Thane Krios believed in the inter-connectivity of the universe around him: how the actions in one place and time can affect another, no matter how seemingly random or far apart. Time flowed together like ripples in a pond. Case in point: a week ago he, with the help of Commander Shepard, saved his son. Kolyat Krios had every intention to waste his life by following in his father's footsteps, and they stopped him from sloppily assassinating a Citadel politician. After they took the young drell into C-Sec custody, Thane started the long process of reconciling with his son. Thus, as he, Shepard, and the asari Justicar Samara were scoping out a Blue Suns base, the assassin did something for the first time in years.

He missed his shot.

This mission was supposed to be relatively simple. They were on a small moon in the Terminus systems, so small that it never even gained an official name. On the moon was a small, prefab trailer, retrofitted with extra rooms. Intel said that the Blue Suns were using this small base as a pick up for red sand smuggling. There were about five in the trailer, and two patrollers. The plan was to quietly take out the patrol and then ambush the others right at their door. It would be a "crap shoot," as Shepard described it. Thane and Samara had no idea what that meant, but they assumed it was something easy for humans. Thane offered to go down to take the two out.

"Negative," Shepard said. "Not a lot of cover there, we shouldn't risk being seen. You brought the rifle with the silencer mod?"

Thane didn't verbally answer, he simply took the sniper rifle off his back and unfolded it into firing position. His M-97 Viper was refitted in the Normandy's armory with the reluctant help of Jacob Taylor. Whether the Cerberus officer was uncomfortable with being in that close of quarters with a drell, an assassin, or someone interfering with his job, he didn't know or care.

The assassin looked and saw a rocky hill that would give him a good vantage point. He crept to the location, laying low and bending and sliding towards his nest. He supposed he could have gotten an infiltrator cloak for this, but he never really felt a need for one. When he reached his nest, he laid down on the rocky ground and placed the Viper in position. His body moved on it's own, his experience kicking in, allowing his mind, his soul, to wander on it's own.

Kolyat sits inside the interrogation room, blending into the bright blue room. I sit opposite of him, watch him twist and tangle his chains. A constant reminder. I wonder if it is intentional on his part.

I speak his name, but his soul is not present. Perhaps he is far away in the past, happier times together. Perhaps he simply doesn't want to speak. I call for him again. He blinks, his eyes, sunset-colored like his mother's, sees me again. He frowns, his eyes set against me, again like his mother, on the day we met.

"Came to grade my performance, father?" He spits his words like venom, and tugs at the shackles.

It is intentional.

Thane fired at the wrong time. The slug meant for the man grazed the back of his helmet, cracking it as he turned at just the right second. It continued past him and slammed into the ground a meter away. The assassin had the man square in his sights, but he missed his moment. Thane cursed, no time to reload a fresh heat sink. He only had one more shot to salvage the op.

The mercenary, while likely not the smartest individual to ever cross the cosmos, was able to feel the crack of his helmet, see the dirt and rocks lift in the air to his left, and turned to his right to see what would make for a good sniper's nest. He held up his assault rifle towards the nest and yelled.

"ENEMIE—"

His last words were interrupted as another slug fired, and cracked his helmet completely, along with the rest of his skull. He would pray to Kalihira for the man's departure to the spirit world later. He still had a job to do.

Thane slammed a new heat sink into the rifle and set his sights on the next patrolman. Shepard and Samara, quick on their feet, were already adapting to the upcoming change to the combat arena. Samara glowed blue with biotic energy as she launched a reave at him. Tendrils of dark energy plunged through him, finding the open hole for his mouth, getting inside his flesh. The merc started to burn in biotic energy. If Thane had the capacity to shudder, he would. He had killed many, many people, often in gruesome ways, even with his biotics. The Reave, though, seemed like the worst way to die. Everything else affected the body, but as the Justicar sucked out the man's life-force, it seemed to him like she was ravishing on his soul.

Between the first guard's half-uttered warning and the other's cry of pain, Thane could see that the other mercenaries were becoming concerned. The five mercenaries dashed out, and as the fifth one crossed the opening, Thane took a shot at him. He knew he was back in the present, but he went for a torso shot, just in case. The shot destroyed his shields, and the second pierced through his armor and tore through his heart. The man crumbled to the floor, quickly bleeding out. A quick, merciful death.

Four.

Shepard and Samara rushed into the open valley and immediately used their biotics. Shepard threw a warp field at the nearest mercenary, who staggered and screamed as the dark energy tore through his body. Samara wrapped the furthest mercenary with dark energy and pulled him into the warped mercenary. The energies crackled at the touch and detonated. There was an explosion of dark blue light that eviscerated them.

Three. Two.

Said two scattered, trying to find cover in the trailer, blindly blasting at the two with their pistols. Shepard took his rifle and shot the two down. The two walked towards the slumped mercs. Shepard took one and checked his vitals. Deceased.

One.

Samara saw the man breathing shallowly, and took out her pistol. "Find peace in the embrace of your gods."

Zero.

Shepard called out an all-clear, and Thane collapsed his rifle and walked over to them.

"Well, that wasn't exactly like we planned, but the base is ours and didn't even make a dent to our shields. So yeah, go team." Shepard said as Thane was within earshot. Shepard walked over to meet him. "You okay there, Thane? I don't think I've ever seen you miss a shot before."

"I'm fine, just..."

"What is it?" Shepard asked. "Is it about...the thing...?"

"I wanted to say I'm sorry," I reply, head bowing in shame.

"For what? Being a crazy assassin killing all over the galaxy? For never being there when I was growing up? For letting mom die? For leaving me after she died?" Kolyat glares at me, and I force myself to look into my son's eyes. I let him look into my soul, and I pray he does not find it wanting.

"For failing you."

We look each other in the eyes for long seconds. He breaks the contact and laughs, low and bitter.

"So what, you think you can just...apologize and make everything better?" He turns back to me, but fails to meet my eyes, which I take as a small comfort. "Bring mom back, and then leave me alone. Find some hole in the ground and just die already."

The memory lasted only a second in his mind, and Thane blinked it out of his waking mind and turned back to Shepard. "The thing?"

"Your illness."

"No, not at all. Just...haven't had to use a sniper rifle in a while." Shepard regarded Thane, looking him in the eyes as he spoke, then turned away. Thane could not tell if Shepard believed him or not, but he couldn't help but feel the Justicar peering straight through him.

"Alright then. Let's get the charges and blow this thing up. When the smugglers get here, I want to see them looking at a complete crater."

Samara sat in the middle of her quarters, long legs crossed, back perfectly straight. Her hands were wrapped around a perfectly formed corona of dark energy, emissions quietly surging through her body. The Justicar was a statuesque vision of asari peace and tranquility. She knew because she saw such statues back on Thessia almost a millennia ago. As a maiden, she linked the statue with stiffness, unfeeling, the epitome of asari pretentiousness. But when she joined the Justicars a lifetime ago, it was that statue that entered her mind, that she emulated as she learned to meditate.

But Samara did not think any of this, at least consciously. Her eyes were closed, but her mind was filled with the majestic view of space in front of her, both empty and desolate and thriving with energy and life. She was still, with only her deep, purposeful breaths the only sign she was not a statue herself. She was utterly serene, or as serene as she could possibly be.

Then she heard the door open. At first she thought it was Shepard, as he was one of the few people who come to visit her. It didn't surprise her—after all, she was a fighter of injustice in a ship filled with mercenaries, criminals, and terrorists. Then she realized the footsteps were different: the Commander had a step of a natural leader, strong, but never an overly aggressive stomp. This was the step of a being that had spent a lifetime never wanting to be heard, who might have succeeded if she had not spent several of of his lifetimes learning to hear such steps.

"Good evening, Thane Krios." His step faltered, but only for the briefest of seconds.

"Good evening, Justicar Samara." She opened her eyes, but was otherwise perfectly still.

"Please, just Samara will suffice," she replied as he walked in front of her. Her eyes met his as he observed her. "Most people who call me 'justicar' are either asari," she allowed a small bit of humor in her eyes, "or criminals begging for me to let them live."

"Thankfully, I am neither," Thane replied. "And no one calls me by their full name unless they're putting me on a contract, or they realize I am there to kill them."

"Very well, Thane, but I assume you did not come to banter. What can I do for you?"

The drell placed his hands behind his back and straightened his back, mouth terse over his words. "Well...I was...hoping to meditate with you."

Samara eyes widened, her face stretching in a way she had not felt in centuries. "I...of course, but, may I ask why?"

Thane turned his back from Samara as he took his jacket off. The fact that his face was hidden from the stoic asari was merely a bonus. It was a moment before he could speak. "I have had problems concentrating as of late."

"Such as on the planet a few days ago."

"Yes." Thane turned around, but could not quite meet the asari in the eye. "I will...fade out of the present and go to my past. It is something that my people are taught to control when we are children. To have it happen now is..."

"Embarrassing?"

"Yes. I figured if anyone could give me a...refresher course, it would be someone who has been meditating longer than my fathers have lived." A wry smile stretched across the asari's face, tight and unusual.

"Only as old as your fathers? I am touched." She watched as he nimbly sat down next to her, legs crossed. "However, I'm sure you know that there is not much one can teach in terms of meditation. You can either clear your mind of thoughts, or you cannot. Perhaps talking to someone about what ails you will help you re-achieve that inner peace." Thane looked away, staring into the stars, and Samara followed suit, waiting until he was ready to speak.

"My son. I'm sure you are aware of what happened on the Citadel."

"Secrets are too hard to hide on this ship."

Thane was quiet for a few moments as he collected his thoughts. "I wasn't much of a father to him. As he grew, I felt I needed to complete contracts to provide for him and his mother. When she died...I abandoned him. My desire for revenge was stronger than the need to be present for my son.

"To see him now...the open anger, his desire to hurt me at the cost of his future, if not his life...did I honestly believe that telling him about my disease would make all of that go away? Am I being foolish to believe I can reconcile with him?" Thane looked down, away from the stars. Samara looked back to him.

"I cannot say if you are being foolish. When I wasn't driven by rage, I was driven by regret. If you are a fool, then so am I." The justicar reached out and touched the assassin's hand. "I will say this: you cannot do anything about what happened in the past. But you can affect the present, and the future is not set in stone. It will be tough to mend the festering, old wounds, maybe even impossible, but it would be foolish not to." She looked down as her hand slipped away. "Not many people have the chance..."

Samara saw from the corner of her eye as his hand reached to her shoulder and squeezing. "Forgive my selfishness. I didn't think about..."

"My murdering my deviant daughter? It is what it is. The wound will ache regardless of who acknowledges it."

"Do you ever...think of her?"

"Of course. She was the reason I joined—"

"Not the Ardat-Yakshi you hunted. Your daughter. Do you ever remember her before..."

"It all went wrong? ...I remember she wanted to be an artist. She started when she was an infant, as soon as she could grab a hold of a paintbrush. She would draw with everything she could—the problem was that she would draw on anything." She felt a chuckle sweep through her body, foreign, unused since around the time of the memory. "One time, when she was...four or five—I don't know how, but she got her hands on her father's collectors edition biotiball. It was signed by all the members of the Thessian Fireballs. I was preparing dinner, and when I finished, I found her, paint somehow all over her face, biotiball in hand, painted over in bright pink." Thane chuckled, imagining the tiny little asari infant. "When I found her, she was starting to put glitter on her 'masterpiece.'" Thane laughed, surprising himself as much as the asari.

"And what did the father think of all this?"

"Oh, she was furious—but she could barely bring herself to be mad at her. Our little girl was just so proud of her work!"

The two laughed, the mental image just being too much for their stoic natures. The laughter was another new situation for the justicar, but it quickly soured, and a tear steamed down her face. Thane saw it, arm moving, and the asari wiped it away on her own.

"I'm sorry, Samara. I didn't mean to bring up bad memories..."

"The memory itself is not bad—far from it. What came after...her desire to create mutated into draws for her victims..." Samara looked back to the stars. "My people, the Justicar Order, have old beliefs about the Ardat-Yakshi. Before we understood the genetic factors, we believed them to be asari possessed by a daemon, an evil spirit. When we killed an Ardat-Yakshi, we believed the soul was freed from the taint, and that their energy could live again. So in a sense, I didn't just gain justice for Morinith's victims...I saved my little girl as well."

"Do you believe that?"

"...I believe it's a comforting thought." She sat back in her meditative position. "But let us put the past behind us. Do you feel able to meditate now?" Thane smiled at the asari.

"I believe so." He got back into position alongside her. "And thank you, Samara, for listening and...understanding."

"The feeling is mutual, Thane." The justicar and the assassin sat together and emptied their minds, leaving only the stars in front of them, and each other.

Next - Zaeed & Tali in: "Stranger Danger"