Bioware's playground. I'm only hanging out on the jungle gym.

Chapter 21

He Said

Vakarian, Shepard and I were armed to the teeth and rushing to a mission somewhere. The major difference was that despite Shepard and I having renewed at least the sexual part of our relationship, there was still that unquestioning trust between her and the turian she still didn't seem to have for me. Again, I had to crush the flare of jealousy. After all, couldn't say I trusted her completely, either, yet. It made the fact that we resumed our physical relationship a questionable decision.

That didn't mean I didn't enjoy watching her ass as she trotted in front of me, though I did miss the old armor she used to wear when I'd served that year with her. Form fitting, curve hugging . . . It had been less armor than body suit back then. And extremely distracting. This stuff was actual armor. It was still fun to watch her run in, though, especially with those two little circular pads on each cheek.

I forced myself to stop watching Shepard's ass and pay attention to my surroundings. It was just like old times, running, heavily armed and armored, through a city with either civilians giving us a wide berth or staring or both. Except I wasn't the outsider, then. Vakarian was. I carefully shelved that thought. Thinking like that would get one or all of us killed. I wasn't about to lose Shepard again.

She led us to the taxi stand and without being asked, Garrus started the car and Shepard took care of the rental fee. I climbed into the back seat and wondered how she was going to sit down with that nuclear device she had strapped to her back. I leaned forward and asked, "Has she ever used that thing?"

Vakarian looked at me in the rear view mirror, "What thing?"

"The portable nuke on her back?"

The turian's cheekplates flared in a grin, "She took out a Reaper with it."

"How the hell did she manage that?"

"It wasn't easy. We really had to work at it." Shepard got into the car as he said that and laughed.

"It was quite a bit tougher than taking down three merc groups by your lonesome, Archangel."

Vakarian groaned, "Give it a rest already, would you?"

"Nope, it's too priceless." Shepard must have caught my confused expression. "They were calling him that on Omega." She looked at the Infiltrator, "You told him about Omega, right?"

As he nodded in reply, I hid my grin behind my hand, "'Archangel,' seriously?"

Vakarian glared at me in the rearview mirror, "Go ahead, get it out of your system, Alenko."

I took my hand away from my mouth, "No, sorry, I'm with Shepard on this, it's too priceless." Shepard rewarded my quip with a long peal of laughter at her (our?) friend's expense.

The turian sighed, "I couldn't go around announcing who I was, you know. And when the humans I helped started calling me that, I didn't exactly correct them." He sounded upset and I remembered him saying something about his team in body bags. The urge to tease him further about the nickname went away. Shepard patted the turian's shoulder sympathetically. We rode to our destination in silence. I don't know if they were uncomfortable, but I certainly felt it.

We stopped at Dock 78 and Shepard immediately took cover behind a crate, Vakarian dove behind another nearby one. I crouched next to Shepard as she called to the turian, "Doesn't this look familiar?"

Vakarian craned his neck to look around and quickly ducked back down at the hail of bullets. "Heh, figures. Cerberus isn't even original in its abductions."

Shepard caught my curious look, "I'll tell you later. Long story." She launched a Singularity and Vakarian carefully drew aim with his sniper rifle. The sound of the powerful weapon going off was familiar and deafening. I had no time to worry about what they were doing. I leaned around the crate and began firing back, throwing my own Warp fields and my own Overloads at the mercs' shields and armor.

And then, Shepard did something surprising. She motioned with a new mnemonic, one I'd never seen before and one of the Cerberus soldiers arced her back and screamed in agony. Shepard glowed with a brilliant red light and a final shot from Vakarian put the woman out of her misery. She was also the last of the enemies that had attacked us. Gun at the ready, I advanced, looking for more that might be hidden. Shepard and Vakarian scooped up every unused heat sink they could find. When she stood even with me, I demanded, "What the hell did you do to that soldier?"

She holstered her pistol and looked at me, startled. "What are you talking about?"

"She screamed… she died… you glowed red. What did you do?"

"Oh, that. That was something Samara taught me. It uh, regenerates my health at the expense of their shields, armor and their health." She met my eyes, her own colder than I'd seen them yet.

"But . . . it's torture!" I protested.

She just looked at me, disappointment crossing her beautiful face. "Are we going to have a problem, Alenko?"

I holstered my pistol, suddenly afraid I didn't really know her after all, "I don't know. It was startling, to say the least."

Vakarian walked past, slinging his sniper rifle over his shoulder and shaking his head. I glared at him and looked back at Shepard who was looking at me sadly. "I'm sorry you don't like it, Alenko. It's kept me alive more times than I can count. If they suffer, they don't do it for very long."

I rubbed the back of my neck, I really didn't want to fight with her right now, or ever, for that matter. "I understand. I don't like it, but I understand."

She just shook her head at me and walked past the turian and me to take point, like she always did. It was a repulsive power, but if it saved her life, could I really argue? "Look, I wasn't happy when she learned it either. Makes my skin crawl, that is the saying, right? But she doesn't use it too often and they're going to die anyway," Vakarian told me quietly, his voice pitched too low for Shepard to hear. "It really works well against husks. Strips their armor off in one shot."

"Yeah, that's the saying. Wait, you've been fighting armored husks?" I stumbled in my surprise, but regained my footing quickly.

"The Collectors improved them."

That made me stop in my tracks, "You've got to be kidding me."

He stopped to look back at me. "Nope. They upgraded them. Believe me, that ability has saved all our asses several times over. I don't care if it causes pain, it works."

Armored husks. As if the original kind weren't bad enough. "I'll, uh, keep that in mind." It was a horrid ability, but I could see its uses and knew she'd use it wisely, no matter what. I needed to apologize to her.

Shepard was waiting for us at a locked door up ahead, but before I could offer to hack it for my usually technology impaired love of my life, she flared open her Omni-Tool and with a few quick taps, she'd unlocked the door. I'd never felt so turned on when she wasn't wearing one of my shirts. Vakarian went through the door first, and I leaned close to her ear as I passed, "That was incredibly hot." She looked at me, her blue eyes wide. I winked at her and she grinned. She could now pick electronic locks. What else had she learned since her resurrection?

We were attacked several more times on the way to find Miranda. The three of us developed a rhythm, almost as if we'd never stopped fighting together. Mine and Vakarian's Overload, and then my Warp, Shepard's odd ability, and a well-placed sniper shot wiped out most of the mercs who stood in our way. A few Singularities from Shepard and we really had no trouble whatsoever.

Shepard glanced at the turian from where we were crouched behind crates again, "Something's not right."

"I know what you mean. They're going down too easy." He peered through his sniper scope at the few still left standing.

"What the hell are you talking about? How is this going down too easy?" I demanded, checking the calibrations on my pistol.

Shepard smiled at me, "Trust us, this is too easy."

Vakarian rumbled, "I'll bet you a round of drinks at Afterlife that we'll run into at least two YMIR Mechs before we find Miranda."

Shepard shook her head. "No bet. Besides, you still owe me a round from our last bet."

"What was that?" I asked, looking around the edge of the crate to see if I could see anyone moving around.

"I bet her Jack was still going to try to kill Miranda before we got back to the Citadel. She bet me she wouldn't. And Miranda's still alive, so, Shepard won and I owe her."

Shepard snorted and threw a Singularity over the side of the crate, yanking a merc into its field. "That's not the only one you owe me, Garrus."

The sniper rifle fired, taking off the merc's head that had been sucked into the vortex. "Nope, you cheated on the last one."

I laughed at Shepard's indignant expression and threw another Warp field at a merc who thought he could sneak up on us. "Shepard? Cheat? Never." She stuck her tongue out at me and I told her, winking, "Only show me that if you're going to use it."

Her smile widened and she laughed. She leaped over the crate, crouched low and started advancing, her pistol held out at the ready. Vakarian and I followed her. My HUD showed no contacts, but it was always better to be safe than sorry. We made it to the next elevator without being attacked again.

"I'm getting tired of fighting through shipping ports," Vakarian muttered, lining up a shot on a mech that was backing up a merc. The mech's metal head exploded.

"You and me, both," Shepard told him. I Overloaded the merc's shields and Shepard used her frightening new ability on him. His screams filled the cargo bay until Vakarian's rifle ended them, permanently. We advanced again.

We were ambushed a few more times before we finally got to Dock 98. Shepard's 'Tool flared to life and the disembodied voice of the thing she called EDI emitted from it, "Shepard, Operative Lawson is up ahead. She is … not well, from what I can tell when I hack into the dock's security system."

Shepard's eyes closed for a moment, resignation crossing her features. "Thank you, EDI."

Vakarian looked at her, his cheekplates flaring in concern, "Oh, no, you're not. You are not going to do what I think you're going to do."

Her blue eyes flew open and Commander Shepard glared at the turian, "Don't you even think of trying to stop me. They won't kill me, but they'll kill her."

His voice was low, growling, "They'll put a damned control chip in your head, Shepard!"

Ignoring him, she told her 'Tool, "EDI, shut down for a moment, I'm transferring you to someone."

"Logging you off, Shepard."

She unclasped the narrow band that wrapped around her wrist and handed it to me. "Give this to Joker when you get back to the ship. He'll know what do with her."

"Wait, what are you going to do?" I put my hand on her arm, preventing her from walking away from me.

She looked up at me, her beautiful blue eyes swimming in unshed tears, "I'm doing what I have to do, Kaidan." She reached up and pulled my mouth down to hers. She kissed me, hard, her lips trembling against mine. I crushed her against me, suddenly understanding what she was about to do and trying to convince her with my body not to do it. Her tongue slipped in between my teeth and I entwined mine with hers, trying to memorize everything I could.

When she reluctantly pulled away, I told her, "I will find you."

Leaning her forehead against mine, she said, "I know."