Standard Disclaimers: I don't own Bioware or Mass Effect!
Tesana ran through the ward, dodging first this way and then that, clearing potted plant stands and bright displays alike without pause. None of the people walking or shopping paid her much attention except to give her those annoyed looks kids like her always got.
Hooligan! Rat!
Her shoes flapped, the sound of the peeling leather hitting the deck plates a steady beat of accompaniment. She should have minded since it kept her from being quiet but the fact was that Tesana had never had brand new shoes, much less any that really stayed in one piece for too long anyway. So, for most of her life her shoes had flapped and she'd gotten rather fond of it. The sound was like almost like clapping. Her very own cheering section.
Watch the amazing Tesana clear that bench with a vault! Yay she did it!
Oh, look out for that Salarian! Can she round him in time? Another wonderful juke for Tesana!
Clap. Clap. Clap.
She giggled. No one was faster than she was! Not in the whole ward. Not in the whole Citadel.
Which was a good thing because the men chasing her looked /really/ mad!
She snuck a peek over her shoulder, slowing a little. There were three of them. A man whose arms looked as big around as she was, a somewhat plainer looking man with a shaved head, and a Krogan. That last scared her a little. She'd heard that Krogans didn't have children. Sometimes, just sometimes, grown-ups didn't hurt her as much as they could because she was still little. If Krogans didn't have children, though, that probably meant that they were meaner than most.
She'd best not get caught then!
The large man spotted her and she stuck her tongue at him before racing forward. Down another flight of stairs. Run Run. The pilfered data pad with its "skeematicks" thumped in the bag on her waist. Just a little further and she would make it to the bar. She didn't have a watch but she was very good at counting in her head so she knew she should be right on time if nothing bad happened.
The alley-way, narrow and dimly lit, was right ahead. She turned into it, skidding for a couple feet. There she crouched; looking once more to her would be attackers. They didn't see her yet, didn't know where she went. Tesana stood up and leaned out, taking the opportunity to drop the data pad behind a crate. Clank. She waited.
Not yet. Not yet.
Yep! There! The Krogan saw her, chuffing and pointing now. She jerked as if in surprise as her dark eyes met those reptilian ones. She yelped and then turned on her heel, running once more. Heavy footsteps were soon audible behind her. The alley-way opened up right into the common area in front of the bar and Tesana barreled out like a shot, veering to the left.
Right into the dark-haired man she'd spotted.
She cried out as she fell back, her momentum throwing him off balance only a little but causing her to end up on her rump as a result of the impact.
"Hey," the man protested sharply but didn't yell. "Watch out." Though he wasn't carrying a gun, his hand had dropped to his hip automatically, as if used to finding one there. That plus his short hair and the shininess of his shoes made it pretty certain that he was military. And if he was military and he was human, that added up to him being Alliance. Which was exactly as it should be. Good!
She stared up at him in silence, soulful eyes wide as she panted in fear. His expression immediately shifted, gentling as he started to crouch down, "Look, its okay. I'm not going to hurt you. You're alright, aren't you?"
It seemed like they were right, that he was a nice adult. Not that it mattered or that she'd been afraid, really, but sometimes people were wrong when they told you who was going to be nice and who wasn't. You didn't get very far just taking other folks words on things like that.
She scrambled back as he got closer and looked over her shoulder at the alley-way. Naturally, the Alliance man followed her gaze, just in time to see the men following her, red-faced and furious.
Tesana whimpered and bolted to her feet, darting to take shelter behind the dark-haired Alliance man. "Please? Mister? Don't let them hurt me?"
"No one is going to hurt you," the man said, voice soothing but hard eyes fixed on the three. "Don't worry." He raised his voice to carry, "Can I help you gentlemen?"
"Yeah. That little bitch stole something from us. We want it back," that was the Large man, not even trying to hide his hostility. The Krogan was moving to the left and the other human to the right. Tesana shrunk against her protector. She knew what they were doing. They were blocking escapes.
The Alliance man knew it too. He backed up a step, hand reaching out to her shoulder to keep her behind him. Like she was crazy enough to go anywhere! "Kid, did you take something from them?"
"No," she lied promptly, voice shaking.
"Bullshit!" the Krogan accused. "Turn her over! We'll shake her upside down and make her cough it up!"
"Come here, you thieving…" the shaved man made the mistake of stepping forward. Too close. Too fast. The Alliance-man's hand flared blue there was a ripple, or the impression of it. Shaved-head shouted as he was thrown against the far wall with a thump only to fall, crumpled and dazed. A fierce roar marked the Krogan before he charged and the Large-man jumped in to make a reach for Tesana.
The little girl shrieked but didn't react quickly enough to escape the hand that still grasped her shoulder. That ended up being a good thing since the Alliance-man used it to pick her up off her feet and half-shove half-toss her forcefully to the side, out of the way of the Krogan and out of the Large-man's reach. Tesana didn't waste the opportunity; she scrambled to get behind one of the retaining walls nearby.
When things start to happen, get to cover. It's best to be safe.
Smack. Thump. Grunt. Son-of-a-bitch-going-to-make-you-pay. The sounds of the fight were clear and Tesana heard them all as she scanned the bulkhead walls near the floor. First things first. There. If worst came to worst there was a vent there she could squirm through to get away. An escape confirmed, she twisted and snuck back to the edge of her hiding spot. She gingerly poked her head around the metal to look.
Shaved-head had gotten to his feet and was rather unsteadily moving to help. Not good. Not when the Krogan had the Alliance-man by the arm and the Large-man was making use of those big muscles to punch. Alliance-man doubled over, and then hauled back against the krogan, using the bracing provided to bring that shiny shoe of his up into Large-man's face.
Splat went Large-man's nose.
Growl went the Krogan.
Thwunk went Shaved-head's fist into the Alliance-man's face, even as the Krogan was suddenly floating in the air. Tesana's eyes widened.
She hadn't known that Krogan could do that!
Apparently the Krogan hadn't known it either, because he was howling.
Dodge, duck, hit, jab. The Alliance-man's lip was bleeding now, though he'd bought himself some room in that Shaved-head was once more dazed and had fallen back a couple paces. He was visibly steeling himself to wade back in again, though, slipping on a pair of brass knuckles in preparation, when all of a sudden someone else was there!
Woosh, smack, thwack, and Shaved-head was out cold on the ground, a man in a long jacket standing over him and moving to close in on the battle.
Ohh! Tesana perked up. She knew who that was! The lizard man, Kolyat!
No, wait. Kolyat had color that went down his cheeks and did these C patterns on his forehead. C like C-Sec.
This lizard man didn't.
The Alliance-man knocked the Large-muscle-bound-mean man to the ground, finally. A right-cross to the face and another blue push that sent him back against a wall. For a moment, it looked like the Alliance-man might not realize that the newcomer had been helping him out. The look he gave to the silent lizard was wary and his hands flared blue threateningly. Then the Krogan fell from the floating and both human and drell turned to face him.
It didn't take long for the Krogan to be snoozing on the ground, just like the others.
The Alliance-man stepped back and wiped the blood at his lower lip, watching the drell. "Thanks," he said roughly.
"You are welcome," the drell wasn't looking at him though but instead was focusing on the retaining wall. "Tesana?"
He knew her name but he had to be guessing about where she was hiding. She knew he couldn't see her! Still, knowing her name meant that he was probably safe, especially since he looked like Kolyat. Tesana crept out from behind her hiding place.
"It's alright," the Alliance-man assured her, "They aren't getting up any time soon."
Tesana smiled and nodded tremulously. Then, with no warning, she ran to the man and flung her arms around his legs, hugging tight, "Thank you."
He hesitated before he patted her back but when he finally did so the gesture was affectionate, reassuring. "You're welcome kid. I'm just glad you didn't get hurt." He looked over to the drell, head cocked to the side.
"I'm glad to see you are safe as well. Mouse was worried," the drell told Tesana, then added. "He said he had something for you?"
Tesana straightened up immediately. That beaming smile of hers was now given to the drell as she nodded once more. "Okay!" She disengaged from the Alliance man swiftly, too smoothly to get grabbed, and ran for the now clear alley-way. He called after her but she ignored him. He wouldn't chase and if he did she could outrun him.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Yay for Tesana, the best runner in the whole Citadel who was going to get all the ice cream she wanted and twenty credits of her very own!
Mouse always paid her with the best things when she did a good job.
"She'll be fine," the drell reassured confidently if not quietly as he watched Kaidan visibly worry about the girl.
"She almost wasn't a few minutes ago," Kaidan countered but made no attempt to follow the child. He instead looked back at the man who'd jumped into the fight. He wanted some answers. "You know her, then?"
"Yes," the drell crouched by the larger human, briefly checking for a pulse. Kaidan watched, eyes narrowing. It had been a small fight all considered. No one had pulled a weapon and he didn't murder people as a part of his off-duty activities unless he absolutely had to. The drell didn't know that, though and Kaidan couldn't blame him for checking. As long as he didn't start picking the man's pockets, Kaidan approved.
"Does she have somewhere to go?" he pressed. Not that he had many options to help but he didn't like the idea of a girl that young being on her own. It had only been chance that he'd been there and she might not be that lucky again.
The drell nodded and then stood. "You were headed into the bar?"
"Yes," Kaidan jerked his head to the doorway, "It was sheer coincidence that I was here to help."
The drell considered for a moment. "Then I'll buy you a drink and tell you what I know of Tesana. Agreed?"
It should have been easy to say yes but Kaidan hesitated. Talking to people took more effort lately than it used to be, especially when those people were non-Alliance strangers. So much effort that, most days, he just didn't bother to try. The drell was waiting quietly though and Kaidan had to admit he was somewhat curious. "Sure."
Thane turned and without another word walked into the small bar where Kaidan quite predictably spent a moderate amount of time during his off-hours.
The men on the ground were left where they lay.
In thirty-four years of life, Staff Commander Kaidan Alenko had only gotten drunk three times.
The first was before he'd known any better. He had been a raw recruit, just graduated and shipping out on his first real rotation. He and several other graduates were out celebrating, ready to raise hell and take names as they protected the universe. A pretty ensign named Gemma called him a "sour puss" for not doing shots with her. Kaidan wasn't a man easily moved by peer pressure, even peer pressure with the most gorgeous face in the class. However, while he wasn't moveable, he could certainly be flexible. He decided he'd drink with her until he felt himself getting inebriated. Of course with that quality of alcohol, waiting that long meant waiting until far too late.
The headache alone, torturously incapacitating even by his own rather jaded standards, would have been enough to make him swear off drinking more than a couple beers at a sitting ever again. The stories that his buddies told him about how he'd started making things float and broke a window, coupled with the bruise on his roommate's face, only sealed his resolve.
Until Shepard died. Or, more exactly, until about seven months after she'd died. That was the second time. His Commanding Officer had been trying to find a politic way to tell him that, while he had been promoted, he would not be assigned as XO or Captain to any ship. Ambassador Udina had interrupted, suggesting that, should Kaidan finally give up that fantasy about Reapers and stop fighting a dead woman's battles for her, perhaps the future might hold more prestigious opportunities for him. Until then, he'd serve where he was told or get out.
Kaidan had saluted, walked out, and quickly found a dive that he didn't give a damn about wrecking. He woke up in the brig, and was transferred immediately to medical once being conscious enough to scream came into play.
This time the agony from the L2 implant misfiring did have its upside. All his reasons to be strong, to soldier through, to fight the despair and loss had evaporated. No crew, no grieving friends, no duty to focus on. No comfort that at least it had all been worth something. With nothing left but loss he just let go and let the umbrella of physical suffering cover it all.
By the time Councilor Anderson arrived, Kaidan had been staring at a blank data pad screen, trying to get up the motivation to resign his commission, for the better part of an hour. Luckily, Anderson offered him another solution in taking more non-conventional roles, specifically for the Councilor. Kaidan would go where ever Anderson needed him and do what needed to be done.
It wasn't coddling either. There was nothing soft about the assignments he got and Kaidan threw himself into them all with single-minded ferocity. There were a hundred things he couldn't change, couldn't do. These things, though, these were things he could change.
These were things he would do.
Until Horizon.
Six days after the colony was attacked, once all the initial reports had been filed and he'd spoken to Anderson about Shepard's return, marked the third time he got drunk.
This time he locked himself in his quarters and kept to drinks he knew. He stopped himself at a specific point, marking the decline in his motor-skills by flipping coin and catching it. Once he missed, he went to bed. The morning brought pain but compared to the previous times it was mild enough.
He didn't know what he had been trying to prove. Perhaps, in some petty way, simply that his judgment was still sound. He was still seeing clearly. He still had perspective. Even if just over something like this and even if only to himself.
Despite that proof and success, though, there was no way Kaidan was drinking more than one beer in a public bar. It just wasn't him. Especially not with a stranger whose ability to fight and knowledge of the darker side of the citadel meant that he was more than he seemed.
This meant that Kaidan ended up nursing his beer for a while, since the conversation, once started, took on a life of its own. Sere Krios was how the drell had introduced himself.
Tesana's story, as Krios told it, wasn't an unfamiliar one. A duct-rat who made her living doing small jobs for those stronger and higher on the food chain than she was. Krios wasn't a part of that, he claimed, but he made no attempts to hide that he knew about it and the people involved.
That, plus the fact that he was letting Kaidan pretty much steer the entire conversation, made it a decent bet that he wasn't a reporter trying to get a new angle on an old story. That went a long way to allaying some of Kaidan's suspicions. As the two talked, Kaidan found out that the drell had spent a lot of years on the Citadel in the past but now worked on a ship for a woman he'd fallen for. It had taken a little more prying, but eventually the drell confessed that yes, ship work was new for him. In the past he'd done things that he wished now to "make amends for" in the time he had left.
Kaidan didn't ask for details. He didn't need them to understand trying to fix mistakes of the past and the rest was none of his business.
Instead, he raised his beer and nodded, "To making the universe a better place, then."
"Indeed," Krios took a drink with him and then set his glass down, "So why are you on the Citadel, Commander?"
"Just waiting reassignment," Kaidan told him with a shrug, "It'll probably be at least another week, unless something comes up. There's still an informal inquiry pending." The drell blinked and Kaidan felt compelled to explain further. "I was stationed on Horizon. A beautiful colony that didn't exactly want an Alliance Commander interfering in their affairs, even if it was to set up turrets that would keep them safe from an attack."
"That sounds like it must have been difficult," Krios noted.
"The difficult part is that, despite the guns being placed, they weren't fully operational when the attack came." Kaidan's voice was slightly bitter, the irony of the situation not lost on him. He looked away, out towards the bar, "A lot of good people paid the price for that. The colony runs the risk of being counted off as a loss now."
Krios was silent for a few moments. "I thought the name sounded familiar. I'm sorry. At least you can take some solace in that you saved some lives?"
"I could if I'd saved anyone," Kaidan smirked, "Though it wasn't for a lack of trying. I got taken down just like everyone else. It was Commander Shepard who showed up out of nowhere and got the gun working." He shook his head, a tinge of admiration to contrast with the harder set of his mouth, "She fought them off and saved the day."
"I thought she was dead?" the drell sounded confused, tone as casual in inquiry as anyone who had no personal knowledge of Shepard or stake in her life or death. "Or are the reporters correct and she was simply on some covert mission?"
"The reporters are wrong. She wasn't just pretending to be out of the picture, she wouldn't do that." Kaidan believed that much, at least. "Recovering from the destruction on the Normandy just took a lot of time. Two years, apparently."
"You don't sound happy about that," Krios remarked and then quickly gestured understanding, "Though if the colonists were as stubborn as you said, it was probably hard to see all your work go to waste and then to have a ghost arrive to do what you could not."
Any hint of smug humor, any trace of an edge to that low voice, or even too much sympathy and Kaidan would have left. It wasn't funny, he wouldn't be drawn into defending his actions, and he didn't want a friend right now.
Luckily, it was a stranger's polite attempt to understand. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Kaidan could accept that.
He smiled thinly, "I try to check my ego at the door when it comes to people dying. Besides, Shepard's saved my life plenty of times. I'm used to it. It was actually… really good to see her again." He found himself trailing off without meaning to.
Kaidan had known it was her. Even before he saw the armor or Garrus, even while he stood paralyzed. From the moment the sound of weapons fire had carried to him, something had told him that the rumors had been true. Shepard was alive. She was there.
And he'd struggled like hell to break free to get to her.
He cleared his throat and reached for his beer, speaking quickly to cover the inadvertent pause, "I mean, make no mistake. I would have preferred it if she'd come charging in on a white horse instead of a black one on loan from the devil. But…"
"A horse on loan from the devil?" Krios interrupted, head tilting curiously, "I'm afraid I don't understand."
Yeah, that did beg for an explanation, didn't it? "I just mean that Shepard came back," Kaidan said curtly, giving as little as he could. "but not to us. She's no longer in the Alliance. She's working for a civilian group." What he thought of Cerberus, of the atrocities they committed, of Shepard's choice to answer to them, he kept grimly to himself.
"She has reasons for this, of course?"
"I'm sure she does," Kaidan admitted, swallowing the last dregs of his beer before pushing it to the side. "I've no doubt she thinks she's doing what needs to be done. However, things are happening out there, bad things, and I've been pounding my head against the wall trying to rally people to be ready for it. Now she's back and instead of getting her own people behind her, instead of backing /us/ up, she's … going somewhere I can't follow. With people that can't be trusted."
"I can see why you wouldn't like that," the drell said quietly.
"I hate it," Kaidan's tone was jovial enough, though the smile had gone tight. "But there's nothing I can do about it. At least she's out there. That's what matters."
"Agreed," Krios said without pause, "and though her path is taking her places you can't follow, you can still be on each other's side." The drell stood up, reaching for his jacket and a thin wallet.
He was leaving and Kaidan relaxed because of it. Not that Krios was a bad guy but it was rapidly getting to the point where the conversation was going to have to be changed or Kaidan would have to find a reason to bow out himself.
Shepard was a forbidden subject, too complicated, too difficult for him to delve into most of the time even in his own thoughts. If he'd stopped to realize it, he would have been surprised he'd even spoken this much about her. "Theoretically. Though, she's not talking to me at the moment. Our last conversation was a little rough."
"You should probably give her some time, then," the drell suggested easily. "It sounds as if she's involved in something she believes is important, correct?"
"Saving the galaxy," Kaidan said it with a lightness that didn't quite convince.
"Then, by all means, I think it would be a very bad thing to distract her from that." The drell's tone was dry and he set down several credits. "So, give her a year."
"A year?" Kaidan wondered, "Why a year?"
Krios shrugged, "It's a good round number with such high stakes involved. Anything else probably won't be enough if she's truly dealing with matters that duty consuming." Dark eyes focused on Kaidan and for a moment, the drell just studied him. Then he nodded his head, "Besides, she might need you then. It was good to meet you, Commander Alenko."
The formal tone, an abrupt change from what seemed to be the mild drell's usual, struck Kaidan as odd. Still, he responded in kind, "You too, Krios. Take care of yourself."
With that, Krios turned to walk smoothly out of the bar.
Kaidan just watched him leave, thoughtful.