Reckoning

by Lividity Jones

Behind every revolution, there is a person. Behind every person, there is a story. Before she was an Admiral, Daro'Xen was a pilgrim. This is her story, the chronicles of a pilgrimage that began with the promise of hope, and ended in tragedy.

8. Broken

The syringe fell to the floor with a hollow sound of glass on stone. Rioda bent down to pick up the metallic cylinder, giving the plunger and the glass tube a cursory examination. The immuno-boosters provided by Tidanya weren't exactly expensive, but a proper level of care was called for in spite of the salarian's drab surroundings. The merchandise was only useful if it lasted long enough to turn a profit. Examining the glass tube, the salarian idly measured the contents of the syringe as he came to the rusted metal door of his patient's cell, thinking on the numerous other appointments he had today. The drell in cell one needed her lung treatment for the week, Kepral's Syndrome finally taking hold. The turian in cell eleven was showing signs of scale itch, and would either need to be treated or marked down. The batarian in cell four tried to claw her eyes out again, and something had breached the volus' suit in cell nine. Another busy day. Rioda fumbled with the various vials and containers he would need for the day as he brought up his omni-tool and sent the proper security clearance to the cell door's locking mechanism. He didn't even bother with calling a guard. After the damage Tidanya had reportedly done to his current patient, she likely wouldn't be able to even stand on her own. Anyone who spent a few hours with Tidanya usually had a hard time even speaking coherently for a week afterward.

Crimson light bathed Xen as the door opened with a shrill shrieking sound, the salarian fumbling with the syringe as he stepped through the threshold into her cell. The last mistake he would ever make.

Xen's movements were liquid lightning, moving with vicious precision as one arm hooked under one of the alien's frail limbs, his screams muffled as one three-fingered hand closed over the narrow slit of his mouth, snapping the arm in two with one swift crack. The metallic cylinder of the syringe fell to the floor along with the various other vials bundled together in his arms as Xen pulled the salarian into the abyssal darkness of the cell. The quarian took a powerful grip of his tendrils and slamming his face against the stone wall once, twice, then brought her powerful leg down in a kick to the back of his knee. The salarian dropped to the floor, spitting emerald blood with a groan as Xen scrambled for the syringe. Fumbling in the harsh lighting, her sore fingers found the small instrument, taking it and stabbing the needle through one bulging eye. Pressing down on the pneumatic plunger, she emptied the high strength dextro-based immuno-boosters into his brain.

Tossing the vial to the side, Xen flexed her fingers. It felt good. She could see clearly again. She could move without the feeling of being weighed down by drugs. Everything hurt, but it didn't matter. Pain had finally reached a threshold where it became less an enemy and more a state of being. She was in so much agony that anything more didn't even register.

Xen crouched low as she stepped away from the limp and useless corpse of the salarian, eyeing the yawning doorway into the halls of the brothel with eyes of silvery white fire. Kyta's screams had silenced an hour ago. Xen could not be sure where they kept her within the deep halls of the brothel, but nothing was going to stop her now. She was too close. She would drown in her own blood within the confines of this blasphemous suit before she left without Kyta. Dragging the salarian's body into the shadows, Xen's hands roamed across his form, searching his pockets for anything of use. Xen slowly peeled the metal wireframe that made up the salarian's omni-tool from his limp arm, rearranging and reattaching the frame onto her left arm. Pulling a folded pistol along with it's magnetic clasp from the alien's belt, Xen examined the weapon briefly before slowly stalking to the threshold of the cell and gazing out into the hall from behind the cover of the walls. On Omega, it seemed even the most unassuming salarian doctor was armed. It would work to her advantage.

The bare concrete halls were empty, shadows consuming entire swaths of the brothel between the crimson bulbs. Foolish aliens. The insufficient lighting was the perfect tool for Xen to ensure a stealthy passage. The hubris of her would-be captors was astounding. They even were so vain to not assign a guard to the doctor. Neglect would be a powerful ally to the quarian. Xen prowled from the darkness of her cell, sending a signal from her newly-acquired omni-tool and sealing the door behind her as she slithered into the shadows of the dimly lit hall. The omni-tool flared to life as she moved her hands through the haptic interface of the holographic device, synching with her suit's controls and polarizing the surface of her visor, granting her optimal stealth ability. Xen holstered the compact pistol to the magnetic clasp she had taken from the salarian's body. Firearms would be of no use to her. They were too loud. She still had the element of surprise.

Xen moved through the halls, sliding from shadow to shadow, a hunter within a cage of iron and stone, fresh meat moving haplessly oblivious to the beast stalking their domain. The guards moved either alone or in pairs, the quarian finding more and more of them as she moved deeper into the structure. It would be child's play to gut one and strangle the other with his friend's intestines, but it would not help her find Kyta. Xen heard shuffling further down the hall behind her, the telltale armored footsteps of a guard heralding his unwitting approach. The quarian darted for the nearest cell, sending a code from the salarian's omni-tool to open the door. Xen wove her way inside, melting into the shadows by the doorway as she caught sight of a drell shackled by her ankle against the wall. Her skin was a multicolored shade of burnished orange, flowing and melting across her scales in shades of amber and saffron. She wore strands of translucent blue fabric, tied and wrapped around her most intimate areas, designed to leave only very little to the imagination. Golden piercings decorated the colorful patterns streaking along her ridges, shining in the half-light of the opened doorway. No doubt she was popular. Drell were even more exotic than the rare quarians. Her dark eyes opened languidly, orange irises with flecks of gold burning in her dark orbs, blinking away sleep as she looked up at Xen with confusion. The quarian brought one finger up to her voice modulator, gesturing for silence from the drell as the heavy footfalls of the guard came closer.

Xen heard the heavy armored boots come to a halt before rushing over to the entrance of the cell, a domineering shadow falling over the drell as a flanged voice belonging to a turian sneered at the chained woman.

"...The fuck?"

Xen felt her bitter heart grow cold. It wasn't Kiron. She was disappointed.

The turian stepped forward, mandibles flared as the drell curled her scaled body up against the wall of her cell in wide-eyed fear. The guard's taloned hand reached for the pistol at his side as his eyes warily searched the shadows before him. Xen slowly slid from the wall, crouching low as she stalked behind him, twin toes balancing the whole of her body weight as her hands reached towards the back of his head.

"Wher-!"

The turian's last words were silenced in Xen's iron grip, muscles regaining their new hate-fueled strength and twisting his neck until his skull flopped on the thick flesh of his neck, nearly in reverse. Xen's hands immediately moved to catch the limp corpse from beneath his arms, the chained drell covering her mouth at the sight of his drooped mandibles and loose, serpentine tongue. The turian's body vanished in the shadows of the cell, consumed in the darkness along with Xen. Laying him on the ground, Xen gripped his limp head by the fringe, twisting it to stare into his eyes. She recognized him. One of the guards who held her down when Tidanya had infiltrated her mind. Pity. A quick death was too much a mercy for him.

The metallic rattle of chains on the stone floor snapped Xen from her morbid imaginings, turning her cold gaze to see the drell slowly crawling forward, strangely-shaped hands quivering as she spoke with a raspy voice.

"W-What have you done...?"

The drell's orange-scaled hands pulled at the turian's limp skull, rearranging and twisting the broken fragments that remained of his neck plates as she childishly attempted to put him back together. Her dark eyes were wide with fear, the drell turning to Xen, stammering as she attempted to regain control of her quivering limbs.

"They'll k-kill us... They'll kill us... They'll kill us f-for this..."

Xen's hands reach for either side of the panicking drell's face, the reptilian woman silencing as she met razor-sharp diamonds of ice staring deep into her.

"What is your name?"

The drell seems to forget how to speak, her orange-rimmed eyes darting back and forth along the polished surface of the quarian's visor.

"I... Sh-Shakki..."

Xen did not know the name, but she had recognized the face. Shakki had been shackled out in the halls, waiting for a client when Tidanya had first dragged Xen into this hell of her sick design. Drell were a rare species and this Shakki was exceptional in her own way. Colorful. Xen's eyes roamed over her barely concealed form, boiling bile rising in her throat at the sight of the stained and whorish garb she was forced to wear. Visions of burning Tidanya alive, flames licking at her bare violet flesh and watching as her skin split and peeled filled Xen's mind. Blood boiling inside her veins and smoke pouring into her lungs like necrotic poison, screaming and begging for mercy that would never come. All the while, Xen's cold eyes watched, hungering for the flesh of the asar-

Xen's nightmarish visions of vengeance were broken as Shakki moved her face from the nest of Xen's three-fingered hands, the quarian suddenly aware of her own hands' shaking. The quarian gripped her hands together, forcing them to halt their erratic movement as she met Shakki's frightened gaze with her own cold stare.

"Xen. Daro'Xen nar Khalos."

The drell softly repeated the name as Xen's hands roamed along the guard's armored body, pulling a turian talon from the guard's side. The alien blade, curved and serrated, was of inferior design to the sacred pilgrim's blade she had received upon leaving the Flotilla, but it would serve. Xen brought the razor-edge to the translucent orange cloth wrapped around the mockery of a suit she wore, ripping and tearing the whorish cloth from her body. Xen felt as though a planet had been lifted from her shoulders. It was liberating.

Xen threw the ragged scraps of cheap cloth away into the shadow, letting them drift onto the guard's body in some form of morbidly ironic burial robe as she turned her icy gaze to Shakki. "I'm going to kill every single one of these animals, Shakki. And we'll all go free. Do you know how to use a gun?"

The drell sputtered, unsure of her answer as Xen pulled a pistol from the guard's side and pressed it into the drell's hands, demonstrating the basic method behind operating the firearm. Safety. Folding, unfolding, and when it was ready to be fired. "Point. Aim. Squeeze. Don't pull. This isn't a vid."

The drell seemed to regain her bearing as she stared at the pistol, Xen examining the lock of her shackles. Electronic. Fools. Xen brought her omni-tool to bear, cycling through the haptic interface and disengaging the seal on the shackles' lock, releasing the harsh metal from it's grip on Shakki's ankle. The drell whispered as Xen moved like a liquid shadow blending into the darkness of the cell, staring out past her stealthy cover into the dimly-lit halls.

"What... How are we getting out of here? There are only two of us." Shakki did a double take. "How did you get out of your cell?"

Xen ignored the question, turning her icy gaze passed along row after row of cell doors lining the halls, a cruel smile that could stop hearts with it's cold-blooded malice stretching across her lips.

"Stay close," was Xen's only reply, a hollow and cold whisper in windless wind that was every bit as dead as the turian laying at their feet.

Xen gestured for Shakki to follow as she prowled out into the halls, idly wondering at the absence of patrols through this area. Clearly, Tidanya's rage at Kyta's actions were keeping the guards busy elsewhere. The hubris of these aliens was astonishing. Xen hugged the wall as she moved along each cell door, stopping at a random rusted door and sliding open the shudder used to deposit food. A woman sat in the shadows, her features indistinguishable in the darkness. Xen sent the security code into the cell door's locking mechanism, a vicious snarl meeting the screeching sound of the door sliding open.

Chains rattled as they were pulled on, securely fastening the wrists of a batarian female to the wall of the cell. Her skin was dark, even for her species, bistre flesh shining with a fresh sheen of sweat. Black hair hung over her four eyes, piercing and vicious as she snarled through a mouth of needle-like teeth. Deep scars ran downwards across her black eyes, fresh wounds still carrying the telltale gleam of dark red gore intermingled with the pale scar tissue of older wounds. Scars ran across her bare skin, flimsy rags barely concealing the pale lines that decorated her toned and muscular form. Whatever sick fantasies this woman was forced to play out no doubt had very little to do with her pleasure. The batarian let loose another snarl, thrashing against her chains until her four onyx gems met Xen's shards of ice, her ragged and demanding voice dropping to a conspiring whisper. "Who are you? What are you doing? Where are the guards?"

Xen's eyes dart from the chained batarian further down the crimson halls, pulling Shakki inside the shadows with her as she slid along the walls in the cover of darkness and coming to her knees before the batarian. "We're leaving. All of us."

The batarian's black eyes seemed to ignite with their own cruel mirth as she smiled back at Xen. "I like you already. Gevilla."

Xen moved quickly through the haptic interface, the electronic locks of Gevilla's shackles disengaging and letting the batarian's weary arms fall to the floor. "Daro'Xen."

Gevilla slowly stood upright, a hollow pop sounding from each of her joints as she smiled at Xen, a heartless expression promising only sadistic retribution.

"See any humans, leave them for me..."

Shakki's quivering voice picked up within the darkness as her orange-rimmed eyes slowly moved along the batarian woman's scarred form. "W-What did they do to y-you? S-So many..."

Gevilla made no effort to hide the deep grooves of pale scar tissue, a futile effort regardless considering the simple rags covering her bare skin.

"You'd be surprised how rough people like to play with batarians. Damn humans."

Xen silently brought a fist upwards, gesturing for silence from the group as she faintly heard the sound of approaching footsteps, armored footfalls struggling as they moved through the halls. The quarian's command was a whispered order, uncompromising as she melted into the shadows of the cell. "Guards. Take cover."

The trio vanished in the shadows of the open cell, Shakki huddled behind Gevilla on one side of the open doorway and Xen gripping the talon with the patience of a hunter on the other. The guards were batarian by the sound of their hollering voices, shouting as they struggled to drag a pair of identical turians. Twins from the look of it. A rarity among their species. Their grey plates were cracked in various places, cobalt gore dripping from various wounds no doubt received from the guards. Xen's eyes narrowed on the sneering guards with an icy gaze, waiting patiently for them to move closer. One of the sisters was shouting. "Let us go! You bastards! Let us g-"

One of the guards' hands shot forward from his vice-like grip on the other sister, delivering an armor-plated backhand as he spat on the other. "Shut up, you fucking clacker. Don't think I won't give you to your mutual friend with a broken arm."

Xen stepped out from the darkness, silver eyes burning with the cold light of dead stars, her wicked blade gleaming in the crimson light. The guards stopped, wrenching the limbs of the turians' as they looked at each other with bewildered expressions before understanding finally dawned on them. Xen was upon them before their hands even neared their weapons, the quarian's superior martial training taking over and directing every precise movement she made. The turian talon slid between the narrow gap in one of the guard's armor, piercing the flesh just beneath the armpit and rending the thick veins there in a gout of dark red blood. Xen twirled the serrated blade in one hands, taking a reverse grip on the blade as she brought it along the throat of the other batarian, the flesh of his neck tearing open in a fountain of blood, the arterial fluid almost black in the mechanical crimson twilight.

Xen felt the splash of blood hit her visor, gore spurting from the throat of the batarian as he choked out his last dying gasps meeting her cold eyes. The quarian slowly rose from her combative stance, kicking away the scrambling grip of the dying batarian from her ankle and turning to meet the awe-inspired gaze of the twin turians. The paint worn on their face was bizarre, matching no design Xen had ever seen before meeting Tidanya, likely signifying it as another brand of the asari's. Either turian only had one side of their faces painted, left on one and right on the other, swirling and artistic patterns of black ink, clearly meant to mark them in the same manner as the whore who dared own them. Various piercing of silver and gold hung on the plates of their mandibles and fringes, cheap jewelry marking them as surely as the paint and translucent red clothing they were wrapped in. One of the twins stepped forward, a taloned hand forcing the other behind her as she spoke.

"Thank you... Who are you?"

Xen's hands quickly moved along the armored corpses of the batarians, pulling a pair of pistols from either guard and pressing them into the hands of the turian. "Xen. I trust you know how to handle those," she said with a calm, but edged slant to her words. It was fortunate they were turian. They would know how to fight.

The first of the twins took the pistols and gave them a cursory glance before handing one to her sister, still cowering behind her twin. She gestured toward her meek sibling as the others slowly left the darkness of the cell behind Xen.

"Rixi. I'm Varnal. There are only three of you?"

Gevilla stepped forward, almost hesitant to cross paths with Xen as she circled by the quarian. Crouching, the batarian pulled a knife from the boot of one of the dead guards, the edges of the blade as sharp and cruel as her own needle-like teeth. "There are easily dozens down in these cells. Arm them and we've got a fighting chance." It was no secret that Tidanya's brothel was probably on of the larger ones on Omega. And likely one of the more notorious. A land without laws where the worst in the galaxy congregated did very little for the weak and defenseless.

Shakki's stammering voice cut through the whispered gathering, orange-rimmed orbs darting fearfully down the hall. "A-Arm them? Are y-you insane? We have to run while we s-still have the chance!"

The cerulean pane of glass snapped in the drell's direction, Xen's chilling gaze freezing the alien in her tracks. The quarian took slow, measured steps toward the drell, bringing the polished surface of her visor closer than could have been comfortable for Shakki. "Would you want to be left down there if someone else had the chance to get you out? We are not leaving here without as many survivors as we can, and this building in flames."

Xen's words were fierce, uncompromising, powerful as she stood over the bloodied corpse of the batarians. For centuries, her people had been subjugated by filth like the ones left bleeding at her feet. The quarian people had long since learned that only the bond of kin could survive in the cruel space between the stars. These women had endured the same horrors she had. Still endured. Dozens more suffered in the deeps halls, their screams and cries for help echoing faintly in the distance. She would not turn her back on them. They deserved to be free of their chains as much as Kyta did. "I'm getting everyone out. Anyone in our way dies. Tidanya. Kiron. The guards. The patrons. All of them."

Xen's ice-cold gaze moves across the gathered women, meeting each of their eyes with her own icy silver orbs, daring them to defy her. No one said a word.

"Now... Follow me and stay close."

Xen slid into a prowl, moving through the shadows with ease as the others filed behind her, huddling together when the quarian brought her fist up for silence, peering through the pane of cerulean glass further down the hall. Two guards, a batarian and a turian, stood together smoking and chatting as they leaned against either side of the hall. Sneaking past them wasn't an option. Both fingers broke apart from her raised fist, signifying the number of guards present to the huddled group behind her. Xen's mind raced with countless variables and possible solutions to the situation before the most direct approach took it's place as the best one, the quarian gesturing for the group at her rear to stay put before she rushed down the hall in a lightning-fast low crouch.

The quarian's dash was too fast for her to hear the muffled protests of the women behind her, Xen darting from shadow to concealing shadow before a stray glance from the turian alerted him to her presence. His cigarette fell to the ground as his taloned hand went to his earpiece, mandibles flared in panic as he shouted.

"Kiron! Kiron, we've got loose merch in lev-"

A hollow thud silenced the turian's alert, the razor-edge of Xen's stolen talon imbedded between his eyes with a spurt of cerulean gore. The impact of Xen's well-aimed throw carried the turian's head back with it's force, the guard's corpse falling flat on it's back, leaving the batarian stammering.

"Shit! Oh, fu-"

Xen was before the batarian in the blink of an eye, the barrel of her pistol pressed against his sweating forehead, forcing him against the stone wall. Xen's ice-cold gaze bore into the batarian's dark eyes, the foul stench of urine and fear wafting it's way into her olfactory filters. The alien choked on his words, something thick and translucent running from his nose as he choked on his own words. "I-it's Omega… I'm just trying to survive! I've got a kid at home, pl-"

Xen squeezed the trigger, painting the world around her in a bright shade of crimson, small fragments of skull scraping at her visor as they flew through the air and at least one stringy piece of grey matter lingering on the surface of the polished glass. One three-fingered hand calmly wiped away the layer of gore from her visor as the batarian's body slumped against the wall, smoke curling from the barrel of the pistol. Xen heard the shuffling of multiple feet, turning to see the group of women searching the bodies at her feet, Shakki hesitantly tossing an eye from it's resting place over the magnetic clasp of the batarian's pistol. Xen heard the thundering bass of the music coming from the deeper cells halt, pulling her talon free from the turian's skull as her cold eyes narrowed, passing over row after row of cell doors. "The guards have been alerted. We don't have time to waste," she said coolly.

Xen's omni-tool flared to life, the cell doors before her screeching open with a wave of her hand. Stealth would be a waste at this point, it was time for force. The turian twins share a fearful glance toward one another, the one who introduced herself as Varnal whispering to her twin as Xen's voice picked up over their group. "We have two more cell blocks to take care of on this level. We need to move quickly."

Shakki shared a nervous glance with the lesser of the turian twins, visibly blanching as she skipped over the batarian's corpse and stole into the next cell. Gevilla slowly approached her fellow batarian's headless body, giving it a swift kick, flashing her needle-like teeth and wicked eyes at Xen. "That's two you owe me, suit."

A muffled scream breaks the dead stare between the quarian and the batarian, Xen rushing inside the cell where the noise had come to find one of the turian twins, Rixi, huddled into a ball at her sister's knees, muttering and quivering. An asari corpse lay nearby, her lifeless eyes open and staring at the frightened turian, Rixi's words repeating over and over again with varying intensity as she shut her eyes. "Don't look. Don't look. Don't look. Don't look. Don't look. Don't look."

Xen slowly approached the body, chained to the wall and clearly emaciated, with sunk cheeks and rail-like arms lacking any healthy muscle. It appeared she had been starved to death. Perhaps she had simply outlived her usefulness to the brothel. Xen felt her hands ball into fists. The asari's eyes were a pale shade of violet, dead and lifeless as Xen's fingers slowly closed her eyelids, turning back to the nerve-wracked turian. The quarian's icy gaze shifted to the more lucid sibling, already knowing the answer to her question before she asked it. "Your markings. They're not yours, are they?"

Rixi whimpered as she clung to her twin's leg, small stinging beads of tears forming from eyes shut so painfully tight. Varnal's taloned hand rested on her sister's head, shielding her twin's gaze by forcing her against her leg defensively. "No. Tidanya 'gave' us these. Her 'gift'. She... melded with Rixi. She made me watch... for hours. I tried to stop her... but... Kiron... He... He..."

Varnal's hands shook, the pistol she held in one hand shaking so fiercely with her nervous movements that it was a wonder she didn't lose her grip on the weapon. She continued, "If you don't relax during the melding, if you resist, and the asari doing it is powerful enough…"

The quarian recalled the horrific agony of Tidanya's defilement of her mind, the searing pain coursing through every nerve ending and twisting her every thought and memory into nightmarish visions of pain and suffering. It was not something she would ever forget. With Tidanya, seconds became hours of nothing but pain and violation. To endure hours of such torture would be enough to break any sentient creature to madness.

Varnal continued, "Tidanya didn't even give us out to patrons. She…" Xen felt her gut go cold. She looked down at Rixi, horror clenching her heart as she realized this is what Tidanya had planned to turn her into.

Xen was at the traumatized twin's side faster than the eye could follow, almost slithering through the shadows like they were part of her. One unreasoning, terrified black eye met the wintery gaze of the quarian, Xen's words reflecting the same mantra that had kept Kyta warm on that cold night so long ago huddled up against her in the dark. "Look at me." Rixi turned her gaze to Xen. "She did it to me, too. I thought it was going to die with all that pain inside me. But I couldn't. I had a friend I had to protect. I had to be strong. Be strong, Rixi. Be strong for your sister. I promise you, we're leaving this place and we're going home, but you need to be strong."

Rixi's mandibles twitched wildly, looking to Xen with childlike enthusiasm. "H-Home? Y-You p-promise?"

Xen gripped the turian's wrist, pulling her to her feet as Xen placed another hand on her shoulder. "I promise. Now let's go. The guards will be searching this level. We need to free the others quickly before we move on."

Xen backed away from Rixi, Varnal giving the quarian a slight nod of understanding as Xen walked from the cell, meeting Gevilla's fanged smile, the batarian gesturing behind her. "Got some more for you, boss."

Asari. Humans. Turians. A salarian. A volus. Xen's group of five quickly became a dozen frightened and pained faces. Bruises and scars decorated the throng, terrified gazes and whispered fears silenced as Xen moved among them, her tone frigid and commanding. This was her not so long ago, curled into a ball on the cold stone floor of her cell, weeping in fear and despair at the hell she had been chained to. No more. "Those of you who can shoot, take weapons from the guards as we move. Those of you who can't, stay out of the crossfire. Whatever you do, don't let them take you alive."

Gevilla slid a shield harness from the dead guard around her waist as the quarian spoke, twirling the simple knife she stole from the bodies of the batarians and gracing the gathering with her trademark smile of sadistic mirth. Shakki idly handed her pistol to a newly-freed asari, the violet skin of her face a mass of scar-tissue and disfiguring burns. Rixi clung to her identical twin, wrapping her arms so tightly around the lucid sibling as though she attempted to melt with her and vanish from the sight of the others. Varnal's hand met her sister's, stroking the tightly-gripped talon comfortingly. A salarian limped on one broken ankle, her weight supported by a barely-dressed human, her blonde hair left loose and dirty from days spent in the dirt of her cell, a pistol held in one hand with a white-knuckled grip.

They all looked to her for leadership. For guidance. For protection. It took only moments for her to turn their lives from desperation and pain towards vengeance and freedom. Xen had done that. Offered hope and strength for the others left downtrodden and persecuted. She was a symbol of that to these people.

The quarian's eyes roamed her encased form, the lewd suit she was forced to wear no less shameful without the translucent cloth decorating it. Xen's gaze turned to an open doorway, a sheet of ragged black cloth hung over the open cell, a room left for the patrons to enjoy themselves with their purchases. The quarian's hand shot forward, tearing the cloth from the rail it hung from and quickly wrapping the concealing shadow around her body, tying it to create a cloak not unlike the one she wore on Pilgrimage. The black cowl covered her helmeted head, leaving the blazing corona of cerulean light surrounding her ice-cold eyes the only thing visible in the shadows. It would do.

A roar shattered the whispered silence surrounding the group, the sound of chains rattling audible over a fierce bellow resonating from a single sealed cell door. Xen coolly raised a brow at the sound, turning back to the group. "Is there a reason this cell isn't open?"

Gevilla followed on the quarian's heels, the rest of the group not far behind, but keeping a sober distance from the cell door. The batarian's response was deadpan.

"Hekat's a crazy bitch, boss. She went nuts on a patron. Got loose. Ate him. Blood rage."

Xen stood in silence for a moment, the ragged cloak she wore turning her into something monolithic in her stillness. The orange light of her omni-tool blazed to life, waving the holographic device and unsealing the rusted door with a deafening screech. Gevilla's four eyes went wide as a bestial snarl greeted them, the gathering behind Xen taking several steps back as the quarian strode fearlessly into the darkness. A giant lay chained to the wall of the cell, the krogan female snarling and chewing with wordless rage on the gag placed over her maw as she pulled with all of her plated muscle on the seemingly endless series of chains, straps and locks securing her in place. The scaled flesh between her hard plates was a flawless ebon shade, shining in the dim light with a fresh sheen of sweat from her exertions. Her plates appeared black as pitch, reflecting back a dangerous shade of orange when caught in just the right light from her thrashing. Yellow eyes stared wide with snarling hate and anger at the cerulean visor slowly approaching her, her shackled claws trapped against the wall from the cuffs bolted to the cell's very foundation. Slowly, Xen's hand reached forward, pulling the metal rod acting as a gag free from Hekat's mouth, the krogan seething as the quarian spoke.

"Hekat."

The quarian's silver shards of ice stared unerringly into the krogan's raging yellow orbs. "Suit," came the barely controlled reply, Xen's cloths shifting as the giant snorted at her.

Xen's hands idly ran along the series of straps and chains restraining the krogan, recognizing the foul friction-based locks that had imprisoned Kyta in their design. Boiling bile forced it's way to her throat as she thought of Kyta still lying in the dark somewhere in this hell, turning her winter gaze back to the krogan. "We're leaving. Freeing the others. Killing all the guards before we go. Would you like to avenge the indignities you have suffered at their hands with us?"

Hekat snorts again, the slight gesture sending her chains rattling against each other. "Do you need to ask?"

A genuine smile crossed Xen's lips as she synched the omni-tool's interface with the electronic locks, her hand waving over them and releasing the massive shackles with a sharp hiss. The quarian stepped back as Hekat pulled at her chains, their anchor's pulled straight from the stone walls of the cell as the straps ripped and snapped under the krogan's strength. Hekat's bonds fell to her feet, standing easily taller than the petit quarian. Hekat grinned, an expression that contained no mirth in it. "You have a name?"

Xen gestured for the krogan to follow her, the krogan lumbering from the darkness and meeting Gevilla standing at the head of the quivering throng of slaves. "Xen. I take it you two are acquainted."

Hekat's eyes met Gevilla's, the krogan snorting before bringing her crest in a head butt against the batarian's skull. Gevilla staggered back under the blow, the few armed slaves within the group taking aim for the krogan out of fearful instinct. "Your head's still soft, blink."

Gevilla regained her stance, a trickle of blood running from a cut split in her forehead from the jagged edges of Hekat's crest, drawing her blade at the snarling krogan. "And you're still a fat bitch. All that time hoarding our food really hasn't helped your looks."

Hekat took a step forward, her claws curling into tightly-balled fists as the batarian twirled her stolen blade. "If you couldn't fight for your food, you didn't deserve it."

Gevilla laughed, a mirthful tone dripping with venomous scorn.

"Typical krogan. I guess the only reason Tidanya didn't put you down was to see how much profit she could make from clanless fucking you up against the wall."

Hekat roared, bringing her crest forward as Gevilla ducked low to deliver a killing stab to the krogan's throat. Xen's talon split through the air like lightening, cutting a chip off of the krogan's crest as the quarian crouched low and brought her foot forward in a powerful kick to the batarian's gut. Hekat staggered back, wide-eyed shock looking down at the chipped piece of her crest skittering across the stone floor as Gevilla groaned from the blow she received to her midsection. "Enough. The guards will be upon us any second. We have no time to waste on your pretty squabbles."

The krogan opened her mouth as though to speak before offering a hand to the batarian, pulling Gevilla to her feet as Xen gestured for the group to follow her. There was a very uneasy silence, broken only by Xen's command. "Hekat, Gevilla, you're with me. Shooters with shields, file in front. Everyone else, take cover."

Xen led her newly formed resistance through the halls, hearing muffled voices and shouts of indignation further and further into the complex as they neared the next cell block on their level. The quarian gestured for a stop, the long string of their group hugging the wall with Xen at it's head and Varnal taking position as rear guard. Xen slowly inched along the wall, her lithe form hidden beneath her shrouded cloak as she peeked down the hall lined with sealed cell doors. A group of guards, two turians, a batarian, and a krogan were arguing with a group of men, one krogan dressed in heavy plated armor that differed wildly from the cheap hard suits the guards wore, a businesslike human wearing an expensive suit, and a turian dressed in worn and tattered clothing. The krogan patron shouted, pointing an accusatory finger at the batarian.
"Tidanya owes me more than one favor. I'm not leaving until I get what I paid for.

The batarian guard held up one hand as he attempted to reason with the krogan patron. "Sir, we have reason to believe that there is a security risk on this level. For your safety, we're asking you to leave." Xen had to roll her eyes from beneath her mask at that. There was no such thing as safety on Omega.

The human clasped his hands behind his back, the tug of his jacket revealing the bulge of a holstered pistol at his side. "Are these orders from Lady Tidanya?"

The batarian let loose an annoyed sigh, rolling all four of his eyes. "My orders come straight from Captain Merani. Lady Tidanya is... indisposed at the moment."

The ragged turian's mandibles flared, clear outrage in his tone as he shouted at the guards. "I've been coming here for years! Tidanya knows me by name! This is insane! I want my money back!"

Xen slowly slid from her cover by the wall, readying her pistol in a two-handed grip and taking aim down the hall, one frozen diamond of ice staring at the back of the batarian's skull. "Sir, Tidanya is prepared to pay you back in full personally. Now, if you would please follow us out, we can-"

The mass-accelerated round blew straight through the batarian's cranium, splattering wet gore and grey matter over the patrons, a massive fractured gap left behind where the alien's brain should have been. Kinetic barriers weren't as common out in Terminus, fortunately. The pistol kicked in Xen's hands as she fired four more shots, two impacting on the shields of the krogan guard with bright bursts of sapphire light. Another one buried itself in the shoulder of the turian patron and the last scoring a glancing blow off of the krogan patron's crest before the quarian holstered the firearm and charged forward, the razor-edge of her talon gleaming in the faint lighting. A bestial roar sounded behind her, the thundering steps of Hekat charging behind her echoing along the cell block. The sound of gunfire whispering past the quarian forced her to crouch low in her sprint, in danger of being caught in the crossfire between the slaves and the guards and patrons. The armored krogan slid an assault rifle from his back, firing a spray of mass-accelerated fire that Xen deftly dodged, sliding inside an empty doorway and into an unoccupied cell with a flare of her omni-tool.

The krogan's fire blossomed against Gevilla's shields, the batarian dodging and diving in an attempt to get closer to put her knife to good use. The booming sound of shotgun fire resounded through the hall followed by a grunt of pain from Hekat, the krogan still charging as she held a clawed hand over the broken and bleeding plate of her shoulder. Xen pulled her pistol free of it's magnetic clasp, blind-firing the weapon into the tightly-packed group of guards before charging out of cover, talon still drawn and thirsty for blood. The quarian met the barrel of a shotgun scant inches from the surface of her visor, quickly dropping to the floor as the krogan guard carrying it squeezed the trigger. The cone of mass-accelerated fire bounced off of Gevilla's shield harness, the kinetic force sending her toppling to the ground. Xen aimed her pistol directly upward, firing round after round into the krogan's stomach, orange gore streaming from the wounds as he fell back against the far wall.

Laying on the ground, Xen's gaze met the krogan patron's, the assault rifled aimed squarely towards her with a smug grin. The quarian rolled to the side, the concrete beneath her chewed to pieces by the automatic fire before her hand shot forward, sending the talon directly into the patron's eye. The krogan roared in pain, dropping his assault rifle to clutch at the dagger buried in his eye. The human fumbled with his jacket, tearing the buttons away as he reached for his pistol, Xen planting two rounds in his heart and one in his skull from her prone position before he even unfolded the firearm. One of the turian guards broke into a sprint, running down the opposite hall in an attempt to escape the carnage, Xen firing a round after round, collapsing his shields and blasting apart his fringe. The other remaining guard drew a knife, bringing it down in a killing blow on the prone quarian before he was tackled against the wall by a one-ton mountain of krogan muscle, Hekat pounding her plated fist into the turian's face until wet shards of plate and bone were left imbeded in the concrete walls.

The krogan laughed as she backed away from the battered corpse left slumped against the wall, offering one bloodied claw to the prone quarian. Xen took the woman's hand, rising to her feet and nodding to the krogan in a proper gesture of gratitude. Neither of them noticed the wounded turian patron aiming his pistol towards the Xen before a round buried itself into his skull, Xen turning to see Varnal aiming the firearm with Rixi still clinging to her shoulder. Varnal's mandibles twitched as she met the quarian's gaze, an unspoken thanks shared between the two before Xen reached down and hefted the assault rifle formerly belonging to the krogan patron along with her stolen talon, slinging the strap of the rifle to her back. Xen's eyes roamed as she clipped the shield harness the batarian wore around her waist. The other women wordlessly scavenged the corpses, Shakki helping Gevilla to her feet as Hekat hefted a shotgun with a ferocious smile. Xen's eyes lingered on the staircase before moving to the cells lining the hall so recently filled with gunfire, unsealing the rusted metal doors with a screeching groan.

Xen stepped into the nearest cell, her cloak billowing behind her from her movements. The black cloth seemed to sink into the shadows of the cell, the quarian hidden beneath the cowl almost one with the darkness. Three visors slowly crooned to meet the newcomer, polished shades of fuchsia, aqua, and gold meeting her cerulean. Three quarian women were chained in various manners, one draped in fuchsia cloth that matched her visor hanging from the ceiling by her wrists, her toes barely touching the stone floor. The aqua visor hid pained eyes, a collar fastened around her throat and anchoring her to the wall of the cell. The gold visor's legs were kept open in a spreader bar, her hands shackled behind her and chained to the bar itself, forcing her to stay on her knees, or otherwise lay very uncomfortably.

Xen felt her hands slowly curl into fists beneath the shroud. More pain to add to the debt of blood Tidanya owed to her and her people. The asari would suffer for this a thousand times over. The fuchsia visor turned to meet Xen's ice-cold gaze with milky-white orbs. "Who are you? The gunfire... Was that you?" Her voice was strained. It occurred to Xen it must have been extremely hard to breathe in her current predicament.

Xen felt her mind snap back to reality as the fellow quarian's question echoed in her mind. "Daro'Xen nar Khalos. We're going home."

The fuchsia visor attempted to twist herself to face Xen better, her toes barely scraping along the stone floor before finally relaxing with a pained sigh. "Vin'Shi nar Kaali," she said, nearly choking on her own words.

Xen approached Vin's chained and suspended form, synching her omni-tool with the locks keeping her chains attached to the hook built in the cell's ceiling and releasing them, Vin stumbling to the ground and into Xen's arms before regaining her bearing. She stood perhaps only an inch or so taller than Xen, wringing her hands and letting the chains come loose before sliding her wrists free of the manacles. "Hae could use your help. Her fever has been worse the past few days."

Vin approached the quarian trapped in the spreader bar, Xen tugging experimentally on Hae's collar, the silver eyes beyond her aqua visor heavy-lidded. "You... You're nar Khalos? My father was nar Khalos... I'm nar Balei. Hae'Tel nar Balei... Do... Do you know where Kyta is...? She was always so nice..." Her voice was even more ragged than Vin's.

Xen's hands halted her movements over the electronic lock of her collar, turning from Hae back to Vin. "You know Kyta?"

Vin turned her gaze back to Xen, helping the gold visor quarian slip from the shackles on her wrists.

"She shared a cell with us until Tidanya moved her. She kept all the quarians together. You know her?"

Xen's frozen diamonds soften for a brief moment, averting her gaze from the other quarians. "I... Yes. Yes, I do. We're…" Xen stopped. It was hard putting into words what Kyta was to her. She couldn't find the right word. Instead she contined. "They took her. She tried to kill Tidanya. I don't know where she is now."

The golden visor spoke up, letting a light cough split her words as Vin worked on the clasps attaching the spreader bar to her suit. Xen felt a whole new disgust for how easy it was to attach such perverse devices to their suits. Was it not enough they were relegated to these suits, they had to be used against them like this as well?

"They dragged someone down to the lower level maybe an hour ago, but that's reserved for clients. There are no holding cells down there..." The gold masked quarian's voice was tired. Xen felt white hot rage pulse through her at the thought of how difficult simply sleeping must have been for them.

Xen's omni-tool passed over the electronic seal of Hae's collar, helping the sickly quarian to her feet as Vin finally managed to snap the clip attaching the spreader bar to the unnamed quarian's ankles, the golden visor slowly making her way to her feet with Vin's help. "Rella'Zren nar Jennian. If you're going to find her, I'm coming with you."

Xen shook her head, placing either hand on Rella's and Vin's shoulder, Hae leaning her sickly and limp weight on Xen's shoulder as she spoke. "No. The others will need your help more than I will. The guards will be moving through this level and there still is another cell block to free. Go with them. Keep each other safe." It was fortunate that every quarian knew self-defense. It would serve them well.

Xen slowly helped Hae into the embrace of the other's, Rella and Vin supporting the ill quarian by either arm as Xen walked from the cell, stopping in the threshold as Vin's voice picked up in the shadows. "What are you going to do?"

Xen slowly turned her visor to the side, one silver shard of ice staring back at the assembled quarians through a corona of cerulean light, the crimson glow of the hall's dim bulbs casting a stark silhouette of her face. "Bring everyone home."

Xen's gaze fell towards the staircase leading to the lower levels, turning back to the small army of women she had rallied, the throng only growing from the newly opened cells. Several had stripped omni-tools from the corpses of the guards and patrons, freeing the remainder of the slaves trapped in this cell-block without her. Gevilla approached, handing Vin a bloodied shotgun as she nodded to Xen. "Everyone that can use a gun has one, boss," she cooed with a cruel smile.

Gevilla gripped at Xen's shoulder, the batarian blanching as Xen slowly turned her gaze to bore into her four eyes, her hand quickly leaving the quarian's body.

"Boss, going after Tidanya is suicide."

Xen slid the assault rifle from her shoulder, feeling the weight of the M6 Lancer in her arms, so very much like her own likely still in Jason's squat on Caleston. It lacked the mods her father had so painstakingly crafted into the weapon, but it would serve.

"The guards will be moving through the level by now, looking for everyone. With so many patrons killed, they will not bother with mercy. Find the others still imprisoned and arm them if you can. Fight your way to the surface. You'll need each other's help to survive. I won't be far behind."

Gevilla sneered, her fangs bared beneath her scarred visage. "And you get Tidanya all to yourself, huh?"

Xen slowly turned the polished surface of her visor to face the batarian, cold fire burning in her gaze as chill as her words. "Yes."

The quarian turned on her heel, the ragged black cloak billowing with her movements as she let her voice carry through the hall. "Go."

Xen heard the shuffle of dozens of feet as she slowly descended the stairwell to the lower level of the brothel. Distant memories of Kiron dragging her into the depths and tearing her suit from her body surged through her mind in a hateful wave. Soon, he would be the one begging for death at her feet. These deep halls would not hide him. Xen was a hunter in the dark. A horror unleashed. A terror to behold. Death given form by the ancestors.

Here, in the dark, Daro'Xen was a goddess.

Xen reached the end of the railess stairs, the barked commands of the guards rushing through the halls the only sound emanating through the stone walls. The quarian placed her back against the empty doorway leading into the lower halls, a turian and a batarian conversing clueless to Xen standing just behind the wall next to them. "I don't know where she is, but I know having all of us down here was fucking insane," said the flanging turian. "The only reason we're having this breach is because nobody was up there watching the cells. Bitch is all tits and no brains."

Xen slowly slid her rifle onto her shoulder beneath the ebon cowl, silent and still as a statue.

"What about Kiron?" The batarian's voice grated on Xen's ears.

The quarian's hand slowly gripped her talon and pistol in either hand, silently sliding either weapon free as she listened to the turian guard's carelessly loud words. "He's around. Probably sending whoever he can round up to check out the gunfire. Shit, man. If they got their hands on guns..."

Xen's finger curled closer to the trigger of her pistol, her grip on the talon tightening as she stepped stealthily from her cover, sliding into the shadows just inside the threshold of the doorway, the guards on either side still oblivious to her presence.

"They're whores. Worst case, we kill 'em all and we get a slap on the wrist about how expensive they-"

Xen slid into the hall, her pistol aimed towards the turian at her right and planting a round in the side of his skull as she twirled and brought herself face-to-face with the batarian, the four-eyed alien left dumbstruck in death's gaze. His hand twitched only a millimeter towards his pistol before Xen's talon sliced open his throat and buried itself between his eyes with a precise flourish.

The alien's body crumpled limply to the ground as Xen heard shouts and armored footsteps thundering in her direction, responding to the sound of gunfire. The hall intersection of the hall split in three directions, empty doorways draped with cheap cloth lining the walls, providing ample cover from the guards approaching from ahead. Xen slid into cover, pulling her Lancer from beneath the shroud she wore as she took a deep, calming breath. Focusing, Xen could hear each individual set of footsteps rushing towards her through the audio enhancers of her helmet. Five. Maybe six. One sounded krogan, by the echo of his footfalls. The quarian hefted the rifle, listening as the guards skidded to a halt at the sight of the bodies from further down the hall.

Perfect.

Xen crouched, bracing the stock of the rifle against her shoulder as she slid on one knee to bring the weapon to bear on the guards. Five. Three turians, a batarian, and a krogan, each armed with simple shotgun and pistol affairs and standing together in a cramped and narrow hall.

Child's play.

The Lancer kicked in her grip as the weapon's mass-accelerated rounds tore the air, white streaks of light following in the wake of the rounds' speed, igniting the air behind them before shattering the armor of the foremost turian. Bright gouts of cobalt flew into the air, grey flesh smoking from the heat of the bullets scorching his flesh as they ripped deep into his body. One stray round found a home in the breastplate of the batarian, an orange stream of molten ceramic material running down his chest as he screamed in panic, hands darting along his body to check for other wounds. All the invitation Xen needed. Another burst of fire broke through the batarian's shields, ripping through his skull and sending fragmented shards of bone in every direction. Xen's finger squeezed at the trigger in bursts, spraying fire into the guards as they ducked into open doorways and blind-fired towards the crouched quarian.

Shotgun blasts lessened by exceeded range bounced off of Xen's shields, the quarian ducking behind the section of wall as it was chewed apart by blind-fired luck. The fire quieted, the remaining guards barking between each other before one of them shouted down the hall towards Xen. "Give up, bitch! Three on one. You don't have a chance. Put the gun down an-"

Xen hooked the rifle around the wall, firing a single short burst blindly followed by a pained groan as the guard fell to the ground. A low whine sounded, the guard screaming back at the quarian wordlessly as he crawled back into cover, the plates of his armor scraping the stone floor as he crawled. Xen smiled as gunfire chewed at the small corner she was ducked behind, taking a deep breath before she dove into the gap between the two ends of the hall, aiming her Lancer towards the guards and firing a wide spray of mass-accelerated fire down the hall. The quarian's ragged cloak billowed, displaced her form from the guard's blind aim, the stray rounds tearing harmlessly into the cloth and bouncing off of her shields. Another guard was cut down by her swift counterattack, the wounded turian bleeding from a wound to the knee and a krogan who's shields absorbed Xen's burst of fire.

A blast of shotgun fire blew fragments away from the corner of the wall, Xen backing away as the edge of the cone of fire ripped through her cloak. The krogan was advancing, firing burst after burst as he moved. Xen listened for his footsteps, calculating his distance from the terminal angle where he would be in position for a kill shot as she slid the rifle back in it's place and drew her talon. The instant the krogan's foot crossed the threshold, Xen leapt forward, sliding her lithe form under and around his arms as she brought her blade up into the alien's soft palette. Thin, orange blood seeped from the wound and poured over the quarian's sleek form, Xen twisting the blade around with her body until her back was to the muscular alien and kicking herself away from him, the momentum slicing the blade straight through his lower jaw and sending a handful of teeth clattering to the stone.

The krogan fell to the ground, gurgling and choking wordlessly on the flood of orange pouring from the gap torn in his throat and jaw. The alien crawled towards Xen, his clawed hand pawing helplessly as gore ran free from his body. The quarian kicked at the krogan's hand, ankle deep in his own blood as she calmly strode down the hall toward the prostrate turian, still whining in pain as he gripped his bleeding knee. The guard's eyes went wide with fear, clawing towards his pistol laying nearby before Xen's foot came down on his wrist. The turian snarled, cursing Xen until her pistol snapped forward and blew two of his talons off. He screamed, long and loud. Xen reveled in it, cold and calm as her weight left his wrist, pacing around the turian and kicking his pistol away. The guard gripped the bloodied stump of his hand, sobbing and screaming as Xen holstered her pistol, sliding effortlessly to crouch next to him, her cloak pooling around her like liquid shadow.

"Where is Kyta?" Xen's voice was a cold as the winter that had overtaken her heart and mind, turning her into a frigidly uncompassionate predator.

The turian's mandibles flared, waving wildly as he screamed at the quarian. "Fuck you bi-!"

Xen's blade split through the air faster than the eye could follow and sliced through the fractured plate of his knee, digging the tip of the blade directly into the joint of the knee. "Where. Is. Kyta?"

The turian's mandibles never ceased moving, his limbs twitching and spasming with every wave of pain shooting through his nerves, his voice faint as his body threatened to go into shock. "I don't know. I don't know. I don't know..."

Xen twisted the blade, feeling the hollow pop of the cartilage snapping beneath the razor edge. "Where is she?"

He screamed, mandibles flared wide open, panting as he spoke. "I don't know!"

Xen's hand shot forward, taking a steely grip on one of the turian's mandibles, pressing her thumb at the soft junction of flesh attaching it to his face and pulled. Tendons snapped, flesh tore, veins ruptured as she ripped his mandible free from his face. Xen brought the polished surface of her visor forward, the cerulean surface decorated with small droplets of spurting cobalt blood as she spoke. "You have another. Tell me where Kyta is."

Blood leaked into the open gap in the turian's maw, splitting a gout of cobalt onto the stone floor as he hyperventilated, desperate to stay conscious. "I don't know... Please... They dragged a quarian down here a few hours ago... I haven't seen her since..."

Xen was eerily still, staring at the turian for what seemed like an eternity, watching the blood slowly seep from the tear in his face. "How many girls have you used?"

The turian's remaining mandible twitched, fear clear in his eyes. "I… I don't know… N-Nine... Maybe…?"

Xen slowly rose, the black shadow of her cloak receding and rising with her form, a monolithic executioner looming over the guilty. The quarian's pistol slid free from it's magnetic clasp, firing a round into the turian's stomach.

"One," she counted

The turian screamed, clutching at his abdomen in agonizing pain. Xen's pistol kicked again, firing another round into his body.

"Two."

Another.

"Three."

The turian held his ruined stump of a hand up, surrendering, pleading for her to stop before the pistol fired again.

"Four."

Another.

"Five."

Another.

"Six."

The turian screamed, attempting to claw at the quarian's leg with his remaining taloned hand until another round found a home in his intestines.

"Seven."

Another.

"Eight."

The turian sputtered, choking and coughing as blood welled up in his throat. Xen fired one last round, holstering the pistol as she stared down at his squirming, bloodied form.

"Nine."

Xen turned on her heel, the edge of her cloak brushing along the face of the turian, one last caress before moving on to her next victim. The quarian strode calmly through the halls, hearing the eruption of gunfire from above. The guards had found the others. Xen lingered for a moment before soldiering on. They were on their own now. Xen had a promise to keep. She could almost feel the weight of Kyta leaning against her, the look in her eyes when they shared stories of better times, and dreams of the future. The taste of her lips on her own.

Turning a corner of the hall, Xen suddenly came face-to-face with the skull-painted visage that haunted her nightmares, Kiron's mandibles spread in a cruel smile. Xen halted in her steps, sudden and clear surprise crashing over her hardened nerves like a wave. Hesitation gripped her. His draw was faster, firing a mass-accelerated round past Xen as her pistol hissed it's capacitors in activation. The quarian's mind acted on instinct, falling backwards and feigning death at the turian's hands.

Kiron chuckled, lowering his pistol with a smug smirk and holstering the weapon as he sauntered towards Xen's body. "You... Suit... You've been more trouble than you're worth. 'Course, the Lady has some fetish for you. Personally, I've had better." His voice was cold, mocking.

Xen couldn't see the turian standing over her, but she could feel his nauseating presence clearly around her. Kiron crouched down, bringing his painted face to her visor as his serpentine tongue danced along his knife-like teeth.

"Alas. We'll always have Omega..." The turian cackled, rising from his crouch and laughing hysterically at his own joke. Xen's eyes opened, staring as the turian closed his eyes, wiping a tear from one black eye and sent his mandibles fluttering with his sadistic laughter. "Oh... I gotta remember that one..."

Xen felt white hot rage pour from her chest into the rest of her prone body.

Kiron's eyes opened, mandibles clenching shut as he met Xen's icy gaze. His hand twitched, fear gripping him and freezing his limbs solid beneath her cold eyes. Kiron's grip searched for his pistol, Xen throwing her weight upwards using her powerful legs, landing and balancing on her twin pair of toes before pouncing forward and tackling the turian to the ground. Kiron's pistol slid across the floor, Xen straddling the turian as her cloak engulfed them both like a curtain made from the night sky, leaving the pair in darkness beyond the cerulean corona of her mask.

Xen's talon slowly slid to the turian's throat, bringing her visor far closer than the turian likely felt comfortable with, the shards of ice that made up her eyes boring into the glossy black orbs of Kiron.

"Kiron." Her voice was soft, much like the cloth draped over a prisoner's head before their beheading.

The quarian's visor lit the turian's painted face like a distant sun, casting everything within the cloth-cast abyss in a dim blue glow, the skull face painted over Kiron's sneer standing in stark contrast to the consuming black surrounding them. "Where is Kyta?"

Kiron chuckled, the sick sound sending his mandibles fluttering mockingly as he spoke with a voice dripping with poisonous scorn. "That bitch? Damn near split in half by the time everyone got through with her. She liked it, too. Begged for more."

Xen was silent as her pistol unfolded with a sharp hiss, bringing the barrel to run gently along the angular lines of Kiron's plates. The turian's eyes shifted from the firearm to the silver shards of ice staring at him, one mandible twitching nervously as silence reigned in the darkness. Xen never broke her stare. "If you're going to kill me, then do it. Fucking bitch. C'mon." Kiron's voice was steadily becoming more shaky. Fearful.

Xen slowly laid her body against Kiron's, resting against his armored form and breathing a weary sigh. She could hear his heartbeat racing through the cheap audio enhancers of her helmet. She could feel his chest rising and falling with nervous breaths. It reminded her of Jason. "Do you remember the last time we were together in these halls, Kiron? Do you remember what you did to me?"

Kiron was silent, his entire body stiff and frozen from the ice-cold clarity of Xen's words. Finally remembering how to speak, the turian sputtered a response, the quarian sliding her way back up his body to face him once more. "Yes," he said, his eyes narrowing. It was slowly dawning on him that he was trapped. A sudden move and Xen would have the floor decorated in cranial matter.

Xen brought the edge of the talon to Kiron's face, lightly tracing the point along the angles of his plates. "Do you know why we wear our masks?"

Slowly, almost hesitantly, the turian shakes his head. Xen wasn't surprised by his ignorance.

"We wear them because our faces, our bodies, are one of the only things we own. Even our suits inevitably are passed on to the next generation or recycled to create new ones after we die. To share your face with another is... sacred. It is the ultimate gesture of trust. Of acceptance. And in most cases, love." Xen's voice is mockingly soft, the almost gentle tones taunting him.

The blade dragged slowly around the curved plates surrounding Kiron's eyes, tracing the angles with a gentle caress. "You took that from me." Her voice was suddenly hard.

Xen slid the razor-edge of the blade along his fringe, a hollow scraping sound rasping within the darkness as she moved the talon back and forth.

"You took my face." Xen's gaze was unwavering.

Kiron's breath caught in his throat as the blade left his fringe, tracing lightly over the skull-like pattern painted over his face. "You turians wear your faces. Anyone without a face has no place. Nothing. Worse than nothing. You have that luxury."

Xen pressed the blade inside the small space between the dorsal plate of the turian's face and where his fringe began, the cold silver light of her eyes burning a path through the darkness into his own.

"You, Kiron, are worse than nothing."

Xen twisted the knife, a sharp snap splitting the air as the first plate of his fringe was pried loose. Kiron screamed, a horrid and unreasonably primal sound that tore at his vocal cords in a futile attempt to express the amount of pain he felt at that moment. The turian's taloned hands went wild, clawing for whatever purchase he could find before Xen slid her body forward, positioning her knees over his arms. Xen's talon stabbed between the plates of Kiron's armor with deft movements, slicing at the tendons of his upper arms with surgical precision as she pinned him to the ground beneath her. Sliding the knife deeper between his plates, Xen twisted the blade back and forth, feeling the flesh peeling along with the plate itself slowly coming loose until it fell to the ground with a clatter that was barely audible over Kiron's screaming. Cobalt ran in rivulets from his skull, the flesh gleaming a fresh sheen of blue where the longest plate of his fringe once was, Xen pulling the blade free and slid it beneath the one next to it.

Xen smiled, once again feeling that warm sensation of when she was child, performing unerring surgery on her toys. Her parents would be so proud of her. Such precision. Such grace. She was a true prodigy. Kiron's screams varied in decibel as Xen performed her procedure, from frenzied cries of anguish as her blade sank too deep into the tender flesh beneath the plates to the mewling, simpering cries as she pulled the plates free and tore the small strands of nerve-damaged flesh still attached to them. His blood, on the other hand, was a constant presence. It poured, seeped, drained, spurt, frothed, all staining the black surface of Xen's mockery of a suit and pooling out far beyond the ragged edges of her cloak.

Soon, all that remained of Kiron Merani's face was a scarred and plateless mess of torn flesh and bloody wounds. Xen's free hand grasped at Kiron's face, mewling as his exposed nerves raced with blazing pain at the touch. The quarian nodded with professional satisfaction at her work, pulling her pistol free once more as Xen brought her visor closer to the turian's ruin of a face, hot breath fogging the glass lightly through exposed slits of his nostrils. "Do you remember what else you took from me, Kiron? Do you remember what else you did?"

Xen's pistol dragged along the torn flesh of Kiron's face, blood staining the ceramic as she brought it closer and closer to the turian's gaping maw.

"Do you remember what you made Kyta do?"

Xen forced the pistol into Kiron's mouth, burying it in his bloodied orifice, the cracked ruin of his mandibles scraping along the edges of the barrel.

"Suck."

Kiron whimpered, blinking as blood ran into his eyes. Xen's finger curled closer to the trigger.

"Suck."

The turian let out a muffled cry before nodding, his throat swallowing against the barrel of the weapon. Hesitantly, his thin, serpentine tongue trailed along the weapon, blood and saliva slathering the weapon as Xen pushed the pistol slightly further down into the back of his throat.

"Suck."

Xen pressed the pistol deeper into the turian's throat, Kiron coughing and gagging at the intense violation of his oral orifice. Blood mixed with bile and saliva frothed at the edges of his fanged maw, Xen's voice reaching a fevered pitch as she pressed the weapon harder into his throat.

"Suck!"

Tears finally streamed from Kiron's eyes, sobbing as his tongue thrashed along the barrel of the weapon, coughing and convulsing around the pistol jammed into his throat. Xen's finger grew tight against the trigger, screaming at Kiron within the darkness.

"SUCK!"

Xen screamed as she squeezed the trigger, Kiron's skull exploding in a fountain of cobalt gore, showering over the quarian's body. Small fragments of bone and mangled plate stuck to the curves of Xen's cloth, running with the rivulets of gore along her form. A smoking hole on the stone floor was all that remained of Kiron's skull, blood soaking every square millimeter of Xen's form as she slowly stood on her feet.

Xen's eyes roamed over herself, taking in the murderous acrylics painting her suited body. Shades of crimson melted flawlessly with azure, orange running between them, never mixing or diluting. There was a strange liquid warmth to it that seeped through the tight fabric. It felt... hollow. Empty. Fleeting. It was so unlike the enveloping warmth she felt in Kyta's embrace. She needed to feel it again. Everything was so cold without her. Meaningless.

Kyta.

Xen's cloak billowed past her as she strode through the halls, her blade slashing and tearing at the ragged and stained draperies hiding the debased rooms so many patrons had used to live out their sick fantasies on the innocent. Stains of blood and various other foul fluids decorated the bare concrete apartments, Xen feeling ice course through her veins at every cursed empty room she came to. Kyta was here, somewhere. Xen would die a thousand deaths before leaving without Kyta.

"Daro..."

A faint voice called from the darkness, something breaking in Xen's heart at the meek sound. The quarian turned to the source of the sound, rushing through the halls, her cloak swirling around her lithe form like a pair of great black wings.

"Daro..."

She was closer now. Kyta was closer now, Xen's breath coming in deep inhales at the sound. "Kyta? Where are you?"

Silence descended on the deep halls, Xen crooning her head in a desperate attempt to listen for the soft sound of her lover's pained voice. The voice broke the silence, Xen's eyes snapping towards a ragged cloth-draped door. It was fancier than the drab drapery she had seen before.

"Daro..."

Xen ran in a mad dash towards the open doorway, her bloodied hand gripping at the curtain of cloth before being smashed aside by a wave of biotic power. The quarian fell to the ground, sliding and tumbling as she was tossed aside like a rag-doll by the wave of physics-altering power. Xen turned her visor to meet a heeled boot coming down on her helmeted head, Tidanya grinding the visor into the dirt.

"You have been very, very bad, pet." Her voice had her usual lustful tone, the scent of sex and gasoline mixing in Xen's olfactory sensors.

Xen snarled, her talon slicing through the air and digging into Tidanya's ankle, ripping and tearing through the leathers she wore and pouring streams of violet over her booted heel. The asari brought her foot away from the quarian's visor, delivering a biotically-charged kick to Xen's stomach. The quarian rolled with the crushing blow, sliding to her feet and crouching into a combative stance facing the asari. Tidanya's face was a mangled mess from Kyta's beating, various stitches and gauze patches covering her the deep gashes. One large patch dominated her cheek, fresh violet gore soaking the bandage from where Kyta had torn away the asari's flesh. Tidanya's teeth were cracked and fractured, shards of ivory hidden behind cracked and split blackened lips.

"You have killed my patrons. You have killed my employees. You have set loose my property. You... You are truly something special." Tidanya's last sentence is spoken with a tone of awe and wonder.

Xen brought her knife forward in a flourish, the curved, serrated blade gleaming wickedly in the crimson light. She didn't care for the asari's insane ramblings. "Where is Kyta? What did you do to her?"

A smug smirk crossed Tidanya's features, gesturing towards the open doorway behind her. "Your bitch is just beyond, pet. She marred my beauty. So... I marred hers. But don't be upset. I made sure her enjoyed every second of it."

Xen's eyes moved from the asari to the open doorway, a rich laugh laced with sweet poison spilling past Tidanya's lips. "Go on. Run to her rescue, little pet. Take a single step and I can create a singularity inside of your body until nothing is left of you but a malformed ball of organs."

Xen's grip on her talon tightened, the quarian's tactically trained mind racing with hundreds of possible methods to leave the asari choking to death on her own fluids.

"What do you want?" Xen was stalling for time.

Tidanya's tongue slid past her painted lips, blood leaking from the fresh cuts and slices inside her mouth caused by her fractured teeth.

"What's mine. Do you know why I spared you the chains, pet?"

Xen didn't respond, eyes darting along the halls as the asari whore made her dramatic monologue, searching for a way to end this stalemate. Still, she found her mind returning to Kyta and the others she had found. Xen had always acted up, and yet, despite that, she had never suffered much punishment, certainly not to the degree of her fleet sisters.

"I wanted this. All of it. You have such... fire in you. You are perfect, my pet. So beautiful..." Tidanya was ranting. It drove Xen crazy.

Xen's cold gaze snapped back to the asari, razor-sharp shards of ice cut from glaciers boring into Tidanya's languid and mocking gaze. Something in Xen's gut went cold. "You don't get to call me that, whore. Speak again and I will feed you your tongue."

Tidanya's hand came forward, Xen carried from her feet and slammed against the stone walls with a simple gesture from the asari. The quarian lifted her body from the floor using her arms only to be pulled from the ground and smashed against the ceiling, Xen keeping a tight grip on her talon as Tidanya dropped her back onto the floor of the hall.

"Such a tongue on you, pet."

The asari's hands danced through the air, dragging Xen along the stone harshly before smashing her against the walls over and over again, one sweeping movement of her arm sending her colliding with the opposite wall and falling flat on her back. Tidanya laughed as she pulled Xen to her feet, the quarian hovering above the ground in a nimbus of biotic witch light as her limbs were spread open, the asari pulling and wrenching at her arms and legs from their sockets like a doll.

"Yes... Scream, pet. I want your bitch to hear you scream." Tidanya's voice was ecstatic, drunk with power and lust, made even more gravel-like by her broken teeth and swollen lip.

Xen clenched her teeth as her limbs twisted at unnatural angles, snarls of rage slipping past her lips. The pain was nothing. Kyta had endured worse. Xen had no right to cry, no right to hurt. Tidanya's hands dropped, Xen falling unceremoniously to the floor as the hollow sound of the asari's heeled boots clicked closer to the quarian. Tidanya's voice was ragged, panting with clear arousal in her tone. "You won't scream... I like that. So strong… That's okay, pet. Your bitch will do all the screaming tonight. I promise you that."

Xen's eyes blurred as pain raced through her body, the battery she had endured under Tidanya's biotics disorienting the quarian. Harsh crimson bulbs glared down at her as Tidanya stood triumphantly over Xen, azure hands running along her leather-clad form, her navy tongue lashing against her own lips with depraved hunger. "I think you'll be the one making her scream, pet. I want to see you punish your misbehaving bitch. Oh... What a sight that will make... Unless you want me to punish her instead..."

Xen's eyes locked behind the asari, smiling beneath her visor at the red lights illuminating the deep halls. The quarian's pistol slid free, aimed for the light just beyond Tidanya's head. The weapon kicked in Xen's hands, flaring off of Tidanya's barrier as darkness falls over the pair.

"You won't get to see me do anything to Kyta," came the chilling response in the fresh darkness.

Xen's feet swung forward in a powerful kick, breaking Tidanya's stance and sending her tumbling to the ground. The visual enhancement of her visor allowed Xen to watch in the darkness as Tidanya clawed to her feet, snarling in wide-eyed rage. The quarian melted into the shadows, her pistol aimed for the remaining crimson bulbs lining the hall.

"You won't get to see anything ever again." Xen's voice is frigid.

Shots rang out, impenetrable darkness consuming the hall as the quarian holstered her pistol. Tidanya howled in vengeful fury, panting and screeching as the azure light of her biotics thrash forward with mindless force at her clawing arms. Xen's hand gripped at her talon, sliding silently in the shadows around the asari as she whispered to her in a cold venomous tone. "You think yourself mighty, 'Lady' Tidanya..."

The asari turned to the source of Xen's voice, the quarian moving like liquid around her biotic blast, the only sign of the quarian's presence a flutter of her ragged cloak and a split second gaze into her glacial eyes.

"You think this empire of filth you have built around yourself makes you powerful..."

Tidanya screamed in blind rage, eyes burning white with biotic fury, hands dancing with storms of lightning that sparked in an unstable wave of energy.

"Yet here you are, cowering in the dark from a Flotilla rat with a knife..."

The asari growled, her breasts heaving with deep breaths that sent her heart racing, eyes of white fire searching the darkness for her hunter. "Where are you?"

Xen slithered to Tidanya's side, the asari oblivious to the ragged cloth of her cloak already enveloping her. The quarian's blade idly caressed the skin of the back of Tidanya's neck. The asari turned too late, Xen pinning Tidanya to the ground as her blade sought the base of her skull. Tidanya screamed, Xen digging the point of her blade into the base of her skull and twisting at the soft flesh ripping and tearing open beneath her. Roaring, a nimbus of biotic light danced around the pair, Xen feeling the pressure changing in the air as she sliced deeper and deeper until she felt her blade scrape against something hard and metallic.

Xen felt a cruel smile cross her lips as her blade severed countless exposed nerves, ripping into the small biotic amp and the network of wires surgically attached to her nervous system. For a brief moment, Tidanya's screams ceased, her eyes rolling to the back of her head and threatening to go into shock from the pain. Feeling the blood running around her head and down her face, Tidanya's struggling renewed. Sobbing, the asari kicked and screamed, jostling Xen's knife free from it's surgical work much to the quarian's displeasure.

Xen's hand gripped at the asari's tendrils, bringing the curved blade along the stretched azure skin and running the serrated edge along the soft, alien flesh in saw-like motions. Tidanya's voice cracked, her vocal cords splitting as she screamed loud enough to send screeching feedback into Xen's helmet. The quarian never ceased her movements, feeling millimeter after millimeter of the asari's tendrils slipping from her scalp and gathering in Xen's hands, a bloodied pound of gore tearing from the asari in a fountain of violet.

Xen lifted her violet-soaked hand to her visor, examining the wet, malformed tendrils of the asari curiously. Asari were a bizarre species, their biology seemingly designed for the sole purpose of attracting the sexual attention of every species in the galaxy. It was no wonder a creature like Tidanya had spawned from such alien filth. The quarian's hand stretched forward, dropping the handful of bloodied flesh with a wet plop in front of Tidanya's tear-filled and anguished gaze. The asari screamed, her ravaged vocal cords forcing a hollow croaking screech from her throat as Xen's blade dug into her spine once more.

Xen's free hand wiped away the troublesome layer of coagulating blood obscuring her procedure, two fingers spreading open the wound to inspect the small metallic implant of Tidanya's amp. It was an expensive a delicate device, likely the work of asari artisans. Would that the Flotilla had access to such materials. The power-hungry asari kept such technology well-protected. The greed of the alien was unparalleled. Xen slid the blade to the side of the implant, twisting the edge until it was firmly lodged between the bone and metal. Slowly, Xen pried at the implant in an attempt to free it from it's placement on her spinal column, the blade scraping and cleaving into the bone as the amp came loose.

Pulling the talon free from the deep, bleeding gash of the asari's neck, Xen crooned her head to examine her work. The amp was free of it's affixed position at the base of her skull, only a handful of surgically-fused wires and nerves anchoring the amp to the asari's nervous system remaining. Xen's free hand came forward, gripping the small implant between the tight folds of torn flesh and tearing it free with a deafening scream from Tidanya. A nimbus of biotic witch light playfully danced around the pair as the asari's screams lessened, her face falling forward into the congealing pool of her own blood. The quarian held the amp in her three-fingered hand, blood making the small implant excessively difficult to grasp. "Your kind do not know strength," she whispered evenly.

Xen's hand flexed, crushing the amp in her palm with a spark of light. The quarian watched as the small shards of metal crumbled from her grasp, falling to the stone floor silently.

Xen continued, "We quarians pit ourselves against the galaxy every single day. Every organism that populates every world wants nothing more than to infect and destroy us. Our own homes threaten to burst open at any moment, ripping everything we have ever loved from our arms and casting it to the void. Our suits glorified cages that imprison us from ever feeling the warmth of the sun or the spray of the sea."

Xen gripped Tidanya by the back of her bare scalp, the wet surface slipping from her grasp before pulling the asari up to face the wall before her, the quarian whispering through her voice modulator into her ear. "And every year, more of us are sent to bring mighty gifts back to our homes, given all the tools and skills we would need to come home safely. But you, and creatures like you, would prey on us, seeking to exploit and violate us for your own profit. Because it is our 'place' to serve you and your foul ilk. Because it is your 'place' to rule over us as our self-mandated masters. You think you know your place in the galaxy, Tidanya..."

Xen slowly slid the razor-sharp edge of her talon along the soft skin of the asari's throat, gleaming wet with violet blood as she begged wordlessly for mercy from the quarian.

"...But you don't know anything."

The talon tore open Tidanya's throat, blood pouring from the ever-widening gash that severed vein after artery, the asari choking on the stream of violet as Xen spoke.

"You're insane."

Xen's grip on the asari's tendril-less scalp tightened, snarling as she smashed Tidanya's battered and bruised face into the stone, wet splashes of blood splattering over the halls. The quarian screamed, bringing her talon upwards and stabbing the blade into the asari's back. Xen's blade ripped into Tidanya's body, carving deep gashes into her azure flesh. It wasn't enough. Tears stung the quarian's eyes, running in warm streams she couldn't wipe away. She could still see it. Xen's blade tore across the asari's back, the serrated edge scraping along the bone of her spine. Tidanya's visions burned in her mind, searing itself into her memory forever. Xen watched, screaming and crying as the blood poured from the asari's wounds, wishing more than anything that she could bleed those visions from her skull.

Xen remembered every second of that horrific scene with crystalline clarity, the sight of Kyta's crying eyes meeting hers as she proclaimed her love, torn from Xen's arms and taken so far away from her. The quarian's hands gripped at Tidanya's wrists, remembering all the horrible things the asari had done to Kyta. Xen's foot came forward, pressing down against Tidanya's back as she pulled with every straining fiber of her muscles. The cartilage of the asari's bones snapped, Tidanya's arms torn from their sockets and hanging limp and useless in Xen's hands. The quarian sucked in sharp hyperventilating breaths, dropping the broken ruin of Tidanya's arms into the congealing pool of blood with a wet splash. Xen felt warm tears run down the smooth flesh of her cheeks, eyes roaming over the exposed and ravaged pale skin of Tidanya's back, the limp and broken arms, the bald, bleeding surface of her scalp, the brutal slice of flesh missing from the back of her neck where her amp once was.

It wasn't enough.

Xen's fingers tightened their grip on her talon. The asari was already dead, but it didn't matter. She needed to suffer. She needed to feel every single blazing nerve igniting with agonizing signals of pain coursing through her body just as Xen did. The quarian raised her blade, the wicked edge gleaming with the fresh dripping coat of violet over it. She needed to hurt.

"Daro... Please..."

The blade dropped from Daro's hand, clattering to the floor as the quarian's blood-soaked cloak billowed behind her, rushing to tear down the cloth over the empty doorway. Daro's eyes wept as she stared, frozen in shock at Kyta's unsuited form hanging by her wrists from the ceiling, crude leather straps binding her hands and hanging her from what appeared to be a meat hook. Red lines decorated her svelte form, thin trails of blood leaking where their claws and talons had bit into her flesh. A network of bloody gashes scarred her back, the wounds of what looked like whip marks flaying strips of flesh from her body. Something grey grew over the wounds, oozing a pus-like substance from the spreading infection. Her atrophied arms were broken in several places, malformed as her body weight was anchored against them. Translucent streams of tears ran from her silver eyes, looking back at Daro as her cracked and split lips smiled faintly.

"D-Daro...? Is that you...? A-are you real…?"

Kyta's soft voice broke Daro's prison of ice, feeling her limbs moving again as she approached Kyta, the cloaked quarian's hands shaking as her tears flowed freely. "I'm here, Kyta. I'm here. We're going home... Just like I promised."

Kyta smiled weakly as Daro wrapped her arms around her, lifting the unsuited quarian free from the hook anchored into the ceiling. Kyta's legs buckled under her as soon as they touched the stone floor, the quarian falling into Daro's arms with a pained moan. "It hurts, Daro..."

Daro brought one bloodied finger to Kyta's swollen lips, tracing along the cracked flesh as she pulled the torn cloth from the doorway and wrapped it around Kyta's frail form. It was no use putting Kyta's suit back on. It was left in tatters that had been strewn across the floor. Still, she would at least give Kyta some modesty. No one else was looking on her again. Nobody but her. "Shh... It's okay, Kyta. They can't hurt you anymore. I'm here..."

Daro tugged at the cloth, trying to cover Kyta's body as best she could. She could feel every sore and blister, hear every pained moan from her brushing against an unseen bruise or scar, bitter self loathing welling up in her eyes. This was her fault. Everything Kyta had suffered, it was all because of her. Daro choked on her words as she spoke, pulling and wrapping the cloth gingerly around Kyta's bruised chest and scarred back. "I'm sorry, Kyta... I... I-I'm s-so s-sorry..."

Kyta wordlessly nuzzled closer into Daro's embrace, lifting her broken and atrophied arms with what little strength she had left in an attempt to embrace her. Blood rubbed off onto Kyta as her arms fell limp, the cloaked quarian carrying Kyta from the cell as she tore more and more ragged lengths of cloth from the doorways they passed. Daro stopped as Kyta's heavy-lidded eyes came to settle on Tidanya's corpse.

"You... You killed her...?" Kyta's voice was broken, exhausted.

Daro's voice grew hard, holding Kyta tightly to her chest as she pulled more cloth over the quarian's body, biting down on her lip as her hands passed over every pox-like sore and oozing infected wound.

"Yes, Kyta. All of them. Like animals."

Kyta looks back up at Daro, smiling wordlessly as she nuzzles into the cloaked quarian's chest. Daro pulls one last scrap of cloth over Kyta's face, leaving her body covered head to toe in ragged and mismatched cloth. It wouldn't hold, but it might be enough to get her to a ship with a proper med bay and then home.

Home.

Daro walked through the lower halls of the brothel, her cloak billowing past her in a parade of darkness obscuring the world around her, leaving nothing but the girl curled in her arms in her mind. This wasn't how it was supposed to happen. Kyta was supposed to go home safe, unharmed, free. Not mangled and violated. Not like this. Daro slid up the stairs, a liquid shadow draped over Kyta as she moved, her feet pattering in the puddles of gore left behind in the firefight with the guards.

Kyta slept in her arms, a soft wheezing sound accompanying the rise and fall of her chest. Daro held the shrouded quarian tight to her, cold eyes examining the carnage left behind from the others' escape. Ascending stairwell after stairwell, Daro could hear the distant sounds of speech, the low rumble of tightly-packed life permeating the space station below that. Kyta curled in Daro's tight embrace, the final doorway separating them from freedom opening with a sharp hiss out into the grime-encrusted lights of Omega.

The freed slaves gathered at the entrance immediately turned their heads to meet Daro, more than one firearm coming to bear on the entrance to the brothel. Vin, Rella, and Hae immediately shouldered their way through the crowd, Vin's milky-white eyes widening at the shrouded figure held in Daro's arms. "Oh no... Kyta...?"

Rella's hands grasped either side of her visor, grief clear in her tone. "Oh, Keelah... Is she...?"

Kyta seemed to recoil from the light, curling her legs tightly together as she buried her shrouded face in Daro's chest. The cloaked quarian's eyes stabbed into the others, turning Kyta away from the onlookers as she spoke. "She's hurt. We're bringing her home. Until then, we'll need a ship with a decent med bay."

Gevilla strode out from the throng, a set of scarred and oversized plates of armor strapped to her body, concealing her scars. "Not to break up the family reunion, boss, but your home isn't everyone else's."

Shakki stepped forward, a ragged jacket draped over her barely-concealed form. "And how will we even get our hands on a ship?"

Daro looked down at the shrouded girl curled into a ball in her arms. Anything for her. "We steal one. Make our way to the spaceport. Fight our way if we have to."

Daro's gaze shifted to Gevilla, the batarian still hefting her shotgun. "Once we reach the Flotilla, the Admiralty we ensure that you are all ferried to your home planets safely."

A wave of murmuring washed over the assembled women, Varnal and Rixi stepping forward from the crowd. Rixi stood apart from her sibling, a slight stutter breaking her words. "T-T-Tidanya has a p-private hangar nearb-by. N-No need to r-risk stealing a ship at the spacep-port."

Hekat growled, a battered and scorched breastplate of armor hanging over her shoulders and a medi-gel patch held over the wound in her shoulder."And why do we need you, suit? Don't get me wrong, you've got a quad for springing everyone loose and I'd bet my hump that's Tidanya's blood on you, but why should we come with you?"

Daro's glacial gaze stared at the ebon krogan, feeling Kyta shaking from the fever already creeping through her system. "You can come with me or you can try your chances here. On Omega. Alone."

Gevilla chuckled, her needle-like teeth grinning at the krogan, Hekat conceding to the quarian's point. Daro turned to Rixi, the other quarian's moving seemingly by instinct and forming a guard around Daro and Kyta. "You know how to reach this hangar, Rixi?"

The turian nodded, gesturing towards a stairwell descending deeper into the bowels of the massive space station with a flutter of her mandibles. Before leaving, Hekat made a point of taking a stolen lighter, tossing cloths and drapes around the floor, then setting flame to them. As the group left, the brothel and the corpses inside slowly began to burn.

Daro nodded at the cleansing flame, marching forward with Vin, Rella and Hae standing with their weapons ready. Omega was far from a safe place, even for an armed group as sizeable as their own. A pack of vorcha scattered as the throng of women passed, their red eyes and snapping jaws salivating in the darkness. Shakki calmly approached Daro, keeping a respectful distance from the armed quarians as she tugged the jacket tighter around her body. "Tidanya... You... You killed her... Right...?"

Daro's gaze turned to the drell, feeling Kyta's skin flush beneath the ragged cloth she wore and holding the quarian tighter against her. "Yes."

Shakki's orange-rimed irises disappeared beneath the orange scales of her eyelids, her closed gaze shifting downwards. "Are you sure?"

The drell needed comfort. However long of a time spent beneath Tidanya's heel had bred great fear in Shakki of the asari. Daro knew Tidanya was dead. Nothing could have survived what she had done to her. "What did she do to you?"

Shakki seemed to shudder beneath the ragged, oversized jacket she wore, her bare feet pattering the concrete as she walked. "Drell... Our skin produces this enzyme... Ingestion causes hallucinations... It's a high..."

The drell pulled the jacket tighter around her body, biting her lower lip as her words choked out. Her eyes moved independently of each other. "She... She would bring me with her to her parties... She would just... just... hand me to them... Pass me around... I..."

Daro's voice was as cold as the heart of a polar glacier. "I killed her, Shakki. I scalped off her tendrils, tore out her amp, broke her arms, flayed her back, and slit her throat. Tidanya is dead."

Daro's heartless account of her vengeance drew more than one disturbed glance from the women assembled, Gevilla smirking as she closed her four obsidian eyes, sighing contently at the image. Shakki opened her mouth as though to speak before breaking off from Daro and her guard and hiding within the throng of freed slaves. Rixi lead the crowd deep and deeper into the bowels of Omega, earning confused and bewildered looks from the few inhabitants they came across. All the while, Kyta stirred in Daro's arms, feverish sweat soaking the ragged cloth she wore wrapped around her battered form. Daro held Kyta tightly in her embrace, praying to all her ancestors to grant their mercy and to lend Kyta their strength. She couldn't lose her.

Rixi stopped, coming to a rusted and massive blast door sealed shut. The turian turned to Daro, gesturing towards Varnal. "They b-brought us in through h-here. There sh-should b-be a decont-tamination chamber just past-t. And then on to the h-hangar."

Shakki's voice was whispered as Rella brought her omni-tool to bear. "What would a hangar be doing all the way down here?"

Gevilla's voice picked up from the rear, shouldering her way through the group. "Omega's a big place."

A soft chime sounded from the blast door's access panel, Rella's omni-tool vanishing as the group of several dozen packed into the decontamination chamber beyond. Kyta stirred in Daro's arms, a soft groan sounded from her throat that broke Daro's heart to hear. The cloaked quarian whispered as the decontamination cycle ran, the sterilizing fog settling over the group before the chamber opened up into the hangar. "Shh... We're almost there, Kyta. Just stay with me. I'm right here."

Daro strode out into the hangar, laying her eyes on the ship luckily still docked. A large, luxurious private yacht, likely belonging to one of Tidanya's patrons. The ship was of asari manufacture, all sleek lines and curved surfaces, likely filled to the brim with opulence beyond Daro. Aliens. Every square inch of a ship on the Flotilla was used to it's utmost efficiency. Without doubt, the luxurious open spaces within could house dozens, even hundreds of families.

Daro approached the airlock, celebratory cheers heralding her arrival as the doorway hissed open, running through yet another decontamination cycle before she entered the bowels of the yacht. Everything was stark and sterile white, painted in a pearlescent gloss with not a single sign of life aboard. Vin and Rella moved at Daro's flanks, shotguns at the ready and quickly followed by Gevilla and Hekat. The krogan rumbled as she moved towards the flight deck, shouting back down the hall. "Nothing. Crew's on leave?"

Daro's gaze traveled further down the access hall of the cruiser, holding Kyta in her arms as she strode through the hall. "Let's extend it. Everyone get ready for launch. Those of you with piloting experience, report to the flight deck."

Vin, Rella and Hae kept pace with Daro, following the cloaked quarian as she searched for the ship's med bay. Crimson lines ran along the white walls of the yacht, leading a clear path towards the med bay, the doors sliding open with a quiet hiss. The three quarians kept a respectful distance from Daro and Kyta, the cloaked quarian laying her shrouded form on the immaculate surface of the cot. Daro's hand gently traced over the small outline of Kyta's lips still distinguishable beneath the cloth, turning to regard the other quarians. "I'm leaving Kyta in your care. Nobody comes into the med bay without my expressed consent. Understood?"

Vin nodded, Rella hesitantly following afterwards along with Hae. Daro swiftly made her way from the med bay, stealing one last longing glance towards the shrouded form of Kyta laying on her cot before storming towards the flight deck. Judging by the riotous noise surging from deeper into the ship, it seemed the others had found the mess hall, Daro smiling as she took her first commanding steps onto the flight deck.

Shakki stood by one of the pilot's chairs, her hands moving along the haptic interface with practiced movements. The tension she had carried in her body was absent, seemingly within her own element inside the flight deck. An asari stood nearby, immediately turning to regard Daro's presence, her scarred and burned face recognizable from the cells Daro had opened during their escape. Shakki turned as Daro made her way towards the navigator's station, her hands quickly charting a vector for the Migrant Fleet. The drell cleared her throat as Daro keyed in the ship's route through the Sahrabarik relay. "The ship has sufficient fuel to get us as far as the Migrant Fleet, the pilot's console is synched with the hangar door controls, and the core is stable. Everything is ready for departure."

Daro stood at the helm of the cruiser, staring past the observation port towards the sealed hangar bay doors and to the stars beyond. Daro flung her cloak over the high back of the pilot's chair as she took her seat, Shakki and the unnamed asari sliding into the co-pilot seats on either side of the quarian.

It was time to go home.