Mass Effect: Aria's Dog of War

Chapter 1

Aria T'Loak sat in her normal place, overseeing the Afterlife club. She gave a small smile as she reveled in the fact that Omega was hers and hers alone. Her eyes slid over to the asari dancing seductively just a few feet from where she sat.

"Aria," a Batarian said as he made his way up the stairs towards where she sat.

"What is it, Bray," Aria said coldly, never taking her eyes off her fellow asari.

"A ship just arrived, full of mercs that we have intel on."

Aria frowned and gave him a dirty look.

"And that's new information why?"

"These mercs have detailed plans to kill you."

Aria's attention was captured by this little piece of information. She stood, and looked out over her club.

"Well then, maybe I should give them the Omega welcoming."

"But ma'am they-"

"Want to kill me? I'd love to see them try," Aria said with a wicked grin as she made her way towards the front doors of Afterlife.

When Aria got to the landing docks the mercs were unloading their weapons from their ship.

"Going somewhere with all those guns," she asked snidely.

A young girl, who couldn't have been older than 13, whipped around and her electric blue eyes widened when she saw Aria. The girl's black hair was back in a ponytail and there was dirt smeared on her clothes and face. There was a pistol on her belt.

This girl is a merc? Ha! This'll be easy if they're letting recruits this young into their ranks, Aria thought.

"It's Aria! Take her down!"

Aria smirked, waiting for the mercs to come at her just so she could kill them. The girl in front of her dropped the box she had been carrying and reached for the gun at her hip. Aria put up a biotic field just as a man fired a shot at her.

Then the girl did the last thing Aria would have expected from her. The young girl turned and fired the pistol at the merc standing just a few feet away from her, blowing his head off. She took out four more mercs before they even realized what was happening.

The merc leader took aim with his rifle and hit the girl in the stomach. She dropped, her shirt drenched in blood in just a few seconds. Aria couldn't explain why, but a sudden rush of anger came over her when she saw that girl fall. She ran forward with a yell, breaking the barrier she had put up, and launched at least ten mercs off the edge of the landing deck with her biotics.

Once Aria got to the girl she stood over her and drew the shotgun from her lower back and killed the rest of the mercs in just a few minutes. She rolled the girl over onto her back.

"Bray! I need medics down here now," Aria yelled into her omni-tool.

"Copy that!"

Aria have the girl some omni-gel to help stop the bleeding until Bray could get her a medic. Any onlooker who knew Aria's reputation would have thought they were seeing things... The ruthless pirate queen of Omega, Arka T'Loak helping a young dying human...

"Aria! Are you all right? I brought the medic as quickly as I could," Bray said as he came running down the landing deck with the medic and several soldiers close behind him.

"I'm fine! Just help her!"

The medic worked on her right then and there while Bray kept shooting curious glances at his leader.

"She's stable now Aria," the medic said.

"I'll take her up to my penthouse. Keep watch for more of those mercs Bray."

With that Aria picked the girl up in her arms and carried her to her car parked on the side of Afterlife.
---

Later that night the girl awoke in a huge room she'd never been in before. She blinked confusedly at the ceiling, the last thing she remembered was shooting a few of the mercs she had traveled with but after that all she could remember was a blurry vision of Aria over her yelling for help. But that was impossible, Aria T'Loak didn't care about anyone but herself.

"You're finally awake," she heard a familiar voice.

The girl tried to sit up a little too quickly and she cried out from the pain that shot through her abdomen. She felt a hand on her shoulder keeping her down against the bed she was in.

"Take it easy," Aria said, coming into the girl's line of sight.

"But... this doesn't make sense. You're Aria T'Loak, why would you help a pathetic human like me..." the girl said giving Aria a surprised look.

"You interest me. I'm still trying to figure out what a young girl was doing with a band of blood thirsty mercs. And then why she turned on them to save someone as cold and ruthless as me."

The girl looked up at Aria expectantly.

"You should get some more rest," Aria said sitting of the edge of the bed now.

"O-okay. Um.. My name is Lexis by the way," the girl muttered before laying back down with her back to Aria.

After a few moments of silence with her eyes closed, she felt Aria lay down in the bed. As far to the other side as she possibly could of course but it still made Lexis's heart pound frantically in her chest.

Maybe... Maybe Aria T'Loak really does have a heart, Lexis thought before drifting off into sleep.