I do not own Mass Effect or any of the characters.

Escape

David's eyes flitted to Tarak before quickly darting away, the Batarian leader of Omega's Blue Suns mercs glaring at his computer screen. David's eyes flicked to one of Tarak's commanders, Jentha. She was in the middle of talking to a group of three Freelancers who'd been hired to help the Blue Suns, as well as the two other merc groups, the Blood Pack and Eclipse, take down a vigilante known as Archangel, who'd been harassing all three enemy groups effectively enough to get them to work together to kill him. David eyed the three carefully, shrinking further into his corner as he did. One wore black armor with a red stripe framed by two thinner white ones down the right arm, and had an Avenger assault rifle, a grenade launcher, and a Predator heavy pistol. He had small scars over his face, a shaved head like he was in the military, and wore a cold expression that seemed to radiate authority and danger. Another was an older man with nasty scars marring his face, a cybernetic right eye, mostly yellow armor with a white strip up the front and a heavy pauldron on the right side. He looked mean, experienced, and had an Avenger assault rifle and a Mantis sniper rifle on his back. The third was a woman with a skin-tight, white body suit with black sleeves and knee-high boots, long black hair, an hourglass figure, and a confident expression that bordered on arrogance. However, from her posture, she knew how to use the submachine gun and pistol on either side of her waist. All-in-all, the three of them struck David as anything but freelancers, and set off every warning bell in David's head.

Jentha glanced at David and saw the worry and fear on his expression, her brow furrowing slightly in a mixture of worry and sympathy, but she returned her focus to the conversation. After a couple more minutes, the three excused themselves and left and Jentha walked over, cupping David's face and giving him a concerned look.

"What's wrong?" Jentha asked.

"I have a bad feeling," David said quietly.

"You always have a bad feeling!" Tarak snapped. "You're a goddamn pussy! You're even weaker than you look, and you weigh eighty pounds soaking wet, in armor."

He wasn't wrong. We was exaggerating, but he wasn't wrong. David was scrawny, to put it nicely, and wasn't physically strong in any way. Wearing his standard issue Blue Suns armor practically killed him if he had to run for an extended period of time greater than twenty seconds.

"Please, Jentha," David pleaded, too quietly for Tarak to hear. "If we go after Archangel, we'll die. Please! Let's just leave! Start over somewhere else, where Archangel won't come after us."

Jentha sighed, kissing him for a few seconds before smiling. "Okay." She hugged him, placing her lips beside his ear. "When the Blue Suns deploy, we'll slip out the back."

David nodded, squeezing her and tucking his face into her shoulder. "I love you."

"I love you too," Jentha smiled. "It'll be okay. I promise. Just stick with me."

David nodded and Tarak snorted derisively.

"He'll probably be more of a hinderance than a help in a firefight," Tarak said. "He's good at hacking doors and shit, but he's too much of a coward to be good in a fight."

"He's better than you think," Jentha said.

Tarak snorted again, then finally received a message saying the infiltration team was ready. He signaled for the assault to begin and the freelancers started across the bridge. Within moments it became obvious there was a problem. The three supposed freelancers that had been talking to Jentha, and through the conversation finding out all about the plan to take Archangel down, turned on the other freelancers, slaughtering them in moments before going to meet up with Archangel for a peaceful conversation.

"How'd you know?" Jentha asked.

David shook his head. "I just had a bad feeling about them. They seemed too serious and experienced for freelancers."

Jentha nodded as Eclipse began to send in their mechs, one of which the soldier in black armor shot in the head, causing it to explode and hurl several off the bridge. More Eclipse mechs went over the barricade, including the heavy mech, but when Eclipse mercs began to go with the mechs, the heavy mech turned on them. David shouted in surprise and fear, turning invisible instantly and shrinking back from the doorway as the mercs struggled to destroy their own mech while avoiding bullets from Archangel and his three allies. Just as he reappeared, Jentha grabbed his arm, quickly pulling him out of the room.

"We'll be right back, Tarak," Jentha said. "I'll have him help Cathka."

"Good," Tarak said. "Make him useful."

As soon as the door was closed, however, Jentha cut left and the two of them sprinted to where there were sky cars parked. They both jumped into one and David started it instantly, taking off. As he was flying away, he glanced out the side and saw Tarak glaring up at them. He pointed and suddenly bullets began to slam into their car. David swore, swerving to the side, only for the car's engine to explode and the car to begin to plummet.

"Shit!" Jentha swore. "Hang on!"

David simply screamed, flickering in and out of sight. Then, with a thundering crash, the car plowed into the ground, skidding to a stop at the edge of a walkway. David groaned, sitting back and holding a hand to a gash in his forehead, which was bleeding heavily.

"Fuck!" Jentha groaned. "David, you alive?"

"Yeah," David groaned.

"We need to go," Jentha said.

"Yeah," David agreed, climbing out of the sky car with her.

Just as soon as she was out, however, the sky car emitted a metallic screech as it tilted over the edge and skidded off the walkway, falling to the next level down and exploding.

"There they are!" a distorted male voice shouted, just as Blue Suns rounded the corner.

Jentha swore as David vanished. She sprinted away and after a few meters, David reappears beside her just as his omni-tool fired a torso-sized ball of freshly-fabricated explosive gas inside a fragile containment field. It struck one of the human, or maybe Batarian, mercs and exploded, that merc and two more all being lit on fire. The rest all dove for cover and cave David and Jentha just enough time to sprint into Afterlife, ignoring the Elcor at the door. Several Batarians were about to stop them, only for the Blue Suns to shoulder past them, gaining the Batarians' attention instantly. A shootout erupted instantly and David and Jentha ran into Afterlife, heading to a back room and grabbing a pair of humans, David quickly knocking both out with a weak neural shock. A few minutes later, Jentha was wearing a red dress with the front open to reveal the black bra with it, and David was wearing a black suit jacket and pants. They left the two people they had knocked out in their armor, probably a death sentence, but it wouldn't keep the Blue Suns off their trail for long.

"We need to find someplace to hide," Jentha said as they quickly wound their way through Afterlife.

David nodded but just as they turned to leave, the door opened and Blue Suns began to walk in, armed. The one in the lead was a particularly nasty Turian who had never liked David. David swore and grabbed Jentha, backing into a dancing crowd and pulling her back against him, facing away from the mercs. Jentha took the hint instantly and began to dance against David, who did his best not to look as afraid as he was, and to keep from instinctively turning invisible again. His tech was so fine-tuned that it had become instinctive as much as conscious. As soon as the Blue Suns had passed, David and Jentha cut for the back door. However, just as they did, someone, a Turian, stepped out from a crowd, raising a gun and aiming up at Aria T'Loak, the Asari in charge of Omega. Just before he could squeeze off a shot, David, who hadn't been able to react in time, accidentally bumped into him, making the shot whiz past Aria's head, instead smashing the wine glass she'd been about to take a drink from. Aria spun, glowing with biotics in her rage, to see the would-be assassin shove David away and aim at her again, only for David to shriek in fear and grab the Turian and yank him sideways into the path of several Blue Suns' shots, allowing the assassin to die as Jentha fled. Then, David turned invisible and dropped the corpse, fleeing after Jentha. They slipped out through the back in the chaos following their shooting, which Aria's security did not appreciate.

David and Jentha sprinted down the stairs to the lower level of Afterlife, then out the back and sprinted toward the docking bay, planning to steal a ship. However, just as they were crossing a bridge to it, a grenade exploded in front of them, hurling them backward. David rolled over the edge and shrieked in fear, only for Jentha to catch his arm, barely able to hold him up.

"Surround them!" the Turian from before shouted. "Don't let them get away!"

Jentha slid slightly toward the edge and David's eyes widened in fear. "I won't drop you!"

"You're both going to die anyway," the Turian taunted. "You'd be better off just letting the coward fall. At least that wouldn't really hurt. We're not going to make it painless."

David looked down and his eyes widened. "Do you trust me?"

"Yes," Jentha nodded.

David nodded and swung his legs, yanking her off the bridge into freefall. A moment later, a sky car crashed into both of them, hurling them to the next level down, a cargo-loading level for ships docked the next floor up. Both hit hard and rolled to a stop, probably with several broken bones, but they forced themselves up and fled into the cargo containers. After a couple of minutes, Jentha's right leg buckled and she cried out in pain. He stopped, kneeling beside her.

"I can't," Jentha said, face screwed up in pain. "I can't run anymore. Leave me."

David shook his head. "No way. I'm not leaving you."

He looked around before seeing a container listed as containing medi-gel. He quickly lifted her into the container before climbing in after her. Once inside, he injected an anesthetic into her thigh, then settled in beside her, wrapping his arms around her protectively. They heard voices approaching, but just as the voices reached the container, the container suddenly lurched and began to move. David closed his eyes. He hadn't meant to get them snuck onto a ship. He just wanted to get away from the Blue Suns. Then maybe he'd beg Aria to have Jentha protected. Maybe in exchange for her employing his services as necessary. But, if they ended up on a ship, then he supposed that would work too.

"Where are we going?" Jentha asked.

"I don't know," David said. "But wherever it is, it'll be safe than Omega for us."

Jentha nodded and David quickly filled his pockets with medi-gel and anesthetics. However, he began to feel light headed after a few minutes. He looked down at Jentha, and found her sleeping. He yawned. He was pretty tired too. Maybe sleeping wouldn't be too bad. He rested his head against Jentha's and let his eyes slide closed, drifting off almost instantly.

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