Chapter Text
The day my mother died I didn’t shed a tear. I just walked. I walked away from the bed she was laying on. I walked out of the hospital. I walked through streets and corridors until I found myself somewhere that didn’t remind me of her. Turned out to be some shitty dive of a bar in the belly of Nos Astra. I never can recall how exactly I ended up there.
There was a human sitting in his bar. That in and of itself wasn’t all that unusual, the turian barkeep conceded to himself. But they were usually long term residents of Ilium. They either came to do business quitely like the krogan merc and asari on the other side of the room. Or they came to drown their sorrows like the poor sap slumped over further up the bar, half empty bottle of horosk next to his head.
This human had the fresh off the shuttle look. She was dressed nicely. Semi-formal wear. She was just sitting at the end of the bar bottle in hand. Toying with it like she had been all evening. She had payed with an unsecured credit chit. He almost felt sorry for the two hundred percent gratuity he had given himself. Almost.
The door opened and trouble walked in. A barefaced turian and batarian drug addict. Avius and Crarn. Probably looking for the funds to buy Crarn’s next fix. The pair walked along the bar, one helping himself to the drunks credit chit. They reached the end of the bar and hedged in the human. The barkeep was struck by how small she looked next to the armoured turian and muscular batarian. Then he turned away. Avius and Crarn where assholes but they didn’t cause that much trouble and where regular paying customers.
Versk glanced up as his partner. T’fetta had made a disgusted noise and was looking over at the bar where a couple of lowlifes where shaking down a human female. Versk grumbled and tapped the schematic projected on the table drawing the asari’s attention back to the task at hand. The krogan and asari had operated as a team for nearly a century now, doing odd jobs that were at best morally grey. Their current job however was unquestionably illegal. Even on Illium.
“Focus.” Versk growled.
“I know. I know.” T’fetta said. “It’s just.” T’fetta was well over three hundred years old and was showing signs of transitioning to the Matron phase. A young female in distress was triggering instincts she wasn’t comfortable having. She shook her head and looked down, back to business. “I still say we need a third. Security is tight and you’ll need someone at your back. I’m a sniper not a brawler.”
“True.” Versk acknowledged. “But the client paid extra upfront for a rush job. We don’t have time to go recruiting.”
“Piss off.” The human’s voice carried clearly across the bar. The partners looked over where the female was unimpressed by the lowlifes attempts to take her credits.
“Now don’t be like that.” The turian drawled leaning over her. “I assure you it’s for a good cause. Crarn here just needs enough to get by and…”
“I said.” The human stood up and upended her bottle over the turian’s head, beer pouring over his mandible and soaking his neck. “Piss. Off.”
There was a moment of stunned silence. Then the turian snarled and reached for her. “Why you little…”
Those were the last words he spoke. The human’s hand came up, omnitool active, and sprayed sparks in his face igniting the alcohol. The turian recoiled from the sparks and again as the fire started. The batarian, slightly slower to react, reached for the human. She slid past his grasping hands with fluid grace, slamming an elbow into his torso. He doubled over gasping, before being thrown on his back. Unable to breath, Crarn looked up as a foot wreathed in blue dropped toward him.
Avius beat out the last of the flames and turned toward the human in time to see her kill his partner. He froze, feeling like a pyjack that had cornered a varren. He turned to run to late as a thin blue bolt left the human’s hand and slammed into his head snapping it back with lethal force.
“Now that was a pretty piece of work.” Versk admired. “Think she’s looking for work.”
“Let’s find out.” T’fetta stood up.
I took the job. I didn't need the money. Hell, one quick call and my dad would have gotten me a shuttle back to Alliance space. I took the job because it felt like I was the one who had died in that hospital. And in the heartbeats it took me to kill those men, I felt alive again.