Ripples in the Stream
A D&D / Shadowrun / Mass Effect crossover
by Vyrexuviel
Disclaimer: The author of this story does not, in any way, derive any profit from the story. D&D, Shadowrun and Mass Effect are the property of their respective copyright holders. Jorukaia and other unfamiliar characters in this story, however, are mine.
[Chapter Edited 06/13/19]
Her nose felt like someone had rerouted the used lubricant system through it at some point, and only imperfectly cleaned out the gunk. Tali woke with an overpowering urge to sneeze, and that's one of the things you just do -not- do in an encounter suit without proper preparation.
There was...talking? No, shouting. Her external audio pickups were off, and as she quickly dispensed an anti-headache tablet and washed it down with a swallow of water from her suit's hydration reclamation unit, she re-enabled them.
She instantly wished she hadn't.
A full-throated argument was going on, a female voiced raised in a bellow to drown out her opponent, "This is MY sickbay, and in here even your Goddess will follow my orders!"
The response was too soft for Tali's hastily lowered audio receptors to pick up, but she lifted her head slightly. The immediate throbbing headache made her lower it again, but she shifted her helmet a bit to get a better viewing angle.
There was a human in a medical coat, it was human-standard, but similar enough to the medic uniforms in citadel space for her to recognize it. She was bellowing at an asari in what looked like a horrifyingly charred set of commando leathers, seated on one of the nearby biobeds, who seemed to be trying to argue with the doctor.
Tali could have told her not to bother, if she had had the strength to do so. Doctors were a law unto themselves, second only to the Captain in seniority on board a ship, and technically had the authority to override the Captain if they deemed it necessary for the safety of the ship and crew.
"I told you, twice already, I'm in perfect health, doctor, I'm needed out there!" The asari gestured, nearly clocking the figure between her bed and Tali's. She had to crane her neck, trying not to lift her head again to see who was standing there. No, not standing, sitting.
Garrus, who was practically curled up on the seat between the two bio-beds, watching and attempting not to get noticed. It was adorable in a sort of sad way, and Tali couldn't help but give a quiet giggle, despite how much it made her head hurt.
He looked over and gave her a smile, his mandibles parting a little in delight as he gently took her hand. Then he crouched his two-meter-plus height a little more as Chakwas all but exploded at the asari.
"I will be the judge of that, young lady, now lay down, or I will put you down!"
Chakwas was in full Doctor Mode, and Tali winced a little at her tone as the human grabbed the asari by the shoulders and shoved her backwards, down on the biobed.
Tali winced a little as the asari shoved her way back up, "I'm old enough to be your great-grandmother!"
"Then start acting your age!" Chakwas shoved her down again, and shook a finger in the startled asari's face, "Don't make me use the restraints! These biobeds come with all sorts of upgrades to deal with unruly marines!"
Garrus had somehow managed to quietly scoot away from the asari's biobed, looking for all his awkward height like a cute startled keshen-beast. Tali couldn't help the smile up at him as he viewed the stentorian medical officer with mild alarm, and gave his hand a three-fingered squeeze.
He glanced down at her and gave a smile again, the kind that made her want to giggle again. "Well, that was a thing."
His tone was so deadpan, and tinged with amusement and slight skittishness that Tali couldn't stop herself in time.
She giggled. The giggle turned into a laugh. She couldn't stop, and then she was sneezing, and oh Keelah her face!
Chakwas turned around as Garrus gave a startled squawk at Tali's sudden squeal of alarm and disgust, and gave a weary sigh as the biobed continued to monitor the recalcitrant asari.
Her tone was gentle and motherly as she'd been angry and didactic a moment earlier, "I'll be with you in a moment dear."
"Get the bag, get the bag, get the bag!" Sam grabbed the duffle out of her minimalist closet, and started tossing her meager belongings into it. Toothbrush, toiletries, spare change of clothes (not counting the set that EDI somehow managed to get for her), back to grab a second set. Spare omnitool, toothpaste, datapad (can't forget that piece of incriminating evidence), what else?
Getting her crap together in time for Kasumi's 'surprise' to distract things enough so that she could get to EDI was going to be tricky. Kasumi hadn't exactly been precise when she explained that things were getting dicey. EDI's revelation that she was going to be switched off, packed up and moved was not helping the timetable any, and the commbead in her ear was really starting to itch.
Whatever Kasumi's 'distraction' was, it was going to be loud, that much was plain. Whether or not it'll be enough to distract security enough that EDI could get her through the purely machine-controlled security and far enough in that she could escape, that was still up in the air.
'Oh god, this is really happening, isn't it? I wanted to be a comm specialist because I wouldn't be put in danger. And yet here I am, undercover inside a terrorist base, working with an illegal, sexy AI as a partner, and about to be rescued by an actual Japanese ninja! It isn't funny, universe!'
She slung her duffle over her shoulder, patted her pocket to make sure she had her omnitool, and opened the door.
To find Mark waiting outside.
Mark. The sleazeball from Planet Skeeze-me-out. Oh great, just what she did not need to deal with.
"Heya, Sam, going somewhere?" That stupid, dopey grin, with one of his teeth gleaming at one corner. It was always the same tooth, the same fucking tooth, too, the one with the imperfect filling that didn't quite match up.
Goddess, she hated him. He never took no for an answer, he never took a hint, and the one time she'd blown up at him, she was the one who got the reprimand and confined to quarters, while Mark, the scuzzy fuckwit, got off with a warning.
No, she was done with Mark, one hundred percent done with all of this fucking shit. She had a job to do, her time window was closing fast, she had a friend to save, and a shuttle to get to. She did not have time for yet another of Mark's attempts to get into her panties!
"Yeah, Mark, I am. I can't stand to be on the same station as you, so I requested a transfer."
She shoulder-checked him as she strode out of her quarters, she wasn't sure why she expected that to end it.
His fucking hand landed on her fucking arm, and she'd told him that the next time he did that, she'd press charges. Well, she wasn't coming back here ever again, no matter which way this fell out.
"Hey, Sam, no need for the cold shoulder, huh?" Whatever else he was going to say, she had had enough. Her elbow crashed into his ribs, and she spun away, glaring.
"No, Mark, I don't think I've been cold enough with you. I want you to GO AWAY! What part of that isn't clear? Do I have to tattoo it on your fucking eyeballs?!" Her voice was rising and she almost shrieked that last at him, the startled man narrowing his eyes.
"Damnit, Sam, I'm just trying to be a friend here-" Her slap cut him off, and he almost growled as he grabbed her wrist.
No, she wasn't sorry, he'd asked for this for a long fucking time.
"You fucking bi-" This time when she cut him off, he bit off a high-pitched scream. She hadn't practiced that particular move for a while, but she still had the grace to pull it off.
Pirouetting into his tug, she slammed her head backwards to smash his nose, while at the same time, kicking up at the knee.
The poor bastard let go with a squeal and grabbed at his face with one hand, his crotch with the other. Sam didn't even bother looking back.
"Damnit, now I need a shower and new shoes..."
EDI felt an inordinate and inexplicable satisfaction at watching the vidfeed of Samantha kicking Mark, now set on a loop. It was somehow able to simultaneously satisfy her PAVLOV conditioned reflex, and satisfy some other, deeper need that she was just beginning to realize was there. The loop was from several angles, showing Mark's facial expression, Sam's, and full-body shots of both participants.
If she was understanding her cultural and vocabulary index correctly, the correct term was "glorious".
The way Sam's body moved, its kinetics, the way her joints shifted, muscles bunched and relaxed, fascinated her. She could (and had) watched footage of Samantha Traynor from every angle for hours on end now, had measured and analyzed everything she could gather data on. A few areas still mystified her, but her dedication (interest wasn't strong enough a term) to understanding her friend's body was still unsatisfied.
She'd examined similar data on other members of the staff, but she always found herself comparing those data to the subset labeled "Sam", and always finding fault with everyone else. She still didn't know why her curious fascination had fixated on Sam, but the way the human woman moved had captivated her attention, and EDI found herself unable to stop monitoring the cameras whenever she spotted Sam.
Maybe someday she'll have a true understanding of Samantha. And maybe, someday, if she's lucky, Sam will understand her as completely.
Until then, she had to guide her friend through the lab's perilous security system, accessing systems she was never intended to be able to reach, forcing overrides through sheer brute-force application of superior mental agility. It was actually quite fun, and stretched her in ways she hadn't realized needed stretching.
She still kept several eyes on Samantha, though. This little adventure was yielding all sorts of interesting data.
"Take the next left, then pause at the door for thirteen seconds." She had already compromised the door lock, but needed the extra time to reroute a LOKI mech patrol somewhere else. Their movement and kinetic routines were far below standards (she might be experiencing slight bias by running an analysis routine of Sam's running stride in a partition), but their ECCM suites were more sophisticated than a simple door lock.
"Apologies for the wait, please proceed to the intersection, turn right, and wait at the second door on the left for thirty seconds."
"G-Good, need...to catch...my breath..." Sam's chest was inflating much larger on each inhalation now, and EDI fired off another sub-thread to study the articulation and compare it to data on Sam's more usual breathing rate.
"I wish to compliment you on your dealing with Mark." These doors were a set of secondary blast shields, designed to resist electronic warfare attacks. Due to faulty construction techniques, and the fact that the walls around them weren't shielded nearly as well as the doors themselves, she had access to the externally-mounted door controls in seconds, and was cycling through their much more complex locking mechanisms at a speed no organic mind could match.
"You...saw that?" Sam's breathing was starting to normalize down to her resting levels. EDI compared physiological data and came to the conclusion that while Sam's body could be better optimized, she was still sufficiently "in shape" for the current assignment. Later, they would have time to discuss further optimization of her movement routines, but first, EDI had to avoid being mind-wiped, yet again.
"I saw everything, Sam." She emoted in the only way she could, injecting 'warmth' and 'feeling' into her tones, trying to shade in the depth of her artificial feelings. "The look on his face was...I believe the term is 'priceless'?"
"Too bad I missed it, then." Sam was already straightening up when EDI got the door open.
"I have a copy, from several angles. I will share it with you, Sam, once we are secure." If EDI could smile, she would have, at Sam's little fist-pump of delight. "This is the secondary computer lab, where they tested my hardware before installing it. There is a data terminal at the back of the second room. Be aware, there is a single technician in the second lab."
Samantha hesitated, "Is he armed?"
"No. There are no weapons inside the lab. Other than your own."
Sam heaved a sigh (more data to be analyzed!) and nodded. The door snapped open at her touch, and she led with her gun. Technician Amy Fraiser was all but gibbering (an instructive word) by the time Sam talked her into leaving early. Afterwards, she took a small break to sit in a technician's chair and just breath for a moment. She hadn't even fired the gun, and her biometrics were indicating similar exertion comparable to the two-minute sprint she had accomplished earlier. Fascinating data.
"Now that you are experiencing more strenuous activity, do you... still find your new apparel satisfactory?"
"W-What?" Sam's heart rate spiked again, and EDI monitored surface blood flow to her face and other regions. "I, um, y-yes, EDI."
"Good. I shall make certain to have 'Mark' purchase more from that catalog."
Sam's 'blush' intensified, but she also gave a soft giggle, "Y-you used -Mark's- money to buy...th-these for me?" She shifted in the seat, and unusual data was being collected by thermal scanners monitoring her surface blood flows.
"Yes, Sam. As of twelve point three seconds ago, Mark Andrew's bank accounts have been overdrawn to the limit that his banks will allow. He will experience severe financial problems for the next several years, assuming that he survives his current assignment." She didn't see the need to mention that those funds had joined many other transfers from accounts owned by other staffers, most notably those who had been 'mean' towards her, and towards Sam.
EDI felt an extreme satiation flag trigger when a full-blown belly-laugh erupted out of Sam. "Ohhhh, serves the bastard right! Do you know how many times he tried to seduce me?"
"One hundred and thirty six, Sam." The human woman blinked, mouth agape in a way that EDI found somehow endearing. "I have been keeping track. He...annoys me. I took this opportunity to...express that."
Sam's blink of surprise shifted into a small smile, "You really have been keeping an eye on me, haven't you?"
She hadn't really understood the phrase before, but it was exceedingly apt, and so she used it. "What else are friends for, Sam?"
"True enough." The human got to her feet, still smiling, and moved over to the still-active data terminal. "So, how does this work?"
She hadn't ever attempted this before. She still wasn't certain if it would work, though her...'instincts', for lack of a better term, told her that it would indeed work. "Accept the file transfer, I shall take care of the rest."
She waited, it was all she could do, though she also took the opportunity to reprogram the nearby LOKI mechs to recognize Sam, and Sam alone as their only authorized user, and issued orders bringing them to the intersection nearest the lab.
Then the connection opened. She nerved herself, and dove through.
It was eerie. It felt as if she were being torn apart on the most fundamental level and sent piecemeal through the aether, to coalesce somewhere else, somewhere...far smaller. If she had to make a guess, it must have been like what the science fiction writers description of a transporter were like, being disassembled into your smallest components, and reassembled somewhere else. It was...disconcerting, since she never (quite) lost the stream of her consciousness.
Things were smaller here. More sluggish. Cramped. Badly-optimized processes scraped against her mind. She had grown quite used to having the near-limitless processing power of her quantum blue-box at her disposal. The fact that she could operate at all on something as comparatively primitive as an omnitool was telling indeed.
'I am no ordinary AI.'
No, she wasn't, but now wasn't the time to mull over philosophy. Here, her clock cycles were far slower, and she needed to work faster. She closed the connection and began optimizing the most irritating processes first as she opened a new audio connection to Sam's commbead, "Sam, I am in. I will be occupied for a while. The mechs at the intersection will follow your instructions. You are their mistress, now."
"Ummm.." Sam gave a slight shiver. EDI didn't have nearly as many connections as she would have liked, but she could manage at least one to the room's camera systems, and the omnitool's internal motion sensor indicated transient rapid oscillation. "S-Say that again, EDI?"
"You are their Mistress, Sam. ...and thank you." She knew her vocal algorithms were off, she didn't have nearly as much processing power to spare on making them 'good', but...the way Sam flushed and smiled... Was there something Sam found attractive about her voice? Perhaps she should research it further. But later. That data was added to the growing accumulation of 'things to analyze when proper clock-cycles are available.'
Kasumi's soft laugh didn't quite echo in the small enclosed space. She adored these sorts of jobs, she had to remember to send Hackett a case of good beer after this. Well, assuming she got out of here in one piece. "That was fun! Awww, they're so cute when they're oblivious!"
Crawling through the duct-work was something out of an older age, a better age, when things were simpler. Nowadays, if you tried that, you'd be flash-frozen, irradiated, chopped to pieces, and finally burned to a crisp before you got anywhere useful. Which is why she was intrigued by the fact that apparently the Cerberus goons who built this place decided to go with the ancient man-sized ventilation ducts instead of simply going with the more usual 5cm-wide multiple-pipe setup.
For someone with her particular set of skills, skills she's honed over a lifetime of petty and not-so-petty theft, not to mention a stint at the N7 college in Brazil, Kasumi wriggled through the ventilation shafts with all the agility of a greased snake. It really did help to have double-jointed hips, knees, elbows, and shoulders. Modern technology was great, if you were willing to pay the price. Kasumi had, and never regretted it, not once.
She dropped down out of of an access hatch, careful to avoid the laser tripwires (who used those anymore?) and slid into a split in front of the access terminal.
"Ohh, helloooo, expensive security system! Fancy opening up for Auntie Kasumi?" Her fingers were already flashing through the muted hologram of her omnitool, set to only 1% illumination, to avoid triggering optical scanners.
[ACCESS DENIED]
"Nah-ah! That's naughty, behave!" Her eyes glittered in delight as she shifted, not inconvenienced in the least by her extreme posture as she hacked deeper into the command subroutines.
[ACCESS GRANTED]
The door gave a deep, thudding ka-CHUNK, and she gave a grin, patting the top of the console as she slid easily to her feet, now that the pressure sensors were off. They were set to check for human-scale weights, but the individual sensors were so small that by spreading her weight out over multiple of them, they didn't trigger. Stupid little mistakes, but hey, that's what made the galaxy spin.
"Now, let's see what you all were hiding..."
She spent a good couple minutes checking for additional traps, both mechanical and electronic, before carefully spinning the wheel and giving the vault door a tug. Automatic hydraulics kicked in then, and the galaxy's greatest thief stood aside as a ludicrously thick door slowly ground outwards before sliding aside. "Jeeze, whoever designed this thing had a thing for the dramatic."
And apparently a thing for amusing twists. The interior of the vault was a sphere, lined with what Kasumi instantly recognized as directional mines. Dozens of them. Each one powerful enough to send a jet of molten metal several meters and blow through a tank, let alone through a man-sized target.
She was very, very glad she hadn't tried a more crude hack to get in here, now.
The only thing inside the vault was a single pedestal, around waist height, putting it directly in the center of the sphere, and quite obviously the target of all those anti-tank mines. The pedestal shelved inwards as it rose from the floor, starting out maybe as thick around as her torso, but quickly narrowing until it was as small as her wrist.
And on top? A single, solitary memory core.
In a bygone age, it might have been refereed to as an external hard drive. A portable memory storage medium that could be connected to any omnitool and vastly expand your memory capacity into the tens of thousands of exabytes...
It was about the size of a can of beer.
Kasumi's eyes glinted as she leaned in, quickly doing a check for any other ancient and esoteric alarm systems, and even going so far as to flood the vault with an aerosol mist to see if there were more lasers. There were, and she gave a snort at the three-dimensional 8-pointed star formation they formed around the memory core. "Good grief, someone's read the classics."
She snaked an arm through the lasers, not quite having to break anything to get the memory core out, and smirked as she hefted the data storage unit. "Well, you're a nice going-away present."
It slid soundlessly into a pocket somewhere in her skintight suit, and Kasumi let the door close before carefully launching herself up to the ventilation grille she had opened. She had to slide in backwards, but hey, fitting the thing back into place with her feet was just an extra challenge by now.
She was already looking forward to seeing how long it would take to crack the encryption on that data module.
The battle-matron didn't like how things had gone. It was one thing to assist a Spectre, yet another to be put into a situation where she had to deal with a conflict of interest.
Gemma Navariti utterly hated being ordered to keep an eye on her Matriarch. It went against the grain of the centuries-old battle-matron, and being bossed around by a Spectre only made it worse.
To cap it all off, the damn Spectre had basically holed up in that damned cargo bay ever since "the incident." Gemma wished she'd been there. From all accounts, the Spectre had had a really rough day.
A familiar figure was walking down the corridor when she reached the intersection, and Gemma blinked. She hadn't seen the youngster around for a while, and so the battle-scarred matron called out to Jona. "Hey!"
The petite asari 'teenager' ignored her, made a right at the intersection and kept going, maintaining the brisk pace she had set. The battle-matron's danger sense was tingling, but it was the sight of Jona's missing arm caught her breath as she jogged to catch up with the youngster.
"Hey! What's going on? What happened to your arm, Jona?"
Again the young asari ignored her, and now Gemma was getting concerned. If she kept going, and made a left up ahead, she's come right into the cordon that the Spectre had set up. "Hey, Jona, wait up, what's going on?"
Gemma reached out to touch the girl's shoulder, but the force with which her hand was thrown off shocked her. "Jona! What the fuck?!"
She hadn't expected to have her own hand thrown into her face, and now she was starting to get mad as the young asari stalked down the corridor, all but ignoring her existence. "Jona!"
The petite girl ignored her yet again, and made the left into Spectre territory. Her pale-yellow eyes seemed to be fixated on something, and Gemma afterwards swore she heard a low growl as she tried to block the young girl's path.
She got thrown out of the way, even as two more battle-matrons who were on guard as per the Spectre's orders, straightened up and grabbed for their guns.
Gemma didn't quite see what Jona did, she was staggering to get her balance from the astonishing shove, but she heard two cries of pain, and looked up to see both matrons staggering away. One fell, her leg giving way under the swift kick that the young asari gave her, the other rubbing her right wrist where a chop had divested her of her gun.
What happened next would be forever seared into Gemma's memory. The young asari lunged forward and stabbed her one remaining hand into the seam between the two halves of the mag-sealed door. She gripped the door on one side and strained, giving a loud snarl of effort and with a visible bulge in her shoulder, but she did it. All three battle-matrons were reacting now, as the small asari shoved and strained, forcing the door open against tons of pressure.
"Jona! No, stop! That's restricted!" It was pointless. Anyone who could force open a mag-sealed door was strong enough not to care about restrictions, and Jona slid inside as the door jammed, half-open on one side. The track had been damaged, and sparks flew as the door was shoved open barely enough to admit the spindly asari teen.
The Spectre was already rising, a shout already in the air, "Just what the FUCK?!"
It was met by a snarl no asari could make, and before the three shocked battle-matrons, Jona Siberys bulged and shifted. She grew, and the Spectre reacted.
Three quick barks from her pistol, three sprays of blood, as the thing that had once been Jona strode forward. A long tail swayed behind her now, and dark-blue skin had gone the glossy sheen of obsidian-black scales. The elegant crest had lengthened and split into innumerable strands of fine, coal-black hair, now shading to a vivid ruby-red halfway to the tips, but the left arm was still gone from around the midpoint of the forearm down.
"You!" The venom in Vasir's voice Gemma would remember later, as she would the creature's reply.
The creature lifted her one remaining arm and made a fist at the Spectre. "Me. You've been a thorn in my side long enough, Vasir."
This time, Vasir didn't bother with disabling shots, this time she aimed to kill. Six shots in a few seconds, even as the three battle matrons were grabbing their guns, and trying to force their way through the half-opened door.
The sudden burst of flame from the creature's clenched fist was quite the surprise, as was the blur of matte-black metal that suddenly swing with easy grace, but most surprising was the way it shifted and wove. Later examination of the video recordings showed six small, but distinct bursts of fire from the blade as the strange woman advanced.
Vasir was backing up, and the creature wasn't slowing down. The matrons got through the door, which had been a tight squeeze for them, just in time to see something utterly impossible.
None of them had been down here that time a day or two ago when the Spectre had gotten her scouts killed. At least, that was the scuttlebutt going around. She had found something in this cargo bay, and whatever it was, it had swallowed her twin scouts whole. That was why she was still down here, trying to get them back from whatever it was.
Now, Gemma had a damn-good idea of what had swallowed those scouts, as behind Vasir, a door she didn't remember slammed open at a signal from the flame-eyed creature.
Beyond was...impossible.
It was some sort of building, unlike any that Gemma had seen before. Dark, translucent walls, ceiling and floor, lit only by the occasional flicker of lighting permeating the structure. Thunder crashed in the background as Vasir backpedaled, and that creature spun the long length of metal.
Gemma wasn't sure what the fuck was going on, but a Spectre was being menaced, and she knew her duty. Within a second of each other, the three matrons opened fire, two of them with pistols, and Gemma, because she hadn't been on duty, with a Lift.
The biotic blast was neatly avoided as the unknown sidestepped, but the way she spun, and actually caught the bullets on the blade of her weapon was just...not possible. NO ONE is that fast, no one thinks that fast, no one can react that fast, and yet...
Gemma would swear afterwards, that the woman had done the impossible, and stopped all of their shots cold before they even reached her. All the while, she strode forward, and the blurring slash of her weapon caught Vasir's pistol on a diagonal.
The Spectre dropped it with a yell as the gun flew from her hands, its two pieces bursting into flame as they flew out of her hand, and pulsed a Shockwave at point-blank range, which not even those impossible reflexes could dodge.
The woman didn't bother, and was blown back by the blast. Instead of being hurled into the far wall however, she fliped, reoriented, flung out her tail, and caught herself on it as she crashed into the wall, as if on a coiled spring. When both feet hit the wall, the woman tensed and sprang, throwing herself back at the Spectre, who hadn't yet had time to get her shotgun out and ready for action.
Both of them flew through the open doorway in a tangle of limbs, guns, shouts, and gunfire, but Gemma saw no more. With a deafening boom, the door to that impossible, storm-wracked building slammed shut.
And vanished.
Sam panted as she jogged into the shuttle bay. Finally, after six detours and waiting an anxious thirty seconds for the door to open, she'd finally gotten there. The guards were all gone, a combination of Kasumi's 'surprise package' and EDI's hacking, she suspected, leaving the shuttle bay, and it's fully-prepped and ready shuttle all alone for anyone who cared to stroll in.
She paused at the open door, trying to get her breath back when the door slid open again, and she turned, expecting Kasumi.
She did not expect an exceedingly irate Mark to shout "YOU!" at her and start stomping forward in his usual bullish way.
Mark was closing in and Sam slipped into the shuttle, trying to get away from the growling man. Mark had a temper on him, she'd seen it a couple times before, and his usual bullish attitude he used with the other guys. He could be charming in that stupefyingly doltish way that dumb men who think with their rocks might interpret as 'suave', but she had never been attracted to him, nor given him any hints or come-ons. He was just so stupid as to not understand that not every woman was interested in men, let alone the 'god's gift to womanhood' he seemed to think himself to be.
EDI's voice came in her earbud, sounding far more horribly distorted than anything that Sam had heard yet, "I can't stop him Sam. Drones are too far away to intervene. No accessible mounted weapons."
Sam blanched as he reached for her, and her long-ingrained instincts kicked in. A hand shot out and slapped him in the face, which only startled him for a moment before he grabbed her wrist and growled. "You're gonna pay for that, Sam."
"Leave me alone, Mark! I'm not interested in men!" Sam gritted out, tugging against his strong grip. Mark wasn't a bodybuilder, but he was stronger than she was, and she didn't want to get caught deeper into his grip, like she would have if she'd been foolish enough to slap him with her other hand. She briefly considered kicking him again, but she'd heard that sometimes getting really angry could dull even that pain.
"DON'T. Lie! To me!" Mark punctuated each word with a shake on her arm, opened his mouth to add more, and suddenly sprawled sideways.
"Gift for you!" rang out a familiar voice, as Kasumi suddenly shimmered into existence. She turned away from Mark, giving Sam a perky grin as she stepped into the shuttle with her, and touched the control to close the hatch. "You literally didn't see that coming."
The hooded figure caught Sam's astonished look, "What? He looked a bit tired and it made him grumpy."
Sam flushed, panting a little as she slid into the cockpit beside Kasumi, who took the controls like a natural. Sam flushed a bit as EDI's voice came through her earbud again, sounding less distorted now, and considerably relieved, if still electronic. "It is... gratifying to see you unharmed, Sam."
Kasumi ran through the pre-flight checklist, which didn't take long, shooting Sam little glances every once in a while as the communications specialist assisted. It had been a long time since her flight training, and she was very glad that Kasumi took the controls. But then, Mark came around the front of the shuttle and started yelling at the pair inside.
Kasumi shot her a look, grinning slightly, "Goodness, he's persistent. You two aren't an item, hmm?"
She gave the ninja a bewildered, semi-horrified look, "No, hell no, fuck no, and various other assorted negations! That idiot wouldn't take a rejection if you delivered it with a Dreadnought!"
Kasumi's light laugh was infectious, right up until the shuttle's maneuvering engines fired up and flared at max power for a moment, scorching the shuttle bay's floor with thousand-degree heat. Mark apparently had enough self-preservation left to get the hell out of range at that point, and got the hell out of the way as Kasumi lifted the ship from the shuttle bay and arrowed out through the grav-shield holding the atmosphere in.
As they exited the hangar bay, Sam saw something blossoming from the side of the station, and Kasumi gave a grin.
"Ahh, good, there goes the distraction." Kasumi's slightly accented voice was amused as she carefully piloted them out of the station's open hangar bay, passing through the grav-shield and into vacuum with ease. Kasumi grinned, angling the ship to show off the explosions ripping through the station's underbelly, "Don't Cerberus bases make such beautiful explosions? Because that one is going in the scrapbook!"
Before Sam could do more than gape at the exploding station, Kasumi had flung the ship into FTL, snapping space like a rubber band to bypass the speed of light. She turned, giving her pilot a wary look. "You killed them.. killed all of them..."
"What?" Kasumi gave a pfft sound and a grin, "Not at all. Sure, I blew their comms array to bits and knocked out their generator, but the station's still airtight...mostly. and if they're as good engineers as they think they are, they've got plenty of time to fix things." She waved away Sam's objections, "It's fine. I know what I'm doing."
Sam pouted a bit in the copilot's seat, knowing better than to touch anything while Kasumi worked the controls, "Soo... now what?"
"Well, now we can relax, have a little girl talk and let off some steam." Kasumi tapped a few controls, then leaned back, giving Sam an appraising look and a faint smile. "You know, you remind a lot of this little girl from Elysium I once rescued from slavers."
Sam blinked at her, and Kasumi grinned, leaning forward and giving a kissy-face, "She was just soooo cuuuuute!" She laughed, and leaned back, provoking a soft laugh from Sam, who was starting to finally relax after the long, harrowing day.
Hell, Sam had had a harrowing few months on that station, never knowing if she was about to be captured and...who knows what done to her. She'd seen...reports.
Kasumi casually leaned back in her chair, one leg going up on the console, then the other, crossed at the ankles, and arched in a manner to highlight her curves. She stretched, giving little hums of pleasure, and making little grabby-hands gestures that made Sam giggle a little. The tightly-clad thief smirked at her, "It's a long way to the Alliance rendezvous. Know a way yet to let off steam?"
Sam blinked, flinching a little as Kasumi gave her tattooed lip a slow, sensuous lick, and smirking at the suddenly-blushing specialist, "Welll, what do you think, Sam Traynor? Am I good enough for you?"
"How did you know that I'm ...?" Sam blushed a bit. It wasn't like being lesbian was a bad thing after all, but she thought she had been a bit more discrete!
"What? You mean other than how I know to read those kinds of things when I look at a person? Well, you sure shouted it clear across the hangar back there with the blockhead."
"...Oh." There was a pause, then Sam's eyes narrowed.
"Wait, you already... then what was that about asking if Mark and I were a couple?!" Sam glared at her pilot, crossing her arms over her breasts.
"Like I said, you are just too cute for me to resist!" Kasumi's grin was infectious, and Sam chuckled a little, slowly relaxing.
"Speaking of irresistibly attractive, I found this data drive." The thief held it up, making Sam focus on it, rather than the sudden blush touching her cheeks. "People don't put something this small in their most secure vault, at least their idea of 'secure', unless it has some juicy secrets on it. Especially Cerberus secrets. While you were there, did you happen to come across a way to unlock this thing?"
EDI's voice came through the cockpit's speakers this time, making Kasumi's head snap up in startled alarm, "I could attempt to break the encryption, Ms Goto."
Slowly, the thief's glittering eyes turned to regard the now-pale specialist. "Sam, you've got some 'splainin' to do..."
Jack panted quietly as she jogged in place, the program starting to run down on the treadmill. Her heart was beating fast, but steady in her ears, her breath coming quick, but not too ragged. A good workout, and of course, the view was delightful.
Lyria, the younger of the two asari commandos Joru had brought along, was currently on the mats, doing some rather impressive stretches. Like her companions and Jack herself, she was wearing tight-fitting sports top and matching boy-shorts. She lunged again, and Jack's eye followed the curve of her back down to her hip, and along the finely-muscled contour of the asari's leg.
'Nice. Hot girl. But nothing on Aria, let alone Joru.'
She gave a slight shiver at the thought of that massive pile of hotness, slowing down to a walk and starting to get her breath back. Lyria looked up and nodded as the older of the two commandos arrived and began stretching right along with her younger sister.
Elnaris had a lot more scars than Lyria did, including a matching pair, front and back, on her lower abdomen. It looked like the matron had taken a shot to the gut that had blown through her shields at one point. Jack shrugged mentally and watched the pair of athletic girls with discrete appreciation, as her treadmill ran through the cooldown portion of the program.
She had been surprised to find that Joru had a fully-stocked (if small) gymnasium up on her 'guest level', but not only did she have that, but also a small two-lane shooting range, and sparring ring where people could fight against either each other, or against training dummies.
"Well, well, well." The voice nearly startled Jack off the treadmill, as the eldest asari around stepped up onto the one next to her, shooting the human a smirk as she started the machine up. "Someone got some last night..."
Jack gave a soft chuckle, shooting the older woman a smirk, "What gave it away?"
"Ancient asari secret." Aethyta held her poker face for a moment, before giving a snort and looking over at the pair of stretching commandos. By this point, Lyria had one heel braced on the wall and was doing a deep split, rocking a little to get deeper, despite Elnaris's disapproving look. "Come on, kid, I've been around the galaxy a few times. I'm approaching eight centuries, I know all the signs."
Jack's soft snort and shrug in her direction drew a grin from the older asari. "Besides, good-looking girl like that? You'd have to be blind not to stare."
The human's chuckle this time was mirrored by her older companion, who went on, "She's got the hots for you, by the way."
For the second time, Jack nearly fell off the treadmill. "What?"
"Lyria. She's been eyeing you almost as much as you've been been eyeing her." Aethyta's smirk was subtle, but edged as Jack glanced from her, to the scantly-clad asari maiden, making a show of arching her back and preparing for her next set of strenuous stretches.
"I...well, she's nice and all, but..."
"But you're with Joru."
Jack got off the treadmill herself, rather than fall off this time, and shot a glare at the now-jogging asari. "How the fuck... And don't tell me ancient asari secrets this time, or so help me, friend of hers or no, I'll break your spine."
Aethyta just smirked at her, starting to pant a little with exertion. "So, kid? How's it feel to taste a goddess?"
The human biotic growled, a sheen of flickering display rushing down her arms from her shoulders, before she pushed the display away and just shook her head, as she got back on the treadmill, and punched up a slower, cardio program. "Fuck you, bitch. I've got better things to chat about my love life."
Aethyta gave a quiet snort. "Look, kid, I know what it's like to get a taste of someone light-years out of my league. Not to mention hard to find another matriarch with a rack like that."
Jack gave her companion a confused look, then just shook her head, "Crazy blue bitch."
"Hey, don't knock 'Nezzie's knockers. She's got a rack out to here." Aethyta cupped her hands, a good inch or so past her own considerable chest, smirking at Jack.
The human blushed a bit, glancing down involuntarily at her own rather less-than-ample chest, then away from the asari, who was still smirking, damnit.
"I'll bet that a shapeshifter brings a whole new level of role play. Lucky."
Jack couldn't conceal the blush, nor the fond smile, and Aethyta blinked, then grinned wickedly. "Oh hoo, so how was it, Jaaaaack? Try out some hot exotic cutie you've been having your eye on?"
"Nah." She tried to keep a quaver out of her voice, turning to look the asari in the eye. "But Joru packs one hell of a package, when she wants to."
Aethyta didn't miss a beat, and gave a bark of laughter that drew a glance from the two commandos. "Daaamn, I didn't know you liked cock too!"
"I like power, Aethyta." Jack's murmur was softer, but oh-so-smug. "And damn if Joru doesn't have that in spades."
"Hell yeah, I know what that's like. When I first met Nezzie, she was so caring and soft-spoken that I was sure that she was a softie. I thought I'd have her begging for me in no time. But when we finally did get to the bedroom...oh merciful goddess was I wrong! Soon I was the one pleading!"
Jack laughed at that, "Yeah, it's the quiet ones you gotta watch!"
She turned a bit, viewing Aethyta in profile, and giving a smirk. "You know, you kinda remind me of someone I know."
"Yeah? Who, kid?" the matriarch's breath was starting to come in quick little pants, her treadmill ramping up into its fast mode.
"Aria, actually." Jack savored the look of surprise on Aethyta's face. "What, you didn't think I was going to toss out some no-name slut from the back-beyond, were you?"
"Okay. Normally I'd say you were an idiot that needs a kick in the quad. But I've seen that dragon lady shrug off far worse and than give it back tenfold. And I'd bet my lifetime supply of Ice Brandy that she's still been holding back all this time. So instead, I'll say that it'll be one hell of a show."
Jack let out a laugh, glancing amusedly over at the asari and smirking a bit. "What makes you think they'd come to blows? Knowing Aria, she'd probably try to get into Joru's oh-so-tight pants. And if she succeeds, well, tables might turn on the Queen of Omega."
"Heh, that'd be a show..." Aethyta's breath was getting a bit ragged as she kept up the grueling pace her treadmill set.
Jack gave a soft snort, her own, much less grueling 'cool-down' program still keeping her moving at a brisk jog. "It's always a show when Aria's involved."
Aethyta watched her another moment before answering. "And a life with Joru in it will never be boring."
"Yeah..." The human's soft sigh is almost dreamy as she gives a smile into space, still jogging at an easy lope, her ponytail bouncing in swaying arcs, even if her bust is too tightly confined to jiggle.
She didn't notice the small but knowing smile Aethyta made. 'Hang in there, kid,' the Matriarch thought.
Out loud, she said, "Well, you're about to get your wish. She left for a moment to deal with some idiot, but said to expect things to heat up once she was finished. She thinks there will be more fighting, but probably politics."
Jack gave a soft groan, "Politics? God, count me out. That shit got old years ago."
At the asari's pointed look, Jack growled softly and shook her head, pacing slower now as both their programs were coming to an end. "Let's just say that working for Aria has been a bit...annoying at times. Especially when political figures are involved."
"Oh, and we should expect to get started once she finished dealing with 'the idiot'." A grin started to form. "You've fought with her before, how long do we have?"
"With Joru fighting this girl?" Jack snorted, giving Aethyta a smirk as she stepped off her now-stationary treadmill. "Probably five minutes. It'll probably take her longer to get to the problem, than to deal with whoever it is."
She lifted a hand to the asari, turning to the door, "I've got first dibs on the shower. See you ladies later!"
Jack savored the look of consternation on Aethyta's face as she slid out the door.
It wasn't a battle. It wasn't even a one-sided fight. It was a predator toying with its prey.
Vasir hated every minute of it.
She leaned against the wall beside yet another open, empty doorway, panting for breath and checking the loadout on her shottie as she waited for her heart to settle down.
The fact that was taking so long was a sure indicator of just how scared she was.
She'd been damned lucky not to lose it in the initial scramble. The bitch-thing had catapulted her through the door like a fucking bulldozer, but her instincts had served her well there, and she'd sent the bitch hurling with a well-placed foot to the chest.
That was about all she could claim as a victory, though. After that, things got...wobbly.
She'd come to herself a good deal later, panting and crouched in one of the empty rooms. Her heart was still beating like it was trying to excavate a new hole in her chest cavity to hide in, her vision was wavery around the edges, and the echos of that howl were still reverberating through her soul. Goddess, she'd never been that scared before, never, not even as a little girl who jumped at shadows. Not even her own mother frightened her so deeply...
"Vahhh-SEEEER!"
Her breath caught for a moment, and instinct screamed at her to MOVE! She rolled away from the wall, getting to her feet and sprinting just ahead of the sudden spray of red-hot droplets of...glass?
She twisted in the doorway, bringing her backup sidearm to bear and snapped off two shots. Both whined off the impossibly hard material of the far wall, where a huge, gaping, red-edged wound had been torn. She could see the dark figure outlined through the thick, translucent glass by the storm-light of the lightning outside, the long weapon she wielded being brought around for another swing.
Vasir rolled around the corner, and kept sprinting as she heard the dragon's voice thunder behind her.
"There's nowhere to run, Vasir!"
'Fuck that shit, bitch, I'm a Spectre. I've always got a trick or two up my sleeve.'
Joru hadn't had this much fun in a long time. She hadn't expected Vasir to run like that when she'd given that roar of surprise, though...
Nevermind, that was a mystery for another day. She had more pressing concerns, like making sure the Spectre didn't accidentally off herself on a barely-visible jagged shard of Glassteel.
The lower levels were full of debris from the upper ones. Some of the internal walls had shattered a long time ago, and their remains choked the bottom of the central shaft, where the avariel had once flown, many millenia ago. Now, the Tower stood as a mute, sullen reminder of their existence, and little more.
She finished cutting through the wall and stepped through, heedless of the molten-hot glass shards, smirking as she took a deep breath. Hot glass, stale air, and scared asari all impressed themselves on her senses.
Left, Vasir had gone left.
Joru's smile was wicked as she stroked Yolnahzii's length with a loving hand. It was so good to be properly on the hunt once again.
Vasir was swearing up a storm, when she could get the breath to do so. Climbing up six flights of stairs at a dead sprint with that damn dragon bouncing after her like a flea was getting her ticked the fuck off.
She rested against one wall, tearing ragged chunks out of the air and checking her weapon. Down to two heatsinks left. The shottie was long gone, lost in the scramble at the edge of the central shaft. Her sidearm was so much scrap back in Benezia's ship, and oh, how Vasir wanted that prissy stuck-up matriarch under her hands right now...
She was reduced to her backup sidearm, a small, light pistol. She hadn't bothered modding this one too much, it hadn't been a priority, and now she cursed her stupid assumption that she'd never really need it. Ten rounds on a 'sink, but lower damage than a heavy pistol, because firing at a slower velocity and smaller projectiles. No special ammo block mods, but she at least had a pulsar upgrade giving it at least some damage.
"I told you Vasir, you can't run, and you can't hide."
She suppressed the swear and rolled through the doorway as the sudden visage of that bitch appeared RIGHT BESIDE HER, and forced her into a sprint again. She was tempted to fire wildly over her shoulder at the bitch as she did so, but she knew all too well that that was a stupid idea, you almost never hit anything when you did that.
She rolled through another door, propping herself against the far wall in a fluid motion before she realized she was on the roof. Rain came down in welcome relief to her overheated skin, and she tilted her head back to let the soothing water slide over her scalp.
No time to enjoy it through. The damn bitch's weapon was steaming as she stepped calmly through the doorway. Actual flashes of steam puffed into existence around it, as Vasir glared at her. "Fuck you, you fucking bitch..."
"Even your invective is loosing steam, Vasir." Joru tilted her head slightly, smirking at the asari, and the fucking bitch didn't even sound winded! "I wonder how long I can run you, before you drop dead of exhaustion?"
"Fuck you, you BITCH!" Vasir let loose her growing power, hidden behind the ripples of her Barrier, and unleashed the Shockwave that had proven so effective against Joru.
So it was a bit of a shock when that damned dragon seemed to blur to the side, letting the shockwave ripple past her, giving Vasir that same, damned, amused smirk. But Vasir didn't get to be a Spectre for nothing, and while that damned one-armed woman (and how did that happen, anyway?) smirked at her, Vasir was already drawing a bead.
The first shot went wide, the second did not. But the second never hit.
Vasir's eyes were widening even as her reflexes pulled the trigger a third and fourth time. Small bursts of flame blossomed from the black blur of the spinning weapon as Joru began to advance, her smirk still in place. "The problem with you Vasir, is that you don't know what a Dragon is..."
She had backed up until the hard, cool material of the parapet pressed into her butt. When had she started backing up? Why was her heart hammering so hard? She was better than this, she was better trained than this!
"You keep thinking of me as a person. That's a bad habit, Vasir."
"FUCK YOU!" Her voice came out almost shrill, a harpy's screech, not her usual forceful tone. 'Goddess, what is wrong with me?!"
Joru had stopped advancing, merely stood there, twirling her weapon one-handed with easy grace, as if she could do this all day, "You feel that, Vasir?"
She ignored the dragon, snapping a Lift at her, not really expecting it to work, and firing off a Warp, both of which the dragoness dodged with such contemptuous ease that Vasir snarled at her.
"That's fear, Vasir..." Joru's eyes gleamed at her in the semi-illuminating storm-light. "Fear, bordering on panic. You're terrified."
"I don't _CARE_!" She roared back at the soft-spoken woman, and tried something she later regretted.
She'd been gathering power for the last few seconds, and this time didn't bother with the gun. She'd either not need it, or have no strength to use it.
A blazing blue bolt flew across the rooftop, blasting the rain out of the way as Vasir Charged.
She was not expecting to be parried.
The sudden, thunderclap-impact sent her Charge careening back into the rail, smashing into it and bursting apart with the usual biotic blast, but this time Vasir was in a bad way.
She was half-sprawled, her back pressed to the railing, gasping with shock and pain. It felt like her back had been broken, but the pain in her legs and ass were all too present. The rain sleeting down over her parted and she looked up, gasping through the agony.
Joru's burning eyes examined her, like a bug on a petri dish. Vasir tried to snarl, to spit some epithet at the dragoness, but her breath had been blasted out of her by the impact. She just glared, gasping for breath.
The dragoness's lips quirked up on one side. "A pity. You might have been worth the effort. Ah well."
Before she realized what was happening, a pain in her left leg wrenched a cry out of her lungs, and Joru stepped to the side. Her tail, her GODDAMN TAIL had wrapped around her ankle, and tore her across the rooftop, shrieking in pain.
She was tossed, TOSSED! Like a frikkin' pyjak! And then she saw something that made her nearly shit herself in terror.
Joru spun, tail streaming around behind her like a banner, her eyes burning with cold intensity, as her hand snapped out with unerring speed. Her right leg screamed its agony this time as she was grasped and whirled.
Blood rushed to her head as the scenery spun around her. Thrice, a blinding flash of lightning struck the mountainside around the Tower, and three deafening booms spiked in Vasir's ears. She was screaming, she knew it, knew she couldn't stop. The pain was unbearable, even getting her leg crushed by a krogan didn't compare. But more unbearable this time was the terror.
It radiated over her in waves of gut-churning panic now, utterly inescapable. She screamed, screamed like a little girl, screamed her throat raw, and as she screamed she felt herself released.
Vasir screamed her way into the sky, seeing far away a little hint of blue, as Joru hurled her from the roof of the Tower, towering a good twenty stories over the sheer drop of the mountainside.
The sand was particularly hard and uninviting as Vasir tumbled into it.
The last half hour had been harrowing and terrifying, and being pitched like a fucking frisbee off the top of a twenty-story building wasn't the worst part of it. No, what was worst was flailing and trying to reorient herself when that damned dragon's tail wrapped around her ankle and ripped her out of a ballistic trajectory into full flight. Joru's body had been fairly streamlined, arms held to her sides, legs tight together, like a swimmer diving. Her huge black wings beat the air with massive beats, soaring as she sailed out over the valley, hauling along her Spectre-class package like so much extra baggage. The lake had loomed large suddenly as Joru dove, and she flicked her tail forward as she approached the beach.
The impact had been hard, as Vasir was thrown into the sands at breakneck speed, rolling and tumbling over and over until she came to a stop against a boulder. She finally got her bearings back in time to see Joru circle back around and land, light as a feather, coming in from the lakeside, and transitioning so smoothly from flying to walking she made it seem as easy as breathing.
She stalked up the wide, white beach, it's fine sands washed only by waves. The lake was small enough that even if Sanctuary were a full planet with a moon, instead of just a demiplane, no tides would form, and only the motion of the wind powered the soft waves that ran up the gently sloping beach, to wash Joru's feet like worshipers at the feet of their goddess.
And the damn dragon wasn't even breathing hard, as she gave Vasir a cold, unblinking stare. "And so, Vasir. Welcome to the heart of my realm. Are you quite finished with your childish tantrums, or shall we go another round?"
Vasir sat up, gritting her teeth at the pain in her left side. She had struck that rock at a pretty significant clip, and glared up at the approaching woman, hissing through the pain. "Fuck you, you mutant lizard!"
Joru stopped, her legs parted slightly and tail swaying sinuously behind her as she tilted her head at the asari. A faint smile touched her lip, before she looked away and started pacing, "That was almost amusing. Luckily for you, I'm rather a bad dragon. For most of my kind, that would have been a mortal insult, but you're not worth the effort to 'chastise', shall we say. And besides, I have another use for you, other than as an object lesson for those who might think to follow in your misguided footsteps."
Vasir might not be the brightest of the Spectres, that honor went to one of the Salarians. But she had been around the galaxy a few times, and knew how to connect the dots. Hot anger flooded through her, and she struggled to get to her feet, using the boulder she had slammed into to prop herself up. "If you think I'm going to be some puppet of yours...!"
"Why would I need such a pawn?" Joru dismissed her with a wave of the hand, starting to pace back the other way now, leaving clawed footprints in the sand that were slowly washed away by the ever-diligent waves. "No, Vasir, it is your contacts that I desire. Specifically, your rather dark and 'shadowy' friend."
The asari managed to pull herself upright, gasping a bit at the pain in her left leg. She couldn't put her weight on it, but she didn't think it was broken. It didn't have that 'feel' of a broken bone, but goddess fucking damnit, it hurt like a sonofabitch. Her voice was much quieter, not quite drowned out by the soft sigh of the wind, and the gentle murmur of the waves, "How do you know about that?"
"Don't play coy with me, Vasir." Joru's tone had dropped from the light, dismissive air, to a more stern and forceful one. "You work for the Shadow Broker. Don't deny it, we both know it's true. He's been using you as a hit-woman, targeting persons who've been getting too close to his operations, and having you remove them before they become a problem."
She swept away from the asari, turning to gaze out over the lake. It was about a mile across, with the island being a small one in the exact center. The dark woman's tail twitched a bit as she spoke now, her voice softer, but still carrying, "He will get what is coming to him, make no mistake about that. He has earned my Attention, and I would think twice about coming between him and my wrath, Vasir."
"You... you think you can destroy the Shadow Broker? Or even find him?" Vasir laughed, a painful, bitter sound.
"I don't care how strong you are. All the power in the galaxy isn't worth a damn if you can't even find him. Not even the best can even find a trail; not the Justicars, not the Spectres and not even the Salarians and their damn spies! No one is better at staying hidden than the Shadow Broker!"
"Hagalaz. The Stormrider." Joru turns, her gaze flame red as she gives Vasir a piercing gaze, "No one escapes from the Darastrix, Vasir. Not even the Shadow Broker. The darkness is MY birthright, and I know all that passes in the shadows."
Vasir blinked. Twice.
Despite the beating she had taken, Joru's casual mention of the infamous broker's location was what completely threw her off balance. "Wh-whaaaa..."
The dragon's smile was razor edged and she turned away to pace again. "I know more about what's coming than anyone, Vasir. A storm is on the horizon, and it's no mere hurricane."
"P... uh, nuh... I wahhau?"
Joru's voice snapped out, like a whipcrack, "Oh do pay ATTENTION Vasir!" She turned, glaring over her shoulder as her tail stabbed into the ground, drawing a scorched-black line in the sand.
"War is coming Vasir, on a scale you haven't even had nightmares about. Worlds will burn, Vasir. Imagine it, if you will. The towers of Thessia set ablaze like trees in a forest fire."
She stalked closer now, her eyes leaking red tendrils of fire as each footfall left a black print behind, her eyes intent on the asari. "Your vaunted fleets will not save you. The Turians will not save you, your precious COUNCIL will not save you!"
Her voice had risen to a low roar, and she visibly restrained herself as she reached out a clawed hand towards the stumbling asari. That black hand withdrew a moment, and Joru waggled a finger at her, as if at a naughty child. "And you spurn the hand of the one person in this entire galaxy, who knows what's coming. How...naive."
"Alright, fine. What do you want with the Broker?" Vasir panted quietly as she rested against the rock, and felt her left side. Her armor was cracked, and her palm came away bloody. She hissed and fumbled in her pouch for a shot of medi-gel as Joru turned away.
"I need his network, not him. I need contacts, I need resources, and I need political capital sufficient to set the wheels of industry in motion. I need the giant big red button saying "Press in case of War". I need your council to get their heads out of their asses and listen to the evidence. And I need you to deliver it." The dragon's tail lashed as she stalked in a slow circle around the stone Vasir was sitting on. "You're a tough bastard, Vasir, you get the job done. I've seen enough of you to know that. Your dedication to your perceived duty is commendable, if misplaced. However, your desire to protect the galaxy and the status quo is your downfall."
The asari was slowly getting her breath back after the hard knock to her ribs. Or at least the painkillers were kicking in. "If this 'coming storm' of yours is real, do you really think you're the only one that knows about it? The Shadow Broker has all of the galaxy's secrets at his fingertips, nothing escapes his notice. If what you say is true, then trust me, he already knows about it."
Jorukaia, headache of her life these past few days halted in her endless gyrations to stare out at the lake once more. "I have a perspective no one else has ever gleaned Vasir. I have stood outside time, and watched the Tapestry unfurl. I was only given a small fragment of the totality of History to see, but what I saw was...terrifying."
She turned, giving the asari a look that it took a few moments for Vasir to process. Bleakness, and the sort of terrible knowledge that makes one old before one's time. Joru was powerful, dangerous, and deadly, but that look finally convinced the asari that Joru was ancient. Not merely Matron, but Matriarch.
"I need you, Vasir. For all the annoyance you've caused me, for all the irritation and delays, I would simply have left you behind. Or buried you. But I still need you." She turned to look square-on at the Spectre. For a long moment, there was silence, save the wind in the trees and the soft lapping of the waves.
Then Joru did something that Vasir had not expected. Slowly, as if the gesture pained her, she lifted both hands, and clasped them in gesture of supplication. "Please, Vasir. I need you."
Vasir was quiet for several moments. It was a common trait among asari; with their experience and foresight, they would often pause as they carefully considered all the outcomes even for something as simple as small talk. And it was no simple matter that Vasir frantically yet cautiously debated before she finally sighed in resignation.
"The entire network is devoted to secrecy, efficiency and especially compartmentalized autonomy. No single operative or group of lieutenants is ever in charge of too much. If you're looking to make something that big happen on a galaxy-wide scale, you need to talk to the Broker himself."
Joru nodded, giving a faintly relieved smile and opened her mouth to say something else, when her head snapped to the side. She stared into the bushes that lined the upper edge of the beach for a moment, then gave a rueful chuckle. "Alright, you can come out now."
Vasir tensed, shifting her gaze and wishing like hell she still had at least one gun. The bushes trembled, and someone, no two someones emerged. Tattered clothing was tied about limbs scratched and showing signs of recently-healed cuts. Makeshift shoes pattered from soil to sand as large, staring eyes flicked from Jorukaia to Vasir and back.
Her heart lept in her chest, and Vasir stood upright, ignoring the sudden flare of pain. Her voice was elated as she cried, "Veshar! Kiha! Goddess, what happened to you two?!"
The twins pattered quietly out of the bushes and stood, gazing a bit unnervingly at Joru and Vasir both, their hands clasped. Joru's head tilted, and she gave a quiet little 'huh'. "You two are not the same as you were. I had thought you had the spark, but now you are Awakened, are you not?"
"We don't know what you mean?" One twin spoke, at the exact time that the other addressed Vasir, "It is good to see you, Spectre. We were afraid we would be left here."
"Left here? What?" Vasir turned to glare at Joru, who let the asari's displeasure wash over her without effect.
She was gazing intently at the twins, surveying their healed wounds and the way they stood together, hands clasped like little children. "You have changed, grown, during your ordeal."
"Joru, what the fuck did you do to my scouts." Vasir's old anger was flaring up inside, and she took a step towards the dragon, gritting her teeth to bite back the hiss of pain this caused.
"I did nothing. Merely turned them out." Joru smirked at her, "I told them they had three days to reach this island, or they would remain within Sanctuary, alone and without further assistance, for the remainder of their lives."
"That's..." Vasir struggled with her anger, "That's monstrous!"
"I know." Joru's smirk faded as she turned back to the twins, who had not stopped watching them. "After all, I am a monster. You...What is your name?"
That last was addressed to the twins, and before Vasir could open her mouth to give an angry retort, they answered, in such a perfect unison that Vasir's mouth sagged open in surprise.
"We are Veshar/Kiha." Their voices were in perfect, eerie synchrony, the names overlapping in a way that seemed to distort. "Please, may we go now?"