Title: The More Things Change...
Chapter 8: Rocking The Boat
A/N: There's a lemon in this chapter. It's clearly marked so it can be skipped if you don't want to read it.
"Well this is boring." Eve blew a strand of hair out of her eye, the stray piece having been loosened after she was placed in a headlock by the drunken krogan that was currently passed out on the floor.
The giant reptile let out a heavy snore as if in response to the evil thoughts sent her way, lifting her head and smacking her lips as her eyes roamed the area for threats. None were to be found though, resulting in the dinosaur lowering her head again before her snores began to echo around the room again.
She scanned the absolutely trashed area, annoyed at the fact that she would end up being the one to clean it. Adam was normally good about keeping a clean room, his military lifestyle having carried over into his new bounty hunter career. Hungover Adam though, well he was a little less concerned about anything besides what he considered the 'immediate problems', and cleanliness was not one of them. The AI stared at her chosen human, affection bubbling to the surface as she thought about his defense of her earlier that night.
XXXXX
Truths had been revealed tonight, but they had been earned. Shepard had demanded that alcohol be involved as well, making the awkward conversation flow easier. Each truth required a shot before it was told, and each subsequent question also needed to be paid for with a shot by all who stayed to hear the answer. Ryncol was given to Chul, before Adam poured it for himself and Ballo as well due to their advanced healing. Garrus, Chloe, and the Asshole all settled for their own choice of alcohol, no one allowed to be sober tonight.
It started out with the elephant in the room: Yes, the two new girls were both AIs. Shots were taken.
Yes, he was from an alternate reality: Shots again.
Yes, he knew the future… kinda, but he wasn't willing to share it. Shots.
Yes, he was leaving for Andromeda due to how shitty this future was. Shots.
The silence afterwards was heavy as the room's occupants worked to process both the sudden reveals and the large amounts of alcohol in their systems. You could hear a pin drop before Garrus's head swung toward him. "This is what you wanted to tell us after we were on the ship towards Andromeda isn't it?"
Silence was his answer before his friend motioned towards his drink. The turian rolled his eyes in annoyance before pounding his drink in a single gulp, the motion mirrored by the other room's occupants.
"Yes" was the simple answer before Adam threw back his own shot while using the time to think. "I was worried about messing with the timeline initially, but you all deserve to know while there's still time to do something for your friends and loved ones."
Glances were shared between the audience, some thinking of family that would need to contact while others reflected on their lack of anyone to bother notifying.
Shepard took another shot before steeling himself to continue, followed by the rest of the team. It never registered that they didn't technically have to join him on it. "I can be selfish about this because I'm leaving this galaxy in a few months. The consequences of people knowing the future won't affect me one way or the other. This is your problem now. You have to consider if telling anyone will make their lives worse than them not knowing at all. Remember" he raised a finger, pointing it at Garrus. "There are groups out there that would do anything to suppress this from getting out. That's why I didn't want to even tell you."
Ballo frowned in concentration as mind worked to process these new parameters as he hiccuped, the ryncol hitting him harder than the others due to his light body weight. The STG would hunt him down for a thorough questioning and possible 'disposal' if they ever got wind of this. He would be unable to let anyone know. Shepard had pretty much guaranteed that he would join on the trip to Andromeda at this point, the others just hadn't reached the conclusion yet.
The scientist scowled as he looked at the human that had forced his hand, before his eyes panned over to the two girls sitting next to them. The redhead watched the proceedings with barely hidden amusement while the ebony female looked on blankly as if uncaring. "And why should we *hic* trust AI's after what just happened at the Citadel?" he questioned loudly, refocusing the others on something that could still be changed.
A gasp was heard from Chloe as she leaned in towards Garrus. The turian scowled as they both thought back to their fight for survival against Saren and his geth allies. "When you say AI…" the avian asked with trepidation, "you don't mean geth AI right?"
Zoe raised her hand, drawing the room's attention. "Ten million get are contained in this platform" she informed everyone factually. "We look forward to the exchange of information."
Shepard facepalmed at the geth's inability to read the room, working to push the ryncol induced green spots from his vision as he racked his brain for a way to save the conversation. Without warning, he was ejected from the couch as it tipped forward. He rolled clumsily before springing up and scanning for threats. He found a drunken Chul standing proudly with an AI girl trapped in a headlock under each of her arms.
"I've got em boss!" she cheered, before blinking as a shot glass beaned her in the head.
"They're our teammates dumbass" an electronic voice sounded from Asshole's omnitool, said batarian staring her down emotionlessly as he typed. "You're the one who we fought against recently. Now put them down before I forget which side you're on."
"Bastard" Chul muttered sullenly as she released her captives before righting the couch again and planting herself back down. She emptied her bottle of ryncol down her throat before reaching for a new one from the rapidly emptying cooler in the center of the room.
"Asshole" was the correction from the omnitool as the batarian went in search of his shot glass before giving it up for loss and taking a pull directly from his bottle. He didn't even care at this point about anything that was said. He had his own problems to deal with from the memory loss. The galaxy could burn for all he cared now that he had a new one to go to.
Shepard pulled Zoe up from her spot on the floor before depositing her on the couch. The geth regarded the krogan next to her for a moment before punching the reptile in the shoulder hard enough to earn a grunt of pain. "Studies show that krogan disagreements are not considered finished until violence has been exchanged by both parties." Kesh happily nodded before throwing an arm over the AI's shoulders and pulling her close in a one armed hug, a grin stretching across her face that reflected her joy of being understood.
"Anyways" Shepard said loudly, redirecting the conversation as he retrieved Eve, "Zoe's geth have broken away from the rest of the geth in an attempt to create a new collective in Andromeda. Their secondary goal is to eventually combine into one entity and evolve into a true AI. I agreed to let them accompany me and their safety and success is now my responsibility." he warned.
Ballo looked at Zoe with pity, before sighing heavily. "You're very brave to give up everything you know and turn against your very nature to attempt this. You have my full support. Ask if you need any help." The geth nodded in acknowledgement before returning to her blank look, the conversion clearly over in her mind.
"And what's her story?" Garrus asked, indicating the young woman who hadn't let go of Adam's arm yet. His brotherly instincts flared as he watched her get way too close to his sister's former lover.
"Her name is Eve Monroe. She was created by two of my good friends in the previous future and came back with me" Adam explained as he pried his arm from her grip before seating himself in the remaining seat on the couch. "They asked me to look out for her as she grew up which makes me her godfather."
"He's my partner" Eve chirped as she sat herself in Adam's lap, ignoring his annoyed look in favor of correcting his flawed explanation. "I'm going with him no matter where he ends up." She flexed the muscles subtly in her thighs and ass, squeezing Adam's 'omnitool' much to his discomfort. She grinned to herself as she felt it involuntarily rise against her butt before sliding back enough to trap it between her cheeks. Shepard valiantly attempted to ignore her actions, taking a huge drink of his ryncol that was matched by the rest of the group.
Garrus ignored all of this as his mind furiously swam through the alcoholic haze in an attempt to piece together the clues given to him. Her name was Eve Monroe. She came from the future with Shepard. Solana had mentioned something about a smart-ass pilot on the Normandy with the callsign of Joker whose real name was Jeff M…. 'BY THE SPIRITS!'
Garrus's head jerked up towards his friend, the most important question of the night on the tip of his tongue. He was caught dead by a look Adam was giving him, 'Shut the Fuck Up' all but screaming at him in his friend's glare. 'Well shit' the turian thought to himself as he sat back and took a drink. 'It looks like I'm stuck with one of his secrets now too.'
The night moved on as the group bonded over shared experiences and consumption of alcohol.
XXXXX
Eve rolled her eyes, unable to understand the attraction of intoxication. It seemed to lead to nothing good in the long run. Her opinion was obviously shared by her fellow AI, Zoe having stared blankly at her fellow team members before moving off to begin cleaning up the mess.
Eve took this as a sign that the party had officially ended, stooping to grab Chul by her ankle and dragging the krogan face down to Adam's office to sleep off her buzz. She was gentler carrying Garrus and Chloe back to their home, leaving them in their bed with the turian cuddled protectively around his wife.
She finished her last drop off before returning to Adam's home, finding it spotless with Zoe standing motionless in the middle of the room as she silently examined the snoring man sprawled out on his couch. "What now" was her simple question to her fellow AI, unsure what to do after the obvious objectives had been accomplished.
******** Lemon Sequence Initiated*********
"Now I introduce you to a new form of intimacy called snuggling" Eve responded with a giggle as she pulled Adam up, throwing his arm over her shoulder as she headed for his bedroom. She was quickly joined by Zoe as the girl took his other arm to help maneuver him. They quickly reached the large bed, setting Adam down on his back in the center of it.
"We fail to see the attraction organics have to this" Zoe commented as she observed Eve remove the man's clothes until only his boxers remained before pulling the blanket over him. The geth AI imitated Eve as she began to remove her clothes until they were down to their bra and panties. Eve slipped under the covers, using Adam's arm as a pillow as she faced him before throwing a thigh over his leg. Zoe copied the move on his other side, before looking questioningly to her instructor for the next steps.
The red-headed AI smiled happily as she cuddled into her partner. "This is a key part of being organic" she explained softly to Zoe as they looked at each other over the rising and falling chest. "We are used to receiving inputs we can quantify and use them to reach a desired outcome. I am willing to bet you haven't even explored the new senses supplied from the body I made you beyond sight, hearing, and possibly touch since they are the inputs you are used to from your geth bodies."
Zoe frowned at the mild reprimand, realizing the truthfulness of it. The other senses had been considered redundant and were effectively put into 'sleep' mode to limit unneeded data to process. Could this have been the wrong approach? She began to dedicate more and more geth to the senses before freezing as an avalanche of data arrived that took extra effort to process.
Eve grinned knowingly, recalling her first experiences with the sensory overload as well. "This is how organics truly see each other." She brought her nose to Shepard's chest before inhaling deeply, mimicked by Zoe a moment later. "Each thing has its own smell, even if the differences are subtle."
She rotated her head until she reached the edge of his armpit before inhaling again. "Sometimes there are different smells on different parts of the body from sweat, pheromones, and other reasons that all combine to create that individual's scent. Normally not all of them are pleasant, but when you truly care about an individual, they have a way of becoming something enjoyable all on their own."
She watched Zoe slowly sniff Adam in different parts of his body, starting at his head before slowly moving down to his feet, stopping to categorize a few areas around his chest and crotch. "This is the scent of our partner. No one will ever be able to match it."
She laid her head back down on his chest and shut her eyes. "Use your ears and listen to him. You can hear his heart beating strongly as it pushes blood around his body. You can hear his lungs pull in the air. Both of these change as he awakens or gets excited." She opened her eyes to see Zoe mimicking her, the geth inside cataloging the new data.
"Next comes touch" Eve grinned as she took Zoe's hand and placed it gently on Adam's chest before covering it with her own. Slowly she began to move the appendages across her partner's body, taking care to visit every area she could. "Feel the softness of his skin and the heat it gives off. His body hair was removed when he was rebuilt but that is normally there in various places on humans as well. Each of these contours are different muscles under his skin and they tell stories if you know how to read them. Each scar comes from an event that likely helped shape who he is."
Now it was time for the fun part. Slowly she led her fellow AI's hand downward past Shepard's navel and pushed it under his boxers until it was positioned over his flaccid penis. She closed her hand softly around Zoes, forcing her to grip the cock. As the geth AI stared intently at what was in its appendage, Eve moved downwards before slowly sliding Adams boxers off over his feet.
"Feel how soft it is in your hand. Take a moment to smell the area as well. Imprint it inside of you." She watched as Zoe followed the instructions slowly, even rubbing it against her face momentarily. "That's good. Now lightly stroke it in your hand while monitoring your grip to not cause any harm. See how it's responding to you and growing to a larger size?"
Zoe nodded, extra geth were added to help assist in processing her senses. No input would be missed.
Eve's grin amped up as she watched her pupil explore the body in front of her. "Now comes the last of the five senses, taste. Are you familiar with what I am referring to?" she questioned, wondering just what the geth would do.
Zoe slowly nodded, looking up at her even as she kept her hands moving. "We are familiar with acts of fornication due to various pornography found on the extranet. Use of the mouth to perform sexual acts is desirable for both human and asari." She lowered her head towards the penis while opening her mouth to duplicate what was shown in the videos. A hand to her forehead stopped her progress though, bringing her up short.
Eve shook her head as she regarded her pupil. "This isn't about duplicating what you have seen on videos, even if they lead to a desirable outcome. Go down between his legs, close your eyes and slowly take the penis in your mouth. Use your sense of taste and smell to categorize what you experience."
Zoe followed her instructions, laying down between Shepard's legs and propping herself up on her elbows. The penis now rested directly on her forehead as she used her hand to grip it before slowly sliding it down her face to her lips. The contrast of its pinkness compared to her dark brown skin was cataloged with its scent and physical features before she slowly inserted it into her mouth.
She froze again as a drop of precum fell from the tip onto her tongue, the various taste buds all registering it and sending their findings to her brain. She slowly circled the tip with her tongue to see if she could find any more of it.
"Open your eyes" Eve instructed, "Watch his face now as you slowly bring more into your mouth. You can use it as input for how he is enjoying the experience." Zoe opened her eyes, watching as Adam's slack face began to twitch as she slowly inhaled his length. She didn't stop until her face met his pelvis, registering that her throat was now bulging as the penis was now partially lodged in it. She swallowed around it, listening to him sigh in contentment as her throat muscles fluttered around his length.
"Very good" Eve praised, running her hand through the other girl's hair softly. Zoe was momentarily surprised by the new input, the geth categorizing it under affection. "Now" the redhead instructed, "slowly rise back up while applying gentle suction before repeating the action."
Zoe's head slowly rose even as her checks began to hollow out. She felt the penis twitch inside of her mouth in response. She repeated the action a few times before freezing as a hand was placed on her head. She let the penis fall from her lips as she awaited further instructions before realizing that it was Adam's hand on top of her head, even though he was still asleep.
"It looks like he's telling you where he wants you to go next" Eve observed from where she was kneeling by his stomach to watch. "Allow his hand to guide you and continue to use your mouth." She took advantage of the situation to place her own hand around the cock and gently stroke it while she watched the show.
Zoe was slowly pushed down until the ballsack was directly in front of her face. Imitating what she had seen on the extranet, she slowly took one of the testicles into her mouth. She applied suction while slowly licking it with her tongue as it sat in her mouth. After a few minutes, she released it with a *pop* and listened to him groan in pain and pleasure before repeating the steps with the other testicle. Her sense of taste and smell was overloaded at this point with his sweat and musk, barely able to keep up with processing all of the inputs she was receiving.
She heard a feminine hum of pleasure, drawing her eyes upward to find Eve now sucking on the penis. Zoe watched her work, cataloging the differences as she worked to take both of the testicles into her mouth at once. She achieved her goal much to the pleasure of her chosen partner; realizing that she now categorized him as that instead of a simple companion. The hand now cupped the back of her head, holding her in place and encouraging her to continue her ministrations.
After a few minutes, she watched the cock begin to twitch more frequently in Eve's mouth. The hand had been removed from her head and returned to its original position on the bed, though she had stayed in place and continued her work. Not letting up on her sucking, Eve placed a hand on top of Zoe's head, slowly pushing downwards. Zoe slowly released the testicles before licking under them.
Eve adjusted her grip, pushing Zoe's head further while pulling her inwards. The ebony AI followed the lead until she found herself directly in front of Shepard's ass. She looked upwards, only to see an encouraging smile from her fellow AI before her head was lightly pushed again and the testicles covered her vision as they rested on her forehead. Going with the flow, she stuck her tongue out and ran it over the hole, cataloging the new taste before going deeper even as she felt his muscles try to fight back against her and push out the invading appendage.
She noticed his twitching get even sharper as she continued before the ballsack on her face tightened up into itself. A squeal from Eve prompted her to raise her head up and observe the redhead as she swallowed quickly while her hand pumped the base of the penis. It finally stopped twitching, allowing Eve to slowly release it from her mouth before turning to Zoe and pulling her close.
The Ebony AI was confused as Eve pressed her lips to her own before she felt a flow of fluids slowly pass between them. It was the same taste as what she had gotten from the liquid from the cock but multiplied by a factor of ten! She quickly rolled it around in her mouth before swallowing it, noting how the texture felt as it flowed down her throat. It was then that she realized that her tongue had been working independently as it continued to do battle with Eve's while their mouths were still connected, working to find any more of the liquid inside her fellow AI's mouth.
Eve slowly pulled away, much to Zoes disappointment at the sudden lack of sensations and further input. The Redhead AI gave a soft smile before leaning down to give the shrinking penis a quick lick. "How was it for you?" she asked quietly?
Zoe repeated her action, licking the asshole and ballsack upward to the tip of the currently rising penis as she formulated a response. "The exchange of data was very enlightening. I would categorize it as enjoyable." She paused before cocking her head to the side. "Will there be repeats of this experience in the future?"
Eve nodded enthusiastically, "It's almost guaranteed. The three of us won't die of old age. Even if he gets another partner, we can document their interactions before picking back up where we left off afterwards." She pumped her fist in the air in celebration. "That's what it means to be his partners. We'll always be there."
She paused as she stared at her fellow AI, "Are you sure that is what you want?" Zoe considered for a second, all the Geth inside of her reaching consensus quicker than normal. She nodded emphatically; her decision made.
"That's great! I'm sure Adam will be excited to hear it" Eve chirped happily while looking over her shoulder at her partner's content face. It looked like he had lost a year of stress in the last hour. She turned back around before rising up to her knees, her figure on full display in her bra and panties. "Now let's switch positions. This is my first time doing this as well and I want the full experience too."
Zoe complied.
XXXXX Lemon Sequence Terminated XXXXX
Chloe moaned lightly as she gingerly sat down at the ramen bar, wanting nothing more than to crawl back into bed and hide from the world. Unfortunately, Garrus had decided the bathroom was just too far away and decided to puke on the bedroom floor instead. She needed to vacate the disaster area quickly before she lost control of her own stomach, grabbing a fresh outfit and running from the clinic as quickly as possible.
She powerwalked to Adam's office, using the emergency code to get in and have some privacy while getting dressed. After that was accomplished, she realized there wasn't much for her to do. She retrieved a bag of ice from the empty alcohol cooler in the corner of the room before shooting the fellow human on the team a request for a meeting and heading out to the restaurant.
"Never drinking again..." she mumbled to herself, while holding the bag of ice against her head and wishing she couldn't hear her own pulse.
"Well don't you look lovely as always" came a sarcastic remark as Shepard sat down next to her at the bar. The man was dressed in a simple pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt bearing the logos of the top three gangs on Omega. The Blood Pack's design was crossed out by a bloody 'X'. Chloe refused to answer with words, letting her spite do the talking as she took a handful of ice from the bag and dropped it down the collar of his shirt.
Adam leapt off the stool with a completely dignified and manly screech, desperately shaking out his clothing to dislodge the frozen torture devices. "Not funny" he gripped as he retook his seat before signaling to the server for two orders of ramen for himself and his companion. "What's got you in such a bad mood?"
"Your chipper attitude" was Chloe's quick response as she propped herself up on the table with her elbow as she regarded her dining companion. "I know you drank way more than I did, and ryncol at that. You should be passed out in a pile of vomit right now, even with your advanced healing." She narrowed her eyes at him, "Are you holding out on me? I'm your doctor Adam. I need to know if something's changed."
He shook his head quickly while averting his gaze to the crowd milling by, "I promise I'm not. I just woke up feeling insanely refreshed for some reason like a lot of stress had been removed from my life. It must just be because of our conversation last night." That and there was no way in hell he was admitting to waking up being sandwiched between two women in their underwear.
As if reading his mind, Chloe frowned at him. "What was with your goddaughter anyways? Her behavior towards you wasn't how family is supposed to act.
"You're telling me," Shepard muttered in agreement. "She's an AI Chloe" he explained, emphasizing the word. She develops at light speed compared to us humans. She already passed through childhood and her teens in less than a few years. Now she's ready for more adult things like intimacy and doesn't want anyone else but me to experience them with. I think the only reason she's held off this long was because I was with Solana until now."
"She and I are having a talk later" the doctor promised, "she needs some stable female presence in her life." She mock glared at Adam again, "And you better keep your hands to yourself for now and not lead her on. I know how you can be with females of a different species, Mr. Manwhore."
"Excuse me?!" said manwhore exclaimed, feeling the need to defend himself. "Funny that you call out a species fetish 'Ms. I-married-a-the-first-turian-to-hit-on-me'."
"I didn't see you telling Solana 'no' either" was Chloe's counterattack, her nose pointed snootily in the air. "Besides, I'll have you know that the Vakarian family is very proper with none of that deviancy that you'd see in the lesser rabble." Shepard nodded along sagely, not wanting to interrupt her tangent.
Behind them, a turian was walking along holding a large package that obstructed its view. The avian rounded a corner at high speed, only to trip over a volus that had stooped over to pick up a credit chit from the ground. The bird fell to the ground with a loud screech of surprise, unaware of the two humans in the restaurant next door who both sat up ramrod straight.
Shepard squirmed in his seat as he subtly attempted to adjust his raging erection that had come out of nowhere. Movement in the corner of his vision caught his eye, prompting him to turn his head and catch Chloe trying to hide her rock-hard nipples that insistently poked through her shirt. They silently examined each other before erupting in laughter.
"I see that you've been trained too" Shepard observed with a grin. He offered up a high-five which was eagerly returned by his doctor.
An alarm sounding on her omnitool killed the moment as she moved to turn it off. "Time to open the clinic" she griped, pushing herself away from the counter and grabbing her ramen. "I need to finish the final physicals on my patients before I turn them over to Mordin. More and more of them are starting to come down with something and he needs to be ready."
Adam sweated internally, aware of exactly what that virus really was and praying his team didn't catch it before they departed. He had forbidden them from going into the lower wards of Omega just in case. "Not much longer Chloe. Then we'll finally be prepared for our next great adventure." She gave him a quick smile before disappearing into the crowd.
Resigning himself to being alone for a bit, Adam brought up his omnitool to go through the emails he had missed in all the excitement over the last day. Aria, Aria, Spam, Aria, Fornax, Jien Garson… He marked Jien's message before deleting the rest of them. The silence around him finally registered, the lack of people screaming that something was wrong.
"So you're deleting my messages without even reading them now?" a familiar voice asked, feminine yet husky and all rolled up in a promise of violence if he answered wrong.
Shepard sighed to himself as he stowed the omnitool and looked up to his left. Aria was leaning on her elbows against the counter, her chest thrust out and lips in a pout even though her eyes still threatened danger.
Her guards were strategically positioned around the market, directing foot traffic away while acting like they weren't eavesdropping on the conversation. Bray made no such attempt, positioning himself at the entrance to the restaurant and staring a hole through the primate his leader was talking to. His finger stayed outside the trigger guard but occasionally tapped against it as he imagined what he could do if given the chance.
"I deleted them when I saw you coming towards me" he lied through his teeth, knowing she didn't care enough to call him out. "Why read it when I can hear the words come from that sexy mouth of yours straight to my ears oh Queen of Omega?"
"If your objective is to make me need a cold shower, you're a few hours too late" he observed sotto voce. He made a show of looking her up and down, noticing that her pants seemed a size too small instead of her normal pairs that were perfectly sculpted onto her. Her shirt was a step away from a tank top, the asari's purple bust literally pouring out of it leaving little to imagination even as she tried to cover it with an unbuttoned coat that ended above her navel.
Her face flushed a darker purple around her cheeks as she looked away quickly, her arms folded under her bust. "I lost most of my clothing when Omega burned down. This is my daughter, Liselle's outfit." He gave a low wolf whistle bringing the smirk back to her face as she stood up straighter.
The store proprietor took advantage of the moment of silence to slide Shepard his ramen before turning the sign to 'closed' and hurrying past Bray out of the store for an early break. Adam unwrapped his chopsticks, breaking them apart and rubbing them together to remove any splinters. He swung his chair around to the counter before a hand on his shoulder brought him back towards his sometimes employer.
"We weren't done talking" Aria commented before turning around and placing herself in his lap. She swung them back around to the counter before taking his chopsticks out of his hand and leaning over the bowl with her backside firmly pressed into him. "Here" she offered, turning to offer him the first bite of noodles, her lips pursed as she blew air on them to cool them off.
Adam took the bite savoring the flavor as she turned back around, only for her to remain facing away as she began to eat his food! He began to move, only for her to push back roughly against him with an audible growl that made him freeze. The human sat there unhappily as the most dangerous asari on the station wiggled around happily in his lap while eating his food. His stomach gurgling behind her just made it taste all the better as she smirked while devouring it.
She let out a small belch as she leaned back into him, content that her power had been reestablished. She had not liked the dynamics of the previous conversation. It didn't feel right unless she was the predator and everyone else was prey.
"It's time for you to get back to work" she ordered, bringing up her arm and forwarding him a message. She waited for it to show up on his omnitool, staring at it until he sighed and opened it to make sure he had read it. "This one is time sensitive."
"I'm not taking new jobs right now Aria, you know that" he quickly responded before she could steamroll him in the conversation. "I'm completing my last contracts now before I get ready to move on."
"This is happening Adam" she insisted, her hand rising upwards to run through his hair before she gripped it in a fit and brought the man down to her level. Curse him for being so tall. "Commander Shepard is on her way to the station in two days and Cerberus has called ahead and offered me a ship load of money to give her the help she needs while she's here. And by the Goddess, you will be that help!"
She released his hair before leaning back again into him, grabbing his arms and crossing them over her stomach as if nonverbally ordering him to hold her. "I don't know where you got the silly idea in your head that you're leaving Omega, but you need to remove it now. The only place you're going is officially into my chain of command, directly under me if I can swing it" she said with a smirk.
"No can do Queen" he refused, before picking her up and spinning her around before setting her on the counter so they could be eye level. "I'll help you with the Shepard job out of respect for both the commander, and to square up with you on favors owed. But I have plans and a dream to work towards that require me leaving this pit for greener pastures."
"You're mine Adam, you just don't know it yet. That turian harlot is gone and you no longer have any reason to deny me" Omega's queen declared as she took hold of his cheeks in her hand before leaning in and kissing his forehead. He was unaware but she had just publicly marked her territory for all to see. "As for dreams, I've already achieved mine when I took control of this station. Trust me, they're not what you hope for. Once they're over then all that's left is you and your ambition."
He gently removed Aria's hands before standing up from his chair. "Solana is traveling with Shepard Aria. We'll be seeing her sooner than you think." He turned to leave before glancing over his shoulder at her rising anger. "If you already completed your dream, then find a new one. You still have hundreds of years to live. It'd be a shame if the Queen already lost her drive."
Bray moved forward to block him from leaving, only to stop as Aria gestured to let the human go. She stared down at the floor, rolling his words around in her head. Was it time for a new dream to dedicate her life towards?
Shepard power walked back towards his quarters, his omnitool up as he typed as quickly as possible.
To the Employees of S,V,V, and A: You have two days to be packed and ready to leave the station if you intend on joining me. Place all affairs in order for we will not be returning. And for the love of God, stay the hell out of the lower levels. We are not contracting plague before we leave.
A/N: So to answer a few PMs: Yes, I'm back. No, I'm not dead. I was gone because shit happens like an outbreak and homeschool for my kids. Yes, I'm currently working on the next chapter of Like the Galaxy.
Sorry to everyone who had to reread this to get back up to date again. I'll be going back and cleaning it up some time later. That and Red Dead Redemption 2 is awesome. Enough said.