So here's the next chapter, I'm updating this and Blood of the Beast more because they're both written out already and it's just a matter of writing it out on here and posting. So it's easy and I'm trying to do this between work days, so it might get a little random for updates, but it will never be as long a wait as last time I promise that. So enjoy the next chapter!
Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect! Bioware does.
Chapter three: Separated
Citadel:
" 'And one step closer to the return of the Reapers'" The Audio provided by Tali'Zorah ended.
" The council needs to hear this, they won't be able to stay neutral now." Uldina said pleased with himself. Shepard crossed his arms.
" Set up a meeting with the Council." Anderson said, but Uldina was already well on his way out, leaving them alone. Anderson turned his eyes to Jane.
" I didn't think I'd see you again Jane." He said with a frown and a raised brow.
" You mean you didn't think you'd see me without bars between us." Jane corrected with a smirk. Anderson shrugged.
" Well if the galaxy is going to shit, I'd like to chase down the jackass causing it to go to shit, I mean I have a business to run." Jane said casually. Tali came forward at that.
" I'd like to join as well Shepard." Tali said determined. Shepard frowned.
" You've helped a great deal already Tali, but we can always use help, so you're welcome to come along." Shepard commented his approval, Tali relaxed as if expecting a fight on her hands to have to join the crew.
" Kaidan, why don't you head back to the Normandy and tell Joker, and then Escort Tali'Zorah to fetch some more Dextro rations for her and Garrus." Shepard said and handed Tali the Credits, she seemed surprised he just handed over money to her, but then she dipped her head in thanks as she and Kaidan turned to leave.
" Might want to mention the Krogan too before Joker pees himself!" Jane called after them. Shepard turned a surprised look to his sister.
" What?I stole his kill, seemed like the decent thing to do. I mean a glorified Krogan John, who would turn down that kinda firepower?" Jane asked seriously with a wave of hand. Shepard rolled his eyes.
Kaidan nodded and then he and Tali left, leaving Garrus, Jane, and Shepard with Anderson.
" We should get to the Council, I'm sure they'll want to hear from us and what proof we came up with." Anderson said waving them all out of the office. Shepard snorted.
" I'd like to shove their proof up their collective alien ass." Shepard muttered as they all filed out.
" What like they all only have one?" Jane joked and grinned at that imagery.
" It's the Council." Anderson said from behind them. Shepard chuckled.
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" Nifty, John Shepard, Spectre. I like it, you think they're consider the Hanar next? That'll be fun. ' This one wishes for you to turn yourself in, do you wish to learn about the Enkindlers on the way to confinement?'" Shepard shuttered at that.
" Please never use that voice again." Shepard said seriously, Jane chuckled.
" Speaking of, are you joining the crew too or are you coming to see us off?" Shepard asked turning to his sister as they stood in front of the Normandy in the Docking bay. Nihlus had joined them when they gave their proof to the Council and had followed them back as well.
" Actually she's here because I asked her to join me." Nihlus said speaking up for her. Shepard blinked at the fellow Spectre.
" What?" Shepard asked in confusion, he was prepared for her to join him on the Normandy, but not go with Nihlus. Shepard wasn't sure he wanted his sister out of reach and with a Spectre to boot, did Nihlus really understand what he was getting into?
" We can cover more ground separately, if you're going after Liara T'soni, I suggest we save time by going to Feros. We can meet on Noveria." Nihlus offered. It was reasonable, but...Shepard had assumed Jane would come with him.
" Just you and Jane?" Nihlus rolled his shoulders in a shrug.
" We don't need a platoon John, we're going stealth." Jane said with a smirk. Shepard frowned at that.
" Do you have your ship?" Shepard asked, Nihlus nodded. Shepard put a hand over his eyes. He didn't like it, but it was reasonable.
" You're right, it will save time. Keep communications linked with the Normandy." Nihlus inclined his head in agreement.
" Don't get Tali girl or C-Sec killed John, I haven't gotten to spend nearly enough time with them." Jane said as Nihlus offered her his arm, she linked their arms and they turned and walked off. Shepard frowned after them.
" It's better then him being by himself." Anderson pointed out. Shepard sighed.
" True, but that's not what bothers me. I didn't expect Jane to want to help, I mean I expected it since she was still following us around, but I expected her to come on the Normandy, not join Nihlus. She doesn't follow orders, how are they going to work together?" Shepard asked waving a hand. Anderson smiled slightly.
" Nihlus is a lot like your sister Shepard, he doesn't play well with others and he doesn't follow orders to the letter. I think he was impressed with your sister, I mean hell, I was impressed to hear she tackled Saren to to save Nihlus' life. That was quick thinking and it paid off." Anderson pointed out.
" Nihlus could use someone at his back, especially if Saren wanted him dead." Shepard sighed.
" Maybe he should have made her a Spectre then, damn it Captain, I didn't want her involved with this. I mean It's good seeing her again after all these years, but this could get her killed." Shepard already felt like he'd ruined her life by not being there for her. Anderson grabbed his shoulder.
" It's better she's with the Spectre and helping save the galaxy then a pirate corrupting it, isn't it? I know it's not safe, but it's probably safer then what she's been getting into being a criminal Shepard. Give Nihlus a chance, maybe he'll turn her around. It was a waste when she didn't join the Alliance, maybe we can still use her skills to stop Saren." Anderson provided. Shepard groaned.
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Normandy:
" Aww, and I was just getting use to sleeping with one eye open." Joker teased. Shepard chuckled at that.
" Did she go back to...whatever she does?" Kaidan asked curiously. He was a little sad to see her go, she was a nice change to the scenery of an all Alliance personnel.
" Nihlus decided he wanted her...for backup that is." He added the last, the Spectre sure didn't seem upset with her constant flirting. Maybe that was what worried Shepard the most, that she'd hit it off with Nihlus, a Spectre was better then some criminal, but...
" I guess that saves Garrus from her Praying Mantis deathtrap." Ashley said with sarcasm.
Garrus was both relieved and slightly disappointed, he was curious about all the things he'd heard about Jane Shepard the Pirate.
" So, where are we headed Skipper?" Ashley asked changing the subject. Shepard glanced around the conference room at the crew, some he'd chosen and others he hadn't, as he looked to the large Krogan.
" Nihlus and Jane are going to Feros, we're going after Matriarch Benezia's daughter, Liara T'soni, once we find the Doctor we head to Noveria. Nihlus and Jane will meet us there." Shepard revealed glancing around his new crew.
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Feros:
" So...did you find that suspicious as hell or was it just me?" Jane Shepard questioned the Spectre with reddish plates and white colony markings at her side. Nihlus fluttered his mandibles.
" Define suspicious, that was bordering on creepy as hell." Nihlus muttered. Jane chuckled and slapped his back.
" See, you should have relaxed more on the Normandy, maybe the crew wouldn't have been so wary around you then." Jane said with a smirk. Nihlus chuckled.
" Oh? I thought you liked stuffy Jane?" He teased with a purr of sub-harmonics he was sure she couldn't hear, let alone understand. She laughed. She moved around and glanced inside the door that opened upon their drawing closer.
" Found the Varren pack." She said motioning inside the room with her pistol.
" Don't give me that Kryik, I know exactly how Turian's relieve stress." Nihlus flared his mandibles at that.
" Are you interested in sparing at all Jane, or should we just use the mats for something else entirely?" She grinned his way then they rounded the door and into the Varren nest.
" We only need to kill the Alpha." Nihlus commented as her Chemical rounds disintegrated a Varren pointblank.
" Oh then I'll just call the big fella out then we can ignore all the little guys biting our legs off." Jane said sarcastically. He chuckled.
" Or we can kill the Alpha and run like hell." He suggested.
" Good plan Kryik, you play bait while I kill it. Varren like birds right?" He made a sound at her.
" Har har Shepard." He snarled, but lead the Varren away so she could clear a path toward the Alpha, she only needed one shot to make the Varren's head explode and then disintegrate under the toxicity of her Chemical rounds. They made a mad dash for the door. Jane leapt and rolled, popping back up as Nihlus slammed the doors closed, she applied a hack and the doors sealed closed so the Varren that were chasing didn't open the door with their movement as they slammed into the door at their backs.
" Well...that was fun. You run better then you fly." Jane teased elbowing him. His sub-harmonic made a pleased rumble at that as he commented.
" I hope that was another bird joke and not a crack at my piloting." He retorted. She laughed.
" I'll let you sweat it out thinking about it." She joked.
" Damn." Nihlus said suddenly with a groan.
" You forget your purse in there Kryik?" She asked seriously.
" We forgot the damn power cells, I doubt we'll find any elsewhere." Nihlus said rolling his eyes upward. She wrinkled her nose.
" Shit, I told you we should have killed all the little blighters." Nihlus blew out a snort.
" The point is feeding the people not starving them out." Nihlus pointed out then glanced her way.
" You could sneak in." He suggested suddenly. She gave him a look. She was very good with that tactical cloak of hers after all.
" Oh sure, like the Varren are just going to let us open the door, while waiting patiently on the other side?" She asked sarcastically.
" I'll knock them back as they charge, get in and I'll slam the door back into place, I'll wait and then open it for you again, make it quick." Jane snorted.
" Please, my middle name is 'Speedy'." He rose his brow plates at that.
" Really? I thought it was 'Smart-ass'" She laughed at him.
"Good, you'll be 'Jackass', and we'll name our squad, ' The Ass team.'" He gave her that Turian grin.
" Open the door." She said applying her tactical cloak.
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Therum:
" I'm starting to think Feros may have been funner." Garrus muttered and clenched the safety bar tighter as Shepard narrowly avoided throwing them into the pool of lava. Shepard chuckled back at him.
" Bunch of ruins and no doubt a crap ton of Geth? Sure probably tons funner then turrets and those blighted Armatures." Shepard said as he ran over a few Geth shooting rockets at a barricade at them.
" I heard a lot of things about Spectre Kryik. He seems a lot like your sister Shepard." Garrus commented.
" Gezz Garrus, if you really wanted to follow Nihlus and Jane all you had to do was ask. It hurts my feelings a little that Jane gets all the Turians though." Shepard joked. Garrus huffed at him.
" I was making on observation Shepard. I didn't like all the red tape at C-Sec, but Kryik is walking a narrow road between you and Saren." Shepard glanced back somehow managing not to hit anything as he did.
" What like we're big, medium, small? Saren is the worse dismissing rules and wanting to kill everyone, I'm trying to save everyone while following rules, and Nihlus is just a little bad-ass with a touch of sarcasm Turian style?" Shepard questioned. Garrus frowned.
" You lost me." Kaidan said as the third passenger in the Mako.
" All I'm saying is, your sister and Kryik may get along too well. I's good we came after Benezia's daughter is all I'm saying. They tend to shoot and ask questions later, how is that going to work with a human colony on Feros? Neither seem very diplomatic." Garrus said with concern, though his sub-harmonics were ringing with terror as they rammed a Armature and kept going as if it weren't there, landing inches from another pool of lava. He fishtailed the Mako, and their back end dipped off the edge dangerously close to the surface of the lava, before Shepard gunned the gas and jerked them back onto all tires.
He dodged a shot from another Armature they'd ignored from behind, as if he could somehow see behind them. Shepard glanced back not bothering to look where he was going, he didn't seem remotely worried, Garrus was terrified.
" You forget, Nihlus likes Humans, I think, I mean he seems to like Jane fine." Shepard frowned thinking about that.
" I mean if you'll sleep with a human you must not hate their race right?" Shepard asked eyes locking with Garrus', Garrus wasn't sure why he was asking him, but he was more worried about that fact Shepard wasn't watching where he was going at all.
" Jane is a little cold when it comes to business, but she's not cruel. She rather bad-ass then be a good guy, but she knows how to play good guy when she needs to." Shepard said nodding, ignoring the dozen of Geth and the Colossus, between them and the tunnel. He dodged between them, maneuvering the Mako with more skill then Garrus thought it was even capable of.
Once they cleared all the enemies and had to hoof it, he turned to Garrus and shrugged.
" Besides, there probably isn't maybe people left after Saren and his Geth touched down. Place is overrun, they're probably outnumbered, so they'll stick to stealth. Shooting any survivors would draw too much attention." Garrus was unsure if that was a good enough reason to not slaughter innocent people, just because they weren't being difficult.
XxXxXxxXxxXxXxXxXxxX
Feros:
" Somehow, this doesn't surprise me." Jane commented as they shot out another node of the Thorian's.
" The Thorian, or mind controlling an entire colony for experimentation?" Nihlus asked watching the creepers rush them, exploding into green goo and bits as they destroyed the node.
" The first, the second I saw coming. I knew those colonist were crazy in a ' I'm being mind raped by a giant plant thing' type way." Jane said wiping goo from her armor in distaste. She loved her Colossus armor, it was damn expensive and hella worth it too. Nihlus chuckled.
" It surprises me how vicious humans are sometimes, but considering your species is considered the 'bullies' of the galaxy, I'm learning to live with being surprised about obvious things." Jane laughed.
" Says the ' War nerds' of the galaxy." He rolled his shoulders in a shrug. They came across another node, Nihlus kept the creepers at bay while Jane took out the node and the Creepers exploded. An Asari clone came charging and Jane hissed.
" Damn biotics!" She growled as she quickly dodged a throw from the Asari, it lifted Nihlus and tossed him back into a pillar, he grunted at the impact. She tackled the Asari despite not being a up-close-combat type person. She and the Asari clone went rolling through creeper goo much to Jane's fury. It turned her bright hair to dark red.
Jane elbowed the Asari in the jaw, brought her pistol up, and shot the clone under the chin, blood in purple splattered her face and, of course, her armor. Jane took Nihlus offered hand and he pulled her to her feet. She kicked the dead Asari off the edge of the tower so it fell past the Thorian into the pit. The ships decontamination was going to break when they went through it like this.
" You tackle a lot of people for an infiltrator, are you sure you aren't a Vanguard?" Nihlus questioned as they moved up. He hoped there wasn't a lot of Nodes left.
" Stuff it Kryik, Damn Asari...thing." Jane mutter not bothering to try to wipe at her armor and the goo there.
" Are you against biotics or Asari?" Nihlus asked as they marched onward.
" Both, I have nothing against biotics as people, but I hate fighting them. I just don't like Asari in general. Other then the fact they think they're superior because they live a thousand years longer then others, and they can mate with any race, it's just, because some people find them attractive that doesn't mean every creature in the galaxy does. There are other reasons, but those are the top." Jane said shaking her head. Nihlus frowned.
" Are you Pro-Turian and Anti-Every one else?" Nihlus asked curiously.
" No I like Quarians, I like pretty much every race, minus the Asari. Every race has it's issues granted, but the Asari just particularity annoy me the most." She shook her head.
" Anyone who thinks Asari are the most beautiful race has never seen Quarians outside their suits, or seen the beauty of a Krogan charging into battle with nothing to lose and everything to gain." Jane sighed.
" Have you seen Quarians outside their suits?" Nihlus asked curiously.
" Never had a Quarian lover Kryik?" She asked surprised. He gave her a long look.
" Just because my race and Quarians are both Dextro and have a tendency to be together, doesn't mean every Turian has been with a Quarian." Nihlus pointed out, she shrugged.
" I suppose not. Well it's dangerous for them, they have to prepare months in advance to keep themselves from death, it's a risk. You're playing Russian roulette with your life every time you take off the suit let alone to be with a Levo for recreation. I think the fact you'd risk your life to be with someone is a worthy goal." Jane shrugged.
" Asari don't work for it, they just expect to shake their tits and ass and have people fall at their feet." Jane clucked her tongue.
" Is there a race you haven't been with?" Nihlus asked curiously. He'd been with people too, and not all of them Turian, but he was curious, she seemed to like his race, and Quarians, but where did she draw the line between curiosity and xenophile?
" Many, I generally stick to Turian, Quarian, and once a Krogan." Jane said and nodded. He relaxed, though with a frown.
" Krogan?" He wondered how that had worked.
" I still don't remember all of that experience trust me, but I've never been with Drell, Salarian, Hanar, Vorcha, or Batarian." She said just to name a few.
" Why?" Nihlus questioned, she glanced his way as they walked more stairs taking down even more creepers along the way.
" I'm open minded and all, but three different race are probably enough for me. Learning about Krogan Testicles, the Quarians immune systems, and Turian's protective plates are enough, believe me. I was offered to try Drell once, but I thought it would bee too dangerous. I tend to not want to hallucinate just on oral contact, and there happens to be a lot of that in my experience." Nihlus fought a shutter at the imagery.
" What did you do to prepare yourself for the other races, look up interracial porn on the extranet Jane Shepard?" Jane laughed at that.
" Don't sound so much like my mother Kryik, exact words and all. Sometimes I did. I couldn't just walk right into it, not with such complications that could arise between both parties, allergies and such." They approached the last node and took it out. The Thorian's grip finally gave and it tumbled down into the pit. The crash shook the entire place. Jane sent a Incinerate down after it, the Thorian lit in flames making a horrible screeching sound, Nihlus gave her a slow look. She just shrugged.
" Can't be too sure." She said seriously. He supposed she had a point. They were ready to head topside when one of the egg like growths on the wall broke open and spilled out a Asari.
" Well, that explains how Asari are made." Jane muttered under her breath. Nihlus tried not to, but a laugh escaped him. The Asari staggered to her feet.
XxXxxXxXxXXxxX
Normandy:
" Was that interesting enough for you Garrus?" Shepard asked panting in the Normandy's airlock as the decontamination flashed over them. Garrus chuckled then coughed to clear the smoke and dust from his chest.
" It was certainly hot enough, even Palaven isn't that bad." Garrus said shaking his head as he stood.
" We should get cleaned up, and hydrated, especially you Doc, no offense, but you kinda smell worse then Pyjack shit." Liara winced, but nodded.
" If you'll point me to the showers?" She asked wrinkling her nose at her own stench.
" Commander, Nihlus is hailing you in the conference room. Would you like me to patch him through?" Shepard sighed in part relief, part annoyance that he couldn't get cleaned up first.
" Not yet, I need out of my armor first, in the least." Shepard said and motioned for Liara to go in first as the doors opened onto the Normandy.
" Kaidan, can you escort the Doctor to Chakwas and the Ladies showers?" Shepard asked then turned to Garrus who fell into step at his side.
" When you talk to Kryik can I sit in?" Garrus spoke up. Shepard frowned.
" Feeling nosy about how the other side lives?" Shepard teased him, Garrus seemed puzzled.
" I thought it might be useful to translate the Sub-vocals you can't hear Shepard." Shepard laughed.
" I was juts joking, you can come Vakarian, try not to enjoy Nihlus and Jane too much. I'd hate to lose the only Turian I got." Garrus made a sound at that.
" Shameful Shepard, I know the ladies like me better, but there's no need to feel obligated to keep me aboard." Shepard choked and turned a grin his way.
"Vakarian, the lady killer, that has a fun ring to it. I keep you around for more then your Turian looks Garrus, you're the best shot we've got, minus me of course, and I think I need you at my back. I still half expect Wrex to throw me off a cliff." Garrus smiled, flashing pointed teeth.
" Hell Shepard, I think he will." Shepard chuckled.
End chapter:
Well there is that chapter done. It's only nine pages, but I had to hurry and write it down, so at least it's almost ten pages. I hope you enjoyed it.
Tell me what you'd like to happen in this fic, it's complete with a sequel I'm working on, it's just a matter of typing it out on here and posting for you guys, but still I can add things or change things up since it's still early on.
A few things to mention since people have asked.
This isn't just a JaneXNihlus fic, it's a Jane and whoever I want her with, kind of fic. As for John, I hadn't decided, perhaps Tali or Liara, or maybe I'll spice things up and it'll be JohnXKaidan? Who knows? Send me some reviews telling me you guys opinions. :D
I hope you enjoyed the new chapter! Until next time.
Kyo