Lily Ryder

She was not the Pathfinder — though many mistook her for the woman. Nor was she Commander Shepard that everyone assumed she was. No, that was her twin sister. With that being said, Ariella was free to roam the Nexus at her leisure. Her sister was at the helm of another shi[, doing what she did best — leading. 

This evening Ariella was leading a crew of her own, a few of those that had come with her and her sister to Andromeda. The drinks on the Nexus were stiff, and the air was stale, and she wanted to do no more than return home. But home was gone — everything was gone. If they hadn’t died in the final attack from the Reapers, then time would have taken everyone she loved. 

It was enough to keep her drinking almost every night. She hadn’t wanted to leave, but she hadn’t wanted Avery to go on her own. They were all each other had, and even more so now that they were on their own. The bar attracted interesting characters, and this evening was no different.

“It’s stout, isn’t it?” 

Lily was used to people pretending she wasn’t there; as the Rose, she was feared on Kadara enough that even the gutsiest of flirts thought better of trying to address her, even if she was just having a drink. Off duty didn’t exist. But the attempted uprising had been long ago enough that no one on the Nexus remembered one lowly security agent that had gotten tangled up in it. I had a ponytail back then too, she reminded herself. Short, curly hair definitely changed the look of her face. A lot of time outdoors on Kadara probably made a difference too.

Lily Rose took a gulp of her drink... and nearly choked. For something produced on the Nexus, this was far stronger than she was expecting. Once she’d recovered, cleared her throat a couple of times, she managed to rasp, “This is... something local, isn’t it?” Then the distinctive taste hit her, and she coughed once more. “More than that. It’s from Kadara.”

“The Pathfinder brought it in after one of her visits to...” Anan’s voice trailed off awkwardly. “That’s... not gonna be a problem, is it? I didn’t think about that. Sloane’s turf and all.”

Lily laughed and took another, more conservative sip. “What Sloane doesn’t know can’t piss her off,” she said with a shrug. “Thanks. Tastes like home.”

Tavi didn’t want to answer that question, he had to admit.  His talons drummed against the table, mandibles pulling tight to his newly tense jaw. “I wanna think so,” he said finally. “But I gotta be honest, when I signed up for this I didn’t even know if we were gonna wake up when we got here.”

He gestured around briefly before returning his hands to the table. “All this I definitely didn’t even think of. Kinda just the real good and the real bad options, not the in between but still kinda shit.”

Tavi snorted, flicking his mandibles once in a short movement that seemed to shake off some of the lingering discomfort with the topic. Spotting the opportunity to shift the subject slightly to the left helped. “The universe loves it, not a lotta people in it seem to though.”

“I’ll drink to that,” Lily said, raising her glass. “Part of what keeps me in a job, at the moment.” She nodded back toward the table where the trio she’d taken down had been sitting. “So much for Andromeda being a better beginning, huh? That’s the problem with pulling yourself free of a mess. Even when you’re free, you’ve still got dirt on you. Cleaning up takes time. Effort.”

Tavi hummed. “Don’t wanna put it all on them. I mean… I’m the one that ain’t doing what I was supposed to.” He shrugged, glanced down at the table rather than looking up at her any longer. “It’s complicated is all. Humans gotta different look on the whole thing.”

Tavi shook his head. “It’s not something they just made up. Some turians that’re outside the Hierarchy don’t have to serve, but on Palaven it’s still mandatory and everything. Every turian’s supposed to go to boot at fifteen and serve till thirty, least in some way or another.” He sighed, glancing away and down. The tapping of his talons went from a slow, steady noise to so rapid there was practically no pause between them.

“I’m kinda a shit turian cause I didn’t go. I ran away instead of going to boot, so it’s not like I got much going for me in the Hierarchy viewpoint. Not a citizen or nothing because I didn’t serve, so…” Every turian was a soldier and a war asset for a reason - anyone that wasn’t was no real turian as far as the Hierarchy cared. 

That sounded fake somehow. He knew it wasn’t, but it still sounded weird to hear that other species just… did what they want without concern to whether or not it would serve a greater good. It sounded nice, honestly. “Turians did something like that, last I heard. Started pullin’ other species in to get a buncha different techniques for the soldiers. Not that I know much about military training, heh, just my dad used to be an instructor, way back. He told me a lot.”

“Mmm.” Lily nodded. “And they joined other inter-species teams too. Had a turian sniper on mine. Bit of a hardass, didn’t really want to be there, but I’ve never known a better sniper. Always did his job. Warmed up to the rest of us a bit in the end, but the closest he ever came to paying us compliments was when he got reassigned. Grumbled that now he’d have to train more idiots how to work with a professional.”

“Fair enough… Still. I don’t think there’s a drink in the world that can make me blank that out.” Maybe he just held his liquor better than some. Tavi fidgeted in place, like he half expected another fight to break out.

Not that it would matter, really, she’d probably put that one down just as easily.

“You learned some good shit though, like, fighting style wise. They teach that to all the humans?”

“Oh, not even close,” she answered with a faint smile.  “Military service is not a requirement for humans. More don’t serve than do. There’s a great percentage of our civilians who never learn combat skills of any kind.”

Well. Security wasn’t the worst thing that she could be, he’d been way more concerned that she was that good at kicking people’s asses just because she liked it. That would make her fit in with some turians at least.

“How undercover can you be after a display like that though? I mean, I’d definitely recognize you after all of that.”

She smiled faintly. “Most folk in here are well on their way to blackout drunk. Some might remember what happened tonight, but may not necessarily remember me. The action started and finished so quickly, some on the outskirts of the room didn’t even get the chance to realize something happened. And then there’s the matter of what I look like.”

Tavi barely had time to register the clink of the glass and drink before suddenly Lily’s glass was across the room and crashing into someone’s skull. He yelped, nearly startled off of his chair at the sound of it, just as Lily scrambled up, gun in hand and out in the open.

Then he did fall off the chair, though this one was mostly on purpose.  He scooted himself under the bar’s overhang, pushed up into a crouch that left him ready to bolt if need be. Not that there would be much need judging from the way that Lily was making short work of every single one of the unfortunates at the table.

He stayed there, tucked behind a stool, right up until the asari was on the ground with the biotic inhibitor on her wrist.  Then, slowly, he started to edge back out, standing up once Kandros and the other security agents arrived.  They didn’t interact with her like a civilian.  She didn’t fight like one either.  

“So… you’re… security?” He guessed after an awkward moment, his drink clenched tightly in front of him.  “Right?”

She took a sip of her drink, contemplating how she wanted to answer his question. Of course, after a show like she’d just put on, it wasn’t a far reach to the truth. It just...

Tavi dodged people through the bar to follow Lily, ducking under high arms and darting to the side to avoid drunken stumbling. Stressful times called for desperate measures, it seemed, and in this case that desperate measure was way more alcohol than he thought they even brought to the Andromeda galaxy.

When he came to her side, he was practically ready to bounce in place. “I haven’t had anything to drink, well you know, nothing that was good, since I got defrosted.”  He snatched up the glass in both hands. “You buy this one, I’ll buy the next one?  I do got some creds.”

She laughed at his enthusiasm, clinked her glass against his, and said, “You’ve got a deal. Cheers.” But even as she raised the glass to her lips, her attention was drawn elsewhere. Two turians and an asari were sharing a table, their heads leaned in over the table, and beneath it... gun.

Lily reacted, hefting her drink across the bar with perfect aim. It crashed into one turian’s head and shattered, and in his recoil, the turian collided with the asari. She stumbled out of her chair, flailing to maintain her balance, and exposing her gun. By then, Lily was halfway across the bar towards the little group. She vaulted a human, bent over at the waist, used him as a springboard, aided by her biotics, to land her on the nearest table, and from there, she jumped into the midst of the trio. A biotic blast to the face knocked one turian senseless to the ground, her foot connected with the second turian’s jaw, and sent him to the ground as well. Her left hand closed around the asari’s gun. She spun, wrenching the gun free of the asari’s hand, and brought it back around, connecting solidly with the asari’s crest. She fell with a cry of pain, and Lily clamped a small cuff around her wrist. Then, she turned the gun on her.

“This establishment is gun free, Tesa T’Velas,” she said quietly. “And you shouldn’t be here. Neither should your thugs. Or did you think we didn’t keep records of who got exiled?”

Still holding the gun on T’Velas, she tapped her omni-tool, waited a moment, and said, “Kandros. Rose. Need backup at Vortex. Armed escort for Tesa T’Velas and her thugs.”

There was a subtle, shifting feeling, and Lily grinned, waited. Abruptly, the asari shrieked, clamped her free hand down on the cuff.

“What the hell have you done to me?”

“Biotic inhibitor,” Lily answered lightly. “It’ll be removed when you’re off the station.” She nodded to the Nexus security agents as they hefted the turian pair up and carried them out, nodded again to Kandros as he came in person to escort Tesa T’Velas. He nodded in return, and was gone. With the excitement over, the other patrons in Vortex returned to their drinks, with the occasional cautious glance toward Lily.

“Sorry about that,” she said, rejoining Tavi at the bar. “We shouldn’t be interrupted like that again.” She frowned slightly. “And I’m going to need another-”

Tavi gave a short nod, smiling wide. “Catch you at the bar. After I finish all the work I’m supposed to know how to do.” Or at least after he hits it so many times that he just has to give up and try again the next day.

Really that second one was looking much more likely.

Lily spent the rest of her day wandering. To the average Nexus citizen, her movements looked a little aimless. At one time or another, she wandered the entirety of the Nexus’ activated decks. As the day working crews traded off to the night crews, her wandering took her back toward Vortex. She lingered outside until she saw Tavi approaching, and waved him over with a grin.

“Nice to see you made it,” she said. “Survived another day. Well done. Let’s celebrate with a drink.”

She led the way into Vortex, to the bar, leaned across it and whispered something to Anan. The asari in turn said something to Dutch. The man grimaced, glanced at Lily and Tavi, shrugged his shoulders, and prepared drinks. When they were ready, he pushed them across the bar. Lily took them, handed one to Tavi.

“If we can hear a krogan singing, we can probably hear you singing.” He snorted. “It’s probably better than mine anyway, I sound kinda… harsh. Harsher than turian singing is supposed to sound.”

Though the information that Dutch was apparently supposed to be a chemist was more frightening than it perhaps should be.  “He isn’t going to slip something weird into the drinks is he?”

“Give me a guitar, and I can make music,” Lily said with a grin. “But my voice? I dunno. Something about it, I just can’t hear how off-key I am. Other people had to tell me.”