A Promise Unkept

Shepard could handle hordes of geth with huge guns, trying to kill her. She could handle bloodthirsty krogan, twice her weight, charging down a narrow hallway. She could handle almost half a bottle of ryncol in one sitting.

So why did one measly date make her heart pound so damn hard?

To be fair, it wasn't "one measly date." Her first reunion with Kaidan Alenko had been tense, at best. She'd asked him to join her. He said no. Not many refused Commander Dahlia Shepard, the first human Spectre, and lived to tell the tale. In fact, she could probably count them on one hand.

So Kaidan's refusal had hurt her on a very personal level. When the Illusive Man told her that Kaidan was with the Alliance, and that she couldn't have him on the team, she had taken it as an explicit challenge to get him. When she had seen him on Horizon, she was so sure he'd leave with her, leave the Alliance and fight the Reapers at her side... and then he hadn't.

And now he wanted to see her again, with no explanation why. Just an ominous "I want to talk." Talk about what? Was it possible that he had reconsidered his decision, and that he wanted to join her team?

Shepard reached up to touch the marks on her neck, her mind drifting back to the time she'd spent with Garrus. She wasn't sure how she would feel about Kaidan on the new Normandy. Things would be complicated, to say in the least.

But she was getting ahead of herself. She took a deep breath and fixed her hair on the reflective window outside the place they'd agreed to meet, simply called "Bar." The powers that be had been gracious enough to grant her a good hair day, it seemed. She tugged at the ends of it, trying to get it to cover her neck. She decided popping up the collar of her leather jeacket looked a little too sketchy, and although a scarf would have been ideal, that option was out, since she didn't own one. Shepard smiled at the memory of how the marks had gotten onto her neck. Totally worth it.

She was about to straighten her shirt for the fifth time, when she caught sight of a familiar face in the reflection. "Kaidan," she said as she turned around.

"Hey, Dahlia." Liara was right. He looked really, really good. He was wearing black slacks and a navy sports coat over a dark gray t-shirt, and although he still had that sleepless, haunted look she'd seen in him on Horizon, he was Kaidan and he was there and he was saying, "Thanks for coming."

"Of course," Shepard said. Wait, wasn't she supposed to be acting all chilly and superior? Shepard had told herself that she wasn't going to melt in his arms like some lovestruck airhead. It was just as Garrus had said: she didn't owe him anything. She damned him and his attractive sports coat, thrillingly business casual. His earnest brown eyes sparkled underneath the soft light of Illium's entertainment district at night, inviting her closer... She stopped herself again. It was going to be a long night.

"Umm, shall we?" Kaidan asked, gesturing towards the entrance that was only a few steps away. Shepard linked her arm with his, thinking that the motion indicated that he wanted her to take his arm. Apparently he didn't, because he stiffened with surprise at her touch. But he didn't pull away. There was something to be said for that.

The place didn't look like much on the outside, but the inside was nice and kind of warm, like it was somewhere you could spend hours in and not realize it. There was a wide-eyed, deep blue asari singing breathily yet richly on a small stage, accompanied by a human on a shiny piano and a turian playing a low, mournful string instrument. Their music harmonized with the sounds of the people inside the bar, talking, clinking glasses, laughing. Peaceful.

Until Kaidan and Shepard walked in. An alarm blared loudly, and several people looked over to glare at them.

The maitre d' waltzed over, silencing the alarm with a wave of her omni-tool. "Please leave your weapons with our bouncer. You may collect them as you leave," she said politely. Glancing at Shepard, Kaidan removed a pistol from his jacket. A little sheepishly, Shepard pulled out not one, but two pistols from their secret holsters that laid flat along her ribs. The bouncer took both of them, smirking at Shepard.

After ordering drinks from the bar, Kaidan guided her over to a table, chuckling. They sat down across from each other, and she noticed his expression. "What?"

"Nothing." She watched him expectantly, waiting for more. "It's just that... you haven't changed a bit." That seemed to satisfy her curiousity. "And somehow, I'm not surprised to see that you still have that old jacket."

"Hey! It's not just... 'that old jacket,'" Shepard said, shrugging out of said jacket and laying it lovingly in the extra space in the booth. Sure, it had a few cracks in the back, and was maybe a little faded in some places, but that was what made her love it. It was the one thing on the new Normandy that wasn't new, besides Joker and Dr. Chakwas. Finding it in her closet had nearly brought her to tears. She'd had the jacket forever, and when she'd left it at home while on shore leave one time, she was devastated. Even though it ended up being a good thing, since it would have been lost when the Normandy was destroyed. Shepard entertained the thought of some greater force, like God or maybe fate, intervening and saving her leather jacket from the doom she herself hadn't escaped. Somehow, Cerberus knew of her emotional attachment to it, and brought it to the new Normandy, perhaps in an attempt to make her more at home. She was slightly disturbed when she realized that this meant that Cerberus agents probably snuck into her parents' house back on Earth to get it, but even that was over shadowed by the joy she felt wearing it. "I love this thing."

Besides, it was the one thing she had that didn't have a Cerberus logo slapped on the front. Even the black skinny jeans she was wearing had the logo imprinted on the back pocket, her blue V-neck shirt with one on the hip. Most likely designed by someone like Miranda.

And Kaidan loved the way the jacket looked on her, possibly even more than he loved looking her bare neck... which was covered in bruises. "How did you get those?" he asked before he could stop himself. He bit his tongue. "Sorry. None of my business."

"It's okay, Kaidan. You're allowed to ask about my life," she said with an easy shrug. But she didn't answer his question.

That was okay. He'd try something easier. "So, I heard you and Garrus are together."

Right at that moment, their drinks arrived, carried by a young, bored looking woman with bleached blond hair. Kaidan was distracted long enough not to notice her shock. "And Tali, too?"

"Uhh, yeah," she said, making a quick recovery. Phew. That had been awfully close. She took a sip of the asari rum that she usually drank when she preferred not to set off radiological alarms. That meant no ryncol. "They both agreed to come with me." Her eyes glinted brightly when she looked straight at him. Not blaming him. He could handle that part all by himself.

"Shepard, I..." he began. Crap. He had to say something. He just didn't know what exactly.

She finished his sentence. "Feel bad for leaving me on Horizon? For choosing the Alliance over your commander who was supposed to be dead?" She shrugged. "It wasn't an easy choice. Who's to say there was a right answer? I don't know how much this will mean to you, but... maybe, if I were you, I would've done the same thing."

Kaidan swallowed. "It means a lot, Dahlia." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Look, I don't know what exactly you're up to these days, but if you're still the Shepard I know..." Shepard watched him intently, putting him under the spotlight of those unwavering gray eyes. "... then there's a good chance you could die at any moment. And I'd never know about it." It was all coming out. Everything he'd thought after they'd parted ways on Horizon. "What you do is your choice. I'm not going to stop you from risking your life, because it's what you do. With or without Cerberus."

Shepard's elbows were locked at her side, and her gaze dropped to her glass. She had a hard time dealing with relationships, especially one as complicated as the one she had with Alenko. But he needed her to hear what he had to say. "I can't let you go back out there without telling you that I believe in what you're doing." She looked up at him. "About the Reapers, the Collectors and the colonists... everything. I just want you to know that... I haven't given up on you, okay?"

Shepard released a long breath, her eyes focused on her hands folded in her lap. Kaidan knew that she was processing. Even though she tended to close herself off emotionally from others, it made Kaidan all the more determined to get through to her. He just couldn't let her die, again, and leave things the way they were between the two of them. Out of all the regrets he had in his life, that would be the one that would undo him.

After a moment, Shepard scooted around the booth and next to Kaidan. She crossed her arms over her chest. She didn't want him to look at her face. He took it as a sign to put his arm around her.

"Kaidan," she whispered. "We have to get out of here." The possibilities made his heart pound. He wasn't really sure how to respond to that. "We're being surrounded," she said, keeping her voice low. For a moment, he thought she'd meant something entirely different.

"What?" He looked over his shoulder at the door. The bouncer who had taken their pistols was looking at him. He spoke into a small handheld device, lowering his eyes.

"Don't look," she hissed, jabbing him in the rib.

He put his head close to hers. "What do we do?" No doubt there was a plan already forming in her mind.

"Act natural." Kaidan hoped the plan was more developed than that. "We need to leave, now."

"What about our guns?" he asked her. The bouncer had taken their pistols, and without weapons, defending themselves became a lot more difficult.

"Not an option. There are two batarians posted at the door." Kaidan was about to turn and look for himself, but Shepard elbowed him again. Right. Don't look. She polished off the last of her drink, then summoned the waitress. She meandered over, finger caught in her hair as she twirled it. "Got a back door?" Shepard asked, discreetly slipping her a credit chit. The waitress pocketed it.

"Right this way." She turned on her heels and took off. Shepard slid back to her side of her booth, getting to her feet. Kaidan grabbed her jacket and followed.

The bar was crowded enough that they could move through it without being detected. However, Shepard was wary of every person she bumped against. Their eyes stuck to her back as she grabbed Kaidan's hand and yanked him forward. He was going too slow, probably because he still wasn't quite sure what was going on. She'd lose him if she wasn't careful.

The waitress led them around a corner, past the restrooms. A turian with gray face paint gave them a chilly stare as they brushed by. "Here you are," the waitress said. "Street's that way."

They continued at a fast walk. Shepard would have started jogging if it didn't attract so much attention. They continued down the alley that the back door opened up to, passing a foul-smelling row of garbage cans. "Who were they?" Kaidan asked.

"Not mercs. Assassins, maybe," she said. He put her jacket on her shoulders, and she pulled her arms through it.

The alley let out on to the main street, where people were going about their business, or pleasure, on the sidewalks. Shepard and Kaidan blended right in along with all the other couples in the area, her arm looped around his waist and his across her shoulders, their heads leaned in close as they spoke. Shepard let her hair fall forward, shielding her face somewhat from the view of passersby.

"What do they want?" What he really meant to ask was who she pissed off this time. True, whoever they were, they didn't appear to be common mercs. They usually lacked the intel to catch Shepard off guard. No, if the assassins knew about their meeting, they must be extremely well informed. Kaidan racked his brain for anyone that might have known about it.

Cerberus probably monitored Shepard's messages, but they wouldn't send any one after her. After him, maybe. But he didn't think that was very likely. Then, it occurred to him: the only person that knew for sure where he and Shepard would be was Liara T'Soni.

"My guess? Me." She was probably right. Kaidan wasn't important enough for anyone to send a group of assassins after. "We're close to Liara's office. Maybe we can get -"

"How can we be sure that's safe?" Kaidan asked. He felt her shiver next to him as she realized what he was saying.

The thought of betrayal made her stomach burn, like the asari rum she'd been drinking earlier had actually been acid, but she did her best to put it out of her mind. It may or may not be true. She'd deal with that later. At the moment, their best bet was getting back to the ship. "You're right. We have to get to the Normandy," Shepard said. She looked over her shoulder, then suddenly started walking faster. She pulled on his hand when he started to fall behind, leading him on to a less crowded side street. "Shortcut."

The street was less crowded, with only a few people stumbling along drunkenly or shuffling along, concealed in dark coats. Kaidan didn't know whether that made him feel better or worse. Either way, it made the three people trailing them more obvious. The shadowy figures kept pace, even when Shepard broke into a jog. Kaidan couldn't make out any of their features, or determine their species, but Shepard didn't need to take a very close look at them to know that she didn't want to get caught. They hadn't opened fire, which made her think that they wanted her alive. Or that they didn't want to shoot up a crowded street, in which case her shortcut had turned into a very bad idea.

Shepard took a sudden turn onto a smaller alley, thinking that it would lead to the main street. It did, but their way was blocked by two more shadowy figures. She could make out the distinct outline of assault rifles on their backs. There was no way she and Kaidan could get past them. Even between the two of their biotics, their civilian clothes wouldn't stand a chance against the barrage of bullets that would surely be unleashed upon them. If it were just her, she'd charge them and keep running, but she couldn't leave Kaidan to fend for himself. "Shit," she said. "Other way."

She forced Kaidan back out onto the side street. Her hair whipped back and forth as she tried to decide which way to go. From one direction, the three figures that had been following them were still advancing. The other direction was clear. Simple enough.

They broke into a sprint, feet pounding on the cement ground. Shepard could hear Kaidan breathing hard next to her, but he managed to keep up. The sound of their footfalls seemed to echo through the entire length of the dark alley, but Shepard just realized that was because there were more of the assassins, running after them. But the end was in sight: once she and Kaidan made it out onto the street, they'd be able to lose themselves in the crowd and get back to the ship. They weren't far now...

The light at the end of alley was blocked by four figures, their forms casting long shadows on the pavement. One of them was unmistakably krogan.

They were trapped. Shepard and Kaidan stopped running. They couldn't go back, and they couldn't go forward. Shepard turned to Kaidan, squeezing his hand so hard he thought his bones were breaking.

"When I attack them, you have to run." The figures in black were closing in on them.

"I'm not leaving you." Not again.

Shepard felt a pang inside of her. Something more than the cramp she was getting from running on a stomach empty of anything besides fear and asari rum. "They won't chase you. You have to get to the Normandy. Tell them -"

"Commander Shepard." One of them, a woman, possibly an asari, addressed her.

Shepard faced the speaker. "That's me."

"We'd like you to come with us."

Now it was Kaidan's turn to squeeze her hand super hard. She pretended not to notice. "Or...?"

"Things will end badly. Very badly... especially for Alenko." Kaidan secretly felt a little honored that someone knew his name. But that was sort of over shadowed by the fact that they were threatening his life.

Shepard slid out of her jacket and tossed it to the side gently, as far away from harm's way as she could manage. Dark energy pulsing at her fingertips, she said, "Things are already going to end badly." She feared for Kaidan's life, but she got the feeling that the consequences of not fighting back would be worse than surrendering.

Kaidan moved into position behind her, getting back to back to protect her six and gathering his own biotic energy. Somehow, he wasn't surprised that when he tried to have a peaceful evening out with Shepard, they ended up fighting their way out of another foxhole. Trouble followed her like a shadow.

The woman removed her hood, revealing herself to be a lilac-skinned asari with amethyst eyes and a fine pink dusting of freckles over her nose and cheeks. Her own biotic energy flared. "So be it."

She sent an earth-shaking blue shockwave right towards the duo. Shepard rolled lithely out of the way, getting low to the damp ground to avoid being knocked off her feet. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kaidan dodge the attack and turn his attention to another biotic approaching from the opposite side. She sprung to her feet, then charged into his attacker like a missile being launched. The black figure slammed into the wall, crumpling into the ground, head bleeding.

"Run!" Shepard yelled. He was about to protest when he felt arms around his neck from behind. It was the purple asari, putting him in a headlock and choking the air out of him. Shepard wound her fist back to throw her, but they were too close. She couldn't hit the asari without hurting Kaidan.

So she took the only option left to her: she tackled them both to the ground. She thrusted an elbow into the asari's throat, causing her to release Kaidan. Shepard pushed him away from them as they wrestled. "Get out of here!" she shouted at him, receiving a fist in the face for her trouble. The asari gained the advantage, slamming Shepard onto her back and into the ground.

No way was Kaidan leaving her like that. With deadly accuracy, he lifted the asari biotically in the air. Her arms flailed as she floated weightlessly. He brought her back down in an instant at terminal velocity, her body thumping on the ground and staying there. Kaidan grabbed Shepard off the ground and started to pull her down the alley.

But the asari was hardly the last adversary they had to face. As Kaidan turned, a turian with black X's painted on either side of his jaw held him by the shoulders and brought his knee into his stomach, forcing him into the opposite wall. Kaidan fell, his rib cracked. He was immobile, helpless to aid Shepard as the scene before him unfolded like a horror movie.

Shepard's fist went back, flashing blue as she prepared to throw the turian. But another black-clothed figure pulled on her, twisting her arm. She tried to retaliate with her other hand. She was stopped yet again, this time by the turian, seizing her wrist and jerking it back. She cried out in pain. It must've been broken. They forced her onto her knees, her head hanging and her black hair hiding her face.

The asari sauntered in front of Shepard. Kaidan hadn't killed her, as he'd hoped. "You should've surrendered," she spat. Her foot connected with Shepard's face, causing her head to snap back. Kaidan saw that her face was bloody. He tried to stand up, move, somehow intervene, but his attempts were fruitless. The broken rib prevented him from getting off the ground, rendering him useless.

The asari beckoned to the other henchmen. "Don't do this," she said, eyes flashing white. When it became apparent that they wouldn't stop, she looked at Kaidan.

There was blood on his shirt. He was bleeding. It was her fault. She surged to her feet, trying to escape the hold of the shadowy figures, but they held on, pushing her back down. "Gas her," the asari said.

One of the henchmen pulled out what looked to Kaidan like a gun. Shepard knew better. He squeezed the trigger, a cloud of greenish gray gas filling the air.

"Kaidan!" Shepard screamed, just before she succumbed to fits of coughing. The turian released her, and she collapsed into the ground, unmoving.

Kaidan felt his senses dull. The pain that had been so prominent moments ago faded away. He watched as they roughly pulled a black sack over Shepard's face, then drag her away by her arms. He tried to turn and see where they took her, but his head swam and the black dots dancing at the edge of his vision moved inward. He tilted his head back and laid it on the ground. Not the ground... something soft. Leathery. It was Shepard's jacket.

From somewhere far away, as if they were underwater, Kaidan heard the turian say, "What about him?"

The asari replied venomously. "Leave him. He's nothing."

He felt something wet roll down the side of his face, then on his neck and his shirt. It had begun raining.