Aria T'Loak. Pirate Queen. Dead Purple Bitch.
She was rumored to be the baddest bitch this galaxy has seen in close to 500 years. Aria was the only sentient being this side of the Reapers that pirates, mercs, governments, politicians, and even the current regime of Cerberus wasn't bold enough to fuck with. She reigned over Omega with an iron fist and whoever broke her one rule knew exactly where they were going; either the incinerator in the bowels of Omega or launched out of a canon past the kinetic barrier and into the vacuum of space.
She must not have known who the fuck /I/ was then.
I stumbled as my legs gave way and my broken body hit the sand floor with a soft thud, only mere yards away from my salvation. I could feel my body growing weaker from the lack of nutrients, water, loss of blood; and I could feel my will to live slowly dwindling while I tried to drag myself across the ground by my claws desperately digging into the sand.
Images flashed in front of my eyes. Carmen. The twins. Katie, Sam, and Seth. Marcus, Angel and Leon. Shale and Atura. Alistair, Norah, and their twins. Ranger and Quinn. Axomis and Scarlett. Jared and Jamie. Vera and Shepard. Anne. Nathaniel. Elaina. Gavin and Giuliana. Even Aran and Lily. All the memories that meant something to me, all the people I'd loved were standing there in the distance like my own personal fucking cheerleading squad trying to give me the strength that I just couldn't grasp like sand between my fingers.
I felt like despite their efforts I just couldn't go on. I ceased to move and let my face hit the sand. My eyes grew heavy to the point I couldn't hold them open anymore and I found myself laying there, in the sand, struggling desperately to live to see the end of the day.
I knew I couldn't give in as much as I'd wanted to. It could have been over then. It should been over then. I should have and let go. Let my soul be loosed into the void and finally took the long awaited rest I deserved. But, I was a fighter to the core and I sure as hell wasn't going to let Aria win.
After rolling over onto my back and staring up at the blue sky and realizing I was pretty fucked, I finally gave in.
If only for a moment.
Olivia knew she was a dead woman walking the moment she found herself standing in front of the massive steel rusted doors leading to Aria's old warehouse. The hood of her black cloak shrouded her face from recognition and she even flattened her ears against her fiery red hair just to make sure Aria didn't go on the immediate defensive. Over time Olivia had become a very recognizable character in the galactic community of degenerate ingrates; especially to Aria's personal lap dog, Bray. And Olivia knew that if she slipped in any way and revealed herself as the enemy, she'd be shot on sight if not tortured to death.
Olivia narrowed her eyes at the small luminescent lock and tilted her head, her eyes scanning the surface for fingerprints. When she spotted a small smudge on the panel she bent down and took some of the finer granules of sand into her hand and huffed out a gentle breath, watching as it settled on the tempered glass. Like clockwork it stuck to the oils left behind and revealed a beautiful fingerprint that by the shape and complexity of the print itself, she could tell it was batarian. Bray's. One press of her gloved thumb against it and the lock turned green as a click sounded from somewhere nearby.
Yahtzee.
The doors slid open and revealed a long empty hallway Olivia hoped would lead her straight to Aria. As she cautiously made her way down the hallway while stealthily avoiding any security cameras, she wondered why she was here exactly. Maybe it was for revenge for the shit Aria put her though. Maybe it was because Olivia knew that taking out Aria was a means to an end of an era of the once Captain's life. Maybe it was because Olivia had something to prove to the galaxy and to her family? Whatever the motive, Olivia knew she was in too deep to turn back. This was it. This was her time to fuck this purple bitch up five ways from Tuesday.
One peek through the small porthole window and into the main control room and Olivia smirked with a morbid glee.
There Aria paced in all her false grandeur while simultaneously barking orders to her subordinates like she always tended to do. Olivia had firsthand knowledge of how Aria ran her organization since Olivia had been Aria's Nyreen equivalent at one time. She rolled her eyes then looked around the room to take in her surroundings. It was a standard control room like the one Aria had on Omega which wouldn't have provided much cover if the shit hit the fan. She counted six guards working the controls for the warehouse, Aria, and two other women Olivia knew quite well and hated as long as she'd known them.
To Aria's right and dressed like a teenager high on red sand (in all honesty, she probably /was/ high on red sand) was Aria's new red headed confidant: Lissi Draga. She was a protégé of the Patriarch and Olivia knew first hand this little brat would be a bigger problem than Aria herself. To Aria's right was her new bodyguard since Bray moved onto bigger things: Destiny Teodora. She was Vera Teodora's estranged sister and certified crazed maniac. What she lacked in age she made up for in sheer madness. It was rumored she killed fifty Blood pack members with her eezo infused katana in one night. But the truth of the matter was it was really Archangel, White Wolf, and me that did it and not her.
However, whatever Aria said happened in the Criminal Underground, happened. No matter what the truth had been.
Leaving the room out through the other door was good old Bray; a stinky, pesky, shit talking, annoying, cock juggling thundercunt that Olivia just couldn't bear to even look at. The many times she wanted Bray's head on a platter outnumbered all the digits in that room alone.
Thankfully, he was making his grand exit and that meant Olivia would probably have to deal with him later and possibly last since she wanted to take her time gouging out all of Bray's eyes with her bare hands while he was still conscious just so he could feel the pain.
Whatever the case, Olivia hid in the shadows and eagerly awaited her moment for those doors to open. The plan Olivia thought she might have made up was thwarted by the exit of Lissi, who was on her omni-tool and of course, not paying attention to her surroundings. Probably posting stupid shit on the extranet; like where they were; which is how Olivia found them in the first place.
Perfect. Time for Plan B.
Olivia slid out of the shadows the moment the door closed and with a mighty roundhouse kick, kicked her unsuspecting target so hard in her side that Olivia could hear the snap of her ribs. As the young girl tried to turn around and fling her attacker across the room with her biotics, Olivia pressed her face against the wall and had her arm pinned painfully against the girl's back. Bad move bitch. Lissi tried again to fight back but Olivia had the cold barrel of her Diamondback against the back of the girls head faster than her biotics had a chance to recharge.
"Don't. Move." Olivia growled into the girl's ear and she nodded reluctantly; her blue eyes wide with fear of the overpowering and towering pirate.
"Good, little bitch. Now…let's go see Aria, shall we?" Olivia yanked her from the wall like a rag doll and kept the barrel of her gun to the back of Lissi's head while using the girl as a human shield. Outside of the room and right in front of the surveillance camera, Olivia shouted Aria's name just to get the kingpin's attention.
Aria stopped mid pace and narrowed her eyes before opening the doors to the control room as she knew that distinctive voice anywhere. The moment them doors opened Olivia noticed that in the time it took the doors to creak on their hinges the guards were fanned out on both sides of Aria and Destiny. Olivia peeked around Lissi's shivering frame and when the two old friend's eyes locked, the tension in the room got so thick that you couldn't cut it with a hot butter knife.
"Olivia. Marcellus. I should have known." Aria growled softly.
The vicious grin crossed Olivia's face. She knew she had Aria at a disadvantage by having Lissi's life in her hands, and Aria knew this by the way her narrowed eyes widened slightly and her hand raised to halt the guards from straight up turning this into an execution. Olivia took advantage of the moment.
Without any verbal exchange Olivia rested her boot in the girl's back before using the girl as a push off point to slide into cover. The force behind Olivia's weight and the sheer shape of the heel in Lissi's back killed her by snapping her spine with a sickening crack. Her warm corpse hit the floor and slid towards Aria before the shots rang out in what was once Olivia's direction.
As Olivia unholstered her Diamondback revolvers and flipped the switch to activate the shredder ammo in the chambers, she heard Aria's angered and hurt growl even over the gunfire.
"RIP THE BITCH'S HEAD OFF!"
Olivia peeked over cover and used both revolvers to take out the two guards on the ends before ducking back behind cover. They were advancing and advancing quickly and just like when Olivia and Marcus took out the batarians on the Rose, Olivia knew what she needed to do.
Like before, one shot to the light took out half the illumination in the room and casting enough shadow to cause confusion in the remaining four guards. Their gunfire ceased and using the gentle hum of the electronics in the room to center her for battle, Olivia took the advantage to do what she did best. She holstered her revolvers and crept up behind the closest guard slicing their throat from ear to ear with her dagger before kicking the closest one in the stomach.
He stumbled into the one behind him about to open fire (which he opened fire on himself) and Olivia twirled around, taking out her second dagger and launching it towards the other trooper. It went straight through the helm of his visor making the nauseating crack echo throughout the room. The last one opened fire with shaky hands and Olivia expertly dodged, dropping to a crouched position, tripping him, and while he was on his back breaking and bending his arm backwards so that he would shoot himself in the dick with his own gun.
Olivia stood slowly and thought she was lucky to only have six guards and Destiny to plow through before she encountered the main reason she was here. Snatching her daggers defiantly from the corpses Olivia flicked her wrist and sending the blood splattering onto the floor to add to the growing pool around her feet.
"So, Aria…" Olivia cooed in that sarcastic tone she had become quite fond of, "Got any more subordinates I can kill? This has gotten quite boring and I came /way/ too far to be disappointed."
Aria never spoke in response but the smile grew cold across her face. Olivia didn't know if she was genuinely happy that Olivia's balls had dropped some point in her life, if Olivia really just had a death wish, or that Olivia was in for a rude awakening. Olivia bet the latter as the click of heels on the metallic floor cut through the awkward silence and drew her attention to her right.
Destiny. The femme fatale came out from around Aria and waved as she smiled in a way that made Olivia cringe. Now Olivia had seen some pretty lethal looking swords (no pun intended) and the Reaper Cleaver (Alistair's massive sword cut from the essence of a true organic Reaper), the Black Cloak (Kathryn's wavy bladed sword), Justice and Vengeance (Katie's dual white and black katanas), Norah and Carmen's katanas, and even the Creed's Rapier. None of them held not one candle to the sword she slid out of the sheathe hanging from her hip.
Olivia's eyes widened only slightly before she slowly walked over towards Destiny with a deliberate slow click of her heels.
"Destiny Teodora. You've grown." Olivia smiled lightly with a hint of sadness behind it as she remembered the young girl from her days in service to Aria.
"You're a smart one. Seems you've grown too. Except wider not…taller." Destiny smirked darkly and unsheathed her sword, resting the flat part of the blade against her shoulder.
Olivia's eyebrows furrowed instantly and she hadn't taken the comment lightly. "Really, Destiny?" The neko pirate sighed and shook her head, knowing that engaging the banter with Destiny would just anger both women further and break Olivia's focus. "Listen. I know you feel the need to serve Aria. I was there once too as I was wrapped in her shit. But don't be stupid about this. I beg you Destiny, go back to the Citadel and reconcile with your sister. It's a better life than this shit, trust me."
The shrill laughter of the young girl filled the small room and Olivia pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance. It was starting to piss Olivia off how stupid she was being, but she gritted her teeth and bit her tongue.
The smirk crossed Destiny's face yet again and something seemed odd about it, sinister even? "You call /that/ begging?" She twirled her sword around her, slicing through the air as the blade seemed to leave a thin blue biotic trail behind it. "I know /you/, the whore of Babylon, the seductress of smut, can definitely beg better than that. I've heard you in your endeavors with the arms dealer."
Did she just…? Oh. Hell. No. That was it. Olivia could stand pot shots at her domestication, even her lack of real skills with her sword. But Ranger? That crossed a line that brought the anger to Olivia's eyes.
Apparently that was exactly what Destiny wanted when Olivia pointed the Creed's Revenge towards Destiny initiating a fight to the brutal death that Olivia was sure she'd lose.
A loud whoosh above me compulsively made me attempt to open my eyes, although I couldn't at the moment as they were heavy and filled with sand particles. Was I dead? Was this heaven? I'd thought it was the moment I saw someone's face in my hazy vision. His words fell on ears filled with sand and his visage made me think I was seeing a spirit of some sort.
I didn't give a fuck what or who, but I was quite glad when the light faded and I didn't feel any pain.
Maybe this was it. Maybe… I was home.
To Be Continued…