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Echoes of the Past	By : ArcadiaJones Category: +M through R > Mass Effect Views: 6854 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or ideas of Mass Effect. I am not making any money writing this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Ransom
- 2-Ambush
- 3-Hunt
- 4-Memories
- 5-Hunt
- 6-Rescue
- 7-Escape
- 8-Healing
- 3
- 4
- 5
Chapter Four
Memories

“These guys are good at covering their tracks. Must have an expert tech on their side.”

Tali stood in the Normandy’s briefing room, uploading the information on her omni-tool into the room’s large display database. Garrus stood nearby, leaning against the table; Joker leaned against the wall behind them; EDI was in her usual place; Jacob was still recovering, but Mordin stood alongside the table, his left arm in a sling; and Thane stood in the shadows, watching the others with quiet regard. Thanks to the knock to the head he had received from Garrus, he was no longer a raging inferno of emotion, but that didn’t mean he was happy.

“So did you find anything?” Garrus asked impatiently.

The quarian looked at him; Garrus imagined that she was probably arching a brow at what she believed to be an impertinent question, though it was impossible to tell with her helmet. “Of course I did. In case you’ve forgotten, you have an expert tech on your side as well. It took some effort, but I’ve pin-pointed the location this message was sent from: Illium.”

“Makes sense. On edge of council space, notorious for mercenary clans and loose on slavery.” Mordin was nodding as he spoke, examining the holographic data Tali had just pulled up. “There are many information brokers on Illium. Good place to start, anyways.”

“Liara T’soni is on Illium,” Garrus added, “and I know that she would help us. Besides, I don’t want to trust something this delicate to just anyone. Liara’s known Shepard since the beginning, and if we tell her that she’s missing, I have no doubt that Liara will do everything in her power to help us bring Shepard back.”

“Good. Then we have a place to start.” Joker straightened as much as he could, careful of his fragile bones. “EDI, let’s go get the Normandy running. The sooner we get this mess solved, the sooner we can all get a good night’s sleep.”

“Of course, Jeff.”

Joker saluted the group before limping out; as soon as the door swished open and closed behind him, EDI’s image flickered out, to reappear at her post on the bridge. Tali watched him go; the human acted like a bad-ass, but she knew that he cared. He had been here since the beginning, too. All that any of them wanted was for Shepard to be safe and sound in her home once more.

“So we think this is somehow connected to Thane’s past?” Tali asked, looking over at the drell. “Do you have any more information we can go off of?”

“The mercenary guild was called ‘Black Star’ back then, but I do not know if they’ve changed. It’s a batarian group who also work as slavers—or, at least, they are the collection squad. When I completed my mission to kill their leader, the only thing I needed to know was where to find him, and how to get close to him. Beyond that, I know nothing.”

“But what about when you hunted down the others?” Garrus pressed. “Did you learn nothing then, either?”

Thane’s face was downcast. “No. Once again, all I ever needed to know was how to find them. When I killed the men that took my wife, I found them aboard personal shuttles. I am sorry, but not even my memory can tell you where their base is if I have not seen it for myself.”

Garrus sighed. “What’s done is done, I guess. At least we have a lead.”

“This will not be an easy mission,” Mordin remarked softly after a moment of silence. “Now that most of team is gone, and Jacob and I are wounded, that leaves only you three to find our commander. There is much pressure. Much pressure. But you must not fail. Shepard is needed for the days ahead.”

“We know that, Mordin,” Tali replied. “Don’t worry. We’ll find her, one way or another.”

Deciding that the meeting was at an end—and needing desperately to be alone—Thane walked out of the room. The remaining three watched him go, trading worried glances.

“I do hope he will not do anything…rash,” Mordin said.

Garrus shook his head slowly. “A month ago, I would have assured you that he has a good head on his shoulders. But now…with this…” Sudden emotion overtook him then, and the turian slammed his fist down on the table.

“Damn it! I feel so helpless! Something like this should have never happened. Shepard is the damn ‘Hero of the Citadel’ for crying out loud! Why would anyone want to kidnap her?”

“Petty reasons, I assume,” Mordin replied scornfully. “Misplaced anger, foolish grudges held too long.” He sighed. “Precisely this reason why we must find her. Cannot let Shepard be lost to such cowardice.”

Several hours later, Thane, Garrus, and Tali stood on the bridge behind Joker, watching as Illium slowly came into sight. The bright lights of Nos Astra could almost be seen through the cloudy atmosphere that hovered about the planet’s surface.

“What’s our ETA?” Garrus asked.

“About 20 minutes.”

“Can’t you move any faster?”

“Just keep your panties on and let me do my job. Crashing into the planet will take us longer, so I suggest you just relax.”

The turian was tempted to hit the smart-ass, but knew that he was right. Taking a deep breath, Garrus forced himself to relax. Beside him, he could sense Thane’s tension, though the drell showed no outward signs of his own impatience. Tali was wringing her hands, but was overall the most composed of the three.

Inside Thane’s mind, he was reliving a memory.

He held her close, breathing in the scent of her hair. Salt and vanilla—her favorite scent. Normally she always smelled of her armor, or just that natural scent of woman mixed with deadly warrior. It was that smell that drove him wild, but the synthetic sprays she sometimes used were not an unwelcome mix. For her, it was a way to grasp at the feminine side she so often buried; for him, it was just a simple change of sensory exploration.

Shepard turned her head so that she could look into eyes, her fingers tracing the muscled curves of his chest playfully. He smiled down at her, placing two fingers beneath her chin so that he could tip her lips up to claim them. Gently, he pressed his tongue against her lips; she opened them and he delved inside, tasting every inch of her mouth. She moaned against him, moving so that she could lie atop him, her bare skin rubbing against his sensuously.

When their lips parted, Shepard smiled down coyly at him, grinding her buttocks against his quickly stiffening penis. His webbed hands gripped her hips, assisting her motions. It always surprised him how little it took from her to arouse him so completely. Just seeing her face—bloody and sweaty or bright and laughing—was enough to stoke the fires of lust within him.

Growling, he lifted her hips up, positioning her over his ready member. She grinned down at him, resting her hands on his. Taking just a moment to position his tip at her entrance, he lowered her onto his length, hissing as her body’s warm, throbbing walls consumed every inch. When he was buried to the hilt, Shepard ran her hands up his chest and then down until her fingers came to rest at their connected bodies.

Slowly at first, she began to move, his hands still guiding her hips. Every time she went up, her fingers stroked both the revealed length of his shaft and her own clit, heightening every second of pleasure. He moaned her name, running his hands up her sides until they reached her lightly bouncing breasts. Lovingly, he caressed them; hungrily, he sat forward, startling a gasp out of his lover as his length slid even further inside.

Shepard continued to ride him as he met her thrust for thrust, gently nibbling on her left nipple, and then the right. She moaned in pleasure, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling his face even closer so that his brow was buried in between her breasts. Eager to move faster, he took control, flipping their positions so that his body covered hers.

He plowed into her willing body, the sound of her cries driving him to increase his speed to its max. Moments later, they came together, crying out in ecstasy. He fell atop her, careful not to crush her with his weight. But Shepard pulled him down anyways, wrapping her arms around his neck as she slid a slender leg in between his. He wrapped his own arms around her body, pulling her as close as he could.

“Stay with me,” he murmured, sleep beginning to claim his thoughts.

She giggled, kissing his neck. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”

“Thane.”

“Thane.”

“Thane!”

The drell came out of his memory with a start, blinking into the cold blue eyes of his turian teammate. The sensory effects of the memory still had a strong hold over him, and Thane prayed that no one would look down. His leather pants were good at concealment, but he wasn’t sure just how much they would cover.

“We’re here,” Garrus said, taking a step back from him. “Get your head in the game. We don’t have any time to waste daydreaming.”

Thane’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t need you to tell me that. Keep your own head straight and we’ll make it through this alive.”

The pair stood toe-to-toe, staring one another down. Thane knew that no matter how hard the turian tried to mask his emotions, he had feelings for Shepard. He knew that the pair had been friends a long time, and when he had asked his lover about her feelings for Garrus, she had told him that she valued him as one of her best, most trusted friends.

“I won’t lie and say I’ve never considered the possibility,” she amended. “But I just respect him too much to take advantage of him in any way. To him, I’m a mirror-image of his own personality, albeit a little more level-headed at times. He loves me because we are a good team and because, well, Garrus can be a bit narcissistic at times. But he’s a good man, and I won’t drag him down with me any further than I already have. He’s my strong right arm, and that’s where I think he should stay.”

“I see.” He mulled over her answer for a moment. “So what does that say about me, then?”

“What?”

“You respect Garrus, and so you keep him at a distance. And yet here I am, so what is it that you feel for me?”

She laughed. “Guess you’ll just have to figure that one out on your own!”

“All right, boys. That’s enough!” Tali stepped in between them, one hand planted firmly on their respective chests. “If you two can’t work together, then we’ve failed already. Now shut up and get in the damn airlock!”

Behind her, Joker started laughing. Garrus and Thane reluctantly obeyed, turning away from one another as EDI began preparations for them to enter the airlock. In moments, they would be on Illium, a step closer to finding the woman that had brought them all together.

Without whom, it seemed, they would all fall apart.
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Echoes of the Past