Cover dotted the small docking bay, mostly in the form of crates, which meant Shepard got around three to four seconds behind any given cover before it disintegrated under gunfire. The mercenaries on the other hand, crouched behind some lovely, strong-looking, waist high walls. By the destruction of her fifth crate, Shepard decided they all had earned a slow, painful death.
She knocked out a salarian's shields and then frowned when his head exploded.
"Hey! That was mine," she snapped at the turian currently resting nicely in cover. Cover that the mercenaries ignored. Seemed they thought the human made a better target.
"You didn't call him. You call him, you get him," he responded, popping another heat sink.
"Kill stealing jackass."
"So you've said. But it's not like you're getting much of a chance to shoot running around out there." An asari vanguard went down off to her left. "That makes six."
"Five. I'm not counting the salarian. He. Was. Mine." She fired Boo and watched in satisfaction as the blast knocked a pair of mercenaries out of their hidey-hole. She fired twice more and ducked into new cover. "Eight."
"One of them is still twitching. Seven and a half."
"A half? I can't have a half. Eight."
"Half. He is going to die of his burns, not your gunfire. Do you think you can get that annoying sniper in the upper left? I can't a get a bead on them."
Shepard eyed the mercenary in question. "Asking for help? Why, I never thought such a day would come." She switched to her rifle and lined up the shot. Two bursts later the enemy lost a sniper. Shepard also lost her cover and swore, running towards the closest shelter. Bullets peppered her shield and it failed just as she slid into the small area behind the console. If she so much as twitched, her arms or legs would be exposed. At least they would not be able to break this.
"Done," she said, waiting for her shield to recover. "You finally going to move forward?"
"Maybe. I've been toying with the idea. Depends on what there is to head towards."
Shepard snorted. "You've got your pick of flimsy crates. I'm not moving from my console for you. Maybe head straight for the wall – you can punch all the mercs when you get there for me."
"Wasn't talking about cover, Shepard," came the quiet response. Shepard felt her jaw drop.
"You want to have that discussion now? This isn't exactly the best time. In case you haven't noticed, there's a good number of people trying to kill us right now."
"There are always people trying to kill us Shepard. Or we are thousands of miles apart. And it isn't something that should be discussed over holovid."
Shepard's shield flickered to life and she leaned out, shooting the bastard who had started firing missiles. Goddamn heavies. Her heart pounded, but she knew it had nothing to do with the fight. Goddamn turian.
"We don't do this, remember?" she said softly. "We don't have heart-to-hearts. We don't say what doesn't need to be said. I already know –"
"I know you know. Commander Shepard knows everything. But I wanted to ask, when this mission is over do you want to come to the Terminus system with me for a while? I would – "
"Yes." The answer came without hesitation and with a strong conviction that surprised Shepard herself. She nestled back into her cover and sighed. She should have quipped. Or mocked him. Or made a joke about it. Anything other than showing how much thirteen months of sporadic holo calls and the knowledge that maybe that one last mission might have caused them to lose whatever they had had eaten away at her.
"Good. That's good."
Fuck. The relief and pleasure in his voice was unmistakable. Shepard clenched her hands, irritated at herself - at her goddamn heart for feeling a hell of a lot lighter. "Excellent. If we're done being saps, can we shoot these fuckers and get out of here?"
"As you wish."
Shepard emptied her clip into a mercenary that though he could sneak up on her left. Hard to do on her worst day, and Shepard currently felt better than she had in months.
She checked her ammo and swore. "I'm down to my last heat sink. Please tell me the last few mercs have magically vanished."
"Toss me that last heat sink and I'll see what I can do."
Shepard did not question, just threw it. She knew there was more than one inventive person in the room. The fueling system hanging above the platform the mercenaries crouched behind suddenly felt the wrath of a well-aimed rifle. Shepard found herself grinning even before she watched that final spent heat sink go arcing through the air and land on the now doused mercenaries.
Shields really were finicky things – perfectly good at stopping bullets and rockets but quick to fail under extreme heat. Liquids also passed through easily enough, and so when the shields went down, well, Shepard knew full well starship fuel burned very hot. Nasty, but Shepard lacked sympathy. She respected those who ran security, which was an honest job. Running drugs and slaves on the other hand, that put people on about the level of space rats. Maybe lower – at least the rat had the guts to come after her unarmed.
"Well," Shepard said merrily, "I suppose we can go to the ship now. Unless you feel the need to bask in the glow of your genius."
He flicked a hand at her. "Unlike you, I don't ever feel the need to reassure myself of my greatness. I am a highly decorated Spectre you know."
Shepard made her way around the still burning bodies to the air lock. "An yet, whenever you - ah, shit. Someone breached the airlock. Someone's on your ship."
"I'm calling point," he said, pushing past her.
"The codes to you ship still the same?" she asked instead of arguing.
"Yes, why?"
"Just making sure I can fly this thing after I step over your bullet ridden body."
He snorted in response, and then they both fell silent as the door swished open. Out of ammo, their best chance rested on getting the drop on the wannabe shipjacker.
The ship was small, and they did not have to look far. The asari sat in the pilot's chair, cursing at the VI currently informing her "access denied". Clearly not a tech expert, but she did, however, sense their approach, so Shepard gave the blue bitch some credit.
"Alex, did you take car of those –" the asari cut off mid sentence when she saw exactly who she addressed. "Fuck."
"Yah, I'd say that about sums it up," Shepard replied. The asari eyed the pair of guns pointed at her.
"You going to shoot me, or give me a chance to make peace with the Goddess first?"
Shepard opened her mouth to go for the first option, but her turian beat her too it.
"I'm feeling generous today. You've got five seconds to get off my ship or get a bullet in the head."
The asari did not argue, just took off. Shepard sighed.
"Really? You're going to let her go?"
"Can you check that she made it off the ship?" he replied, sitting in the now vacant chair and hands flashing across the console. "What did you expect – I was going to shoot her with an empty gun? Besides we rigged the station to blow in less than a hour."
"And what if she gets off the station before then?" Shepard asked, trotting down to the airlock and securing it. She checked the outer monitors and watched the asari running across the destroyed dock, not even checking any of her companions. Bitch.
"If she is smart enough to get one of the ships I destroyed running, then she deserves to live."
"You know," Shepard said mildly, taking a quick peek in the ship's three other rooms to make sure they had no other unwanted passengers, "if you keep letting the smart ones go, eventually they might breed and the next generation will be a lot more trouble to kill."
"Well, I wouldn't want to get bored in my old age, now would I?"
The ship rumbled and Shepard felt the familiar momentary vertigo of entering FTL. She made her way back towards the flight deck, pulling of her helmet, and starting to work at the clasps to her gloves.
"Of course not. Because if you breed smart mercs, they'll kill you before you reach old age, you moron," she said, stepping through the door.
A gloved hand snapped out from her right and grabbed her. Shepard found herself pinned against the wall and meeting a pair of very green eyes.
"Bastard, jackass, moron – I'm starting to think you've forgotten my name," he growled. Shepard felt a slow smile spread across her face.
"Me? Forget an important fact like that?"
"Shepard."
"Yes, Kryik?
"Shepard."
She laughed softly, one hand reaching up and following the white line under his eye and down his mandible. "That is your name. Wish granted."
"Not all of us hate our first names Shepard. And I happen to like it when you use mine." His voice dropped an octave and Shepard licked her lips. His eyes narrowed. She grinned and leaned in as close to his face as she could get without touching.
"Do you now," she whispered. A beat. Then - "Nihlus."
He rumbled in pleasure and pressed his forehead against hers. Shepard returned the pressure in full, her other hand joining her first on his face. She felt a three-finger hand mimic the motion on her own face.
"Did you miss me?" she asked. She did not say what she wanted too. He knew anyway.
"Like I would miss scale itch," Nihlus responded.
"Liar."
He did not deny it, just pulled her closer and kissed her. Shepard did not complain.
That was a better answer anyway.
A/N: And that's it for this snippet of a different path. Thank you to everyone who took the time to read this story, and special thanks to those who commented, letting me know what they liked and what was working.
I hope this little AU was a fun to read as it was to write. :)