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His talons sought out and found the flaw he'd felt inside a few minutes, his prized Mantis in pieces scattered around him, the shoddy, old and worn down inertial dampening system. The seventh he'd been through, purchased from the most 'reputable' smuggler that ran between here and the Citadel. Albeit with a few dozen stops before here, and the middle-aged Turian's complete knowledge that reputable and smuggler belonged in the same sentence as much as 'fun poison' or 'a good day with Saren'.

"Just the nature of Omega, I guess." He sighed, turning on the low, rusty stool and flicking the piece across the tiny room he was in.

One of many 'safehouses' his crew ran across the station, this one had the downside of being little more than a glorified closet just large enough to fit in a small cot that could comfortably fit half his frame, and a long desk from the edge of the bed to the wall the door was set into, only a couple feet away with a small hatch that would let down for him to use the toilet, before disappearing it off to somewhere he didn't care about. Probably right off into space, if he had to guess, since he doubted anyone cared to actually bother with a water treatment and refinery system.

Again, though, just the nature of Omega.

And not one that even a rifle with a functioning inertial absorption unit would help with, much less his current paper weight, to boot.

"Maybe I should sent Krantus to the Citadel itself. Hate bein' down a rifle..." He murmured, leaning over his table and staring down at the disassembled weapon. His old, weather beaten and combat aged Avenger rested propped at the back of the table in full form, of course, and he could easily use it, but… "A marksman's weapon it is not, even if it's damn fine as an assault rifle."

No amount of recoil dampening upgrades, barrel bore extenders, armor piercing processors or even expensive, hard to maintain sometimes, scope interfaces. The little devices were small, his attached to the back of the Avenger's curve, but integrated right into helmets and eyepieces like he wore. They were nifty things, able to zoom, swap between thermal and other settings and more. It also cost him enough he could have bought a gunship, not that he had any illusions about which was more useful.

Gunships were too obvious, after all, and easy targets in a fight.

"Can always deal with it later, and don't have any option otherwise." He finally decided, setting to work arraying the parts in small, rusty containers to keep specific parts separate and easily found - or noticed missing if they were stolen - when he wanted to fix the rifle.

Which would take some time to do, while he waited on a usable internal recoil dampener to show up or for someone to go get it, unless he wanted to forego it. Which would probably be 'dying' levels of bad, so he wasn't all that enthusiastic to do that any time soon.

Giving up, he turned on the stool and leaned against the table, pressing a long talon to his ear-piece and asking, "Sidonis, do you know what's going on yet? It's been an hour past already, report in with something or I'll feed you to a Krogan."

"He wasn't going to eat me, I explained that to you, Arch. Just… Beat me to death and feed me to his Varren, which is a different thing and you know it so don't start." Sidonis' smooth, metallic voice echoed through his ear piece almost as soon as Garrus finished speaking. Garrus only snorted in answer, so Sidonis could properly make a report. "Aria cleared out the dancers from the center stage, like you though. Most of 'em are down in the lower club, some are up in the upper one, sitting in laps or waiting tables for tips, you know how it can be here sometimes."

"Yeah, I do." He'd spent enough time in Afterlife, wearing cheap, shoddy armor painted in nondescript, clearly mercenary colors and with an Asari half-naked on his lap or table leaching his Credits. Not his favorite way to pass time, but you could learn a lot by watching all of the patrons, and a Turian standing shock still in the corner watching everyone was fairly obvious. "Not the first time she's shoved debtors, or people she didn't like, in a cage up there to duke it out and amuse her. Who's the unfortunate son of a bitch, then? Anyone we know?"

"No, I don't know her, and the only Krogan we're friends with is sleeping right now." Sidonis' answer was instant, a testament to the Turian man's surety of the statement. "She's up against a Krogan. Big scarred bastard of one, too. Old. A veteran of mercenary companies, if I had to put down some credits."

"Do we need to intervene?"

"It's Afterlife." This answer was equally firm and fast, the older C-Sec veteran grimacing at it. "You know she doesn't care what we do, Arch, because it doesn't fuck with her."

"And if we go in on Afterlife, that'll change and we'll end up deader than good samaritans on Omega." He grimaced at the accuracy of the saying and then sighed at the situation entirely, shaking his head and ordering, "Standby there, then. Stay and watch the fight, or buy a prostitute for the night. Alina, if you can find her. She's quiet about whatever she sees, and liable to take a payday even if you don't take her home."

"The green haired Human?"

"Yeah, usually works the upper floor, but-"

"Just watched her walk out with a pair of Humans." Sidonis interrupted, earning a frustrated swear from his commanding officer. Sidonis, good natured as he always tried to be, let him vent for a moment before explaining simply. "Look, I'll put some credits down on the fight. Bet for the Human girl, then storm out like I'm pissed when she loses."

"A good enough plan." Even if he didn't like using the young woman's death to skate out of Afterlife, he couldn't help her. So he may as well make use of her, help take down the bastards doing all of this. "Get her name down for me, too. We'll meet up after the fight in safehouse four and run it. Money says slavers."

"A Geth came in with her…"

"Money says Geth, now." He growled, talons on his other hand flicking in agitation. A Geth kidnapping a girl and selling her to Aria to… To what? Entertainment didn't make sense, Geth didn't need it and Aria almost exclusively used these little fights for vendettas. "What's the girl's name, Sidonis?"

"Uh, something Nikos- Pyrrha, Pyrrha Nikos." The other Turian didn't ask why Garrus wanted to know, knowing that he'd be sending the name out immediately into the Extranet. Searching for the girl's origin. To that end, he added, "Long red hair, pale skin, green eyes. Wears what looks like bronze armor, probably painted, and a leather cuirasse of some kind. Carries… A shield and a spear?"

"Seriously?" He knew better than to question whether Sidonis was telling the truth, though. If Sidonis said it, he trusted him at his word. They were comrades, after all, and Shepard would skin him for doubting his squad if she were here. "Whatever, anything else you can say? Anything anyone said?"

"No, except Aria used a clearly made up planet name for where she's from. Remnant? Pfft." Covering her trail, then, though Sidonis didn't say that.

"Yeah, clearly fake… I'll punch it into my search protocols regardless, though. Might mean something somewhere." And if nothing else, that had his instincts running wild with questions and curiosities. He couldn't place it, but it felt important he find out about her. Enough so he brought out his Omni-Tool right then, patching into his secure line to feed through to the Citadel and run a missing persons search. "If she survives, let me know, and try and trail her."

"Planning to recruit her?"

"If she wins? Maybe." Though he doubted it, there was nothing saying a Human woman skilled enough to match up to a Krogan couldn't sign on with him. "But no, I want to see if we can't rescue her."

"Why?"

"Because she needs it?" He had to fight not to snap, and still did so a little bit. He'd apologize later, he eventually decided.

"No, I meant, why risk Aria's attention?"

"Ah." A good question, really, and not one he had a real answer to. Or at least, not a real, fact backed answer that he could give his partner right then. Instead, he offered a simple, "My gut says it's the right call. Like something's telling me that she's important. How, I dunno, all I got is that I feel like we have to help her."

"Seriously?"

"It's what made me intervene and save your scrawny ass, so yeah." It was true, too. He'd not wanted to start out so obvious, face uncovered, with pissing off the Blood Pack. But seeing Sidonis' face, mandible cracked and bleeding, he couldn't walk away. Something compelled him to step in. "Just… Trust me, okay?"

"Sure, boss." He could almost hear Sidonis' shrug, and did hear his sigh, through the comms. Sarcastic bastard that he was, he added a last, "You're the team leader, after all. You say jump, I ask what cliff."

With a laugh, Garrus clicked off the line and shook his head, sighing and pulling his Avenger down to work on it while he waited. It's heat emission system needed cleaning, he knew, just from looking it over.

XxX-XxX-XxX

"So, Mister Kralt-"

"That's the clan name. Surname, I think you soft skinned Humans call it. I'm addressed by Taratog, or even just Tog." Taratog interrupted, voice rumbling the foot between them easily even over the din of the talking, whooping and cheering crowd around them. Hands on his surprisingly slim hips, the warrior pushed them forward to stretch and added. "I'll try not to kill ya when I beat you into the ground, though, no need to beg. Or act all respectful neither, I ain't gonna try harder to off you if you call me names or nothin'."

"Bold of you."

"Hm?" The Krogan, standing a foot taller than her, almost, yet still at eye level for the contribution his armored hump made to his height. His eyes, she assumed it was male at least, narrowed and he grunted, "What's bold of me, little Red?"

"Assuming you either will or can win a fight with me. It's very daring." She answered simply, smiling when the great alien humphed a laugh and shook his scarred head in amusement. Satisfied to see he was of presumably good temperament, and not of some grandstanding, showboating nature, she offered a hand, letting her spear stand alone under the influence of her Semblance. "Pyrrha Nikos, and it's an honor to fight you, sir Taratog."

"Hah! I like you, Pyrrha." The alien barked another laugh and leaned close, reaching out to clasp her by the forearm and squeezing. Hard enough to need her Aura to protect her, in fact, like he was testing her to see if she'd balk with his hand on her. When she didn't, the Krogan chuffed again and let her go, lumbering back a step. "I like you a lot, Pyrrha. A good fight to you!"

"And to you as well, Taratog." She nodded, flicking her hand to the side with it inverted and recalling her spear. The weapon spun fast enough to whistle as the metal cut through the air, landing with the point down. Until, that was, she swept her leg back and brought her shield up, the long weapon resting against its rim while she peered over the protective implement's edge and smiled.

"Now," she started quietly, "do we need to say any more?"

As it turned out, they didn't, and Taratog knew it as well as she did. As easily and naturally as she did, rather.

With a mighty shout that, to her virgin ears, sounded like a bestial, Grimm roar, the Krogan loped forward the few steps it needed to close with her and reared a fist back. She ducked back easily, lashing out with a hand to strike the back of his armored wrist as the fist sailed through the air a few inches above her shield and before her face. To one not trained to spot her Semblance, the meaning would be missed entirely, mistakenly taken for an attempt to push his arm aside.

Evidently, he believed as much, barking a laugh and swinging the arm back, replaced with a blow aimed for her gut. Fortunately for her, his fist found her shield in the way and, though the force of a Krogan punch set her sliding across the smooth surface and sent tingles reverberating across her arm, she was well enough. Even better, she launched back at the surprised alien from her spot, leaping and turning to hurl the bronze disk for his head.

The blow struck true and, ringing, the weapon was sent reeling into the air while Taratog's head snapped back and he stumbled. Krogans were strong, but a Huntress was strong as well, and her Semblance let her accelerate her weapons to add even more force to her strikes. Combined with the surprise of it, she'd off balanced the Krogan warrior well enough, and saw the opening she'd made for what it was. He did too, bright orange eye looking at her as the warrior brought a foot back to catch himself.

She didn't care, though, and launched in regardless.

Spear gripped in both hands she slammed her shoulder into his chest, trying to force him back further. This time, though, he anticipated her greater strength than should be, strictly speaking, possible for a normal Human. And so her off shoulder struck a brick wall as the alien finally recovered, teeth bared and gritting against each other as his left hand snapped back to cudgel her away. With practiced ease, fighting Ursai rather than sparring partners admittedly but the same principles applied, she ducked under the blow and his arm, sinking to her knees and using her Semblance to spin herself by the metal of her greves and pulled around him.

Rising fluidly and easily, she thrust the point of her spear into the back of his calf muscle, just below the knee where she hoped for softer flesh than his hardened hide was elsewhere. She only penetrated a half-inch, but when she withdrew she saw blood flow and nodded in satisfaction. Pulling the weapon back in one hand, she reached out with the other to tag his armored thigh and stepped back and away from him, off to the side, to dodge a sweeping, clubbing blow aimed for her head. Turning on her heel, she recalled her shield on instinct and turned to him, raising the weapon warily.

The blue wreathed fist that slammed home, though, did so with ludicrously more force than she'd expected. Her guard bucked, her Aura flared, and she cried out in surprise and pain as she was hurled bodily across the platform. Her back struck a metal pole, being used to anchor the fencing, and dented it from the force of it all. For only a moment, she was stunned, weapons and arms limp at her side while her ears rang and she fought for breath.

It was all Taratog needed, grabbing her by the throat and turning, again wreathed in blue as he hurled her once more across the room and away from her weapons. Even if he didn't know of her Aura, the goal was obvious, and her lucid mind pulled it to the fore readily. To separate her from her weapons and come to finish the job, either by killing her or breaking her beneath his boots until Aria was satisfied. Assuming Aria could be satisfied, of course, that same lucidity pitched for her.

Her irrational mind, though, pointed out that her back ached now but that she could breathe again, Aura having dampened the second blow with the few seconds of warning she'd had to do so.

'Left thigh, right hand. Biotics are a problem, though… Need to wait for the perfect moment, and do this right.' She thought to herself as she staggered up and watched Taratog approaching, lumbering forward with hard eyes, blue wreathed fists curled at his sides. But, she noticed, he was smiling.

And she was too.

And that struck her as kind of odd, for the split second she considered it.

The first blow crackled over head as she knelt, the Biotic power ripping apart the chain and sending a hunk of the piping she'd dented across the room outside the arena as she did. Shouting her defiance, she rose and pelted a blow into his stomach ineffectually, followed by a dozen more rapid, weak, useless strikes across his chest and stomach. As many as she could get out, before his other arm snapped around into her stomach and launched her up, presumably into the air. She went with the momentum and leapt, even as she cried out and her breath was stolen yet again, to gain as much space as she could to go for her weapons.

Taratog, though, was too fast and too smart to allow that. His meaty right arm snapped out like lightning, far faster than she'd though possible really, to latch around her ankle. The same ankle that, two months and change prior, Cinder had crippled with an arrow. He didn't break the limb though, turning and instead slamming her into the ground hard enough the steel shrieked and cracked, and she bounced off it. She landed on her side and curled up, arms guarding her midsection as a mighty boot slammed into the limbs and sent her sailing and sprawling through the air.

When she hit the ground, she rolled and lay, groaning, while the Krogan called out, "No one could get up from that, T'Loak. Call the fight, unless you want her dead."

"How disappointing." She heard Aria's voice, augmented by the speaker system around them, growl. "Very well, then, it seems our fun is- Oh my."

Grunting, she brought her leg up under herself and stood, Aura assuaging what it could of her bruises while her shield hand came up to wipe at her mouth. When she looked at it, she saw blood and heard the Krogan call out, "Don't do it, girl. I don't want to kill you, you have a quad big enough a warlord could get jealous."

"I certainly hope you are joking, Tog, because I have plenty left in the tank." With a flick of her wrist, and most of the last of her Aura, she called her weapons to her and smiled through bloody teeth. "I'm still standing, I'm still fighting, the Mistralian way."

"Hah…" Without another word, the Krogan charged, bellowing his fury and, from his face, admiration as he went.

In answer, she spun and hurled her shield with all the power she could muster, sending it sailing towards him and to the side, as though it would miss. He knew it, too, eyes sliding from it to her as her trap was sprung. Using her Semblance she suddenly, violently yanked every individual plate of armor on his chest to the side along with his right arm, just as his right leg came up so that the metal she'd tagged there made him sink to a knee in surprise. The shield, now on track, struck his crest head on and he snarled in pain as she leapt high and hurled the spear down, the shield clattering away behind him as blood flowed cross the scar of the thin plating of his forehead.

WIth a wet, hollow thunk it slammed into his shoulder and her roared, just before her knee met his sternum with all the force of a Huntress' fall augmented by her Semblance. Without hesitation, she spent her Aura to call her spear to her and flicked a button, shifting it to rifle form and trying to bring it to his crest.

One point three seconds was how long it took to shift between forms, and that went to one and a half from rifle to spear. A marginal amount of time, she'd been told.

But enough for his fist to lash out, this time lacking the blue energy, and catch her across the jaw hard enough she was sent reeling. She landed on her back and he followed as fast as he could, the woman rising as his boot lashed out and caught her square in the forehead, stunning her and ripping a gash in her flesh as she was slammed back into the ground. Stunned or not she snarled and rolled to the side, just in time to dodge a stomp that crushed the metal plating where her leg had been a moment ago.

Another meaty punch caught her stomach and then, this one glowing electric blue, yet another caught her square across the jaw and sent her reeling back.

"Fall down, before you die, girl." The Krogan ordered as she, through force of will alone, stayed standing, listing to one side and staring at him through one eye. The other's sight was lost to red blood, she knew.

Turning, she spat the blood pooled in her mouth free and spoke, tasting iron, "M' still standin', aren' I?"

"Yeah, you are." The Krogan growled, lumbering towards her and shaking his head. When he stepped close enough, she lashed out, aiming a punch for his throat that did nothing. He caught her by the wrist, then, and slammed his forehead into hers once and then twice, coming back with her own blood rolling down his face.

The last thing she saw was his curt, respectful nod, before she saw the room flash by and felt her back hit cold steel. Distantly, she heard chuckling and felt something, like an echo of power or energy, before it faded away and she knew nothing but the bliss of unconsciousness.

XxX-XxX-XxX

Pyrrha's eyes shot open a half-second later and she hissed at the bright, blinding light around her, recoiling and scrambling back a couple inches with her arm over her eyes. Inside a short moment she noticed a laundry list of things, not the least of which was the lack of aches across her body. A body that should have been battered and bruised, not to mention bleeding at least to some extent, even if she'd been out for a while.

Like her wounds, she noticed quickly, she couldn't actually sense any pain from the sudden brightness around her, having reacted on sheer instinct to it when her eyes snapped open and she saw it. Along with a familiar warmth that had her frown at the recognition, she felt a thin sheen of water on the ground around her and sighed. She'd been here once before, now she had a moment to collect herself.

And so, with a grimace, she forced her eyes open and looked up at the eerie smile of the purple God of Darkness, standing with hands clasped behind his back and leering down at her with a grin. "Why, hello again, young Nikos. I must say, you put on quite a good show for that blue little wannabe deity, didn't you?"

"Am I dead?" She blurted when she tried to respond, flushing and grimacing as she sat up, legs folded under herself while she stared up at the deity. "Did I die already again? I should have been able to absorb that kind of-"

"Oh, no, no, not dead. My, you mortals have such a deep seated, carnal fear of time's march, don't you?" The deity answered, actually chuckling at the glare she shot him and waving a hand dismissively. "Do not pout, child, you will be well when I release you. Sore, but alive at the least. Be grateful."

"I am." And she really was, too, for a second chance at life. Though that brought forth a question, "Why am I here then, Lord? What is it that you could desire of me?"

"I wanted to see how long you would take to notice if I brought you here naked."

"Naked…?" She glanced down and blinked, her bare breasts and legs standing out plain as day, and then shrieked loudly in surprise and embarrassment. Trying to cover herself as best she could, she shouted, "Why?! Are you a pervert? Do you even have sexual arousal? Or is this to be cruel and nothing else?"

"In order, I suppose." The deity shrugged, holding up a hand and counting out answers. "I thought it would be amusing, and it was. I don't rightly know, actually. Would you like to find out if I can get aroused? And I'm not cruel to you, and have no wish to be."

"I'm not interested in that, no. But, ah, well… Thank you, I suppose?" The last response or the one before it, she answered both. And regardless of the deity's unsurety about being a pervert, she still kept her legs tucked in front of her to hide her chest and her hands under her things to hide what was there. "Could you… Maybe make me some clothing, though?"

"I suppose…" The creature laughed when her scowl deepened and snapped its fingers, a simple robe appearing on her body at the gesture. Not wreathing her shoulders, or pooled around her so she could get dressed, but rather on her as though she'd awoken wearing it. "Forgive my games, my dear, I do let them get away from me from time to time. Never again claim cruelty in my nature or actions, or I will lose my patience."

"I understand, Lord." She nodded, swallowing anxiously at the severity that edged his jovial tone at the words. Afraid on a baser level than she understood, she bowed her head and went on. "I apologize for hurting your feelings, God of Darkness. I meant no offense in my words, I only sought to know better your will."

"Raise your head, girl. If I wanted a groveling servant, I would have either created one myself or I would take a more spiritual, submissive woman than you from your realm." When she finally raised her head and met his eyes, the deity folded its great, black arms across its flawless chest and sighed. "As to why I brought you here… I come with a warning."

"A warning?"

"Yes, like some of the religions of both your old world and your new one." He spread his arms grandly and raised his horned head to the sky, affecting an air of regal, divine authority and crowed. "Your god brings you a warning of the future, child! Thank him!"

"Uh, ah- Thank you, Lord." It seemed to have the desired result, the being nodding in response and letting his arms fall, watching her for a long moment. Waiting for something. Finally, Pyrrha blinked and guessed at his desire, asking, "What, Lord of Darkness, is the warning you bring?"

"Sharp eyes watch you, and while they pose no hazard to you as you lay, they do for your friend. These eyes could be friend or foe, or deceased, in the future I don't know. The end is fate, and to your will does it bend." She blinked in confusion, mouth working at words to ask what it meant, and the deity shifted course suddenly and explained. "Not my rules, sweetheart. Rules agreed upon by my brother and I, so I have to speak in riddles. Rhyming ones too, preferably, though I am… Not so good at those."

"I thought it was rather nice." She tried gently, smiling sympathetically at him. "I was always poor at them as well, in my education."

"Appreciate the kind words, but my rhymes were trash and I know it." He shrugged and sighed, then, finishing with, "But that's why I brought you here. Aside from my little joke, and pointing out how spectacularly fun that fight of yours was to watch. With that, I'll send you back to your-"

"Wait!" She barked, the deity pausing, hand held up to snap again and with wide, surprised eyes. Swallowing her anxiety and worry, she stood and stared up at him, grimacing before finally forcing out the question. "These… Rules you mention… Between your brother and you, I mean."

"Yes?"

"You can never break them?"

"I can, but I will not. I am no cruel deity, and I am even less so a being who breaks his word." The deity responded, letting its arm drop after a second.

Not for fatigue, she was sure, all of its affectations were like that. Stiff, late, as though the being only registered he should do or move in a way just after the time it should have. An honest perverted god of darkness and evilness, then, she supposed. Good. Confusing, but good.

"Then, since you keep your word…" She let her hands curl into fists beside her at her side and forced the words out, as she always had to around the being. As though its mere presence pressured her into meekness and fear, somehow. "My friends. Please, will you tell me how they-"

"The blonde man is grieving at your grave-site, with your two team members. They are healthy, though aching, and seeking a way to find answers as to what happened there" The god interrupted, turning and staring off into the whiteness idly. After a moment she decided it was most likely that it was looking in on them, and somehow that spot in the whiteness allowed this. "The blonde woman who lost her arm is having breakfast with her sister, and the Faunus is… Reading."

Well, that sounded like Blake…

"But they are well?" She asked, "And you can't give me more detail?"

"I cannot. Brother asked me not to place their burdens on your shoulders, and I keep my word." He shrugged simply, as though Pyrrha just had to accept their words as they stood. Which, she supposed, was exactly what she had to do. "They are well and recovering. Leave it be, child, as even if they aren't I would simply refuse your question outright."

"I do!" The god sighed but nodded, gesturing with a hand for her to speak, and she asked, "You say you are bound by agreed upon rules. What are they? I would hate to ever ask for one and insult you, or impugn your honor."

"A reasonable question…" The god sighed regardless, though, like he was annoyed she'd asked at all. "It's rather simple, really. I can't send you back to your own realm of existence, nor can I bring those there to you. And I can't give you anything, aside from witty banter and snide comments."

"Could do without those…"

"Pray about it, see what I decide." The deity laughed when she scowled and shook his great, horned head. "Now then, unless you have more, it is time we part ways." The deity asked, raising his hand again.

When she heard the snap of his fingers, she blinked, looking up through one eye at a purple ceiling made of surprisingly clean metal and lit by hanging purple lights.

Oh, and everything hurt across her body, which was a wonderful thing to discover.

"Oh, you're awake? How good." Through force of will, she turned her head, spotting Aria sitting across the room from her in a fine metal chair backed in leather, with one leg crossed over her knee. Smiling, the woman asked, "How do you feel after being beaten into unconsciousness by a Krogan? Asking for a friend, I'm sure you understand."

"It feels like I was blown up…" She coughed and already felt herself wishing the God had healed her injuries, even if she knew he wasn't allowed to. Giving her healed ribs was probably against the rules, after all. "I thought the loser was to be banned from Omega, Aria."

"My, how daring of you, using my first name so flippantly." She scowled and Aria barked a short, elegant and yet also cutting laugh. Standing, Aria stretched languidly and walked towards her, the Mistralian struggling to sit up on the bed until the alien cut in. "Don't, kiddo. You try and move, and you might hurt yourself more than you already are. Even if Solus says you're healing remarkably fast."

"Solus?"

"A doctor here on Omega. Very good, very expensive too." She shrugged and watched Pyrrha lay back on the bed with a grimace, chuckling herself. A flick of blue, Biotic fire that Pyrrha now recognized more fully, she yanked the chair across the room to her and dropped into it as it landed. Sitting at the foot of her bed, she crossed her arms and asked, "Now, how did you survive those hits?"

"Luck." She lied gently, hissing as she shifted on the bed. "And I am yet to be convinced I survived, as I feel I am dying."

"Mhm. And I'm just a well dressed Human, too, instead of the Queen I am." Aria nodded, eyes narrowing dangerously, but Pyrrha met her gaze head on and held it. One eyed or not, she stared the Queen of Omega down, meeting her challenge with her own and raising her chin defiantly to it. Smiling, or baring her teeth it was hard to tell, Aria snorted a laugh. "My, but you are interesting now. Traveling with a Geth, surviving a Krogan Biotic beat down, and then staring me down in my own bed!"

"Your bed…?" No wonder it was so clean, then. Aria probably had a complex all to herself, really, and probably had her staff keep it cleaned for her in a way Pyrrha's squat hovel couldn't ever hope to be. "Why am I in your bed? Where is Legion?"

"Because I want you to be, and needed a safe place for Solus to work on you. Besides the fact that on Omega, I always get what I want. Someone in my bed, someone out an airlock, it's all the same to me." She answered the first swiftly and breezily, as though it were so obvious. Which, in a way, it probably was usually. "Relax, Little Red, I won't do anything to you here. I just wanted you alive, and to talk."

"Where's Legion?" She repeated simply, jaw set in spite of the bruise protesting the action. "I won't talk until you answer me, Aria. If I answer your questions at all, that is."

"Outside the door, probably. It's been standing there for five hours, now, stock still and not moving with its rifle across its chest. So loyal… I kind of want a Geth of my own." Pyrrha didn't bother pointing out how unlikely that was, or that Legion wasn't her Geth. Smiling, the Asari stood and turned as though to leave, "And you will answer my questions eventually, Nikos."

"I will?"

"Everything comes to me eventually." She smiled, moving towards the door and finishing, "Rest up here for the day. I will ask you my questions when you feel more… Agreeable."

What that meant, Pyrrha would have to wait and find out, as Aria's door opened and closed without another word. A moment later, Legion stepped through it, standing beside the bed and giving her a simple, "Hello."

"Hello, Legion."

"You are not dead." It observed plainly, "This pleases us. We politely request you not engage Krogan warriors in melee combat any further."

She snorted a laugh, and swiftly began to regret that decision, coughing while the machine watched and, presumably, monitored her. Settling down, she let her good eye close and relaxed, knowing she was safe with her machine companion at her shoulder. A better rest, to say the least, than one accompanied by a god's nagging and cruel jokes.

XxX-XxX-XxX

Zammy :

Who said there are gods in the Mass Effect world? Though I like and may adopt your side project idea.

Knightwolf1875 :

Thank you~! It's a Supporter Request from someone, so it's their idea.

The Prime Cronos :

The Geth's combat algorithms are not directly enhanced by communication with organics, but rather seem to be based around observing them. How they fight and move, how they think, that sort of stuff. So talking to Pyrrha wouldn't quite be useful for combat reasons, though seeing her fight may give them ideas.

End of the day, there are no other Huntresses for him to apply studying her to. And even were there, he'd not be able to apply knowledge of Pyrrha's techniques to, say, Yang. Too different.

Mrendinoemiliano :

Glad you're enjoying it~!