Chapter Nineteen

It was with the help of several Shadow Broker agents that Khalisah reached Bekenstein unscathed, Quet's key worked as well as he said it would and with the decryption of Donovan's finances Khalisah became one of the wealthiest humans alive. Within a week she had given half of it away.

The first thing she did was to pay all the rent she had missed, much to the surprise of the landlord she had been blackmailing, who still seemed to think it was some kind of trick. A sizable sum had gone to the Alliance to help them restore the ships they had lost at the battle of the Citadel. Several charities had benefitted, as well as schools and any other enterprise that had peaked her interest. All done anonymously of course, she didn't want the whole galaxy knowing she had inherited Donovan Hock's fortune, in fact she went to extreme lengths to ensure her identity remained firmly hidden. Not that she could stop the rumours that were flying around Bekenstein.

Her father's death had caused quite a stir and now the rich families were starting to find their power becoming more and more restricted by laws they had never had to adhere to before. Khalisah made sure it was subtle and everything was done through contacts and third parties. As far as the galaxy was concerned, she was still just a news reporter.

It was during the busiest weeks of the transition that the dreams started. It began with an asari, turquoise-skinned with markings almost like Jacana's and eyes of the same peppermint green. She stood in a kitchen by a window overlooking a windswept coastline; she talked and laughed, sometimes she would even sing. Then the geth came and soon the kitchen was burning and the asari was screaming as she died.

Chaos ensued, quarians and geth battling each other, homes and towns being destroyed until Khalisah would awake with Jacana's memoires still playing through her mind. Each time she would see a little more and understand it just a little better until it seemed she had pieced together the whole story.

She didn't see Jacana for months but she was never far from Khalisah's thoughts and when the dreams finally exhausted themselves and Khalisah made plans to visit Daniyah, she knew she had to see the asari again before she left.

Jacana leaned forward against the railing of the docking port, clad in her usual black leather as she absently watched a group of quarians disembarking from a turian freighter. They were probably on pilgrimage, she suspected, and about to discover how the galaxy really viewed them, that all the stories they were told on the migrant fleet didn't even come close to the kind of indignities they'd have to lower themselves to just to survive.

She sighed grimly and looked away. It had been a strange few months. The Shadow Broker's priorities had taken and interesting shift, rather than spending her time doing his dirty work in various 'business' schemes, she had been sent to infiltrate Council records on the geth attack two years ago, specifically regarding the geth flagship, Sovereign. She had also 'acquired' several prothean artefacts and subtly aided in the ferrying of certain supplies to the Alliance and various other organisations.

Why any of these things were important to the Broker she didn't know nor did she much care. All she did know was that her pay had been increased and she hadn't been asked to murder anyone. She suspected there had probably been a few changes at Shadow Broker HQ that she would never find out the details of, and that suited her just fine.

She had also kept as close an eye as she could on Khalisah's progress, not that the human had made it easy. As well as Donovan's money, she had inherited his resources: mercs, agents, spies. She was using them to cover her tracks and doing an exceptionally good job at it too. Jacana had decided against making direct contact with her, partly for Khalisah's own safety and partly because… well, what would she say?

She had no idea if what they had been through together was a conventional basis for a friendship, it was entirely possible Khalisah wanted to forget the whole thing. Then out of nowhere she had received a simple, short message:

I want to see you. Meet me at docking bay D18, my ship leaves at noon. Khalisah.

The 'ship' in question was a passenger liner headed for Earth, Jacana had checked thoroughly that the message wasn't some kind of trap from someone wanting revenge and during her digging she had discovered that Khalisah hadn't booked a return journey.

She didn't know why that had made her heart drop, or why she had spent the entire morning convincing herself that didn't mean Khalisah wasn't coming back.

The brisk sound of heels on the metal floor drew Jacana from her thoughts and she smiled a little as a familiar scent touched the air; she turned and saw Khalisah striding confidently towards her. Her hair had grown a little since they had last seen each other, hanging past her shoulders in dark coils and she was dressed in green to match the gleam of her eyes. Her face split into a broad smile as she crossed the docking port.

"Well, well," Jacana said as she approached, "if it isn't the richest woman on the Citadel."

Her emerald eyes widened a little as she made a point of glancing around in case there was anyone nearby who might have heard, "Hardly. I've got an apartment I'm actually paying for, clothes I actually bought and a whole cabinet of beauty products that I didn't have to smuggle out of the shop in my knickers, that's enough for me."

Jacana chuckled lightly "Quite a fancy apartment though, or so I hear."

"Modest," Khalisah corrected with a wry smile and Jacana suddenly realised that all of the potential greetings she had been running through in her head had quickly gone out of the window.

The human paused for a moment, her smile softening a little as she seemed to want to say something; instead her eyes lingered on Jacana's throat where a ragged scar now cut across her neck. The bullet wound inflicted by the mercs had been tended to by a doctor who worked for the Broker, but the original patch job had been so haphazard and left for so long that she was told the scar was permanent, unless the Broker was willing to pay for expensive surgery of course.

It didn't bother her overly, in her line of work a few scars were part of the image, she had even known of agents deliberately injuring themselves just to look the part.

Khalisah seemed more distracted by it however, her face falling slightly before she looked up again to meet Jacana's eye.

"How have you been?"

"Busy," Jacana replied, "it's probably best I don't go into details. You?"

"More or less the same. It turns out splitting up a fortune takes a lot of organisation."

"Yes, I understand the Alliance is particularly curious to find out who their mysterious benefactor is."

"Well they can keep wondering, I have a reputation to uphold. Actually, I was thinking of running a story about them to throw them off the scent, something… slanderous."

Jacana smiled and shook her head, "You're still going to be a reporter then?"

"Of course. I'd have to give up my catchphrase otherwise. I'm staying as far away from Bekenstein as I can considering I own half of it now. I have other people running it all for me, people I trust."

"You have people you trust now?"

She smiled softly, "A few. Believe it or not Robin actually wanted to go back and help, despite what those mercs put him through. Can you… tell me what happened to Quet?"

"The Broker let him go," she paused and frowned a little, "he's working for C-Sec now," Khalisah shot her a look and Jacana nodded, "I know, sounds crazy doesn't it?"

"When you say the Broker 'let him go'…"

"He gets called in for a few favours now and then," she admitted, "I suppose you never really stop working for the Shadow Broker. Actually it's probably best if you… forget most of what you know about him, I don't think he considers you much of a security risk but…"

"Don't worry about me," Khalisah smiled, "I inherited a few agents of my own through Donovan, I'm watching my back."

"Good," Jacana muttered, "good."

A strange silence fell between them and she noticed Khalisah was gazing across at the same quarians she had been; they seemed to be arguing with a docking official who was trying to refuse them entry and the sight made Khalisah frown, her eyes dancing with a strange kind of sadness. The small talk seemed to have petered out between them and Jacana still didn't know why Khalisah had asked her here.

"So," she said eventually, "you're going back to Earth?"

"To see Daniyah, yes," she continued to watch the quarians a moment more and then finally turned to look at her, "I'm not taking her out of school, she's settled there, but I can visit her now. After all this time she's probably forgotten that I'm actually real," she frowned, suddenly looking down at her hands as her face contorted with conflicting emotions.

Jacana paused for a moment, "It'll be fine. She'll just be happy to see you."

"Yeah," she agreed with a half-convinced smile, "right up until I have to explain that her father's dead and I killed her grandfather. Not looking forward to that bit."

"You might want to leave some of the details out for now," Jacana smiled in a way she hoped was reassuring, "So why did you ask me here? To say goodbye?"

"I… suppose so, partly," she didn't elaborate straight away as she began fidgeting absently, "how are the emotional outbursts?"

"What? Oh," when she realised what Khalisah was talking about she suddenly cleared her throat and looked away.

Most of what had gone on in that room with Khalisah's father had verged on humiliating, but she honestly didn't know which was worse, that she had allowed herself to become consumed by Khalisah's emotions or that she had been so utterly inept at controlling them.

Looking at Khalisah now, it was hard to imagine the violent turmoil that Jacana knew was raging beneath the surface – the self-doubt, the conflicting opinions, the utter, irrational, muddle of emotion that Jacana had barely been able to keep up with.

Most asari saw humans as irrational and impulsive, but if they all had to live with such confusion inside their own minds then she was amazed they managed to stay as composed as they did.

Luckily, the memory of Khalisah's emotions had faded with the last remnants of the meld and there had been no further incidents.

"I'm fine, it was just a one-off, probably brought on by the whole, being shot and kidnapped thing."

"Right, good," Khalisah nodded, then took a deep breath as though steeling herself for something, "I've been having dreams."

"Dreams? What about?"

"Rannoch, I think. As you remember it anyway – your mother, the geth… the war."

She threw Jacana a sheepish glance, as though she thought she was in the wrong somehow, and Jacana felt her eyes widen.

"Shit. Really?"

The effects of a meld were always unpredictable and such things were certainly not unheard of, but they usually required a much deeper meld, "Your father was right, you really must have had quite the effect on me. I'm so sorry Khalisah, if I had had any idea this would-"

"It's okay," Khalisah cut her off calmly, "they're not bad dreams, really, I know they should be but they're not, and I think they're mostly gone now. But I saw it all, felt it all and I… just thought you should know. It's stupid really," she laughed suddenly, "I feel like I've read your diary behind your back. I don't know why that should bother me, I'm used to invading people's privacy, I usually stick it on the front page but…" she trailed off, apparently running out of words and Jacana saw she was once again looking at the young quarians on pilgrimage, who were now being led away by a team of C-Sec officers, "they're beautiful aren't they," she mumbled softly, "behind those masks."

"Yes," Jacana agreed quietly, "they are."

"Strange isn't it?" she smiled suddenly, "There isn't a quarian alive who remembers life on Rannoch, but you do. I suppose in a way it's more your home world than it is theirs and you have to mourn it alone. That must be so-" she cut herself off abruptly before turning with a quizzical gaze as she picked the right word, "lonely."

"I-" Jacana opened her mouth but found no response came to her. Could she deny it? When Khalisah had seen it all for herself? And if not then did she really need to elaborate on it? In the end she decided to stay silent.

They seemed to stand like that for a long while, watching the comings and goings of the docking port until Khalisah's omni-tool beeped and she looked down at the interface.

"My ship's leaving soon, I should probably go."

Jacana nodded, trying to ignore the lurch in her stomach, "Do you know how long you'll be gone?"

"A while, I've got a lot of catching up to do."

"Right," they faced each other awkwardly and Jacana found herself not knowing what to say. For an asari she had always been dismally bad at goodbyes, possibly because she had rarely had anyone close enough to her to warrant one.

"It… was fun working with you," she settled on, "you know, when we weren't being shot at and kidnapped and..." she decided to stop before she dug herself in any deeper and instead held out a hand, "goodbye Khalisah."

The human eyed the hand curiously for a moment before raising her gaze to frown at Jacana, just when she was beginning to wonder if she had said something wrong, Khalisah took a step forward. Bypassing the handshake completely, she instead pulled Jacana into a kiss. It was so unexpected that Jacana momentarily stumbled back against the railing, reaching for the solid metal with one hand while the other blindly grasped Khalisah's waist, more for the support than anything.

Just as her mind was beginning to register what was actually happening, Khalisah pulled away, smiling at the look of bewilderment she had managed to elicit.

"Careful, Miss Aragem," she muttered as she brushed her thumb along Jacana's lower lip, where the human's lipstick was likely smudged, "you're blushing."

With that she stepped back, she seemed to consider saying something more but instead merely smiled and then turned, heading off across the docking port.

"I-" Jacana stammered, feeling both compelled to speak and utterly lost for words. She only just managed to come up with something before Khalisah moved too far away to hear her, "I'll see you when you get back then?" she called.

The human turned briefly in mid-stride and flashed her a devilish smile.

"Maybe! Goodbye Jacana!"

"Bye," she agreed quietly.

She watched the human go, the black coils of her hair bouncing gently with the motion of her stride and she couldn't help but smile and shake her head.

"Well, Jacana," she muttered casually to herself, "that was smoothly done."

– The End –

Thank you to everyone who stuck with this to the end! This was a collection of several daft little ideas I had and decided to string them together into something resembling a storyline. I'm one of those people who sees a supposedly horrible character and instantly assumes that they're just misunderstood, so I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Khalisah. I also grew quite fond of Jacana while I was writing this, in fact I'll probably end up using her again! :)

For now though, thanks again to everyone for reading, I hope you enjoyed.