Who: Logan and Aria What: Aria has an upsetting dream and takes it out on her bedroom wall and Logan. When: This morning Where: Her penthouse and then a secluded area Warnings: Violence, mentions of dream character death and language
Aria was getting closer to kicking Cerberus off of Omega. Recruiting Shepard had been perhaps the best move she could have made to help her get her station back. The Illusive Man was at the top of her shit list, not only for taking Omega from her, but also killing one of her daughters. She was bound and determined to get her revenge on Cerberus.
But then things seemed to suddenly take a turn. Nyreen went radio silent, and Aria wanted to know what the hell she was up to. However, she and Shepard had arrived outside of Afterlife in time to watch Nyreen blow herself and some Adjutants up. And the anger that hit Aria was very similar to the anger she’d had when she’d found her daughter’s body.
Heads were going to roll, but before she could storm Afterlife, she woke up. She jolted upright, then got out of bed, not giving a damn that she was completely naked. All she cared about was the inner pain she felt, and she was going to express it as anger. Clenching a fist, a blue aura appeared around her body and she threw a biotic blast through a wall of her bedroom.
She didn’t care who heard it. All she cared about was venting. And she needed to kill someone. The blue aura pulsated around her, and she probably looked like she was about to detonate like a nuclear bomb.
Logan sat up, woken by the smell of something burning and the sound of something exploding. Being used to such things at Xavier’s in various dreams, Logan took in his surroundings before acting. And he acted by putting a hand on her arm. “You’re awake, Aria. You ain’t there, wherever there is.”
Not that he could say much, how many times had he nearly stabbed someone?
Aria turned her steely glare on him. “I know I’m not in my dreams. If I didn’t, nothing would be left standing around me right now.” The blue aura was still pulsating around her, and she had half a mind to just biotically detonate. But doing that would toss Logan through a wall and devastate her bedroom.
“Just sayin’. I’ve nearly stabbed a few people myself. Just wasn’t sure you were still here darlin’ or if you were still there.” Getting trapped in a dream or memory was like quicksand, the more you pulled, the deeper it sucked you in.
“I could use someone to fucking obliterate right now.” Nyreen was pressing on her mind. Only now did it occur to her that Nyreen was a lot like one of her exes, the last one she’d had, in fact. But she refused to show her pain. Aria hid her pains well, burying them deep and letting herself express it in anger and lashing out at those responsible for the pain.
Logan regarded her for a moment, then got out of bed. “Well, I get better. Wanna spar? You don’t need to hold back. I’m used to hurtin.”
It was kind of a sad thing to say, but he really was used to it, and he’d hurt for a friend.
Aria eyed him for a few moments. That was certainly a bit sad that he was used to hurting, but some people just were that way. “That’s an offer I can’t turn down lest I go ballistic on someone undeserving.”
“Got a place we can do that here? How about your back yard? Some place with the least amount of collateral damage?”
“There is a spot. We’d have to ride there.” What passed as Aria’s backyard was more a courtyard and not exactly private. So they’d have to take this elsewhere.
“Let me get my pants. You ain’t never wanna die without pants,” Logan said, with all the authority of a man who’d died without pants before. He pulled his pants on, and hunted around for where she’d thrown his shirt. He noted she’d torn it a bit, shrugged, and pulled it on.
“I’ve heard that can be rather embarrassing,” Aria commented, managing to calm her biotics as she grabbed her own clothes and pulled them on. She then retrieved her omni-tool and put it on, her human disguise replacing her normal asari one. When they were both ready, she headed out.
“Yep.”
Logan lit up a cigar as he followed her out, figuring she wasn’t impressionable so he could smoke, and he needed a cigar before this, and a beer after.
And a cigar after too.
“Don’t hold back.”
Aria would give him multiple beers if he wanted. She also didn’t mind the cigar. It was what it was. She got to where her Ducati motorcycle was parked and glanced at Logan. “You want to ride with me or follow me?”
“I’ll follow you.” While being behind her would be hot, he’d rather take his own bike. Logan didn’t do too well when he wasn’t in control of a motorcycle. Call it a quirk.
Giving a nod, Aria got on her bike and turned it on. She waited until he was ready before she drove off. She hadn’t pulled her hair back, so it was streaming behind her as she headed out to a place where no one could bother them. It was secluded and a little ways off the road so no one passing by would see anything.
Upon arriving, she parked her bike, then moved a little distance away. She didn’t want her precious Ducati to accidentally get caught up in the sparring.
“Tell me about it,” Logan said, parking his bike next to hers and moving about as far away for the same reason. He rolled his shoulders, knowing the right kind of taunting would set her off. Which was the idea.
Aria turned to face Logan. “I am in the process of taking Omega back from Cerberus in my dreams, with help from Shepard. Along the way, I met someone very unexpected. An ex of mine whom I thought had left Omega long before. Turns out she never actually left. As was typical, she and I were clashing on our idea of how to kick Cerberus off of Omega. I didn’t care about collateral damage, but she did.”
“Still loved her?” Logan popped his claws and gave Aria a ‘come and get it’ motion with them. “Bet you still loved her. Bet she got a little place in your heart you can’t cut out even if you tried.”
“We were opposites, and the attraction was undeniable. But that was a long time ago.” Aria wasn’t going to admit her feelings that easily. She’d never admitted it to Shepard, but she was certain the commander had deduced it. There had been enough clues during their time on Omega, and Shepard was smart enough to put them together.
Clenching her fists, the blue aura pulsated around her again as she charged at Logan.
He was trying to work her up, get her to blow all her steam out on him. “Best love stories are opposites, darlin.”
He dodged to the side, slicing down and out, curious on if her aura could repel his claws, or if it would be like Hisako’s and only repel flesh.
“I would not call Nyreen and I one of the best love stories. Our differences were too great.” Aria had lived for a very, very long time in the dreams. She’d had more than a few lovers over her long centuries of life. Yes, she still loved Nyreen, but Aria was far too set in her ways to ever change for someone. In the end, Nyreen wasn’t cut out for her, and that was that regardless of anything else.
Aria managed to twist out of the way of his claws. The biotic aura wouldn’t protect her from anything, and she had no interest in being skewered. In response, she threw a biotic blast at him intending to throw him backwards.
It him full in the chest and he flew through the air (with the greatest of ease), slamming into an unlucky tree. Grunting, he got to his feet and removed a branch from his side. Good thing he had 8,000 tank tops. “Gotta do better than that. You still liked her. That ain’t nothing.”
Aria clenched her teeth. “It is nothing when it’s only one-sided.” Aria had been able to read Nyreen like an open book, and there was no love left in her, at least for where Aria had been concerned. She didn’t blame Nyreen or anything. Aria knew she was a difficult person to love, let alone to like.
Love was fleeting anyhow. To an asari, relationships with any species, other than krogan, were fleeting. They were little more than a blink of an eye in an asari’s life. And yet Aria had still loved Nyreen despite her best efforts to convince herself otherwise.
“You loved her. Don’t matter if she loved you back.” Logan thought of Jean, and so many others. For a loner, he’d loved a lot, and not always been loved in return. And it had hurt like a bitch, every single time. He charged at her suddenly, leaping up into the air.
When Logan leapt into the air, Aria hit him with another blast of biotic power, sending him flying. She needed to do a better job of letting go. But Nyreen was one of the few lovers who had stuck in Aria’s heart. It would prove incredibly difficult to get over her.
“That tickled.” Logan picked himself up, his shirt smoking. His claws came out again. In a real fight, he’d… okay he’d be very berserker, but he’d come a long way from those days. There was planning and strategy but when you healed? The best strat was to keep going until they knocked you out.
Narrowing her eyes, Aria hit him with a Flare attack. It was probably best that she didn’t bring either of her guns with her. She prefered lashing out with her biotics.
The flare knocked him back. He held his arms up in a cross position in order to block the attack. It felt like burning, but not a fire burning, just a burning he couldn’t quite explain. Only it hurt. It blew him back after a few more moments, and he disappeared into the trees.
Getting hit by biotics was definitely a different kind of feeling that was hard to explain. But Aria loved her biotics, she’d had centuries to hone them into the fine weapons they’d become for her. She’d even been a Commando once upon a time. When Logan disappeared into the trees, Aria didn’t move. She just kept her senses tuned to where he’d gone and kept herself ready for his counterattack.
He sure wasn’t going to try a frontal attack this time. He darted through the trees, circling around to Aria’s right and slightly behind her, throwing a rock to slightly ahead of her as he scrambled up a tree, then stalked closer.
The rock got Aria’s attention, if only momentarily. She wasn’t one thousand years old for nothing. She had the sense someone was near her. She turned around, carefully looking. It almost felt like when Nyreen had been lurking in the shadows on Omega.
Logan lept from the tree like a demon, claws out, eyes flashing and teeth bared, like some kind of feral beast. He roared, falling towards Aria and adjusting his position until he was flying down like a bullet.
Looking up, Logan was definitely a sight to see coming down at her. If his claws weren’t out, she had a thought to catch him and grapple with him. But with those claws and how fast he was coming at her, she wasn’t going to risk getting accidentally stabbed. So instead she used Lash, sending a stream of biotic energy at him, grabbing him and tugging him down, changing his trajectory so he wasn’t going to land on her.
Instead, the lash slammed Logan into the ground. If his bones weren’t indestructible, most of them would have broken on impact. As it was, he rolled to a stop, and it took several moments before he was able to stand. “Fuuck…”
Aria was patient and let Logan regain himself. This was just sparring, after all, not a life-and-death battle. If had been a life-and-death battle, Aria would’ve fought very differently. As it was, she took the time to let her biotics recharge. “I suppose that gives new meaning to the phrase human cannonball?” She quipped.
“Been through worse.” He got to his feet finally, and rubbed his shoulder. “So. Gonna admit you loved her?”
“No.” Aria never admitted her feelings for people. While in this life it was mostly just because she had a hard time admitting feelings of love, in her dreams it was to protect herself and the ones she loved. After all, Aria had many, many enemies that would use whatever leverage they could get over her. It was why she’d kept her daughters extremely secret. No one knew she had any, and the less who knew about her dalliances and love affairs, the better.
“Close enough,” Logan commented. He brushed himself off, taking in his state. If it had been a real fight, they both probably wouldn’t be walking away so easily. But it had been a good fight.
Aria rolled her eyes. That was as close as she’d get to admitting that. And she still wished that Petrovsky was here so she could kill him in a way only an asari could. Sure, flaying someone’s mind bordered on what the ardat-yakshi did, but Aria didn’t care. In her eyes, Petrovsky had earned such a death.
It was enough. Logan knew he wouldn’t get her to say the words out loud, but she at least acknowledged it. That was a victory, if a small one. But he’d take it.
“Wanna get pancakes?”
“I could go for some pancakes, yes.” After unleashing some biotics, Aria definitely needed some nourishment. She recovered quickly, but she should probably actually eat something before she threw herself into work.
“Great. Kitty found a place years ago. We’ll go there then...figure out a way to fix that hole in your wall.”