"That is what I am, Tali'Zorah; your own personal demon."
Tali's eyes snapped open as she loudly gasped. Frantically, she sat up in the bed only to discover that, instead of hanging by her arms in a dimly lit room while blood ran down her arms, she was alone and safe in bed with nary a scratch on her. The covers fell off her and she clutched at herself, dimly noting that she was still outside her suit as the air was noticeably colder around her.
She looked down to her side to find the other half of the bed unoccupied, to her confusion at first. Shepard must be downstairs as he wasn't in the room or in the shower at this time, she quickly determined. Tali shivered as the final remnants of Grevel's voice faded, the thought not assuaging her in the slightest. She let out a soft sob of relief, rubbing at her arms to make herself feel warmer.
"Damn it," she muttered as she hopped out of the bed to where she had left her suit. As she began the process of sealing herself back up, she reflected on the reasons why this was happening to her. The memories came in random intervals, always of that sinister mask hovering over her head. The ghoulish voice always taunted her and for seven years this had kept up. It was always the same image of the person who had so violated her most private thoughts, manifesting her own personality into the folds of her mind.
She's dead, Tali, she told herself. Grevel is dead so why can't you block her out?
Numbly, Tali stared into space as she reflexively closed her suit back up. With a few button presses on her omni-tool, the covering hissed and the clasps sprang forward into each other, locking the material in place with a few harsh snaps. Tali quickly tied her hair back before she lifted the rear portion of her helmet, sliding it along her skull. Somewhat mournfully, she picked up her visor from the ground and pressed it against the seals, making a faint clicking noise that reverberated in her ears. After draping her hood over her helmet and doing a final systems check did she sadly determine that she was ready to go.
She sighed as her tinny voice was restricted once again. Being out of this suit was the most wonderful feeling she could possibly describe and yet she was still tethered to its ability to keep her alive. If it weren't for Shepard, though…
That brought a pang of hope to her as she remembered where she was, a slow smile spreading across her face. She was here in Shepard's apartment, wasn't she? She had just spent a night with someone who cared about her and now they were within arm's reach once again. What right did she have to be afraid right now? No longer melancholy, Tali bounded off the bed and raced down the steps, where a sizzling noise was coming from the kitchen.
She rounded the corner to find Shepard working at the kitchen island, prodding a pan of scrambled eggs while onions and cubes of meat sat in a bubbling pool of fat. He saw her enter and held out an arm to give her a lopsided hug, as he was holding onto a cooking utensil with his other hand. Tali squeezed his body in reassurance, looking to cement whatever scrap of proof she could find that this entire encounter was real.
"Good morning, Tali," Shepard greeted as they still continued to hug. "Sleep well?"
"Very," she answered. Except for the ending, she thought to herself.
Grinning, Shepard kissed the top of her hood before he broke off to make sure that he didn't burn his eggs. "No regrets about last night?" he asked with a concerned tone.
"None whatsoever," she replied confidently as she leaned across the counter to stare at him. "You're making yourself some breakfast?"
"Yep," Shepard nodded as he slid the eggs onto an awaiting plate, followed by the onions and the meat. He then put the plate into a warming drawer underneath the oven before he walked over to the sink to wash his hands. "I can get started on yours right now, if you like."
"My…what?" Tali faltered. "You mean breakfast? Oh, no thank you, John. I don't want you to go to the trouble-"
"Nonsense!" he waved her off. "I have the sterile kitchenware stored somewhere in this place. Besides, what are going to do for food anyway, order takeout? If I can just…aha!" After applying a pair of gloves, Shepard opened a vacuum sealed cabinet and removed another pan and plate and proceeded to set them down on the stove. "Knew they weren't too far. Now, what would you like, Tali?"
It had to be Shepard's genuine seriousness for something that Tali thought was completely unnecessary that she broke out in a fit of giggles. Shepard's expression flickered to apprehension briefly before returning to his initial face when he wanted to help someone. After recovering, Tali looked at the equipment that Shepard had procured before glancing at him incredulously. "You mean…what do I want to eat? John, that's sweet of you, but I'm not sure that you have anything that I can eat…"
"I can see where you'd be a little confused," Shepard shrugged before pointing behind Tali. "That's why I bought a second refrigerator filled with stuff that might I might not use. Go have a look and pick out anything that fits your fancy."
Now incredibly befuddled, Tali walked over to the stainless steel door and tugged hard on the handle. With a sucking noise, the white interior of the cooler beamed at her, exposing Tali to a treasure trove. Boxes of food clearly labeled "dextro" jumped out at her. There were cartons of eggs, gallons of liquids, stacks of meat, and even a few bottles of wine that were being chilled. In awe, Tali stared at the sight for a good while before she looked back at Shepard in confirmation.
"And…and I can eat all this?"
"Anything you want, Tali. I've improved my cooking in the last few years so I shouldn't be able to mess anything up now. Cooking dextro food uses the same principles as levo foods so it shouldn't be too difficult."
With trembling fingers, Tali picked up a carton of eggs, a leafy green vegetable, and a small package of thinly sliced meat. Closing the door behind her, she held out her chosen items to Shepard, who took them. "Eggs," she whispered. "I…I would like some eggs, please."
He beamed at her, enjoying watching Tali try to wrap her head around this. "Sure thing, Tali. Eggs it is."
Shepard cracked open the carton and blinked at the size of the eggs in question. Since they were of dextro chirality, they had come from a different species farmed somewhere in the Apien crest. The package detailed a four-legged animal that looked like a miniature elephant, but from what he had read on the extranet, the consistency and taste was very similar to the avian counterpart that humans enjoyed back on earth. He figured it was just better to pretend that he was dealing with abnormally large chicken eggs.
As she watched him crack the eggs open and whip them in a bowl, Tali blinked in wonder. "You have sterilized cooking tools and an entire fridge filled with dextro food. Was…was this all meant for me, John?"
He only gave her a knowing smile as he began slicing the meat before tossing it into another sterilized pan. "I figured you'd be back here someday and that this eventuality might occur. I had the place properly stocked to accommodate that possibility and I'm glad I did. Also, that's not all, Tali. Did you notice that all of the doors in this apartment took a whole lot longer to cycle than any regular door?"
"Yes, but I just assumed that it was a software-" she broke off as she drew from information previously buried in her brain, a possible scenario surfacing. "You didn't," she gaped, her mouth open.
Shepard shrugged again, like one was discussing the weather. "Are you feeling sick at all? Maybe a little down under the weather? You did just spend a whole night without your suit on, is why I'm asking."
"Yes- I mean, no!" Tali corrected, realizing that, since she woke up, she had not even felt even an inkling of discomfort. She had been too distracted to think about it before. "But…John, you're telling me that you installed a sterilization unit for the entire apartment?"
"Technically, I had four installed. This place is too damn big for one unit to properly handle all of the volume in the apartment."
"Four…" Tali mumbled as she ran a hand across the top of her hood. "Then…you made the entire place clean so that…so that I can be around you without a mask on?"
"Take a look at your contaminant readings," Shepard urged as he beamed. "Find out for yourself."
Really, Tali didn't need to check at all because she had never known Shepard to deliberately lie to her before. He was not one to fib in order to make things go his way. Regardless, she decided to humor him and did a test, her omni-tool reporting that the current quality of the air had a 1.35% chance of contamination. Compared to Shepard's cabin on the Normandy, which had about a 40%, this was as clean as it was going to get. If she were to apply antibiotics, Tali reckoned that she could get that percentage down even lower.
Slowly at first but shoving her concerns back down, Tali pulled her visor off again and sighed as she could breathe a little easier, the tormenting cover removed. The smell of cooking eggs and frying vegetables wafted deliciously into her nostrils and her stomach growled at the prospect of yet another fantastic meal. Shepard, meanwhile, watched the quarian push her hood back and remove the last of her helmet, showing him that face that he really never had much time to see.
"Much better," Shepard grinned as he scraped the eggs onto another plate and then scooped up some vegetables and meat to place carefully on top of her dish. He held the plate out to her and a smiling Tali reached for it, only to find that Shepard was gradually reeling his arms in, making Tali walk further and further until she was just feet away from him. When she got at the right distance, Shepard leaned over and gave her a quick peck on the lips, taking full advantage of the opportunity.
Tali gave him a playfully bemused expression before she set her breakfast down and moved in to initiate another, harder kiss. Her own stance was more desperate, more emotional, which made it all the more arousing for the both of them. They momentarily forgot their hunger for food and instead focused on each other as their lips parted and converged, their tongues playing together. It was the complete lack of fear in this environment that caused everything to become unhinged.
With sharp intake of breath, they diverged, their cheeks flushing darkly. "I'm never going to tire of that," Tali giggled.
"I'm thinking that you need to come over more often," Shepard admitted, still looking particularly flustered after that intense kiss. He handed Tali her plate and bent down to retrieve his from the oven, where it had been kept warm the entire time. "Let's go see if there's something on the vidscreen while we eat, okay?"
It turns out there was something on the vidscreen to watch at this hour, after wrangling a little with the channels, that is. There were a few sports matches that were going on but neither Shepard nor Tali particularly cared for the games this current season offered. Shepard liked a good fighting match while Tali was more into those obstacle games that heavily involved tech to get through them safely, neither of which was on at the moment. In any case, after Shepard protested against seeing Fleet and Flotilla for a third time, they finally settled on something to watch: an old human movie made roughly a hundred and fifty years ago. It was a bit on the over-the-top side but it was by no means any less entertaining.
"Ooooowieeee, you're good looking!" the bad guy said on the screen as he entered the room, a comical smile on his face accompanied by a little sashay of his hips.
Tali almost spat the eggs from her mouth as she laughed. "Are you serious?" she choked out. "Was that line supposed to be funny?"
"No," Shepard laughed as he set his plate down on the table in front of them. "I've never seen this movie before but it is…something else."
Tali had initially fumbled with using a fork to eat her food as she never had the occasion to use one before, but she soon got the hang of it and was awkwardly shoving food in her mouth by the end of her meal. To Shepard's delight, Tali had reported that his cooking was not terrible and was all-around fantastic, even going so far as to name it one of the best meals of her life, which made him glow with pride that his first home-cooked meal in a while had been a rousing success.
The bad guy on the screen made yet another stupid quote that was, yet again, meant to be taken seriously. He was shown with a very contorted face, as if he was struggling to find the right emotions for the scene but still overcompensating in every way.
Tali clutched at her stomach to keep herself from upending her plate that was perched precariously on her legs. "Okay, that's it! This is a comedy now, not an action film, John."
They continued to watch the film in a mix of amusement and horror. After a two-hour parade of explosions, cheesy one-liners, and endless slow motion shots, the credits finally rolled. Tali slumped on the couch, somehow physically exhausted from the ordeal. She blew a few strands of hair out of her face as Shepard began to snuggle up next to her, causing her to make a faint purr of affection.
"Mmm," Tali smiled as Shepard wrapped his arms around her waist, causing the both of them to lie sideways on the couch. "You know I like it when you do that, John."
"I've missed being able to do this to you," Shepard revealed as he began to kiss the side of Tali's neck, causing tingles to bolt down her limbs in ecstasy. He rubbed at her scalp, brushing Tali's hair with his fingers while the quarian lightly murmured and sighed as both of them lay there together.
"Ohhhh," Tali groaned as Shepard still continued to kiss her on her neck. "John…I…I don't think we're going to be able to do anything else if you keep that up for much longer."
"Oh?" Shepard seductively whispered into her ear, his breath tickling her. "Was there something you wanted to do today, Tali?"
She giggled as she rolled on her back, giving Shepard a light kiss before looking up at the ceiling in consideration. "I still have a few days before I rotate out, but I always wanted to try out that casino just outside your place. You know, the one on the Silversun Strip?"
"I know the place," Shepard nodded, now saddened by the fact that this euphoric encounter had been limited by time all along. "Do you want to go right now? We can just get some money together and go have a fun time, if that's what you want."
"It sounds good," Tali laughed before lightly flicking Shepard's lower lip with her finger. "And afterward…we can get back to this. If we start doing this at this hour, we're never going to get anything done because we'll just be confined to your bed all day."
"Ah well," Shepard shrugged as he sat up, helping Tali lean on him. "We can always make that the schedule for tomorrow, then," he mischievously added.
Tali rolled her eyes but chuckled all the same. "I suppose we could."
The tiny little light on her omni-tool blinked and Grevel quickly tapped the control to activate the application. "What?" she barked into the comm.
"They just left the apartment," a gruff voice squawked back. "It looks like they're headed over to the casino. Did you want my team to move on them now?"
"No," Grevel said quickly. "Wait until you're in a less populated area or at least a place where there is a good choke point, like a restaurant. Take your time to survey the surrounding establishments and report back to me if their movements change at all."
"Roger that," the voice said before the connection cut out.
Her fingers tapped expectedly on the sides of her chair. In a way, Grevel missed the thrill that she got from having to kill a misbehaving trooper in order to make an example out of them. These mercs were professional, prompt, and they always communicated well with her. It almost saddened her that she had to play this game with a few of these worthy workers, but sacrifices were always going to be made and the game was far too great for any one of them to properly understand.
Grevel sighed back in the silence of her room. There were trembles rumbling down her arms again. She mentally grumbled; she was going to have to take her nerve stimulant to calm her emotions by instructing her adrenaline to race elsewhere. It was part of her healing regimen the Broker had detailed, one that she still religiously adhered to.
It will be today. It all starts today.
A knife of pain unexpectedly stabbed forth out of nowhere, causing Grevel to wince as agony rushed through her. She bent over and savagely slammed a hand down on her leg that was the source of the pain to begin with. Instead of a dull thud, the impact made a hollow banging noise that was quickly swallowed up into the walls. Grevel gripped at her leg, knowing that it wouldn't stop hurting by doing so but instinctively did it anyway.
Phantom pain, they called it. As a result of the cortical reorganization that had occurred when her legs had been sheared off on Anhur, Grevel swore she could feel her missing limbs even though they were completely removed from her body. She knew that the pain was mostly the result of injured nerve fibers at her stumps, but this was something even modern medicine could not fix. Once a fiber was cut, it remained cut.
To try to confirm the source of her pain, Grevel lifted her leg and yanked away the cloth and armor surrounding her "calf" at the boot. She sourly eyed the configuration of metal machinery encased within. Stabilizing pistons hissed and embedded shock absorbers adjusted through the welded plating. It was one of the best prosthetics money could buy and Grevel could use it just as well as her old legs. But they weren't her original legs, which was the problem to begin with. All sensation, all touch, was gone in those areas. She couldn't feel anything there, except pain.
Pain was all she had now, but she could surely spread it to others.
"Fifteen on black has it!" the croupier called out.
Her fingers grasping on the edge of the table, Tali looked at Shepard. "What's that mean, John?" she said in excitement.
Shepard gestured to the roulette board upon where the chips were stacked. "That means you just won, Tali," he indicated warmly.
"I won!?" she gasped in disbelief, only accepting it when a larger pile of chips were pushed in her direction.
"To the tune of fifteen thousand credits," Shepard examined. "So, accounting for the fact that you bet on two different spots, you lost some money but you made over ten thousand credits in total. Good job!"
Unable to contain herself, Tali joyfully hugged Shepard in the middle of the casino. The other patrons didn't care; they had seen gaudier acts before, even in a classy place like this. Predictably, there were a few people who didn't hold back looks of consternation when they noticed that a quarian was in their midst. They said nothing, though, as the nomadic race was slowly building up a level of trust within the Council species, the humans especially, but there were still some who remained mistrustful of them as a whole.
On the other hand, there were several others who actively went out of their way to personally thank Shepard and even Tali for their services. They were all polite in their approaches and many were taken aback when Shepard offered to shake their hands. One veteran even saluted Shepard by the blackjack tables and surprised Tali when he asked to shake her hand. Curiously, she accepted but there was that warm feeling that always arose whenever she was with Shepard. It was like he had the ability to open her eyes to a world she could never imagine before.
She was immensely thankful for him.
"Well," Shepard said after Tali finished counting her chips, the two of them now wandering around the casino, "we've tried the roulettes, the blackjack, the varren races, and even the baccarat tables. Would you like to do anything else, Tali?"
"How about the poker tables?" she asked eagerly, cocking her head in the right direction.
"You sure?" Shepard asked. "Some of the regulars here are probably pretty vicious. They'll want to eat your chips up once you set them down on that board."
"I've played poker with you before, John, and I've handled your intense streak. Why not try and see what these amateurs can offer us?"
Shepard had to shrug at her words. The aloof nature was probably the best way to go, he had to admit. The both of them weren't poor; they weren't here to specifically get any richer but to have an all-around good time. Besides, it wasn't like a game of poker was going to kill them, unless one of them got so overconfident that they would attempt to bet the titles to their ships and they weren't nearly drunk enough to do that.
They found an empty table and took their seats, waiting for the rest of the players to finish their hands. While Shepard and Tali grabbed glasses of wine for themselves, the dealer slid cards in their direction and Shepard plunked his blind in the pot. Their opponents eyed them sourly, each one wanting to go for the kill. With the right attitude, a poker game could be a battle of patience and strategy and it looked like the other three were currently embodying that mindset. Shepard only smirked and flipped the corners of his cards upward so that he could have just enough time to read the number and the suit.
Shepard glanced over to see Tali holding her cards up at chest height. Smoothly, Shepard carefully pushed her arms down so that the cards were lying face down on the table. "No one's going to play fairly here," Shepard explained quietly. "If they see your cards, they're going to react accordingly. You're going to have to keep them covered as much as possible."
Tali immediately took his advice and sat through the game stoically, her movements on the table precise. Twenty minutes passed and two people eventually bowed out; one had willingly left with his chips and the other had been picked clean by a mean hand from Shepard. No one else took their places and the final scowling patron continued to savagely eyeball them as things started to heat up.
"All in," Tali said unexpectedly as she pushed her chips, quite a significant amount, into the center. Shepard blinked in surprise but saw that Tali had her hands clasped firmly over the other. He smiled as recognized that she her fingers were not squirming all over the place, which would have been her indication that she was nervous. So, she clearly was not bluffing with her hand and her opponent didn't know that, but Shepard did, which amused him.
"Call," the man said as he took a swig of his drink before answering Tali's movements. Shepard made a low whistle as the pot just got twenty-five thousand credits heavier. He glanced at the cards on the table before looking back at the two that he currently carried.
The five cards already aligned out were gleaming white, front and center. The two of spades and the eight of hearts Shepard didn't care about. It was the seven, eight, and nine of clubs he was most interested in. Add to the fact that he was right now carrying a ten and a jack of clubs made the situation even more interesting: a straight flush for him.
Tali was looking intently at the large pot in front in her when she thought she glimpsed movement on the table across from her. She looked up, her fingers tapping on the cloth to see a coated figured sitting upright, the skull-like mask peering right through her visor, burning into her brain.
With a gasp, she shut her eyes and nervously cracked them open after a few seconds. There was no one occupying that spot now, but Tali could still feel her heart race from the resulting illusion.
"I'll…" Shepard started to say when movement to his left temporarily distracted him. Tali was absentmindedly flicking her cards now, but it was within Shepard's eyesight, a momentary lapse of his directions to her. The movements were slight, but he couldn't help but pick out a five and a six of clubs in Tali's hand from the very sliver that her movements betrayed: another straight flush.
But Tali's hand was lower than his and Shepard knew he held the winning hand. There were no other possible combinations available to anyone else. If he were to call Tali, he would take the pot, he would take it all. All he had to do was say…
"…fold," Shepard finished as he slid his cards over to the dealer, who accepted them without hesitation. To the man, he gestured for him to show his cards, which he did so with a flourish.
"Full house," the man sneered, trying to look smug when his forehead clearly glistened with sweat.
Tali nodded at the hand before she flipped her own cards over, her hands beginning to shake now. "Straight flush," she got out, and the gentlemen's face flushed from red to purple in a span of two seconds. Muttering profanities under his breath, he reached for a vial of pills in his breast pocket and walked away on wobbly feet. Shepard breathed out from the culmination and gave Tali a one-armed hug.
"Congratulations, Tali," he said as the dealer began to stack Tali's chips in a case. "That was absolutely brilliant."
"You think so?" she squeaked out, still cautious at accepting her good fortune for today, nervously checking around her for a sign of her tormentor.
"Absolutely," Shepard asserted as he kissed the side of her helmet in a spur of the moment decision. "You just made over fifty thousand credits in one go at a poker table. For anyone, really, that is astonishing."
"Thanks, John," she laughed weakly as the dealer slid the case containing her winnings over to her. "But, I think I'm going to need a drink right now. I almost didn't think I was going to win it."
"You were nervous, Tali?"
"You think?" she asked sarcastically but sighed in relief soon after.
After Tali's chips were electronically processed and transferred over to her account, they climbed up the stairs to the hip looking bar installed on the second floor. Shepard had to shove aside some of the crowd spilling over from the dance floor to make his way to the bartender, Tali close behind him. Their drinks were assembled in short order; a Manhattan for Shepard and a dextro cocktail for Tali.
As the two sipped their drinks while perched on their stools, they let their eyes wander for a bit. They enjoyed the relative obscurity that the casino provided; there were no press here hounding them about their previous fame, no matter how short lived it was. No one to bother them at all. Here, Shepard and Tali could just be two regular people who had less than regular pasts. At least, for all the time afforded to them.
Shepard swiveled around in his chair and stopped mid-sip as he witnessed a familiar person leaning over the balcony on the other side of the room. They appeared to be chatting up a woman and his dramatic arm movements relayed to Shepard that his efforts were not going all that well. Unable to suppress his grin, he tapped Tali on the shoulder and pointed the person in question out to her.
"No way," Tali chortled as the woman awkwardly gathered her things and hurried away from Garrus Vakarian. The turian did not seem to take the rejection all that badly as he shrugged and returned to his drink, now talking with someone beyond his field of view, for there were a few dancers blocking his sight.
Almost as soon as the thought to visually penetrate the crowd came into his head, the dancers parted, revealing the slender form of Liara T'Soni sitting next to Garrus as she was most likely pointing out all his flaws in his latest attempt to woo a member of the opposite gender. At the very sight of Liara, Tali snorted air from her straw in surprise, causing her drink to bubble noticeably. Shepard quickly shot her a glance to which she recovered from, embarrassed at her lack of control in that split second.
"Come on," he said as he took a hold of her hand, noting a momentary reluctance. "Let's say hello while we're here." The drinks remained behind on the bar, forgotten.
Liara saw them coming and nudged Garrus on the shoulder, causing him to turn around in his seat, his eyes widening at the sight of Shepard and Tali headed his way. "Shepard!" the turian crowed, leaping up from his seat to wrap the human in an enormous hug. "And Tali too!" he exclaimed, giving her a noticeably gentler hug as well. Shepard guessed that Garrus was slightly inebriated due to his enthusiasm at the moment but didn't let that affect him.
"Garrus, you old bastard," Shepard grinned uncontrollably. "It's good to see you!" Liara now stood up and stepped forward meekly, her head hanging down a little. "Liara," Shepard beckoned to her for a friendly hug, to which she complied, "wow, it's wonderful that you're here!"
Shepard backed up to allow room for Tali to greet Liara, but when he brushed his hand along her arm, he noticed that her muscles were particularly tense, as if she was worried about something. Her posture was rigid and she stared blankly at the asari. Shepard was about to whisper to Tali to be polite when she gave a timid wave. "Hello, Liara," she said softly.
"Hello, Tali," Liara said, her tone a little uncomfortable but cleared up quickly. "I…I didn't know you two were on the station. Had I known, I would have invited you guys out for lunch or something."
"That's a first," Tali mumbled into the corner of her mask so that only she could hear it. "Actually, we both came in last night," Tali said in a louder volume. Ignoring Garrus' snicker, she continued, "Our shore leaves coincided with the other and only just met up yesterday. We still have a couple more days left so I wanted to drag John out here before it was too late. We weren't expecting to run into you guys, though."
"I wasn't expecting to be here, if you can believe it," Liara shrugged. "Garrus, in his infinite wisdom, wanted to recruit me as his wingman so that he could go home with someone tonight. I tried giving him some hints but so far things have been a little lackluster for him."
"What, Garrus?" Shepard arched an eyebrow playfully. "Already bored with retirement that you're feeling the need to share it with someone else?"
Garrus rolled his eyes as he playfully retorted back, "Yeah, well, despite Liara being the…" he looked in all directions for a bit before he dropped his volume, "…Shadow Broker… I thought that she had access to all sorts of secrets that would allow me to persuade the female…uh, persuasion."
"Nice choice of words," Tali chuckled.
"Garrus, I've been trying to explain this to you all day," Liara sighed as she slumped back on her chair. "The secrets I deal with are normally the government-toppling, black-box, life-ruining secrets. I doubt I have anything in my files that pertains on how to woo someone so that you can get them into bed later. You would have had better luck looking over one of those women's magazines, in all actuality."
"Well," the turian protested, "can't you just run a background check on someone and tell me what their preferences and odd habits are so I'll have a better chance of reeling them in? That sounds like a strategy you can pull off."
"You never said anything like that before," Liara smirked. "That's invasion of privacy and illegal, Garrus. But it's nothing I can't do…for a small fee, at least."
Frustrated, Garrus shook his head while Shepard and Tali watched. "Liara, you are the worst wingman in all of existence."
"You get what you pay for," she shrugged.
"I haven't paid you for anything!"
"Exactly. I have to finance my upkeep, you know."
"All right, you two," Shepard chuckled as he held up a hand. "You can carry on this line of conversation when Tali and I leave, okay? No need to drag us into it." He considered something for a moment. "Actually, I think Tali and I were about finished here so would you guys want to catch lunch with us? We can talk for a bit and go back to my apartment to hang out for a few hours afterward."
In the corner of his eye, he clearly saw Tali slowly shake her head back and forth quite subtly. He didn't change his expression to let Garrus and Liara know something was up so he just brushed his fingers on the back of her hand to acknowledge Tali's gesture.
"Sorry, Shepard," Liara sighed, "but we actually just ate."
"Yeah, Shepard," Garrus added. "Sorry. But, we can wait a few hours until you two have finished with your meal and we can all meet up back at your place for the evening. If that's okay with you, that is."
"It's perfectly fine," Shepard granted. "It'll be good for us to relax and chat. I'll let the door program allow you guys to enter if you arrive before we do. Just try not to pilfer all my alcohol, okay? I only just got the placed stocked to the level that I want it at."
"No promises," Garrus snorted, to which Liara shot him a glare. "You guys go and get some food and we'll see you in a few hours, then."
"Sounds good."
Taking hold of the other's hand, Shepard and Tali looked at each other and slowly snaked their way through the throng of dancers, trying to reach the staircase. Tali looked back at Liara in a furtive glance and turned away quickly, her cheeks starting to flush badly.
As Shepard and Tali left the bar area, they had failed to notice the two men seated in the corner, a distinct absence of drinks set upon their table. The two wore vacant expressions and did nothing but watch from their position. As the human and quarian walked out of their sight, the two humans slowly stood up and strode down the opposite staircase, quickly getting a fix on their two targets again.
They held back by thirty meters as they walked out of the casino and down the strip, waiting to see which place that Shepard and Tali would insert themselves into next.
"Do you want to talk, Tali?" Shepard asked around bites of his gnocchi.
"What about?" Tali said as she set her food tube down.
The restaurant they had chosen was a modern asari cuisine place that also had a focus on human Italian food for some reason. The entire floor was one large aquarium, casting a cool blue light from underneath everyone's feet. The moot was upbeat, the waiters prompt, and the food tasty. But there were still things to address at the moment.
Shepard set his fork down after he swallowed his food. "You've been acting kind of stiff since the casino. Did you want to talk about it at all?"
Tali knew that Shepard had not missed her obvious body cues in his direction but heated up in embarrassment nonetheless. She pushed aside her tube as she leaned over the table, Shepard mimicking her movements to make her feel safer, less exposed.
"John…I…" she grasped helplessly at the air before she decided upon the words she wanted to say. "I know that…that it must have been nice to see Garrus and Liara today, but…I just can't get this feeling out of my head!"
"Was it because I asked them to come over after lunch when we had previously decided to leave that whole block of time for ourselves?" Shepard asked earnestly. "That was my fault for not passing the idea by you, Tali, and I'm sorry that I did that."
"No!" she emphatically shook her head. "It's not the act of inviting them over that has upset me. I know that we'll have plenty of alone time later, John. It's…it's who you invited that I'm…I'm worried about."
Shepard had a feeling about the outcome but let his expression change anyway so that he could be seen as accepting the revelation nonetheless. "Liara," he nodded slightly. "Now I understand."
"Do you?" Tali almost pleaded. "John, I…I know it must sound stupid, but…even after you said you wanted me…all those years ago…I still can't accept the fact that Liara…" she drooped her head regretfully. "…That Liara got you first."
Before Tali could pull her hand off the table, Shepard quickly grasped it, gently squeezing it in a tangible act of affection. "I know exactly what you're going through, Tali," he whispered across the table. "I should have realized it earlier but you don't have to be ashamed for what you're going through."
"Ashamed?" Tali said quietly. "Five years have passed and I still haven't gotten rid of my misgivings against Liara! I should have gotten over something like that by now but I haven't! I just…it's because I haven't seen you in so long that I might think…that she'd take you back."
Shepard almost gave a low chuckle at the prospect's silliness but held back for fear of offending Tali. Instead, he reached over to raise her drooped head so that she could look into his eyes and determine for herself what was true.
"Tali," he began, "the past few years have been hard on us, more than we ever expected. People change in that amount of time, for better or for worse." He smiled, continuing to stare into her ghostly eyes. "But, consider this, who was the first person I contacted when I arrived on the Citadel to let them know I was around? Who was the one person that I made deliberate contact with so that I could get another chance to see them again?"
"M-Me," Tali stammered, now realizing what this meant.
"You. You, Tali, and no one else. When I was with Liara that one night, I knew that I had made a mistake immediately afterward. We didn't match, we didn't fit. We had just been looking for companionship before a deadly mission and that just complicated things for us."
Shepard raised his forearms and lowered his head onto them so that he was supported on the table. "I have always felt comfortable with you, Tali. Out of all the things that I have done in my sorry, messed up life, being with you, no matter how fleeting it was, was probably the best decision I ever made. I just want to let you know, Tali, that you don't need to worry about that at all, because I doubt I'll ever care about someone as deeply as I care about you now."
Letting out a shuddering sigh, Tali visibly relaxed in her seat. Giving out a tiny squeak before sniffing, her eyes darted frantically while Shepard held her hand. "You mean…" she said, trying to appear very much like a strong admiral instead of a scared and nervous child, "…after all this time, you still l-"
"Admiral Shepard!" someone called, making both Shepard and Tali jump in their seats.
With a patter of feet on the glass floor, a small figure darted between the tables, the maître d' chasing after her. Grabbing an unoccupied chair, the person quickly sat down to the side of the table, in between Shepard and Tali, and began panting from her running. The host saw her seated at the table and realizing she was not being shooed away, gave up his pursuit and went back to his post at the doors.
Shepard looked hard at the new arrival. The fabric of her suit was a light grey, a straight line pattern scything down her hood. Clasps and belts hung around her and her blood-red visor barely hid a pair of familiar glowing eyes from behind the smoky curtain. At her side, she carried a simple pistol and a combat knife hung loosely around her waist. Shepard had seen so many quarians in his lifetime that he was not startled of the sight but incredible bemused regardless.
"Admiral Shepard," the quarian breathed. "I have to talk to you right aw-" She stopped mid-sentence as soon as she noticed Tali staring at her, also with a befuddled expression. "Oh, Keelah," the quarian moaned. "I didn't see you there, Admiral Zorah. I'm…I'm not part of your crew but I have heard of you-"
"Please," Tali cut the young quarian off. She hated praise being heaped upon her from anyone other than Shepard. She was disappointed that her intimate conversation with Shepard had been interrupted, but she knew it wouldn't be fitting of her to send this young quarian away so suddenly. She just boiled internally instead. "Keelah se'lai, miss…?"
"Nela," the woman said. "I'm Nela'Tiloc nar Ozens, Admiral Zorah."
"Call me Tali, please. You're not under my command and I'm off duty at the moment."
"You're on your Pilgrimage?" Shepard asked, noting the use of the word "nar."
Nela bobbed her head. "Yes, that's right. I've been on here for-" she stopped and shook her head. "Never mind all that. I need to tell you something right now, Admirals. There are people here that want to see you dead!"
Shepard and Tali shared a concerned look before turning back to Nela. "And what makes you so sure about that?" he asked her.
"I was scanning and analyzing comm channels from the construction teams outside where I work. We were rebuilding the docks on strut five while I intercepted an interesting signal. I caught a snippet on one of my breaks and I heard something that sounded bad. I took a recording of it just in case."
"Let's hear it, then."
Nela dutifully obeyed and quickly activated her omni-tool. The audio player opened and the young quarian selected the file in question, a raspy voice barking through her suit's speakers. "Saber squad, Shepard and Zorah are in the restaurant. Assemble within fifteen mics and then we're going in to take them out."
Shepard felt goosebumps rise along his flesh. The fact that he and Tali had been specifically named meant that this was not a false alarm and that there could very well be a tangible threat waiting. "Did you catch a name?" he asked the quarian, noting the similarities between her and Tali: both eager young quarians willing to help. "Did they indicate who they were working for at all?"
Nela shook her head. "That was the only passage that wasn't obstructed by static. I'm sorry, Admiral. I…I wish I could show you more."
"Who would do this?" Tali wondered out loud. "I don't know anyone else that would place a hit on us, do you, John?"
"No," he said, which worried him immensely. "Nela, play the transmission again," he ordered.
She complied and Shepard's brow furrowed in concern. "Fifteen mics," he murmured. "That's fifteen minutes. Nela, when did you receive this transmission?"
"Umm…" she checked the time stamp on her omni-tool. "Fourteen minutes ago."
Movement flickered in the background and Shepard spotted a large figure heft a familiar looking object. His combat reflexes kicking in immediately, he shouted, "DOWN!" and flipped their table over seconds before gunfire erupted around the restaurant.
Bullets pinged off the surface and the initial entry bullets embedded themselves in the hard surface of the table and immediately disintegrated. Tali and Nela crouched alongside Shepard behind the table, hearing the roar of rifles echo around them.
Screams and stomps from panicked patrons obscured the gunshot noises. They proceeded to stampede out of the restaurant, wanting to get away from the chaos as quickly as possible. In seconds, the entire place was evacuated, save for the group blocking the closest exit, and the three hunkered behind the table.
Smoothly, in a practiced motion, Shepard reached inside his jacket and procured his Carnifex and Tali withdrew her Paladin from her sheath. Nela looked at the both of them, wide-eyed, before she steeled herself and whipped her Predator out, a quick study.
Shepard leaned around the table and quickly withdrew when eager fire raced toward his face. Chunks of the table bounced away as the bullets chewed them up.
"Damn!" Shepard yelled. "I couldn't see how many there were. Shields still strong, Tali?"
"Yeah," she nodded. "Do you have a plan or do you want me to come up with one this time?"
"Do you have something in mind?"
"As a matter of fact," Tali growled, "I do!" Flicking a button on her omni-tool, Shepard heard yowls of pain as Tali's combat drone materialized behind their attackers, already moving forward and zapping the nearest intruder that it could detect. As the combat form wheeled to disrupt the tech attack, Tali rose out of cover, taking advantage of the distraction, and put a bullet in the nearest enemy's head, the heavy shot immediately careening through shields, armor, and flesh.
She dropped back down before anyone could fire upon her to see Shepard give her a satisfied smile. "I saw at least seven more of them," she said. "I don't think we have enough shots to take them all on, John."
Nela's eyes were wide as she realized that the two admirals were not carrying any extra thermal clips. She began to grasp at her gun and started to moan in fear. Tali heard her and gently put her arm around the girl. "It'll be fine," she assured her. "We'll get out of this together, I promise."
The young quarian shut her eyes fearfully but nodded at Tali's words.
Meanwhile, Shepard heard a glass become dislodged by a foot, the cup rolling around the floor. With his eyes, he tracked the direction that the glass was moving in and began turning his head in that direction. Carefully, he edged out to see the hint of a black boot step into view, the top half of the man obscured by a nearby tablecloth. Shepard quickly held his arm out and fired at the boot. A spurt of blood followed by a yell told him that he had hit his mark. With a grunt, the man fell clutching his foot, and Shepard shot him in the head.
The man was wearing a set of black and grey combat armor, from what Shepard could see. The helmet was round and the optics were aquamarine, and if he looked closely he could see a faint camouflage pattern draping the chest and legs of the man. He was carrying what looked to be communications packs on their backs and he clutched a heavy rifle in his other hand.
Shepard wondered if all of them were similarly armed and ground his teeth in worry.
Now there came a series of heavier and faster vibrations which indicated that someone was hurtling at their position. With his hands on the floor, Shepard felt that the next foe was going to run straight at the table and lean over so that he could take them out like fish in a barrel.
With no surprises, that's exactly what the man tried to do but Shepard quickly grabbed the man's gun arm and wrenched it down, dislocating the shoulder. That caused the soldier to bend down over the table, allowing for him to be incapacitated just enough for Tali to stab him in the throat with her knife, causing a rush of hot blood to splash down on the ground.
Before the soldier could succumb to the whim of gravity, Tali quickly grabbed the collar of the armor, her fingers becoming slick with blood, and scanned the code readout laser engraved on the surface with her omni-tool. Releasing her fingers, the man fell back into the open with a combination of a gurgle and wheeze, his rifle still firmly in his grip.
Understandably frustrated with the loss of three of their squad mates, the remaining five began to cautiously creep forward, clumped in one group as they maneuvered around the bar for a better shot. Shepard checked his gun and found that he only had five shots left. Tali had three but Nela's still had a fresh clip. It still wouldn't be enough to take these guys unless they got inventive, fast.
A shimming from the aquatic floor underneath him caught his eye. Watching as the fish embedded in the floor swam amicably in their own little environment, oblivious to the action from the world above, Shepard noted that there was an unnatural contrast between the cool blue water and the harsh red blood that seemed to glow from the eerie lighting. The spilled plasma looked like red paint and it ran across the floor in the rivulets etched into the glass itself. Some of the blood spiraled, some of it ran in straight lines, but it always followed the patterns set forth by the glass.
The glass.
"Shoot the floor!" Shepard urgently whispered before he quickly stood up. Tali and Nela watched the human's movements in shock before they too stood from cover, their objective giving them a newfound courage. A few bullets instantly registered on them but their shields still held fast. However, they had to act quickly before they were overwhelmed.
The first shot from Shepard's gun only made a tiny hole, sending sandy particles of glass and microscopic bits of water flying. The mercenaries ignored it, even when Nela rattled off her entire clip as well. Shepard finished up his gun, downtrodden at the fact that their bullets could not even produce a crack in the surface. It was too strong for even his hand cannon.
But Tali still had yet to fire. Aiming her enormous Paladin precisely, she squeezed her trigger and the slug rocketed into the glass underneath the feet of the mercs. The floor shifted slightly and some of them looked down in confusion to figure out what was going on. Most likely hiding a smile behind her visor, Tali quickly depressed the Paladin's trigger twice and watched as the glass finally shattered into a thousand pieces, opening the floor up in the middle of the establishment.
Screams from the soldiers accompanied by a few gunfire bursts from their fingers clenching in panic, they fell through the floor and down into the shipping lanes of the Citadel, bouncing off the windows and neon advertisements that lined the sides of the walls. With a rushing noise, all of the water quickly drained out of the rest of the floor in short order to create a makeshift waterfall, leaving some of the fish gasping in their tank, the majority having been sucked out when the glass gave.
"All right, we're leaving," Shepard ordered as he grabbed Tali and Nela, already beginning to lead them out. The trio edged around the jagged crater, making sure not to cut themselves on the shards of glass left lying around.
"John," Tali gasped as Nela's head whirled in a frenzy, "where are we going to go now?"
"Back to my apartment," he whispered to her. "We're going to rest and regroup for a moment." He looked in both directions down the strip for any sign of the mysterious soldiers before pronouncing it clear. His eyes locked in a singular direction, as dark as they had ever been before.
"And then we'll get some answers."
A/N: I decided to combine two chapters from my outline into one, which meant that I could take a little longer with writing this.
Now the plot's ramping itself up, but I believe that it won't end up as predictable as you think it will be. There's still plenty of room for a dark shift in tone here or there. Heh...heh...
Oh yeah, and to any of you who play Evolve (great game), I'm going to need a few more party members with me to tackle those damn monsters so PM me if you want to give it a shot!