MASS EFFECT: WINTER EYES

CHAPTER 4: ALEENA

Garrus watched Liara intently as she typed away at the terminal that was housed in their room at Afterlife. They were left in there alone, but two of Aria's guards were posted right outside. Even if they managed to get the door lock, they wouldn't be able to fight their way through without arousing some type of alarm from within. "Can we send out a distress signal?" He whispered to her.

Liara shook her head as she paused in her work. "Aria is smart. Her tech team most likely has this mirrored with their own. Anything I do on here, they can see live," She answered in a hushed tone. The terminal was a sick joke. A feign escape route. Liara knew that even with her capabilities for hacking, she couldn't pull up her private databases without Aria being notified. Despite their current predicament, she would not risk giving away her identity as the Shadow Broker. That information was deadly even if Aria did not disclose it right away. Information was power, and it wasn't like T'Loak needed any more. "We will need to work with Aria on this, I'm afraid."

Garrus huffed under his breath as he shoved himself away from the back of her chair to pace around in their confinement. "You really think she will work with us? She has the advantage right now."

Liara frowned from his statement. He was right. Aria never liked to share knowledge unless she got something in return. "The attacks are becoming aggressive." She pointed out. "Dealing with an organized xenophobe?"

"Xenophobe who is targeting Shepard's connections." Garrus added. "Not a good day to be a non-human."

Liara glumly turned back around to see what she could find out so far on the terminal. A high alert on the extranet grabbed her attention. It took her several reads to fully comprehend the title of the article from the shock. "Goddess…..." The rest of her words failed her.

"What is it?" Garrus moved back over to see what she found.

"There was another attack…this time on the New Citadel." Her lips trembled as her blue eyes scanned over the words. The New Citadel was the name given to the Starline cruiser that was built after the Reaper War. The original Citadel was destroyed by the Catalyst and without the old Prothean technology, they didn't have the means to create a structure so lavish right away. The state of the art cruiser that was meant for luxury passenger trips was donated to the Council races. The newly established Council was housed there since the original government body lost their lives on the Citadel along with new ambassadors. Embassies were opened for all races to start off with the theme to everyone living in harmony. That included the quarians and batarians. Both races were shunned down prior to the Reaper War's conclusion.

"Who was the victim?" Garrus tried to move over the article to catch up with her.

"Well, the intended victim was Admiral Tali'Zorah vas Neema. It says here that she was on the Citadel to assist in the petition from the Drell ambassador to find a new homeworld for the drell due to the increase of cases of Kepral's Syndrome. The quarians were sympathetic to them due to their previous struggle with the Geth and their exile from Rannoch.

"Intended?" Garrus lifted an eye ridge as he moved his avian eyes away to her for an explanation.

Liara remained quiet as she finished reading the document. "By the Goddess…no…." She choked on her words.

"Remember that Javik pointed out the Protheans were actually-," The turian countered as he thought back to her time at the temple on Thessia. It was discovered that the Protheans were the ones that the ancient asari mistook for goddesses. The entire religion of the Asari was a farce.

Liara shot him a cold glare. "I don't want to talk about that." The subject was still touchy for her. On top of losing her homeworld, she had to deal with the sheer notion that everything she was taught as a youngling was a complete lie. Those that she prayed to lift her up were nothing more than dead Protheans.

"Sorry." Garrus cleared his throat as he realized that his jab was not ideal. "Who was the victim?"

Liara lowered her eyes sadly. "Doctor Karen Chakwas. Witnesses say that she must have seen the assassin before Tali did. She took the bullet instead."

"Spirits…" Garrus pounded the desk with his fist hard as he moved away once more.

"It said that she was with Tali as they were comminuting back to the ambassador's office. Dr. Chakwas aided Tali to give her dissertation on her research of Kepral's Syndrome."

"I thought she retired from the Alliance a few years after the war?" Garrus asked in confusion.

"She did, but she went to the New Citadel to work part time at their clinic. Tali must have reached out to her for assistance on the petition."

"They have him in custody?"

"The assassin was pursued and killed by C-Sec. They flagged the assassin to be Derrick Himenez." She swiped the displayed window aside and brought up a new search box to look up the name. "Ex merc, current information dates back ten years ago. Nothing since then."

"Wrong place…wrong time, crap." Garrus shook his head as he felt anger shake his body. "We can't stay here any longer. Our friends are being killed one by one!"

Liara stood up from the terminal station. "I agree. I don't like the idea of being trapped in a room when I may be hunted."

"No one knows that we are here."

A playful smirk spread across the asari's blue lips. "I wouldn't say that. I have a contact set to arrive momentarily. They were pre-scheduled if I didn't meet them at the rendezvous date and time from departing Omega."

The news floored the turian, and his jaw dropped slightly. "How did you get that arranged?"

The grin remained on her face. "Remember who you are talking to."

Garrus chuckled from the good news. "Who is our savior?"

A quick whiff of the air as the krogan departed from his ship at the Omega docks, made him scrunch his face. "Varren shit hole still smells the same." Urdnot Wrex eyed the crowd that bustled to and from their various ships. "Let's get this over with." Donning a deep red Battlemaster armor, Wrex didn't have any trouble pushing his way through the streets. Most of those who were in his way, quickly stepped aside to allow him to pass, fearing bodily harm. Krogan were not unusual on the asteroid space station, but other races still feared the burly reptile species; especially equipped to be a Krogan Battlemaster. Seeing a few krogan mercs eyeing him cautiously as he passed made him chuckle as their images brought back old memories. "Good times."

The walk to the front of the Afterlife club was short from his arrival and he noticed the long line that seemed to wrap around several blocks. A much shorter line formed to the right under a sign that displayed "VIP." Eying both, he moved to the right and shoved those in front of him to get to the front. "Out of the way," He barked. A few grumbled and shouted in anger by his action but none dared to really do anything about it. They figured that the bouncer working the queue would have a say in the matter. At the front of the line was another krogan manning the entry point. His skin tone matched Wrex's and a few scars were noticeable on his neck. He took note of the newcomer and stepped to face Wrex and block his entrance with his assault rifle in his hands. "No cutting in line," He snapped.

Wrex ignored the statement until he got to the front and squared off with the bouncer. Seeing him, made him snarl angrily. "I know you, Triksor. So, this is the rock you crawled under?"

"Back off, Wrex. This line is for VIP only. You're not on the list."

"Good thing you didn't stay on Tuchanka after I took over." Wrex narrowed his eyes dangerously as he didn't budge. "You know what happens to clanless. Especially those that forsake the clan Urdnot name? I should tear you apart right here."

"You were always a pain in the quad, Wrex. This isn't Tuchanka, so I don't give a crap what you say about clans. They mean shit here." Triksor spat back. "Since we fought together in the Krogan Rebellion, I'll give you one more time to state your business."

Wrex responded with a swift hard headbutt right into Triksor' s face. The impact made the other lose his footing and he stumbled back slightly. Blood dripped down his face as a part of his upper skin broke open. "That's my business."

Seeing the violent display ahead, a batarian guard hurried down the steps to check out the commotion. He quickly aimed his rifle at Wrex. "What are you doing here, scum?!"

Wrex kept his yellow eyes on Triksor. "I need to talk to Aria. That's your boss' name, right?"

"You're not on the list, Wrex!" The other krogan bellowed at him. The batarian remained quiet at his position.

"I can be. Tell her that I'm here for Liara T'Soni." Wrex replied with a smile.

Triksor and the batarian looked at one another quietly, giving away their knowledge of who he was referring to; neither said a word. Wrex's smile disappeared. "Which of you pyjaks do I need to headbutt again to get some movement?"

Aria stormed into the room with two batarians in tow. Her appearance put Liara and Garrus back on guard. "Did you find anything useful from my terminal?" She directly asked Liara as her eyes poised on her.

"Yes," Liara didn't flinch as she replied. "There was another killing. This time on New Citadel."

Garrus recognized the batarian on Aria's left; it was Bray. Macha Shepard's contact on the Citadel when Aria flagged her for her help to get Omega back. Macha talked about her conversation with T'Loak with him after her return to the Normandy. Garrus didn't like the idea of Shepard going in alone, but he had to trust her. The other on Aria's right, he didn't place. Bray opened his omni tool to review some data. "She's telling the truth."

"That's comforting." Aria's eyes remained on T'Soni. "I see that you finally decided to cooperate. That is wise."

"What did you turn up in the interrogation?" Garrus asked impatiently. They needed to get out of here. He began to wonder if Wrex even arrived at the station yet. He knew that their old friend was an excellent fighter, but what could he do against her forces? Liara seemed confident in his tagging along. He hoped that she was right.

The other batarian chortled. "You can get all kinds of shit when you torture them." The tone of his voice seemed to indicate to the pair that violence thrilled him. "Especially when you break their fingers slowly one by one."

Aria smiled to his comment. "Yes. Yes, you can, Sh'sk. That's why I already have you at the task." She glanced back at Vakarian and T'Soni who seemed to be a bit uncomfortable with the disclosure. "Good thing to remember. Bray?"

"The group is called Charon. Boss name is Erinyes. Queries came back with no information on her. Most likely not an official name." He read off the data from his omni.

"Erinyes in human culture is a Greek goddess of vengeance." Liara pointed out. "Charon in the same was the ferryman of Hades, aka the underworld."

"Humans?" Aria scoffed by the news. "I knew it."

"The recent attack was supposed to be on our old friend, Tali, but the assassin killed Dr. Chakwas instead." Liara brought up what they found out so far on the terminal.

C-Sec killed the assassin, but all details points out to the same group. Human, ex-merc, no information for the past ten years." Garrus chimed in.

"Probably, scrubbed, boss." Sh'sk put in his two cents.

"How obvious, Sh'sk. Thank you," Sarcasm oozed off Omega leader's lips before she addressed their prisoners once again. "It's good to see that we are working together on this. I should have never worked with Shepard. She has brought nothing but trouble to this station."

"You're right, Aria." Garrus snapped back angrily as his fists became clenched after hearing her statement. "She should have let Cerberus keep Omega and not helped you. We didn't need your help. You would have remained on the Citadel and died when the Reapers took control of the station. If it wasn't for her, you wouldn't be having this conversation right now with us!"

The sudden outburst didn't faze her. She knew what he said was true, but she would never admit to that. "Careful. Remember who you are talking to," She hissed lowly at him.

"Is that all you found out?" Liara inquired, trying to redirect the conversation back to the matter at hand away from the tangent. What Aria disclosed so far was everything she already knew. They were back to square one.

Bray glanced over at his boss for her orders. She silently nodded to give her approval. He pulled up his tool's display again. "There seems to be some sort of target list. This guy only knew of the next one and that's it. Miranda Lawson. Our guy was supposed to be on it." The batarian paused and then chuckled at his own private joke. "He will miss out."

"That's as useful that he was to me." Aria noted. "I had Sh'sk kill him. I never like loose ends…." She let her words linger to give off a double meaning at her intent.

Garrus could feel a chill go down his spine. Was she planning on doing the same to him and Liara? "Charon won't let the job go undone, Aria." He knew he had to play into this.

"Let them try." Aria dismissed the statement with a laugh.

"Aria," Liara glared angrily at the fellow asari. "Without us, you would have been killed out there." Her tone becoming short and icily. The sudden change from the soft spoken asari seemed to shock Garrus.

T'Loak remained quiet. Suddenly, a chime came from the Bray's tool. "Yes, what is it?" She asked out in annoyance.

"There's a krogan here demanding to see you. Says he's there for Liara T'Soni." The batarian replied on the other side.

Aria glared at her captives. "Your backup?" She lifted an eye ridge at T'Soni as she crossed her arms. She didn't allow the other to speak before addressing the batarian. "Let him in."

Seconds later, the room's door opened and Urdnot Wrex bounded in with another krogan following him should things get out of hand. The guard was holding Wrex's famed shotgun that he liked to take around with him on various missions. A fit of laughter spilled out of Wrex's mouth as he took note of Aria T'Loak standing there. The sudden outburst confused everyone in the room except for Aria. The purple skinned asari almost seemed a bit happy by his appearance and a smile appeared on her lips. "I heard an asari was running this place after Cergon, just never cared to find out who it was. So, now you are Aria. You own this shit hole?"

"He's known as Patriarch now. Careful, Wrex. I respect you, but this is my station." Aria curtly shot back.

Garrus and Liara exchanged confused looks with one another. Aria's men were doing the same. "Wrex didn't tell me he knew Aria…" Liara whispered over to her turian friend.

"He didn't tell me either…" Garrus whispered back.

"I would start where we left off, but duty calls." Wrex moved towards his old friends. "How you holding up, Liara?"

Liara gaped at her friend with wide surprised eyes still. "I-I'm fine," She stammered to find her words.

Garrus found his voice as he turned to their captor. "You letting us go?"

"Yes," Aria dismissed them with her hand. "I trust that you will disclose of anything else you find about this Charon."

"Of course," Liara felt the weight coming off her body in knowing that they would be leaving the station soon. "I take you will do the same."

Aria remained tight lip and looked over at Bray. "Bray, escort them back to their ship. See to it, quickly."

"Alright." Bray motioned them to follow him out.

Wrex paused at the door as he took up the rear and turned his thick head back towards Aria. "Don't think I forgot about that volus contract, Aleena." He grinned.

Aria grinned back at him. "Better luck next time."

"How come you didn't tell us you knew Aria?" Liara whispered over to Wrex as they followed Bray through the streets of Omega towards the docks.

Their krogan companion gave a light-hearted shrug. "Didn't know it was her."

"I should have known she had another alias."

"Probably not the only one."

"You and she had a falling out? Did you work for her?" Garrus walked up with them to catch in on their conversation.

Wrex chuckled. "We were mercs once. Had the same contract. We both didn't want to get into each other's way and then a volus put a contract on her. I couldn't pass up the creds. We fought…damn, she was good," He paused to linger in his thoughts as a grin went across his lips. "Too damn good. Used up all my ammo and I only wounded her. Blew up the place we were at. I got out and thought she was done for."

"You didn't know she was alive?" Liara listened in carefully.

"Yeah, she gave me a message when I was halfway back to get paid. Never heard from her since."

Garrus chuckled and shook his head. "I can't believe this. Did you ever tell Shepard?"

"Yeah."

Both their eyes went wide. "What?!"

Wrex shrugged. "She asked. I just think she and I never knew that Aria was in fact Aleena. She hasn't changed since the time I saw her."

"Well, asari don't really show age by their physical appearance…except for their…" Liara felt her face become hot as she realized what type of conversation that she was leading herself into. She cleared her throat and tried to look away to hide the redness that flushed in on her cheeks.

"Their what?" Wrex inquisitively asked, not sure where she was going with it.

Liara bit her lip as her mind raced to find another subject of interest to discuss. "You and her planning a rematch?"

The krogan laughed. "Maybe after this is over. Been awhile since I had a good fight."

Garrus quickened his steps to catch up with Bray as they neared the docks. The four-eyed batarian eyed him carefully as he took his side. "What the hell do you want?"

"You know Macha told me about your fighting skills on Omega when she came here to help Aria." Garrus tried to lighten the mood. He didn't take offense to the other's snarky jab. Batarians were the opposite of the hanar.

Bray shrugged. "Don't know what the big fuss was about over her. Aria wanted her help, so I do what she says." He stopped at the dock's entrance. "Your ship is down there and the impound has been lifted. You shouldn't have any trouble in leaving. This is far as I'm going."

"Bray, be careful. Aria is not safe." Liara urged him. He replied with a grunt and turned to head back to the club.

"And I thought turians were difficult to deal with." Wrex smirked at Garrus.

"Careful, Wrex." Garrus chuckled.

Liara led the group through the docks. "We need to get a message to Miranda quickly."

Garrus stopped midstride when he noticed that they passed her ship. "Um, Liara?" Wrex continued past him to follow the asari.

"We are not taking that one." Liara called to him as she continued.

"Get with the program, Vakarian." Wrex bantered.

Confused, Garrus hastened his steps to keep up and realized that they were moving to the ship that Wrex must have used to dock there. He looked at his old friends quizzically. Liara remained quiet until all three were onboard and the doors were locked. "Aria may have released my ship, but I don't trust her not to have it traced and bugged while we were held." The blue asari sat down behind the controls with Wrex to her left. The krogan was already flipping the initiation switches to warm the engines up.

Garrus remained puzzle at the doorway and leaned his right arm up against it as he watched on. "When I was going to be in on this?"

"Hey, you went in hiding on Omega." Liara teased back with a smile.

"You just going to leave your ship here? What about everything onboard?"

"Oh yeah…" Liara brought up her omni tool and with a quick few taps of her fingertips, she closed it down with a look of satisfaction. "That should take care of it. I remotely erased everything and even took the name off." She then pushed a button to her right. "Glyph?"

A small holo image of her AI companion displayed on the screen. "Yes, Dr. T'Soni?"

"I need a query on all available locations for Miranda Lawson. Upon finding, send a message to her. Tell her that she needs to contact me. It is urgent."

"Where we going?" Wrex asked as he started to lift the ship away from its magnetic locks to head out. Garrus stumbled back to his seat to strap in for the departure.

Liara chewed her lip as she eyed her comrades. "We are being hunted."

"We do not have the resources nor the time to warn everyone." Garrus brought up.

"At least we know that they are after Miranda. We need to find her first." Wrex guided his ship away from Omega's orbit.

"I agree. Let's see if we can meet up with Tali until Miranda responds. Head towards New Citadel for now. Let's get far away from Omega as we can."