~ I don't own mass effect, Bioware and EA does ~
29.02.0005 PRW
Tuchunka
Urnot Central City
Spectre Ashley Williams stood and watched as Krogan got off and onto various ships, some carrying children and luggage, others shifted raw materials used in the on going reconstruction and expansion of Urnot City.
Stepping down the Normandy's cargo bay ramp behind her, Tellisa stretched her limbs "finally, some air that hasn't been recycled 5,000 times."
Ashley grinned at the Asari's inability to stay still, as a Matron of 340 years, Tellisa was still as curious as a 100 year old Maiden. Which meant that after several fiascos, she had to always be with one of the other ground team members, usually Enigma, who was sometimes equally as curious about the Universe as she was.
"Call Enigma, we can explore the City if Wrex is busy."
The Asari nodded before calling up her Omni-Tool and quickly typing into it, 5 minutes later and Williams was heading towards the Political District with both her curious ground team members 'keeping a eye out for trouble' while taking in the New Krogan City.
Most Krogan architecture was built in stone and steel, with homes and stores adding their own touch, the wide streets which were designed for Krogan was lined with the most non-lethal plants and vegetation Tuchunka produced, meaning that small children of Asari and Krogan could play happily.
Armed Krogan in white and red painted armour patrolled the streets, keeping order and directing heavy disputes to less crowed areas.
Coming up to the Political District, two Krogan with heavier weapon loadouts stopped them, though they quickly directed the three in the right direction when Ashely showed her ID.
2 elevator rides later and they met with Wrex's Secretary, a Asari Matron who called Wrex and arranged for him to arrive a few minutes later.
"Williams!" Wrex barked out a friendly laugh and gave her a quick arm shake.
"Wrex" replied Williams calmly, gesturing to her two squadmates to remain outside, she shut the door behind her.
Heading for his desk Wrex talked over his shoulder.
"I was told you would be heading my way" sitting down in his oversized chair, he leaned in "so, I'm told that Zaire Shepard is alive and well, and she has already pissed off the New Council!"
Ashley nodded, "the Alliance kept it quiet, and the council is looking into the reasons why they couldn't find out about it, however, we need to find Shepard as quickly as possible."
Sitting herself down in the opposite chair she continued.
"She was seen boarding a ship heading here, I've already got Vega asking for the crew to be questioned."
The scarred Krogan shook his head, "if Zaire is alive and on Tuchunka, she will try to hide in the wilds, and we both know it would be impossible to find her out in those waste lands, your best bet would be to keep an eye on the Human edible food stalls."
Ashley nodded, "the council tell you why we are after her?"
Wrex nodded "if I see her, I'll call."
Saying goodbye and exiting the office, Ashely regrouped with her two curious friends before heading for the elevator.
"She's not on planet" stated Williams once the lift doors shut around them and she had hit the correct button. Inside the lift Enigma's head flaps went up in question.
"Reason for this deduction?" He asked after a moment to think.
"Wrex suggested we should stay on planet and watch the food stalls that sell human edible food, and that Shepard would be hiding in the wilds." She stated.
Tellisa still looked confused, so Ashley elaborated "we know that Shepard was here and that she would be looking for Liara, going to Wrex would be the logical first step because even indoctrinated, Wrex would never tell us where she is."
"Therefore Urnot Wrex stating we should stay on Tuchunka means she has most likely left" their resident Geth deduced.
Ashley nodded as the elevator doors opened, revealing three large Krogan in battle armour, holding Claymore Shotguns.
Immediately on high alert, all three people in the elevator drew weapons of some sort, though neither party fired.
"Is there a specific reason your pointing Shotguns at a Council Spectre?" Ashley asked, "or is this just a bad choice of targets."
The Krogan in front simply grunted, but lowered his gun nonetheless, his two companions doing the same a moment later.
"Urnot Wreave" in typical Krogan fashion he introduced himself with a grunt. "I heard that your looking for one of your own bloody kind."
"That entirely depends on who you might or might not of seen" Williams replied, holstering her own gun while gesturing to her squad to stand down.
He grunted again, "female, same skin colour as you, was speaking to Wrex 4 days ago, my associate said she had black fur on her head and green eyes."
"You didn't see for your self?"
"No, she had cloaked herself in raggs."
One of Wreaves guards spoke up "He was talking with Urnot Wrex and were discussing important matters, when she got involved and insulted Wreave, when he confronted the Pyjak, she threw him over a cliff."
Ashley forced down the smile that attempted to show itself, and asked "you kept track of her?"
Pulling out his Omni-Tool the Krogan passed on details of a ship that had left for Illium.
"Why are you helping us?" Asked Tellisa, not used to Krogan being so forthcoming.
"She threw me over Wrex's personal balcony in the pits of Novic Vole, she insulted me and made me look like a fool, so this is my revenge."
Ashley nodded respectfully to the irritated Krogan "thank you for your cooperation."
Wreave growled before spinning around a leaving, his little entourage following behind him at a respectable distance.
"Come on, we need to get to Illium as fast as possible, Enigma, contact EDI and notify Vega, we just got very lucky."
05.03.0005 PRW
Space Station - The Stop
Terminus Systems
The alarm clock was going off, and Zaire Shepard awkwardly pulled an arm away from her lover in order to crush the damned thing under her fist.
For the first time since she had escaped from the Alliance, Zaire allowed herself to ignore the time and cuddled closer to Liara, to the apparent approval of her girlfriend, who was currently using her as a living pillow.
As she settled back down, Zaire thought about their conversation they had had earlier before bed, well before they had became a bit over excited and gotten carried away.
11 hours earlier
Liara had just finished her shower and was rapping her towel around herself, Zaire had taken one earlier and was waiting for her when she walked out and sat next to her on their bed.
Zaire had been looking at a photo of her and Anderson, from the look of their background they were in Arcturus station, she recognized that it had been taken just after her N7 certification, and Zaire was grinning madly in it.
"I miss him, Liara".
It was obvious who she was talking about, and Liara new through their previous melds on the Normandy that Zaire had thought of Anderson as a father.
"We've all lost people to the Reapers Zaire, it's about moving on and proving that their sacrifices were worth it that's important."
"But why am I alive?" Zaire started to get visually frustrated "what made me different from Anderson, Mordin or Thane?"
"Nothing, it was pure luck that so many of us managed to live through the War in the first place, and I think you need to learn to move on, love."
Shepard paused before remembering what Wrex had said on Tuchunka, Perhaps it was time to start thinking about those Little Blue Children again, after all, she wouldn't live forever, no matter if she ever entered another battle or not.
Out loud she replied "I could care less about the Council's opinion, but if we can prove to them that I'm not indoctrinated and once Miranda has figured out my Cybernetics, perhaps we could start thinking about settling down on Thessia or somewhere?"
Liara's eyes brightened and she gave a kiss of agreement, "one of my mother's old estates is still standing back on Thessia and its remote, I could easily run the brokerage from there."
Zaire Shepard smiled "we could take regular visits to Tuchunka, Palaven and Rannoch, hell we could go visit Jack and Samara if we wanted to."
Zaire's voice became quiet "we could even think about those little Blue Children we talked about on the Normandy"
Tears began to fall down Liara's cheeks, though they were tears of joy rather than sadness.
"It sounds like an excellent plan" she whispered, before falling with her to the bed.
Present
Zaire smiled, a future together with Liara was all she could ask for, now they just had to wait for Miranda to work.
As if summoned by the thought, her Omni-Tool began ringing, Liara groaned, "why aren't you destroying that thing as well?"
Giving a sleepy chuckle in reply, Zaire moved to grab the blasted thing and answered the call.
"Yes?" She grumbled.
"Zaire? It's Miranda, get dressed and get down to my lab, your going to need to see this for yourselves!" Miranda promptly hanged up.
"Well, if that wasn't ominous, I don't know what is" grunted Zaire as she got up.
Liara groaned as she got up as well, hopefully it's just some scientific marvel and we can get back to bed afterwards."
Shepard laughed as she pulled on the rest of her clothes and headed towards the door, "yeah, probably just something that will revolutionize the Galaxy, nothing special."
Liara grinned back, but simply answered with a kiss before opening the door and striding out, "come on, she actually sounded excited."
Multiple hallways and a lift ride later and they entered the Lab that Miranda had commandeered for studying Zaire's cybernetics.
"Good news or bad news?" Asked Shepard.
"Good news, bad news and confusing news" was Miranda's reply.
Zaire shrugged at Liara, "better than I expected, I guess."
Looking at the Ex-Cerberus Operative Liara asked the big question, "is Zaire indoctrinated or not?"
"As far as I can tell?" Miranda smiled "No, she's not."
Both Zaire and Liara sighed in relief, and Shepard leaned against the nearest table for support, suddenly feeling light headed.
"As far as I can tell the implant next to your brain stem is a Biotic Amp, and the other appears to be a gray box of some design."
Looking at Zaire she continued "theoretically you should have total recall, and from your descriptions of past events so far, it backs up my other theory."
"Other theory?" Liara asked, looking slightly worried.
"A lot of your implants and cybernetics are not actively engaged" pausing to think, she summarised, "anything not connected to your health or brain is basically turned off."
"Which would explain why my biotics are limited" concluded Zaire.
Miranda appeared to be shifting slightly, from one foot to the other, and immediately Zaire noticed it. "What else?"
"I left your blood and skin samples overnight for Nikola to analyse, with instructions to look for any abnormalities." At the sound of its own name, the drone appeared.
"I had to double check the results but, well, it's unbelievable" Miranda looked to be almost gushing, which from her was almost unheard of.
The holographic projectors kicked in and images of a humans DNA slowly rotated in front of them, "this is a sample of my DNA that I took this morning" taping her Omni-Tool, the projection changed and a new sample of DNA appeared, "and this is yours as of 2 days ago".
1 thing instantly stuck out to Zaire, the ends of her DNA appeared to be coated with something rather black.
"This is, this is my DNA?" Zaire asked, looking pale.
Miranda nodded, "it's all basically the same as before, your still human Zaire." Realizing that Shepard was still panicking she added "your standard Alliance gene mods literary changed more than this has."
That helped, as Zaire's breathing slowed down and she closed her eyes, attempting to regain some composure while Liara rested her head on her bondmates shoulder, attempting to help.
"What has changed?" Zaire finally decided to ask.
Taking a brief look at her Omni-Tool Miranda continued "the thing that you will really want to know about are the end caps on your DNA, they appear to have been reinforced."
"I'm not qualified in genetics Miranda, English please?" Asked Shepard, still slightly agitated.
Liara however, was far more knowledgeable, and immediately realised the significance of what Miranda was saying.
"How well are they reinforced?" Shaking slightly, gripping Zaire's arm tightly.
"My best guess? Close to your own species Liara" Miranda was smiling at Liara's shocked face while Zaire was getting more and more confused by the minute.
Turning to face Shepard, Miranda explained "the end caps are what determines your natural life span will be, theoretically, your life span is that of an Asari."
"I, holy shit, I, what?"
"The micro-machines Cerberus used were small, but they weren't nano-bots, these however" Miranda gestured at the Holo, and micro machines swam onto screen, "are, and are what's responsible."
Watching the nano machines swim around her DNA a thought occurred to Shepard, causing her to curse.
"Fuck, so this is what Mikhailovich was after, what's one dead hero when you could live for a thousand years?"
Grimacing as well, Miranda nodded in agreement, "that is probably the reason he wanted you under lock and key, yes."
"You also said bad news?" Asked Liara, trying to calm herself.
Miranda grimmised, "intel says the Normandy left Illium last night, after coming from Tuchunka."
"Then they probably know that Shepard is here" stated Liara, looking prepared to panic again.
Shepard was far more composed, "ETA?" She asked, while grabbing Liara's hand to help comfort her.
"They left Illium about 10 hours ago, so we still have another 14 before they can get close enough to track a leaving ship."
Looking far more composed, Liara added in "then we better pack up and move to a new location."
Miranda nodded in agreement, "you two collect you belongings and take the Wanderer, I'll head out later after wiping everything and meet up with Feron instead."
Shepard smiled "then when Ash gets here, all they will find is a refuel station on the way to the Terminus Systems, excellent."
And that's Chapter 6 done, holy crap that was surprisingly hard to write.
So Zaire will live a long happy life with Liara, watching their kids growing up in peace ... hah, yeah I'll ruin that in the up and coming chapters.
Anyway this chapter is very information heavy, but it needed doing, so Zaire is currently handy capped at the moment due to her cybernetics being switched off, that will be explained later as well.
Please feel free to leave a review, I live off those, and they provide great motivation.
~ JunkMail