Nihlus stared in the direction of the shot while he caught his breath. It was definitely in the direction that his ship was and Nihlus didn't know if that reassured him or worried him. Several more shots fired and took down mercs that were trying to hide, then one landing right beside him and he got the message. Move. And he did just that, taking off up the path to his ship on the cliff, shooting down whoever got in his way.
About half way up he was forced into cover by a krogan with a rocket launcher. It hit the rock he was behind, making it shake and start to crumble. 'Come on mysterious ally, if there was any time to help it would be now.' he thought as another rocket slammed into the rock, sending a crack through it by Nihlus' head. He readied his gun, going to have to come out of cover one way or another.
He waited until the third rocket slammed into the rock, making the rock crack even more and several pieces falling to the ground before he popped up, gun firing into the large mass of krogan right as the sniper bullets started to hit. Between his constant fire into the krogan's stomach and the sniper shots sinking into weak joint spots in the heavy armor the krogan slowly went down. Nihlus' thermal clip overheated and he popped it out and slammed in a round of armor penetration. Like he expected the krogan took advantage of the lull in fire to charge at him, but it only got him a sniper bullet in the back on the ankle, toppling him as Nihlus rolled out of harm's way. He brought his gun back to the krogan as he righted himself back up and opened fire, piercing through the thick armor and into the main part of his body, ripping apart his two set of organs. One final shot from the sniper in the dying merc's eye finished him off and Nihlus stood, panting hard. One thing was certain; whoever the sniper was they were good. It didn't sit well with Nihlus. It couldn't be Shepard then, she couldn't have known where all those weak points where, could she?
He shook off the worry and forced on getting back to his ship, running the last few legs to it. He stopped behind a bolder just out of view. He poked his head out and pulled it back as he saw dead mercs. He readied his pistol and slowly made his way to the ship, nudging the mercs as he went to make sure they were dead. They had horrible injuries to them, a few of them had bullet wounds, but most had twisted limbs, bludgeon wounds, a batarians even had his nose smashed up into his brain. It was brutal, but clear signs of being overpowered by an underestimated force. He froze as he heard cries of pain from in the ship and quickly moved to it.
Shepard
Shepard sat in the pilot seat, looking over all the different controls and symbols on them when she heard the door open. She got up and hobbled to it, not needing Nihlus to know she was inspecting his ship. But then she paused as it clearly wasn't Nihlus. It was four aliens in the same armor and with guns. She felt a shiver run down her spine as she recognized the armor as the same time of people who destroyed and boarded her ship, carrying off her crew. She felt rage fill her and slammed into the nearest one. She felt no pain in her leg as the adrenaline pumped through her veins. She ran outside of the ship and watched them follow.
Carefully, like a dance, she dodged their attacks and smirked. They weren't firing at her, they must have had ordered to capture her alive. Well she didn't have the same orders. She ran at the nearest one, it looked like the same species as Nihlus, and grabbed his gun arm and spun the arm behind his arm behind his back. She kicked him hard in the back of the legs, knocking him to his knees, and slammed her foot down on his back and pulled on his arm until she heard a loud pop. The alien screamed in pain and she dropped the arm, watching it hang limp at his side, clearly broken.
She went to get his gun, but another alien shot as her and she dodged back, darting behind a bolder. She climbed up it and jumped down on a pointy head alien as he came to flush her out, slamming her good foot into his neck and snapping it in half instantly. Well their weaknesses were about the same as humans. She swallowed the bile that rose in her throat from the smell of released bowels and the memories of war it brought up. She slowed her breathing and focused on that to keep her mind clear and picked up the pointy alien's gun. She quickly ducked back behind the boulder as they started shooting at her, clearly realizing that they weren't going to get her unless they went all out. They may also be mad that she just killed one of their allies and made another useless. She let them fire shots at the boulder as she examined the gun. It was a pistol by the looks of it. She popped out the clip and looked it over. There weren't any bullets; actually it looked more like a heat sink in a computer. She frowned and put it back in. She wouldn't know how many shots she had then, best to do this with as little shots as possible. She dodged out from behind the bolder in a lull of shots and slammed into the one with a broken arm, spinning him around by the broken arm. He let out a cry as she twisted the bad arm and used him as a shield while she shot at the heads of the enemies.
One fell before they started shooting back, only hitting their friend who let out a dying gurgle of protest. He fell and she ran for a second, slamming her palm into the four eyed alien's nose and he fell with a sickening crunch. The last one tried to shoot her, but she kicked the gun out of his hand and forced him to the ground. It was another four eyed alien, perfect. She dragged him into the ship and hit him hard in the head to knock him out for a while. Then she went down to where Nihlus kept his guns and grabbed a sniper rifle, clear by the scope on the back. Then she went back out, found a good half hidden perch on the edge of the cliff and laid belly down on it, the sniper rifle in her grasp and peered down the scope.
There was a building down below with more of the alien mercs running about, but she didn't shoot at them yet, didn't need them all knowing she was there. One of the doors open and Nihlus ran out. She aimed the cross-hairs over his head and put her finger on the trigger. Had Nihlus brought her here to suffer the same fate as her crew? She had trusted him. He looked up in her direction and her finger twitched over the trigger, still debating what she should do. A merc came up behind him, gun raised and ready to take him out, and that is when she made her decision and pulled the trigger. The shot fired from the barrel, giving a considerable amount of backlash that made her shoulder ache, and raced towards Nihlus. It brushed his cheek and sank into the helmet of the merc. She watched him fall before moving to other mercs that were all trying to take cover now with a sniper hidden and Nihlus pushing forward.
She took out three of them in a row before the clip popped out of the gun, clearly wasted. She cursed and ran back into the ship, looking for more and grateful that they all appeared to be universal. She grabbed a bag full and ran back out, slamming a new one into place and peering back down the scope. Nihlus was almost up the hill, but a huge alien was in his way. She only had four shots to a clip so she took her time to look over its armor. Once she found its weak spots she fired, sinking bullet after bullet into the weak mesh at the joints. It took her several seconds longer than she wanted to reload the gun after each four rounds, but slowly it appeared that the alien was going down. And then it got back up and roared, charging at Nihlus. She aimed at its Achilles heel and fired. The creature let out a roar and fell to the ground, allowing Nihlus to roll away. From this angle she had a clear shot at the beast's head and fired several bullets into its eye until it stopped moving.
She swept the hill one more time to make sure the path was clear before she went back to the ship to check on her guest.
He was just waking up and she dragged him into the mess and handcuffed him to table. He growled something in his language at her and she punched him hard in the jaw. He spat blood at her feet so she leaned down and grabbed his hand and bent his finger back until he screamed. "Where is my crew?" she snapped at him and when he just stared at her she growled and snapped the finger in frustration. He let out a blood curtailing cry and she stood up and started to slam her foot into his gut, tears streaming down her cheeks. She felt so useless. No one could understand her and it was going to cost her crew their lifes.
Strong arms wrapped themselves around her and she struggled against them, spewing out curses at her captor. She slammed her head back and groaned as she hit something hard. Spots filled her vision as she was set down in a chair and Nihlus moved around in front of her, cupping her cheek and chirping something soothing at her.
Nihlus
He rushed into the mess and sat Shepard kneeling down by a tied up merc. He watched in slight horror as she grabbed his hand and bent his finger back and barked something at him. "W-what?" the batarians asked and she growled and broke his finger. She stood up and started kicking him, tears streaming down her face and he moved behind her, pulling her back. She let out a cry and struggled against him, slamming her head back and against the ridge of his armor. He winced in sympathy of her pain, but at least it dazed her and allowed him to move her to a chair and set her down. He moved in front of her and cupped her cheek. "It's okay, Shepard, it's just me, you're safe now." he tried to sooth her. She blinked away the dazed look from hitting her head and looked at him.
"Fucking beast." the batarians cried past the pain in his hand.
Nihlus glared at him and he shut up before turning back to Shepard. He pressed his forehead against hers before going to his terminal and uploading the data from the base. He scrolled through it, reading the information on Shepard's crew. It didn't appear that the base had any of her crew mates on it, but to make sure he was going to get this hostage's opinion.
He kneeled down in front of the whimpering batarian's and gripped his chin. "Where are the other ones like her?" he asked and pointed to Shepard.
"Why should I tell you?" the batarian spat at him.
"Because if you don't I'll let her get the information out of you." Nihlus growled and pointed back at Shepard.
The batarian looked at her, sitting in the chair watching them. His eyes moved back to the exit of the ship where his crew laid dead by Shepard's hands. She had taken out all of them without them landing a single hit on her. "I-I don't know where they are. They were brought to the base a few weeks ago, but then they were moved." he opened up. "I'm just a grunt, they don't tell me stuff like that." Nihlus sighed and the batarian squirmed. "Wait-wait." he said, trying to give himself something useful to appease the Spectre. "I do know they were going to be sold as exotic pets or something. But I swear that is all I know. Can you let me go?" he pleaded.
Nihlus shook his head sadly. "I was given a mission to wipe out you and your base. Sorry, but it's just orders." he said and jerked the batarian's head. The body fell limp and Nihlus dragged it out of the ship and threw it beside of the others. He armed the charges as he settled down into the pilot seat. He ordered his ship to take flight and once they were clear he set off the charges. Shepard came up and watched the base blow up, but didn't say anything. "VI, decode the data uploaded from the base looking for anything to do with location of hostages." he told his ships computer.
"Understood, will update you when I find something." the ship's VI replied.
"And set a course for Illium." he added looking at Shepard. Illium was one of the biggest information highways. Even if they couldn't find anything on Shepard's crew hopefully they could find an asari willing to meld minds with her so they could upload her language to the omni-tool.
Nihlus jerked awake sometime in the night and sat up straight. His back was stiff from falling asleep in his pilot chair again. He looked at the galactic map and hit a few buttons to pull out their progress. They were still several hours from the next relay that would take them to the correct system. He ran a hand down his face plates. That meant they would be there in the morning. It was going to be a long day tomorrow.
"Nihlus…?" a small voice said behind him and he turned to see Shepard standing at the end of the hallway in one of his shirts. She normally slept in them over the asari clothes he had gotten for her. She came over and stood beside him. "E dueldvz sleep." He smiled as he recognized the word sleep; they had gotten a few basic verbs because heading to bed. He held out his hand and she took it and climbed into his lap. She curled up to him and tucked her head by his shoulder. She was so small and cute it was hard to believe that she killed all five people so easily. He stroked her hair. If she was a turian she would have nearly every male at her heels. He smirked and settled into his chair to go back to sleep, not wanting to disturb her.
Shepard
She felt shifting under her and let out a groan as it dragged her out of her sleep. She sat up and rubbed the back of her sore neck. It felt like she slept on a rock. Looking up she saw Nihlus awake and talking to someone over a com system. And then she realized by her neck hurt, she had been sleeping in his armored lap. Quickly, she scurried back out of the chair, scrambling to her feet. Nihlus tried to stop her and she realized why when she put weight on her right foot. Pain shot up her leg and she stumbled back. Nihlus pulled her back onto his lap. "Leg. No stand." he said and she nodded in agreement and just listened to the voice he was talking to.
There was some sort of confirmation signaled by a beep from the ship and she could feel them start to descend. "Nih…" she said a little wary after what happened the last time they touched down. He put a hand on the back of her head and stood up, careful not to make her fall out of the seat. He left into the back and came back after a few minutes with an armor suit that was about her size. He helped her into it and locked the helmet into place over her head. It made her uneasy, where they going to somewhere they would be in danger?
They left the ship and Shepard clung to Nihlus as they exited onto a very busy port. He kept her close and hurried them through customs. She thought they would be stopped because Nihlus was far from unarmed, but they just looked at him and nodded him through. Shepard looked up at him, wondering why he was able to pass through customs without any checks. He didn't even look down at her as he guided them through the crowds. He took her out to a market place and pulled her closer as they were jolted this way and that from people trying to see who had what to buy. It was chaos and reminded her of her own kind. Thinking of it made her eyes water. She hadn't realized how home sick she was.
Before she could take in more of the busy place Nihlus dragged her down a side street. It was still busy, but they weren't being slammed into as much. Then they took some more turns and she couldn't keep up as they winded through the maze of streets and buildings taller than a human skyscraper. He dragged her into a building and once she was inside she saw it was a bar. He sat her at the bar and sat down next to her. He spoke with the bartender, a blue girl like her nurse was only her skin had a purple tint and she was clearly older.
The woman nodded and left, returning with two drinks. She set a red one in front of Nihlus and a blue one in front of her. She immediately thought of "The Matrix." She bit back a small laugh and looked down at her drink, wondering how she was going to drink it without taking her helmet off. As she thought about it the bottom half of her mask slid up, leaving from right below her nose down exposed. It made her jump, as if her armor could read her mind. Nihlus laughed and she looked up at him. He pointed to her arm where an omni like his was glowing. She looked at it in surprise and it slowly started clicking into place. Back in the hospital Nihlus had put something in her arm, and not soon after she had begun to start to be able to understand him. So an omni was a little computer injected into the skin and then connected to your mind. She didn't know if she was fascinated or terrified.
All she knew for sure is that this omni would be able to aid her in finding her crew, and for that she was thankful. So she picked up her drink and took a large swig of it, before coughing as the strong alcohol burned her throat. Nihlus patted her back as she regained her bearings and then went back to talking with the bartender. She sat beside him and looked around as she slowly nursed her drink. A few words she could pick out from what was being said around her, but most of it as just gibberish.
And then she saw it. She quickly grabbed Nihlus' arm and he paused in midsentence and look at her. She pointed over to a blue girl smoking a stick that looked a lot like a cigarette. He looked at her before his mandibles flared in a smile and he said something to the bartender. She left and came back with a small box and set it in front of Shepard. She picked it up and opened it to find cigarettes. She put one in her mouth and lit it with a match that was inside the box as well. After a few puffs she got it going and nearly coughed from the smoke and taste. It taked horrible, but she could already feel the effects of the nicotine. Thank everything good in the universe that aliens knew what cigarettes were. Nihlus petted her head as she settled back down into her chair, completely content.
Nihlus
Nihlus fixed buckling Shepard into the armor he gotten her back on the Citadel. Now people would just think she was a short asari, and for now that was for the best. His ship pinged to tell him they had docked and he led them out of the ship, making sure to keep Shepard close. Customs were quick because, as a Spectre he wasn't required to go through them. He led Shepard through the busy market place that filed outside of the ports, everyone trying to buy the products the moment they came in. Several people bumped into them and he pulled Shepard closer, not wanting her to get lost in the crowd. He took her down a side street, then another, and kept winding them off the main road until they were in a secluded bar, Eternity. It was small now, but it had good drinks, good service, and had been growing steadily.
He set them down at the bar and nodded at the bar tender as she came up. "Hello Nihlus, you haven't been here in a while." she said, not even glancing at Shepard. This is why he liked this bar. This woman knew he had unique business and didn't bother trying to pry into them.
"Hello Aethyta," he greeted and they caught up, well with what he could talk about at least.
"The usually for you and what for your guest?" she asked.
Nihlus let out a bit of a sigh. "I really don't know what she likes, and her omni isn't working right so we can't communicate." he said. "Can you just give her something sweet?"
Aethyta nodded and left to get their drinks. "Your regular and a sweet asari drink for the lady." she said when she came back, giving Nihlus a red turian drink and a light blue asari drink he recognized as a favorite amongst asari, they said it tasted like berries.
Shepard stared at it for a few moments before her suit reacted to her thoughts and the bottom part of her mask lifted up. He saw her jump and couldn't help, but chuckle. She looked up at him at the sound and he pointed at the omni-tool glowing on her arm. She looked at it and after a few seconds he saw her smirk and take a large swig of the drink. He patted her on the back as it made her cough and she started taking smaller sips. Once he was sure she was okay he turned to the bartender and saw her staring at the pale pink skin that was exposed so Shepard could drink.
"She is… special." Nihlus said, drawing Aethyta's attention back to him. "And I need someone to meld minds with hers, a linguist preferably, that can help me upload her language to the omni-tool." he said, voice getting low to stop anyone from hearing them.
"There have been rumors of a new species, but I figured it was some slaver scam." Aethyta said with a frown.
Nihlus sipped on his drink for a moment before he answered. "It's not a scam. I believe—" he paused as Shepard grabbed his arm and pointed over to an asari smoking. His mandibles flared in a bit of a smile before he asked the bartender to bring them a pack of cigarettes. She did and when she gave them to Shepard Nihlus could see her smile. "I believe that her ship accidently went through a mass relay and put her out in batarian space, where it was attacked and her crew captured to be sold in the slave trade. I want to find them before that happens."
Aethyta nodded, "But you need to be able to understand her to be able to get all the information." she filled in what he left out. She went to serve another customer, but appeared to be in thought rather than focusing on the drink she was pouring. It was several minutes before she came back. "Nearly a century ago I fathered a child, the relationship between me and the mother… it didn't work out. Sadly I lost all contact with my daughter, but I do know that she is striving to become a prothean archeologist." she said and brought Shepard a slice of pie. "Her mother tells me she is very smart, maybe she can help you."
"What's her name?" Nihlus asked, knowing that Aethyta was giving a lot of personal information to him.
"Liara T'Soni." she said after another mental debate. "But I'm afraid I don't know where she is."
Nihlus reached across the bar and gripped her hand. "You've done more than enough, and thank you."
A/N: I fixed a lot of errors in the story, including making it more streamline with Shepard's P.O.V. And thank you CyanB for helping me find them. And thank you to everyone who told me that it IS cannon that Aethyta is Liara's father. Anyway here is the new chapter, hope you liked it. Please review and tell me your thoughts, remember I do take what you guys say into calculation so your ideas might be put into the story!