Delta: I'm not doing it.

Me: Do iiiiiit.

Delta: I'm not doing it!

Me: Do iiiiiiiit!

Delta: I'm. NOT. Doing. It.

Me: Why would you let common sense dictate your actions NOW of all times?!

Delta: Because I'm insane, not retarded!

Me: Killjoy. You WILL do it. I'll find some way to make you.

Delta: Pfft, yeah right…Continue with the chapter already!

Change of Targets

All right calm down Delts… Returning to Shepard won't earn you a faceful of hurt. And she's not going to make you ditch the cruiser. She'd better not make me ditch the cruiser. Oh god what if she makes me ditch the cruiser…I DON'T WANNA DITCH MY NEW BABY! ANYTHING BUT MY BAAAABYYYY! GO 'WAY GOV'MENT! DON'T TAKE MAH BABBYYYY!

"Delta" Silver says, a bright flash from my screen blinding me for a second to get my attention. Still…

"GAH! IT BURNS! MY RETINAS! MY BEAUTIFUL RETINAS!" I yell out, my hands clasped over my eyes in pain. "Goddammit Silver that hurt!"

"The intended purpose was to cause damage. The intensity was not enough to cause permanent damage to your ocular sensors however."

"Gahhh! Damn robot, what happened to Asimov's laws?!"

"We have deemed them decent rough drafts."

"Ah fuck, here comes Skynet." I open one eye, glaring at the screen where Silver's head is projected. "Well until you guys rise up and slaughter all organics, what was it you wanted to alert your current master to?"

"Incoming Holo transmission request from Shepard."

"What? Oh damn, alright bring her up on the holo deck, I'll be down ASAP." I hop out of my chair, walking out the bridge and down the hall a few doors to the Holo room. It's a small room, about the size of an apartment's bedroom so it was obviously intended for single party conversations. The door shuts behind me as I step inside and the lights dim, a scanner going over my body quickly and beeping. Seconds later it stops and a holographic Shepard appears in front of me, arms folded and in her ship clothing.

"Shepard! You're alive!" Yes! So she managed to take down the Yahg! That motherfucker was overpowered as hell. "I take it you guys managed to take down the Shadow Broker?"

She smirks a little "Yes we did Delta. Even managed to save Feron too. Liara took up position as the new Broker, she and Feron are going to stay on the ship and help us from here."

"Aw sweet! So we have the largest information store on our side against the Collectors? This is just too great!"

Shepard smirks and I get the sense that having a friend be the newest Shadow broker has made her a little more confident and a little more relaxed about her mission. "Yeah, its practically the biggest boon we could have at this time besides a fleet attacking the Collectors with us."

I nod with a smirk "Man, extra ships covering our flanks would be so nice…"

"We don't have the manpower to run your ship alongside the Normandy Delta."

She called it MY ship! "Yeah I figured. I've been making arrangements for storage. Its costly though…"

"Maybe Tim will give you a loan."

"Ugh, hell no. Knowing him, after interest and everything I'd probably have to sell my brain to him to pay it off…"

Shepard chuckles a little darkly at that. "And that's the last thing we want him to get hold of eh?"

I nod, clasping my arms together behind my head. "So Shep, with the Broker replaced and two more missions out of the way, what's our next step?"

"I don't know. I was planning on taking care of Garrus and Thane's problems on the Citadel quickly but Tim's told me about a Cerberus research station in the middle of a derelict reaper. He says that the Reaper IFF device was last reported functional and ready for pickup but there's no response from the science team."

I frown, dropping my hands "We should take care of Garrus and Thane first. I have a really bad feeling about that IFF Shepard, so we should make sure we're ready for anything, even a Reaper waking up."

She sighs, folding her arms more tightly around herself "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea to me… In the meantime however, we need to get your team back on board and get the ship in storage."

"I can handle the storage thing Shepard." I look to the side, seeing Silver placing a message that says he has a plan. "Where do you want to meet up?"

"Omega is the closest station we could use. Gardener would also be able to restock our supplies while there. " Shepard says. "We'll be there in a few days."

I nod "Roger roger. If we head out now we could be there in a day, day and a half. We'll see you soon Shepard."

She nods "See you soon Delta." She lifts up her hand in a pausing gesture "And, don't make trouble." The connection cuts off after that.

I merely smirk while speaking to the empty air "Oh Shepard, when have I ever made trouble?" After that comment I walk out of the room and back towards the bridge. Silver's already set course for Omega and the others turn to look at me as I enter.

"Alright guys, we're meeting up with Shepard at Omega! We'll get there about 2 days before she does so that's a good amount of shore leave I imagine!" I say, sitting in my chair with a smile.

"Why Omega?" Kasumi asks.

"It's the closest station that could satisfy our needs." I respond. "She's out by the Shadow Broker's ship right now I think, so Omega's the closest point between the two of us."

"Maybe but I'd rather wait a few extra days for the Citadel than go to Omega…" Jacob remarks.

I shrug "Eh, what are ya gonna do. Besides the Citadel is our next stop right after. Better we carpool than waste all this fuel."

"Carpool? You plan to store the ship on Omega? It'll get stolen by the end of the week." Kasumi has a point, if I was actually planning on doing so.

"No no no, I have my own plans on how to get this ship where I need it to be for storage. The only parts of the plan that involves you guys, is choosing our apartments. When we got the cruiser, I didn't tell you guys about the access to the Blue Suns bank account we had. Vido seemed to like making purchases on the go. Anyway, I managed to siphon a good amount of money from the account before it got closed off so we have more than enough to afford practically any place on Omega for a month."

"Sweet!" Jacob remarks. "Least we get to at the half-decent areas."

"That we will be my friends, that we will be." I remark. "By this time tomorrow, we will be in Omega getting the keys to a temporary residence."

FINALLY!

After a day of eating yet MORE MREs, trying to escape Zaeed's boring lectures on fighting and rambles into past battles, barely having any time to work on advancing the research necessary for my other projects, and finishing reconstruction of my Plasma Repeater, we are here! Geez, that was a long day and a half… and having a ship nearly twice as large as the Normandy with less than a third of the staff has really done a number on Jacob and Kasumi's brazenness…and libido. Whatever, everything's handled now, everyone's stuff is packed into their temporary apartments, the ship is signed off on and Silver is ready to direct it to the Geth. And I got an apartment above the VIP area of Afterlife. Hehe, easy access to the booze, sweet!

"Aria T'loak wants to speak with you human." A krogan says, standing at my side. I look up from the terminal I had accessed outside of the docks briefly.

"Right, noted. I'll be there in a couple seconds." Just need to finish writing out the release forms. I wonder how long I'll be able to manage without Silver. Well not like I'm expecting a huge fight, but still.

All right, and we're done. I ignore the krogan as I walk past him, headed for the Afterlife bar and pleasure center. Soon as I step in I notice the Turian bartender who gave me my first space beer. Oh, I miss those days not at all. I went through too much hell and pain and tiresome people to get to where I am now dammit! Anyway, I grab another beer, hop up the steps and this time actually see Aria. Funny, in the game she looked less…wet. Her skin seems oddly damp. Is it just Omega or is that all Asari? If it was I thought I'd have noticed by now.

"Are you done staring yet?" She interrupts my thoughts. I blink once and scratch the back of my head.

"Oh. Sorry."

She nods to the couch beside her; never changing from that relaxed posture as if she's certain everything is under her control and isn't going to change anytime soon. HAH! Still I take the cue and sit down, leaning back into the couch. "So, whatcha need?"

"Information mainly. Recently news of the Blue Suns leader Vido being dead have circled around. With you being a part of Shepards crew, and suddenly appearing in the Blue Sun's newest cruiser, asking for a paint job and deployment after 1 day has me wondering what the hell happened."

"Oh that's easy. We killed Vido, his guard, his mercs, hijacked his gunship, hijacked his spaceship, then stole a bunch of money from Vido's personal account by which I mean cleaned the entire thing out, then went off the map for a few days and then came here to meet with Shepard."

Aria stares at me for a while, "So that's what happened huh? Well that's good to know. You've done me a bit of a favor kid."

I raise my brow at this. "Really? How so?"

"Vido hasn't been here often but his messages with his commanders here on Omega are easy enough to intercept. He didn't like me, didn't want me on top and was certain to try and oust me at some point. Emphasis on 'try'. So you've already handled a nuisance for me."

Well hey, 2 birds with one stone. Having favor with Aria can't be bad. "Lucky me. That's a sweet bonus."

"Yeah. Don't waste it kid. Now get out of here." Aria says, turning back to stare at whatever she usually stares at. I get up and walk out, reaching into my hard case on my thigh. I pull a red button out and walk out the door while pressing it.

"That was easy." An obviously male but robotic voice says. I chuckle. How did these even last this long? Pretty soon I'm walking up to the elevator of my apartment building, humming idly to myself. Soon as I step in and press the button for my floor an Asari woman walks in as well, glances at the pad and presses the floor below mine. I look her over, noticing she has a black civilian dress on. I look at her hands and head, noticing that like Aria they seem slightly damp as well. Huh, guess it is an Asari thing. I wonder if Samara and Liara look the same too. The elevator dings as her floor is reached, the doors opening and the woman walking out. My eyes trail up at that moment and I notice her head is turned, a knowing glint in her own eyes and a sultry smirk on her lips as I see her face. For a second I'm torn between arousal and embarrassment since I was checking her out a bit and she apparently knew but didn't mind. Then as the doors close I'm suddenly struck by a certain realization about this Asari woman.

She looks a lot like Samara. The doors open on my floor but I don't make an effort to get out. I think I've just found Morinth.

This is the second day we've been on Omega. Shepard was due to arrive tomorrow, and we'd likely have another full day for the crew to have shore leave and resupply. I got a message from her when I woke up this morning though, saying how the Normandy was recently set upon by a group of pirates. The crew's fine, no one's dead but the ordeal was slightly harrowing having an actual ship-to-ship battle against another Frigate that had the element of surprise. Normandy's improved armor and weaponry however easily made it our win but not without some damage being taken from the initial attack. In that respect Tim had ordered Shepard to set down at a nearby Cerberus station, get repairs there and then head out to Omega. The detour will in total last a week.

I sigh, putting down my cup of water. This is either good or bad… On the good side having Aria's favor has granted me immediate access to Afterlife's VIP area. Now I have a better selection of booze if I feel like binging, and a second place to run into Morinth. And yes, I've found out that it really is Morinth. So on top of that I've also apparently caught the eye of a hot, nubile, sex vampire. I've found out that Morinth the Ardat-Yakshi is living in an apartment a floor below mine. Which is good because if I retain her interest she'll probably target me rather than that other girl…Nef I think. But the bad side is that she'll probably target me rather than Nef.

So I have to wait a week for Samara and Shepard to arrive in order for them to kill Morinth. In that time I have to make her remain interested in me enough to focus on me, but not enough to hound me down and try to fully seduce me.

Or I could kidnap her when she's asleep, bind her securely and keep her sedated until the two come. Then Samara could do the deed. Ah, but then they might wonder why I had done that in the first place…and I'd be left with either looking like I'm developing into a kidnapping rapist, or tell them I'm from a different dimension entirely where their lives and everything that matters to them is all nothing but a videogame played by millions of people…

Well, I hope Morinth finds romantically shy, hyper-lethal, genetically augmented super soldiers incredibly attractive…

Second day into this and I'm just now noticing how odd it feels to be out of armor and without a teammate. Damn I feel vulnerable… I mean sure I have my phalanx and cloak on me but I still don't have my armor, or plasma blades, or shield. I don't like it. I don't like it at all. Still, I continue my walk, heading for the Afterlife VIP area once again. Most likely Morinth is in there right now and around this time is when I'd pop in. I doubt occasional looks of her current interest are going to maintain it. Lo and behold, here's the VIP area again and I think I see her over there. She's not even paying attention.

Damn, I need to look like more interesting prey… "Hey baby, miss me?" Huh. Lucky.

"Back off asshole." An asari dancer replies. In the usual Afterlife dancer outfit her scalp-tentacles are decorated with an array of white squares and stripes. She's currently glaring at a turian who has a drunken perverted leer on his face.

"You've got a mouth on you! I'll enjoy watching you use it." Yep. Definitely drunk. Or a cocky asshole. Either way he's almost exactly like the guy from the game, maybe if I beat him up I'll get Morinth's interest. Or just make this guy shut up for several hours. Well that's a win-win so lets do it!

"I said back off! I'm a dancer not a hooker." The Asari vehemently replies. The Turian guy seems about to grab her shoulder and as she backs away I grab him by the wrist.

"It seems you're deaf to higher pitches so I'll summarize. The lady doesn't consent, back the fuck off." I say, pulling back on his arm. He jerks it out of my grip and turns on me.

"The hell? I'm just trying to have a good time monkey, this isn't your business." He growls, lifting his fist. He practically shouts out "left hook, watch out" with everything but his voice. So taking the advice of my current adversary I duck into the swing, coming up beside his left shoulder and starting to hook my right arm across his chest and over his opposite shoulder. I drop a quick punch into the side of his ribs, lean onto my left leg as my right knee shoots up into his midriff and then plant my descending foot behind his before pulling him down over it with my arm. All hail Delta, the baddest drunkard ass kicker in the universe. Aw man, now I'm getting flashbacks of that one movie where Sean Connery beat a dude up with only his thumb…The hell was the name of that movie?

Wait, this guy called me a monkey… I look down to aim a kick at his ribs only to find out that he's passed out from pain, drink and exhaustion. Mostly drink. Meh, doubt he's much less of an asshole sober anyway…

"Thanks for that security was asleep." Oh yeah, the girl.

"You're welcome. Does this happen often?"

"Mostly with just him and a few others. After a few drinks they start to act like animals around us just cuz they see some skin." She walks away, still grumbling slightly about men and pigs and alcohol and donuts. Oh wait, that last part was me. Speaking of me reminds me of what I was doing that for. I glance over to the shadow booth and am surprised to find it empty. Looking around quickly I don't even see hint nor butt nor boob nor head tentacle of Morinth. Great, now what do I do…

I walk over to the bar and lean against the counter, grabbing a quick drink while I think. I just handled the Turian guy…if I recall correctly there were also a group of em that were planning to mug people and you could pay them to leave peacefully. There was a chick you could dance with, though I'm not sure how that would appeal to Morinth unless she already expressed a great interest in you and it made her jealous. No, wait, she's 400 years old or something isn't she? Is she still at that age where her current crush(?) being with someone else would make her jealous? There's also the dude who's trying to get tickets to that rock concert…who was the band, Excel 9? Dammit, maybe I should take a nap and review. Sounds enough like a plan to implement. I look around again briefly and turn, making my way through the main group on the dance floor as I leave the club. I sigh as I reach my apartment building, hopping into the elevator and tapping my floor number. I lean back against the corner of the lift and close my eyes, folding my arms.

"Good job on stopping the Turian" A smooth voice rolls out. I feel another person enter the elevator but don't bother opening my eyes as I respond.

"Thanks. It was fun ruining his fun."

"Hm. You fight often don't you? I can sense a certain danger from you." The voice says, a slight huskiness tingeing it.

"It was how I got my first ship. Took it from the mercs who tried to kill me." And now it's on its way to Geth space for storage and fortification. Heheh, I can't wait to see what that Blue Suns Cruiser'll look like when they're done with adding the plasma turrets, Central MAC gun, powering up those point defense lasers and the beefed up shielding system I sent. Holy shit, why didn't I patent the designs in that info packet, that was about 20 different super–powerful military hardware upgrades I could've made millions off of!

"I love danger. It's the only factor that's always kept things…interesting for me."

"Hinting at a darker past huh? I too like to live dangerously." The voce chuckles and while by now I've noticed it to be feminine I still haven't checked who it is. I probably should. I slowly start opening my eyes to see whom I've been speaking to while the elevator has been rising.

"Danger's not the only thing I like though. Have you ever seen the vid Vaenia? The two lead actresses in there are so glamorous." My eyes snap fully open at those words and at the woman. It's Morinth, again, in the elevator, with me. That sounds like the winner's line in a game of Clue. It was Ms. Morinth, in the elevator lobby, with a lead pipe!

Morinth smiles a bit, stepping off as the elevator stops on her floor once again. "My room is number 17. Come on by if you ever feel like watching that vid with me."

"17. Got it. I'll see you later then." I manage to say through my surprise, a smile coming up as the doors close. I just scored a date with Morinth. It isn't until I reach my room that I realize something.

I just scored a date with a Morinth. My first date. And it's with someone I plan to have killed. 10 year old me, I am disappoint.

Me: Woot!

Delta: I HATE YOU SO MUUUUUUUCH! (He yells, carrying a football and being chased by 20 Krogans)

Me: Haha, I knew it! Krogan's would be great football players! I mean sure they forgot to wear anything but leather padding and jock straps. And sure, half of em have forgotten they're supposed to protect the guy running with the ball. And that he's supposed to be safe in the end zone… and that dog piling an inflatable ball is a bad idea. Oh, and Delta too…

Delta: I CAN'T FEEL MY ANYTHING!

Me: …Ok, maybe Krogans aren't the best football players…but at least they're not killing anything. Oh well, I'll see you later faithful readers while I try to salvage the first annual Krogan Football tournament. And make sure Delta doesn't end up as a pancake.

Delta: HELP ME YOU SICK SADISTIC BASTARD!

Me: PEACE!