Aeryn hated traveling by herself. Sure, it was all fun for the first few hours, getting to walk around naked and singing at the top of her lungs… But then who was she going to talk to?
Luckily she had her video games.
Nothing was sweeter than sniping some 15 year old kid and listening to him rage about it through the general chat.
It was the little things in life.
By the time her shuttle docked at the Citadel Aeryn was in the right frame of mind to go to work. Listening to idiots rage about dying in a video game always did make her want to shoot something.
She made sure she was completely unidentifiable as Aeryn Shepard. Only the Black Dahlia could ever be identified in public.
A certain amount of identification as the noted assassin was good for business afterall. Obviously nothing showing her at the scene of her upcoming crime – but something showing that she was on the Citadel while a highly guarded volus was murdered would bring Aria some added prestige and would get Aeryn a nice bonus.
Maybe. Aria wasn't really the "bonus often" type.
Aeryn activated her cloak and discretely left the shuttle. She had put in an order for some supplies to be delivered so no one would think the shuttle being docked for a few hours was anything other than a routine supply pickup with no time for shore leave.
Aeryn had studied the maintenance tunnel layouts and had already planned her route to the volus' apartment, all she needed to do was get in to the access bay from the main docking center.
Easy-peasy!
John loathed having to deal with politicians. Loath wasn't even strong enough a word. The newest human counselor was breathing down his neck about trade agreements with the batarians and wanted Shepard to head the talks.
The batarians hated Shepard! Why would he be the one chosen for this diplomatic mission?
Ah well, such is the life of the great and mighty Commander Shepard! Why did he still think of himself as 'Commander'? He had been promoted to Captain some time ago.
Everyone remembered him as Commander and to be frank, his spectre status kind of made the Alliance rank obsolete.
Shepard was pulled out of his musings by a mass of c-sec officers charging into one of the apartment buildings that nearly trampled him on their way.
He should probably watch where he was going if he wanted to meet Garrus and Liara for lunch in one piece.
They were going to discuss the upcoming Omega trip before setting off. He needed both of them to be at their best when he started asking about Aeryn. He didn't want anything to slip by them – he wanted his sister back.
Truth be told, Garrus hadn't been at his best since John had shown him the footage of Aeryn. Sure, John was beyond upset that his sister had been alive and he hadn't known. He'd been furious at what had been done to her. But he was also excited that she was alive.
Garrus had withdrawn more than usual. John was not envious of the position Garrus found himself. He was seeing Tali, a bit more than casually, and his deceased fiancée had returned from the dead. A fiancée that John was certain Garrus was still in love with.
John wasn't sure how this entire situation was going to play out. Tali was going to be upset, that much was certain… But would Garrus try and stick it out with Tali? Or would he immediate drop her for Aeryn? Would Aeryn even want him after he had been with Tali?
Aeryn knew how quickly Garrus had started seeing Tali after her 'death'. John wasn't sure his sister's love for the turian could move past something like that. Moving on that quickly with someone you didn't get along with? John wasn't sure he could do it were he in her place.
John had finally made it to the café where he was going to meet Liara and Garrus. Liara was there already of course, and busy on a call. John sat himself next to her while shooting her a silent smile in greeting. If she were on Shadow Broker business then it wouldn't do for him to make his presence known to the caller.
Garrus hadn't arrived yet, but it was still before their scheduled meeting time so John ordered himself a beer and started thinking of how to deal with Aria and the Black Dahlia.
Garrus had been avoiding Tali like a plague since he had seen the vid of Aeryn. He didn't know how to act now. He knew it was cowardly, but he needed some space and he told Tali as much adding in some excuse about planning some upcoming missions for John. Not completely untrue.
Tali seemed to take the news in stride and was giving him his peace.
Now if only he could actually do something productive with his alone time other than think of what an ass he had made of himself and how he was going to fix everything.
He had been considering asking Tali to make their relationship more official. Not bondmates or anything, but officially dating… He was fairly certain she already considered them that but he hadn't confirmed nor denied the idea.
And now Aeryn was back… Sort of. He was getting ahead of himself for thinking that she would be a romantic player in his life. She knew he had slept with Tali and she knew they were still seeing each other.
Spirits and how she was so suspicious of Tali before… He basically confirmed all she had been worried about.
Garrus was pulled out of his internal reverie by a platoon of c-sec rushing by. It was unusual to see so many going in the same direction.
Must be something big happening in one of the apartments.
Probably some domestic dispute. Judging by the sheer number of c-sec Garrus would chance a guess that a krogan was involved.
Garrus got to the café with minutes to spare. He hated being late.
Liara was on a phone call and John was already sipping beer. He was greeted with a friendly smile that helped to calm Garrus' nerves a bit.
He knew they were going to be talking about finding Aeryn on their trip to Omega and to say that the entire subject put him on edge would be an understatement and he suspected John was equally on edge, for different reasons of course.
Aeryn watched as c-sec scrambled towards the apartment. She knew that damned walrus, pillbug, bag of hot air had a silent alarm somewhere.
Whatever, she had killed him with barely a struggle and had managed to leave before c-sec had even gotten close. She had scrambled the surveillence enough that it wouldn't show her at all.
She was completely undetected and casually moved through the presidium. She was in no hurry to get back to her shuttle, being in a hurry would only draw attention to herelf and she wasn't ready for that just yet.
Someone had set up a grand piano near the water, probably for some high priced benefit. Real pianos were hard to come by and generally only showed up as a show of opulence among human high society.
Aeryn loved to play the piano.
Well, it wouldn't hurt for her to give an impromptu concernt now would it? Besides, it would be the perfect thing to draw attention to herself before she made her way back to the docks.
Aeryn didn't even bother to cloak herself, the guard was already horribly distracted trying to figure out what was going on in the Tiberius Towers.
Aeryn expertly situated herself on the bench and quickly chose a song to play. It was a classic and her favorite. Ravel's Pavane Pour une Infante Defunte. Of course it was a classic, but no one played the classics anymore.
Aeryn played the music by heart.
John was the first to hear the music. It was unusual to hear a human classic on the presidium, especially what sounded like live.
He immediately went to work trying to locate where the song was coming from and noticed the woman in all black sitting at a white grand piano. A real grand piano. He didn't know of many that still existed. Hell, he was surprised Anderson had one in his apartment.
She was hooded and it was difficult to see anything of her other than the fact that she was playing the song by heart.
He completely lost track of the conversation around him as he lost himself in the song. It was Aeryn's favorite one to play and seemed a fitting backdrop to them talking about finding her.
Garrus stopped talking shortly after John did and followed his gaze to the human woman playing some sort of instrument near the lake.
It was a piano, he remmebered Aeryn loved to both play and listen to them.
The woman was obvious confident in what she was playing since she never looked up from the keys. She seemed to be playing the piece by memory.
The song was familiar to him, probably one Aeryn had him listen to.
He lost himself in the music for a bit, letting his mind go comfortably blank.
The impromptu concert over, the woman stood and bowed then removed herself before the guard could come to his senses and forcibly remove or arrest her.
John's mind went blank after he took in the outfit of the woman. Hood, tactical face covering, strappy looking armor that reminded him of a much more conservative version of a shit that Jack wore… The straps curled around to her thighs and over her tactical pants. Black boots. Tattoos peeking out from the small bits of skin that could be seen…
God damnit! It was the Black Dahlia.
She noticed him as he rose from his seat unconsciously and gestured a casual salute at him before she cloaked herself out of sight.
He was sitting there watching her play the piano for a good ten minutes, he could have apprehended her and interrogated her!
Angrily John sat back down and looked from Liara to Garrus.
"That was the Black Dahlia…"
The surprise on both of their faces made him feel a bit better. They had just been talking about what she looked like, her assassination style, and how to approach her, but the information obviously slipped all of their minds the moment they started watching her play.
John felt a little embarrassed that he was taken in by such an easy rouse. Embarrassed, but not wholly unimpressed by the fact that the assassin obviously wasn't one to stay out of the lime light if it suited her.
"Should we try and head her off at the docks?" Garrus asked as Liara got ready to make a call to prevent the Black Dahlia from leaving.
"No, let her go. We know where she operates out of and she saw me. If we try and catch her like this she'll be less inclined to talk to us. We'll catch up with her at Omega."
They both reluctantly nodded their agreement and went back to their meals.
John had been there… And hadn't recognized her.
Aeryn shakily sank into the pilot's chair of her shuttle and hastily left Citadel space.
She felt relieved that she had gotten away… and sad that she didn't stay. The mix of feelings was annoying to her. She had never been one to wish-wash through emotions, but ever since she escaped she couldn't make up her mind on what she wanted to do in regards to John, Garrus… Even Darius.
Some of the damned brainwashing had stuck, just like she had feared. She needed to be extra vigilant when it came to making emotional decisions. Knowing that she wasn't thinking straight and correcting the behavior were two different things and she knew from her Alliance training that she needed to be hyper aware of her motivations now more than ever.
She couldn't let the scientists win more than they already had.