Zaeed and his former love Aranya ran through endless rooms and corridors as the base alarms continued to sound. So far they had been met with very little resistance due to most of the Mercenaries having been re-directed to deal with the unknown intruders. Tension was high between the two. It had taken the bounty hunter all of his physical and mental strength to not choke the Asari to death back in his cell. Though the idea still lingered even in their current situation. Perhaps he would act on it as soon as their mutual goal to kill Vido had been accomplished. If it was accomplished...
"How much further?" he asked in between breaths as he ran alongside his asari companion. Aranya halted as they came to a door at the end of a large storage room and placed her hand over the palm scanner.
"Keep your fly zipped, it's just through here then we-" The palm scanner beeped twice and glowed red denying her access through the blast doors. "What?" She double checked by, once again, placing her hand on the scanner. It still denied her access. "Something's wrong."
"What is it now?" he asked in frustration.
"Some kinda malfunction in the scanner, it won't-" she tried one last time before smashing the device in frustration with her pistol grip. "Shit! I'm locked outta the system, I dunno what's wrong."
"Allow me to clarify..." A voice said from behind. The two turned to face a squad of Eclipse mercs lead by a Salarian in tech-armor; all with their rifles pointing at them.
"What the fuck is this Razard?" Aranya questioned as the Salarian grew a sly smirk on his face.
"Don't play coy with me Major!" he retorted. "Did you really think command wasn't aware of your past relationship with Messani? I was ordered to watch you the moment he was brought in for questioning. The forged orders you handed to my commandos confirmed my suspicions."
"So what now lieutenant? You gonna kill us both and collect that bonus paycheck of yours?" The Salarian steadied his aim with his Canifex pistol.
"I get paid double if I take you two alive, but if you'd rather we do things the easy way..." Both Aranya and Zaeed shared a look of discontent; hoping the other would have a plan to escape their current predicament but with half a dozen weapons pointed at them, any effort was suicide. They both gave in to surrender and put their hands on their heads with Aranya dropping her pistol to the ground as they did so. With a motion of his head, Lt. Razard silently ordered one of his men to cuff them. The human mercenary walked toward them holding out a pair of binders in his left hand when suddenly, he was lifted off his feet into the air by a biotic field. The Eclipse soldier painfully yelled and struggled when, all at once, his body burst sending flesh, bone, and blood flying in all directions. Zaeed and Aranya as well as Lt. Razard and his men were all covered in a bloody mess; shocked at the event that befell the unfortunate human.
"Hey, ass-face!" The voice of a infuriated woman called from behind the Eclipse squad. A certain balled, tattooed woman stood proudly with a smirk on her face with her hand raised; glowing with biotic energy. Miranda, Jacob, Thane, Samara, and Kasumi all stood in formation around her with their weapons drawn.
"We're willing to let you live," said Miranda. "Unless you'd rather we do things the easy way..." she finished sarcastically with a smirk. The Salarian's eyes bulged in fear as he peered behind himself at Zaeed and his Asari companion then back to the group who held his life as well as those of his men by a simple trigger. Razard then waved both his arms signaling for his men to lay down their weapons.
"Thane, Jacob" The Drell and former alliance corsair proceeded to lead the Salarian and his men to the side of the room on Miranda's order and held them at gunpoint. "Kasumi, the door," Miranda ordered once again. Kasumi proceeded to the large blast doors, ripping off a panel on the wall next to it and began by passing circuits. The Cerberus officer then turned to Aranya. "And you are?"
"Looking at one fine piece of ass," the asari replied with a smirk as she looked over the Cerberus officer's body. Zaeed turned to her with his brow raised.
"Now you suddenly go both ways? Do you honestly think about anything else besides screwing everything with a sex organ?" Aranya turned to him with a glare.
"Comes with being mono-gendered dumb-ass..." she retorted.
"You didn't answer my question!"
"Are we playing state the obvious now?"
"Both of you, knock it off!" Miranda snapped. "We'll discuss your allegiance when we get out of-" Miranda halted in her speech upon hearing the door on the opposite side of the room opening with a platoon of Eclipse mercs flowing through.
...
The crew of the Normandy spent the next couple of hours patching the hole in tech lab as best they could while Shepard's team reported to their assigned duties; prepping the ship for the worst before pursuing Sovereign through the Mu relay to Ilos. Mordin babbled constant orders to crewman Hawthorne and Goldstein like an annoying supervisor at your first job while they, and several other engineers welded spare metal plating to patch the hole in ship. Fixing the hull breach was a prime concern of his. After all, studying cellular biology while knowing that the only thing keeping you from being sucked into the vacuum of space was a thin barrier, wasn't exactly the most comfortable working environment.
Meanwhile, Shepard played with the galaxy map, observing all the words he visited on their hunt for Saren two years earlier. With each touch of his finger, the display zoomed in on the selected coordinates. Feros; it made him think of the colonists he saved from the Thorian's control, from the immoral experiments Exo-geni had been performing. Noveria; it brought back memories of the Rachni, the race of menacing insects that nearly killed him, his friends, and everyone in the research labs. However, the Rachni larva would be redeemed in the years to come after his benevolent deed of freeing their queen. He began to remember their battle with Matriarch Benezia. He had brought Liara as well as Tali with him for that mission. He could still see the pain and sorrow in the asari's eyes as she watched the last flicker of life fade away from her mother. Maybe letting her tag along that day was a mistake, maybe that was what caused her to undergo such drastic changes in the past two years. Shepard tapped the tiny projection of a familiar planet. Therum. It was there that he first met Liara. She had been caged in an ancient Prothean barrier after stumbling across remnants of what remained of their technology. This chain of thought led him to select Ilos next. It was only a few hours before going through the Mu relay for the first time that he...no. As much as Liara meant to him as a friend, Tali was the one for him. The memory of the time he and the asari scientist spent together would be treasured, but never as much as the memory of the night he and Tali first expressed their love for each other. The Quarian was so nervous that night, so fearful that he wouldn't accept her for what she looked like without the veil of her helmet. Remembering how she pounced on him like a wild panther on a helpless antelope brought a smile to his lips followed by a quiet chuckle. A few minutes later, Mordin walked out of the lab to tell him that they had repaired the hull breach to the best of their abilities. It wasn't perfect, but it would due until they could get the job done properly at the nearest space dock. Besides, the more time they spent fixing the ship, the more time their Reaper friend had to find a way off Ilos. It was now or never. Shepard headed over to the helm to give the departure order to Joker; surprised to not hear him bickering over a trivial dispute with his AI 'mom' as the pilot called her.
"Commander?" said Joker; slowlu rotating his chair around to meet the commander's gaze.
"Plot a course for Illium Joker, we're gonna need the whole team to take Sovereign down," the brittle-boned pilot rotated back in the opposite direction and began inputting the coordinates into the ships nav-computer
"Course set commander, shouldn't take any more than six hours to get there..." Joker's tone was unusually depressing which Shepard quickly picked up on.
"You don't sound like your usual spiffy self, Joker, something on your mind?"
"Just the whole Sovereign thing and all. I mean, killing the bastard two years ago made going through the Omega 4 relay seem like a cake walk. But now that he's gone all Jesus Christ resurrected on us, I dunno Shepard, makes me wonder if the Collectors have any more surprises for us too."
"Life is unpredictable Jeff," EDI said, joining in on the conversation. "You have good days and you have bad days. Nothing can change this law of reality. What matters is that you're ready to face what lies ahead and conquer it," both Joker and the commander turned to EDI's holographic projection with shocked expressions. Who knew the AI could speak such wise words.
"I..." Joker struggled to find the right words. "Thanks, mom."
"There is no need to thank me Jeff," said the AI. "I only copied these words from an article on the extranet."
"Well that kinda ruins my motivation..."
"That was a joke."
"Not a very funny one..."
Shepard ended his trip to the helm with a simple "Carry on," and walked back over to the galaxy map. Half-way there a thought crossed his mind. Tali. They didn't really have time to enjoy their reunion after he had awakened from his strange coma. With Sovereign's escape, informing the council, and preparing the ship for what seemed to be leading up to another suicide mission, there hadn't been any time to get 're-acquainted.' He walked over the elevator and called it using the wall controls. He waited patiently for the elevator doors to open when Kelly called him from behind.
"Commander, you've received a new message at your private terminal," He fought to hold back his laughter at her comment. He'd heard her use the same sentence to inform him of new messages since he had first come aboard. At times he felt like telling her to be less formal about it, but hearing anything else would feel very anti-climatic to what he was used to when aboard the Normandy. He pivoted his body in her direction to speak with her.
"Thank you Kelly, I'll have a look at it la-argh!" Shepard was suddenly grabbed by his arm and pulled into the elevator, which he hadn't noticed, had finally opened behind him. He found himself standing next to his lover, Tali. She had her arms crossed over her chest and her eyes were narrowed in the form of a glare.
"Tali?" he with a hint of nervousness. Her infamous 'death-glare' would give any man the chills.
"We need to talk..." she replied sharply. Without looking she punched the controls for deck 1 for their destination. They arrived seconds later. She briskly walked off and into the cabin with Shepard following suite. She walked down the small set of steps and stopped in front of the bed. Her arms still crossed with her back facing Shepard. He stepped up behind her, expecting her to slap him for making her worry so much for him over the past few days.
"Tali..." he started softly. "I know I must have put you through a lot..." As he spoke, Tali's arms slowly approached her helmet. He continued, "And I know things aren't looking any better with our current mission..." He gazed down at the floor in defeat as her hands began to fiddle with the release switches for her visor. "But even will all that's going on, with all that's coming, I just want you to know that-" Tali suddenly ripped her visor off and flung it to the side of the room; spinning around and pulling Shepard into a deep, passionate kiss, all in the blink of an eye. He jumped slightly at the feeling of her lips meeting his but quickly submitted to her; returning the affection with equal passion. Their embrace continued with nothing but the sensation of their beating hearts and the sound of their heavy breathing. Tali eventually swung herself around, bringing Shepard along as well and pushed him down on the bed. Before he could even glance up at the ethereal beauty that was her face, he found himself once again pounced by the Quarian engineer he loved so much. Tali quickly moved in for another kiss which Shepard gladly met. After a moment his thoughts returned to reality as concern overtook him. He had to just about use all his strength to pull her face away for a split second to protest his concern.
"Did you take your anti-"
"Shut up!" she quickly interrupted and threw her face down to his; binding their lips together once again. He wanted to say no, to throw her off of him for fear of causing a fatal allergic reaction, but the sensation roaring through his body; a primal feeling rising from his very soul, made it impossible for him to conclude anything logical. He felt her sensually crawl up his body while positioning herself more comfortably. He could feel the sweat drenching his clothing as instinct took over and the two did nothing but savor one another. He rolled himself on top of her like an animal expressing its dominance. Never once did their lips break apart. Tali mimicked his show of dominance by doing the same; again bringing herself on top of him. Shepard rolled one final time before the two fell out of bed with him landing on his back and the woman he loved still laying on top of him. Shepard gently traced his hands along her thighs and up her hips before finally halting on the swell of her butt and groping it firmly. He rose to his feet propping her up on his arms as he moved over to the wall. Tali squeaked as she felt her back hit the wall, the light pain was the last thing she thought about however, as she moved in for another kiss while tightly wrapping her legs around his waist.
They broke the bond of their lips only for a brief moment to catch their breath. As they panted heavily Shepard moved back over to the bed and let her fall flat on the sheets. He slowly brought himself down to her, supporting himself with his arms. They stared into each others eyes all the way through to their very souls as Tali's hands began to make their way up to her helmet. She slowly pulled it off and tossed it aside. Shepard watched as it rolled off onto the floor then let his eyes make their way back to her. He glanced down at her chest and noticed her hands loosening one of the three straps that held the mid-section of her suit tight against her lithe form. After disconnecting the belt lock of the first strap, she began to rub her hand along the next two straps while still admiring his gentle sapphire-colored eyes before speaking in that maddening seductive tone of hers.
"After you..." It was in that moment that he realized, whenever he remembered their previous mission two years earlier, whenever he would reminisce about Ilos, he would not remember that night he spent with Liara, but this moment right here, right now, with the woman he knew to be his soul-mate.