XxX-XxX-XxX

Official Supporters:

Fanatical Fucking Reader, Scrublord Yoda

Compulsive Reader, The Impossible Muffin

Adeptus, Private Wilger

Commissioner, Gib, Espacole

Settled Reader, Xager the Chaos King

If you want to be on the Supporter list, PM me for details or join our private server for details. Hope you enjoy reading my stories, please leave me a comment to let me know if you did, or where I can improve. Link here, where able to be seen : /2UZncAm

Second link here, remove ( and ) and it SHOULD work : D(i) (slash)kfhkfUb

I have a kofi account now, too, under this name for those interested.

Beta(s) :

Santo

XxX-XxX-XxX

Requested by :

Espacole

XxX-XxX-XxX

"Bekenstein is a couple hours out or so, sub-light all the way." Kasumi explained quietly as their slapped together team started climbing into the Kodiak. Pyrrha paused for a worried second, eyes roving over the Cerberus emblem painted onto the side, but Kasumi caught her before she could do more than worry a bit about it. "Don't worry, Nikos, checkpoints are only around the Citadel and out by the Relay. Stealth systems'll let us dodge 'em headed out, and we'll sub-light out of the system away from the Relay before we drop them."

"Good." Pyrrha nodded, trying to push down the anxiety it had brought on as best she could. "I don't understand why Cerberus though painting their logo all over everything was a good idea…"

"Pride." Grunt, of all people, growled as she climbed in. She raised an eyebrow at him while she settled in beside Penny and the young Krogan shrugged and explained quietly, almost sheepishly even, "Cerberus think they're the good guys. Maybe they are, doesn't matter. Makes 'em proud. Proud enough they slap their name, their symbol, everywhere."

"That's…"

"Pretty goddamn insightful for a Krogan." Zaeed growled and nodded, sounding impressed and leaning against the wall beside the door into the cockpit. "Where'd that come from?"

"Araa'Taka, an old Krogan warlord. Philosopher, too, when he had time." Grunt answered simply, his tone like gravel grinding against gravel. He sounded angry, too, almost like he was aggravated to be giving the answer. After a heartbeat, he growled lowly and turned, propping a leg up on the seat next to his. "Can we go, now?"

"Yeah." Pyrrha nodded, wrapping an arm around Penny when she leaned against her for a hug. "Let's get this done."

"Alright." Kasumi nodded, "Mister Stabby, you mind flying for us?"

"Because you can't do it your damn self?"

"Well, I could, yeah." She nodded, smirking playfully under her hood, "Or I could mock up ident-records for all of you, then insert them into C-Sec's systems. Then piggyback off of that to authenticate your new ID's in Bekenstein's registries, along with fake accounts with credits you can float to sell the look if you need to. All of which will keep the kind host of the venue we're heading to from taking you out behind the shed."

"What happens behind the shed?" Penny asked innocently, tugging Pyrrha's arm around her comfortably, like a child wrapping a blanket around themselves, and smiling. Then, while everyone coughed awkwardly, Pyrrha felt Penny nodding suddenly, "Oh, I see. Bad things happen behind the shed."

"...You are the single cutest thing I have ever seen in my entire life." Kasumi murmured, smiling and waving a hand at Zaeed. "Mind getting us on the road? Places to be, things to steal, plots against Humanity to get around to stopping. You know, the usual biz."

Zaeed only rolled his eyes wearily and slipped through the door into the cockpit.

It wound up taking closer to three hours than two for them to slip into Bekenstein's system, which they spent… Mostly in silence. Kasumi was working along to the beat of something that none of them could hear, head bouncing to the rhythm as her fingers typed at an invisible interface. She'd asked about it and the woman had shrugged and muttered about 'optical inlays' and then waved her off to focus on her work. Which left her with Penny and Grunt, until Grunt rolled his head back and started to snore.

Which left her with an oddly cuddly Penny, her head resting tiredly on her shoulder.

"Hey Pyrrha?"

"Hm?" She hummed, watching Kasumi work at the back of the shuttle while she leaned to the side to let Penny rest comfortably. "What's wrong, Penny?"

"Nothing, I just… I do not know." She sighed and shrugged, the motion rubbing one of her shoulders into Pyrrha's chest in an odd way. Sitting up she explained, quietly, "I have a bad feeling, all of the sudden. Like… Something is going to happen, and I am anxious because of it."

"Ah." That explained the affection, then, and the way Penny was sitting, stiff and eyes on the floor while a leg bounced and her fingers drummed on the side of her seat. Running her hand through her ponytail, Pyrrha asked, "Is something making you feel anxious, then? Something you saw, or maybe heard?"

"No, I just…" She sighed and sat back, like she was trying to make herself calm down. Crossing her arms she said, "I simply feel anxious, that is all. You do not need to worry though, Best Friend Pyrrha. I am fine, and will be ready to perform however you need me to when I am needed."

"Right." She nodded, watching the younger woman for a moment before sighing, nervous herself now. "Everything will be fine, Penny. Just get some rest while we get there, okay?"

"Okay." She nodded, easing back against the hull and closing her eyes. "I will do just that."

XxX-XxX-XxX

In the end, it took closer to four hours than two for them to reach Bekenstein, courtesy of a parade that the Council had decided they'd throw to show off the Destiny Ascension as it returned home to dock for repair and refit. Zaeed had told them he knew how to avoid the extra eyes, though, and he had, slipping out to the far edges of the system and then circling around and out, towards Bekenstein. From there it had been a straight shot, nothing more than a few freighters drifting around anywhere near the lanes they were in.

"I'm orbiting where ya said." Zaeed grunted as they shuttle slipped into place, drifting in the gravity well of the planet below. "Autopilot'll keep us from hittin' shit or driftin'. But should be a straight show down to the coordinates you put in."

"Great." Kasumi smiled, hood draped around her shoulders, now, showing off pale skin and dark hair cut in a simple bob.

Cocking a hip to rest one hand on, she flicked the other, tossing a little ball on the floor that bounced once then hovered. Then, with a blink of orange light, it brought up a massive map of an equally massive mansion. It was exquisitely detailed, hallways, vents and maintenance paths webbing around the building in such a complex, woven mesh that Pyrrha could scarcely follow one from end to end. The most surprising, though, were the bilips coming and going along the hallways.

Quietly, the thief explained, "It's a tracer bug I worked in, oh, three months ago? Anyway, runs off their security sensors to give me a live feed of wherever they ran 'em. Which oughta be basically everywhere."

"That is most impressive, Miss Goto!" Penny clapped, bouncing on her heels energetically and rambling, "The technology needed to engineer a program of this is astounding! May I look at it later? I would enjoy learning how it functions, if you do not mind."

"I, uh… Sure, kiddo. Once we get outta here, I won't mind." Kasumi murmured, blinking her surprise before absently tucking her hood up. What that gesture might mean, Pyrrha wasn't sure, and Kasumi continued like nothing was wrong in any event. "So, backstories! Gonna start with the simplest one here. Pyrrha Nikos."

"Um..." Pyrrha blinked, raising her hand hesitantly and smiling awkwardly, "Present?"

Zaeed snorted quietly, covering his face and shaking his head. Choking down his laugh, he grunted, "Like you're in fuckin' school… The hell, Red?"

"Ass." Kasumi grunted, taking a swipe at the man and then rolling her eyes when he ducked into the cockpit to dodge it. Leaning back against the partition between the cockpit and the passenger zone, Kasumi sighed tiredly, already seemingly more than done with Zaeed's nonsense.

Which… Fair.

"You're already a very known name and face, after what happened on Omega." Kasumi explained quietly, raising an eyebrow and smirking, "Remember? You brawling with a Krogan Biotic and managing to actually stay in there for a while, and not die?"

"Believe it or not, I do remember that, yes." Funnily enough, it was hard to forget the feeling of a giant lizard's fist impacting her face with the force of Nora on caffeine. She rubbed her chin at the recollection and grimaced, "Why does that matter now, though?"

"No real reason. Just that after that you became a merc that was hired by Archangel himself for protection, when the Omega branches of the major Merc groups finally decided to run him down." She answered quietly, tapping the air and setting a holographic screen sparking brightly to life. Her face was plastered on one side, while the other was filled by a score of bullet points about missions she knew she'd never been on. "A few of these are from my, er, less than stellar jobs the last year or so."

"No shit." Zaeed laughed, "That was your sorry ass out on Apthis?"

"Yes, and you are not allowed to insult my ass, Wrinkles." The thief grumbled, shaking her head and tutting when he only laughed harder. "Anyway, some point in here, you hired Miss Polendina and Scales over here-"

"Grunt, Human." Her newly acquired Krogan growled, "I chose this name. Respect it."

"-and bla bla bla, drama and mayhem, it's all made-up noise no one will look at anyway, and you're here." Kausmi finished without paying the glowering giant any heed. Clapping her hands, she waved to each of them in turn, "The two of 'em are your bodyguards."

"I'm not exactly a very intimidating bodyguard, Miss Goto, at least by appearance." Penny murmured quietly, at least for the young gynoid's standards, which would have worried Pyrrha if she looked upset or anything of the kind. Instead, she was simply sitting straight and smiling pleasantly, her small hands folded in her lap. "Why would anyone accept that someone that looks like me is a bodyguard?"

"A Krogan speaks for itself, bodyguard wise. Big 'n strong 'n nasty down jus' about to the last of the lot. But Penny?" Zaeed explained quietly, paying the small woman a nod, "She just looks like an innocent 'lil tot. No one'll know why you hired her, but everyone will assume ya did for a reason."

"Which will put people off almost as much as Grunt will all by himself." Kasumi smiled, "And, with me stealthing along behind you, that means that everyone is in except Zaeed. Which is good, since someone would probably recognize him in a real bad way."

"How do you mean?"

"I've got folk that owe me blood, and know they do." Zaeed explained simply, tone low and gravelly, bare of any of the humor he'd had just moments ago. "Thieving waif is right, me goin' down at the start? Bad plan. Even if I put a helmet on to cover this ugly fuckin' mug, I see someone on my list? They're dead and the plan is fucked."

"Oh…" Pyrrha blinked and then laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of her head and smiling, "Well, um… We do need a pilot in the Kodiak, for when we are finished with our work, I suppose. Don't we?"

"Yes we do!" Kasumi nodded, flicking away her projected profile with a finger, "As for the job itself? Simple heist. The dear host has something… Very important to me, something that he took from me, locked up in his vault. We get past some security he has in place, collect your weapons-"

"Wait," Pyrrha cut in, "we have to disarm?"

"Well, you do, but he doesn't." Kasumi grunted, gesturing with a wave of a hand at Pyrrha's supposed bodyguard, Grunt. "Bodyguards can be armed since, you know, that's their job. But the actual guests can't. Don't worry about it, though, I already have a way to get them back sorted out."

"Which is?" Grunt, well, grunted, laying a hand on the combat shotgun he'd gotten from… Well, somewhere, presumably on the Normandy as they'd passed through. "Krogan don't do disarming. And I doubt she does, either."

"They'll be tucked in the false bottom of your gift." Kasumi explained simply, folding her arms across her chest, "Which will also be in the vault. So when we get in to look for what's mine, we'll find what's yours. If you're a bit paranoid, I can carry something small for you while we're inside."

"That would be nice, yes." Her sword, at least, would most likely be small enough. "How are you so certain that we will find our equipment so easily, though?"

"Oh, well…" She smirked knowingly, "Let's just say the gift I signed for you isn't exactly subtle. Or small, for that matter. If he can hide that from me, I'll honestly be impressed. And it's kinda hard to impress me."

"It is?"

"Oh yeah, Red." The thief smirked, raising her eyebrows and cocking her head teasingly, "I put that bar riiiight around 'fighting Krogan Biotics in hand to hand and not dying' kind of territory. And 'dying but getting better', too."

"A-Ah." Pyrrha flushed and forced herself not to consider that both of the lithe woman's two suggestions technically applied to her. "Well, yes, I suppose that is a… Reasonable bar to set. Or at least as reasonable as any."

"Mhm." The woman hummed, eyeing her knowingly and smiling thinly, like she was trying not to laugh at a joke that Pyrrha somehow wasn't getting. "Well, if that's all… Wrinkles, take us down to the mansion? I'll ping the coordinates to ya, and the shuttle should ping as having a landing pass, too."

"Right." The old merc nodded, waving them off and slipping into the cockpit, grumbling all the while, "Wrinkles? The hell? Could 'least go with scar face or somethin' cool like that the little bi-"

XxX-XxX-XxX

Howell :

Yeah, Pyrrha is unironically a superhero in this. Not Superman mind you, but definitely not a normal human either. And hopefully I keep the banter up, yeah!

The Right Price :

My point was that as they are partners, unlocking his Aura is implicitly okay. Further, Pyrrha would believe she is the one giving away part of herself, not Jaune. That distinction is the one that shifts it in the moral view here, for her and how she is reacting to all of this.

Like I said, these are religious, or maybe spiritual is better, beliefs. Not facts. This contradiction does exist. You are correct.

Her beliefs are simply contradictory.

Joecola :

Glad you enjoyed it, lol.

G119 :

Yep!

Steelrain 66 :

Yeah, when I get to that with Miri stuff will be fun.