A/N Guess what, I'm back.
"How were we supposed to go on a mission without our weapons?" Ashley asked Kyon as they stepped out of the elevator. Her tone didn't imply that she was mad at him, only that she was curious about what had gone through his mind when he was taking the weapons apart.
"I only took some components out," Kyon replied as he walked towards the mess hall, "I can cannibalize the ones I took apart to make some more," he shrugged, walking over to the food dispenser, knowing where it was because of the label above it.
"How will you do that?" She raised her eyebrow at him as they both took a nutrient paste from dispenser. They walked over to the table and sat down.
"I'll take parts from the guns that we don't usually use, and put them into the better guns," Kyon opened the nutrient paste, but didn't taste it yet, "they'll be better than the sucky guns, but not as good as the better guns."
"Well at least we'll have guns," Ashley sighed, taking a drop of it and putting it on her tongue. She hated the nutrient paste, but didn't complain since she had been living on it for a few years now. "Just hope Shepard doesn't try to kill you for that."
"The only reason I'm not dead," Kyon paused, smiling a bit, "is probably because she didn't have a gun at the time."
Ashley shook her head, "Next time you decide to take our guns apart, tell us so we can give you the crappy ones."
He smiled at her shyly, "Sorry, I was using what I had at my disposal." He ran a hand through his scarlet hair, "Besides, I think Tali still has that Krogan shotgun we took from the asari."
"Wait... what?" Ashley asked, astounded by the statement.
"Tali didn't tell you about how the two of us met?" He smirked, then crossed his arms again. It was common for him to cross his arms whenever he was amused, but he had noticed that he was doing it more so than usual.
"Unfortunately, I wasn't around for the story," she answered, shrugging her shoulders, "So, spill the beans," she shifted in her seat slightly, and her posture told Kyon that he wasn't about to leave anytime soon.
Kyon took a deep breath, and leaned forward. He rested his elbows on the table and smiled at her, "Well, I was wandering around the Citadel when I leaned over a balcony, I looked down and see Tali running away from an Asari and two Salarians," he paused briefly to take a breath, "I, being the good Samaritan that I was, started running across the rooftops."
Ashley raised her brow, "You," she scoffed at him a little, "ran across rooftops to help a random person, a quarian of all people?" she laughed a little at the circumstance, "I was expecting that you randomly ran into her or something."
"Not over," Kyon deadpanned, his annoyance at her interruption evident in his bland tone, "anyway, Tali gets trapped at a dead-end, and I was running down the fire escape," his tone returned to what it had been before Ashley's interruption, "when I got low enough to the ground, I jumped off."
Ashley laughed as he made an over dramatic gesture of jumping to the ground, "You are bullshitting me, aren't you?" she asks.
"Let me finish..." Kyon practically growled, "Anyway, after I jumped off I let these babies pop out," he flicked his wrists and the duel hidden blades on his wrists popped out with a satisfying 'shink,' "and stab both of the Salarians through the back of the neck," Ashley was now enraptured by the story, so he continued, "the asari turned around to shoot at me, but I was too low for her to see, and swept her legs from under her and pinned her to the ground." He said taking a deep breath, "A very bad idea."
Ashley narrowed her eyes a little, then raised her brow, "Why is that?"
"Well, it seems that she was a powerful biotic," Kyon answered, dipping his head as he remembered being thrown into the wall, "So, that kind of didn't work in my favor," he added, "She threw me into a wall, and was about to kill me."
Ashley's face curled into an expression of pain, "Ouch," she sympathized, "what happened next?"
Kyon smiled folding his arms behind his head and leaning back a little, "When I pinned the asari, her shotgun slid in Tali's direction. While the asari was in the middle of a monologue she shot her in the back."
Ashley laughed whole-heartedly for a few seconds, then wiped her eye to make sure there weren't any tears, "That's really cliché... she was monologuing, every villain's mistake in the vids."
He laughed with her and nodded, "I know. So do you know what happened while I was out?" he asks.
Ashley told Kyon about Shepard becoming a SpecTRe, and then mentioned something about another human coming aboard, "And I'm glad we have another human on board. The more humans there are the better with all these aliens running around."
Kyon decided that it would be best to avoid the alien subject at the moment, and went for the new guy, "So, who is this new recruit?" He leaned forward, indicating his interest on the subject. It was at this moment that he thought that this little activity felt like gossiping in an office environment, the one reason he would never get a white-collar job.
"Said he was alliance spec-ops and command wanted him onboard," Ashley explains.
"How come I haven't seen him?" Kyon asks.
"I haven't seen him since he came aboard, I guess he is hiding somewhere."
"Any idea what his name is?" Kyon asks.
"No," Ashley says, "Shepard refused to take him on at first, but then she got a message and changed her mind almost immediately."
"From what I've seen that doesn't sound like Shepard," Kyon says, "you know I've never heard her first name," he comments.
Ashley laughs, "Yeah neither have I," she tells him, "I only know it because of the post change notice I got when we came back from the citadel."
"So I'm going to go look for this mystery guy now," Kyon announced when his stomach growled, "...That's why I came up here!" He shouted as he realizing he forgot to even touch his food. He grabbed the paste, and put some on his finger.
"Best damn thing on this ship," Ashley says as Kyon puts some of the paste in his mouth.
Kyon spat out the paste, hoping to get rid of the taste, "That... is... disgusting!" He growled to himself.
Ashley laughed at Kyon's displeasure, "Too bad it's the only thing on this ship," she told him, as he looked at the paste.
Kyon shrugged in a defeated manner, "I guess it'll have to do," he said more to himself than to Ashley, putting more paste in his mouth.
Ashley shook her head at him, "You aren't very picky are you?"
"You try going an entire week without a decent meal," he responds, "you'd be able to eat anything too."
Michael, going by his longstanding alias Ares, sat in the briefing room of the Normandy, waiting for Shepard to return. He thought about the complications that being under her command would bring, but then dismissed them, knowing that her mentality would put the mission above all else.
When Shepard walked in, she stepped in front of Michael and asked, "What do you know about my father?"
Michael knew what her tone indicated, and knew that he wouldn't be able to give her a straight answer. That would defeat the purpose of him having a
"I know a lot," he answered slyly from under the visor he had been given 17 years prior, "I used to work with him," it was a half-truth, since he never really worked with Samuel Shepard, but he did come in contact with him when he had first arrived and owed his life to the man.
"What?" Her face turning into a look of pure hatred, "You worked with that bastard?"
The way that the words rolled off her tongue, Michael could tell that she had no good opinions about Samuel. Michael, tempted to sigh, knew that he wouldn't be able to tell Athena anything about her father. It pained him to see the emotional turmoil that she was in, because he was partly responsible for it. He had broken her heart when they were younger, and had made her believe that her father killed him in surgery.
"Yes, when I was seventeen."
"Seventeen? How old are you?" She asked.
"I'm thirty-four," Michael answered her, "we've met before,"
"Where did we meet? I'm sure I would have remembered you."
"About 17 years ago," he says, "I was at your mother's funeral as an escort for your father."
Shepard looked at him a hint of recognition crossing her face, "You... can't be. Who-are-you?"
"Ares." Michael answered, "But you know me by another name..."
Michael took his visor off revealing the ocular implants he had designed when he was sixteen, and Samuel had made the following week. The implants themselves were the only thing that would give his identity away to Athena, after he had gone through the facial reconstruction surgery. His were unique among most implants since they had a rotating triangle, tip being a different color. Depending on which color was pointed up was which function they served, Radar, Thermal, or Ultra-violet. The only hindrance was that he was partially color blind in the white light spectrum.
"You?" She asked, flabbergasted by the revelation, "How are you alive? I saw your vitals flat-line while my father was doing the surgery..."
"It was a simple trick to convince everyone in the room that I was dead," he slicked his hair back, and looked up. He took adjusted his gloves making sure that nothing showed from under them, "but for now my name is Ares, not Michael. Afterall, Michael Arias died in surgery after a sky-car accident."
"Was my father in on this? Why didn't he tell me?" Her awed expression turned back to one of anger, and Michael knew he would have to give her at least some part of the truth.
"We kept it from you for your safety," Michael explained, holding his hands up to calm her down a little, "I am here to help you with your mission, when we finish you may contact your father."
"Then I welcome you aboard the Normandy Ares."
Shepard extended her hand towards Michael, and looked at his eyes, wondering how in the world he had ended up here. He had always been stoic, but that had been one of his stronger points. He always hid his emotions, but if you watched the imperceptible gestures he made, you would see how much he actually thinks about his actions before he does them, when something doesn't go the way he expected it, or when something went as he had expected it to go. Michael was one of the smartest people she knew, and if he was really in hiding before now, then there was a good reason for it.
He took her hand and nodded at her, his eyes meeting hers. His were cold, only filled with the electronic lights that made him unique in this world, and this gave him the advantage of seeing other people's emotions while they couldn't see his. He could see a small hint of joy at seeing him again, but it was masked by the anger she held for him 'dying' so abruptly, and then entering her life again just as abruptly.
Shepard brushed her hair back a little, "That was a long time ago... Michael. I have my reasons..."
"It is because you don't want to look like your father, after all, he was responsible for my 'death,' wasn't he?" Michael put his hand on her shoulder reassuringly, and smiled, something he rarely did. "Don't hate him for doing something that I asked him to do. It was to protect both of you."
"From what?" She pulled away from him, and walked towards the door. "I'm sorry Ares, but the past is in the past, don't try to bring it up."
"I'll try not to."
Michael watched as she walked out of the briefing room, and stood in front of the Galaxy map. He took a deep breath and sat down. His Omni-tool turned on, showering him in a blue light as he started typing.
Grant walked onto the bridge and to the cockpit where Joker was at the helm. "Get enough beauty sleep there?" Joker asked as he sat down in the co-pilot's seat
"Keep talking Joker," Grant told the glass-boned pilot, "and I'll break your crippled ass in two."
Joker cringed mockingly, showing his doubt of Grant's threats, "Oh noooo!" He shouted sarcastically, drawing the attention of a few of the crew members behind them, "he might actually do it after 7 years."
"Your right, I wouldn't do it," Grant responded rolling his eyes at Joker, "At least, not very fast."
"Joking aside, have you seen the new humans onboard?"
"New humans?" Grant asked, wondering if it could be some of his friends from childhood, then quickly deciding that the chances were slim, "No, I haven't."
"Well we got this creepy guy in a trench coat, and you missed the red-head, remember the guy that we picked up from Eden Prime?"
"Wait, I thought Shepard kicked him off as soon as we got to the Citadel," Grant answered, his eyebrow raising as he combed a hand through his golden hair.
"He came back apparently."
The two of the pilots shared information about where they were going, and then quickly started making adjustments to their vectors so that they wouldn't go through a black hole while on the way to Therum.