Lights the color of blood illuminate the room. Colorful strobe lights flashing all over the room strained unaccustomed eyes. Dark, pulsing rhythms throbbed through writhing, sweaty bodies. Sex, drugs and alcohol wafted in the stale air. Unsurprising, this is still Omega. Creeping along the corridors, concealed in the shrouded darkness of the place, Thane is restless. Anxiously watching, he couldn't sit down and wait for the outcome of Shepard and Samara's hunt, and he also couldn't interfere out of respect for the justicar and her wishes. Despite knowing what Shepard is capable of, being humanity's first Spectre and the woman who stopped Saren Arterius, Thane prepared himself to put his own life at risk for this human. Bringing him closer to Kolyat, having a purpose to drive him forward, and making his sleeping soul come to life again are her doings. Losing Irikah, to him, is a result of his carelessness, and he will not commit the same mistake with the second siha the goddess Arashu had placed in his path.
Striding towards the door to the main area, Shepard stopped abruptly when Samara waves her over from her hiding place. The two women are reviewing what to do to attract Morinth's attention as the drell assassin stealthily watched them from the darkest corner with the best view. Samara's mention of the commander's life being in great peril did not help his disquieted mind at all. "And Shepard," Samara says before the commander turns to leave. "Thank you. I do not share this burden easily, and you are the only soul I can imagine sharing it with." Nodding, the commander takes a deep breath. Giving Samara one last look for reassurance, the human Spectre makes an entrance. Having participated in school plays during her younger days in Mindoir, she had decent knowledge of acting, of playing the part. Tonight, she plays the part of prey.
Now, she must attract the predator's attention.
The justicar told Shepard that Morinth is attracted to strength, directness, and vigor. Courage or suicidal bravery could attract the ardat-yakshi as well, and the latter is something Shepard wasn't lacking in, punching the turian harassing the asari dancer, and throwing him a few feet across. To her, there is something familiar about the situation, but she couldn't pinpoint why, and something was screaming at her at the back of her mind to ignore it. Choosing to move on for the sake of the task at hand, she leaves as soon as the dancer gives her thanks, and proceeds to look for more ways to catch Morinth's attention. Thane was impressed by her show of skill for hand-to-hand combat. He thought of telling her later, but that would give away the fact that she had been watching that night. Perhaps he'll just use the context of her punching a krogan for that compliment instead.
Using her charms, she catwalks over to an asari and joins her dance. Despite her charming disposition, Shepard is still a bad dancer. Thane silently thought to himself that the jokes Garrus and Tali'Zorah made about her dancing had some shred of truth to them. Not a shred of rhythm nor grace, the commander's dance can only be described as rigid. Thane remembers the dancer he saved fifteen years ago. Unfortunate enough that she couldn't dance, the dancer had to entertain vile guests as well. Stopping his retrospection before he lapsed into solipsism, he returns his attentions to his siha. Finally, she had drawn Morinth's attention after convincing the bartender to serve a round of drinks on the house.
With an alluring smile on her lips, as Morinth conversed with Shepard, she produces a pill bottle from one of her pockets. Thane assumes that is the drug Hallex. The ardat-yakshi offers one to Shepard, which she accepts in a casual manner. Internally, however, Shepard is mortified. There's a voice inside her head telling her not to; refusing drugs from a sexual predator who is known to kill her victims during sex is logical, but she always had an irrational fear of illegal drug use and Shepard tries to remember why. However, in no position to refuse, she takes it.
Perfect memory wanders back to the dancer he once saved.
"'Here baby, a treat.' Unfortunate and uncomfortable, she takes the drink in hand. Gulps it to the last drop. I move as soon as she drops the glass. I still see them. She dances, unfashionable, unabashed. Thin legs begin to shake as her senses slowly betray her."
Blinking out of solipsism, and thanking that the throbbing music drowned out his voice enough for him to remain undetected, Thane immediately goes back to watching Shepard and the ardat-yakshi. Blue hands caressed her cheek as Shepard continues to reel her in, making the drell's chest constrict. Was it jealousy? Protectiveness? Terror? What he felt is irrelevant; a serial killer is touching the woman he loves and his self-control is wearing thin, itching to drop from the vents and crush the asari's throat with a punch, twist her arm until it breaks, give her a hip throw, grab her chin and scalp, and twist her neck. Better judgement guiding him, however, he remains unseen, leaving the opportunity to kill her to Samara.
Thane couldn't hear their conversation from his position, but he definitely saw Shepard take the Hallex, and he can see them leaving the booth they sat in, with Shepard's legs slightly swaying. The drug is starting to take effect. The similarity is almost uncanny; Shepard once told him that the humans have an expression called déjà vu, which meant "already seen". Thane saw this happen to the dancer from The Second Circle before, and he knows that didn't go well for her. He feared for the worst as he watched Samara follow the two bodies to the richer apartments in Omega.
So far, Thane managed to avert anyone's attention as he stalked, leaping from parapets and crawling in more vents to boost his concealment. As Shepard stumbled into Morinth's apartment, she can feel herself getting lost. Not in a literal sense, but her mind is swimming, her thoughts scrambled and incoherent. In her drugged state, she can see sound and taste colors. Amplified by the Hallex's effect on her body, as Morinth looks at her with her darkened eyes, she found herself completely undone.
Swimming in the dangerous expanse of black in her eyes, Shepard drowns in it, tasting it as a cloying, thick flavor that burned her throat and lungs. A cool hand slithers under the hem of her dress, and her mind screams at her to twist it until it's broken, but soon enough, the screams were silenced by Morinth's hypnotic orbs. She wanted to belong to her. She wanted Morinth to consume her very being. She wants her. She'd kill for her. She'd do anything she wants.
The touches she is receiving from the blue hand are far from intimate. They are forceful, hungry. Thin fingers ghosts over the hem of her undergarments before forcefully shoving them down, then mashes the sensitive bundle of nerves that made a blaze sweep across her body. Wide lips graze her cheek, moving to nip her earlobes as she felt herself melt against her touch. But there is someone calling out to her. That person's fingers weren't smooth, and lips not wide. Shepard scans the face of the person before her, and her brows furrow. No, something isn't right. There is someone she desires, but it isn't Morinth. That person's skin wasn't smooth and blue; it was textured with scales, and gleams like emeralds against the light.
As Morinth attempts to seal their lips in a kiss, Shepard furrows her brow again and shoves her away gently, hands palming her full breast. The person she wanted didn't have breasts; hell, that person isn't even a woman. He had black pools for eyes as well, but wider, kinder, gentler. Thinking back, she realizes that when she swims in the tender black pools of this person's eyes, they didn't burn her like how Morinth's does; they took her gently adrift, the taste of them subtly dulcet. The cold pools she's drowning in right now wanted to take her, restrain her, and violate her; the obsidian pools she loved embraced her every being, worshipped her as a goddess, and promised her of intimate touches. A name emerges in her head.
Thane.
She wanted Thane.
Shepard moans his name, imagining his lush lips pressing against hers, and his calloused hands touching her with tenderness that this blue hand lacks. Morinth's expression sours at the mention of another person's name. She hushed Shepard, grabbing her jaw stiffly with cold blue hands, and brushing a strand of her black hair away from her face. "I can make you forget all about him." No, the hand she knows didn't grab her painfully by the jaw, rather, it cupped her cheek with profound admiration, warm against her skin, and she does not want to forget that, nor trade it for the memory of this cold, blue hand making her hurt.
"I don't want to forget."
"You do, because you love me. You want me," Morinth emphasizes, her fingers clawing at Shepard's jaw. Forcefully, she crushes her dark-painted lips over the human woman, and growing aware of the situation, Shepard grimaces in disgust and retches, to the surprised anger of the asari, her pride hurt by this human woman's lack of interest. However, she isn't simply not interested; this human is disgusted with her. Morinth realizes this and throws her against the floor, pulling her dress from her shoulders and bringing it to her waist, determined to dominate her and make her desire her. Whoever it was in this human's head, Morinth will burn the memory of him away. Descending upon her, Morinth constrains Shepard's wrists, pinning them against the floor as she roughly bit at her neck, drawing blood and a cry bubbling from her chest. Painted lips left stains on the sandy skin of her chest. "You love me."
No, Shepard doesn't love this blue-faced temptress that has been trying to drown her.
"I love Thane."
The door rushes open and Samara rushes in to Shepard's rescue.
The justicar shouts her daughter's name, drawing her attention away from Shepard, and flings her to the windows with a biotic throw, shattering the glass on impact. As mother and daughter struggled and threw words full of spite at each other, Shepard is disoriented on the floor while Thane is rushing to the apartment as he heard the crashes from floors above. Blinking repeatedly and clutching her head to get some sense of clarity, Shepard comes back to her senses, now aware of her semi-exposed body, the lip marks on her breasts and the deadlock before her eyes.
"I'm as strong as she is - let me join you!" Morinth exclaims.
"I am already sworn to help you, Shepard. Let us finish this."
Even in her drugged, disoriented state, it is not a difficult decision for Shepard. Grabbing the arm of the ardat-yakshi, she gives her a deathly glare. "End of the line, Morinth."
"And they call me a monster," was the only reply the soon-to-be-dead asari can muster. Samara takes this opportunity to throw her forward. "You are a monster," Shepard whispers as she slowly backed away from her.
Samara walks to Morinth who was backing away desperately, crawling through the shattered glass. "Find peace in the embrace of the Goddess."
Shepard looks away as Samara crushed her own daughter's skull with a biotic punch.
"I am ready to leave this place and get on with my life," the justicar says as she stood up from crouching over Morinth. "Are you ready to go as well?"
Quickly covering herself, Shepard tried her best to appear unfazed, the Hallex still making her head swim, and the experience with Morinth revolting her to no bounds. Even her own skin felt disgusting and all she wants at the moment is to rid herself of Morinth's scent, now mixed with the asari's blood. "Do you want to talk about what happened?"
It is hard to detect to the untrained ear, but there is a pang of pain in Samara's voice. "Shepard. What do you think will I say? What can I say? I just killed the bravest and smartest of my daughters. There are not words. I will try another time." The justicar bows her head in solemn anguish.
"For now, show mercy on a broken old warrior and let us leave."
Shepard didn't respond. She simply crashes to the ground.
"Shepard!"
Everything is spinning. Her heart raced and her lungs were giving out. As the world around her came crashing, she hears the door whoosh open once more. The black pools for eyes that let her drift gently appears before her.
Shepard's body felt heavy as sinewy arms held her, and her feet didn't touch the ground as she felt herself drifting away from this place. Desperately, her cold hand reaches for a face contorted with silent fury.
Unfamiliar memories began to resurface as the world around her spun.