Just a heads up, for the song in question it's actually the inspiration for the title of this fic. 'Gods and Monsters' by Lana Del Rey. In case you were wondering what the idea behind Aeryn's sound is.
Thank you for all of the reviews! I'm going to go through and thank everyone personally today now that I have some free time... But I appreciate them all and would like to remind you that I am looking for a Beta.
We're getting up to the big ol' family reunion... I'm excited, are you excited?!
Enjoy!
She may have escaped him, but he would get her back. He had spent a small fortune on acquiring and altering her and he wasn't about to write off the investment.
He would alter how much freedom he allowed her this time, he had apparently given her too much before. It was a mistake he would not repeat. He never repeated mistakes.
Dr. Tolorin had worked very hard on locating and recovering his lost investment. His small army would have to do and seemed to finally be making progress.
He had sent his recovery team out shortly after they repaired the frigate she had unceremoniously damaged. She had such a flair for the dramatic. That was another thing he had given her too much leniency on.
His team had finally reported a lead and he had begun to prep for her reintroduction into treatment.
Soon he would have his property back.
Garrus had been avoiding her, of that she was certain. Even Shepard had been acting strange. Tali wasn't one to enjoy being left out of the collective loop but no one else seemed to be acting any stranger… Just those two.
Liara was being her normal "don't bother me, I'm busy" self and Javik was uncommunicative as normal. EDI wasn't spilling any information and Joker seemed to be out of the information loop as well. James and Steve were busy being their non-serious selves and she doubted they could keep anything from anyone, let alone her.
Tali was worried. She had no idea what was being kept from her, but she was sure it wasn't something good. She had been making progress with Garrus and she wasn't about to let up now that she was making progress.
She had tried to be accommodating about him needing space and she honestly thought that he was close to committing to a relationship with her.
She had been trying to get him to commit to her for months. At first she was just happy to finally be able to enact her pent up fantasies of being with the awkwardly sexy turian… But now? Now she wanted more. She wanted to be his bondmate.
Aeryn Shepard had no issues getting Garrus to commit to her. The bosh'tet had him wrapped around her finger before Tali had even gotten back on board the Normandy.
Tali had harbored a crush on the man for years before the arrogant human had taken him from her. It took the woman dying before Tali even had a chance to make a move on Garrus.
And Tali had been with Garrus longer than the human and she was still trying to get on equal footing. It was maddening.
Tali could get any quarian man she wanted, she was an admiral after all… Even if it was only in title now that they had reclaimed their homeworld. But she didn't want a quarian man, she wanted the headstrong turian that had been her friend and confident for years.
She felt like he was slipping away again and it was driving her insane. She needed to figure out what they were hiding from her.
She knew they were going to Omega, Liara had been making quips about Aria all week. Garrus had holed himself up in the XO cabin and had only really come out to calibrate the gun and talk to Shepard. Shepard had been pointedly unavailable to her… Though that wasn't necessarily unusual. Their friendship had taken a hit when she started sleeping with Garrus.
The loss of friendship was acceptable as long as she got what she wanted.
Something was up.
She had snuck in to Garrus' quarters once when he and Shepard were on the Citadel but her search proved fruitless.
She knew the ground team for the Omega trip was strictly regulated to Garrus and Liara… She would just have to follow them.
Darius had been uneasy lately. There were strange people on his Omega and that made him worry. If people were seeming stranger than the Omega regulars then they were people who needed to have an eye kept on them.
The only problem was that even his best trackers couldn't keep an eye on them. As quickly as they popped up, they disappeared.
It didn't help that Aeryn was still sore at him for calling her a coward He knew she had been having a hard time since she had gotten back from the Citadel hit and now she helping Aria with something…
Something that decidedly did not include him. It was putting his teeth on edge.
Aria liked that it bothered him that he wasn't involved, but she kept insisting that he would enjoy the end result.
He was getting cranky without seeing or talking to Aeryn in over a week. She had gotten back from her assignment and then been cordoned off in Afterlife by the Queen herself.
He had heard rumors of some new show that was going to open tomorrow in Afterlife and he had a sinking feeling that Aria had involved Aeryn somehow. Her little piano scene on the Citadel had not gone unnoticed.
He growled to himself as he looked over the reports again. The unusual group were bringing more of themselves in every day and it was sickeningly familiar to when Cerberus took over the station.
Darius increased security on all fronts and beefed up their recruitment numbers. He would not have another bullshit organization try and take over his home again.
Aria was absolutely tickled about her newest venture. She knew Aeryn was artistically inclined, but after her irritation with the assassin showboating for the Citadel snobs passed she remembered that the woman could also sing. Sing and be sexy as hell while doing it.
Besides, Aeryn needed to chill out and enjoy the simple things in life more often. She was too serious all the time. She needed to have some attention paid to her. Attention a little more direct than the pussy footing Darius was doing around the woman.
Aria had managed to convince Aeryn to sing for her. Of course she didn't tell Aeryn that she was recording it… Nor that the asari "signers" that were supposed to be learning the song were actually just glorified mannequins.
It was already becoming a real cash cow for the asari. She had just leaked a teaser of it and had more than 1 billion inquiries. The royalties off of the ads were enough to make the production cost for future singles disappear.
Now she just needed to convince Aeryn to perform live – identity hidden, of course, and then Aria could add music producer to her list of hobbies.
Having a singer on her payroll could open up new territories for trade. Black trade.
Everything had a dark underbelly where Aria was concerned and that was how she liked it. She wanted more, always more.
She had kept Aeryn busy off station in order to keep the fact that she had leaked the song from her for a little while. She was working her plan to smooth Aeryn over in favor of a live performance. In two days.
Aria busied herself finding the most revealing outfit possible that would still keep Aeryn's identity secret… Something that covered the scars and rendered the tattoo on her arm unidentifiable.
Fuck it, she'd design it herself.
John had been listening to the Galactic News Network while he was working on his reports when the song was played.
He almost couldn't believe his ears and he had to stare at the vid screen for a bit before it registered that he had heard the song before.
New song his ass, this was Aeryn… She had been working on it before she 'died'. She wasn't one to sing in public but she wrote songs as a hobby.
But this was her voice, her very distinct singing voice.
John instantly pinged Liara.
JS: Liara, the song on GNN right now… Where was it released from?
LT: It's muddled… It'll take some digging. Why?
JS: Aeryn's the one singing it. It's her song.
LT: Are you sure?! John you need to be sure.
JS: Yes, I was helping her with some of the lyrics.
He didn't get a response from her, but a few minutes later she was dragging Garrus in to his cabin.
Garrus had no idea what had crawled under Liara's fringe but the woman was practically dragging him in to John's cabin.
He almost asked John what was up when he heard the voice.
It was unmistakably Aeryn. He doubted many could pick out that it was her without having heard her sing because she sounded so different than when she normally spoke.
Her singing was rough, deep and completely sexy. He had nearly fallen over himself the first time he listened in secret. She had been discussing lyrics with John when Garrus was passing. They didn't think anyone else was around, but he couldn't bring himself to make his presence known. She might have stopped.
She reminded him of the sexy lounge singers showcased in many old human movies. In fact the way she sang was reminiscent of exactly that. He had never heard a human singer like her and he had always wished she would sing for him.
Hearing her now, on the news as some "unidentified sensation" brought the fact that she was indeed alive home. It made it more real. Up until now they were going on faith that she had made it out of the facility alive. They were going on faith that the Black Dahlia would have more information on her.
This song wasn't complete when she died and it seemed complete now. The snippet that was played was not from the beginning, so more had definitely been added.
Garrus looked at John after the snippet had finished.
"ETA to Omega?"
EDI answered, "Five hours, Garrus."
The men nodded, they would find her.
Tali had been in the cafeteria when the song had aired and stopped dead in her tracks. The voice sounded so familiar… It was hauntingly beautiful but filled her with such a sense of foreboding that she couldn't shake it.
It was just a minute of the song but it made her feel so uneasy that she rushed to her room and for the next hour tried to find out anything she could on the singer.
Aeryn was pissed. No, make that furious. Aria hadn't told her she planned to leak a part of the song to the press. Let alone that it would be the part she was singing!
She was just supposed to be singing it for the people who were supposed to perform it for the show!
The bitch recorded her and sent it out.
Now she was sitting in front of her demanding that she sing it at the show – that the other singers had quit citing their inability to sing it correctly.
Bullshit, they were asari! Asari always felt that they could improve upon anything. She would know, she had written songs for a few asari musicians and they were the definition of prima donna.
Aria even had this slinky outfit picked out for her to wear… and something to suggestively cover her face. It looked like a masquerade mask and Aeryn had to admit that the outfit was nice…
But performing in front of a live audience? Singing was completely different than playing the piano… And Aeryn was only comfortable playing a song that she could play in her sleep!
No matter how much she bitched and moaned, argued and cajoled, Aria kept pulling her one ace in the hole.
Aeryn was losing control of her temper, "Isn't enough that I travel all over the godforsaken place and knock off whoever you want, no questions asked!?"
"No."
She had 'saved Aeryn from torture and poverty'. She had 'taken her out of a shuttle bloodied and broken and spent her time and resources fixing her back up'.
Damn whore knew how to play to Aeryn's sense of responsibility.
Ultimately, she gave in as Aria knew she would. Bitch.
She needed a drink, a strong one… And a lot of practice.