Chapter 4

new masters, old slavery

Chapter four. Soon Shepard's meeting.

As always I do not own etcetera etcetera….

T'von own personal quarters. 29 January 2183. 7 32 local hour

"These are….very interesting videos, my dear associate." said a very intrigued and amused T'von after looking at the content recorded inside Aran's omni-tool and the smuggler's hope of survival skyrocketed after hearing such a phrase. The return's trip to Omega had lasted five hours because of the distance of the space station from the unknown planet he ended up; a long time, even with the mass effect relays, a time that passed in religious silence with Aran interchanging between watching trough a camera Lena's reaction and driving the ship, and Lena and Raina trying to get some sleep and be ready for whatever was in store for them.

The first thing Aran had done after reaching orbit was sending a message to one of T'von's associates, a certain Salarian called Illish, containing four single words.

I have found it.

So when Aran entered inside the enormous space station's hangars he was not surprised to see at least two dozens of mercenaries with Aria's insignias waiting for him near the exit. What he did not expected was to be invited inside T'von's chamber instead of simply dropping them his cargo and be done with this story. The guards had been quite adamant about their orders, and half a dozen of them even remained next to the ship with the explicit order to kill whoever only tried to take a peek inside it.

Aran's welcome this time was quite different from the last: instead of dozens of mercenaries and torturers, or simply be forced to be chained to a chair, the young smuggler found a beaming T'Von formally dressed in black and white robe and a bottle of Asari's brandy almost five hundred years old along with crystal glasses ready to be filled.

"Aran! My boy!" greeted him T'von with a roaring voice "I knew you would have been able to pull this trough! Although I am quite curios to know what kind of creature have you brought back from your travels. You remembered my orders, didn't you? No Krogan or Asari or biotic in general."

"I remembered them, mr T'Von, and I have not broken them. I think you will find the recording inside my Omni-tool quite interesting." had been Aran's secure answer. The viewing of such videos lasted almost half an hour, with T'Von looking at them in total silence and a focused face over and over, checking for hidden clues and possible tampering with the same calm that learned during his military career. His face was an unreadable mask, impossible to decipher and for some long, interminable moments, Aran feared that T'Von was finding his prize wanting and for a second considered about trying to run away, only to remember that just outside the door, assuming he could overpower with only his bare hand a full grown Turian, at least three guards were ready to attack.

So Aran's relief at hearing T'Von's satisfied words is quite understandable.

"So….are we fine?" asked timidly Aran hoping for the best "I deserve to live? Can I have my reward?"

"Not yet." answered T'Von with a smile that immediately sank all of Aran hopes in the gutter "The package you have brought with you is certainly interesting, I have never saw a human capable of doing what I am seeing, but I would like to have a chat with it and test it before buying it. Not that I do not trust you, with the poison still coursing inside your veins and the fact that you have not tampered the recordings, is just that gladiators need not only to be strong and fearless, but also to possess a great will and force of character and I am sure that a nice chat will help me understand if this peculiar human has what it takes to survive inside my arena."

"I understand, Mr T'Von." said Aran with a small sight, he was still not out of the woods yet "So when do you want to meet her?"

"Now. I will bring with me a dozen of my personal guards armed with stun ammunitions just to be sure."

"If I may, it would be better to bring also a translator device. The girl does not possess one so she will not understand you if you try to talk with her. A second thing, that girl is not alone; I have brought with me also her daughter and locked in another cell near her, I am using her to keep under control the mother."

"Really now?" questioned T'Von with a small smile "Keeping the Varren on a leash by using its pup? Good thinking from your part Aran, you have probably just gave me the lever to keep her under my command. I will give you an extra reward for this!"

T'Von want up from his chair and barked some orders next to his omni-tool, calling for Illish and his guards. In less than two minutes everyone was ready and the small company headed to Aran's ship. No one tried to stop them, T'Von was a face quite known inside the space station and generally no one on Omega is stupid enough to mess with a dozens of heavily armed soldiers.

"After all of this is finished, my dear Aran" said T'Von during the walk "You will receive three hundred thousand credits and privileged channels with most of the Eclipse' suppliers. After all you are the only one who has brought back to me something decent in a while."

Aran almost lost his footing after hearing the giant sum he was about to receive. Three hundred thousands credits! By god Lena, surprise the bastard please!

"Here we are." said Aran to his small company after entering inside the ship and showing his secret storage room "If you do not mind I prefer staying behind and not meeting her during your chat."

"If you really wish this." conceded T'Von "Wait here, I will be done in a minute."

-I have some doubts about that.- Though Aran with a small smile remembering the unusual power of her prisoner. Not that he really cared at this point.


Ten hours. Ten long and excruciatingly had passed since Lena awakened from his slumber only to discover that had nightmare had gripped both her and her daughter in an iron grip. The chamber where they were held was dark and cold, the manacles were bruising and injuring both their ankles and wrist and the chains were keeping them forcefully prone, but Lena was not scared: she was a Claymore, the organization had done much more terrible thing to her when she was only ten and still not managed to destroy her will; all of this was only annoying for her. She had to be strong, for her vengeance and for Raina. She only needed the right moment to strike and then…

"Mum." said Raina in a shaky voice interrupting her train of thought "That wall is opening." It was true, one of the section of the wall just some meters away from their cages was churning and retracting on itself without a noise, showing a large aperture from where a dazzling light temporarily blinded both Lena and Raina. Lena's ears counted at least twenty feet coming near her, and some kind of strange, striding sound never heart in all her life and her body instinctively accumulated small quantities of yoki, just enough to be ready to kill with her bare hand if necessary.

When her eyes accustomed themselves to the new light the Claymore for the first time in hours stopped thinking about her revenge only for staring in total disbelief and what she was seeing.

Twelve people were now inside the room. Ten were humans, both male and females, encased in medium armors made of polished steel similar to the one possessed by Aran and armed with strange, round and elaborate cudgels of various size and possessing a hole at their ends. None of them were wearing helmets, showing anonymous faces and easy to forget, but all of them were clearly some kind of military force. Mercenaries maybe, judging that every one of them had different themes painted in their armors. The other two creatures were bizarre in the extreme: one was a giant bird-like creature covered in black and white dress and almost two meters tall. His skin was beige, scaly and rough, and strange fringes adorned his long and alien face; two small, lizard-like eyes and bird like legs completed the image. The second was plain strange: barely one meter and half tall, his skin was dark green and opaque; its face was not round but elongated and ended with two cartilaginous horns; its eyes, enormous and toad-like, were looking at her with an unreadable expression. It was dressed with a white coat and one of his three fingered hand was holding a rectangular device smaller than a pinky. Both of them were not emitting the minimum shred of yoki energy so they were not yoma.

-What are those…..things?- asked a bewildered Lena to no one in general. They were so alien, but at the same time they were some kind of civilized creature judging by the way they were dressed. Maybe the famous dragons's descendants coming from beyond the island? Had she been brought so far away from home?

The strange bird-like creature said something in a guttural voice and, to Lena's astonishment, the humans understood him because one of them opened both Lena's and Raina's cells and started taking out the manacles that were keeping them in check. Raina was clearly terrorized but did nothing stupid as trying to struggle for Lena's relief. Lena did not acted in the beginning: she had to wait, wait until Raina was free from restraint; only then she would have attacked. After all Is the patient hunter that get the pray.

The first of Raina's set of manacles fallen down with an audible clank, both the child's wrists free once again, but Lena still remained silent. Another manacle was unlocked and still Lena was unmoving, her silver eyes the only prove that she was alive. The mercenaries looked at them with an unease expression: they were expecting the prisoner to try to squirm away or fight in some way, not to stare at them like that. Only the strange bird was not surprised, his strange face almost looking at her in….expectation? Lena was not sure about it.

The last chain holding Lena's legs clattered down with a small rattle, just when the other humans finished freeing Raina from her restraints.

-Now!- screamed Lena's mind in fury, and so she acted.

In the span of a single second Lena shattered the last chain holding her wrist using a surge of yoki energy and hit with a bone-shattering punch the nearest mercenary in the face, breaking his nose and most of his face in a squelching sound. A second mercenary received part of the chains still attached to Lena's wrist straight into the neck and fell down on the ground kicking and coughing, his windpipe shattered; a second later he was comatose, the shock too great to handle. The others mercenaries witnessed such gruesome spectacle with surprise and lost precious seconds before raising their guns, seconds that Lena quickly capitalized. A third mercenary fainted after receiving a destructive kick straight in the face and ending her run on a wall, breaking most of her ribs in the process. A fourth one almost managed to level his weapon and fire against Lena but the Claymore bested him in a second and ripped from his grip the gun ready to fire; half a second later said gun crashed against the mercenary's head with a squelching sound of mashed brain.

"Leave me alone you monster! Mum, help me!" cried a terrified Raina, getting Lena's immediate attention. The bird-like creature was firmly holding her with a taloned hand and pointing with its second hand a small version of those strange tubular cudgel next to her face. All the remaining mercenaries were also protecting it with a ring of armored bodies.

For a second Lena considered the idea of lunging against the beast holding her daughter and rip it to shred, but the girl knew that this time the mercenaries would have been ready to attack her and at this point she was already suspecting that these strange cudgels were some kind of ranged weapons, especially considering that they were pointing them at her in the same way of a soldier would use a crossbow. The small cudgel was next to Raina's brain, was she really ready to risk Raina's life? No, definitely no!

Resigned, the Claymore left what was left of the gun she had just borrowed and showed her empty hands in defeat. Immediately the bird-like creature handed the terrified Raina to one of his soldiers and said something to its men. Two of them immediately moved next to Lena, forcing her to kneel down with the butt of their guns and handcuffing her wrist with some kind of steel handcuff behind her back. One of said mercenaries also gripped Lena's hairs with one of his gauntlets and kept her immobilized while the toad-eyed creature approached her with its strange device. Lena's mind flashed with pain and she had to suppress the urge of yanking off the hand that was gripping her hairs, trying to not give the bird creature a reason to attack Raina.

The toad-like creature went behind Lena's line of sight, the Claymore felt a strange sting next to her neck and….

"Can you understand me now, human?"

an unknown voice called her. Lena astonished face looked left and right searching for the voice. It was human and comprehensible, but at the same time deep and strange. It took her some second to understand that the one talking was the giant bird!

"I said" repeated the bird "Can you understand me now, human?"

"Yes." was Lena feeble answer

"Excellent!" beamed happily the creature "Girl, I have to admit it: you look like a scrawny, small human barely worth of attention, but you just put quite a show for me. Four of my men killed in less than five seconds. This old Turian right now is about to cry out of joy! Truly commendable!"

Lena almost didn't believed at what she was hearing. Did the giant bird just….commended her for killing his own soldiers?

"And in such a way!" continued the creature imperterred "it seems that only one of them can be saved, all the others have been killed on the spot; the fact that you have used only your hands make everything even more remarkable! Aran has really found a great addiction for my stable."

"You" questioned Lena surprised "You ordered your servant to kidnap me? Why?!"

T'Von looked at her with an amused expression

"Servant? What a big word! Aran is only an associate of mine, an associate requested to bring back to me what I desired."

"And I am what you desire?" asked an appalled Lena

"Correct. You see dear I am a very important business man inside Omega."

"Omega?" asked Lena interrupted him. T'Von looked at her with an annoyed expression but did nothing else

"Yes Omega, the most dangerous space station of the galaxy, filled to the brim with assassins, rapist, smugglers and stuff like that. Deal with it and do not interrupt me unless you want to hear your spawn screaming in pain." All of Lena's questions about what was a space station or a galaxy died in a heartbeat.

"As I was saying" continued T'Von "I am an important business man in Omega. My task, among others, is replenishing the stock of gladiators used in ours arenas for the amusement of all to watch, from the lowest rat to our beloved queen. Without false modesty I can tell that after all these years I managed to do quite a pristine job but, alas, the crowd is fickle and is showing signs of discontent. They do not want to see the blood of some Krogan or Asari anymore. They want something new, something never seen in centuries!" T'Von grabbed Lena' chin with his taloned hand and forced the girl to look at him and scratching her skin in the process "And here you come into the play. A human girl, thinner than a Salarian and with a body of a stripper but with enough strength to kill a Krogan I assume and a penchant for hand to hand combat, something that the crowd love!"

Lena was having problem believing her own ears: this monster was some kind of slave driver and wanted her to fight inside the arena of this station….something called Omega as a gladiator?

What the hell?!

"And...if I refuse to comply?!" asked Lena probing the terrain. The bird was clearly expecting this question because it immediately answered.

"In that case I would not have any use for you; you are clearly too ferocious and can't be tamed so I would kill you and sell your daughter as a slave. She is quite the sweet little thing you know. You have no idea how many interesting people would pay crazy sums of money for having her as a bed-warmer."

Lena's heart sank like a rock after hearing this words. Alone she would have never accepted the monster's proposal. She had already been a slave of the organization once, the most painful experience of all her life, and after the day of her liberation wowed to never allowing anyone else to enslave her once again. But now her refusal would have brought harm to Raina, her daughter, her life….and her Achille's heel! Refusing was not an option.

T'Von saw the anguished look of Lena's face and smiled; a cruel, devious smile.

"Aaah, the love of a mother, what a marvelous thing! It breaks even the strongest spirits."

Lena's face was twisted in pain and rage, but not dared to replicate at first

"Fine." she said in the end

"What?" asked T'Von feigning ignorance

"I said fine!" cried Lena looking at T'Von right into his eyes "I will become your gladiator, I will slaughter whatever you shall trow at me inside this arena of yours, and I will not betray you. But leave Raina alone!"

T'Von looked at her for a second, just before bursting into laughing

"You are incredible human: You are tied and at my mercy and yet you still think you can lay down some conditions. Yes, you are exactly what I was looking for! Tell you what, I have a proposal for you: satisfy me in a battle that I have just prepared and in exchange I will allow you to live with your daughter in an apartment inside the station instead than inside a cell. You will have all the commodities you shall need, except the one of freedom. Does it sound good?"

"I accept!"


Fifteen minutes later. Omega's arena complex

Lena was standing right in the center of the so called Great Arena of Omega, or at least that was the name used by the four mercenaries that had escorted her inside what was essentially a giant circle with a floor made of stone covered with yellow sand and littered with dozens of cracked pillars. All around her a metal wall five meters tall isolated her from lines and lines of stone bleachers that reached the sky and all empty for this particulary occasion. Dozens of red lights illuminated the place and at the apex of this construction a big rhomboidal construction made of glass loomed at her covering the center of the arena with his massive shadow; a metal cord of deceptive fragility was keeping the entire structure hanging without problems. Inside the only spectators of this incoming battle, T'Von along with Illish, some attendants and a thoroughly frightened Raina now collared with some sort of metal chocker were looking down at the arena, waiting for the beginning of the fight.

Lena was not so keen of beginning the battle, in part because she was not volunteering for all of this but mostly because the trip for reaching this strange arena had been one of the most amazing and breath-taking she had ever done! The poor Claymore had remained stunned for almost a good minute after exiting from Aran' space vessel, too busy looking at the marvels all around her and trying to accept their existence: dozens of strange and exotic creatures everywhere, from strange blue skinned females to giant floating squids; warlocks of every kind creating strange balls of lights thanks of bizarre orange devices, metal edifices so tall that were eclipsing the sun and the star, talking machines strapped inside the walls….the mercenaries had to bodily move her for some minutes, such was Lena's astonishment.

In the end her walk was ended when she finally reached one of the many entrances of the arenas, a small metallic door, and the mercenaries ordered her to enter after giving her a single weapon, a long steel crowbar. It was nothing compared to her trusted sword, but it was something.

All of a sudden one of the heavy metal door on the opposite side of where she was standing unfastened itself with a cracking sound and a giant creature entered inside the arena. Lena was still unable to understand what was about to fight against her, the arena was five hundred meters and the opening of the door had raised tons of dust.

When the girl managed to take a good look at her new enemy she could only gape in surprise

"Sir" asked Illish

"Yes Illish?"

"Why are you letting the subject fight agains a well armed Krogan of the blood pack with only a crowbar? Her chances of victory are next to zero!"

"That is the point" answered T'Von "I have no need of a normal gladiator. If she cannot defeat that Krogan with what she has then this mean that she is not worth my time."

The creature was enormous, at least two meters and half tall and larger than a bull. He possessed a scaly, brown skin and an enormous hump just above his small, lizard-like eyes. Said hump was covered with dozens of big natural plates of pitch-black scales. His mouth was enormous and packed to the brim with sharp and long teeth. His hand possessed only three long digits and were as callous as the bark of a tree. The creature was dressed with some kind of blue leather armor and had at least four enormous metal cudgels strapped on his back

"A human child?!" raged the creature after looking at Lena with his small, ferocious eyes "They promise me a battle against one of the most dangerous creature in the galaxy and now I have to fight against a human child!?"

The beast bellowed a war cry and quickly grabbed one of his cudgels. A second later a trigger was squeezed and a hailstorm of shotgun bullets flied against Lena with murderous intent, but the girl was ready. At this point she had vaguely realized what was the true nature of said cudgels, so when the beast fired at her she reacted in time, just in time.

Lena jumped away from danger with an inhumane leap and the hailstorm of bullet merely grazed her left leg instead of transforming her to a bloody paste. The beast looked at her for a second, stunned by her display of quickness, but immediately regained focus and started firing continuously against her target.

Lena refused to attack, instead she started running all around the arena, always in motion, and used the various pieces of masonry as cover, avoiding shots after shots. Her mind was desperately trying to come with a strategy against that mountain of muscles

-At leas now I know what has killed these three yoma back at home.- bitterly reasoned Lena

"Stay still you damned human!" raged the beast while wildly firing at her. Sand flied in small storms near her, broken pillars shattered in a whirlwind of stones and pebbles but still was Lena unharmed, too fast to be catch by the strange creature. Like a wolf, she circled her prey, waiting for an occasion.

Said occasion arrived when the beast's weapon ejected a strange cylindrical object and stopped firing.

Lena lunged against the lizard, crowbar ready and yoki flaring; the beast tried to replace the strange cylinder but it was too slow and Lena already on top on him.

With a savage cry, Lena increased her arms muscle's mass and hit the Krogan in the head with the crowbar, just below the armored and scaled front.

The crowbar shattered scales and skin; yellow liquid splashed Lena's face and the creature howled in rage and pain, wildly flaying the air at the desperate research of a target. Lena nimbly dodged this attacks and punched the creature right where should be the guts. It felt like hitting a wall made of stone but it did the trick because the Krogan retracted and sidestepped away. Lena chased him, unwilling to lose her vantage.

For the first time a Krogan was having a disadvantage at close range, but this did not meant that he was defenseless. The poor Claymore discovered this when her second charge was interrupted when the beast head-butted her using its damaged frontal plates as a battering ram.

The scales collided with Lena's face with a loud thump and the Claymore, now dazed and with her nose shattered, groggily disengaged from the attack and ran next to a stone pillar for cover, but the beast used the sudden advantage to attack her with another strange crossbow, this time one of smaller size and rectangular shape. The first three hits missed her by a hair but the fourth reached her in the left shoulder just a second before reaching the cover; Lena felt an agonizing pain erupting from his skin while the quarrel quartered and ripped skin and bone at astonishing speed. A fountain of blood sprayed the surrounding sand, turning it red; Lena had never felt so much pain in her life, not even when a yoma had once managed to skewer her with its claws.

Lena retreated herself behind the stone pillar, using the momentary moment of respite to regrow the broken shoulder and catch her breath; she had barely managed to regenerate most of the damage sustained when something else entirely, a massive gouge of flame, force her away from her cover before risking being roasted alive. Once again outside cover Lena could now see the beast handling another type of crossbow, this time massive in size and possessing some kind of canister strapped on both its flanks. The end of said weapon was gouging out massive amount of red liquid flames, so hot that the even the sand fumed and smoked when hit.

"Seriously!" shouted to no one in particular a flabbergasted Lena "A fire-spewing crossbow? What in the goddesses's name?!"

The attack was now relentless: the beast had smelled her blood and now wanted more: flames were now chasing her everywhere forcing the Claymore to stay constantly on the run, desperately trying to avoid being hit by the unconventional attack. Unfortunately one tongue of fire grazed her legs and because of that all of Lena's nerves shouted in pain and rage. The Claymore stumbled and tripped on her feet, losing the crowbar in the process; she desperately tried to recuperate it but the beast had others plan: in the exact second she managed to reach her weapon a strange, circular device landed next to her. A second later a blinding light hit her eyes making her blind, followed by a cry of rage and the noise of something big charging her.

The Krogan hit her square in the chest with at least 300 kilos of pure rage and muscle mass, shattering most of Lena's ribs. Lena's body flied like a rag doll before ending her race next to stone pillar and slumping down on the floor crying in pain. the girl instinctively charged her arms with as much yoki energy she could and hit the Krogan in one of his legs using a big rock lying around the now shattered pillar. The projectile collided and something snapped inside the Krogan's left leg; the beast lost its momentum for a precious second, second used by Lena to charge the beast and rip a small rectangular crossbow from the monster's hip, smashing it with all her strength against the Krogan's skull. The beast reeled and copious amount of blood poured from both the leg and the head, but the Krogan's response was a bone-breaking kick that destroyed one of Lena's legs forcing her to kneel.

-Shit!- cursed Lena with what breath she still possessed -I have the right leg broken in at least three places, my skin is burning and that thing that is stabbing my stomach is probably- Lena spewed a clot of blood -Surely a rib. This is not good!-

Her yoki infused body desperately tried to regenerate all this damage but the Krogan at this point was on a blood rage and because of the wounds she was too slow to avoid it. One last devastating hit and Lena was finally beaten on the ground, the Krogan placing a giant foot on her chest and looking at her with…..respectful eyes? Lena could not be so sure, her eyesight was clotted by blood and sweat at this point but she believed to see the beast looking at her with a happy expression, mixed with respect.

"I was wrong." said the beast with a profound tone and touching all its wounds "You were not a small, insignificant human. You fought against me showing honor and respect." With small, almost sensitive moves it unholstered the last of its crossbows, one of the biggest ones.

"I am Korgath of Clan Urdnot, and I grant you a proper death."

Lena's mind raced, thinking to everything she was about to lose: she could not die now, she had to come back to Anastasia, to live and see another day….to avoid condemning Raina to become a slave.

This last thought sent her brain in overdrive, filling her veins with liquid rage and trowing to the proverbial window every caution.

With a hoarse cry, Lena infused her whole body and reached the 70% of yoki energy level per cell.

What happened later remained forever something of a mystery for everyone but Lena: a second before Korgath was about to finish Lena, the second later he was flying like a brick for some meters before being stopped by the now stained floor, hit by an unstoppable force. Beyond confused Korgath slowly lifted himself up, his head banging and a new wound showing up near his neck; his eyes scanned the arena searching for the strange human girl now dying on the floor. What she saw left him speechless: the girl was now standing, her white skin now pitch black and rough like a stone; her eyes were now yellow and feral like the ones of a rabid Varren. When she spoke, her voice was clearly not human anymore

"I do not have the luxury of dying beast, and you?" it was a low, trailing voice, almost a growl.

Lena charged Korgath with a savage cry, so fast to be barely visible this time. Korgath instinctively tried to parry the incoming blow, trusting that he would have at least able to deflect an attack made by a desperate and wounded girl.

The blow hit both his arms and shattered their bones in an instant with a squelching sound.

Korgath howled in pain and surprise, and Lena kept the momentum hitting him another time, and another, and another, and another! Bones were broken, veins opened, tendons shattered and the poor Korgath endured all this punishment, not understanding how all of this was possible and feeling weaker after every passing second; his weapons were forgotten in their holsters, too busy trying to merely survive against the onslaught. All of a sudden Lena grabbed Korgath's left arm and started pulling with all her strength. For a second the arm opposed some resistance, then there was a ripping sound followed by a scream of agony and a mad cackling: Lena had just ripped Korgath arm with sheer strength alone; still Lena's mad rage was not sated yet and she started beating savagely Korgath with his own arm still dripping yellow blood.

"Korgath, right? A pleasure to meet you. My name is Lena, number 22 of the ex-organization" Bellowed Lena with a mad grin "More known as Lena the rock!"

Finally, after two minutes of savage beating Korgath stopped moving and Lena's anger subsided, her yoki level slowly going down thanks to exhaustion and fatigue.

She was in shambles: her legs were burning, her body protesting for fatigue, her bones cracking and splintering, her blood everywhere but inside her body as it should. She barely managed to move an inch and drop the stump in her arm before collapsing down exhausted on her four limbs. The only reason she did not awaken was because even her yoki energies were totally depleted.

"Bravo!" shouted a voice above her head, T'Von's voice "Bravo Lena! A masterful fight! You must tell me how you managed to make Korgath fly like that! It was so fast that I was unable to follow it!"

Lena raised her head and looked at T'Von with tired eyes.

"So….have I passed your test?" asked with hoarse voice

"With flying colors dear, but now kill your enemy."

Puzzled Lena looked back at Korgath body and discovered that truthfully the giant beast was still alive: it was losing torrents of blood from its wounds and was incapable to move, but still alive.

Something moved inside Lena's soul: she was a Claymore, not some kind of murderer after all. Truth to be told, she was more than ready to kill scum like the yoma and in recent times even human bandits and filth like that, but Korgath had proved itself to be more than a rabid beast. There was intelligence in his eyes, and respect, albeit mixed with some kind of bestial rage. Maybe a wife and some children were awaiting his return somewhere in this station or somewhere else. Maybe he had been forced to fight for T'Von in exchange for something, she could not know.

Was is really the right thing to kill him?

T'Von noted the girl's uncertainty and quickly reacted

"Ah dear, you were going so well!" sighted in false sympathy. With one taloned hand he pressed a button inside his strange glowing wrist magical device and immediately Raina started howling in pain.

"No!" screamed Lena in horror but was too tired to even move at this point.

"You see" continued T'Von imperterred "That collar that your daughter is now wearing is a particular slave collar fashioned in the Batarian hegemony. It is not removable, i am the only one that can use it and it will slowly and painfully kill your precious spawn unless deactivated. Let's just say it is my insurance about your obedience." Raina slumped down on the floor, convulsing and screaming like a madwoman. Her chocker was now glowing with energy

"Stop please!" pleaded Lena now in tears

"Then, will you obey me without rebelling?" asked T'Von with a smug smile

"Yes, I will! I will obey! But please stop it!" Lena was on her knees, literally praying him.

"Then dear, kill him." T'Von was clearly pleased and immediately deactivated the chocker; Raina was now crying without stopping, her body still reeling for the torture just received. "And do not worry, I am brutal but honest, I will still let you live in an apartment with your daughter."

Defeated, Lena slowly approached Korgath's bulky frame. He was barely breathing but both his eyes were conscious and looking at her

"I am sorry." she whispered holding back the tears

"Do not…." wheezed Korgath "You….strong…..you…..protect..Child…..honored…..die…...hand." there was no rage or fear in his eyes, they were calm and clear.

Lena broken his neck with one last, quick strike, and finally exploded in tears after doing it. All of this, the slavery, the pain, the way her life had just turned….this was all too much for her.

"Well done Lena" simply said T'Von "Welcome to your new life."

And so Lena is stuck. I hope I have managed to create a genuinely bastardly character with T'Von. After all is a ruthless crime lord of Omega and not a cloistered nun.

One thing: this story will have a Shepard and I have no intention of creating an -Omega arc- for now

Tell me if you want it and please review and comment especially if you find something wrong about the story; people grow thanks to their mistakes after all.

P.S. for whoever is a bit confused, Lena's ability consist in infusing her skin with yoki essences at a molecular level, transforming herself in some kind of moving boulder, but is very yoki consuming and prone to awakening.