Hello all Readers!

We start with presenting Quinn Shepard! And this is not in the game!

Fixed 2022

Please snyoy!

Escape the Fate

Chapter 1: The Pirate

*Quinn's POV

When she had given the order of them taking over the space vessel to get their hands on the various guns and military equipments it was shipping, – the last thing she had expected was to get hired. Yet here she was; standing in the middle of a com–room, in an Alliance cargo freighter somewhere in the Exodus Cluster and talking to an unknown man on a screen who in fact didn't have the decency to properly show his face. His form concealed from a shadow created from the enormous burning star behind him. The only thing she could make out was the outline of his silver, perfectly cut hair, a black suit she guessed was awfully expensive and two blue glowing eyes which looked more artificial than any humans.

The man took a drag at his cigarette as he watched her with an overconfident manner which challenged her own. It immediately rubbed her the wrong way, and she knew – this snob was looking down on her, judging her.

Smoke quickly escaped his mouth as soon as he opened it to speak. "I see you've taken over the ship. Good." Even his way of speaking was of arrogance and somewhat patronizing. Though she wasn't sure if that was just his way of communicating or if it was aimed at her personally.

At times, his face caught the light from the star behind, his eyes becoming slightly more evident. It made her doubt that the man was truly human and brought unease to her stomach. A part of her wanted to cringe away from his alien stare but stood her ground. She wasn't used on being on the receiving end of such a gaze and it made her feel strangely uncomfortable. The man on the other hand, didn't seem fazed at all by her own stare like countless others. Her complete heterochromia iridium was extremely rare, and most humans had a hard time choosing which eye to focus on. The alien races even more so, making most of them choosing to look away and evade her stare which would result in them not paying much attention to her actions. Something she took great advantage of, both in combat and socially.

A boom right outside the door brought Quinn's attention as a grenade had gone off, and she turned away from the screen to see what damage it had done. Gunshots was quickly shot back against the surviving crew and soldiers from down the hall to keep them at bay while she had her little chat with the mysterious man who had managed to somehow track her down.

Seeing no immediate need to aid the fight for the moment, Quinn turned back to the screen and the man who calmly sat in his chair and smoked his cigarette like he had no worries at all. It was beginning to piss her off, yet she kept her cool in order to find out what this man wanted from her. It couldn't be a coincident that he knew she was on this particular ship.

Not being fond of being in the unknown, Quinn crossed her arms under her breasts and put the weight on her right leg, popping her hip and setting her face into a cut–the–crap expression. "I'm about to. Who the fuck are you?"

The man exhaled another mouthful of smoke in a calm fashion, not at all intimidated by her little pose and the demanding attitude. Her current situation was of no interest to him, nor did he care if the lowlife pirates made it out alive. All he needed was someone foolish enough to retrieve a package without caring about the content, who it belonged to nor why he was interested in it. And this pirate was his best bet.

His head tilted to the side as he answered vaguely yet tempting her greedy side; "I am someone who can provide you with a small fortune, Commander Summers, if you're interested of course."

Her eyes widen in shock for a second at the mentioning of her former identity and rank before they grew dark. This mysterious man had certainly done his homework if he knew about the identity she had used when she was enlisted in the Alliance. How he had gotten a hold of that information was beyond her as the Alliance had darkened anything that had to do with her departure. Only the high ranks in the Alliance knew the connections between Commander Summers and Quinn Shepard. Which meant that the man clearly had high resources and connections to find that out, which also meant he must have a lot of money to throw out.

All shock wiped from her face and only stone-cold determination showing in her eyes, she flashed him a cocky grin before saying; "Oh yeah?" With an eyebrow raised, she stared at the man with her different colored eyes a bit more interested. "How?"

She thought she saw his face shift some in the shadows. A crooked grin seemed to cover his lips and a lighter tone ran in his voice as he was about to explain the mission; "I want you to collect something for me. In the Exodus Cluster – an artifact on Eden Prime."

She had heard of that place, though never been there. Her old Alliance squad had often talked about it and their shore leaves they had spent on the planet. Apparently, it was a popular destination and filled with Alliance soldiers. The artifact had to belong to them then. That knowledge would be enough for her to take the job, pay or no pay. Anything to mess with the Alliance and take revenge on the human military. But why say no to credits someone was willing to offer for a job she would be willing to do for free?

Quinn shifted a bit as she thought about it more thoroughly. Her contacts had not mentioned this at all, which could only mean that this artifact was top secret and extremely valuable. That would require heavy protection, but not enough to raise suspicions. The soldiers there would be equipped to handle any threat, but that didn't mean they expected one.

Growing more intrigued by the minute, she still had to settle her suspicions. Someone with the resources to find her in the middle of space and on an Alliance ship, none the less, had to also have the resources to get a simple artifact off a planet. There had to be a catch. "What kind of artifact are we talking about? Why do you want it?"

The man eyed her for a moment, inhaling through his cigarette, probably contemplating what he should tell her. When the man finally spoke, his tone had dropped low and grim. "It's more of a need than want, really. The only thing you need to know about it, it's Prothean. What I want with it – it's my business."

"You want me to fight the Alliance to recover this artifact for you or is it more of a sneak–and–hit–run you're looking for?" She shifted her weight to her other leg. "You want me to risk my life for this "your–business" crap? Go in blind and unknowing?"

"It isn't much of a difference from what you're doing now," he countered calmly.

Touché, though it wasn't that reassuring. "Don't you have your own people for that? There has to be a reason you turn to me."

"I do have my own people, of course, but that's beside the point. I want someone who can't be traced back to me. Someone who isn't afraid to get their hands dirty."

Turning to look at the progress of her crew, she noticed that the fun comments and the stupid jokes had died down as the Alliance soldiers fought back with a much more determination and ferocity than before. Two more of her crew had fallen and she realized she had to wrap this little chat up fast if she didn't want to recruit more idiots so soon since the last time.

Quinn spoke to the man over her shoulder; "My hands doesn't dirty themselves for just any price." She didn't like the idea of him thinking she was just any random mercenary for hire who took every job thrown at her for a few credits. No. If she was going to risk her life for someone else's agenda, then it was going to sting in said one's pocket. "Prothean artifact isn't common and are known to be a bit – pricy. More so if I must pry it out of Alliance hands. They will obviously resist giving it up to a bunch of pirates. And more so if they knew I wanted it." She turned to look him directly in the eyes, greed burned in her own. "I want to know how much this thing is worth to you."

A puff of smoke and a simple answer; "250,000."

She tasted the sum, contemplating if it was enough for the risks, her crew, and her time. "750,000."

"500,000."'

"Make it 750,000 and we have a deal. Surely that isn't much for a man who specifically wanted me to do this job." She threw him an extruding glance.

The man sat in silence for a few more moments and she began to doubt he would go for it, when he finally gave an answer; "Deal."

A triumph smirked crossed her lips. "Good." She was about to turn when a thought crossed her and she voiced it; "You know, pirates are likely to cross their employers if a better offer comes their way," she pushed calmly, intending to see his reaction at a possible betrayal though feeling that it wasn't going to be an option with this man, nor any she would like to risk.

The man took a puff at his cigarette in an unfazed fashion, watching her with those alien eyes of his. "If you know what's good for you, you won't even try. If I can find you here, I can find you anywhere." The threat didn't go unnoticed. "Once you have the artifact safe and sound, I will contact you and let you know where to deliver it. Goodbye Commander." The screen went black.

Oh, how she hated that title.

Still staring at the screen with clenched fists at her sides, Quinn thought the deal through in her head once more. Sure, she had no problem in going up against the Alliance, she did it almost at a daily basis, but that was just a simple raider runs, nothing too serious. Nothing to really give the Alliance a real reason to come and seek her out. But this artifact may give them just that reason and was she foolish to take that risk? Surely the Alliance wouldn't risk going into the Terminus Systems to seek her out and jeopardize brooding a war with the criminal groups there. And if she remembered correctly, then Eden Prime was in the Exodus Cluster and with them being close to the border of the Attican Traverse right now, it would not be too far. A couple of jumps through the Mass Relays at most. But for such a run she would need as many of her crew members alive as possible if she didn't want to go back to the base and get the less incompetent members she had left behind, which meant it would require her to join in the fun.

Looking over at her crew again as they maintained the shootout, her thoughts continued. The artifact wouldn't be easy to get to, noir get it off the planet without someone noticing it and report it. And with her men dropping like flies, –another one was shot in the head– she realized she would need to go back to the base to get the stupid pyjacks left behind, which also where still green and lacked experience, which this potential raid required. However – her eyes scanned the room she was in as a thought crossed her mind – using this Alliance vessel to get easy access to the docks could spare her the trip back home. It could be enough of a surprise to flank the marines already stationed on the planet and give her the advantage they needed.

Her debate to form a solid plan was cut short by her turian lieutenant, Reiyla, who came busting through the door, shouting; "We need to leave. Now!" as she fired off a few shots down the hall with her assault rifle. A few more rounds were fired from both directions, followed with a few grunts and cries, confirming at least one hit from down the hall. "Alliance reinforcement is on its way."

"Fuck." Quinn turned to the door, bringing up her Armageddon shotgun to her chest as she stepped up to her crew hovering at the doorway. "Alright boys, time to show me what I'm paying you for. Take these assholes down or I'll have your heads as target practice!"

The threat gave them the boost she sought. Six out of fifteen had been killed, –scratch that– seven had now been killed and the eight was severely injured. A stupid vorcha had walked right on top of a sliding grenade which went off exactly when he was about to fire his gun, resulting in the vorcha being blown to pieces and his gun managed to fire off a few shots, hitting the only other human in her crew.

The woman clutched her side, desperately trying to stop the heavy bleeding that flooded her side. It didn't take a genius to know the woman was a goner. But true to her loyalty, she accepted her fate and shot a few more rounds at the enemy until her legs gave way and she fell to the floor.

Once the ringing in Quinn's ear had stopped, the woman's grueling sound filled the void. Annoyed at it, Quinn walked up to the woman and shot her at the top of her head, blood, brain, and chunks of the skull splashed everywhere.

Turning back to her surviving crew, Quinn ordered; "Throw those fucking smoke grenades! Then head for the cargo hold. We're sitting ducks if we stay in this narrow space!"

They didn't have to be told twice. The smoke grenades were thrown past her and down the corridor. As soon as they stopped rolling, the smoke pushed itself out of its small containers and quickly filled the entrance to the cargo hold and out into the open space. The crew of seven stormed into the cargo hold, shooting and killing any Alliance soldiers they could make out through the thick smoke, all the while trying to avoid the backfire.

As the smoke began to clear up, most of them took cover behind the first best thing. Unfortunately for some, they weren't quick enough and was shot down instantly. The krogan fell where he stood, shot with a few rounds to his head. Luckily, he had managed to get a few hits in himself.

This mission was quickly going south. Quinn couldn't grasp where everything had gone wrong. The orders had been clear and simple; board the freighter, kill the hostiles and salvage any profitable, then blow the damn thing up! They had done it more times than she could count. It should be as easy as taking a stroll through the park. Doing it in their freaking sleep! What the hell was the problem?! Amateurs! Although as much as she wanted to blame it on her incompetent crew, she knew it wasn't only because of them. The soldiers had put up with a better resistance this time. Better equipped, more soldiers than normal and an extra boost in the ships defense overall. Apparently, the Alliance had enough of their ships being raided and destroyed and wanted to do something about it.

Well, she thought with a wicked grin, at least they had more balls than she thought. But if they thought she would let the Alliance kill her this easily, then they didn't know how vicious she truly was. Feeling the adrenaline kicking in once again, the wicked grin on her lips turned to a smile as she clenched her fist with anticipation and summoned her dark energy. Oh, how she loved being this close to bring death upon others.

"Surrender and you might live!" A soldier called out from behind one of the crates.

Taking aim, Quinn fired of a blast of her biotic, but the man retreated behind the crate before it hit, leaving a small puncture hole in the metal box.

"Do we have any more grenades?" she demanded.

"Just one," Reiyla shouted back, and Quinn turned towards her, but saw the woman holding three.

A silent agreement went past the two women, and Reiyla threw one away, not bothering to see where it ended up. It didn't take long before it went off. As expected, it didn't do much damage. But it gave Quinn a moment to peer out of her cover to chance a look over their small battlefield.

The small pirate squad were both beginning to run low on energy and ammunition. Soon the last clips would be loaded in their guns, while the ship's crew would keep their distance and eventually get the upper hand. All they had to do was to wait long enough for reinforcements to arrive, and the pirates would either end up dead or prisoners. Neither was rather that appealing nor an option.

Two more of her men were shot down, leaving her with only herself, Reiyla and the incompetent batarian, Baktan. Her plan of taking over the freighter had gone from doable to fucking shit in no time. The soldiers were blocking their only escape and they knew it. If she could only get to the assault rifle, then she could maybe force the soldiers away from the airlock.

Loading her shotgun with the final clip, she turned to the female turian. "Cover me!"

"Will do, Q!" With a curt nod, Reiyla leaned out of cover and began to rain down as much fire as she could, forcing most of the soldiers to stay put behind their crates.

Quinn pushed at her implant in her head, gathering as much needed energy she could master to boost her biotic and charged forward. With a blue flash, she crossed the open distance in nanoseconds and grabbed the assault rifle before rolling to cover behind the dead krogan.

"Hurry, Q! I'm almost out of ammo!" Reiyla shouted from behind her.

The turian managed to get a lucky hit in the engineer's head before he could send out his combat drone. The newly revived drone flickered and died just as quickly as its' master.

Quinn was just about to take out the soldiers blocking the airlock when a few grenades rolled from behind her and stopped just a few feet away. Panic shot through her and knew she had to get out of the blast radius as quickly as possible. She only managed to get a few steps away, before they detonated and the force threw her across the room and smashed her into the wall, leaving her exposed.

With the breath knocked out of her and the ringing in her ears, she was a bit disoriented. Although her armor and shield had protected her from any serious injuries, it wouldn't help much if the soldiers decided to shoot her now.

Only when a shadow was cast upon her, did she look up and saw the barrel of a pistol.

"Sorry, Shepard, but I will take over now," Baktan said with a menacing tone.

Her eyes fell on the airlock, which was now clear. The soldiers laid spread out, like they too had been taken by surprise with the grenades. Some were still moving; one was screaming his lungs out and others had been blown to pieces.

"This'll be for all my fellow batarians you've killed," he continued, his voice growing darker, revealing the hatred he felt towards her.

A snort escaped her before a small smirk crossed her lips. "Not nearly enough of you it seems..." She leaned forward, pressing her forehead to the barrel. "I won't stop until you're all dead, you mother–fucking–bee–heads!"

The man growled with anger as he punched her in the face with the butt of the gun, giving her a deep gash over her right eye, before taking aim once again. But before he could fully press down on the trigger, a shot from behind stopped him as it barley graced his arm. Turning around, he saw that Reiyla had recovered, but her injured arm had kept her from getting a steady aim. He also noticed that the remaining soldiers had recovered as well, and he was fully exposed to both sides. Instead of engaging in another shoot out, he decided to bolt for the airlock.

Reiyla ran over to Quinn without any hesitation and helped her up on her feet again. The only one of these dead dickheads she ever could count on and trust to do the right thing.

"That fucking power–hungry bastard!" Quinn spat out through clenched teeth. "I'm so going to tear him to pieces!"

"We need to get to the ship before he takes off," Reiyla shouted and headed for the airlock.

With only two Alliance soldiers alive, one injured and both hiding behind crates to the right of the airlock, Baktan didn't pay them any attention. Whatever fire they aimed his way, his shield would take the hit and protect him long enough till he got off the vessel. He slammed his fist on the control panel and the door opened. Quickly he slipped through it once it was big enough for him to get through and headed down the bridge to the pirate vessel.

"Don't you fucking dare!" Quinn roared and threw a biotic blast at the batarian who was about to enter her ship but sidestepped just in time before it hit him.

Reiyla reached the airlock and stepped on the bridge. "Stop, you asshole!"

Upon entering the ship, Baktan turned around with a satisfied smirk and aimed at the turian. "Once you're both dead, everything will be mine." With that said, he pulled the trigger.

The first shot pierced through the tough hide on her abdomen and Reiyla stop in her tracks. The next shot entered just inches from the first and forced her to take a step back. Then there as another, until after three steps she was finally forced to her knees and her own gun dropped to the bloody floor. What finally had her killed, was the shot to the head. Yet Baktan didn't leave it at that and kept firing at the lifeless body, getting so lost in his killing that he almost missed it. Only when he felt a shift in the air and the spike of dark energy, did he look up.

Running onto the bridge, Quinn's biotic was about to release her and charge forward. Knowing that if she released it, he would be done for before he could even form the thought. Baktan stepped into the ship and pressed the closing button on the control panel all the while firing at her. If he could just slow her down for a second or two, it would be long enough for the door to close.

A scream erupted behind her as the bullets was sent past her and into the cargo hold, she let her biotic charge her forwards to the closing door. In just a split second she had crossed the bridge and still it wasn't enough time to stop the door from closing shut. Instead, she crashed into it and her biotic field broke from the impact, leaving a large dent into the door from the force.

Through the glass, she saw how her ship detached from the bridge and powered up the engine to fly away. Baktan had managed to escape and had taken her ship with him. That backstabbing ass of a shit had bested her and left her stranded on an Alliance freighter! She had given that motherfucker a chance even though she knew that having a batarian on her crew would come to bite her in the ass somehow. Yet he had been persistent in joining her crew and tormented her for months until she finally had agreed. Fury and hatred spread through her as she watched her ship disappear into dark space. That deceiving shit had acted like a complete moron from the start and had played her like a fool.

Feeling her lose all control of herself, a sickening heartfelt scream escaped her lips before she slammed into the door over and over again, not caring at all that if and when she broke through it, all the air would be sucked trough and kill her. The scream continued in one long breath until finally, she could form the words she wanted to speak; "I'm gonna fucking kill you!"

A metallic click from the back of her head had her frenzy come to a halt.

"Drop the weapon. Put your hands in the air. And turn around – very– slowly!"

Fuck. She had forgotten about the survivors. Both cursing and rolling her eyes at herself, she dropped her shotgun first before she raised her hands in surrender.

"Great... just fucking great..." she spoke through clenched teeth as the man grabbed a hold of her arms and roughly pulled them down to cuff her.

*Nihlus POV

"I've seen this before..." The turian said more to himself than the others as he knelt down by the body to get a closer look at the damage done to the deceased human.

The Alliance soldier's skull was crushed in a way which would make it impossible to get a positive face recognition. He even doubted they would be able to get the dental records to give a positive ID. Although for a turian, it was already hard to tell most humans apart. If it weren't for their soft and colorful fringes, it would be nearly impossible. But not even that would help with this poor man, there was no hair to judge any color from except for the red which contained within the humans' blood. And most of it was pooled underneath the body. If the pure viciousness wasn't enough to tell him who could be the culprit, then liquefied brain was a dead giveaway. She certainly didn't pull her punches.

"Please, don't hold it all to yourself. Let the rest of the class know."

The tone in the human's voice was that of sarcasm, but Nihlus had a hard time putting the facial expression and tone together. It was kind of annoying that their body languish told one thing, their facial expression another and their tone spoke something completely different. It was easy to see why the race had gotten the reputation of being deceptive. Even the worst liar in human standards was an expert compared to the other races' standards. If you did not learn to at least interpret some of their behaviors, then you should not be near humans, he thought. She had taught him that. He would like to believe he was better than most turians to read humans, but still it seemed he had much more to learn.

"Pirates, Commander Shepard," he said with a straight face which matched the seriousness in his tone. But if he had to guess, the Commander would have a much harder time to interpret his expressions than what Nihlus had. As deceptive as humans was, they too had a hard time reading the other alien races. So, when it came to it, both races depended much on the tone and subject to communicate.

Nihlus looked over the damage done to the human soldier before walking off to the other bodies lying scattered around. Even if not all of them had died the same, it had still been unbelievable cruel. Just the way she expected from her underlings. There was no doubt in his mind who could have done this. Even his heart knew. Yes, it was her. "And not just any pirate."

The Commander opened his mouth and was about to ask him to elaborate when he was interrupted by the human biotic.

"I think there's survivors."

Nihlus exchanged a quick glance with John, and both drew their weapons. The Commander naturally took the lead even though Nihlus had the highest rank. Good, the man doesn't hesitate to take command, he thought. Although this was giving him one more opportunity to evaluate the human soldier, his heart was not on the same term. Aching with both longing and disdain, he had to push his feelings aside and think about his job. Even though this rescue mission wasn't what they had planned, the turian took what he could get. This would only be a short detour before they would reach Eden Prime.

Following the voices, John led them through the rest of the small cargo hold, carefully sticking to the cover of the crates and then leading them up to a door. Nihlus was quite impressed by the human Sentinel's good hearing. Even with his own enchanted turian hearing, had not picked up on the voices before the man had mentioned them. Although he convinced himself it was for one reason and not the one his heart was telling him. As they got closer, he could easier make out the nervous voice of a man, along with the anger and resentment within.

With as light and discreet steps as they could possibly manage, the three men walked through the small hall leading up to the slightly open door to the main cargo hold. What kept it open was the severed arm of a vorcha. John gestured to the other two to take point to the other side of the door, while he peeked through the gap.

"The reinforcements will be here soon, they said so," the man whose voice they had been following said, only to repeat it again and again in a nervous fashion.

Shepard gestured to him to open the door and Nihlus pressed on the control panel next to him. Once the door opened, John walked through it and up to a large crate. Nihlus followed and the biotic closely after.

"For the love of shit! Can you just – shut – the fuck – up!" A woman demanded. "I've heard that like fifty times already! I fucking got it!"

His heart skipped a beat. Recognizing the voice, Nihlus peeked out from his side of the crate and saw two humans on the other side of the hold. The man was facing him, clearly Alliance by the color of his uniform. But his eyes were drawn to the woman who sat on her knees with her hands up in the air. One of her hands had been cuffed and he guessed she had not allowed the man to do them both. Even if she had a gun pointed at her, she did not see herself as defeated. He knew that look; she was buying herself time.

"I wasn't talking to you!" The man snarled at her. "And shut up!"

Some time ago he had had Quinn Shepard in the same position. The last time he had seen her face to face. He had had the opportunity to kill her, but her eyes had been what had him let her go. They had played the cat and mouse game, as she had called it, for a couple of years now. The pirate was on top of his take–down list, ordered by the Council. But every time he got close at catching her, she had always managed to get away somehow. Though he couldn't deny to himself that he had indeed let her go a few times just to keep playing the game. But when she had been on her knees and given him that look which he could not describe, he knew that he could not keep playing that game anymore. People die by her hands, and she was happily enforcing it. But as much as his head told him one thing, his heart had always won. How someone like her had managed to capture it, he could never explain.

"A rookie, huh?" she mocked with her usual arrogance.

Nihlus could tell she was trying to agitate the man, distracting him. He guessed she had lost a lot of energy during their showdown and was buying herself time to regain some of it. With a quick glance around the ship, he wasn't at all surprised. There were at least twenty dead Alliance soldiers and not nearly as many pirates. They had put up with good fight and honestly, he didn't expect anything else from the pirate warlord.

John motioned for them to move out, keeping behind the crates. The man may have the pirate under gun point, but it was hardly under control. The three men moved up closer.

"I told you to shut up!" The man roared.

"Your first assignment?"

The man gave a nod but caught himself doing it and then shook his head. "Stop talking or I will shoot you!"

"Oh, how embarrassing. First assignment and your whole squad is dead," she looked down at the bodies around them with a smug look, then back up at the man. "It will eat you up inside. The survivor's guilt. Probably end up drinking yourself to death," she said lightly and shrugged her shoulders the best she could with her arms up.

She was trying to rally the man up, which was working flawlessly. But what the man didn't know that Nihlus knew was that when he was about to snap and put the gun closer to her, Quinn would take it from him and shot him instead.

"I will fucking kill you!"

Just as Nihlus had expected, the man stepped closer to the pirate, taking the pistol up to her head, but before he could intervene, John decided to do so himself. Stepping out from his cover, he said with a calming yet light tone; "Wow, man. Drop it before anyone gets hurt."

"Wow! Who the hell are you?" The man demanded as he turned around, his tone turning even more alarmed. Aiming the pistol to the newcomer, but then reminded himself he couldn't take it off the pirate either, he began to switch between them. "Stand back!"

Dropping his assault rifle into one hand, John raised his hands up in the air and stopped dead in his track not to intimidate the man further.

Nihlus couldn't help but to curse under his breath at the lack of tactfulness.

"I'm Commander John Shepard of the Alliance," he said as he slowly took a few steps closer until he could put his finger on the barrel and push it aside. "Put your gun down, soldier."

In disbelief, the man asked; "You're the reinforcement?"

Nihlus appeared from behind the crate, followed by the Sentinel, although he didn't let his aim waver from the pirate. Yet he didn't see the sudden spike of biotic and the charge coming a split second later. With as much force as she possible could draw from her implant, she charged at John and tackled him. The two of them crossed the cargo hold until John smashed hard into one of the crates with heavy force.

Startled by the sudden impact, John didn't see the fist heading for his head which made the room spin more and managed to split his lower lip. By reflex, he kneed her in the stomach, forcing her off of him. He pushed himself off the crate wall and she swiped him off his feet and he landed on his back. Immediately he felt the weight of her on top of him, pinning him down.

With a knife no one had seen, she raised to stab him with it. John's hand shot out at the hand to stop her, only to be grabbed by her other and they struggled. But she was no match for him as she hadn't regained enough energy to fight him for long.

"What the fuck, Quinn!" he said as he fought her off.

"Die you freaking fucking worthless piece of shit!"

Only when strong hands grabbed her arms from behind, did she get off him. Yet that did not stop her from struggling to get back into the fight. She was exhausted, Nihlus could tell that much, yet it never ceased to amaze him how much energy she could muster up when she was angry. Grabbing the knife, he struggled to get her to release it.

"Let it go!" He ordered firmly.

Quinn flinched at the sound of his voice, and she stopped struggling as her eyes went for him. Surprised to see him there. He took that opportunity to remove the knife from her hand and handed it to the human Sentinel, who then walked over to help Shepard back on his feet. Nihlus finished to cuff the pirate which the soldier hadn't managed to do.

Once up, John rubbed his sore jaw and wiped away the blood from his chin. "Nice to see you too..."

"You know her?" Alenko asked, clearly shocked.

"Yeah..." John kept rubbing at his jaw, checking so it hadn't been broken and if not, Nihlus thought he should consider himself lucky. "Kinda..."

He wasn't so sure if he was shocked or surprised by this revelation, but it was defiantly close to either one. But not as much as how he would be of what was about to come next.

"Hasn't the great Commander Shepard told you about his renegade pirate sister?" Quinn asked with as much spite she could manage. Her hateful gaze never leaving the form of her brother. "Maybe he's afraid that you will find out about his dark and imperfect past and ruin your perfect view of him."

"After eleven years, this is how you greet me? Trying to beat me to a pulp?" John exclaimed and looked just as happy as his sister. "This is the epic reunion?"

"Epic would be if you laid in a pool of your own blood!"

Thank you so much for reading!

Don't be afraid to comment/fave if this is a story for you!

If there is something I've missed, gotten wrong or anything, please tell me so I can fix it!

Until next time!

Small teaser...

"She may be a criminal, but she is not without skills. Before she left the Alliance, her leadership skills was ruthless but effective," Anderson said. "Her biotic wasn't more than avarege but I guess it has improved since her days in the Alliance."

"We're thinking of making her join the team, as of now. As a Spectre I can authorize it."