Novi had given up hope of escape. Her hands were chained to the table in the all-white room she sat in, and she figured this was probably what she deserved. It was the first time C-Sec had managed to catch her, and boy did she have a bounty on her head. There was no way they were going to let her walk after this one.

However, she really needed to get out of C-Sec and back out where she could be on the move. Blending in was kind of difficult in a holding cell, and she knew for a fact that there were some mercs looking for her. She had plenty of "friends," if that's what you could call them, and they were very eager to find the white turian. So maybe she had killed their brother and owed them money, and maybe they had been following her all over the galaxy. Was that a good reason for them to come after her while she was stuck in C-Sec? No, but it didn't mean they wouldn't. She had to bounce before they had a chance to break in and grab her while she was weaponless.

"I want to speak with her." she heard a voice say on the other side of the room.

She snorted. Archangel was a dumb one, she decided. Maybe they should have used her as bait on that mission after all, just like they had joked...he seemed desperate enough now. It probably would have worked, and maybe she would still have an eye.

The door slid open and Archangel entered, blood still oozing from where she had managed to headbutt his chin. He looked angry, but not quite angry enough to pick her up and slam her against a wall again. Honestly, though, she wouldn't mind if he did. Mad turian sex in a holding cell would probably be one of the best ways to tell C-Sec to shove it.

"Not so tough now that you're chained to a table." Archangel commented as he sat down across from her.

Novi held up her wrists. "You could change that, big guy."

"Not a chance."

"You were pretty eager before." she put her hands back down. "Trying to buy me a drink and get under my plates."

"What are you doing here?" he asked, ignoring her as best he could. It was impossible, though. She was infuriating, beautiful, and so damn distracting. "A hit? Are the Suns here?"

"I told you, I'm on my own now. And I would very much like to get going now."

"If there's one thing I've learned, it's never trust a merc." Archangel said, leaning forward over the table. "I need you to tell me what's going on."

She stared at him for a moment. There was no way she could tell him the truth. "I'm taking a break from mercenary work. This was supposed to be a vacation...of course, you had to go and ruin it. Thanks."

It wasn't a total lie, was it? She wasn't there on business, persay. It was more...trying to get away from business, while business tried to catch her and blast her brains apart. So, a vacation, essentially.

"Oh, I ruined it?" he asked, mandibles flared. "I'm not the one who pulled a gun out in a bar."

"Well I'm not the one who shot someone in the face!"

"You tried to kill me." he said defensively, sitting back and crossing his arms.

"Only because you did first!" She huffed, nose scrunched, and tried to mimic his folded arms. The chains stopped her, and she groaned in frustration. "What are you doing here? You and the great Commander Shepard. Here to kill mercs? Rough up arms dealers?"

"That's classified."

"Yeah, whatever." she yanked on the chains and then sighed. "Is there any chance I'm getting out of here? I've got things to do."

"Not if you don't kill the attitude." he leaned forward again, staring at her intently. "If you give me the information I want, though…"

"Ugh!" she rolled her head back. "I don't have anything to tell you!"

"Why are you taking a break?"

"The Suns didn't have work for a one-eyed loser." she snapped. "I had to leave after they realized there was no saving my face. Back then, I couldn't figure out how to shoot straight with no depth perception." she looked back up at him and hissed. "But...word spread about what happened. I got work elsewhere. If you read my dossier, I'm sure you'd know all that."

Oh, he had. He had demanded to see it the second Shepard and Tali left. He wanted to know about everything C-Sec had on this merc. "20 supposed kills in the past two years," he said. "I would tell you it was impressive, if you had done it legally."

"As if anything you did was better. You're a merc, just like me." she grinned, showing her teeth.

He growled. "What I did was different."

"A merc who kills other mercs is still a merc, no matter what stupid sense of justice you've got."

He moved to stand. "I think I'm done here."

"No," Novi said quickly. He couldn't leave so soon, not when he was clearly her ticket out. "Wait. Please."

"What?" He sat back down with an exasperated sigh.

"I'll tell you whatever you need to know." She lied desperately. "Just make them release me in exchange."

Archangel stared at her for a moment before slowly nodding in agreement. "Fine. Get talking."

So she did. She told him everything she knew about the Suns, as she could care less about them now, and she told him the general area in which she lived on the Citadel. She divulged black market trade routes, drug rings, arms dealers-everything he wanted that wouldn't directly impact her. It didn't matter if anyone knew where he got his info from. They couldn't touch her even if they tried, and oh, had they tried. Being in her line of work meant meeting lots of other people doing equally illegal things, and when there were no loyalties to betray, everyone was always at risk for being narced.

"Happy?" She asked, smiling sweetly in an attempt to get him to free her. She was getting the feeling that she had him caught in her web now.

"Is that all you've got?" He asked skeptically.

Well, maybe she didn't have him caught quite as well as she thought.

"You say you're so great, but you don't give me anything big enough to be worthwhile. I don't care about dealers. I care about the big guns."

"Oh, I'm sorry that the high and mighty Archangel doesn't have time for someone like me." She snapped. "That's what I've got, fuck-fringe. Take it or leave it."

While she had talked to him, he seemed to have softened slightly. It was almost as if they were bonding, in some strange, sadistic way. He certainly didn't appreciate all of the insults, though. "You know...I really did think you were dead. Imagine how much easier my life would be."

"If you hadn't shot me, I would have killed you." Novi said coldly. "But you make it sound like you think about me a lot. Should I be reading into that?"

He chuckled. "Only if you want to. But I don't think you actually enjoy mercenary work. The only reason I could shoot you that day was the way you hesitated, and mercs don't stop and think."

"I was young." she defended herself. "That was my first time that I...had the opportunity to actually do it. To actually watch someone die."

"Is that when you figured out it wasn't as glorious as you thought it would be?"

Novi's mandibles flared. "I still beat the rest of them. You mowed them down, and I was the only one left to run back to Tarius and give him any kind of report. And then, after that, I toughened up. I killed." she leaned toward him, grinning sickly. "I killed, and killed, and killed. And you know what? I don't regret any of it."

He watched her for a moment with those piercing blue eyes. He was searching for any sign that she had something left to say and that she was about to crack, or some hint about what he could do to get to her. "I don't believe you."

"I don't need you to believe me." she tapped her foot on the floor and looked up at the ceiling, trying to think. "Not about that, at least. I really don't have anything else to tell you."

"You're a bad liar."

She smirked the best way a turian could and looked straight at him. "Maybe I am. But you're not going to find out while I'm in here."

"You have got to be kidding me." Archangel hissed. Did she seriously think he was going to just let her go? As if he even had the clearance for that. "I can't get you out unless you give me something."

"Give you something? Archangel, please." she said, feigning a scandalous voice. "Think of the children." Then she looked at him straight in the eye. "You're right. I know more than I'm willing to say here. I know I'm being recorded. But like we settled earlier, you read my files."

"So what if I did?" he asked, a bad feeling creeping up on him.

"You know that I'm good at what I do."

"And that is?"

"Killing and winning. And hiding, and...lying. I can help you with whatever you need. Anything, just name it."

"You actually think I'm going to-"

Her single eye was burning into him. "Anything."

Archangel paused, staring back at her. Getting her out of there and bringing her on the Normandy...was definitely a bad idea. She only cared about herself. At best she would just be useless, and the worst case scenario…well, he didn't want to think about that. Their mission was dangerous, and saving the galaxy required a skillset that she definitely didn't seem to have. However, he had to admit to himself that he didn't know much about her, and that she had been good enough, even as a green Blue Suns reject, to almost kill him. The crew was mismatched anyways, from Alliance to Cerberus to killer biotics and scientists. Anybody who was good at something, no matter where they were from, had a place on the ship now. What difference would one merc make?

And besides...he really had gotten lonely. Being the only turian on a ship full of mostly humans had started getting to him lately, and it often felt like he only had Tali to talk to. Some of the human crew still didn't like him, even, and that was just irritating and embarrassing. Add to that the fact that turians needed to blow off steam much more frequently than humans did, and the Normandy began seeming more like a bland prison cell than a ship. He was frustrated constantly, with no others of his kind to help him relax, and the concept of adding another turian, however brutish she was, was tantalizing.

"Shepard will get you out of here." he moved to stand up and Novi tried to go after him.

"Wait!"

He looked back at her curiously. "Do you need something?"

"No, I just…how do I say this?" she clicked her talons together in thought. "So...I kind of need to get out of here immediately. Like now."

"I don't have the clearance for that. You're going to have to wait."

"Wait?" she whined. This wasn't how she wanted this to end at all. "For all that paperwork to go through? I can't wait for that. I can't wait at all. I need to leave, Archangel."

"What's so urgent that you can't sit in here for a day or two?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.

"We both need to get out of here." she stood, hunching over as the chains stopped her from straightening her back. "We can't stay here. C-Sec isn't very covert. They'll know I'm here."

He looked at her with an expression of sheer done. "Who exactly is after you, merc?"

"A couple friends-"

"Tell me."

"-so I betrayed them a little, not a big deal, but that was way back-"

"Terculus."

"-And I'm fairly certain they're here. I can't sit still in here. They're going to come for me, and I probably don't have a few days." she looked at him as seriously as she could. "You're making me beg, Archangel. I don't do that for everyone."

"How am I supposed to know you aren't lying?" he asked crossly.

"Because I'm not!"

"You just told me that you're good at it. And what else? Killing? Hiding?" he snorted. "If you wanted to hide, you shouldn't have pulled a weapon out in public."

"Oh, come on!" she shouted. "This is serious. What do you want from me?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe proof?" he asked. Nevertheless, he began reaching for his gun. "If I get you out of here, it's straight to the Normandy. No side trips. No errands. We go from here to the ship, and that's it."

Novi's heart jumped. She was winning him over. "That's all I need. You can stay with me the whole time."

"No, you're staying with me." he corrected, stepping towards her. "And if you so much as try to-"

He was cut off by an alarm and a series of shouts outside, the siren blaring to signal the presence of intruders. The male turian was honestly shocked that this merc had been telling the truth, and as he heard shots fired in the hall on the other side of the door, he sighed, raised his gun, and motioned for Novi to stand back. She saw what he wanted and pulled away from the table, pulling the chains taught. As soon as he pulled the trigger, she was free, and if she had been able to, she definitely would have run for it.

"Thanks, big guy." she said, heading for the door. "Know any back ways out of here?"

He shoved her behind him and walked through the door, sticking close to the wall as he listened to the firefight taking place in the offices just a few meters away. "There's one maintenance route that your friends shouldn't know anything about. Stay close and follow me."

"Wouldn't dream otherwise," she mumbled as he took off.

On the one hand, this was going better than it could have. As they shuffled through back halls and the mercs started searching holding cells, Novi was reminded that she could still be stuck in one of those tiny rooms; on the other hand, she was stuck with Archangel.

"Get in." he grabbed her arm and pushed her through a door. When she came out on the other side, she was in one of the Citadel's many stairways, next to one of its many giant advertisement screens. People bustled, heading up a floor or down one, and she briefly wondered if she had enough time to get away from Archangel.

He grabbed her arm again and she decided that she didn't.

"You sure we can't make one stop?" she asked as they ran down to the docking bay.

"I'm sure." he grumbled.

"Hey!" a voice called behind them. Novi turned to see a batarian running after her. "Get back here!"

Yikes.

"You're too slow, Archangel!" Novi said, taking his hand and pulling him. "Get moving!"

Female turians were typically faster than their male counterparts. They were lighter and slimmer, and in this case, more desperate. Their pursuer was joined by a few others, and while C-Sec tried to catch up and contain the problem, Novi was focusing all of her energy on running. Archangel was a bit of a dead weight behind her, despite his longer stride, and as she pulled him along, she started wondering what exactly would have happened if she had actually killed him when she had the chance.

She wouldn't be stuck dragging him through the Citadel to his own ship, that was for sure.

"Wait," he panted, skidding to a stop and pulling her around a corner. The commotion that had been right behind them now sounded far off, and based on the shouts, the batarians were being overrun by C-Sec.

"Might be the most useful thing they've ever done," Archangel commented, leaning his head back against the wall as he tried to catch his breath.

"Well, now that that's all over with, I'll be taking my leave." Novi said, turning on her heel to leave.

"Not so fast." he snatched one of the chains that still hung from her wrists and yanked her back to him. "You agreed to go to the Normandy and that is exactly where we're headed."

"Why do you want me there anyway? There's no point." she argued, pulling against him.

With a growl, he gave another yank. "I'm bringing you on board. You don't have to join the crew, but you're coming with me and staying put."

"Am I your prisoner?"

He sneered down at her. "I don't take prisoners."

"You're right." she snarled as he pulled her along to the ship. "You just shoot them in the face."

"Are you going to let that go anytime soon?" he asked in irritation.

"That depends. Are you going to get me a new eye anytime soon?" she retorted.

He made a massive noise of frustration, but was otherwise silent until they reached the Normandy. A few human crew members stood outside, and as the turians approached, they stopped their conversations to stare. A few of them had never even seen a female turian before, nevermind one missing an eye. All they could do was watch in confusion as the two made their way back into the ship, wondering what the fuck had led Garrus Vakarian to drag a very unwilling girl, handcuffs and all, onto an Alliance ship.

All they knew was that Shepard wasn't going to be very happy.