Chapter 12: A Declaration of War

Afterlife…

Five minutes before the explosion.

There is more to the art of quick death than the killing itself. Anybody could kill; primitives have been doing it since the dawn of existence. But, it takes a master to kill unseen. Thane moved seamlessly through the crowds of people, not bumping into anybody even once. Walking in a person's blind-spot was near second nature to him, and those who saw him walking the dance floor were few and far between, most of which he purposefully let himself be seen.

The music was hypnotic, and bodies gyrated around him as he watched Shepard stop at the stairway towards Aria's private lounge. A dozen guards blocked his path this time. He moved through the crowd, sticking to the wall as he crept closer, keeping to the shadows.

Shepard insisted on non-lethal methods for this mission, at least until betrayal was apparent. It was a tall order, but not a difficult one. He reached in his coat and felt the several stun grenades he had stocked up on for this mission. Tensions were flaring, one of the guards, a turian, drew his weapon on the commander. He was just about to pull the pin when she appeared.

Aria, the queen of Omega.

Memories came back to him. He had a contract on her once. It was one of his greatest challenges; stalking her, hunting her, looking for the perfect opportunity to strike. But his employer was killed mere moments before he was about to pull the trigger. With the employer dead, he had no reason to kill her. Fate, it seemed, was making fun of him. No time for that now, though, business calls.

He was about to follow after Shepard when something caught his eye. It was a movement, but not like the dances of those around him. It stuck out. It was deliberate. And it was blue. He wasn't the only one shadowing Shepard, he concluded. Eyes sharp, he took after the mysterious figure.

To anybody else, he would look like he was casually walking around, but Thane was hard pressed to keep track of his new quarry while remaining hidden in plain sight. He must've circled the place twice, trying to catch up to the mysterious figure who was always a step ahead of him. At last, he seems to have caught up.

Thane spotted him alone, leaning against a wall on the other side of the club. His blue armor marked him as a Blue Sun, the faint glow of his armor's amp capacitors making him stand out in the dark, but not enough to render him unstealthy. His face was hidden under a full helm, similar to a death mask helmet, but the visor was designed to look like a mischievous grin. The man was twirling something in his hand, a small device, similar to a lighter, Looking at Thane's direction. That was when Thane realized he wasn't just looking in his direction, but deliberately at Thane himself. It was like he led him here on purpose. The man raised the small device in the air, and Thane's eyes shone with urgent realization. Before he could even draw his pistol, the man pressed the button, and behind him, Aria's private lounge went up in flames.

People started screaming and running for the exit, and in the chaos, Thane lost sight of the Blue Sun with the detonator. Even so, Thane heard several heavily armored footsteps coming up behind him quite well. He whipped around to see several Blue Suns coming for him, dodging just in time as the mercenaries started blasting, catching innocent people in their sights.

Drawing out his gun, he rolled to the side and opened fire, each shot finding it's way into a skull and dropping it's owner dead on the ground. Gathering biotic energy in his hand, he blasted the rest backwards with a powerful biotic throw. Lunging towards the still disoriented mercenaries, he finished off each one cleanly.

As he surveyed the surroundings, he saw more Blue Suns pouring in from the entrance, pushing against the screaming crowd and firing their weapons menacingly into the air. Loading a fresh clip into his SMG, he picked up a second one from a dead merc and disappeared into the shadows.

The moment the explosion cracked in the air, Zaeed put his hands around Miranda's waist and threw her over the bar and behind the counter, hopping over after her. No sooner had he done that, the spot they were standing on was riddled with gunfire.

The mercs that had been watching them had stood up and were now advancing slowly towards the bar, weapons blazing as they did so. They didn't realize Jacob had drawn his shotgun behind them.

Pumping the shotgun, Jacob unloaded into the back of the nearest merc, and it erupted into a shower of gore. With a wave of his hand, two other mercs floated helplessly into the air, carried by his biotic energy. As he did so, Miranda and Zaeed popped up from cover, opening fire. Caught in the crossfire, the rest of the mercs were quickly overcome, the last one killed when Jacob blasted his head clean off his shoulders. "You two alright?" He said, gun raised as he checked to see if the area was clear.

"Spilled my drink." Zaeed replied sourly, causing Miranda to roll her eyes. "What?" he shrugged.

"We're fine, Jacob." She said, hopping over the counter, looking up at the ceiling towards the upper Afterlife. "That explosion came from above. We need to rendezvous with Shepard and Thane."

Jacob nodded as he loaded a fresh clip into his shotgun. "Copy that, let's go!"

The last thing Shepard remembered was the biting heat of the flames behind him as they flew through the air. Shell shock often came with the phenomena of a slowing of perception, as if time itself slowed down in the wake of the concussive blast. Knowing this, he still thought it was strange how slowly they were falling to the ground. Then he noticed the blue aura surrounding him. Looking down, Aria was still scooped up in his arms, eyes glowing with biotic fury and generally pissed off. She slowly floated them both down with her biotics as chaos took hold of the club. Beneath them, the dance floor had been turned into a battle field as Aria's men traded shots with the blue suns. Having the advantage of surprise, the blue suns were pushing through slowly but surely.

Touching down gently, Shepard let Aria get back on her own feet. A couple of her men rushed towards them and ushered them into cover, bullets whizzing past as they ran. They jumped into one of the booths in the corner, the angle protecting them for now. "You still in one piece, Aria?" he said.

The reply came in the manner of Aria grabbing him by the throat. Her voice was ice itself. "How did you know that was a bomb?"

"I didn't." He replied gruffly, grabbing her arm with his. "I just had a hunch."

"So even if you there wasn't a bomb, you still would've just jumped out like that with me in your arms?"

"More or less."

"You are a very strange human." She decided, finally letting go.

"Hey, it got me this far, right?" he replied, then flipping open his Omnitool. "Shepard here, sound off, you guys alright?"

Miranda's voice was filled with relief, gun fire barking in the background. "Shepard! What the hell happened? We have blue suns swarming in from the lower bar; we're making a slow retreat to your position."

"The blue suns just tried to assassinate Aria and possibly me," he replied. "They're pouring in from here as well, at this rate they'll have us pinned in a vice grip." He carefully looked over cover and ducked back again as bullets ricocheted past him. "Rendezvous with us up here, we'll have to fight our way out!"

"Copy that, just give us a bit and we'll be right there."

Shepard shifted frequencies and hailed Thane. "Thane, are you alright?"

"I'm behind their lines right now, just give the signal for when we make our break for it."

"Nice, stay out of sight."

"Always."

Shepard cut the comm and turned to Aria. "We'll be pinned down soon, we need to work together to get out of here!"

"Run?" she asked incredulously, taking a pistol one of her men handed her. "Don't order me around, Shepard. I'm going to kill Miller for this."

"You can't kill him if you die here!"

"Watch me." With that, she jumped out of cover, flinging her biotics with on hand and opening fire with the other.

"Shit." Shepard cursed under his breath as he pulled out his assault rifle and chased after her.

Meanwhile, on the Normandy…

After Kasumi had calmed down, drifting back into unconsciousness, Garrus managed to somehow carry her back into her room while maneuvering the IV post he was attached to. The trip was slow and cumbersome, but he made it. Eventually. Spirits his chest was killing him.

It was not a feat he would care to repeat again anytime soon.

The room was a mess. Bottles were strewn about everywhere, mostly whole while others were broken; and there were several puddles of booze around the bar counter. Nothing else was broken though, which would be more of a relief for Kasumi when she woke up.

"Looks like I missed a hell of a party." Garrus whispered as he carefully made his way over to Kasumi's bed, which was thankfully spared from the horrors of the rest of the room, avoiding anything that could make him slip along the way. Setting the woman gently down on the soft white sheets, he finally let out a breath of relief to having a job well done. For a lithe woman, she was heavier than she looked. He snickered to himself, looking over Kasumi's sleeping form. "Figures…A girl saves your life and suddenly you're expected to be at her beck and call."

Kasumi squirmed a bit, before lying flat on her back, arms sprawled on either side of her head as the woman stretched in her sleep. Her back arched upwards, accentuating her curves through the skin tight suit that she wore. She moaned as she did so, biting her lower lip as she enjoyed the warm softness of the bed underneath her.

Garrus just stood there for a while, jaw dropped and drinking in the sight. He had never really looked at Kasumi this way before. Forget that; He had never looked at a member of a different species in the same manner before, but Kasumi did look quite… feminine. It would be a couple more moments before he would realize he was staring. Quickly turning his gaze away, he cleared his throat and grabbed his ad-hoc staff. Yes, now would probably be a good time to make an exit.

Turning around, he quickly made for the door.

Wherein he proceeded to slip on a bottle on his first step.

He fell backwards, hands flailing as he tried to reach for the post for balance but to no avail. Fucking bottles. Knowing then and there that he would land on Kasumi, he had to adjust the trajectory of his course. Praying to the spirits for guidance, he twisted around during the fall and put both his hands in front of him. He managed to land them both on either side of her, hard, taking the weight of the fall on his arms. His knees banged against the side of the bedframe, buckling, but he maintained his balance. It hurt, and Garrus cringed, closing his eyes as the pain coursed through the wound in his torso and arms, especially the one with the IV in it. But he did manage to avoid falling on Kasumi.

He felt a warm breath on his face, and when he opened his eyes, he saw that he was mere inches away from Kasumi's. He felt his heart skip a beat. The hood had been drawn back a little, and he realized that this was the first time he saw her face unobscured. Alcohol breath aside, she was beautiful… for a human anyway. Even the puffiness around her eyes from all the crying did little to take away from just how… pretty she looked. Her features looked soft; especially those… what did humans call their mandibles again? Lips? They looked so inviting. Tempting even… He realized he was unconsciously closing the gap between their faces and stopped himself just in time.

No.

This is wrong.

This is seriously wrong.

She's your friend, he told himself. She was just crying her eyes out moments ago and now he was... He didn't even want to think about it. He made himself sick. By the spirits, she's not even a turian! Not that non-turians were unattractive mind you, it's just that he considered himself a one-species kind of guy. And besides he- Spirits was he rambling in his head?

And that was when the door opened.

The moment that go-getter Chambers told her that Thane had left for a mission with the commander, Jack was pissed. She was pissed like you wouldn't believe. Not only did that smooth bastard get away from her clutches, but he also got to go to the Afterlife! The Goddamn Afterlife!

She stomped into the lounge and headed straight for the bar counter, crushing glass underneath her boot and just daring any puddle to make her slip. She took a seat and grabbed the nearest bottle she could reach, crack open the lid, and drinking straight from it. "Fucking drell! Fucking Shepard! Fuck this goddamn ship too!" she started to rant, swinging the bottle around.

This was bad, Garrus thought.

This was really bad.

The moment Jack stepped in, Garrus had been holding his breath. By some blessing of the spirits, she happened to not notice him straddled on top of Kasumi in this manner. But when she did…

No, no! That's defeatist talk!

If she did… he clarified to himself.

Okay, the key out of this whole situation was calming down. He'd start by getting off the lithe woman and calmly let Jack know he was in her presence. He would then proceed to explain he was just tucking Kasumi into bed after she had wandered drunkenly into his quarters, make trademark witty remarks, and get the fuck out of there. Fool-proof!

Well, the plan was fool-proof. Up until Kasumi grabbed the back of his neck and kissed him full on the mandibles.

It took Garrus by surprise, to say the least. It felt very different from any turian female he had ever kissed. The rational part of his mind was slowly pushed back into a corner. This girl knew what she was doing. He tried to break free, but in his current condition, he only managed to struggle a little. That and Kasumi was apparently stronger than she looked, as was previously established.

It was then that Kasumi broke the kiss and moaned out loud. Before pulling him back in again.

Spirits, Garrus was so dead.

Jack's head perked up, she didn't turn around but had a malicious smile creeping onto her face. She forgot she had left Kasumi here when she passed out. And it looks like she was dreaming. The kind of dream that was sweet and raunchy enough for her to moan in her sleep. She whipped out her omnitool and set it to record. Then she'd upload the file into Kasumi's omnitool and watch comedy gold happen.

The last thing she thought she would see when she turned around to record the scene was a half-naked turian, who for some reason had an IV line on a post right next to him, on top of her friend. On top of her friend. Both seemed quite busy, although Garrus was flailing a bit as if he was struggling to get off. She stared for a few seconds, jaw dropped, then finally managed to form the words in her mouth. "What the fuck… In the holy hell… am I fucking looking at!"

Garrus finally managed to break free of Kasumi, who let out a groan of disappointment as the kiss ended, and scamper as quick as he could off the bed. He turned towards the shocked Jack. He needed a really good opening argument to get out of this one. All he could come up with in his flustered state however was "Ummm…" Sheer poetry.

"Garrus? The fuck is this? The fuck is that! Is she-? Did you-? Explain! NOW!"

"Look, I know how this looks like, and I know you're already forming your own conclusions in your head." He began slowly, hands gesturing in a reassuring manner. "But this is not what you think it looks like, I assure you."

"Oh? Oh really?" Jack replied, tone nearing hysterical. "So you just happened to accidentally kiss her while she was unconscious? Is that what you're trying to say? That this is all just some big fucking misunderstanding?"

He looked her right in the eyes, determination and sincerity etched onto his face, and nodded, saying "Yes."

A full 30 seconds of silence passed between them.

Jack spoke first. "What a funny misunderstanding." she just tilted her head sideways and slowly started to glow blue. Her pupils narrowed into pinheads and she started to laugh, a slow mirthful laugh, slowly advancing on Garrus. "C'mon Garrus, laugh with me."

Seeing this, Garrus unconsciously backpedalled until he had his back to the wall, laughing nervously with the incoming Jack.

Jack was face to face with him now, booming with laughter. She was practically invading his personal space, tendrils of biotic energy snaking all around her.

Garrus had no choice but to laugh along and hope for the best.

"Hey, Garrus?" She said, a sickeningly sweet tone in her voice.

"Ye-yeah, Jack?"

"You wanna tell me how to neuter a turian?" She asked, running a finger over his toned chest, "No, don't tell me. Going in blind is always fun."

Before he could reply, something hit the side of the ship. Hard. The whole ship shook on impact and knocked both Jack and Garrus on their respective asses.

Kasumi suddenly sat up right, clutching her temples as she did so. "Ugh… What the hell did I drink? It feels like the whole ship is shaking!" she muttered. She squeaked in fright as another impact rocked the ship. Looking next to her, she saw Jack and Garrus in a tangled heap on the floor. "Eh? Jack? Garrus? What's going on here?"

Garrus got up right and helped Jack up to her feet, who quickly swatted his hands away.

"Fucking ugly date-raper." She muttered through gritted teeth.

"I told you, that's NOT what happened!" Garrus said, at the end of his rope. "Can we please discuss this later?"

"Fine."

Kasumi got off the bed, leaning on the wall for support, gripping her head from the hangover. "My treasures!" She yelled into Jack's ear in dismay, head throbbing and seeing her things on the floor. "What the fuck is going on!"

"The hell should I know!" Jack yelled back. She pulled out a small bottle from her pants and tossed it to the other woman. "Here, for your head."

Kasumi caught it, popped the cap, and drank the contents with gusto. "Thanks." She said, wiping the sides of her mouth. The pain in her head started to dull as the hangover remedy took effect. She hurriedly paced around the room, carefully picking up books, paintings and statuettes. "My babies! Don't cry, mommy's here now…" she said tearfully as Garrus and Jack raised an eyebrow each. Kasumi gently placed them on a quickly growing pile on her bed. She turned to them, a serious determination shining from her eyes. "Now then, what the hell is going on?"

"Hold on, let me check…" Garrus muttered back, "EDI, what's going on?"

No answer. The lights started flickering on and off as well.

"EDI?" Garrus repeated.

This time, a response came blaring into the intercom. "All personnel, be advised, I am currently withstanding 727,485 simultaneous hacking attempts. The shipyard has been compromised and take off is not possible at this point. I am doing all I can to remedy this. Be prepared for a boarding scenario."

Jack walked up beside Garrus. "That can't be good."

"It hardly is…" He carefully walked over to the viewing port in the lounge to catch a glimpse of the outside. "What the hell is- Oh shit!" He quickly jumped for the button to close the shutters, and no sooner than he did, another impact rocked the ship. He fell, and his IV line pulled itself out from him. He cringed as his hand started to bleed from the laceration. "Great…" He said as he applied pressure to the wound. He saw enough however to get a bead on the hostiles. Yellow armor, the Eclipse.

Outside, the Ban'Torvias Shipyard was sprawling with Eclipse mercenaries. The volus proprietor and his men were huddled into a corner and held at gun point.

"Bu-But, we had a deal! Just ask Tarrana!" The wheezing Ban'Torvias pleaded. "She said she'd give me the Normandy if I showed her where it was!"

"Boss says the deal is off." One of the mercs, a salarian, replied, "She also sends her goodbyes."

"No!"

The screaming was cut short and lost under the sound of gunfire as the Eclipse mowed down all their prisoners.

"Boss, this is Filon." The salarian merc said over the communicator, "We've cut the loose ends over on our side, orders?"

"Make sure nobody gets in or out of the shipyard until we've cracked her open." A sultry voice said over the comm. "Oh, and what did I say about calling me boss, hmm?"

"Ah… C-copy that, my lady."

"Better. Now get to it."

"Yes, my lady." He turned towards his men and started barking orders. "You heard the lady, I want a tight perimeter on the area now! Engineers, set up point defenses and auto-turrets! Go, go, go!"

"Good, good." Tarrana Ionet, commander of the Eclipse, smiled as she closed the comm frequency. She was tall for an asari, her slender form still evident under the light armor she wore. Her eyes were hidden underneath yellow tinted shades, and holographic plates shimmered on her like armor as she busied herself with several terminals, each held by a kneeling Loki mech in front of her. "Now, onto the meat of the business, yes-yes?"

Looking at the Normandy from her perch in the distance, she saw with satisfaction that it was surrounded by a dozen Ymir mechs, heavy cabling extending from their arms onto large disc like devices latched onto the side of the ship. "Lessa, what are the statuses of the Ymirs?"

"My lady, the Ymirs have finished deploying the last magnetic anchor." Another asari responded. "Magnetic anchors have been locked and engaged. The ship has some serious firewalls but we'll find a chink in the armor soon. Waiting for further orders."

"Wonderful, just keep at it, darling!" Tarrana beamed. She put a hand on her hip and waved an omnitool over the terminals. "All units, prepare to board the Normandy!"

"I am fucking sick and tired of falling on my ass." Jack said as she got up, finding her footing again. "Well?"

"Eclipse," Garrus began, trying to stop the bleeding futilely. "They have Ymirs firing magnetic anchors on the ship; trying to pin us down. They must also be doing something to mess with EDI." He got up to one knee, his body aching. "Shit, how did they find us?" his mind was racing with dreaded scenarios.

"We can worry about that later." Kasumi clicked her tongue as she popped up to his right, kneeling beside Garrus. "You really can't do anything right without somebody watching your back." She took his hand and wrapped a white strip of cloth, a piece torn off from her bed sheet, tightly around it. It stained a dark blue, but nothing further than that. "I can't keep coming to your rescue, you know?"

"Thanks", He had trouble looking her in the eye as she finished up, still wary of what happened between them. "It's really flattering how highly the drunkard thinks of me."

"Cheer up, Garrus." She smiled obliviously, "I'm sure there are plenty more opportunities to impress me."

Garrus wracked his brain for a witty come back, but all he could think of were how soft those lips were. Instead, he cleared his throat, looked away and said. "Uh… Sure."

Kasumi smirked. "There's a good boy."

Jack merely raised an eyebrow at the two. Confronting Garrus would have to wait, but maybe it was for the best. She smirked and dusted herself off, "Well, time to go bust some heads, I guess."

"Indeed." Garrus agreed. "Shall we suit up, ladies?"