No one could deny that as she staggered out of Chora's Den, Jack was about as drunk as she had ever been, so much so that even picking a fight seemed out of the question… fortunately though, her good friend Jane Shepard, who'd taken her out to celebrate after thrashing a pirate base, had anticipated this, and asked her other friend Kaiden to watch over her while she got them a ride home.

"She's going to have one heck of a headache when she wakes up…." Kaiden observed, looking simultaneously worried and annoyed as Jack slumped against him for the fourth time. "Why does she do this to herself?"

"Because she sees no other way." Jane, who was about halfway between sober and drunk, replied halting her stride before she'd got even five meters away. "She doesn't see herself as what she could be because she's suffered under uncaring scientists for her entire childhood." Jane sighed; her mind trapped in a moment where her many frustrations were surging to the surface yet drained of feeling as they got there. "It's the second worst case of irony I've ever seen… both she and Miranda have gone through separate but still brutal paths of life for so long they simply don't see how it, each other or even they themselves could be. and…"

"And that's why you chose to stick with them…" Kaiden finished for her "You really do take in all types of people, regardless of anything, don't you Jane?"

Jane nodded and glanced back towards her marine friend with a smile. "What do marines say… no soul left behind?"

"Well, it's usually no man," He observed placing the now utterly unconscious Jack on the side of the street, before sitting down beside her, "but I suppose souls does sound more inclusive."

Jane nodded, and laughed, "you're a sweetheart Kaiden." She said and moved out to find a ride.

Oriana was feeling as content as she ever had in her young life, oh she knew the reputation Chora's Den sported across the wider Citadel, but she didn't really care, at least not enough to avoid the place when her friend Jane Shepard was there. Oh, how she loved spending time with Jane and her friends, especially the one called Miranda, though she didn't quite know why the latter was apparently so shy around her, maybe she didn't get out that much.

In any case, the last eleven minutes had been just brilliant for Oriana, she'd talked to Jane about her latest adventures, all of which had sounded amazing, almost to the point of jealousy on Oriana's part, and met a truly interesting man by the name of Kaiden Alenko, who's manner she found almost irresistible.

She wasn't so sure about Jane's other friend, a girl named Jack, who'd shown more interest in drinking than talking, but if she was with Jane then she could not possibly be all bad.

"Oh, for a life of adventure…." Oriana sighed to herself, wondering as she did so if she too was getting a bit tipsy.

Unfortunately for her, three young thuggish looking men, specifically the three who'd been sitting three tables away for the past twenty minutes, had noticed that she was currently alone, and… after checking in with a friend of theirs over their one Omni-tool, begun moving towards her. Their names, or at least what they cared to know each other by, were Fangs, Bones and Teeth… and they had a package to deliver.

Kaiden sighed, though he kept his contented smile, "think Jane will find a ride before you come too?" he asked a still-slumbering Jack, who naturally, gave no answer.
"You got to admirer her…" Kaiden admitted reflectively… closing his eyes "she never gives up on caring."

"So, a lot of people say." Kaiden's eyes snapped open at the voice an instant before he recognised the figure it belonged to. It was a Drell, male with aqua blue skin, and void black eyes. "I guess it must be somewhat true after all."

Kaiden flinched at the words, but even as he rose swiftly to his feet, he recognised the speaker.

"Kolyat, I presume…" he asked, forcing back his spark of temper. It was indeed Thane's estranged son, looking much the same as when Kaiden had last seen him, though that had only been in passing.

The Drell raised an eyebrow, "yeah… and you are?"

"a good friend of the person I was talking about." Kaiden stated, keeping his temper in check.

Jane had given every member of the crew a few, 'guidelines' on what to do if they ever met Thanes' troubled son. 'Be kind, no matter how unkind he is being,' she had said... and even Zaeed had promised to at least try being so.

To Kolyat's credit though, he seemed to back down in that moment. "My apologies." He said quietly yet begrudgingly, "I just don't like hearing too many people talking about her on the same day… and some idiot's still babbling on about her in the presidium.

Kaiden rolled his eyes at that. "Did he call himself Conrad Verner?"

Kolyat meet the marine's eyes and nodded, and the two of them found themselves chuckling in unison for a moment despite the circumstances.
"Tell me he's as irritating to her."

Kaiden nodded, not wanting to lie and potentially ruin the moment. "It's one of the reasons she's down here in the wards."
"And the other?"

"Celebrating a victory against pirates."

Now Kolyat rolled his eyes "for the sake of everyone on the Citadel… I hope you won't tell Conrad about it."

"Fat chance" Kaiden laughed and cocked his head in the direction of Chora's Den's doors. "You come for a drink?"

Kolyat nodded, "I feel like I need it."

Kaiden nodded in understanding, even as his mind and conscience began racing:
He knew Kolyat, who was at least for the most part trying to reform, was quite possibly about to make a mistake, one that would easily lead to more mistakes… but also knew he could not simply stop him without butchering the moment.

But then, even as Kolyat began turning towards Chora's Den… the door hissed/slid open, revealing four people. Three of them were male, one was female.

For the second time that night, Kaiden found his eyes snapping wide, this time in utter shock, the three men he'd never met, but the woman… girl... he recognised instantly.

"Mr Alenko!" Oriana gasped, her heart all but exploding in relief at the sight of Jane's friend, but before she could so much as utter another word, Fangs pushed the barrel of his pistol further into her back, making her gasp in pain.
Even as the three thugs locked eyes on the marine and Drell before them, mutual understanding shot between them. "One false move you two." Growled bones, "the pretty dark haired here gets it."
Kaiden's glare could have fired a mech's circuitry even as he nodded bitterly and stepped aside… Kolya's though could have vaporised a mech. "What do you want with her…" the Drell growled, barely resisting the urge to rush the thugs then and there. "It aint what we want… alien…" Bones said venomously "it's what our boss wants."
"Tough, F***s!"

All six standing figures reeled around at the sudden shout, even as the still drunk, but now angry Jack threw herself at the thugs, specifically Bones and Teeth, both of whom met her biotic-charged fists before they could even think.
Seizing the moment, Kaiden shot his right arm out, biotics flaring, and yanked Fangs' pistole clean out of his hand. The last standing thug went for his knife, but before he could so much as reach it, Kolyat stepped forward, took a hold of Oriana, pulled her fully out of the way, and delivered one solid, fury-filled punch right into his face.

Fangs was out cold, a mere heartbeat after his flunkeys.

Kaiden was at Oriana's side a nanosecond later "are you ok?" he asked, checking her for bruises.

Oriana, nodded faintly, "I… I think so." She managed after a moment, her heart still pounding from it all.

"Course you are…." The still intensely drunk Jack stated, rising to her full height, "cause we just saved you…."
And with that, she collapsed… again.

Kaiden took a deep self-regulating breath, and glanced at Kolyat, "don't suppose you could spare a moment to get C-sec?"

Thane's estranged son glanced between the three, to him strangers, drew in a breath of his own, sighed and nodded. "Don't you think we should get Shepard first?"

Kayden blinked for a second then smiled… 'Jane…' he thought 'don't ever stop believing in people.'