Canadian Blue: One Name
The lights were flashing their usual red and yellow pulse to the beat of the almost overwhelmingly loud music. The club dancers gyrated in their semi-pornographic movements in cages and platforms above the crowd. Liquor of all kinds flowed from the bars and the patrons didn't seem to have any intention of leaving at all. Shady deals were being brokered in shaded corners, propositions were made and accepted (or rejected if she wasn't "that type of girl"), death threats made and bluffs called and all was right in the world. Her world. Afterlife: haven and front office of operations for the self proclaimed Queen of Omega, Aria T'Loak. She was the baddest bitch in the galaxy and she had one very simple rule. Break that rule, and it was your ass out the nearest airlock. Whether you were still breathing when you went out of the airlock or not depended on how gracious she was feeling that day. That rule?
"Don't. Fuck. With. Aria."
She looked at the poor dumb turian girl who had decided that today was a good day to skim some of the profits from Arias Red Sand narcotics dealings. Aria had a weak spot for turian females, but that didn't extend to her purse. She had to know she was going to get caught sooner or later. Didn't she? It didn't matter, as Bray, her ever-present batarian lieutenant, motioned to have her dragged away and spaced. Dumb kid was only nineteen years old. Oh well.
Arias Omni-tool beeped with an incoming call. It was Telak, another of her henchmen. This one was her Ambassador to anyone who docked at Omega. He would check out their ship to see if they were going to be trouble or not. If they were, they got a crash course orientation from the Queen herself. This one looked like it was going to be one of the former.
"What is it, Tea-Bag?" she mocked, using one of her favorite human euphemisms.
Telak barely seemed to notice as he reported to her. "Aria, there's an Alliance shuttle here with a couple of guys looking for Shepard. Said they heard a rumor she was back from the dead or something."
Commander Shepard was reported as killed by a Geth dreadnought or something by the Alliance a couple of years ago. She had rolled onto the station looking rather alive and well, except for some facial scarring and an elcor-sized chip on her shoulder last week. Looks like someone else noticed that reports of her death were exaggerated.
Aria pinched the bridge of her nose with her index finger and thumb, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. "Fine, send them up. Then see if you can find some other way to report to me that doesn't involve me hearing your whiny voice, okay?"
"Yes Aria." He whined and signed off.
A few minutes later, she heard a commotion from down on the dance floor. She turned on her sofa, looking down at the crowd. A Krogan mercenary seemed to have picked a new victim to torment, and the crowd that gathered around them was growing. She couldn't hear what was being said, but from the reactions of the crowd, they weren't trading pie recipes.
"Bray, what the hell is going on down there?" she demanded.
Bray, to his credit, was already on his comm trying to get info from the other members of his group scattered as security in the club. As he seemed to be getting a report back, the crowd gathered around the Krogan gasped and screamed. Aria looked down again and saw the huge Krogan curled up in a fetal position on the ground holding his crotch. Blood seemed to be pooling on the ground beneath him and no one made a move to help. Rather, she saw the crowd part like the Red Sea, apparently to let through whoever it was that dropped the Krogan. Aria was beginning to suspect that this would be more trouble than it was worth.
Bray moved to the bottom of the stairs that led to Arias roost, looking to head off whoever the newcomers were. He was hoping to keep the nonsense out of Arias hair, figuratively speaking, and get back to reading the new Fleet and Flotilla novel that he had downloaded. Unfortunately, that didn't seem like it was going to happen that way.
"Sir, would you please slow down? There is a way to do things, regulations to follow!" a voice called out.
"Take yer regs and shove 'em up yer ass, LT!" Another voice growled. Aria couldn't understand why, but the sound of that other voice made her hot in a way she hadn't felt in decades. "You got someone to find, let's find 'em and get outta this shit-hole."
Now Aria took offense. She stood up, rather than adopting her usual aloof posture on her couch.
No one calls this place a shit-hole except me, she thought to herself.
She looked down and saw Bray put his hand up to impede the newcomers, and before he got out one syllable, he was knocked on his backside. Aria began flaring her biotics, wanting to deal with the unwelcome intrusion in the most painful and lethal way possible. No guns today, just Lashes, Flares, and Reaves. Ah, the simple pleasures.
A gray-armored figure with Alliance issued weapons strapped to his back jumped over Brays body on the ground, and turned around immediately. "Captain, we need to slow down!"
"Piss off, Alenko!" came the gruff reply. "Unless you want me to Bobbitt you like the turtle tank over there!"
Aria began to descend the stairs and stopped dead in her tracks.
Pushing his way past the Alliance man he called Alenko was a short, gray haired man with a buzz-cut, muttonchops and a well chomped on cigar, which was still lit and smoking. His face was worn, like good leather, but not too old looking. In contrast to the younger man, he wore no armor at all, rather wearing a black leather jacket over his fatigues and boots. He was also almost a foot shorter than Alenko, which made Aria pause. If he was so damned short, why didn't the larger man simply overpower him? She looked down at Bray still knocked out on the floor and put it all together: The older man was the troublemaker from the dance floor and the one who just knocked her lieutenant out like a chump. This promised to be interesting.
The older man looked at her, a feral glint in his eyes. "You!" he shouted at her. "You this Queen Aria chick I've been 'warned' about?" making air quotes as he advanced on her.
The Alenko chump seemed to be resigned to stand there and just watch, as the older man would not listen to him. Aria, in a move that she would have killed anyone for mentioning again, actually stepped back at the fury in his words. She felt a trickle of lust in the back of her mind as well as something she hadn't felt in a very long time: fear.
This little man actually scared her and it was not something she would tolerate in her home.
"Little man, I don't know who you think you are barging in here like this, but you have three seconds to back off and go back to wherever rock it was you crawled out from under." She tried to make it sound threatening, but it came out a lot more pleading than she ever would have wanted. Goddess, he just oozed power and ferocity. Who the hell-
"Listen here, blueberry," he growled again, "I'm looking for a renegade Alliance officer name of Shepard. Word has it she's been here. You seen her?"
Aria gulped and looked down at the man as he advanced. He stopped and looked up at her, demanding an answer. She had had enough. No one demanded anything from her. She powered up her biotics, planning to use a Flare attack and fry the little bastard.
"Hard of hearing, short stuff? Okay. One. Two…"
A flash of movement and a sound like a knife being drawn from a sheath came to her ears. She felt cold metal at either side of her neck. How did he move so fast? She panicked in her mind. Looking at the man, he held his fist under her chin and seemed to have two blades coming from his fist, framing her face. He looked her in the eyes, still chomping on the cigar. She felt a sharp point at the underside of her chin, slowly pressing upwards, threatening to puncture her.
"Still wanna go for 'three', blueberry?" he smirked.
Alenko stood off to the side looking around to see if any of Arias men would make a move. Apparently, the sight of their boss being held at knifepoint was enough of an incentive to defend her against this diminutive man. They didn't make a move yet, and Alenko was secretly glad, as he didn't think that they would be able to fight their way out, even with his biotics and the captains… whatever it was he could do. Castrating krogans seemed to be something you didn't really put on a resume, but he was proficient at it.
"Didn't think so." The older man chuckled, not paying attention to the increase of manpower around them. "Alenko! Finish securing the perimeter of this dive and see if anyone else has seen your girlfriend. I don't think we'll have anymore problems with her Royal Highness here."
"Yes sir, Captain." Alenko managed and he took off, showing a picture of Shepard to the patrons he passed. No one seemed to be willing to cooperate, but it seemed like it was out of fear of betraying Aria more than anything else. But considering that no one moved to help her, she felt that they might as well have completed their betrayal of her by giving them the intel they wanted.
Cigar smoke threatened to choke her as the blades at her neck kept her in place. "Don't even twitch, darlin'" he growled. "Been dealing with special cases like you long enough to know when you're getting' jumpy. Don't do it."
"You really think you can get away with this?" Aria grunted, the points of the blade pushing into her neck, making her raise up on the balls of her feet to alleviate the pain of it. She was off balance, and at this mans mercy. Part of her wanted to skin him alive and roll him in salt, while another part of her, a secret part of her, wanted to whimper and moan and beg him to take her right there in the middle of the floor like a maiden. She was very conflicted.
"Yes, I do. Cuz I am." He replied. "Stay still, unless you want a new piercing in an inconvenient spot."
"You have no idea who you are fucking with, little man." She grunted, trying to maintain her balance. The man looked at her and smiled a toothy, feral grin around his cigar. Does he have . . . fangs? She wondered as she looked down at him.
"Girl, I could say the same thing to you. Only thing is, I would be right, and you would just be thinking too highly of yerself."
The man pressed the blade up slightly, forcing Aria to back up the stairs. He pressed on until the back of her knees hit the edge of the couch. She stumbled back and fell into the couch, thankfully away from the blades in his hand. She looked up at him now, and saw that the knives looked more like short blades, or even claws that protruded from between his knuckles. The ones that were fully extended seemed to be a foot long each, while the middle one had yet to be fully extended. How he managed to conceal weapons like that in his fist was beyond her, and she was glad to be away from them.
Massaging the spot on her chin where the one blade was poking, she grimaced. If he drew blood…she thought to herself. The man seemed to no longer be interested in her, rather, looking out at the crowd for the younger man who was with him. He raised his hand to his comm device and called for him.
"Alenko, sit-rep." he barked into his communicator. As luck would have it, with Alenko halfway across the club, everyone grew a spine and decided to protect their boss.
Two Batarians shouldered their rifles and opened fire on the older man, catching him squarely in the chest. It didn't appear that he had any body armor or shielding to protect himself, much to Arias surprise.
Over confident, she thought. That's too bad. He was kind of cute.
"Captain!" Alenko cried out, drawing his pistol and whipping a Throw at the assailants. They smashed into the wall, dropping their weapons. Another merc opened fire on Alenkos position, and his shields shimmered as they absorbed the kinetic energy of the rounds, causing them to drop to the ground harmlessly. Kaiden turned and fired several shots at the merc, dropping their shields and putting a round in their head, killing him instantly.
Another Krogan merc came out of nowhere and slammed into Kaiden, flinging him into a table and smashing to the ground. He shook his head to clear the cobwebs, and looked up to see the Krogan drawing a shotgun on him. His shields were barely restored, and he knew his armor wouldn't handle a blast at close range. His L2 amp was still cooling off, so a Barrier would not be ready in time. The last thing he saw flash before him was the beautiful redhead he was trailing.
Shepard, he thought, I hope you are out there somewhere.
As Kaiden prepared to meet his maker, a primal roar erupted from above him. He opened his eyes and saw a blur smash into the Krogan. The merc stumbled back and The Captain landed on his feet in front of him, shielding Kaiden. He flexed his arms and three foot-long claws snapped from between the knuckles of each of his hands. They glinted in the light of the club as he moved to attack the Krogan again. As he raised his shotgun to blast the captain, he swung a clawed hand, slicing the barrel of the shotgun. As the pieces fell to the ground, the captain moved in, swiping at the gut of the Krogan, causing his entrails to spill out onto the floor. He moved so fast that the rapid healing properties of the Krogan never had a chance to kick in. As he moved to try and hold in his guts, the captain lunged, burying both sets of claws into the chest of the Krogan, destroying both hearts.
The Alliance captain eliminated the merc with such speed and ferocity, all of Arias other men dropped their weapons and walked away. The captain turned around, looking at Kaiden. He retracted his claws and offered him a hand up.
"You okay, kid?" he asked.
Kaiden took the offered hand and got up off of the floor. "Yeah, I'm good."
"So, what were you saying before we were so rudely interrupted?"
"Several maybes, but nothing definite, sir." Came the reply. He sounded like such a beta-male. "How was it on your end?"
The older man looked over at Aria with a smile. "Us? Getting along great. She promised to tell me everything we need. Just give me a couple, will ya?"
"Yes sir." Alenko holstered his weapon as the older man turned back and walked over to Aria. Slowly strutting up the steps, he stopped in front of her with a wry smile.
"Gonna make me a liar, darlin'?" He asked.
She couldn't believe he got back up from taking those blasts to the chest, and then he eliminated a Krogan in hand-to-gun combat. There was obviously more to him than met the eye. No armor, no shields. He must be part Krogan himself.
"Gonna make you a corpse, you son of a b-"
A flash of movement, then the blades, claws, where centimeters from her face. Aria froze, eyes as wide as saucers. No one can move that fast. Even I'm not that fast. She thought.
"Look, I'm done playin' games. Did you see this chick or not?"
Aria decided to play along and just get him out of her hair, again, figuratively speaking.
"Fine. She was here last week, tearing up the place looking for a salarian doctor and a vigilante named Archangel. Don't know where she went from here, but my people tell me the guy running the clinic in the lower ward neighborhood may have a way to contact the doctor. You can track Shepard that way."
The older man smiled and lowered his hand. Then in a flash, the claws retracted into his fist, presumably housed in his forearm. He shook his hand a little, as if to dispel the discomfort of retracting the blades.
"There, that wasn't so hard, was it?" he smiled. Aria looked away, refusing to give him the satisfaction of an answer. Alenko came back, bounding up the stairs.
"Captain?" he asked.
"Go find the clinic, shake down the kid running the place to get in touch with his old doctor friend. He's with Shepard."
"Roger that." He turned to go, then turned back around. "You coming, sir?"
"Nah, tired of chasin' yer girlfriend. You go ahead. Have fun." His Omni-tool beeped and he looked down at it. Reading the message he grunted and shut everything off.
"Scratch that, kid. New orders: I'm heading back to Earth, and you are heading out to Horizon. Colonists there need some help getting their defenses and stuff together. Looks like a hand holding mission. Kinda like me taking care of you."
Alenko smirked. "Fine, be that way. You sure you can find your way home, old man?"
He laughed at Alenko and looked at Aria with a feral smile. "Yeah, I'll be okay. Right, darlin'? No one gonna give me any trouble leaving?"
Aria composed herself and smiled sweetly. "Of course. We'll be more than happy to escort you off of the station. Just pick an airlock."
The man smiled at her, then looked at Alenko. "See? I'll be fine."
"Ok. You get to file the report on this one, then. See you around, sir."
Alenko saluted and the older man returned the salute. As he left, the older man turned and sat himself down on the couch next to Aria. She felt repulsed at the audacity of the man, yet she didn't want to move away. The older man leaned back, crossing a leg over his knee and laying a hand on Arias shoulder.
"You okay, girl?"
Aria looked at the hand on her shoulder, and then up at him. The venom in her gaze didn't seem to faze him, and she didn't shake herself free from his touch.
"Fine. Why aren't you gone yet?"
The older man laughed and took his hand back. "Well, in spite of me gettin' in your face like that, and slicing up your guy like I did, I don't think you want me gone. Not yet anyway."
"What makes you think that, old man?"
He laughed a little, and then he leaned into her. She froze as he sniffed the length of her neck, taking in her scent. Her skin broke out in goose bumps and she shivered slightly. He leaned away from her a little and looked into her eyes.
"You want me." He stated simply.
Arias eyes went wide. How did he…?
"I think you've gone soft upstairs, buddy." She said, not too convincingly.
The man grinned and said, "Pheromones don't lie, darlin'."
Aria pressed her lips into a thin line, barely holding her anger in check. "I suggest you take advantage of your good fortune and leave, little man. My people tend to regroup in a hurry."
He looked around, noticing several mercs getting their weapons out again and advancing on them. He didn't even look like he was bothered. Rather, he chuckled to himself.
"Overstayed my welcome?" he asked knowingly.
Aria stood up and looked down at him. "Oh yes. Very much so."
Truthfully, she didn't need to lose any more men. The way this guy moved, like lightning, and looking like he should be a grandfather somewhere, it all didn't add up. She didn't see things working out in her favor if she ordered her men to attack him again. Her biotics would be useless if he moved as fast as he did just messing with her. And, yes, she did want him. It was inexplicable, but he did things to her without even trying. He had to go. Now.
The captain slapped his hands on his thighs and bounced up off of the couch.
"Ah well. Can't win 'em all, right?"
She knew that he meant that she couldn't win them all, but she wasn't about to admit to it. She merely rolled her eyes and turned away from him. He did nothing but laugh at her since he walked in the place, as if fearing her wasn't even in the realm of possibility. She had never, never been so infuriated with someone in her entire life. With a lifespan that was measured in centuries, that said a lot.
The short, fuzzy old man walked up behind her, slapped her bottom, and skipped down the stairs. She wheeled on him, reaching to grab him and choke the living crap out of him, claws or not.
When she grabbed his jacket and turned him around, for a split second she saw that damned smile of his again.
That's it, she thought, I'm going to kill him.
Instead, she planted her lips on his, smashing her body against him. She basically dry humped him as her hands ran all over his back, trying to merge through his clothes. He gave as good as he got, grabbing her bottom and lifting her leg up so that it wound around his waist. They made out like horny teenagers for a minute, and then she made a move she would regret.
Aria took both of her hands and placed them on either side of his face. Her eyes turned solid black and she whispered two words:
"Embrace Eternity."
Neurologically melding with the captain, she fell into his memories, which were so jumbled and so extensive that she thought she had melded with two people instead of one. Images of wars on Earth from long ago, swords, muskets, horses, tanks, giant robots with hellish yellow eyes, all threatened to overwhelm her. She had melded with others many times in her nearly one thousand years, but never with a short lived species like this human. He was as intense in his own mind as he was when she was dealing with him face to face.
Then it seemed that he was fighting the meld, pushing her out of his mind. He was a human, and had no right to have that level of discipline. Yet here he was, smacking her with a psionic equivalent of a door slammed in the face. The last thing she saw was a stunningly beautiful redhead that resembled Shepard, but was even more entrancing with the flames dancing along her body. Was that who she was, or how he saw her? She never got the chance to find out as a fist struck her jaw with the force of a tank. She broke the meld and fell to the ground, disoriented and in pain.
Aria looked up at the captain, who looked at her with disgust.
"The hell do you think you're doing?" he demanded.
Aria managed to focus on him before answering. "Learning about you." She answered, her head still ringing from the blow she took.
The captain smirked and offered her a hand. She took it and allowed him to bring her to her feet.
"Darlin', better than you have tried and failed that mind meld crap. I've been bouncing psychics outta my head for a very, very long time." He straightened out his jacket and took another cigar out. He lit it and exhaled a plume of smoke. "We done messing around, or do you want to take me back to your place?"
Aria composed herself. There was so much more to this little old man than he portrayed, and she needed to find out what it was. She had never encountered this before, but she had to maintain her reputation. She couldn't lose control of herself like that again. She gathered herself and then gestured to her men. They advanced, weapons drawn. The captain never took his eyes off of her, devouring her body with his glances. She felt her body responding to his attention and decided enough was enough.
"What ship is your shuttle going to now that your baby boy left you?" She asked.
The captain replied, "Going to rendezvous with the Tai Shan. Why?"
Aria turned away. "Just go." She growled.
The captain shrugged his shoulders and turned to the turian on his right. "All right bird-boy. Show me out like a good little puppy."
Aria didn't watch him go. Rather, she sat down on her couch and held her head in her hands. The meld didn't last that long, but she was devastated by the ending of it. She would crave that man until she died, and there was nothing to be done about it. He was Alliance, and she was Omega. That would never work. She hated herself for wanting him, with his smug laugh and that knowing smile and those lips, Goddess those lips. She shook herself and tried to get back to normal. She looked up and saw Bray finally getting his act together. His boss had been humiliated and what was to be done for it?
"Boss? You okay?" he asked, expecting a bullet in the throat.
Aria simply sighed and looked away from him. He took that as a cue to leave, knowing he was lucky to do so. The music in the club came back on a while ago, and began to drown out her thoughts. She leaned back on the couch and closed her eyes, thinking about worn leather, cigars, and sexy grey hair.
After a while, her Omni-tool beeped, as a message came in. She looked down at the address. It was from an Alliance ip address, but from an unknown sender. She opened the message.
"This a secure line?"
"Yes" she typed. "Who is this?"
"Guess."
"I hate games." Was it a full moon out tonight? She was attracting pains in the ass like flies to crap.
"Okay." They replied. "You deserve better, since you are a pretty decent kisser."
Him! "Why are you messaging me? How did you get my address so quickly?"
"I have my ways."
She imagined he was smiling again. "What the hell do you want?"
"Next time I'm around, let's finish what you started."
More? Yes! No! What?
"Don't flatter yourself." She typed. She didn't believe it herself, but it was necessary.
"You're lying." He replied. "See you around, blueberry."
She was done. "Fine. Maybe. If you tell me your name for crying out loud."
"Always kiss first, ask questions later?"
Ugh. Fine. "No. You may be an exception if you're lucky."
"'Kay. Later darlin'."
Not yet. "Name? Don't make me hurt you."
"I might like that." Infuriating sonavabitch! "You?"
"Name?"
"I'm a Captain in the Alliance, Special Ops Unit. You can call me Logan."
"One name? Like Sha'ira?" she smirked.
"Makes it easier for you to scream later."
Yummy. What? No! Ugh!
"Goodbye." She typed and closed her messenger.
She set her network to keep tabs on the Tai Shan, and leaned back into her couch again. Logan, she thought. She got warm on the inside thinking about the captain who upended her life. Then she hated herself for it. Then she wanted it some more. Ugh!
"BRAY!" she screamed.
The batarian rushed over to her. "Yeah boss?"
"Find me a cigar." She said. "Then find me someone to throw out an airlock. It's been a rough day."