HEART OF DARKNESS

CHAPTER 2: BLACK THRONE

AUTHORS NOTES

Warning; This chapter contains BDSM, Femslash and torture although it has been edited to fit this site's guidelines.

'This' means someone is thinking.

Italics alone means the name of something, i.e. Mass Effect core.

Horizontal ruler (a line across the page) means a page break or timeskip, it may be a few minutes, it may be a few hours...

-X- means a scene change, i.e. we start with character A in a warehouse. Then we go to character B in an apartment- a scene change from a warehouse to an apartment.

Disclaimer; I do not own the Mass Effect franchise or any of the characters or ideas involved. This is nonprofit-I am making no money from this.

Afterlife, private room F2...

It took several minutes for Shepard to get undressed. First she removed her arsenal of weapons; her visible weapons such as her Raptor sniper rifle (modified for human grip and sight), her Phaestron assault rifle (clearly modded for extra stopping power), her Disciple shotgun (devastating when used in its original form, Shepard had made her own illegal modifications making it even more destructive). Her hands then went to her less standard weapons; a silenced Suntetsu hypercompact pistol, several nanoceramic knives, a custom modified weaponised omni-tool, microbombs, fibre wire for strangulations, medi-gel and battlefield trauma kit… she wondered if she'd need that later…

After removing her battered, hand-rebuilt armour in layers; came her civilian undergarments (unfeminine briefs and a sports bra), dropped and left carelessly. Shepard stepped naked into the large walk-in shower and activated multiple waterfalls of steaming hot water.

She let out a breath of tension feeling the hot water soak into her muscles.

Even though humanity lived in an era when 'mixed-race' appearance was common, Katsu Shepard was considered exotic in appearance with the young woman attracting attention from human, asari and even drell individuals. She stood at a commanding five foot ten inches in height, a body that somehow blended appealing femininity with powerful musculature allowing feats of strength that shamed many males of her species, held up by long, strong legs attached to wide hips. The hot water of the shower rained over skin marred by dozens of scars from stab, bullet, cut and burn wounds she had endured over years of war.

Holding a flannel Shepard began scrubbing herself, her arms were muscled enough to crush human bone, and her hands were heavily calloused.

Showing contentment, her face was exotically beautiful as well; jet black hair reaching down to her shoulder blades, dark eyes, skin and facial structure that merged Caucasian and Asian traits in an almost statuesque, commanding manner.

Shepard rolled her well-developed shoulders, rubbing the hot water over her body suspecting Aria was watching her via hidden cameras.

She was.

-X-

In an adjoining room, Aria thought back on her favourite employee's past; dishonourably discharged from the Systems Alliance after fleeing human space after assaulting an AIS suit who tried to divert the disaster that was Operation Frost Sidewinder (the attack on Torfan) from being the fault of AIS bad intel and Major Kyle losing control thanks to years of abusing performance-enhancing drugs to Shepard's personal incompetence on the ground.

An order to capture or kill had been given after she broke out of the stockade. Anticipating this she had left for the Terminus systems becoming a merc leader who exclusively took jobs to kill criminals especially pirates and slavers.

An idealistic soldier who went on a suicide run through the Terminus like some wannabe justicar? It happened so often in the Terminus that there were various terms for it; turians called it the 'The last charge', asari called it 'The fall to darkness', salarians 'The pointless end'. Humans called it 'Punisher syndrome'. It always ended one of two ways; the would-be crusader got in over their head and died or became corrupted by the Terminus and joined a criminal gang of one type or another and violated their ideals for survivals sake, becoming no different from the ones they once fought.

Shepard had originally attracted Aria's attention by doing better than most she could remember;

Asari commandos, AIS spooks, batarian druglords, turian hijackers, quarian cyberterrorists, elcor berserkers, organ leggers, salarian cloners, volus bioweapons dealers, more robbers, assassins, mercenaries and hired thugs than even a drell accountant could keep tally of.

All had died to Shepard's guns, blades and bombs.

Shepard had inspired others to follow her, forming a crew or gang of rag-tag oddballs including a star struck asari maiden who thought she was a hero. It ended in tragedy when a terminus warlord located their hideout and killed all except Shepard herself. Still grievously wounded, the enraged lone human woman attacked the warlords retreating convoy of IFV's in revenge and killed them all.

Though not without cost, Shepard was horribly wounded in the battle.

A broken, bloodied human woman had been found in the burning rubble strewn street by Aria's enforcers and brought to her. Omega's queen had revealed to a mangled, life support machine-connected Shepard that her spine had been shattered by a round from a hand cannon, and that she would now be a tool; an instrument of death or debasement for either Aria's or one of her lieutenants.

Or perhaps one of the Terminus elites, an alliance of depraved warlords that fought each other endlessly, except when threatened by an outside force or made to submit to a greater power. Not unlike the feudal Daimyo of the Japanese that Shepard's matrilineal line was descended from.

Aria had Shepard rebuilt and 'modified'; she smirked as she saw two such modifications on her chest. The human woman was quite angry when she woke up and found that she'd gone from a perfectly acceptable B cup to a double D, Aria had smirked it off stating that Shepard had tasks to perform besides killing.

'Speaking of…' Aria got up and left the room.

-X-

"I know I'm irresistible to asari, but you could have waited five more minutes for me to finish showering…" She quipped at Aria who ignored her.

"Maybe take the time to put on something special, maybe put on romantic music… set up candles…"

Aria's lips twitched at that. She strode forth, yanking Shepard behind her by her long black hair.

"Really, do you hear yourself Shepard? Like some silly little maiden about to have sex for the first time, talking grown-up when they haven't shallow melded with anyone except their mother."

Ignoring the pain in her scalp (and how much it turned her on) Shepard kept talking;

"Are you saying I'm like a virgin? I'm really not. Watch the hair."

Katsu had kept it short in the military but now her jet-black locks reached down to her shoulder blades due to Aria insisting/demanding she grow it out as a 'novelty' of humans (and she enjoyed yanking her human servants around by their hair).

The Pirate Queen dragged her still dripping wet form through Afterlife's restricted corridors to an unfamiliar room with many strange furnishings; modified chairs and benches, lockers containing various gear and instruments, holo-imagers….

…and most bizarrely of all, a large black throne dominating the center of the space.

Shepard blinked. "I didn't know you took the queen thing seriously Aria."

"But many humans do. This is to indulge your fantasy of a 'Royal Domination'."

The Pirate Queen sat in the throne still holding Shepard at an awkward angle by her hair.

Roughly, she bent the slightly shorter human woman over and laid her across one knee and trapping her much more muscular legs within two slender and purple ones.

The throne was some kind of metal painted black, while the seat was cushioned, the armrests were not. The seat's back extended up higher than Aria's head with the symbol of the station Omega etched into it. It looked both artistic and austere.

On the walls there were tools and devices inside the frame that Shepard was painfully aware of, perhaps they'd be used tonight. Aria hadn't decided yet.

Shepard's stared down into the reflective Thessian warpfire forged obsidian, seeing her red face staring back at her, feeling a tinge of disgust at her aroused features. Aria's knee dug into her abs with her other long leg scissoring over her thighs.

She knew why her ass was exposed like this…

"You know in my 'domination fantasies' you were dressed like a JRPG character; knee-high, spike heeled, leather boots, briefs…"

The former N7 twitched as she felt warm, lightly scaled fingers ghost up and down her large buttocks and seemingly begin massaging her.

"…more of a thong really. A corset… a weird feather cape thing-"

Heat and moisture erupted from her sexual regions, racing through her body. Part due to Aria's skilled hands, part because of the minor nerve alterations Aria's doctors from her prostitution facilities had done; Katsu became more aroused than usual due to several triggers.

SMACK!

Like violent physical contact.

Aria's cruel mouth smirked as she looked down at Shepard's upturned ass (far fuller than any asari's- more to play with she inwardly gloated) as she played with the globes of meat; squeezing and tugging.

"Do you have any capes? Or crowns? Maybe a ti-aaahh!"

Shepard's eyes widened in shock, her body tensed as her user/mistress/boss pulled her ass cheeks apart. Without warning or consideration the Pirate Queen drove a finger forwards into the place only custom inspectors dared probe, twisting the scaled digit around as she cruelly, callously opened her up.

Calloused palms clenched onto the near mirror-like floor, the corners of her mouth twitching in what might be a smile as highly sensitive (and really not often touched) nerves were brushed by Aria's finger.

"And humans say turians are tight assed." She sneered as her minion/tool twitched and squirmed in her grasp.

"They are… humans are… badass… smart ass… great ass…"

Ignoring her lame one-liners, Aria created a wave of highly controlled dark energy. She used it to will an object to her hands from across the room. Seeing the blue flashing from the corner of her eye Shepard looked up into a polished silver, almost egg-shaped device and identified the tool her mistress now had.

"An asari crown jewel?" She asked nonchalant.

'This is gonna hurt...'

Shepard grit her teeth, gasped and tried to relax her muscles as the freezing cold metal was recklessly pushed into her body.

'Ah! Cold! Cold! Cold! Big!'

"You know… you're so much gentler… than the last person who put something up there." Katsu gasped out quite crosseyed.

If Aria cared that her property had been 'utilised' by someone before she took possession she didn't show it. Just kept pushing the device into Shepard as far as it could go. Stealthily admiring her twitching bubble-butt.

Shepard gasped- nearly screamed when the Pirate Queen callously turned the device on.

Aria smirked down at her sometimes assassin, sometimes sex slave as her lower body spasmed and her hands turned white in grip.

SMACK!

Aria had just flicked Shepard's butt with a single finger. Thanks to the asari's mastery of biotics she could increase the weight of her finger many times over a millisecond before the digit struck, using this technique asari commandoes could take a mere kick, add hundreds of pounds to it and knock a man through a wall causing injuries similar to being struck by a skycar.

Aria was using this millennia old secret of asari biotic mastery as a substitute for spanking.

SMACK!

Shepard jerked as Aria once again flicked her ass hard, the crushing kinetic force from the finger stabbed deep enough into Shepard's buttocks to severely bruise muscles.

"I gave you a compliment. Respond."

'Bitch!' "Guh… thank you, your heavenly Omeganess." She bit out sarcastically.

The finger struck out again.

SMACK!

"You sound insincere. Try again."

"I am… appalled you think I would ever be insincere to you… a paragon all look up to."

SMACK!

Another finger flick struck. Strategically sending shocks up her mechanical spine. Another flick. Shepard grit her teeth feeling herself becoming more aroused with each accursed strike.

"Gggh! When is your next appointment for a manicure?" Shepard's jaw locked iron hard, with every strike of the Pirate Queen's finger her pliable butt rippled and slowly reddened, slowly building the pain and pleasure in her body. She knew this was only the warm-up…

SMACK!

"Gggh!" The physics defying digit hammered deep into the earthborn's voluptuous ass reddening the Asian coloured flesh.

SMACK!

Shepard's mouth opened wider and she began taking deeper breaths holding as much composure as she could while naked and bent over an asari's lap.

SMACK!

'Bitch seems to be off her game…' Shepard sneered in her head.

Accustomed to such beatings, the beautiful mercenary lay limp- naked. Arousal and sweat mixing in with the cooling shower water, locked in Aria's still clothed lap as her master continued to pummel her rear end.

The pirate queen took hold of Shepard's hair looking down at the sparkling Thessian shimmerstone floor. Like everything else in the sex room (or business room 3 as Aria called it) had a function; it allowed Aria to see reflections of herself and in this case Shepard's pain-filled face.

A hand moved away from its ministrations and pressed a haptic console that had sprung to life on one of the throne's armrests. The holoscreen before Shepard changed from security footage to footage of Shepard and Aria quite energetically fucking.

"Huh… right… you filmed that…"

"I was planning to critique you on your disappointing performance… you miscounted the number of times I spanked you with the Varren hide paddle, your fellatio on my strap-on was sloppy and your stamina holding me in the Grip of Athame position was sub-par."

"Well… I did kill like fifty Eclipse assholes that day!"

"I counted forty-six, Shepard. Your observation skills are pitiable."

-X-

A great deal of pain and perversion later...

A punished, agonized Katsu Shepard now stood, legs split, upper body bent over the front of the throne, her face pressed down into the seat where Aria, and later herself had sat. She could smell the aftermath of her own arousal (and possibly something from Aria) in the fabric. She was disturbed to find herself aroused at that prospect.

While the former N7 held her submissive position, her employer found a new tool; an electro flogger, an extreme sex toy developed from a device created by batarians for torture of slaves and other prisoners.

Eyes closed as her face was in contact with the not-dry cushions, Shepard steeled herself as she knew what that device did on even a low setting- Aria knew too, hence her evil smirk.

CRACK!

The flails strands struck first, reddening her backs flesh, then the electric shock delivered by the soft, highly flexible memory metal flashed into her, setting her nerves ablaze with such force that her vision sparked, every muscle locked steel hard in pain. The merciless asari struck again, the strands spreading across her back stabbing lightning into her from multiple points. It burned the breath away from her body, her vision whited out, every cell in her body felt like it was dipped in molten metal and it was all Shepard had not to break. Not to break her submissive position over the black throne. Not to scream in agony. Aria gave her a second to recompose herself after thrashing in pain. Then she whipped Shepard again. And again. And again.

The whipping went on for an eternity it felt like to Katsu, a good ten minutes in reality. But finally Aria stopped, cast aside the electro-whip and turned away from the quivering, traumatized human woman.

After retrieving a bag from one of the rooms metal lockers Aria had imperiously reseated in her throne and once again laid Shepard across her knee.

The beautiful assassin was a mess; her back was a tapestry of welts, deep bruises and light cuts. Her powerful muscles twitched, remembering the bolts of lava hot agony sent through them over and over. Her lungs gulped in bucketful's of air trying to soothe the agonised body they served. Shepard's eyes were slightly reddened by tears and sweat but she still glared at Aria, smiling savagely.

She couldn't speak as it felt like her tongue and mouth had been sandpapered, but she felt victorious that she didn't beg for mercy or scream out loud or break her position bent over that stupid throne.

Worst of all, Katsu's lower regions were wet, showing twisted arousal from the pain of the vicious beating.

Aria removed something from the bag at the thrones side opposite Shepard's vision. She twisted her head to see what the depraved asari had in store for her next...

-X-

One hour later...

The pace had been brutal, unrelenting, merciless. But finally Aria decided to bring the session to a close;

Her skilled, ancient, yet youthful fingers rubbed her pet. Shepard had gone near-crosseyed as she suffered; the pain increasing as the wonderful sensations did, further inflaming her twisted mind as she bit into and gulped around the revoltingly shaped gag in her drooling mouth.

Katsu screamed into that oversized gag as she came. Suffering sadistic and reckless violation, her mind aflame in pain. She screamed loud, hard and long, drowning in pain and ecstasy oblivious to Aria grinning down at her, reaching a peak of pleasure herself at hearing the submissive soul-felt scream.

Shepard numbly blinked, then gasped and swallowed spastic-like as Aria removed her gag.

Laying the barely conscious human in the stained throne's seat, Aria held Shepard's head between her hands, briefly squeezing her reddened cheeks together. Aria stared into Shepard's tear-stained, dazed eyes as her own orbs turned black as space.

"Embrace… whatever I tell you."

Shepard felt the pain of her body, the discomfort of her current position, her mind, the sights delivered by her eyes, her very consciousness slip away as Aria's meld overpowered her not resisting mind…

Shepard blinked and found herself looking over a lake, crystal clear, the hot, shining yellow sun, the smell of wildflowers- some transplanted from Earth's clone banks, some alien native species. Of the world of Elysium.

She turned and saw Illyria, the town she once considered building a life free of violence.

Seeing familiar townspeople, she set off in search of her could-have-been family… her fiancée Daniel, her could-have-been younger sister Helen, father and mother-in-law were waiting for her…

As back on 'The heart of darkness' Aria T'Loak turned away from the naked, injured, entranced Shepard and walked away without looking back.

AUTHORS NOTES

Aria's a bitch, she's supposed to be a galactic crime boss/warlord, here she acts like it.

In my AU Shepard had a fiancée on Elysium who died in the Skylian Blitz. Shepard at least partially blames the Alliance for it as they knew the attack was coming and didn't warn the civilian population at all or the assigned soldiers until it was too late.