The Ardat-Yakshi left the small room, and Ashley exhaled, trying to loosen the knot that had formed in her gut. Ilara might be insane, but she also had the marine in a pretty bad spot. Even if she were fully armed, those things were supposed to be powerful biotics, and right now, she had nothing: no weapons, no armor, and no back-up that she could count on. Hell, for all she knew, Zaeed was already dead, and while Shepard and Liara would come looking for her eventually, by then, it might be too late.
She had only one real advantage that she could think of: Ilara's overconfidence. The woman had used Ashley's real name, doubtless pulled from her mind during their brief meld, which meant she knew she was dealing with a Spectre and friend of the feared Commander Shepard. Neither of those things seemed to phase her in the slightest, which made her either supremely confident or totally insane. A combination of the two seemed most likely, and that might just provide the marine with an edge, at least if she could find a way to use it before she either succumbed to Ilara's charms for real or annoyed the asari enough to get herself killed.
Either of those outcomes would leave Sha'ira up shit's creek without a paddle. That is, if she was even still alive. For a sudden, horrible instant, the thought crossed Ashley's mind that the Ardat-Yakshi had already fed off the Consort, but it didn't take long for her to dismiss it. She was only a week or two behind her girlfriend, and this monster clearly liked to play with her food before eating it. Sha'ira was too smart, and too familiar with the tricks of the seduction trade to have succumbed to her so quickly.
That meant that either Ilara never had her or had sold her to someone else, but either way, Ashley was convinced that Sha'ira was still alive and in danger. As helpless as her captivity was making her feel right now, she was at least a soldier. God only knew where her lover was, and without Ashley's training, she would be counting on the Spectre to pull her gorgeous ass out of the fire. Oddly enough, that thought comforted her as she closed her eyes, still needing more rest after what Ilara had done to her head. Duty had always been the focus of Ashley's life, and now, even if it was only her obligation to one other person, she could let it guide her. As she drifted off to sleep, she tried to focus on that, on the woman she loved, and let that give her strength for the dark times she knew were ahead.
She was woken up several hours later by the return of her captor, accompanied this time by one of the krogan guards. He was without his partner though, and the marine couldn't miss the bandage wrapped around one side of his already-scarred head. The giant warrior growled when he saw her looking at it, and Ilara laughed, a surprisingly girlish sound, as if they were discussing nothing of real gravity.
"He's just sore because your little friend put up quite the fight when I objected to his deception," she explained. "Cost me a perfectly good krogan and everything. Still," she continued cheerily, "It really does make a good advertisement for his services, don't you think? A friend of mine is starting a fighting ring and I think she'll pay quite nicely for the famous Zaeed Massani."
"How can you do this to people?", Ashley objected, indignation dripping from her voice. "Sell them. Fry their brains." In truth, she wasn't that curious. There was such a thing as evil in the world, and some people just fell into that category. Still, every psychopath had her reasons, and giving Ilara a chance to rant about hers should help the Ardat-Yakshi to think Ashley was starting to sympathize with her.
Ilara unhooked the chain around Ashley's neck from the wall and handed it to her krogan, who yanked her to the Spectre to her feet. As she was led down yet another dank corridor, the asari answered her question. "You're looking at things the wrong way, focusing on the outcome of what I do," she began, her tone patronizing, as if she was speaking to a child, ignorant but well-loved. "Allow me to share a revelation I had during those two hundred years spent in captivity."
"And here we go with the self-justification," Ashley thought to herself, and Ilara didn't disappoint. "Life isn't just about the years you live," the Ardat-Yakshi explained. "There are trees that exist for millennia, but if I offered you the chance to switch places with one of them, somehow I don't think you'd take me up on it. No, life is about the things you get to experience in whatever time you have." She grinned wolfishly. "One truly sublime moment is worth far more than fifty years spent staring at a wall and trying not to think about sex."
"Most people think that being an Ardat-Yakshi is a curse. It's not. It's a blessing. The ecstasy that we feel in the meld is beyond anything a normal asari could comprehend, and in their final moments, our partners get to share that pleasure with us. What finer way could there possibly be to end one's days? Is it better for a warrior to die in her bed, drowning in her own filth, a wrinkled shell of herself, or in the prime of her life, experiencing the greatest bliss imaginable."
"Yeah, well, from what I remember, your greatest bliss hurt like a bitch," Ashley grumbled. Aside from the validity of her point, it wouldn't be a good idea to seem to be giving in too easily.
"Oh, darling," Ilara said tantalizingly, "The pain wasn't because I was in your mind. It was because I was pulling out. Trust me when I tell you that when we do finally become fully one, it will be… indescribable."
The asari's tongue rolled over the final word and Ashley could feel an uncomfortable tightening in her belly, a sensation that was partly fear, but partly something else. How could a proposal that she knew to be fatal sound so delicious at the same time? As she walked silently through the corridors of the station, unable to think of anything more to say, her mind wandered back to when she first met Sha'ira. She'd felt a little like the lovely Consort had been casting some sort of spell on her, but while that had been a pleasant magic, this one was far darker. Whatever made the asari so desirable to every species in the galaxy was still present in this woman, but instead of promising a peaceful melding of two minds, it offered merely death. If only that stopped the spell from working.
Ilara's ship was nicer than Ashley had feared after her previous accommodations, a small but expensive frigate that her experienced eye judged to have once belonged to the turian navy before being refitted by some later owner. "One of the perks of surviving a war," the asari had told her, sliding a suggestive finger under Ashley's chin as she'd spoken, "All kinds of pretty things get left lying around, waiting for someone to claim them."
The room she'd been imprisoned in wasn't bad either, a well-appointed lounge with a couple of comfortable couches, a few overstuffed chairs, and a small bathroom off to one side. "At least I won't be crapping in a bucket," she'd quipped when she was led in, causing Ilara to shake her head, clearly amused by her attitude.
"Of course not," the asari had chuckled. "You're far too special for such crude treatment. Your previous accommodations were an unfortunate necessity that we're passed now."
Nor was she chained up as she had been before. Though the binders on her wrists remained, Ashley was left free to wander around the room and eat the food provided: bread, cheese, and some sweet asari fruit she wasn't familiar with, and she took that as another sign of her captor's overconfidence. Even knowing her prisoner was a Spectre, she had taken surprisingly minimal measures to secure her, and Ashley wasn't sure whether she should be thankful for that or frightened by it.
It wasn't long before she got her answer. A few hours after the ship had disembarked from Maglar Station, the doors to the lounge slid open and Ilara re-entered. She'd shed the last of her krogan bodyguards along with her armor, replacing it with a red tank-top that showed off a considerable expanse of her smooth blue shoulders and chest.
Gliding across the room, the Ardat-Yakshi lay down on the sofa next to Ashley's chair, draping herself provocatively along it's length.
"So, Ash," she began conversationally, nibbling on one of the fruits that the marine hadn't eaten earlier, "I saw that you served with Commander Shepard? What's she like? Did she really come back from the dead."
Ashley rolled her eyes. Everyone always wanted to know about the commander it seemed, even obsessive psychopaths. "That's what they tell me," she said non-committally, trying to keep her gaze off of the way that Ilara's top had lifted up just enough to show off her toned midriff.
"Incredible," the Ardat-Yakshi replied, a wistful look in her eyes. "To have seen the other side of this life. I wonder what it would be like to join with her."
"You'll never know," Ashley snapped, instinctively protective of her skipper. "She'd tear you apart if you tried anything with her."
"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure about that." Ilara's small purple tongue peaked out from between her lips to lick them clean of fruit juice. "I heard she has a certainly fondness for my kind."
Ashley snorted derisively and Ilara, sensing her stubbornness on this topic, moved on. "Of course, she's not the only one who finds the asari appealing. I saw you were looking for one of us when I found you, but not her identity." She swung around to a sitting position, looking directly into the Spectre's brown eyes. "Tell me Ashley Williams: what asari could entice you all the way out here in a bleeding galaxy? Who was worth such a risk?"
The Spectre hesitated before she answered. On the one hand, giving Ilara any more information about herself was dangerous; this monster was already too good at getting under her skin as it was. On the other, she was a chatty monster. If Ilara knew what had happened to the Consort, Ashley thought she might let something slip, and her worry for her lover outweighed her other concerns. "It was Sha'ira," she admitted. "The Blood Pack brought her to the station to sell."
"Ah yes, Sha'ira." Her eyes lit up hungrily at the mention of her name. "The famous Consort. I thought about buying her for myself, but the bidding went too high."
"Who did buy her?", Ashley asked, too anxious to hide just how much her lover's fate meant to her.
"A wealthy collector," Ilara said enigmatically. "But you needn't worry about her anymore." She leaned closer, her dark eyes seeming to being drawing Ashley into them. "She's off to her new home now, and you and I have something even more interesting to enrich our time in this galaxy." Her lips brushed lightly over Ashley's own, and even as their softness started to draw the marine in, she reacted in the only way she could think to. She slammed her forehead into the Ardat-Yakshi's head, knocking her away.
Ilara staggered for a moment and Ashley decided to go for it. She might not be able to take the asari, but she at least needed to try. It would be expected of her, and what the hell, she might get lucky.
Launching herself out of her chair, she slammed her shackles into her captor's chest. The asari fell backward, tumbling over the couch, and Ashley leapt after her, trying to drive her knee into Ilara's chest. She wasn't fast enough. Even as she cleared the sofa, the other woman's arm was rising, a biotic field manifesting around her. The marine bounced off of the shield, hitting the floor and rolling up into a crouch just in time to see Ilara aiming a warp at her torso. She dodged, moving behind the sofa, and as the blast impacted harmlessly on the floor, she summoned every ounce of strength she could and with her shackled hands, she shoved the furniture into Ilara's barrier.
It wasn't enough. Indeed, the Ardat-Yakshi was barely moved by the impact, only taking a single step backwards before lifting up her hands once more. The massive wave of biotic energy that flew forth from them blew the sofa apart, hurling Ashley from her feet and sending her crashing into the floor. Her head swam from the force of the impact and before she could get back up, Ilara was on top of her. The asari slammed Ashley back down, the force of her biotics adding to her physical strength, holding the marine's limbs firmly in place even as her sleek body brushed up against her chest.
The Ardat-Yakshi drew her face close to Ashley's, her breath hot on her face even as the Spectre struggled against her bonds. "I was right about you," she purred dangerously. "You do have spirit. But there are limits to my patience." She gave a push with her biotics, pressing Ashley's body further against the deck, the strain burning the human's muscles. "Now, are you going to be a good girl or do I have to hurt you some more?"
Ashley stopped struggling against the biotic field, letting her body go slack instead. "I'll behave," she said, trying her best to sound meek, a task made easier by the biotically charged hand the asari had placed at her throat. The pressure against her eased and as her captor ran her hands approvingly through her dark hair, the Spectre just had to hope that two things were true: that Ilara believed she was beaten, and that she wasn't starting to believe it herself, because just then, she had no idea how she was going to take her.