"Any ideas where we should start looking?" Rigel said as he and Tela walked down the Blind Well's loading ramp. Nova had disappeared to keep herself hidden.

"Afterlife. Where else?" Tela said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Either Aria knows where Jaroth is or she knows something that can lead us to him."

Rigel nodded, accepting the reasoning.

Before the duo could exit the hangar, a group of vorcha moved to block their path, panting and drooling erratically. "Pay toll." the one in the lead said, his crooked teeth bared. "Must pay to dock here. Blood Pack dock!"

Tela pulled her pistol out and shot the vorcha right through the forehead. The low-level merc fodder didn't have barriers.

"Anyone else?" Tela asked disinterestedly, looking between the vorcha.

One shrieked, leaping forward, arms outstretched towards Tela's throat.

Ace barked twice as Rigel pulled it from its holster fast as a striking asp. Both shots blew holes in the vorcha's chest, blowing it backward so it didn't land on Tela.

"What she said." Rigel said, stepping up next to Tela with his hand cannon held by his side.

The vorcha started shoving each other, scrambling to get away from the asari and Risen fastest.

"They're going to complain to their bosses aren't they?" Rigel said, a feeling of resigned acceptance falling over him as he realized he'd made yet another enemy.

"Most likely." Tela said, putting two rounds into each of the fallen vorcha's heads before stepping over their bodies. "It might be a good idea for you to move the ship. I'll handle meeting with Aria." She fixed Rigel with a curious look as followed her, the Blind Well retracting its ramp and lifting off on its own. The spectre's eyes widened in understanding. "Nova."

Rigel nodded, leading the way from the hangar as Nova remotely piloted the ship into orbit around Omega.

No one else tried to hassle them as they made their way to Afterlife. There were a few shocked gasps and widened eyes as people's eyes caught Tela, prompting them to scurry away, but no one tried to shake them down like the vorcha had.

Walking up to the door to Afterlife, Rigel tilted his head at a curious sight. "You lived?" he said in confused surprise.

The krogan he'd blasted over the railing the first time he'd been here, now sporting a new scar across his face like he'd been smashed with a large boulder, snarled as he saw Rigel. "You!" The krogan charged, reaching over its shoulder to grab a shotgun as it lowered its head to ram Rigel. "I'll ki–" the krogan's rage-filled battle cry morphed into a shocked scream as Rigel sidestepped his charge and blasted him with a wave of force, sending him flailing over the railing a second time.

Peeking over the railing, Rigel watched the krogan fall. "Didn't learn though." Rigel turned to find Tela with an amused smile on her face. "What?"

"You just threw a krogan over a cliff. It's funny." She turned and strode into the Afterlife, holding herself like she owned the place.

Rigel spared one last look after the falling krogan then followed behind her.

The Afterlife hadn't changed since Rigel had first arrived. Drugs, weapons, and nude asari were still openly displayed. The clientele of the club represented the entirety of the diverse species in Citadel space.

Tela ignored all of it, making her way with purpose towards the stairs leading up to Aria's private overlook.

"Hold it." a batarian guard said, holding up a hand as Tela approached. "You're not cleared to–woah!"

An opaque orb of shifting blue energy shot out of Tela's hand, blasting the batarian over the railing of the stairs. Throwing a haughty smirk over her shoulder at Rigel, she continued up the stairs, the Risen following behind her, his amused grin hidden beneath his helmet.

Biotics.

Down, boy. Nova teased. You have plenty of space magic already.

Yes, but you don't seem to understand that I can get more space magic.

We'll look into it when we're not tracking down a bunch of assholes who forcefully experiment on innocents.

I'll hold you to that.

"Hello, Tela. It's good to see you. Please come up." Aria said dryly as her guards leveled their weapons at Tela and Rigel. "And I see you found the headache. If you're here to blow something else up, I'd appreciate it if you took it outside my club." Aria said to Rigel.

"So long as the windbag I came for isn't in here, you've got nothing to worry about."

Aria uncrossed her legs from where she lounged on her couch, standing up and saying, "Well this sounds interesting. Who managed to piss you off?"

"Jaroth." Tela said, getting right to the point. "Where is he?"

"I don't know." Aria said easily. "Trying to track down Archangel I'd imagine. Eclipse didn't take too kindly to his little crew blowing up their weapons depot."

"How do we find him?" Tela said, ignoring the confused guards still aiming weapons at her.

"You're the spectre." Aria said dismissively. "Figure it out yourself. I have my own problems to deal with." Aria laid back down on her couch.

Rigel chuckled, drawing an irritated eye from Aria.

"Something funny, Risen?"

"Nothing." Rigel said, shaking his head. "You just reminded me of someone for a moment. Then I realized just how different the two of you were."

Aria looked idly curious. "And how exactly do I differ from this mystery person?"

"Well, do you have a wish dragon locked up in your basement?"

Aria's interest evaporated as she fixed Rigel with a dry stare. "Is that supposed to be some form of clever innuendo?"

"I'll take that as a no. Enjoy your lounging." Rigel said, realizing Aria wouldn't be any help. He turned around and walked away, Tela following behind him after a moment.

"Wish dragon?" Tela asked as they exited the Afterlife, her tone a mixture of disbelief and amazement.

"Ahamkara. The one I was referring to went by the name Riven of a Thousand Voices. She, like all of her kind, could grant any wish you asked of her, but there was always a catch. A friend of mine made a wish to live after losing a fight with an evil god. She lived, but was changed into what she'd been fighting. Another friend, the one I was mentally comparing Aria to, used Riven to forge a paradise that later collapsed in on itself. Had to kill Riven after a different evil god corrupted and freed her. That's the short version. If you want the whole story, ask me later."

Blinking away the strange monologue, Tela said, "Jaroth is probably in the wind. We could try to set up a meeting to sell more Minagen X3 but we don't know if they had any people watching when we took out their operation on Illium. If we try to meet they might set us up."

"So we need to track him ourselves. Do you know of any Eclipse bases here?"

"Sure, there's dozens. If we choose wrong we run the risk of him fleeing the station, so we can't go in guns blazing. Any help from your little friend?"

Nope. Nova said before Rigel could ask. I can see a lot of Eclipse-controlled territory but none of the buildings have any internal cameras. We'd have to sweep through all of them simultaneously and we just don't have the manpower for that. I might be able to find him if we plugged directly into their servers, but they'd know I hacked them which might make Jaroth run.

"Nothing that doesn't have the same issues as a full frontal assault." Rigel reported to Tela as the duo stopped to lean on a railing overlooking the station. "You wouldn't happen to have any other contacts here, would you?"

"None that'll help us track Eclipse. Everyone I know has a grudge against the Hegemony."

"So we're going in completely blind."

"Looks like it."

Rigel spun so he could lean his back into the railing. "What about Archangel? Is there any way we could track him easier? He might be able to point us to Jaroth."

"Don't know." Tela said, leaning her forearms into the railing. "He's supposed to be some defender of the innocent from what I heard. A girl I know in the slums might know something about him. She loves a good underdog tale – would eat up a story about a paragon of virtue carving a bloody swathe through the scum of Omega."

"If that's all we got, I say we try it out. Worst case scenario it's a dead end and we start over."

Tela pushed off the railing. "Fine by me. Let's move."

X

Rigel stood to the side and watched the street as Tela slammed her fist onto the door of the run-down dwelling.

"Jinass! Open up."

Rigel heard irritated grumbling from the other side of the door. Several bolts were unlocked with heavy thunks. The door slid open revealing a dreary asari, naked except for a pair of plain black undergarments.

"The fuck you want?" Jinass grumbled.

Tela gave her a flat look. "Are you just gonna stand there and flash the street?"

"They know the drill. If they wanna look, they can, but I get to blast their eyes out afterwards." Jinass leaned against the doorframe, tilting her head to get a better look around Tela. "You didn't say you came with company." Jinass pushed Tela to the side. She walked up to Rigel and leaned against the wall directly in front of him, her eyes roaming up and down to assess him. "Well ain't you all mysterious with your robes and helmet and great big gun." She leaned forward with a sultry smirk. "I like mysterious."

Jinass was yanked backwards as Tela grabbed her shoulder and dragged her back into her dwelling. "I didn't come down here so you could fuck Rigel. I need information."

She seems interesting. Nova said inside Rigel's head.

She seems horny. Rigel sent back.

I mean, she is very pretty.

Nova, I didn't come here to fuck strange alien females that might carry diseases that can bypass my Light.

I can look up asari biology and sexual rituals if you want?

Please don't.

I'm doing it.

Rigel sighed, deigning not to respond to his ghost.

Rigel pushed off the wall and followed Tela into Jinass's home, closing the door behind him and catching the tail end of what Jinass was saying as she ineffectually tried to beat Tela off her.

"–my fault you're not getting any! You bring a–"

"Jinass!" Tela hissed, shoving the woman towards a monitor in the corner of the room. Aside from an unmade bed with a pile of clothes on it and a broken door leading to a small bathroom, the computer was the only thing in the room. "I need intel on Jaroth. Where is he?"

"The fuck would I know? All the business I do with Eclipse is over the net. At best I could get in contact with one of his stooges, but they'd just close the line unless I had something interesting to say. You're a Spectre. Just call him."

"I can't." Tela said, her teeth grit. "What do you know about Archangel?"

Jinass tilted her head curiously. "The turian? The hell you want with him?"

Tela took a deep breath. "I need to find Jaroth, and Jaroth's looking for Archangel. So if you don't know where Jaroth is, tell me where Archangel is."

Jinass snorted, falling into a beat up desk chair and crossing her arms under her chest. "I don't know where Archangel is either. I might have heard a thing or two but…" she arched her back and pushed her chest forward, looking past Tela at Rigel. "I'm so tense. Maybe if I had some–"

"I'm not trading sexual favors for information." Rigel cut her off in a voice so dry a desert would be considered moist.

You sure? Nova's too-amused voice sang across their bond. I've found some…interesting facts about asari sexual practices that would shock you. Did you know that–

I don't care. Please stop encouraging this.

Jinass dropped the act, slumping down in her chair and crossing her arms over her chest, a frown on her face. "Well fuck you too, mysterious asshole." Looking back at Tela, she said, "Why should I tell you anything if I'm not getting anything out of it?"

Tela closed her eyes and rubbed her eyelids. "Jinass, you stupid hobo, I'm going to pay you. With credits."

Jinass immediately perked back up. "Why the fuck didn't you say so? And I'm not a hobo. I have a home, idiot. Now…" She spun her chair around to face her monitor, her fingers dancing across the display. "Aha!" she made a grasping motion on her monitor and an omni-tool lit up on her arm. She swiped a control and Tela's own omni-tool lit up on her arm.

"That's all I've been able to dig up." Jinass said, spinning in her chair as Tela looked over the data packaged she'd been sent. "For a guy with a name like Archangel, he really keeps a low profile."

Tela stared over her omni-tool at Jinass, not looking impressed. "He may be by the docks or actually maybe in the Zeta district? What the hell am I supposed to do with this?"

Jinass shrugged, crossing her arms above her head as she spun back and forth in her desk chair. "Fuck if I know. That's all I got so pay me and get the hell out."

Tela began cursing under her breath as she pulled up her omni-tool and wired Jinass credits. "Let's go." she said, practically throwing the door open and storming out into the street.

"Bye, mysterious asshole. If you change your mind, you know where to–" Jinass's voice cut off as Rigel closed the door behind him.

Rigel walked over to where Tela was taking several deep breaths in the center of the street. "Well. She certainly has…a personality." Rigel said, failing to come up with something positive to say about the asari.

Tela snorted. "No shit. Come on. Every time I see her I need to kill something immediately after if I don't want to snap." Tela took long, purposeful strides down the street.

"Where are we going?" Rigel said, having easily caught up.

"Zeta district. We'll check there then head to the docks after. Worst case scenario, we don't find anything and blast our way through a Blood Pack ring to blow off steam."

"And what did the Blood Pack do to us?"

"They contract out to whoever's willing to throw the most credits at them. Their main service is poorly-disguised genocide."

"Ah. Yes. Let's go deal with them."

Tela grinned as the duo headed down the street, anxiously awaiting her chance to shoot something.

X

There was no sign of Archangel in the Zeta district. Even with Tela, Rigel, and Nova scouring every avenue available to them, they weren't able to find anything. After over three hours of fruitless searching, they decided to hit the Blood Pack facility then head to the docks.

You got any details on this place? Rigel asked Nova in his head.

It's where they store a lot of their vehicles. Mechs, drones, crawlers – that kind of stuff.

That reminds me, we really need to make a sparrow at some point.

For what? So far you've only been operating in highly populated, densely constructed areas.

Yes, but how many planets are there in this galaxy that we now have access to? We'll inevitably need a sparrow.

We'll worry about it when we head to Mercury next. But that's going to have to wait until we drop Tela back on the Citadel. I like her, but I don't want her to know where our base is.

Neither do I. I guess we'll have to put off sparrow construction for a bit.

"Well?" Tela said, an irritated look in her eye.

"Sorry. We got side-tracked. It's a vehicle depot. They're storing mechs, cars, and drones here." Rigel said, answering the question Tela had asked almost a full minute ago.

"Mechs?" the spectre said, a frown appearing on her face. "That's going to be a problem."

"If it comes down to it, I'll deal with them." Rigel said, leaning against the wall of a building across the street from the Blood Pack's vehicle depot.

"Just like that, huh?" Tela said disbelievingly.

"That Eclipse warehouse had two mechs in it. I'm not sure if they were the same model as the ones these guys will have, but yeah, just like that."

Tela turned to look at Rigel, her eyes appraising. She frowned as she studied his helmet, then turned back to look at the Blood Pack depot. "Why do you wear that thing if your barriers are so strong? I've seen you take hits that would lower mine and just walk through them. Why bother with the helmet?"

"Because my shields do go down on occasion. The helmet has the potential to keep me alive in that scenario."

Tela grinned. "I thought you didn't stay dead. Why bother trying to stay alive if you'll just get back up?"

Moments passed with nothing being said. When Rigel didn't answer right away, Tela turned to look at him with a frown. "Rigel?"

"Risen don't always come back." Rigel said, somber. He pushed off the wall before Tela could comment. "Come on. Same as the Eclipse Warehouse. I'll draw their fire and lower their shields, you finish them off."

Tela opened her mouth to say something but stopped, her mouth forming into a hard line as she nodded. She drew her rifle and fell in behind Rigel.

Rigel swung Empty Vessel around to his front. He'd ducked into an alley a few blocks back and had Nova transmat it to him. Tela looked incredibly suspicious after the event, but hadn't commented on it.

Dropping a grenade into the tube, Rigel leveled the weapon towards the door of the depot and fired. A loud explosion echoed across the street. Rigel was through the resulting hole in the depot wall before the smoke had been given a chance to clear.

"Attack! Attack! Under atta–" the panicking vorcha was cut off as Tela shot him in the head, following his body to the ground and filling it with even more bullet holes.

From Nova's data dump regarding the Blood Pack, Rigel had learned their main membership consisted of vorcha fodder and krogan leadership. Both species were known for their incredible regenerative capabilities. After killing one, it was best to double and triple tap just to make sure they didn't get back up.

The space Rigel and Tela charged into wasn't a maze of corridors like the Eclipse facility had been. It wasn't even a large space with rooms on its outer edges like the Hegemony holdout had been. Instead, it was one large, interconnected garage. Metal I-beams were positioned around the space for support, but other than those, the only structures in the building were the walls along its perimeter.

Vehicles of varying sizes and functions laid around the area. The most abundant were small, four-wheeled cars. There were four, larger cars with weapons mounted on top of their frames. An area containing around a dozen small combat drones. And one, heavily-armored mech.

Several vorcha were in the process of scrambling towards the mech, fighting each other to get into it first. The smarter ones abandoned their race to the mechs and clambered into the gunner's seat in the larger vehicles, turning the weapon towards Tela and Rigel.

"Shit!" Tela said, diving towards an I-beam to find what little cover was available.

"Shoot!" the vorcha on the nearest gun called, laughing as he began to haphazardly fire the vehicle's main gun.

"Lunulata, now!" Rigel yelled as he rolled away from the machine gun fire. Empty Vessel disappeared from his hands, an elegant long bow settling in its place. Rigel leapt into the air as an arrow appeared in his hand. With well-practiced ease, he drew and loosed the arrow, taking the vorcha in the head.

Rigel landed behind the vehicle and ducked down into cover as the remaining 3 gunners all turned and focused fire on him.

Tela took the opportunity to lean around her I-beam and line up precise shots on the rest of the gunners. When the last one fell, she ejected the thermal clip from her rifle and slammed a new one home. She started to move in Rigel's direction only to be blown backwards as a shell exploded directly in front of her. She seethed in anger as she scrambled back behind her I-beam, but her barriers had protected her from any major damage.

Any chance you can hack that thing?

Already tried. It's not connected to any open signals. I need to be plugged in directly, but it would honestly be easier to just destroy it. We'll get you some offensive omni-tool programs some time after we're done here.

I think that maybe should have been in the initial package. Rigel complained, coming out of cover, Empty Vessel once more in its hand, Lunulata having been transmatted back to the ship.

With a satisfying whumping sound, shells left Empty Vessel's muzzle, heading directly towards the mech. Each one blasted away its shields and armor, but the mech wasn't going down easy.

As Rigel walked forward, projectiles sent by the remaining vorcha danced off his shield.

Tela cried out in fury, lashing her hand forward. As she did, a group of seven vorcha rose into the air in tandem, allowing her to easily dispatch them from range.

With Tela dealing with the vorcha, Rigel was free to handle the mech. He leapt and dove away from shells, sending his own back with each created opening. Soon, the mech's shields and armor were gone, torn through by concentrated explosive fire. Before Rigel could finish the mech off, he heard a panicked shout in his head.

Your left!

Centuries of trusting his partner kicked in as Rigel immediately leapt into the air, gliding to his right.

A raging krogan cut through the air Rigel had occupied moments ago, huffing in rage.

"Who do you think you are! The Blood Pack doesn't forget!" the krogan bellowed, swinging a shotgun around and opening fire.

Rigel cut off his glide, dropping through the air as the first shotgun blast scattered his shield. Landing on the open floor, Rigel slammed another shell into Empty Vessel as he rolled away from another shotgun blast.

The krogan followed Rigel in a rage, blasting the ground behind him, seething like an unhinged Hive knight.

The mech had started to recover. Its armor was gone, but its shield was slowly returning. The vorcha piloting the mech slowly raised it back to its feet, turning to fire its cannon at Rigel when a powerful biotic orb slammed into it.

Tela charged the mech from its rear, shooting her rifle rapid-fire into the joint of its right knee and battering it with biotics every time it turned to engage her. When she was close, Tela's form glowed dark blue and she leapt, landing on top of the mech's pilot compartment. She aimed her rifle between her feet and unloaded the weapon until her thermal clip overheated.

When her gun overheated, rather than slamming a new clip inside, she threw her gun away. With a roar, Tela slammed a glowing blue fist into the heavily damaged glass shielding protecting the vorcha. The glass shattered, letting Tela drag the vorcha out of the mech by its throat. She drew her pistol and pressed it into the vorcha's chest, firing seven shots before letting the body drop. She pulled the pin on a grenade and dropped it into the mech's pilot cabin. Her form was once more enveloped in blue energy as she leapt high away from the explosion.

"You fools!" the krogan screamed as the mech exploded. "I will tear your heads from your body! I will mount your skulls on my wall as I feast on your marrow! I will–"

Rigel had had enough running away from shotgun blasts.

The Risen disappeared from in front of the krogan in a flash of light, leaving an ethereal streak through the air. Rigel reappeared behind the krogan, his hand glowing a dangerous violet. "Regenerate this." Rigel slammed his palm into the krogan's back, unleashing his carefully controlled Void energy into the alien.

The krogan screamed as several violet streams of energy tore through his chest, dissolving everything in their wake. The krogan tried to turn and strike out at Rigel with his fist, but all he succeeded in doing was bathing himself in more Void energy.

Rigel watched impassively as the krogan fell before him, arms grasping at his chest in an effort to remake what had been stolen by the starving energy.

Tela, still coated in biotic energy, walked up next to him and looked down at the dying krogan, eyes somber in understanding. "Reality-breaking power." she said quietly as her biotics slowly bled out of her.

"Reality-breaking power." Rigel agreed as the krogan grew still, violet energy rapidly devouring what little was left of his body.

When the krogan had been devoured down to the last atom, Tela looked at Rigel and said, "I'm really glad you're not a scumbag. I don't know how I'd fight that."

"There are ways." Rigel said cryptically. "You'll forgive me if I don't share them."

Tela turned and walked over to where she'd discarded her rifle, picking it up and replacing the thermal clip. "Come on. We should get moving before backup arrives." She pulled another grenade from her belt and lobbed it towards a collection of fuel tanks on the other end of the garage. The grenade exploded in an eruption of fire, igniting the tanks and setting the whole depot ablaze.

"I think you're a bad influence on me." Tela said, a small smile on her face as her and Rigel exited the rapidly burning building. "That's the second building I've participated in burning down this week."

"Those are rookie numbers." Rigel said, returning her smile as he removed his helmet. "Most Risen typically average three or four a day."

As the duo slowly walked away from the blazing building behind them, a blue-armored figure faded back into the shadows of his perch, shouldering his sniper rifle and fleeing the scene.