"Shuttle, state your business or be blown out of existence!" The annoyed port control officer stated for what seemed like the thousandth time that day.
A recorded message was his only response. He was about to signal for the defense cannons to decimate the craft when three worlds break through his mental "I don't give a fuck" haze.
"… Queen of Mercy…"
No one called Aria the Queen of Mercy… But one of Aria's emergency codes for close acquaintances prior to the Cerberus attack was "The Blue Queen of Mercy will guide me".
Some asari bullshit play on words, but he knew better than to ignore the fact that it was close enough.
He alerted Aria's personal guard of the message and allowed the shuttle to land. He'd let the Talons deal with it.
Aria listened to the message that the port manager had sent her. She recognized the voice. It was a voice that she was not supposed to hear again except in memories.
Aria was not normally a sentimental person, but she had lost enough of her close inner circle within the last two years and Aeryn Shepard was not someone she was keen on losing again – If she could avoid it.
Looking as uninterested as usual, she ordered Darius, the replacement Talon leader after Nyreen's idiotic death, to personally look into the shuttle and its' cargo.
Aria began absently tapping her finger on her couch after the man left. It was the only sign that she was impatient to hear back from the squad she had sent on the contents of that shuttle.
Darius was a careful turian. He had respected Nyreen and continued in her honor to keep the Talon's in line and respectable. Being Aria's personal task force was not how he had envisioned his life, but it was a good job and had high benefits.
The downside were orders like this one. Checking out some damned shuttle. Whoever was on it was probably important to Aria. Darius hadn't worked with the woman for this long and not picked up on her little habits. She may look cold and uncaring, but if she was sending him to take care of this then the person had to be someone important.
His team checked the exterior of the shuttle and in the windows, reporting back that all they saw was some liquid on the floor and seat, but they couldn't tell what color it was or even what it was since the windows were dimmed.
According to the port officer it had been airing a pre-recorded message and seemed to land on autopilot. It was suspicious enough to set him on edge.
He had his tech override the door controls and had the team run a standard sweep on the interior. His captain rushed out with his face blanched.
"Boss, it's a human woman. She's out cold and has multiple wounds… Some are not made recently. There's blood everywhere. We need medical here ASAP."
Spirits damn it all, Aria wasn't going to like this. He had his captain order a medical team and stepped away to call Aria.
"Aria, it's a human woman and she's badly injured. Unconscious and injured. I've ordered a medical team here and I'll let you know where they take her."
He hadn't even finished his sentence before she was ordering him around.
"No, Darius, bring her to my apartment. Make the medical team aware that if they even breathe so much as a word of this to anyone that I will string them and their immediate and extended families up as décor for Afterlife!"
With that she disconnected he call.
Spirits, who is this woman?
He glanced at the woman on the gurney. The Medical team was already treating and prepping for transport.
Something about her nagged at him. He had seen her before but he couldn't place where or when. She was in bad shape, who knows how long she had been in that shuttle and unconscious.
Either way, he decided that it would be in his best interests to follow the medical team and personally watch over her. He didn't want Aria even more pissed and on his ass.
One of his team brought him what appeared to be her personal effects. Some bandages, food wrappers and an OSD. Seemed rather miniscule for someone on a shuttle ride and obviously abused.
Aria was waiting at her apartment for the team. She nodded her approval of his personal escort before focusing on the woman of the hour.
He had never seen concern flash across Aria's face before and to say it was disconcerting was an understatement. The fact that this injured human brought out such emotion from Aria… Aria never gave a vorcha's ass over anyone except herself.
Aria followed the team asking numerous questions before turning back into queen bitch mode without so much as a second thought.
She had shown a great deal of concern already and she didn't need anyone picking up on the fact that she was concerned and fond of this human.
They stripped the human and all the doctors let out a collective gasp. She had bruising over most of her torso and three distinct shot wounds. The scar running over the front of her torso was gnarly enough, but they also pulled the bandages off her throat thus completing the grotesque picture.
Aria fumed. Whom ever had done this to her Aeryn was going to pay, slowly. She couldn't help but wonder why Aeryn ran here instead of to Shepard's Normandy. Then she remembered that Aeryn had been hot and heavy with the XO… Who was now conveniently bedding the quarian.
No, doubted Aeryn Shepard would want to deal with that bullshit after being shot at and apparently mutilated.
Turning to Darius, Aria eyed her head of the guard. He was a smart man, he would've picked up on something unsual.
"Did she have anything on her in the shuttle?"
He handed her the supplies and OSD… She eyed the OSD before walking to another room and plugging it in to a vid screen.
The next few hours the doctors worked on Aeryn, Aria and Darius watched in horror as the story of the woman in the other room over played out for them.
From discovery to just before her escape, every surgery, every death, every time she fought back and failed was there on display.
Darius excused himself from the room when the woman had slit her own throat. He came back after he heard the vid stop and turned to Aria.
"Aeryn Shepard, like Commander Shepard? Is she related to him somehow?"
Aria looked like she wasn't going to answer right away but then decided that he had seen everything else, why not tell him the truth.
"His younger sister to be more exact. She was a close friend of Nyreens."
It was as much of a reason as Darius was likely to ever get as to why Aria was expending so much effort on the human.
Close to Nyreen. That was probably where he had recognized her. She was the hooded Alliance Officer who had met with Nyreen on multiple occasions.
It meant that she was also probably close to Aria.
Before he could ask further questions, one of the doctors walked in to the room. He was wiping a lot of blood off on a towel…
"Will be alright, will need to heal for a few days and regular treatments. Has been extensively worked on, possible enhancements."
Aria nodded and reiterated the warning the doctors had already received about keeping quiet about her guest and she had them ushered out.
Aria moved in to the room where the other woman was resting on a make shift bed. The human was still unconscious as Aria ran a blue finger over the wound on Aeryn's neck.
"Why did you run to me of all people little kitten…"
Darius stayed by the door and would have missed what Aria had muttered had he not been paying attention.
This human was going to be trouble.
Aeryn was moving around Aria's apartment. She was bored and the damned asari bitch from hell wouldn't let her leave citing her safety. She just didn't want to have to explain her houseguest!
Darius walked in and nearly doubled over with laughter at the look on his little ward's face. She was pouting, something he never would have been able to read off of a human prior to becoming her babysitter.
"What's got your, what was the phrase, panties in a twat?"
Her head snapped around and she glared venomously at him.
"Panties in a twist. Not twat. And she won't let me leave! I'm so boooored."
With the long drawn out word she dramatically flung herself onto the sofa. Darius made his way to the piece of furniture and leaned over it to eye his prisoner.
"Well, you did come off of a shuttle bloody and unconscious not even two weeks ago. I swear I've never seen Aria show so much emotion, she may have even had a frown on her face instead of a scowl. You managed to worry the Queen of Omega, you deserve house arrest."
He couldn't help ribbing her a bit. He had grown quite fond of the little human in the two weeks he had to spend with her. He could see how she got under the usually tough and unapproachable's skin. She was quick with her wit and had a biting humor.
He had only seen her down once despite the ordeal she had been through and that was when a new vid mentioned something of the Normandy. She had changed it immediately and refused to talk about why.
Something was keeping her from her brother's ship and it annoyed him that she wouldn't tell him why.
Before he could go in to interrogating her yet again on her reasoning for self-exile post freedom Aria walked in.
Aria had been thinking over her discussion with Aeryn for a few hours now. The little snit wanted her to train her on how to use her biotics… and had offered to be Aria's personal assassin.
Aeryn had no desire to return to the Alliance and was apparently content to hide out in Omega. Aria wasn't keen on having to teach someone… well… anything, but Aeryn would be a danger to herself and others if she couldn't learn to control her increased biotic skills.
Moreover, a personal assassin sounded nice. As Aeryn pointed out Aria wouldn't have to pay her as much for standard jobs and Aeryn wanted final say in whether she went through with the hit or not.
It was a good deal.
The final caveat was that Aeryn's identity would be completely anonymous. Hell, the woman already had her outfit picked out.
The fact that this would annoy Darius to no end that Aria was placing 'his ward' in danger tickled Aria just enough to make her decision for her.
"Aeryn, I've considered your proposal and I accept. Be ready first thing in the morning for your combat training and I have your first hit lined up for when we're done."