Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Athena

The pulse of Afterlife became her heartbeat within the first month back on the main stage. Rhythm flushed her senses as she remembered how to lose herself in the moment, in the movement. She didn’t need to drown her liver in liquor to become numb to the stares, the catcalls, the overwhelming depression dragging her back into bed every morning. She’d learned a long time ago the value of shutting down her emotions to keep a clearer head, or to simply exist in a state of nothingness for an extended period of time.

An asari dancer, Tallis, grinned at her as she pulled her into a dance, their hips gyrating together as cheers sounded around the stage. The movement was simple, primitive almost. An easy way to lure customers to the bar, to throw their credits away for a night of illusions.

“Drunk morons,” Tallis snorted through her dazed grin, the mask every dancer in Afterlife wore for the sake of their sanity. “You’d think they’d never seen women before.”

“Well, I am the only human dancer in Afterlife, so maybe that makes it all the more novel to them?” She spun away from Tallis, sashaying down the narrow stage that doubled as a catwalk, towards an empty pocket near the entrance. Telling time within Afterlife was an art form, one that she had mastered years ago since her discharge. Patrons made it easier, the regulars with habits she could track; knowing the end of work shifts within Omega helped, too.

That’s how she knew he’d be there, waiting for her.

“Busy night, Lola?” The marine winked at her as he sipped his beer, hazel eyes twinkling, even in the dim light of the club. His relaxed posture and casual clothing couldn’t hide his Alliance roots, not from her. He was clean-shaven and moved almost identically to Ari when in a crowd: careful and always aware of the exits, shoulders squared with his hands open and loose at his sides.

He’d appeared in the crowd one night a month ago, a lopsided grin forming a dimple as he watched her aerial show from the middle of the crowd. She clocked him instantly, because of his Alliance, standard-issue walk—and because he was unreasonably attractive with his broad shoulders and chest, honed muscles on display in a tight t-shirt and casual pants. He made it hard to ignore him, too; he pushed his way to the stage, his eyes never leaving hers, wholly aware that she had seen him the moment he arrived.

Maybe it had been his confidence, the sure way he approached her with bold intention and a flirty smile that kept her seeking him out in the crowd. Maybe it was the fact that he never failed to appear when she looked for him. Or, maybe the fact that she hadn’t been fucked properly in a couple years and he teased the hell out of her every night, never quite crossing that line with so much as a kiss.

Maybe it was all of the above.

“No busier than usual,” she replied as she wound her body around the pole, the inversion of her body offering a familiar weightlessness. Most of the girls choreographed their pole routines, but she never bothered. She let the music dictate her moves throughout the night, and it hasn’t failed her yet.

“I have a feeling that’s about to change,” the marine hummed as she slid down the length of the pole, easing herself into a seated position on the bar in front of him. Her cobalt blue bodysuit covered the majority of her skin, bands of mesh exposing most of her stomach and the whole of her back. Her ink-black hair had been pulled away from her face, tightly bound in a high chignon to give her silhouette a more asari touch.

Crossing her legs, the dancer cocked her head to the side thoughtfully, considering his words before glancing behind him towards the entrance. The flow of traffic has slowed, but she felt the buzz within the crowd. Something had happened, or will be happening. Too many people were speaking in small groups for a Friday evening.

“Does that mean you’ll make good on all your flirtations, marine?” she asked as she trailed the toe of her heeled boot up his sternum. His grin widened as she slid back to the pole and lifted herself along its length with ease.

“Sounds like you want me to, Lola.”

No shit, Sherlock.

She closed her eyes as she lost herself in the music again. She did and she didn’t, if she was being honest. Loving casually had never been her thing; if anything, she tended to fall hard and fast only to be heartbroken in the end when the intensity of her intimacy became too much. Ari always said that her love and her capacity to love was as vast as an ocean—too large to be held by a single person.

As her pointed toe touch the stage after a series of complicated spins and twists, her eyes eased open and met their matching pair from across Afterlife.

He isn’t real. You know he isn’t.

For someone who was reportedly dead, he still walked the same.

“Thena?” He still sounded the same. “Fuck, Athy, what are you doing here?”

What are you doing here? You’re dead.

Thena looked up to where Aria T’Loak watched from her perch, the asari’s brow arched and a knowing smirk pulling at her full lips. The tiniest nod from the Queen of Omega removed the invisible shackles that kept her tied to the pole, to the stage. Without a moment’s hesitation—she knew the marine would always catch her, it was part of who he was—she leapt from the stage to the bar top, the marine there to steady her as she stepped off the bar and onto the main floor.

Everyone watched as Thena stood before the ghost of her twin brother, his shock and worry so accurate in his expression that she questioned her own sanity at this point.

“You’re dead,” she told the apparition, her hand still clinging tightly to the marine’s. He was the only thing she could trust in this situation. “I buried your empty casket and withstood all the pity and condolences for you. You are dead.”

She felt herself step back, the heat radiating off of the marine soaking through her bodysuit. His presence felt grounding as she tried to understand what was happening.

Faint ribbons of cybernetics glowed in the dim light across her twin’s face as his expression fell. His hand reached out to her, callous-free finger tips skimming her heavily contoured cheekbone.

He’s real.

“Athy, I—“

In a blink, she clung to his neck, two years of undiluted grief pouring out of her as she sobbed into his chest. The familiar strength of his embrace only made her cry harder, her heart and mind trying to reconcile fact from fiction.

“Aria says you can use her private room to take care of this before you meet with her.” Grizz’s clipped tone barely penetrated her thoughts as she felt Ari scoop her up like a child and carry her through the club’s stunned crowd towards the privacy being offered. He smelled the same, felt the same. He was real.

He was alive.

Vega

Athena Shepard was almost as famous as her twin brother, Commander Ares Shepard of the Alliance, the first human Spectre and Hero of Elysium. Lieutenant James Vega had followed both Shepards’ careers as he trained for Delta Squad. What recruit didn’t follow the Shepard Twins as they fought impossible odds and always came out on top?

When Athena Shepard walked away from the Alliance, Vega didn’t understand why she chose honorable discharge over re-enlisting after a break. Anyone would have needed time to recover after a tragedy like Akuze, but honoring the lives lost would have lit the fire under Vega’s ass to re-enlist the second he could. It was then that he started to compare her to her brother, his fanboy obsession shifting to the Hero of Elysium overnight, just like everyone else.

To say that Vega was stunned to be reassigned to Omega after dealing with the Blood Pack on Fehl Prime would be an understatement. But it was nothing compared to the shock when he learned that he was to babysit the Athena Shepard, galactic-mercenary-turned-Citadel-savior-turned-Afterlife-dancer. He stared at Admiral Hackett for a solid minute, waiting for the punchline before it sunk in that the assignment was real.

“Permission to speak freely, sir?” he had asked the Admiral.

Hackett nodded, a hint of a smile at the corners of his mouth.

“You want me to babysit one of the galaxy’s biggest badasses while she dances away the loss of her brother on Omega, am I hearing that right?” He definitely heard the admiral chuckle before it morphed into a soft cough. He had no idea what was so amusing about the situation. Not to diminish her importance to the public, but Athena Shepard wasn’t her brother. She was a talented fighter, sure, but she wasn’t the first human Spectre.

“I understand your confusion, Lieutenant Vega,” Hackett had replied once his expression evened out. “However, Alliance Intelligence has picked up intel that Commander Shepard is back and working alongside Cerberus within the Terminus Systems. If those rumors prove true, Ares Shepard will be making a beeline to his sister the first chance he gets.”

That had been when the wheels had started to turn. “And you want someone on the inside to get from-the-source intel on Cerberus.”

“That, and I need to know that Athena is protected from whatever card Cerberus has up their sleeve,” Hackett corrected. “I trust Ares to put her safety above all else, but he’ll need people he can trust to help him. She’s been weaponized more times than any soldier ought to be, I don’t want those bastards doing even worse.”

Orders aside, Vega was a marine, not a spy. A damn-good poker player, but still not a spy. Hackett had assured him that the Shepards would know what’s going on, all he had to do was get on the ship and become part of the inner circle. Any intel was good intel, even if it meant building a bizarre relationship with Thena the Bar Dancer to get it.

Granted, it helped that she was fucking gorgeous, even if her eyes barely lit up when she looked at him.

So, as he watched Ares Shepard pick up his sister as she broke down, it occurred to him that was the first display of true emotion he’d seen from Thena in the few weeks he’d been watching over her.

Commander Shepard took a couple steps before he paused, looking at Vega. “You coming?” he asked, surprising him. For all he knew, Vega was just a random creep that liked watching his sister gyrate on a pole. But the look of expectation on the commander’s face told a different story.

Vega trailed after them, bits of his heart breaking as he listened to Thena openly weep. He couldn’t imagine what she went through, finding out that the person she entered the world with would no longer be apart of it. His tio had raised Vega to appreciate the uncanny, to respect the spiritual even if he didn’t fully believe in it. And if there was ever a case study on the connection between twins, the Shepards were it. Seeing the vids of their fights while hunting Saren, even the footage from that final battle on the Citadel from the surveillance cameras had been enough to convince him that the Shepard twins were a deadly pair.

It took a second for his hearing to adjust when they left the crushing bass of the main floor and entered a sound-proof room off the mezzanine level. Ares lowered himself onto one of the couches, Thena cradled in his arms. Her sobs ebbed into hiccups and sniffles, but her grip on Ares’s shirt stayed vise-like.

“I’m so sorry, Athy,” Ares murmured as he hugged her tightly. “I came as fast as I could.”

The dancer shifted to grab a handful of tissues from the coffee table between them. “Joker and Kaiden were the ones to tell me, Uncle David and Steven had to stop me from beating Kaiden to a pulp.”

Ares snorted. “He refused to get into the pods, insisting on being a hero to the end, trying to drag me into one before I could get to Joker. I wouldn’t have been upset if you did end up pummeling him. He’d deserved it.”

Thena blew her nose, the sound abrupt and gross, at war with her lithe, delicate image. She was a walking contradiction, and it made Vega all the more invested in watching her. He’d given up hoping she had no idea who had sent him and why; she was the Infiltrator of the Alliance Military. She never outed him directly, or asked too many questions, so part of him wondered if she allowed his presence for the sense of familiarity, in a weird way.

“So, what’s the mission?” she asked as she dabbed around her eyes. Ares loosened his hold, allowing her to stand to make use of the giant mirror wall behind him.

“I just want to go on record and say that you aren’t going to like what I’m about to tell you,” her brother warned. Vega wondered if either of them were going to address his presence, but kept quiet and watched Thena’s body language. She’d stiffened at the warning, but the moment had been so small it could have been overlooked if he hadn’t spent hours a day watching her and the way body moved.

“I’m currently putting together a team to stop the Collectors, an indoctrinated species that has been taking whole human colonies for unknown reasons in the name of Harbinger.” A boulder plummeted in Vega’s stomach. Whole colonies? Mierda. “However, you and I both know the Council doesn’t give two shits about anything even remotely related to the Reapers and the threat they pose to everyone.”

Thena turned to lean against the wall, her eyes settling on Vega. Her expression betrayed nothing, the mask as empty as ever. Somehow, her waterworks didn’t so much as smudge the blue and black eyeliner that accented the almond shape of her eyes.

“Which begs the question, who is funding this mission?” she prompted. “And how the hell did you go from being thoroughly spaced to sitting on a couch in Aria T’Loak’s headquarters?”

Her brother sighed, as if bracing himself for something. “Cerberus.”

“Sorry, I must have blacked out for a second, because I thought you just said Cerberus, but that can’t be true because you aren’t stupid enough to ally with those monsters.”

Ah, that’s why he braced himself.

Ares turned, eyes pleading. “The Illusive Man put a bunch of money into reviving me. In return, I am working to stop the Collectors from providing the Reapers with whatever the fuck they get out of kidnapping thousands of humans. We aren’t allies, just… coworkers of necessity.”

“Did he curate this team for you?”

Vega felt the ice in her tone and grimaced. Pobre bastardo.

“Yes, which is why I came to find you first.” Ares drug a hand down his face. “You’ve always been the better gauge of people, and I need an outside party vetting these dossiers before I agree to bring them on. You’re the only one I trust to be honest with me—you’re the only one I trust, period.”

Thena pushed off the wall and approached the back of Ares’s couch. Her eyes stayed trained on Vega, her head cocking slightly as she considered him.

“So, that must mean you were sent by Uncle Steven.” Not a question, a statement. “If he caught wind of Ari back in action and with Cerberus ties, he’d bend over backwards to get someone from the Alliance on that ship to funnel out any and all information. He knows Ari wouldn’t leave me behind, so I’m the obvious foot in the door.”

Vega shrugged, playing down how hot he found her spot on deduction as he stretched his arms along the back of his sofa. “More or less, yeah. But he also stressed that protecting you from whatever shady shit Cerberus has planned is my main priority.”

“Makes sense, considering Akuze,” Ares mused aloud. “He probably wanted to make sure I had someone on my side if this all blows up in my face, someone I knew would get you out of dodge without a second thought.” Thena snorted at the notion but touched her brother’s shoulder. Vega had noticed that closeness, some kind of touch no matter how small was one of her tells. As if she needed to be grounded in reality with something solid.

“If this is Cerberus, I doubt they’ll just let some dude follow us onto the ship, so we’ll need a story.” She rounded the sofa and plopped down next to her brother, legs automatically swing over his lap so she could lean against the armrest. “Do they know you’re recruiting me?”

“Yeah, Illusive Man had the balls to give me a dossier on you, actually. I destroyed it and told him to go fuck himself.” That made her smile, even if it had been a tiny lift of her lips. “He referred to you as ‘the Spy’, which completely undersells your skillset. Miranda and Jacob, two Cerberus officers who got me out of their exploding facility, are waiting outside with one of the other dossiers, Zaeed Massini.”

Thena’s brow rose. “Zaeed? That’s surprising. He’s not a group kind of guy.”

“Why am I not surprised you know him?” Ares asked drily. “Please tell me you didn’t fuck him, too.”

“Hardly, he’s old enough to be our dad.”

“Not once has that ever stopped you.”

Vega cleared his throat. “So, about this story?”

The twins glanced at him before falling back in line. Thena chewed on her lower lip in thought—it didn’t distract Vega in the least.

“They know I play by my own rules, if they know anything about me,” she said after a minute. “My condition for helping those bastards after their role in Akuze is bringing along my merc boyfriend. Zaeed owes me a favor, so he can vouch for him if pressed.”

Ares studied Vega again, brows slipping together. “You good with this?”

He grinned, winking at Thena. “I always knew you liked me, Lola.”

He felt accomplished at getting a grin from her in return. “Never said I didn’t, marine.”

“Ah, yeah, suppose I should give you my name if we’re supposed to be bumping uglies,” he chuckled as he stood and snapped to attention out of respect for Ares. “Lieutenant James Vega, Delta Squad, sir.”

“At ease, Vega. Hope you have somewhere safe to stash your Alliance tags, I wouldn’t be surprised if a Cerberus operative sweeps our belongings regularly.” Ares patted Thena’s legs, the silent signal to move. “I need to speak with Aria about two additional recruits on Omega, one Archangel and a Dr. Mordin Solus. Once we’ve got those two, we’re heading out to Purgatory.”

Thena hummed as she stood, stretching and rolling her shoulders. “I’ll let you deal with Archangel, and I’ll take Vega and one of the Cerberus minions to get Solus. He’s an acquaintance, so might be smoother if I handle him. Lover-boy and I will meet you outside Afterlife in thirty.”

“Less than an hour after reuniting and you’re already bossing everyone around,” Ares sighed dramatically, despite the grin on his face matching his twin’s.

“Coming from the idiot that got himself spaced and pieced back together like Frankenstein’s monster. You’d clearly be lost without me.”

“Actually, history shows I’d be dead.”

“Case in point.”

Vega knew in his bones this mission was going to be anything but boring as he snickered with the twins.

Chapter Text

Athena

The weight of her rifle on her back and the feel of her armor as she strolled back towards the docks from the apartment felt like a homecoming. It also reinforced the truth that Ari had really come back from the dead, that he had come back for her. She struggled to fully believe it; her fingers itched to grab his hand and never let go, to act as his anchor in the world of the living. Even if they would start ripping each other’s hair out after ten minutes of that much close-quarters contact. The image of that brawl brought a smile to her lips.

She hadn’t felt this alive in over two years.

She threw her spare gear and duffel bag at the Cerberus ensign guarding the airlock to the Normandy 2.0 without ceremony, turning to greet the approaching Lt. James Vega with a sweet smile. He filled out his heavy armor well, but that was hardly a surprise. She doubted very much that there was anything he couldn’t fill out well.

“Fancy meeting you here, Lola,” he drawled as he handed off his weapons case and duffel. “You left in such a hurry, I thought you were trying to leave me behind.”

Flirtation was her second language and her greatest weapon. “Hardly, I know how much you like the view from behind.”

Vega laughed as he draped an arm around her waist as they walked back to Afterlife. The ease of the act didn’t surprise her; Hackett wouldn’t have sent him if Vega were a shitty actor when it really counted. It also helped that they’d spent the last several weeks flirting nonstop when he arrived at the bar every night.

“Caught me there, gorgeous.” He glanced at her his eyes lit with that playful twinkle. “Can’t wait to see how those dance moves help out mid-fight.”

She rolled her eyes. “Easy, distract them with my boobs and then shoot them in the face. Surprisingly effective, I’ll have you know.”

“Shepard, we didn’t agree to this.” The crisp, Australian accent drew them out of their conversation as they approached Ari and his new friends. “You were supposed to pick up your sister, not her latest plaything, too.”

Thena immediately wanted to Throw the Cerberus Bitch across Omega.

Zaeed snorted a laugh as he nodded at her. “You’re dumber than you look if you think Thena Shepard cares what you did or didn’t agree on. Ever wonder why there aren’t any hits out on Commander Shepard’s sister? Because no one is stupid enough to think they stand a chance at succeeding.”

She’d always respected Zaeed. Crass as he was, he stuck to his code of mercenary ethics, which was more than anyone could say about the merc groups running around Omega on the daily. In another life, she imagined learning the trade from him, winning him over into some sort of paternal figure to add to her seemingly expansive collection.

“And the only one who could actually take me out likes my company too much to rid himself of it,” she quipped with a saccharine smile. “Now, if we’re done wasting time, I believe we have a vigilante and a doctor to gather?”

Bitch’s eyes narrowed. “Ares is in command here, not you.”

“Miranda, back off,” Ares snapped. “Regardless of what the crew manifest says, Thena is now my second in command, and her say weighs just as much as mine. If you want to make it out of this mission alive, you’ll get over your own self-importance and recognize that I’ll toss you out the airlock before I ignore my sister’s opinion.”

Miranda the Twat clenched her jaw, but nodded tersely all the same. Her cohort, Jacob, watched the exchange with a smidge of amusement in his eyes. Clearly he hadn’t fully digested the Kool-Aid.

“I volunteer to go with Athena to get Dr. Solus,” he offered, giving her a loose salute. “Looking forward to see those famous biotics in play. I’ve heard your Throw is legendary.”

She smirked, fully aware of the dig at Miranda hidden in the compliment. “Just hope you’re never on the receiving end, Officer…?”

“Jacob Taylor, ma’am. No need for ranks,” he replied. “Acting Armory Officer aboard the Normandy. Now, more importantly, is that a Black Widow?”

“Easy there, hombre,” Vega interjected with an easy smile laced with warning. “I’m the only one who gets to touch my girl’s guns.” Thena rolled her eyes and fought the blush that stained her cheeks. She never let anyone clean or mod her guns, not even Ari; Vega’s declaration may have been a territorial display, but she… well, she liked it.

“Cool, so now that we’ve wasted even more time, can we get going? I don’t want Archangel to be dead before I get the chance to recruit him,” Ares drawled as he all but herded Miranda towards the shuttles, Zaeed trailing behind with a put-upon expression. “Keep my sister alive, Vega, or I’ll throttle your hulking ass.”

Thena threw him the bird as they walked the opposite direction.

“Whoever decided to give vorcha rocket launchers deserves a slow and painful death,” Thena muttered as she triggered another dose of medigel. Her barrier stopped a lot of damage, but a barrage of rockets still didn’t tickle. That aside, she had missed the rush of a fight, and slaughtering Blood Pack assholes in the name of saving lives? Worth the bruises.

Mordin had quickly accepted the offer to join the Normandy after securing their help in distributing the plague cure. With his assistant taking over the clinic, there was nothing keeping the salarian on Omega. True to his nature, he simply followed the logic.

“Curious to study Ares Shepard’s cybernetics,” Mordin mused, mostly to himself. “Rare to see large-scale application in organics. Might have unique treatment options.” She glanced at the doctor, aware of his interest in the larger implications of cybernetics and nanotech in medical treatments. If someone needed to take responsibility for that particular curiosity, it’d likely fall on her. They would occasionally meet to discuss experimental treatment options for someone close to her, someone with a terminal diagnosis she refused to accept.

“Ari isn’t fond of needles, so keep the poking to a minimum, please,” she warned the salarian. He already had a difficult time with medigel injections from his armor, she doubted letting an endlessly fascinated salarian with a penchant for testing and analysis have unfettered access to his body was going to go over well at all.

Their rag-tag group of three humans and a salarian made their way back to the docks, Taylor taking the brunt of Mordin’s questions about the research equipment on board while Thena and Vega hung back. The marine had skill, that much was apparent. He radiated calm during the chaos, and while he was a vanguard through and through, he wasn’t a senseless jarhead that rushed into the thick of things on a whim.

Glancing at her omni tool, a frown tugged at Thena’s mouth. Still no word from Ari. Merc cover story or not, he never missed checking in.

“Joker, do you read me?”

“Well, if it isn’t the prodigal Best Boobs on the Citadel herself,” Joker drawled, his grin easy to hear despite not seeing the brittle little shit. “What can I do for you?”

“Remind me to smack you when I finally get on board,” she chuckled, giving Vega a small shake of her head as she met his raised brow. “What’s the last communication you’ve had from Ari? I don’t have so much as a whisper from him.”

“Last I heard from him, he’d made contact with the mercenary army angling to take down this Archangel guy. That was over an hour ago.”

Thena’s gut twisted, her intuition flaring. “Send me his last known coordinates. Vega and I will provide back-up.”

“Who the fuck is Vega?”

“Joker. Coordinates.”

She shut off the comm and tossed a hasty explanation to Taylor and Mordin as the match made in war-time heaven split off in search of Ari and the others. Hustling to the closest skycar hub, she mindlessly entered her credentials and the coordinates before yanking Vega away from the driver’s side.

“No go, marine,” she snorted. “I know Omega better than most of its denizens, I drive.”

Vega merely grinned and backed away, hands raised and that damned dimple popping on the scene. “Fine by me, Lola. I love a woman who can handle a stick.”

Her eyes rolled, despite the small grin that broke past her annoyance as she slid behind the wheel. Vega had barely shut the door when she sped off towards Ari’s last known location. The knot in her stomach only tightened further as she spotted various flashes and billowing smoke in the distance; a fire-fight was as good an excuse as any for failing to check in.

“Mio Dios, the place is crawling with mercs—fuck me, I think it’s all 3 groups.”

Archangel better be fucking worth all this hassle, she thought bitterly as she dodged a cannon blast from one of the YMIR mechs below. Sucking in a breath, she dredged up as much of her power as possible, surrounding the skycar with a Barrier.

“Lola, the fuck are you doing?” Vega asked, his voice rising as the vehicle sped into a sharp nose-dive towards a wave of mercenaries. His yell only grew in volume as she leveled out last second, sliding the car through terrified mercs and sending them flying as her Barrier exploded.

Her body felt heavy as she rallied her strength and flashed a tired smile at the still-stunned Vega. “Ready to drop some mercs?”

His eyes dropped to her lips for a fraction of a second, just long enough for Thena to read his next move and allow herself to be drawn into a hard, hungry kiss. His lips were softer than she expected as he shared the flood of his adrenaline with her, drawing her lower lip between his teeth in a sharp nip that made her knees weak and her thighs clench involuntarily.

This man was trouble.

She pulled back with a breathless laugh, half-heartedly shoving him back. “I’ll take that as a yes, then. Let’s go, marine.”

Her reserves were empty thanks to her admittedly reckless landing, so she unholstered her pistol and activated her omni-blade, picking through the targets that lunged at her the moment she rolled out of the skycar. She didn’t bother checking on Vega; he hollered up a storm as he tore through mercs one shotgun blast at a time.

Her twin’s intuition pushed her forward without a backward glance. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as she finally breached the compound she assumed to be Archangel’s hideout. To her surprise, Vega was hot on her heels, Spartan-kicking a salarian out of the way as he barreled past her.

“ATHY, DUCK!”

An ML-77 missile whizzed past her head, the trio of Blue Suns it targeted no more than a mess of carnage. Her ears rung as she sheathed her omni-blade and bolted towards the staircase, where Cerberus Bitch stood tossing out Warps and Overloads like confetti. It wasn’t until she grasped her twin’s arm that her rising anxiety ceased, verifying once again that Ari was truly alive and well, right in front of her.

“What are you doing here?” Ari asked, dragging her behind a column for cover as the latest wave of Blood Pack muscle stormed the stairs. A series of frag grenades went off, courtesy of one James Vega, who held the line at the base of the stairs with impressive flair.

“You didn’t check in,” Thena replied, holstering her pistol and pulling off her Black Widow. “Mordin has been secured and my gut told me to check on you myself.”

“Were you the idiot that crashed the skycar in front of the entrance?”

“I didn’t crash, I executed an emergency landing with an explosive Barrier.”

Ari’s mouth opened to argue, but a shout from the room down the hall drew both their attention.

“Shepard, a little assistance?”

Thena’s head whipped back to her brother, the chaos of the onslaught silenced as her legs propelled her into the room where Garrus fucking Vakarian stood at the balcony with his beloved Mantis tucked into his shoulder as he picked off mercenaries from his vantage point. Thena’s chest constricted at the sight of him, steadfastly ignoring the fact that she had chosen to avoid him after Ari’s now-pseudo-funeral.

“Are you just going to stand there, or do you plan on helping me out?” the turian drawled without looking back. His subharmonics vibrated with stress, the tone at odds with the confidence he projected. She shook off her daze and shouldered her rifle, taking up a vantage point on the opposite side of the window.

“Should’ve guessed you’d be hopeless without me.” The taunt did its job, earning a double-take from the turian, his mandibles flaring wide in shock. She barely exhaled as she dropped an Eclipse lackey with a clean shot through her eye. “We both know Ari is a lukewarm shot, at best.”

“I CAN HEAR YOU, YOU KNOW,” Ares bellowed from the door to the room, his SMG rattling and punctuating his annoyance.

Thena only laughed as she led her next target and squeezed the trigger. Beautiful two-for-one special that sent a ripple of shouts through the mercs.

“THERE ARE TWO SNIPERS!”

“Take them out!”

“Send more mechs!”

She and Garrus picked off a few more heavy weapons before a pair of YMIR mechs appeared in the distance.

“Hey, Ari?” she shouted at her brother from over her shoulder.

“Yeah?”

“Wanna give me a bit more juice? You did a shit job sabotaging those YMIRs.”

“Would you two stop bickering?” Miranda snapped as she reloaded her Carnifex.

Garrus snickered as popped his spent magazine and reloaded. “You clearly have never fought alongside the Shepard Twins, Maria. You know you’re in deep shit when they aren’t arguing with each other in a life or death situation like this.”

Cerberus Bitch’s eyes narrowed at their vigilante asset. “My name is Miranda.”

“Same difference,” Thena quipped as she felt an influx of power surge through her. She winked at Ari, who blew her a kiss back right before returning to covering Vega with a missile launcher. “Please don’t kill my boyfriend!”

“No promises!” Ari half-sang back.

She huffed a chuckle, rolling her shoulders before throwing Vakarian a smirk. “Think you can give me some armor-piercing headshots?”

The blue-eyed turian snorted. “I know it’s been awhile, but damn. Insulting my skills?”

“By the artful display of stim packs and dextro bar wrappers, I think I’m well within my rights to question C-Sec’s best sniper’s coherence at this point.”

She doesn’t give him a chance to retort. Instead, she charged up a massive Reave and flung it at the first mech, sapping its barrier and shield. The Mantis round ripped through the layers of metal and tech, its movements slowing to a stuttered stop. Unlike most biotics, who would be drained after releasing a mass effect field that large, Thena pulled another Reave together like she were pouring a glass of water and launched it at the remaining mech.

Without its shield and barrier, the last mech was helpless against the detonation of its brother. Shrapnel shredded into the YMIR and the surrounding mix of Eclipse, Blue Suns, and Blood Pack goons as the second mech exploded to cause another wave of casualties.

If her body felt heavy before the rush of another fight drowned the feeling out, she was made of pure lead at this point. Loathe as she was to admit it, the infamous Athena Shepard, biotic badass, was rusty.

She barely registered the stumble until she collided with a dense chest plate the size of Texas. Her vision swam for a moment, but as her eyes came back into focus, she found herself looking up at a familiar grin and accompanying dimple.

“I think that’s enough fireworks for you, Lola,” Vega murmured as he stabilized her against the back of one of the couches in the room. “We have some unfinished business—can’t have you passing out… yet.”

Thena downed a calorie bar, ignoring the innuendo and pulling out her Widow again. “Where the fuck is Zaeed?”

As if on cue, the older merc ambled into the room, his assault rifle perched casually on his shoulder as if he’d come from a leisurely stroll through Omega. His armor was a mess of blood splatter and gods know what else, but he appeared unharmed.

“Your back entrances are secured,” he drawled, posting up at the far end of the room—sleeping quarters, from the looks of it.

Vega glanced at Thena, waggling his eyebrows. “Now there’s a euphemism, amirite?”

She couldn’t stop the smile that pulled at the corners of her mouth. He winked at her, pleased as punch at her reaction as he checked his grenades. It had to be illegal, being so attractive while doused in sweat and a variety of blood from a variety of species.

The thought of a long, hot, against-all-regs-shower became her proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.

“So, Ares comes back from the dead and draws you out of self-imposed exile,” Garrus said to no one in particular, his glacial eyes trained on Thena, one of his taloned fingers practically stroking the Mantis’s trigger. “Must be one hell of a story there.”

Ari patted the turian’s chest. “Let’s get you onto the Normandy in one piece before we start swapping stories, alright, big guy?”

Thena never heard what Garrus said in response. No, she was too concerned with the appearance of a gunship hovering outside the building, a manic batarian sneering as he launches a rocket straight through the window.

“HIT THE DECK!” she screamed, using a Throw to redirect the projectile back out before it detonated. The gunship swerved out of sight, almost magically reappearing in front of Zaeed and Miranda, two Blue Suns rappelling into the room looking mighty pleased with themselves.

Until Ari dropped them with a bullet in each of their skulls.

More Troopers and a Legionnaire swoop inside next. Miranda and Zaeed take care of the Troopers, the latter grumbling about their complete lack of discipline and skill as he makes quick work of his attackers. Thena would laugh if she weren’t so tired.

She sent another—albeit, weaker—Reave at the Legionnaire. Shields gone, Ari and Vega fire their shotguns. Pull. Pump. Pull. Reload. Repeat.

Battle was a rhythm of its own. A selective awareness of one’s surroundings and carefully timed breaths. She willed her body into motion, flinging a Warp at the Blue Suns woman charging toward Garrus. An Override broke down her shield, giving Zaeed the shot with an armor-piercing round from his rifle. Her omni-blade emerged through the soft-shell sides of her armor, the searing blade killing instantly as she spun around the merc, pushing her lifeless body away.

“ROCKETS!” Ari bellowed, pulling Vega down beside him. Thena dove between two of the beds, flinching at the surge of heat as the rockets made contact with the far wall. The dust clouded the room, but she could hear the clamoring downstairs—upside to cybernetic hearing experiments.

Her brother must have heard them, too; he all but dragged Vega towards the top of the stairs, shoving a discarded Avalanche into his hands while barking orders to the rest of them.

“Miranda, Zaeed, take out that fucking gunship! Garrus, Athy, pick these fuckers off like fish in a barrel—and stay alive!” The snipers shared a tired glance. He flared his mandibles and she rolled her eyes.

When she started her shift at the club, this was not how she expected her day to go.

Vega

Lola was flagging. He could tell, and so could her brother. She’d been out of the game for too long to be throwing around as much energy as she had been since the literally dropped into this fire-fight.

He rolled his neck and charged the Avalanche. Commander Shepard looked at him as he shouldered his Revenant, the hardened look Vega expected to see in a war-hero’s eyes turning his amber eyes cold.

“The second we reach the Normandy, take Athy directly to Med Bay. She’s one biotic blast away from going unconscious. The Chief Medical Officer on board is familiar with her records—don’t let anyone else touch her, understood?” The order went beyond what a concerned brother would demand. Vega gave a brief nod, easing some of the tension in the commander’s eyes. “Joker, if you read me, send Taylor out with a shuttle for immediate extraction from my coordinates. It’ll be a fucking miracle if we make it out of this without a serious injury on our hands.”

“Way to radiate positivity, Shep,” Joker replied, all but confirming the order. Vega liked the dynamic the twins had with their subordinates and allies; not so much the giant target on their backs at all times, but he could over look a few imperfections.

Shepard ignored the quip and opened fire on the three Troopers that swarmed the stairwell. Short bursts, shots like a snare drum filled Vega’s ears as he held his fire until more of the cabrones crowd the stairs.

A blast of cryo turned the goons into ice sculptures just before Shepard reduced them to ice cubes.

“That’s so fucked up when you think about it,” Shepard muttered, reloading his rifle to the steady, alternating shots from the snipers. Vega could only chuckle as he dumped the Avalanche in favor of his shotgun, tossing a couple of frag grenades into the chaos.

“Alliance definitely doesn’t train you on the best way to shatter iced enemies.” There was a lot training didn’t cover, but Vega didn’t have the time or energy to start that laundry list. His gaze cut to where Thena stood, strands of her onyx hair stuck to her face with sweat and her impassive mask cracking with the flash of gunfire lighting up her eyes.

Mio Dios, she’s beautiful.

As if she heard his thought, her cognac eyes flicked up and locked with his, a smirk lifting the corner of her mouth. The memory of that mouth slanted over his sent a rush of very important blood from his brain to his crotch. In retrospect, not an awesome move—kissing a woman out of the blue like that, but considering the tiny whimper she thought he didn’t hear, she didn’t seem to mind all that much.

Maybe he should send Hackett a bottle of tequila as thanks.

His thought evaporated as several things happened all at once: first, the shriek of a rocket pulled Thena’s attention away, her eyes widening in panic. Helplessness surged through him as he watched her flash blue, similar barriers coating the turian, the Cerberus woman, and Zaeed.

“ATHY!”

Vega knew she’d just done something reckless. Neither he, nor Shepard hesitated as they dashed towards her, the residual heat of the blast suffocating as they got closer.

“Second incoming!” Miranda barked as flung her own Barrier up to continuing firing on the gunship. Vega’s stomach plummeted as he felt Ares Shepard make the last-minute call to save his ass, yanking him away from the doorway as the second rocket hit the spot Thena had collapsed seconds earlier.

No. No, no, no. Vega shoved Shepard off him. No one could have survived that, not without a shield. Fuck! Eyes wild, he scanned the room, looking for her—hoping he was wrong.

He didn’t hear Zaeed whoop when the gunship finally crashed to the ground. His focus was on the haunched turian, his massive form curled around the unconscious form of Athena fucking Shepard. Relief flooded his system as he knelt by her savior, taking in the severe burns on the right side of his face. The alien’s mandible was barely holding on, but those wicked sharp eyes only focused on Thena in his arms.

“Is she breathing?” Vakarian asked, his question almost a gasp from the pain in his voice.

Her body exchanged arms, Vega ripping off his gauntlet to let his palm hover over her nose and mouth. Faint, but he felt her breath tickle his skin. He gave a sharp nod before pressing two fingers to her neck, checking her pulse. Fast and thready—unsurprising given what she just went through.

“Where the fuck is that shuttle, Joker?” Shepard snarled over the comms. Vega hadn’t seen the man drop to his knees next to him, panic written all over his face. “Garrus took a rocket blast to the face and Athy manually blew Level 3 and 4 on her own. She needs Chakwas yesterday.”

Vega heard a string of curses from the Normandy’s pilot. “Taylor is a minute out, Shep. I have Chakwas heading to the shuttle bay for your arrival.”

Shepard didn’t bother to acknowledge Joker. His attention turned to stabilizing the injured turian, pumping any spare medigel into him. “Miranda, I don’t care how you do it, but you will fix his face, understood?”

The look she gave him would have been hilarious, were it not for the unconscious woman in his arms and the barely-conscious turian in Shepard’s.

“I can stabilize him on the Normandy, but reconstructive surgery at this level—”

“That wasn’t a request, Miranda,” Shepard snapped. “That was an order. Figure it the fuck out.”

It was at that moment that Taylor reappeared with some poor ensign. Vega didn’t wait for orders; he scooped Thena up and hustled down the remnants of the stairwell, beelining for the waiting shuttle. He hated feeling helpless, and at that moment, that’s all he felt. Medigel wasn’t going to do shit for a biotic on the brink of a burnout. All he could do was hold onto her and pray to whatever gods were listening that four men could figure out how to haul a limp turian without causing more injuries.

He looked down at Thena, her face freckled with blood and debris. Still, she looked strangely at peace.

“Don’t drift off too far, Lola,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Unfinished business, remember?”

The rest of the crew appeared a minute or two later, Vakarian just with it enough to stumble towards the shuttle with assistance from Taylor and Shepard. A second after the hatch was sealed, the shuttle lifted off the urban battlefield, speeding away towards the Normandy at a speed that would have gotten them grounded by C-Sec if it were the Citadel.

Thank fuck for Omega’s lack of law enforcement.

True to Joker’s word, an older woman with pristine gray hair and a sharp, but concerned gaze met them in the shuttle bay. Wasn’t hard for him to guess that this was Chakwas; she practically dragged him onto the elevator, not giving Vakarian a second glance, despite the concerning state of his face.

“Get him up to Med Bay, I’ll start on Thena first,” the medical officer ordered briskly from the elevator. Shepard waved her away, busy yelling at the nearest Cerberus ensign to bring out a heavy stretcher.

Vega’s own body started to protest as he followed the doctor into the ample-sized medical bay. He sank onto the edge of an empty bed after laying Thena out, giving Chakwas room to perform her scans and begin working off her armor. The wizened eyes flicked over to him as the doctor started an IV on her.

“You ought to go clean up, and rest,” she pointed out. He offered her what he hoped was a reassuring smile and not a flat-out grimace. His armor weighed what felt like several tons at this point, and while the mere thought of a hot shower nearly got him to half-mast, he shook his head and nodded at the prone woman before him.

“Not gonna leave her, doc. Not until her brother gets up here, at least.” A thought occurred to him, making him frown slightly. “And now that I think about it, I have no idea where we’re supposed to bunk.”

Something told him that Thena had no intention of bunking with Cerberus crew.

Recognition spread over Chakwas’s expression. “Ah, you must be the paramour Joker mentioned. Prior to arriving at Omega, Ares had the starboard observation deck retrofitted for Athena’s personal use. It was where she resided with Spectre Kyrik back on the SR-1, and familiarity and routine is key to managing Athena’s emotional stability.”

Whether she meant to, or not, the doctor had dropped a bomb in Vega’s lap. Spectre Kyrik? Saren's protègé and Shepard's mentor? Few had seen Nihlus Kyrik after the death of Saren, even few saw him after Shepard’s death and Athena’s disappearance.

“How is she doing, Karin?”

Shepard’s voice interrupted his imagination, which had been well on its way to conjuring up the image of Thena doing a private dance for a certain turian Spectre.

Taylor and a herd of ensigns transferred Vakarian—now fully unconscious—onto the bed next to Thena. Miranda and Mordin appeared shortly, both studying datapads and exchanging words that sounded like technical gibberish as they began treating the turian’s injuries.

Chakwas stepped aside with Shepard, the pair gathering near Vega to give the salarian and Miranda room to work.

“She’s lucky she didn’t fry her implant,” the doctor replied, her expression stern. “You said she broke past Level 3 and 4?”

Shepard nodded, rubbing a palm down his face. “She was already flirting with exhaustion when she signaled me to open Level 2. But it was a fucked up situation, and if I hadn’t—”

The doctor raised a hand, silencing a man obviously ready to shoulder the blame. “We both know that her implant is simply a security blanket for the eyes that constantly watch her. I stand by my assessment from a few years ago: Athena is more than capable of managing her biotic power without a dampener. In fact, its placement puts her at higher risk of brain damage if it ever fails to filter her energy, especially in situations where she flexes past its limits on her own.

“That said,” Chakwas continued, “she is currently on an IV cocktail of a sedative and electrolytes. It’s my recommendation that we keep her sedated for a full twenty-four hour cycle to allow the inflammation in her brain to decrease.”

Thena’s brother nodded, his eyes on the almost-serene expression on her face. “Let me know when we can relocate her to her quarters. You know how bad she is when she wakes up in a hospital bed.”

The older woman waved his comment away as she returned to her patients, stepping in seamlessly to assist Mordin and Miranda with what sounded like the reconstructive surgery in question from earlier.

Shepard extended his hand to Vega, which he gladly took, and helped him back on his feet. “C’mon, marine, let’s get you settled. Not much we can do until she’s cleared to move.”

The commander led him towards the starboard observation deck, pointing out the men’s latrine as they passed. Vega wasn’t in the mood for a grand tour, despite his long-standing fan-boy status. Honestly, all he wanted was a shower, some chow, and a very long nap, in that order. Shepard must have guessed as much seeing as he kept the chitchat to a minimum.

“The doors are biometrically encoded to myself, you, and Thena. EDI knows to only override the lock in case of a medical emergency,” Ares explained as he entered the room, which was a fuck ton bigger than he expected.

A larger-than-standard-issue bed occupied the far left wall with a wardrobe and armory locker on either side of the bed. The sleeping area sectioned off by a row of bookshelves to provide a semblance of privacy, a neat sitting area laid out into the center of the room with some chairs and a couple sofas. The right side of the space had been turned into Vega’s personal idea of heaven: a weapons station complete with a modding workbench and merchant terminal.

All he needed was a bench press and a pull-up bar, and he’d be set.

“They’d made this space into a library, of all fucking things,” Shepard snorted, leaning up against the back of one of the sofas. “I had it redone to its SR-1 glory the second I stopped at the Citadel, post-resurrection. Like Chakwas said, Athy doesn’t do change well, and if she’s going to be by my side through this shit-show, I wanted to make sure she maintained a sense of normalcy.”

“Minus the turian boyfriend,” Vega pointed out. He dropped his shotgun and rifle onto the workbench before starting to remove the heavy armor, setting the pieces aside for a thorough cleaning later.

Nothing smelled worse that days-old gore.

Shepard sighed. “Right, I keep forgetting you’re the new toy. EDI, execute Code Gray.”

A disembodied female voice answered, “Executing Code Gray. Audio recording corruption has begun, Commander Shepard.”

“EDI’s a VI?” he asked, setting his chest plate on the table behind him. Vega bit back a groan of relief the literal removal of weight from his shoulders brought. With a tentative sniff to his under armor, he firmly decided to hit the showers as soon as humanly possible.

“Sure, let’s call her that,” Shepard replied with a tiny shrug. “Look, we’re both exhausted and smell like a vorcha’s asshole, so I’m gonna keep this brief and do the full song and dance for you when Athy is awake. Our darling patron, the Illusive Man, was in charge of rebuilding this ship and during that time, included several… observation protocols to the ship’s security network and CCTV.”

“Bro, I’m not an idiot, but right now, I’m a spoon amongst steak knives.” Not to mention, he was starting to get a tiny bit hangry. “Get to the point in plain English.”

“You are going to be under constant video and audio surveillance while aboard the Normandy. Telling EDI to execute Code Gray will give you some privacy, but it’s a command that can only be given infrequently and for short periods of time so as to avoid detection from whatever Cerberus lackey has to filter through all the feeds to give to the Illusive Man.”

Mierda.

“I have no idea how many cameras there are, or where they are,” Shepard continued. “Trust me when I say I scoured EDI’s coding, the ship’s blueprints, even the fucking purchase orders from the construction and found jackshit. So, to avoid blowing your cover and risk exposing yourself, I advise you to go deep-cover and start believing that you’re my sister’s lover. Miranda is skeptical, but she’s not stupid enough to tattle without solid evidence.”

Vega sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “And Thena doesn’t know about any of this?”

“No, but she’s also been around the block with our patron and Cerberus, so I’m sure she’s deduced that she’s walked right into a fishbowl.”

The more time he spent around her, the less Vega felt he knew about Athena Shepard. He guessed the only person alive (or dead, previously or not) that could confidently say he knew everything and anything about Athena Shepard was walking towards the door.

Shepard paused, turning to give Vega a small, but genuine smile. “Before I forget, thank you.”

Vega frowned, confused. “For what?”

The man’s expression sobered, a brief glimpse behind the mask of Commander Shepard revealing a mix of guilt and sadness.

“For watching out for my sister,” Ares clarified. “Even though you were just carrying out your mission, and only just started looking after her, I’m relieved to know that there was someone there protecting her. No matter how briefly.” The commander’s eyes lowered. “We’re all each other has, the only people we trust unconditionally. And for two years, she lived in this fucked up universe without me. I saw how numb she’d become, dancing on that bar in Afterlife.”

Vega was at a loss for words. There was nothing he could say that would be of any real comfort to Ares, and the fact of the matter was, he hadn’t even wanted the mission to begin with.

Rather than attempt to explain that to a man who was clearly hurting, he kept quiet, and simply nodded.

With that, Shepard left Vega to stare out of the massive observation window, the tiny flecks of light in the darkness watching him in return. Something in his gut pulled at him as he considered the cards he’d been dealt. Unlike his tio, he didn’t put a lot of stock in superstitions and bullshit like “fate” or “destiny”, but as he gathered his dopp kit and a fresh set of BDUs, Vega couldn’t help but wonder what he had actually signed up for.

Chapter Text

Athena

Her head throbbed, a very angry krogan smashing the base of skull with a mace as she struggled to resurface from the sedation. Her body reacted a second slower than she liked as she rolled onto her side, only to collide with a solid, warm mass. Peeling open her eyes, all Thena saw was a broad expanse of bronze skin accented with a variety of scars and a soft patch of chest hair. Cozy heat radiated from the sleeping lieutenant, the weight of his arm holding her against him a welcome comfort. He smelled like what she imagined a forest would: rich warmth and a freshness she couldn’t quite place.

She bit back a gasp as his arm flexed, pulling her flush against his chest, their legs tangled beneath the sheets in a way that only brought more attention to the fact that it’d been literal years since her last lay.

Considering on the stiff salute pressed against her stomach, Thena wondered how long it’d been for a man with his rugged looks. Well, they needed to discuss his chosen hairstyle, but no female would be safe if he were truly perfect.

“I can practically hear you thinking, Lola,” Vega murmured, his eyes still closed and his breath surprisingly minty for someone who had supposedly been fast asleep.

“Which is only shocking considering my brain is currently being battered by a herd of baby krogan.” Hazel eyes fluttered into view, amusement bright in the flecks of green and gold. Fuck, he had no right being that attractive with bedhead. Especially when his chosen look was an early 21st century-style faux-hawk.

She felt his hand slide from her hip up her ribcage at a slow, warning pace. He said nothing, simply winked—ah, right. If Cerberus rebuilt the Normandy, it stood to reason that the entire ship was being watched by the Illusive Man.

Voyeuristic bastard.

She locked away the remainder of her thoughts and what she had left of a heart, falling into the charade as easily as taking a full breath.

“Garrus?” she asked, her voice breathy. His fingers pushed back hair, tucking the stray locks behind her ear.

“Stable. Docs jumped on him moments after Chakwas finished up with you,” he replied, his feather-light kisses skimming along her cheekbone. “Last I heard, they got some cybernetics in his busted ear and fixed his mandible.”

A flood of relief washed through her, taking with it the last bastions of her inhibitions.

Her hips rolled against his, the startled grunt and his of Spanish making her grin. His hand cupped the back of her head as he brought his lips to hers, the silky plushness just as startling to her. She lost herself in the kiss, pulling at his lower lip with her teeth, the inferno rising in her blood driving her past any sense of pacing. His moan vibrated in her chest as he opened up for her, his tongue lashing out like a viper to slide against hers. He swallowed her gasp as he rolled her onto her back gently, the large palm at the back of her neck holding her steady as his pelvis ground into hers.

She broke from him long enough to gasp for air and half-whimper, “Touch me, please.”

“Don’t need to tell me twice, Lola,” he murmured in her ear, those sinful lips suckling her earlobe and making her toes curl. Both his hands settled at her hips, the feel of his calloused palms pushing up her N7 tank-top pulling a moan from her.

Too long. She’d gone without being touched for too fucking long.

Nihlus had tried to comfort her, to be what she needed when all she could feel was hurt and rage. But, in the end, she managed to push him away. Whatever flings she had in the aftermath had all but disappeared in her memory; she was well and truly numb by the time she finally fled to Omega.

Teeth nipped at the juncture of her neck and shoulder, pulling her out of her thoughts. Half-lidded eyes met his gaze, his blown pupils swallowing the fractals of his irises.

“Eyes on me, Lola.”

Fucking fuck of all fucks.

She obeyed happily as his mouth trailed kisses across the plane of her stomach, rising to worship each inch of bared skin as her tank-top crested over her breasts. Another string of filthy Spanish fell from his lips as he stared at her, mouth agape.

“Mio Dios, you’re gorgeous.”

Without another word, he rid her of the tank, toss it aside before latching onto one of her nipples like a man dying of thirst. The heat of his tongue working her nipple to a hardened peak made Thena’s back arch, her hands seeking purchase on whatever part of his body they could. His arms snaked around her bowed back, one sliding up her spine to hold her chest firmly against his mouth. Every lap of his tongue and nip of his teeth only served to stoke the fire building at her core. She felt how completely drenched he had made her with only his mouth. Her mind all but short-circuited at the thought of what else he was capable of.

“Forgive the interruption, Ms. Shepard. Commander Shepard requests you and Mr. Vega join him in the briefing room in ten minutes.” The feminine, automated voice actually sounded chagrined as it cut through the heat of the moment.

Vega released her left breast with a lewd pop, glaring up at the ceiling. “Seriously, EDI?”

“Quite serious, Mr. Vega,” the VI replied without a shred of remorse.

“EDI?” Thena interrupted, pulling herself up to straddle Vega’s very obvious bulge in his boxer-briefs. His sharp intake of breath made her pussy clench, every iota of her being wanting nothing more than to know just how full she’d feel with him inside her.

“Yes, Ms. Shepard?”

“Please tell Ari to go fuck himself.” She allowed herself another taste of Vega’s lips before untangling their bodies. “Tell him that, verbatim.”

“Understood.”

Vega yanked on a pair of pants and grabbed a shirt from his side of the wardrobe. “I’ll meet you outside. I need a minute and a cold shower.”

“A minute? How disappointing,” she teased as she poked through a drawer for fresh panties and bra. His palms slipped around her back, cupping her breasts with a playful squeeze and a bite to the other side of her neck.

“Fucking brat,” he whispered, breath hot against her skin. She swatted him away, but he dodged her with a smirk, almost jogging out of their quarters.

Tugging on her cleanest pair of leggings from her bag before snatching one of the hunk’s shirts, Thena combed her fingers through the length of her raven hair, she found her thoughts lingering on that hell of a wake-up.

The phantom sensation of his body molding against hers sent a shiver down her spine. She wasn’t a little woman, standing at a firm five-foot-eight with the muscle tone expected of a trained assassin-sometimes-mercenary-sometimes-spy who also enjoys pole dancing on the side. But in Vega’s arms, she felt small in the best way possible. Fuck, she felt safe.

Only one other male—that she wasn’t related to—ever made her feel safe in his arms.

With a fond smile, she began braiding her hair as she opened the door, a freshly-showered lieutenant leaning up against the adjacent wall with his arms crossed. The motherfucker had no right to look that fine, standing there with his muscles bulging in a way that should have been obscene but, in fact, was the opposite.

“Ready, beautiful?” His voice felt like silk sheets, wrapped around her body—her ideally nude body.

A few crewmen entered the hall from Crew Quarters, their eyes immediately landing on the couple. Their attention didn’t bother her, especially after surviving the excess of attention she received after Akuze. And that fish-bowl feeling didn’t go away after she started dating Nihlus. Most of her life, she’d been regarded as an anomaly, sometimes even a prize to be won by the various entities in the galaxy as word of her powers spread.

After Akuze, the pressure that came with being under persistent observation by the media, the Alliance, Cerberus—the anxiety suffocated her. The nightmares never stopped, no matter how often she met with therapists or upped her medications. The only peace she found was in the numbness that came when she slipped into a killing calm, a state she only learned to access after learning the assassin’s trade from the very best in the business.

Granted, one of those states resulted in a very tense conversation with C-Sec, and subsequently put on “house-arrest” aboard the Normandy where Uncle David could keep a close eye on her. Gods, how she chafed under such tight quarters and constant stares under the guise of “observation.”

As she studied the crewmen openly staring at her, calloused fingers skimmed her cheek, drawing her out of her thoughts.

“Eyes on me, remember, Lola?”

She leaned into the touch, inhaling the fresh scent of his soap mixing with the laundered smell of his shirt. His gaze was soft as he pushed off the wall, his arms slipping around her shoulders to keep her tucked against his side as they made their way to the elevator.

“How’s your head?” he asked casually, shooting a look that screamed ‘fuck off’ at the gaggle of men scurrying past into the mess.

Thena punched the second level, not straying from Vega’s side. “Fine, just a headache at this point. Nothing too unusual.”

“Just thought I’d check, since you clearly mistook my clothes for yours.” He was grinning, that dimple of his appearing like a wink. “Not that I mind. You look damn good in my shirt, and I know what you look like underneath it.” She shot him a look, which only made his grin bigger. “Lo que es mío es tuyo, Lola.”

What’s mine is yours.

A romantic notion for a jarhead. Her quip about the limitations of that bold claim died as they stepped off the elevator and neared the Briefing Comm.

“Welcome to the Normandy, Jack.” Ugh, by that tone, Thena knew she was walking into a bad time. “I’m Miranda, Shepard’s second-in-command. On this ship, we follow orders.”

She’s what now?

Miranda paced the length of the briefing comm, hands behind her back like some prissy school headmistress. Ari scrubbed a hand down his face, clearly beyond done with the day, while the scantily-clad Jack glared openly at the other woman. Jack’s skin was covered in tattoos, a pair of low-slung pants and a porn star’s bikini top her only clothing. Still, Thena could feel the power vibrating off of the lithe woman; she was a biotic—a powerful one.

“Pretty fucking sure my brother explained that I’m his second-in-command on this ship, Miranda,” Thena drawled as she and Vega entered. “I’ve got plenty of witnesses.”

Icy blue eyes narrowed. “Last I checked, I am the highest-ranking officer on board, next to Commander Shepard, which makes me the Executive Officer. Not you.”

“For the love of fuck, cut the shit, both of you,” Ari snapped, pushing off the wall. “Miranda, you are XO for the Cerberus crew, but when it comes to this team that I am building and bring out onto the field, Athy is my second. I will not repeat this a third time, am I clear?”

Miranda crossed her arms and glowered at Thena, but nodded all the same.

“Need a verbal confirmation from you, too, Athena,” Ari said, brows low and jaw tense. Yeah, he was definitely done with the day.

“Clear as crystal, Ares,” she drawled back, hands up in supplication. “Now, you gonna introduce me to the new biotic beast over here?”

She felt Jack’s power flare, making Thena grin. “Easy, tiger. You’re strong, I’ll give you that, but you won’t make it out of this room alive if you let your temper get the best of you.”

“I could take you all down in my sleep,” Jack snarled, immediately dropping into an offensive stance.

Thena cocked her head, tossing her braid over her shoulder. With a tiny nod to Ari, who entered the command on his omni tool, she flung Jack back against the wall without lifting a finger.

“They’re not the ones you ought to be worried about.” Pain branched through her head, but she kept steady and eased Jack back onto the floor. “I am.”

Arms of corded muscle wrapped around her waist, drawing her back against a firm chest—and pillowy pecs. She knew she shouldn’t be surprised; he’d be observing her for weeks, he had to notice some things about her body. She relaxed into his embrace, tipping her head back against his shoulder and relishing the relief that tiny bit of opposing pressure brought.

With a disgusted look, Jack’s eyes flicked to Ari. “I’m only here because of our deal. I want those data archives.”

“Miranda will give you unrestricted access,” Ari replied, his eyes cutting to the woman in question. “Won’t you?”

“This is a mistake, Shepard,” Miranda muttered as she left the room. “The files will be sent shortly.”

Ari nodded and looked back at Jack. “Let me know what you find. I meant what I said about helping you.”

Jack snorted, pushing past the twins to follow Miranda out of the room. “If I had a credit for every time I heard that shit. Whatever, I’ll be in the hold, or somewhere near the bottom. Don’t like through traffic.”

With a snick of the doors behind her, Ari leveled a tired gaze at his twin. “Please avoid starting anymore pissing contests on my ship. It’s bad enough dealing with Miranda regularly, you poking at her with a cattle-prod doesn’t help.”

Thena pouted. “I wish I had a cattle-prod to poke her with. It’d be so much more entertaining.”

“I’m fucking serious, Athy.”

“So am I.” She rolled her eyes at the point-blank glare she received. “Okay, fine. I’ll back off. Now, what the fuck did you need us for that you had to send EDI mid-foreplay?”

Vega pinched her side gently. “C’mon, Lola, gotta leave some shit to the imagination.”

Ari made a face, but at least had the maturity not to gag. “Didn’t need that visual. Christ. Right, well, I thought you’d like to help me make a really stupid decision and wake up a test-tube krogan in the lower port cargo hold. Even at a Level 2, your Barrier should withstand a raging krogan.”

She felt her brows reach her hairline. “Where the fuck did you a get baby krogan?”

“Not a baby, fully grown. Picked him up from a dying krogan warlord I was supposed to recruit.” She followed him out of the comms room, Vega loosening his hold but keeping close behind her, his nearness quickly becoming a reassuring presence. “Dealt with a fucking psychopath with a penchant for rocket launchers and breeding a krogan army for herself.”

“No one said returning from the dead would be easy,” she pointed out, ignoring the pinch of emotion that nipped at her heart. Brushing it away like the queen of avoiding her emotions she was, Thena forced her face into a mask of indifference as they stepped into the CIC.

Ari’s hand found hers and squeezed it. “I’d do it again. Given the choice.”

Bastard. If he made her cry in front of all these Cerberus operatives, she was going to grind his balls with her—

“Commander Shepard, you have an urgent briefing from the Illusive Man waiting in the briefing room.” The perky-looking woman standing at the yeoman’s terminal smiled at her. “Yeoman Kelly Chambers, ma’am, it’s an honor to finally meet you, Major Shepard.”

“Not Alliance, not a major,” Thena corrected quickly. “Brass only agreed to give me that title to get more credit for humanity’s role in the Citadel shit.”

“What she means to say is, ‘Thank you.’” Vega’s inherent charm captivated the yeoman, winning her over with that damn dimple. “The name’s Vega, former Alliance, now mercenary by day, Thena Shepard’s bedwarmer by night.”

She couldn’t stop the snort of laughter at the sight of Chambers’s tomato-red blush. Even Ari coughed his way through a chuckle.

“C’mon, before you two scandalize any more of the crew,” Ari attempted to say firmly. His grin undermined whatever authority he tried to muster of his sister. “Inform our benefactor that I’ll meet with him in a half hour. I have a krogan to tame.”

Ares didn’t lie. The krogan that stood suspended in a life-support pod was a fully-grown male, which was only partially disappointing. Thena liked to think that krogan babies were adorable, waddling creatures. She’d made Wrex swear to let her teach his kids how to shoot if the genophage cure ever came about.

“Is it really a good idea to let an unknown loose in a cargo hold without backup?” Vega asked, his hulking form lingering by the door with a palm on his sidearm. “No disrespect, Lola, but you just woke up from a medical coma and nearly made yourself pass out not five minutes ago.”

EDI finished rattling off some line about controls and consequences, and Ari wasted no time doing his best impression of his sister and going on impulse.

“He’s an asset and I don’t plan on letting him just rot in a tube,” Ari replied as he took a step back, all eyes watching the tube drain of fluids. The moment the hatch opened, Thena flung a Barrier around Ares, and just in time.

The krogan charged, grabbing Ares by his collar and hauling him up against the wall. She felt Vega grab her around the waist, practically shoving her behind him as if he was going to be any match for a raging krogran.

“Human. Male,” the gruff voice of the krogan observed. “Before you die, I need a name.”

Ari grunted as he tested the krogan’s hold. “I’m Commander Shepard, and I don’t take threats lightly. I suggest you relax.”

“He wasn’t talking about your name, idiot,” Thena pointed out, stepping around Vega to get a good look at the male. The krogan glanced at her, the look assessing, but he made no move to release Ares.

“I am trained, I know things, but the tank…” His eyes returned to Ares. “Okeer couldn’t implant connection. His words are hollow. “Warlord, legacy, grunt… grunt. ‘Grunt’ was among the last. It as no meaning. It’ll do.”

Thena frowned. “Are you sure? Of all the names—”

The krogan leveled a look at her, one that brooked no argument.

“I am Grunt,” he told her, voice and decision firm. He turned back to Ares. “If you are worthy of your command, prove your strength and try to destroy me.”

Thena pushed Vega’s drawn pistol down, slowly raising an up-turned palm towards the krogan now known as Grunt.

“Take it easy, Grunt. We’re not here to start a fight,” she tried, keeping her voice calm. Truthfully, she had no idea how things were going to play out. She and Ari were running on fumes, and as powerful as Vega could be on the field, she doubted he could topple a krogan youth in his prime.

“Okeer’s clan and his enemies mean nothing to me,” Grunt said. “His imprints failed. Without a reason that’s mine, one fight is as good as any other. Might as well start with you.”

Ari shot her a glare. Stand the fuck down.

“Look, I’ve got a good ship and a strong crew,” Ari pointed out. “Stronger, if you join us. A strong clan.”

“Fighting weak enemies only makes you a weak leader.”

Her brother snorted. “Our enemies are worthy, don’t worry about that.”

The krogan seemed to mull the idea over, humming to himself in a rich bass tone lined with gravel. “That is acceptable. I will fight for you.”

“Glad you saw reason,” Ari replied with a tiny smile as the krogan released him. Confused, Grunt looked down, finally spying the pistol aimed directly at his stomach, wedged between the soft layers of his armor.

To everyone’s relief, Grunt chuckled. “Offer one hand, but arm the other. Wise, Shepard. If I ever find a clan—find what I want, I will be honored to eventually pit them against you.”

Thena released the Barrier, her body sagging against Vega against her will. “Let’s hope that’s all after this Collector bullshit, please. Babe, get Taylor down here and see what he might have that’ll outfit a krogan for the field. I’m gonna go say hi to Joker while Ari deals with the Illusive Bastard.”

The twins walked out in step, Vega giving her a dark look just as the door slipped shut. A tiny part of her hoped he’d punish her for that later in the filthiest way possible, but she tamped down on that thought and stored it away. Joker had a sixth sense for that kind of shit, and she knew better than to give that man even a shred of gossip lest it circulate through the entire ship.

“Sure you don’t want to join me for this briefing?” Ares asked once they’d entered the elevator.

“Glad your sense of humor came back from the dead with you,” she drawled, jabbing him in the side with her elbow.

He huffed a laugh, rubbing his ribs. “Joker will be glad to see you.”

Thena inclined her head, recalling the last time she spoke to the brittle man. So much of what she had said was aimed to hurt, not just him but Kaiden, too. Both had taken her words in stride, leaving her to her grief, but she knew she at least owed Joker an apology.

It wasn't his fault that Ari was prone to stupid heroics.

The twins went their separate ways, Ari making his way back to the Briefing Comm and Thena ignoring the looks the Cerberus operatives gave her as she stepped onto the bridge. She snatched Joker's hat, plopping it on as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders from behind.

“Long time, no see, Joker,” she chirped in his ear, pressing a wet kiss to his cheek. He laughed, making a show of wiping off her kiss as he turned his chair around. He looked no different than the last time she'd seen him, at the funeral. His lopsided grin and playful expression seemed totally unaffected by the last couple of years, but Thena saw the glint of lingering guilt in his eyes.

Taking up post against the console that few people dared approach for fear of Joker’s swift and vicious barking, Thena gave him a warm smile, one of the few, rare smiles she ever let see the light of day. Genuine emotions were a death sentence in her world.

“When Ari said he’d found you and roped you into this operation, I called bullshit,” the pilot said, letting his cheek rest on his fist. “Then, boom! You’re barking orders at me like we’re back on the SR-1 and you were dragging your brother out of a shitshow of his own making.”

“Don’t let Ari hear you say that,” she mock-scolded. “What can I say? When your brother comes back from the dead, it’s hard to say no when he asks you to join his crew to save the galaxy.” Her eyes fell on the Cerberus insignia on his uniform. “Exactly how much of the Kool-Aid have you downed?”

Joker frowned, twisting his arm to look at the patch. “Eh, joined the cause just after the Alliance reassigned me. But I’m not really Cerberus.” He looked at her, his expression somber. “I only joined the Lazarus cell to fix what I broke. They said they could bring him back, and I believed them. I needed to believe them.”

The whisper of desperation that clung to his words struck her hard.

“The day he stepped on board again—walking, talking, just… existing—the first thing I did was try to call you,” he said, his voice quiet. “All I could think about was the way you looked at the funeral, standing there with Anderson and Hackett, a death-grip on Nihlus’s arm and the coldest look on your face. Then, you looked at me. And you just started sobbing.”

She closed her eyes, shoving the memories of that day back into the deep recesses of her mind. So many things shattered alongside her heart that day.

Joker reached out, taking her hand. The contact startled her; for as long as they had known each other, Jeff Moreau never onced initiated physical contact with her. He leaned into it if she ever touched him, whether it was ruffling his hair or giving him hugs to piss Kaiden off during the Saren days, but he was diligent about keeping his hands to himself otherwise.

“I broke you. I broke your heart in a way that was unforgivable,” he murmured, squeezing her hand tight for someone with bones of glass. “All I wanted was to fix what I had broken.”

Thena pushed off the console and knelt down to look up into the pilot’s tormented face.

“I should have told you then, over and over, but I was so… shattered and in my own pain, that I couldn’t see beyond it.” She gently took his hands, squeezing them back as gently as possible. “None of what happened was your fault, Jeff. None of it. If you hadn’t stayed at the helm, I know more crew would have died. I studied the report almost every night. Your handling of the ship through the evacuations—at extraordinary risk to yourself—saved lives. Ares knew that, I know that, and now, you need to know that.”

She spotted James lingering at the end of the catwalk near the galaxy map, silently assessing the situation that would have brought her to her knees. His concerned expression softened when she shook her head slightly.

“If you make me cry in front of the AI, I’ll kick your ass,” Joker muttered, voice thick and eyes averted. Thena chuckled, smushing his hat back onto his mussed hair.

“Wouldn’t want that,” she teased as she stood up. “Now, do you wanna meet Vega or sit here and weep?”

Joker huffed, eyeing her with moist eyes. “We’re good?”

She kissed him gently on the cheek. “Always. We’re good.”

“Alright, let’s meet the new boy-toy.”

Thena snorted as she waved Vega over. The man was hardly a toy at 6-foot-something and the width of a single bed.

Joker’s eyes grew wide as he took in the lumbering marine who made his approach with a friendly smile and a wink for her.

“Fuck me, Thena. Dude’s as big as a krogan!” Joker eyed Vega’s outstretched hand warily. “Tempting, man, but, uh, I break real easy.”

Thena took the extended hand instead, finding herself pulled gently against his side. A tension she hadn’t realized she carried seemed to melt against his persistent warmth, a tiny, contented sigh slipping past her defenses. She felt more than heard his answering chuckle, the sound a low rumble in his chest.

“Oh, god, you two even look perfect together,” Joker bemoaned mockingly. “The badass and the fucking bruiser—that’s a Fornax spread waiting to happen, for sure.”

“Can we stop associating my sister with a galactic porn publication?” Ari asked as he joined the group. “It’s bad enough knowing all my friends and coworkers send me copies of her ‘Best Breasts on the Citadel’ spread. Anything beyond that, I might space myself—again.”

Joker snickered. “You remember when Anderson caught wind of that issue existing?”

“Fuck’s sake, how could I ever forget it?” Ari threw her a dark look. “You couldn’t stop laughing every time he would look at you and then look away, flustered as all fuck.”

“I think it made him blush hard enough that Chakwas was concerned he had a fever for two days straight,” Thena laughed. She dabbed at her eyes, as she added, “And then Joker insisted on going page by fucking page with Kaiden. Pretty sure that poor guy couldn’t decide whether to be turned on or mortified any time we were within five feet of each other.”

Vega snorted, his hand slipping and resting low on her hip. “Sounds like a fucking stick in the mud if that’s his reaction to Lola.”

“That is the best way to describe Kaiden Alenko,” Ari agreed, rolling his eyes. “He was and likely still is beyond smitten with her, and most likely still doesn’t understand why she won’t give him the time of day.”

She shook her head, remembering his visible disdain whenever she tossed professionalism to the wind with Nihlus on board while they hunted Saren. It wasn’t worth mentioning his ingrained xenophobia, though by the end of it all, he had gotten over himself enough to make friends with Garrus and Tali, even taking a shine to Wrex before it all went to shit.

Ari sighed and redirected the conversation like the adult he was. “Right, saving the galaxy. Joker, set our heading to Horizon. Tibby apparently got a tip about a Collector hit on the colony, so we’re going to see if we can stop a mass kidnapping.”

“Tibby?” Joker questioned, brow raised as he did as instructed.

“The Illusive Bastard,” Ari replied matter-of-factly. She left the warm confines of Vega’s arms to kiss her brother lovingly on the cheek.

“Tibby it is,” Vega affirmed, smirking. “Who’s the squad?”

“It’s our first contact with these jackasses, so I’m playing it safe.” Ares ran a hand through his hair and jerked his chin towards the CIC, motioning for Thena and Vega to follow. “You two load up. Athy, I need you on long-range—Garrus is still coming out of sedation after they overhauled his face. Vega and Grunt will be our bruisers, and Miranda will support with biotics.”

Her eyes narrowed at her least favorite name. “So I’m being leashed?”

“Woman, I love you, but Spirits’ tits and ass, stop picking fucking fights with anything that breathes,” Ari snapped, exasperated. Somehow, Vega managed to herd them into the elevator, quickly jabbing the button for Crew Deck. “We’ve been reunited after two fucking years for a little more than a day! In that time, you’ve managed to fuck with your dampener enough to require sedation to recover. So, yes, I’m leashing you for as long as I possibly can so I can get shitfaced with you and catch up later, all right?”

Goddamn fucking asshole. He’d swung low and landed a critical hit. Her rage ceased, leaving her speechless. Worst part of it? Ari knew he’d smacked her senseless with his trump card.

Her brother sighed as they stepped off the elevator, taking hold of her wrist before she retreated to her quarters.

“Look, I’m sorry I snapped.” He had no reason to apologize, but he did it anyway. “I’m going to break the news to Garrus and hopefully make it out a live. Get some rest, take something for that headache you’re ignoring, and be ready to drop at 1400 hours.”

“Ugh, military time, really?” Thena wrinkled her nose, deftly avoiding his gaze and the jab about the headache. “Go break Archangel’s heart, and if you ever send EDI to cockblock me again, I’ll distribute that infamous Alliance Men of Honor calendar you love so dearly.”

“You wouldn’t fucking dare.”

Her grin was maniacal. “Try me, brother.”

“Alright, alright, let’s go get you some meds and a nice nap, Lola.” Vega ushered her away with his hands on her shoulders. “And show me that calendar. I have buddies adamantly denying its existence, and I’d love to collect on that old bet.”

“Vega, do not make me kick your ass in front of my sister,” Ari warned, half-yelling as he walked further away towards Med Bay.

“Wouldn’t dream of it, boss-man.”

Oh, this man was trouble, without a doubt.

And she fucking loved it.

Chapter Text

Athena

Thena kept her eyes trained on swath of space the window over her brother’s bed allows as she focused on settling her breathing. A scalding hot shower in Ari’s private bathroom did nothing to calm her after the shitshow that was the Horizon mission. Specifically, the nuclear bomb that had been the Alenko reunion no one asked for.

Rage simmered beneath her skin as she replayed his reaction to seeing Ari alive. The motherfucker had to the audacity to call her brother a traitor, and if Vega hadn’t grabbed hold of her arm to keep her for blasting the Alliance’s lap dog out of existence—

“You’re glowing again,” Ari drawled as he plopped onto his bed next to her. “Get up, you’re soaking my sheets with your wet hair and begging for a wall of tangles.”

Thena snorted, but sat up, shifting so that Ari could run a wide-tooth comb through the length of her hair. It annoyed her, how soothing it felt as she clung to her anger. Ari’s steady hands eased the damp strands out of knots, his strokes slow and calming as they sat in silence. She couldn’t remember when they’d started doing this; sometime during the hunt for Saren, maybe.

“You can’t expect everyone to understand why I’m flying under Cerberus colors, Athy,” he murmured, setting aside the comb. She snorted, shooting him a dark look.

“There’s a difference between simply not understanding and calling you a terrorist, Ares.” Her jaw clenched as she turned again, this time to face him. “He didn’t even thank you for your help, for saving as many as you did.”

“As we did. You were there, too.”

“Yes, and Kaiden made sure to calling me a fucking hypocrite, remember?” she spat back, tears burning and blurring her vision. “Went so far as to suggest I’d been working for Cerberus the entire time we were after Saren, or did you miss that bit while trying to convince him to join us?”

Her stomach roiled at the thought. She hated Cerberus more than anyone could fathom–more than Jack, easily. Flashes of days spent within padded walls and endless stimuli poking at her control forced her eyes shut tight. Years of her life wasted as she clung to her anger like an anchor, convincing herself that she wasn’t a mindless weapon at the Illusive Man’s disposal.

Warm palms cupped her cheeks as Ari’s forehead touched hers. “Breathe, Athy.”

She sucked in a breath, holding for a couple of seconds before huffing it out. The next breath came easier, the technique slowly working her down from the edge of a panic attack.

“Too bad Nihlus wasn’t with us,” Ari mused, leaning back to give her a small grin. “I’d have loved to see how many limbs Kaiden walked away with.”

Emerald green eyes framed by russet skin and bright white markings came to mind. A kernel of longing dropped in her stomach, surrounded by regret.

“Knowing Nihlus, none.” She could practically hear his furious subharmonics growl in warning. “He nearly shredded Udina when the idiot made a comment about my ‘predilection for aliens.’”

“Too bad he didn’t follow through,” Ari sighed. “The galaxy would have been a brighter place without that slimeball.” The twins fell into an easy silence, her brother gently nudging her back around so he could loosely braid her hair. “Uncle David sent through a message, asking us to come to the Presidium. Mentioned bringing the Council up to speed on what I’m doing so they don’t sic the rest of the Spectres on my ass.”

He tugged on the end of her braid once finished, as always. The familiarity of it—a gesture she’d been without for two years shattered whatever calm she found. No nevermind that they’d fallen into their patterns as if no time had passed at all. A wave of grief and relief drowned her senses, a broken sob escaping her as she curled over herself. She thought she’d burned through this reaction back on Omega, but the more she thought about it, the more ridiculous that assumption became. This was the first length of time that she got to spend with her brother since he appeared in Afterlife.

“Oh, fuck, Athy.” Ari’s arms pulled her against his chest, the embrace casting a net of safety around her. “I didn’t even think... I’m right here, yeah? I’m here, I’ve got you.”

Internally, she clawed at her emotions, dragging them back under control. Fuck crying, she thought. This was why she buried her emotions under layer after layer of apathy; she hated feeling so raw, so vulnerable. She hated the weight of grief. She absolutely loathed the bitter taste of disappointment. Guilt could fuck right off, too. Too many people told her that bottling up her emotions would come back to bite her, but she told every one of them to mind their fucking business.

She didn’t care if she lost the ability to feel compassion, joy, or—worst of all—hope. As far as she knew, allowing herself to feel anything beyond cold rage or callous indifference saved her a lot of pain and heartache the last two years. Sure, it cost her a relationship with a male who wanted nothing more than to give her everything he felt she deserved and more. And yes, she managed to shove Liara and Tali so far away from her cold, black heart that they’d stopped trying to reach out to her.

But at least she couldn’t feel any of the hurt.

They sat there, Thena hugged tightly against Ari’s chest, for what felt like hours, but could only have been a handful of minutes. By the time her eyes ceased leaking and her nose was sufficiently clogged with her ugly-cry snot, EDI had already alerted Ari that the team awaited in the briefing room.

Groaning in unison, the twins untangled their limbs and made their way out of Ari’s cabin. She set to work rebuilding her emotional walls, ignoring the fact that her eyes were undoubtedly red and puffy. She also ignored the curious looks she got from Chambers and the rest of the crew on the CIC floor. Instead, she focused on slipping her role as the irreverent, unpredictable liability she’d carefully crafted over several years as they walked into the briefing room.

Vega’s eyes met hers instantly, his brows knitting together in concern as soon as he saw her. Garrus loomed next to him, his gaze equally worried as his mandibles snapped shut and the low hum of his subvocals asking after her as she approached them.

Wedging herself between them, she ignored their curiosity, but leaned into Vega’s arm, involuntarily seeking out his warmth. She observed the rag-tag team assembled together, noting that Jack still lingered in the corner closest to the door, as far away from Miranda as physically possible. Mordin and Grunt, to her surprise, seemed to be conversing amicably, the salarian scanning the krogan excitedly with his omni-tool.

“Right,” Ari started, his eyes sweeping the room to get everyone’s attention, “Despite the reaction of the surviving colonists, Horizon wasn’t a failure. We interrupted the Collectors’ latest harvest and got some combat experience with their kind to better prepare us down the line. EDI, bring up my scans of the Collectors.”

The center of the room lit up with scaled-down images of the bipedal cockroaches with wings.

“My nightmare incarnate,” Ari muttered, gesturing to the images. “They can fly, have tough as fuck shields, and some of them carry partical beams.”

“Don’t forget the possession bit,” Thena reminded him. “An entity calling itself Harbinger takes over Collector bodies on the field, jumping to another host when the current body is brought down. It’s fucking foul.”

Mordin, the epitome of scientific intrigue, hummed thoughtfully. “Fascinating. Transferring consciousness from one being to another. Not impossible, but certainly not attainable by current technology.”

“Also, wildly unethical,” Miranda pointed out. “From what we saw, it was as if Harbinger purged the existing consciousness to house its own.”

Vega raised his hand. “Don’t forget the Husks and the mutant blueberry.”

Thena stifled a laugh at the apt, but ridiculous description. Ari cracked a grin, bringing up his other scans with his omni-tool. The mutant blueberry in question bore the label “Scion”.

“These guys don’t fuck around,” Ari explained to the rest of the team, the ones that didn’t find themselves on the receiving end of their mucus attacks. “Their primary attack completely breaks through shielding when hit. It’s a relatively slow-moving attack, easy enough to dodge, but temporarily short circuits your shields if you’re not fast enough.”

Miranda nodded, as if she were the one leading the briefing. “While these Husks are similar to what we’ve previously associated with Geth, it’s my understanding that these are under Collector control. As far as anyone can control Husks.”

“So, we’re not only dealing with oversized cockroaches,” Ari recapped, “but also, Husks, Scions and these giant bastards—” he changes the image to the horsefly from hell, “—which are called Praetorians. Shields of mass effect energy and heavily armored hide with a partical beam to top it off.”

“Suddenly I’m glad Chakwas denied my medical clearance for this mission,” Garrus muttered, earning a matching pair of side-eyes from Vega and Thena.

The images fade away with a few swipes of Ari’s fingers. “Our glorious benefactor has a team digging into the data we collected while on Horizon to figure out our next step. In the meantime, we have a few errands to take care of at the Citadel before we set off to recruit the last of our teammates. I know a few of you have already asked for assistance with missions of your own, rest assured, I haven’t forgotten.

“But I think I speak for all of us when I say that our priority is getting Mess Sergeant Gardner better ration supplies so we don’t all murder each other for better food.”

A ripple of agreement echoes around the room.

“With that, we’ll take 3 days shore leave once we dock at the Citadel,” Ari concluded. “I’ll be at the map with Chambers working through the best mission order after leave, if anyone needs me. Dismissed.”

Vega’s palm skimmed the line of her spine before settling at the small of her back. A pleasant warmth radiated out from his hand, seeping through the second-skin long sleeve shirt she wore.

“Doing all right, Lola?” he asked, his voice low in her ear as he dipped his head down. “You were gone for awhile.”

“I’ll be fine,” she replied honestly. “Kaiden got further under my skin than I’d have liked.” Behind them, Garrus huffed, earning glances from the pair as he shrugged.

“Vega here told me you ran into him,” he explained as the trio made their way into the mess hall. The promise of decent food made it easier to swallow the mediocre rations Gardner had no choice but to serve. “Per usual, he let his emotions get in his way to completely miss the point. To go so far as to call Ares a traitor and you a hypocrite? Would have earned him several broken bones if I had been there.”

Plates in hand, they claimed one of the smaller tables. Vega poked around the unappetizing blob of calories before looking to Thena. “That was the pendejo from the Saren run, right? The stick in the mud?”

“In all his Alliance-loving glory.” A tiny part of her felt bad, hating on the Alliance when she knew full well that Vega believed in his commanding officers and their mission. She knew Ari commanded his respect long before he ever met the man; Ares Shepard was the Alliance’s poster child, the perfect product of their vision and mission.

Athena was a bundle of scandals and secrets the Alliance wanted hidden away in the depths of the galaxy.

“And you two never...?” Vega asked, gesturing towards her with his spork.

Garrus chuckled, answering for her. “No, much to his eternal regret. She made it a point to flaunt her relationship with Nihlus every chance she got, just to rub it in that she chose a non-human over him. Spirits, the tension on that ship was unbearable at the beginning.”

“The narrow minds of humans never ceased to amaze,” Thena agreed, recalling the overt looks of disgust from some of the crew members. “I guess it was after Noveria that Ari finally told the crew off for being a bunch of xenophobic asshats.”

Granted, his intervention didn’t do all that much, but at least it had given her an excuse if anyone crossed the line and ended up with a broken jaw. Her eyes scanned the mess. The Cerberus crew, despite their dubious life choices that brought them to Cerberus to begin with, displayed next to no distrust or dislike towards Garrus, Mordin, or Grunt. Not that civility was all it took to win her over; her wish to see the Illusive Man crucified burned brighter than the galaxy core itself.

But, she thought, it is nice to see that not all Cerberus lackeys are bigots.

“What about you two?” Vega asked, leaning back in his chair with a curious twinkle in his eye. Garrus and Thena gave him blank looks. “Have the two of you ever hooked up?”

A beat of silence fell over the table. Garrus, the dear, looked panicked, his mandibles flared in shock and brow plates pushed up as far as they could go. Thena, on the other hand, erupted into wheezing laughter, startling the poor turian back to the present.

“Absolutely not. No. No.” A keening whine of panic slid into his subvocals, which only made her laugh harder. “Would you stop laughing?”

Wiping a tear from her eye, she took a few grounding breaths as she turned to Vega, who watched her with a new intensity. “First, no. Garrus and I have never fucked. Do we flirt? Involuntarily. It’s very easy to mistake sarcasm for flirtation, and that’s a language Gare and I speak fluently.”

The turian in question let out a sigh of relief.

“Second, Nihlus spent every chance he got ‘encouraging’ Garrus to ‘broaden his horizons’ during our time together,” she explained, earning a snort from Garrus. “Mostly to further scandalize the crew, but also because Garrus reacted the same way he just did and it tickled Nihlus pink.”

“He kept saying, ‘Sharing is caring’ like that was supposed to mean something to me,” Garrus grumbled, stabbing at his food.

Vega seemed to mull over the information, stroking his clean-shaven chin absently. Eventually, he pinned Thena with a molten stare, his hazel eyes flickering between brown and jade. With three days of shore leave on the horizon, she made the mental note to schedule an appointment at the asari salon she frequented when she felt the need to change things up, drastically.

“Fair warning, Lola,” he murmured in a low, almost-growl as he leaned in to brush his lips along the shell of her ear. A shiver ran up her spine. “I don’t share.”

All she could do was blink, struck dumb by the warning dripping with lust and pure masculine dominance. Garrus’s eyes flicked back and forth between her and Vega, his nostrils undoubtedly catching the change in pheromones. She saw the moment it hit the poor turian, his mandibles flaring before snapping against his cheeks.

“If you two are going to be like this the entire mission, I’m taking my meals in the battery–alone,” Garrus grumbled as he stood and stalked away.

She wanted to blame her inexplicable spike in desire on the emotional instability brought on by her brother returning from the dead and someone she loosely considered a friend acting like a complete jackass after they saved his life. But, as she looked up into Vega’s face, their noses nearly touching due to his proximity, that pathetic excuse shriveled up and died.

The memory of his body pressed against hers earlier that day drowned her thoughts in a heady dose of oxytocin.

Her mouth popped open to suggest they relocate, but he stopped her with a surprisingly gentle kiss. She bit back a whine as he pulled away faster than she had wanted.

“Easy, Lola,” he hummed, his voice barely more than a rumble in her ear, “Head back to our room. I’ll be right behind you.”

She started to rise, frowning. “Why not come with me now?”

His stupid dimple appeared as he grinned at her. “I need a minute so the whole crew doesn’t see the circus tent in my pants.”

Rolling her eyes, she tried her hardest to look annoyed, but the blush rising in her cheeks and the flash flood in her panties dulled her irritation swifly and effectively.

Once in their quarters, her feet brought her as far as the sofa, her thighs pressed against the back of the couch as her hands gripped the cushioned back. The rush of need pulsing through her was as familiar as it was intense. The current high and the promise of even more intoxicated her, drowning out the army of other emotions she wanted to ignore for another day.

She released the breath she held as the doors slid open behind her. Heated palms and muscled arms wound around her waist, pulling her flush against his chest. She felt every hard edge of him and the even harder edge wedging itself between her ass cheeks.

“EDI, until further notice, this room and its occupants do not exist.” Her voice was breathy at best as Vega’s lips trailed kisses along the column of her neck. “Unless Ari is bleeding out and moments away from his last breath, I want… I… fuck. I want no interruptions, understood?”

Thena’s grip on the back of the couch threatened to splinter the piece of furniture as calloused palms caressed their way up her sides, pulling her tank top up with them. Her breasts ached for his touch, her nipples hard beyond reason.

“Understood, Thena.”

“Thank fuck.”

That was all the warning Vega gave as he spun her around, yanking off her top to be flung somewhere far, far away as he crushed her against his chest. His lips devoured hers like a starved man and she relished the attention. Her hands tugged his shirt out of his waistband, seeking out his abs fervently. A pleased groan poured from his throat into hers as she dragged her nails over the breadth of his torso.

Breaking apart to suck down air, she watched with glazed eyes as he pulled his shirt off over his head, exposing his bronzed skin and onyx tattoos. She barely had time to appreciate the view before he dropped to his knees before her, his fingers tucked into the band of her leggings.

“May I?” he asked, breathless and pupils blown.

She nodded and in a swift movement, he rid her of both panties and leggings. She couldn’t remember the last time a man gazed at her with so much lust-addled adoration. Hell, she couldn’t remember any lover other than Nihlus, human or otherwise. And Nihlus expressed his desire mostly through his subharmonics, the tantalizing vibrations and sounds speaking volumes where his limited facial expressions could not.

“Joder, eres tan hermosa.” The roughness of his palms made her skin pebble as they slid up her thighs. “Open up for me, Lola. Please.”

Heat pulsed in the pit of her belly as she obeyed, spreading her legs to allow his broad shoulders. His breath fanned over her exposed pussy, the feeling making her whole body tense.

“Fucking hell.” He pressed teasing kisses along her inner thighs, pushing her legs onto his shoulders. “Hold on tight, Lola. Wouldn’t want you to fall.”

She felt the tip of his tongue trace lines and circles around the apex of her thighs. Glaring down at him with half-lidded eyes, she adjusted her grip on the back of the couch, letting her tailbone rest against the edge for additional stability.

“Stop teasing,” she huffed, toes curling as another puff of his breath tickled her throbbing clit. “For fuck’s sake, just–please!”

As if he had been waiting for that magic word, his flat of his tongue swept up the length of her slit. Thena cried out, head flung back as Vega dove into eating her out with gusto. She’d forgotten how good it felt, a human’s mouth lapping and kissing and driving her closer to climax. It felt so soft in the best fucking way imaginable.

Nihlus’s tongue had toe-curling reach and agility, but Vega? Fuck. His tongue alternated between lapping at her clit and plunging into her weeping core, the acts punctuated with moans of pure adoration from him. He kept his eyes locked on her face, his arms holding her thighs apart without fail as she writhed beneath his ministrations.

Thena’s breath came in fitful gasps as he worked her swollen pussy, the crest of her release rising higher than its been in ages. A litany of moans, whimpers, and whines fell from her lips. Her brain was useless beyond cataloging the pleasure Vega was giving her.

All she knew was that she didn’t want him to stop.

Ever.

She was close.

Fuck, fuck, fuck. So close.

The moment his fingers entered the game, Thena was done for.

“Oh, god!” she moaned as her back arched, two thick fingers thrusting into her in time with the relentless pace of his tongue at her clit. A half-shriek rose in her throat and escaped as she flew over the edge of her release.

How he managed to keep her from falling as he untangled himself from between her legs and stood, she had no idea. She was too busy pulling her soul back into her body after that mind-numbing orgasm.

She felt her feet hit the ground, the cool metal floor grounding as her vision came back into focus.

Vega grinned at her, stepping back into her space with his hands cradling her neck again. “You taste like fucking heaven, Lola.”

Her lips caught his, the taste of her spend strong on his lips and tongue as she wrapped her arms around his neck. A growl of appreciation rumbled in his chest as he pulled her closer, his steady steps guiding her backwards towards their shared bed. Her body clung to his as he eased her back onto the mattress, his lips refusing to leave hers as a fresh wave of wonton heat washed through her. She bucked her hips up against his, the rock hard bulge beneath his pants making her whimper against his mouth.

“You’re wearing too many clothes,” she whined with another buck of her hips. His breath hitched at the second contact, his eyes smoldering as he held her gaze.

“Gotta ask nicely, Lola,” he murmured against her neck as he nipped his way down to her collarbone. His hands busied themselves with the swells of her breasts, the mounds heavy with need as he cupped them with a reverence that made her belly swoop. His thumbs brushed over her stiff nipples, elliciting a gasp that distracted her from the fact he was still wearing pants.

His fingers plucked at one nipple as his lips sealed around it’s twin, that stupidly talented tongue flicking over the sensitive bud as his hips undulated into hers, grinding his trapped cock against her drenched pussy. Too many points of contact short-circuited her brain once again, the sensory overload as blissful as it was maddening.

Her words tumbled out in a mewl, “Please. Please, please, please!”

His chuckle was dark and sinful. “Please, what? Use your words, Lola.”

Being called another woman’s name never turned anyone on so much.

“Please, fuck me!” she half-shouted, canting her hips against his as he ground into her again. A string of rapid Spanish preceeded the blessed moment he finally slid off the bed to shuck the offending pieces of clothing.

It was illegal, how fucking hot Lieutenant James Vega was. Standing there, naked and pumping his hand slowly over his impressive length, Thena wondered if any human man had ever made her so unbelievably horny as she was at that moment.

Without a second thought, she rolled onto her elbows and knees, presenting her literally dripping pussy to him as she looked at him from over her shoulder. A smug grin split her face as she drank in his open-mouthed stare, his eyes glued to her exposed cunt and the glistening mess he’d created down there.

The bed dipped as he climbed up behind her, one of his palms sliding up her spine, pushing her chest against the mattress, while the other hand gripped her hip tightly. Chest down and ass up, ready and waiting for him to take her. Submission wasn’t usually her thing, but something about the man sliding his cock between her swollen lips made the idea not just tolerable, but utterly innate.

Her knees spread wider as he nudged her opening with the thick head of his cock, a noise of pure need escaping her as he drew out this special kind of toture even longer.

“You look so perfect like this, Lola,” he moaned. He palmed her ass cheeks, spreading them to give him a better view as he finally–finally–eased himself into her. “Madre de Dios, you’re so fucking tight!”

Illegal. Sinful. An act of war, how perfectly he filled and stretched her.

The biting sting of the stretch was soothed by the overwhelming rightness, both feelings taking her breath away. Her fists clawed at the sheets beside her head, a gasping moan pushing out of her as he snapped his hips forward, sheathing himself within her to the hilt.

He pulled out of her at the same crawling pace as he had entered before pulling her hips back to meet his with another snap, making her cry out. She doubted she was saying anything comprehensible; she was pure sensation at this point. Every fiber of her being focused on the point where their bodies connected, on the steady, satisfying thrusts. She took comfort in the fact that Vega seemed equally lost in the moment, his own sounds rising in volume as his pace slowly increased.

The louder his grunts and moans grew, the more Thena felt encouraged to thrust back to meet his hips. A dazed smile broke out on her face at his approving growl as she began matching his pace. His grip on her ass tightened just before one of his palms smacked her ass sharply.

“Y-yes!” she keened, her hips moving faster as another climax grew in her core. “Don’t stop, oh, please don’t stop!”

In direct opposition, his cock pulled out of her, the emptiness making her whine.

“Turn over,” he grunted, leaning back on his heels with a hand gripping the base of his slick cock tightly. His expression was alight with carnal need, his hazel eyes mostly black with a molten ring of gold and green barely visible.

Propped up on her elbows so she could look at him, Thena rotated onto her back and spread her knees with explicit invitation. Her pussy clenched around nothing, all her nerve endings sparking in need for him. His eyes never left hers as he settled between her thighs, the angry head of his cock rubbing her slick all over her slit before he filled her in one stroke.

Her shoulders fell back onto the bed as Vega’s body hovered over hers, the delicious weight of him pressing her into the mattress as his hips took up a punishing pace. Thena’s hands scrabbled purchase, nails dragging lines down his rippling back as his lips and teeth marked their way from her shoulder and up her neck before catching her mouth with his.

This kiss seared its way to Thena’s core, vaulting her to the edge of release again as his fingers found her clit between their bodies.

“That’s it, babygirl,” Vega panted, pressing his forehead against hers. “Let me see you come on this cock. Come for me, Lola.”

If his fingers masterfully circling her clit hadn’t pushed her over the edge, his words certainly did the trick. Her vision flashed white as she came, her body bowing up against his chest as his hips pistoned into her in an erratic rhythm as he chased his own release.

A whimper–the sound so delicious as it left him–heralded his own climax, and without hesitation, Thena kissed and licked that sweet, sensitive spot at the base of his neck before she bit him.

Her body would be littered in his marks. She wanted to leave one of her own.

“O-oh! Oh, fuck.” His voice rose as he groaned, his hips stuttering as he crushed her into the mattress. “F-fuck, fuck yes… Thena!”

His pace slowed as he rode out his climax, finally stopping as he all but collapsed onto her. She liked the way he felt on her as she slid her arms around him to holding closer. Neither of them moved as their souls floated back into their bodies. Whatever discontent she had felt before had been obliterated by the best sex she’d had in over a year.

“You’re going to be a problem,” he mumbled against her neck.

She glanced down at him. “How so?”

“I’m not going to be able to keep my hands off of you, now.”

“And that’s a bad thing?”

“I don’t think we can kill Collectors by fucking nonstop.”

“Maybe not,” she conceded with a smile. Vega sighed as he eased out of her, rolling onto his back beside her. She curled into his side, tangling her legs with his as she let her head rest against his chest. “But I still don’t know why you need to keep your hands to yourself, especially while we’re stuck on this ship.”

“And off ship?” he questioned, bringing one arm behind his head and letting the muscles of his torso ripple distractingly.

“Provided we aren’t being targeted by a particle beam, a mutant blueberry, or Husks, even off ship.”

She lost herself to feeling of his fingers brushing patterns onto her bare back for a moment. There was a sense of familiarity to the moment; Nihlus had been near-insatiable for her while they hunted Saren, and she wasn’t above admitting that she used that to her advantage when it came to silencing the demons hiding in her thoughts. Sex as a distraction was a tried and true method of compartmentalizing reality and finding her footing for the next mission.

And, eventually, feelings became a thing with Nihlus, but that had ended in agonizing ruin.

Thena did her best work when she had a distraction to help her find her focus. She’d tried to prove to herself that she was better than that, but the universe reminded her of the truth.

So, as she let herself slip into that post-sex haze of loose-limbed sleep, she also comforted that concerned voice in her head that had curled itself around the broken pieces of her heart.

This isn’t even real, it’s just another distraction.

Chapter Text

Athena

The Citadel docks were bustling with activity as Ari led the small group from the Normandy off ship towards the primary security checkpoint. Vega kept Thena close with an arm around her shoulder, her fingers laced with his where it draped over her shoulder. He insisted on hauling both of their duffles, snatching both bags up with one hand and slinging them over his shoulder in a display that did things to Thena as she watched his back muscles flex through the thin fabric of his gray t-shirt. Very damp things.

They entangled twice more last night, the marine showing off that jarhead stamina in the most attentive ways possible after he wrung orgasm after orgasm from her. She half-expected him to pass out after round two, but his mouth made a point to claim every millimeter of hers during the languid—and no less sexy—makeout session that followed. She was tempted to time him the next time they tumbled; surely Mordin would find this kind of data as fascinating as she did.

“Oy, Athy,” Ari called from over his shoulder. “Do I still have an apartment here? What happened to my shit?”

She ignored the pang of sadness that lanced through her. “Yeah, the uncles bought your apartment so I wouldn’t have to live with a stranger across the hall. Liara and Garrus cleared out any of your perishables, but left everything else as it was.”

An awkward silence settled on the group and Thena pointedly ignored the hawk-eyed gaze from Garrus as she recalled those first few weeks after the funeral. Most mornings, Nihlus would wake to find her missing, knowing she’d gotten up in the middle of the night to cross the hall and crawl into Ari’s empty bed. She mostly did it to keep her sobs from waking him, but it had been the first nails in the coffin of their relationship.

“What happened to your place when you left for Omega?” Ari asked, shaking off the silence as he paused in front of an advertising pilon.

“They bought that one, too.”

She winced at the memory of waking up to that message. They’d claimed it to be a means of giving her stability if she ever needed it, but she knew better. She knew they had hoped taking care of the payments would lure her home after she chose wallowing in misery over taking any contracts for the Council or the Alliance. At the time, it only made her more determined to avoid the Citadel and anyone that reminded her of what was taken from her and what she threw away in the aftermath.

“Silence is Golden.”

The familiar pass-phrase caught her attention. Kasumi Goto. She was another one of Tibby’s dossier picks, which surprised her. Kasumi’s expertise in tech and engineering notwithstanding, her reputation as the best thief in Council space may come in handy.

“Commander Shepard, glad you figured—” Thena broke away from Vega’s warm hold and shoulder-checked her brother out of the way.

“Sumi?”

A beat of silence and then, “Thena?”

Ari snorted as he rubbed his bicep. “Of course you know each other. Why am I not surprised?”

Thena ignored the comment and scanned the Keeper catwalks overhead. Katsumi rarely ventured ground-level with a mark. A ripple of light caught her eye just before the hooded figure of Katsumi appeared, crouched above them with a shit-eating grin on her face.

“The Ghost reappears,” Katsumi drawled, her voice still coming out of the pilon. “When the Illusive Man mentioned getting in contact with Commander Shepard, it didn’t even cross my mind that you two were related.”

Ari gave her a look, surprised. “You never mentioned me?”

Thena shrugged, keeping her eyes on Katsumi. “You were the Alliance’s poster-boy when I ran with Sumi and Keiji. It was better for you to keep our connection under wraps.”

The thief rose from her crouch, disengaging the program for the pilon and connecting herself to Thena and Ari’s omni-tools. “Now that I see you two next to each other, it’s obvious you’re related. Twins, right? Keiji would have never let me live this down. Anyway, time to catch up later, right? Pretty sure you have some more people waiting for you on the otherside of security.”

Ari sighed. “Great. Katsumi, be ready to ship off in three days. Ask EDI for your quarters assignment.”

“I already stashed my stuff on board while you were putzing around here.” Thena couldn’t help but smirk. “I’ll make myself cozy on board, check out the ship, hack a few Cerberus files. Keep myself busy.”

She didn’t give Ari a chance to warn her off. With a flourish, she disappeared beneath her tactical cloak and ended the comm link. Ari all but groaned as he trudged into the security scanner corridor. “It’s going to be like having two of you on board, isn’t it?” he asked her, semi-rhetorically.

“Uh, sir?” The turian monitoring the scanners held up a hand before Ari. “Sorry, need to run the scan for you one more time. It’s saying... well, it says you’re dead.”

“Fucking fantastic,” Ari muttered, scrolling through his omni-tool to call someone—Uncle David, most likely— before the C-Sec officer answered his own call.

“Yeah, it’s saying—oh. Oh, yes, sir.” Turian expressions were hard to read in general, but Thena heard the beleagured trill in his subvocals as he waved their group through. “Captain Bailey needs to see you to confirm identity. His desk is on the right, can’t miss him.”

Vega snickered as they ambled into the C-Sec office on the other side of the doors. As mentioned, a human officer sat at a desk just by the entrance into Zakera Ward, waving them over without bothering to look up from his screens.

“Guess Cerberus forgot to notify C-Sec of your return to the land of the living,” Vega joked, nudging Ari with his elbow playfully.

Captain Bailey glanced up, dark circles of standard-issue burnout really bringing out the sharp blue of his eyes. “They certainly didn’t. Just got your clearance confirmed by the big dogs, along with a message that you’re expected up at the Presidium, immediately.” The man grunted as he typed in a few keystrokes to avoid seeing them ever again. “Shocked they didn’t ask for a security escort with that message. Not like I don’t have a million other things to do.”

Ari gave the officer a warm smile, which did nothing for the overworked man’s demeanor. “Don’t worry, we can find our way just fine.”

Thena heard him before he appeared. The familiar thrum of his subvocals cut through all the chatter and noise; she’d recognize that purr anywhere. Garrus clearly heard him, too—his head whipped around and clocked Nihlus Kryik striding towards them in his all-black Spectre armor. His emerald gaze pinned Thena to the spot, a pit of panic expanding in her belly as her ex-boyfriend neared. She knew she was drenched in Vega’s scent; no amount of soap and scrubbing could get rid of it so soon after last night.

Again, with sharper observation skills than anyone seemed to give him credit for, Vega stepped up beside her, his warm palm sliding over her lower back and resting on her hip to pull her against his side. He bent his head down to kiss her temple, letting his lips linger against her skin.

“Take it easy, Lola.” He squeezed her hip lightly. “I’m not easily threatened. Especially on a mission as important as this one.”

She looked up at him, their noses almost touching. A mission. Right, his actual purpose in her life: gather intel on Cerberus for the Alliance. The mind-blowing sex and easy, casual intimacy was all part of the con. He was a pretty distraction for the shit she wants to ignore and she gave him the perfect cover story. Mutually beneficial.

“Honestly, it’s not you I’m worried about,” she said finally, looking back at Nihlus, who stood paces away studying the pair of them with narrowed eyes. His subvocals were still purring warm familiarity, the sound he typically made whenever they were with each other. He explained once that it was purely involuntary on his part, and her hopeless romantic ass decided that it was “her sound”.

Fuck, this was going to be a mess.

“Don’t worry, Captain, I’ll make sure the twins get to the Presidium,” Nihlus said with a brisk nod. Looking between Nihlus and her, Ari stepped between them to draw his attention. “Welcome back, Ares. It’s good to see you, truly.”

The turian extended his hand, the human gesture not lost on the humans watching the exchange. Ari grasped the extended hand, shaking it briskly before gesturing towards the skycars.

“We’ll take two cars,” Ari said, patting his mentor on the arm. “Garrus and I can ride with you, and Athy and Vega can follow. I’m sure you have questions. Everyone always does.”

Thena wanted to kiss her brother, but chose to take the opening he created for her and pulled Vega towards a sleek, black two-seater. Thank fuck the man picked up on the plan quickly, tossing their bags into the trunk before holding open the driver’s door for her.

“After you, Lola,” he drawled with a grin that didn’t quite reach his eyes. He must have felt Nihlus’s gaze on them as Garrus and Ari bickered over who should drive their car. “He sees me as a threat, doesn’t he?”

Thena, letting her petty self drive for a minute, kissed the man in front of her lightly. “Hard to say, his subharmonics aren’t hostile. I think he’s just assessing whether or not he can make a move, or if we’re for real.”

She slid into the seat, scanning in her credentials as Vega buckled in beside her. She waited until Nihlus finally broke up the debate for driver’s seat by taking the wheel himself to lift away and into traffic. The muscle-memory of navigating the Citadel kicked in, her mind barely registering what she was doing but knew she was steering them in the right direction.

“You can hear subharmonics?” Vega asked, head cocked with curiosity. “They’re beyond human hearing, I thought.”

She gave him a wry smile. “Who said my hearing is just human?”

His hazel eyes widened for a second before he swore in Spanish. “They fucked with your body that much?”

“You’ll have to be more specfic, which group?” She merged in and out of lanes of traffic as she debated how much to tell the poor soldier. “Cerberus did the most of the ‘upgrading’, similar to what they had to do to put Ari back together from crispy remains. The cybernetic hearing was a project aiming to level the playing field with turians, to catch onto what they weren’t saying in a way that our translators could decipher. My reflexes were boosted with cybernetic joints and additional nanite hubs to help rebuild torn muscle faster as I trained. All that was done by the Alliance, funded by the Illusive Man, to see if we could give humans a physical advantage on the battle field should turian conflicts arise again.”

“Motherfuckers,” Vega muttered, his hands flexing in and out of fists on his thighs. “How old were you when they started all this shit?”

Thena was reliving enough of the past today, no need to dredge up memories of a life she so desperately wished to end every day she lived through whatever round of tests they conducted on her. She shrugged as she lied, “I honestly don’t remember. It’s probably in the redacted sections of my records somewhere.”

The pair fell silent as the drive wore on, the muffled sound of the traffic around them filling in the void. She hadn’t thought to put on any music when she took off. She just wanted to get as much distance between her and Nihlus as possible. It was a rare instance where her real fight-or-flight reaction kicked in.

“It’s okay, you know,” Vega said softly. She glanced at him, brow raised. “If you want to get back together with him, it’s okay. We’re playing our parts for my mission for the Alliance, but the heart wants what the heart wants, you know?”

He wasn’t looking at her as he spoke, and his shoulders flexed with tension. “From all accounts, you guys were a great pair. I mean, I’m not blind: the way he looked at you? I’m no expert on turian expressions, but I know love when I see it. I only ask that we keep up appearances until I have what Hackett needs.”

Every word that came out of his mouth grated against her nerves, anger—white-hot—surging up as she stared at him, dumbfounded.

Thena switched the car to autopilot mode, then turned to face him fully. He kept his gaze forward, and the lack of eye contact only served to make her angrier. “So, you’re telling me, you have no issue if I decide to fuck my ex-boyfriend senseless less than a day after we had sex? What happened to all that shit about ‘struggling’ to keep your hands off me, even off ship?”

“My orders were clear—”

She barked a laugh, cutting him off. “Your orders? Ahh, I see, so I’m just a free-use sex prop for your glorious mission to collect information on Cerberus. Classic Alliance strategy. Good, ol’ ‘by whatever means necessary’ in action.” Seething, she spun back around and switched off autopilot. “I should have fucking known better. If that’s what you want, then fine by me.”

Hard, hazel eyes looked at her at that. “What are you trying to say, Lola?”

What was she trying to say? And why was she so angry about it?

Too many emotions started to war within her, and she knew they were all mostly irrational. Being confronted with an impending reunion with Nihlus, returning to an apartment she’d fled due to grief, the ease of being around Vega—it was too much, too soon.

She didn’t bother to answer his question, choosing to instead stew in silence as they approached the Presidium. She felt his eyes on her, but let his question hang between them, unanswered. She sensed they weren’t finished, but as she eased the skycar into an empty space, she shoved her unruly emotions into the box she kept just for them and let her expression melt into careful neutrality.

“Leave the bags,” she said, refusing to meet his eyes as she stepped out of the vehicle. “I’ve rented it for the length of shore-leave.”

I need to hit something, she thought in a snarl she didn’t outwardly express. Maybe Garrus would be open to sparring after this meeting. Hell, she toyed with the idea of provoking Jack for a real brawl. At least then, she’d be able to relieve the biotic energy coiled around her muscles right now.

She made it three steps before the broad mass of James Vega stepped in front of her, his hands settling lightly on her hips to hold her still.

“We aren’t finished,” he said, his gentler tone shaking the box of the emotions she’d rather ignore like a kid with a maraca. She tried to step around him, but the concrete mass that was his body held her firm. “Hey, you’re pissed about something and clearly whatever I said on dumped jet fuel on that fire.”

“This isn’t the place to talk about this shit,” Thena muttered, glaring up at the immovable obstacle that held her at bay.

Vega’s gaze softened. “I know. Just promise me that we’ll talk about it later?”

Thena gave him credit, his persistence was somewhat admirable, even it it currently made her want to smash every skycar in her vicinity into oblivion. From the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Nihlus’s skycar landing nearby, and the sense of inevitability won out. The tension she carried bled out and she relaxed in Vega’s grip—only because his cover needed to remain intact, nothing more.

“Fine, we’ll talk later.” Her concession led to her immediate release, and she breezed past him, beelining for the entrance to the main Council building on the Presidium. The sooner this stupid errand finished, the sooner she could go find a sparring partner to settle her nerves.

“Athena.”

Motherfucking Spirits take me.

In no reality could a human out speed-walk a turian, so she stopped just outside of the entrance, tension snapping back up her spine and locking into place.

“We need to talk,” Nihlus said, the familiar, low pitch of his voice bringing her to turn and face him. Ares, Garrus, and Vega hung behind, her brother likely dallying on purpose to make sure this confrontation occurred uninterrupted.

Fucking traitor.

“What is there to talk about?” she asked, voice flat but not entirely unkind. She reminded herself that she had been the one to break his heart in the end. Even at the cost of her own. “We broke up. Ari is back from the dead. Somehow I got roped into helping save the galaxy. End of story.”

Emerald eyes never wavered as he reached out, a blunted talon lightly tracing the edge of her cheekbone down the curve of her jaw. His subvocals purred quietly as he studied her, and if she thought Vega’s gaze burned, Nihlus’s felt like a steady flow of acid being poured over her skin.

“We need to talk,” the turian murmured again. Her eyes met Vega’s past Nihlus and the unpleasant feeling of being caught doing something she should crept up her belly.

Before Thena could reject him a second time, Ari caught up with them, pausing long enough to touch her shoulder.

“Go, talk. The Council makes you break out in hives, remember?” He flashed her a grin. “I’ll get Vega back to the apartment. We need to get groceries and lots of laundry detergent to wash all the sheets, so I could use the extra hands. And don’t worry, I’ll give Udina your love.”

Apparently, no one wanted to hear her actual opinion on this plan. Ari led the others inside, though Vega had the presence of mind to stop and kiss her lightly on the corner of her mouth before following. Her fingers flexed, the urge to reach out to grab his hand involuntary. Instead, she huffed a sigh and motioned for Nihlus to lead the way back to his skycar.

“Let’s get this over with, then,” she mumbled as she followed him. “Just, go somewhere I can’t hurt someone. I’m on edge already.”

Nihlus glanced at her as he lifted off again, guiding the vehicle away from the center of the Citadel. “Fight with your boyfriend?”

She didn’t answer, not wanting to broach that topic with him. “I’m shocked the Council didn’t send you out to drag Ari back to them by his collar the moment they heard he was alive.”

“Oh, they tried.” His subvocals thrummed with disdain. “Udina put up quite the fuss about ‘abandoning the first human Spectre to terrorists.’ It’s a miracle Sparatus didn’t squish the man’s head like a grape.”

She bit back a snicker at the mental image. It was hard to believe that there was someone else the Council quietly hated more than her.

“Then, they tried to get me to ‘rescue’ you from Omega.”

Wide-eyed at the audacity, Thena whipped her head around. “Rescue me from what?”

His mandibles snapped closed and his brows pushed down. Ire bled into his subvocals as he replied, “Aria T’Loak, Cerberus, mercenaries. Take your pick, they tried to convince me of it. At the end of the day, the idea of letting you join your brother in any capacity that wasn’t under their control terrified them.”

A mirthless laugh bubbled up out of her as she leaned back in the seat, pressing the heels of her palms against her eyes. So many people wondered about the mysterious life of Athena Shepard, human biotic anomaly. She never minded the rumors and stories that circulated about her; ultimately, they worked in her favor, making it easier for her to hide herself—and the truth—behind the wide-spread preconceptions. But there was nothing more exhausting that carrying the weight of being a living weapon, free for the taking should anyone truly dare.

“But he also stressed that protecting you from whatever shady shit Cerberus has planned is my main priority.”

Thena recognized the building Nihlus parked in front of as his apartment building. Neither really spoke as they exited the vehicle and headed inside, the turian keeping close without touching her, despite what his subharmonics wanted. Too many nights she wondered how he was doing, if he missed her as much as she missed him as she drowned herself in Omega’s nightlife. Now, standing next to him after almost two years, she struggled to understand why she pushed him away in the first place.

His apartment smelled the same as she stepped inside, automatically toeing off her shoes at the door. Vanilla and pine with a hint of something earthier from his plate oils. She walked into the space slowly, fingers running along the backs of chairs and the sofa as she stepped up to the wall of windows that looked out over Sirius Commons, one of the upper wards in the Citadel. At night, the buildings lit up with a soft, warm glow that somehow reminded her of Christmas. It became a nightly ritual for them, looking out at the lights, curled up together on the couch Nihlus relocated just for her.

“Is it real?”

She knew what he was asking, but the question still caught her off guard. She felt herself flinch as she rested her palm against the glass.

Was she doomed to a day of emotionally-charged conversations?

“I don’t know.” The truth of it worried her as much as it terrified her. “Uncle Steven ordered him to ‘collect information on Cerberus’ and keep me out of Cerebrus hands. The easiest way for him to get on the Normandy was as my lover, so that’s what he’s been.”

“Simple enough cover,” Nihlus hummed as he approached her. “Except that you’re terrible at that particular scenario.” The amusement in his subvocals almost made her smile. “The line blurred, didn’t it?”

She snorted. “I don’t know if there ever was a line to begin with. He’d been a regular at Afterlife, always came to watch me dance each night, kept the other males away by flirting with me. After a few weeks, I was tired of dancing around the chemistry—pun not intended.”

The throaty chuckle brought a tiny smile to her lips. “Then, Ari shows up, back from the dead. Vega confirms my suspicion that one of the uncles sent him to watch over me, but now he’s part of the Collector mission and needed a foot in the door: my foot.”

“I can’t say I wasn’t jealous, seeing you two together in the C-Sec office.” His confession punctured her heart. “For months after you left, I kept thinking about us and what I could do to convince you to come back—come back to me. But, then I remembered something you’d told me once: ‘Grief can twist the person you thought you were into someone you can’t recognize.’”

Thena’s throat grew tight as she remembered that precise moment, just after Liara’s mother died. At the time, she hadn’t imagined the same idea applying to herself a year later.

She didn’t resist as Nihlus cupped her cheek gently. Instead, she leaned into palm, almost automatically. “I will never stop loving you, Athena, but you haven’t found your way back to who you were, yet.”

The overwhelming sorrow hanging between his words made it hard for her to breathe. Tears spilled down her cheeks, against her will, and she nearly bit through her lower lip to keep it from trembling like a child’s.

“What if I never find her again?” she asked, voice breaking as she clung to his wrist. The feel of his palm against her cheek felt so... right. Grounding.

Secure.

His subharmonics melted into a sound of reassurance, the anchor she longed for admist the chaos of her life. For so long, Ari played that role—right up until his death, leaving her adrift and panicked. Looking back, she knew Nihlus had always offered to be that for her, even while they were hunting Saren, but the fear of trusting someone new to that degree dominated any sense of reason.

I’m not just a job for him.

Relief mixed with guilt clanged through her. Vega never lied to her; she knew he was Alliance seconds after spotting him in Afterlife. It wasn’t his fault that she caught feelings and that she was wholly incapable of dealing with them. It wasn’t his fault that she’s so broken and wrong and undeserving.

The gentle tap of his plated forehead against hers shook her from the edge she teetered along. Emerald eyes locked with hers as the sound of his subvocals shifted to a new blend of assurance and hope.

“Whoever you are now, and whoever you choose to become, you will always be the woman I love,” he replied, drawing back slightly to see the tears streaming down her cheeks. “All I can ask—all I can hope for is the chance to show you that.”

A half-assed giggle drowning in tears bubbled up, dispelling some of the tension building between them. “Fuck you for always saying the right thing.”

Nihlus chuckled as he gently wiped away her tears with the pads of his fingers. “I can’t help that I’m so charming.”

Thena looked up at her former lover, drinking in the sight of his relaxed mandibles and honest gaze. This was a male who would stand beside her through hell or high water—or the end of civilization, as it were. In a way, she saw quite a bit of Vega in him, and vice versa. Their loyalty and dedication were irrefutable; their charisma also made them undeniably attractive to her as well.

“I can hear you thinking,” Nihlus teased, stepping back to enter the adjacent kitchen. “Spit it out, Thena.”

She sank onto the couch, curling her legs up under her. “What about Vega?”

He padded back into the room, two glasses of water in his hands. Thena hoped for alcohol, but Nihlus was just this side of a rule-follower to avoid day-drinking altogether. He stretched his arm along the back of the couch after handing her one of the glasses, their closeness not quite what it used to be, but still close.

“What about Vega?” Nihlus parrotted. “You have a mission to complete, Thena. He’s a key component of that, blurred lines and all. I suppose an average male would get territorial and insist on bonding to protect what’s ‘mine’, but I like to think I’m above average, at minimum.” He sipped at his water and looked over to Thena, one of his talons threading through her loose cascade of hair. “You’ve always been free to love whom you wish, and however many you wish, Thena. I never believed I could keep you all to myself, even back then. I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make you happy and keep you in my life.”

He tipped his head back, staring up at the ceiling of his apartment. “But I think the real question is what do you want? I don’t know the man, but I imagine he and I share a similar goal.”

“What goal?”

Green eyes flicked over to her, his mandibles flared in a smile. “To give you everything you need and want to be happy.”

Heat flooded her cheeks as she blushed at the casual declaration.

“Silver-tongued lizard,” she muttered before sipping her water. Without hesitation, Nihlus stuck out his tongue for her inspection, which only made her roll her eyes and bite back a smile. A moment of easy silence passed between them, each drinking their water slowly while they looked over Sirius Commons.

Setting her empty water glass on the coffee table, Thena turned to fully face Nihlus, who watched her with those breathtaking green eyes.

“I know I still love you,” she said, bringing her hands to rest on his chest plates. “But I also know that I need time to... think. And feel. And save the universe.”

“As per usual.”

His chuckle faded quickly when her forehead touched his.

“You’ve never left my heart, Nihlus. That one’s for you, this one’s for me.” She pressed a kiss to his mouth plates, earning a rich purr in response. The soothing texture of his plates brushed her lips as she murmured, “Keep an eye on our channel, Spectre Kyrik.”

She slipped out of his reach with the grace of a cat as he sought to deepen the contact, a playful smile reminiscent of the fiery woman he met in Flux. He huffed a laugh as he watched her pull on her shoes.

“Still giving orders to those above your rank, hm?”

“Still thinking I give a shit about ranks, hm?” she shot back as she blew him a kiss. “Stay out of trouble. At least until I get back to join the fun.”

She slipped out of apartment before he could respond, the door snicking shut behind her as she strode down the hall towards the elevator. The longer she remained within reach of him, the harder it was to leave. After three years, the pull was still as magnetic as ever between them.

Humming an old favorite, Thena made her way down the street towards the nearest cab station, each step a reminder that there was an unfinished conversation waiting for her back home.

Home.

The word felt foreign in her thoughts, but not wrong. That apartment housed as many good memories as bad ones, a fact that served as her primary reason to escape to Omega when she did.

But, as she slid into the skycar and punched in her old address, it felt right to reclaim it again. There really was no reason not to, not now that Ari was back from the dead. And if she could get through a reunion with the ex she never really let go of, she could manage of honest conversation with the best fuck she’d had in a long time about the complicated feelings she was developing for him.

Right?