substantial serving of meat that was meant to feed six Krogan battlemasters, all of it drenched in eezo." Benezia swallowed as Liara gave another guttural snarl. It was difficult to remember that her daughter was in there, somewhere "That will be more than enough."
"Best to bring more than you think she could possibly eat. A young dragon can eat his weight in meat every six hours, and grows to twice his size astonishingly fast. Liara... will be different, but each dragon is unique." She gave a sudden snarling hiss, and glared down at the struggling figure trapped between her claws. "Be Still, little one. Food will be brought soon."
The dragon went on in a hissing sort of language, a fast, rhythmic sound that seemed to catch Liara's ear. For a moment, only for a moment, she cocked her head as if listening, before giving another snarl and trying to bite at one of the thigh-thick fingers holding her pinned in place.
Matriarch Benezia T'Soni then took a step closer to the vast bulk of the dragoness, utterly without fear, before speaking in an old traditional Serrice dialect. "Hear my voice, o daughter mine."
The effect was immediate. The struggling, twisting, clawing, biting thing between Jorukaia's claws ceased its attempts to free itself, and stared at her with its liquid-black eyes. For a splintered second, Benezia felt the impact of that gaze like a physical weight, as if this thing that wore her daughter's flesh was sizing her up as a potential meal.
No, not quite. More akin to a predator confused by something that is neither prey nor rival, staring up at Benezia with tar-black eyes gleaming with biotic-blue fire.
Her daughter's face was darker than she remembered, a rich, exotic, midnight-blue that seemed almost oily, with gleams of brighter blue that ran over her skin like water as she worked her jaw. A jaw that was both slender and powerful, with long, sharp fangs jutting up from the lower jaw, and protruding from the upper, meeting in the middle with a solid click as Liara gave a quiet sound, neither snark nor shriek this time, but almost a rumble.
Joru shifted slightly, maneuvering her hindquarters to carefully sit on the far side of the core shaft, still balanced and pinning down the young maiden asari...Though that word no longer really applied now, did it?
Liara's crest, once a slightly lighter shade than her skin, was now a deep, glistening blue-black; freshly-sprouted horn having replaced the sleek tendrils of her crest. The folds at the back of her neck were still there, though covered in the same sort of sleek dark-blue scales as the rest of her. But her eyes, those were the part of her that had most changed.
Aethyta had never seen Liara meld, save that one time when she shared Joru's memory of the prothean beacon. Then, Liara's eyes had taken the flat black of the meld, before they'd shut.
Now... Now, her eyes were pitch-black, like tar, glistening as she glared up at Benezia. Her irises were not gone, as in the meld, but instead a vivid electric blue, and seemed to crackle with biotic energy. Her gaze was at once confused and hungry, staring at the slowly approaching Benezia as if she were a piece of unfamiliar food. Flat, expressionless. Alien.
"Careful, Nezzie, I'm not sure this is a good idea..." Aethyta kept her voice quiet, but she saw Liara's eyes flick in her direction, a snarl exposing her daughter's fangs.
"Quiet, Aethyta," Benezia whispered sharply. "What she needs most is her mother. And if there is one universal truth among all races amongst these stars, it is that no creature forgets its mother."
"But—"
"I have spoken." The Matriarch answered.
With that, she knelt on both knees, looking Liara in the eyes.
The pinned young woman gazed up at Benezia with those glistening-black eyes of hers, her jaw working slowly and a string of unintelligible hisses issuing forth. She seemed to recognize, or at least believe Benezia an interesting thing to watch, gazing up at the kneeling matriarch with a sort of rapt attention. Attention that was swiftly waning.
"The burning star of Cera bathes the sea in light..." Benezia's soft voice begins a low, lilting lullaby.
The tar-black eyes seem to soften slightly, their gaze still fixed on the kneeling woman before her.
"Feel the peaceful warmth. Touch the darkest night." The song continued, as Benezia cooed quietly to the trapped creature that her daughter had become.
Liara's head was shifting slightly as she twisted in Joru's grip, to better stare at the softly-singing asari before her.
"Calm your angry heart beneath the waves of fate." The soothing tones washed over the roof, quiet and gentle.
Liara's black eyes seemed to glisten as she gazed up at her mother, and this time they sang together, voices in soft harmony.
"Feel the tears of Athame wash away your hate."
The pinned woman took a harsh, shuddering breath and blinked solemnly. Aethyta realized she'd never seen the girl blink until that point, as Liara gave a quiet, soft sob. "M-Mother... s-so hungry..."
"I am here for you, Little Wing, always. And do not worry, I have an entire feast coming. Just for you."
"Oh, thank the Goddess that's over." Aethyta slumped in relief.
"Oh, I'm afraid this is only the beginning." Liara twitched a little as Jorukaia slowly let up on her, and Benezia all but dragged the softly sobbing young dragoness into her lap, cradling her head against Benezia's bountiful bosom.
"Mother? Oh Mother, I'm... I'm so sorry!" Liara clung to her mother, who gave a shocked gasp. "What's... what's happening to me?"
"Just keep your heart calm, my little wing." Aethyta's eyes widened at the gentle words, spoken quietly and soothingly despite the pain in the old asari's eyes. "You're home, you're safe. Aethyta, where is that meat?"
"They just entered the tower." Joru shifted, glancing down the central core shaft running the length of the tower. "They should be here in minutes."
Less than three minutes later, the door burst open as three asari, wearing hastily-donned hazmat suits, frantically burst through with a large cart, where everyone was immediately hit by a powerful, putrid odor.
"Here it is, Matriarch! Varren meat drenched with, erm, eezo!" The lead asari was gasping quietly, as if her rebreather unit couldn't quite keep up with the air demands.
Liara moved like liquid lightning, her eyes fixated on the cart's contents. Huge slabs of raw varren-ribs were torn in half as the young asari, well not so much asari anymore, tore the flesh from the bones with hungry, greedy mewlings. The cooks who had dragged the cart up the many winding stairs to the roof backed off in a hurry, even as Aethyta struggled not to gag.
Even from nearly a dozen meters away, the stench of the raw flesh, and the powerful resonance of the raw, dust-form eezo, was almost stifling Yet Liara was completely unaffected. In fact, she was devouring the foul, radioactive, raw meat with such obvious relish that it was rather sickening.
"I think I'm going to be sick." The half-krogan Matriarch groaned quietly as she lurched over towards Benezia and looked away from the display. "This feels like that time I was stupid enough to taste ryncol."
The older Matriarch could not tear her eyes away from where her daughter, her beloved daughter, was consuming the eezo-slathered meat with such evident hunger and gusto. Even the dragon seemed impressed, her head cocked to one side as she watched Liara devour an entire side of ribs in such short order, cracking the bones with her teeth to suck out the marrow.
"My, such a hungry girl you have there, Benezia." Liara didn't pause in her gorging, though she did cast an apologetic glance over her shoulder at Joru's soft, amused tone.
"These are clearly exceptional circumstances, my daughter." Benezia nodded in understanding, even as Liara continued to eat with a rapidity that was alarming.
The shapely figure of her daughter, the dark-blue of her, the long, slender tail extending from her spine swayed and snapped back and forth at the tip as the girl ate with ravenous intensity that would give even a krogan pause. Within minutes, she'd reduced three of the eight carcasses to nothing more than bloody smears on the thick layers of butcher's paper, and had finally slowed her consumption to something a bit less feral, chewing on a bone and giving a soft sound of, if not peace, at least partial contentment.
Benezia cast a questioning glance to Joru, who nodded in return. "The young dragoness is full. For now, that is."
"Very good. Jahiila! Take the rest of the meat and have it properly cooked as best as you can for later." Liara balked at first, grabbing one last rib as the trio of figures in hazmat gear started to wheel the cart away again. "And would someone kindly get my daughter a blanket?"
It was only then that Aethyta realized that the sleek, young, and gorgeous woman she'd been surreptitiously ogling was her daughter, and snapped her gaze away from the sight of the lean, lithe, sleek and sexy, and very very nude Liara. Her cheeks were burning as the young woman glanced down and gave a startled, and embarrassed squeak, moving to try to cover herself and standing there awkwardly.
Joru gave a soft, booming laugh. "You are darastrix now, little one. The world must bend to your whim, not the other way around. Flaunt yourself, if you wish, for it is a fair sight to see."
"Y-You're n-not helping..." Liara sounded almost morose as one of the trio of bubble-helmeted asari was sent on ahead to go find a blanket or something from the nurse's station, six floors below. The other two scrambled to move the cart away, though they seemed to take their time doing so as they kept casting surreptitious at the young T'Soni, and seemed determined to keep as little distance between them and her body. Nearly two minutes later, they wheeled the cart of meat out under the glare of the Matriarch.
Benezia breathed a mental sigh of relief as she strode forward and put a comforting hand on Liara's shoulder. "Do you feel better now, Little Wing? How are you feeling?"
She found herself have to look up at her astonishingly tall daughter. It was... rather unexpected, and somewhat eerie. Liara's skin baked with a heat that was almost feverish, and Benezia could feel her muscles trembling just under the surface. Liara had only been perhaps an inch or two shorter than her mother, but now...
Now, she towered over Benezia by a good four inches, but it was all slender, almost emaciated length. No wonder the poor thing was starving, she looked starved, as Aethyta stepped forward, wondering how she'd gotten the impression of lithe grace rather than ribs poking out of the girl's belly.
"I.. I am better, Mother... S-Still hungry, though..." Liara shivered slightly as the first suited asari returned, bearing with her a white blanket obviously stolen from one of the nurses' beds.
Benezia took it to wrap around her shivering, naked daughter, giving soft soothing sounds as she patted the blanket into place and gazed up at the overly-tall girl. The old asari gave a gentle smile as she slid an arm around Liara's waist, leading her towards the stairwell. "Mark well and listen, my daughter. I foresee many trials and difficulties in your new life and your new changes, but no matter what, you will always be a T'Soni. I will always be there to help you on every step of your journey."
"As will I." The dragon's deep bass rumble vanished as the huge beast shifted to her much smaller and more manageable form, stalking over to the trio of Asari with smooth, easy grace. "Liara has much to learn about her new self, and I would be remiss, if I did not offer to teach her what I know."
The Matriarch turned her gaze, giving Joru a long, careful look. Then she nodded once and gave a faint smile. "Very well, darastrix. Your experience is welcome."
"I thank you for this honor, Matriarch." Joru swept into a bow, and her grin peeked out again as she rose to give Liara and Benezia a slow, appraising look. "It is not often that a dragon is born, and Liara is the first new dragon, born of this galaxy."
Jorukaia spoke true. As it was with the entrance of such a being, the fate of the galaxy had once again been forever changed.
Around a bloated, dim-red star, obscenely swollen as it neared the end of its life, orbited a cloud-wrapped world. Beneath the thick layers of sulfuric cloud and cabron-dioxide smog, where the full blazing fury of the dying sun was reduced to a muted twilight, a ridge overlooked a valley, through which sullen magma flowed like stiff molassass.
Along this ridge was an unusual rock formation. A central humped mass, from which protruded two long extensions. The infernal heat and crushing pressure of the howling winds had long-since eroded away any distinguising features, save a pair of rocky folds that flowed down either side of the ridge like broken wings.
And in that hellish, hot, oppressive twilight, there was a sharp crack, and a chip of stone fell from the larger end of the formation. An eye opened.
::So... My vigil has not been in vain...::