Quick note-this story takes place right before "Shepard and Liara Versus the Alliance"

Salarians. There's insects on Thessia that live longer lives than these smug pricks. Yet somehow, like all the other races of the so called "Council", the salarians have weaseled their way into importance. So the day has come that I do something about that.

I set my shuttle into it's final approach and lean back in the helmsman's chair. The Nara isn't the biggest ship, but she's mine. Another gift from the Matriarch. Aquilla has given me so much sometimes it's hard to keep track of the debts I owe her. But there's some debts that can never be payed. And I know more about that than most.

Suddenly the ship i'm rapidly approaching finally hails me.

The voice on the other end of the comm is weak and pathetic sounding. I'd have known it as salarian even if I wasn't aware it was a frog ship I was docking on.

"Attention Pilot, you are within restricted range of a council vessel. Identify yourself or we will be forced to open fire upon your ship."

I roll my eyes and open my side of the call with the press of a button.

"My name is Solana T'Zuki. I'm requesting docking permission aboard your vessel."

The fake name comes naturally. I've used hundreds over the years. It's not that I have any doubt in my success, but they always teach commandos to play it safe. It's a lesson I wish I didn't learn the hard way. I run my hands along my thighs as the salarian speaks up again.

"What business do you have here?" He asks.

"Council business. Councilor Tevos requested I personally deliver a package to Councilor Valern. It's a matter of galactic security and needs to be dealt with immediately."

"If the matter is so important why did Tevos not come herself?"

I groan and hit the call button again. "The councilor is very busy. Will you clear me for docking or not? This is a time sensitive matter."

There's a brief pause but soon the idiot responds with. "Docking clearance granted. We will of course be checking your authorization once you've disembarked."

"Of course." I say back.

I've "fixed" many problems for Aquilla in the past. Made people who needed to disappear vanish and made sure history said what she needed it to say. She once told me our goals would absolve me once we've accomplished our mission. But it's not the things i've done for Aquilla that haunt me. There's only one night that haunts me. And my belief in our cause is absolute. It has to be really. Without it...I have nothing. Nothing but the sting of painful memories and love for a woman who thinks me a monster. Doubt is a luxury I can't afford. I'd die before I turned from the path.

I bring the Nara into the salarian ship's starboard docking bay. As the bay pressurizes I reach for the steel briefcase next to me. It's heavy, but there's not much I do with my free time outside of work out so the weight doesn't phase me much. I miss the days when Aquilla would take me along to visit Lady Benezia and her daughter. Liara T'Soni had always been a true friend to me, I'm sure she doesn't even remember the nights I would read her to sleep from some book. However I cling to those memories right before I do a job. They were some of the only moments I felt real after Leoni. The moments that I felt like I was more than just a weapon being fired. But I was fooling myself. I love Aquilla, she's given me so much, been there for me when I was abandoned and gave my life meaning again. But my purpose was always clear.

I push the image of Liara's cute freckled face from my head and holster my pistol. It's a Carnifex, a gun with enough power to blow a man's head clean from his shoulders or make him really suffer if you know how to pick your shots. And one thing that krogan didn't take from me was my aim.

Before I rise to my feet and activate the comm jammer from my console. The salarians are dead in the water and they don't even know it yet.

I lug the briefcase into my ship's airlock and wait for the air to cycle before the doors finally slid open. I'm expecting a squadron of them but instead all I get is one annoyed looking unarmored salarian tapping his foot and crossing his arms. I'm almost disappointed. Fuck it, I am disappointed. I thought this would at least be fun.

He marches forward. "What is the meaning of this? This is Councilor Valern's private ship!"

That explains the minuscule security. Valern must be up to something he doesn't want the council knowing about.

"Tevos has no business sending her lackeys to bother him here!" he shouts.

I lift up the case. "He'll want to see what i've brought him." I say.

"I will need to clear that for entry after seeing your credentials."

I walk past him and further into the docking bay. After doing a quick sweep I find no cameras and no other guards within visible range. The moron must really value his privacy.

The pushy alien next to me shoves his hand forward. "Miss! Your credentials please."

I don't waste any more of my breath on him and with one quick motion of my hand I unholster my Carnifex and muffle the shot by jamming the barrel into his stomach. The shocked man doesn't have time to cry out of do much of anything before the slug tears through is body and he falls down the metal floor. Green blood starts to pool around him and before he can cry out and alert anyone I crush his skull with my foot.

There might have been a time I would have felt something for killing this man. But that was before a krogan took my legs and a turian fucked the only woman I've ever loved. Any mercy I once had for non-asari is gone. Now all I can think when I see the pool of hot green spewing form the crushed remains of the alien's head on my feet is how i'm going to need new pair of boots.

I drag the corpse into my ship and seal him inside. I wipe the green from the bottom of my boot on the ground before moving towards the Bay's exit. I holster my gun back and cover the weapon up with the black jacket i'm wearing. No need to armor up when going up against salarians, they're almost the equivalent of fighting living tissue paper.

Out in the ship's main hallway I find a few of the crew moving back and forth between rooms looking busy. I could go straight to the drive core, but where's the sport in that? I grab one of the crew by the arm and he looks up from the datapad he was reading.

"Where's the councilor's chambers?" I ask as sweetly as I can and even manage to fake a smile for the alien. For me that's saying something.

He looks confused at first but he answers quick enough. "Just down that hall." He points to the right down the shot hallways that ends with a door.

As I follow his directions I hear him shouting questions at me from behind me. Things like "Who are you?" and "What are you doing here?" He'll never get the answers to those questions.

I knock on the door and I hear a voice call from the other side sounding frustrated by the interuption.

"Yes yes, what is it?" Valern shouts.

"Council Business." I say.

There's a pause and I assume my voice has thrown him off so I add more.

"I've been sent by Councilor Tevos regarding an urgent matter. I'm supposed to deliver something to you personally."

I can hear him cursing under his breath and franticly shoving things into drawers on the other side of the door before it swooshes open. Valern is sitting behind a desk wearing that same blue and red robe he always seems to be dressed in. His chambers are scarcely decorated but there is a single chair situated across the desk from him.

"What are you doing here? Tevos cannot intrude upon my private affairs like this! And how does she even know where I am?"

I close the door behind me and lock it with a quick bump of my fist on the access panel. "She doesn't."

"I will ask you again, what is the meaning of all this?"

I set the briefcase down and take a seat across the desk from him. Without saying a word I reach down and unholster my gun and set it on the table in front of me and let my hands drop back down to my side. And then comes that look of realization on the salarian's face. I find the moment a person is confronted with death to be interesting. It's when someone is actually face to face with their end that you see them for who they are. And it doesn't surprise me one bit that Valern is a coward.

"Whatever you're being paid I can triple it." He says with a quivering voice, his eyes not leaving the gun on the tabletop.

"I'm not being paid anything." I tell him.

"Then why are you doing this?"

The why is actually pretty simple. Aquilla needs the council, more specifically she needs a council she can control and Valern is an unstable element. She doesn't care to go through the process of turning him like she has with Shaw. It's much simpler to make him disappear and replace him with the cowardly Mardok who Aquilla already has under her thumb. That just leaves me with the clean up duty. However, it'll be fun to fuck with the salarian before I finish this.

I push the gun on the table between us towards him. "Why do you think?" I ask.

Valern's eyes dart between my face and the gun. "Who sent you?" he asks.

"Someone who wants you gone."

"Clearly. There's no need for violence. I can understand how it might seem that I'm...well. I can get you all the credits you could ever need, I can get you anything! Don't do this, it's not worth it!"

They always beg. I push the gun towards him again and lean in with a smile on my face. "Go on. Reach for it." I urge.

He's shaking now. "Killing me will solve nothing!"

"Actually it's gonna help solve everything."

"Please." He mumbles.

I pout my lips. "I had higher hopes for a councilor. I actually thought you might face this with some of your dignity intact. I guess I'm just a foolish optimist."

In a flash Valern lunges for the gun between us and with a flick of my wrist I toss him back against the wall with my biotics. He hits the metal wall hard and flops to the ground with a thud that knocks the air out of his lungs. I calmly retrieve my gun and round the desk to stand over to him.

He crawls backwards on his elbows hopelessly trying to retreat. "Wait! Please!"

I chuckle as I loom over him. "If it makes you feel any better, salarian." I raise my gun. "You never really had a chance."

"I can get you anything you desire! Anything!"

More begging. I can't stand the sound of it. I fire into his gut and his begging turns to choked gasps as green blood starts to foam from the corners of his wide mouth. I stare at him and watch him squirm. I'm begging to feel anything, pity, mercy, regret, shame. Just anything. But I don't. I watch him die and all I feel is empty.

I take a deep breath and shut my eyes. I holster my gun back at my hip and turn back to the door. I can hear guards now banging on the other side of the door so I don't keep them waiting. I unlock the door and the first of four men comes rushing inside, his eyes locked on the corpse of his councilor. I take advantage of the distraction and seize his gun arm and twist it behind his back snapping the bone through his flesh.

His squad aim their guns at me as I wrap my arm around his thin neck and jam the barrel of my gun against the side of his head.

"Don't shoot!" My hostage pleads of both me and the other aliens.

"Release him!" the other shout. I almost laugh at their attempts to be intimidating.

As they shout orders at me I'm quickly planning my next moves. I snake my gun hand down from his head to behind his back. The salarians seem relieved.

"Now let him go." One of them says. He looks like the leader of the bunch dressed in that fancy set of black armor.

It's him that catches the bullet I fire through my hostage's stomach. The other two members of the squad jump at the site of their leader's choking on blood and clutching up to the bullet hole in his throat. My hostage is already bleeding on the ground when the surviving aliens quickly move to fire. But I move quicker.

I blast them both on their asses with my biotics and unload two slugs into their faces as they scramble to recover. Whatever Valern was on his way to do he should have brought more men to protect him. Not that it would have made a difference. I pick up the briefcase and make my way down the short central hallway to the drivecore aft of the vessel. I pass a few cowering salarians on my way to my destination and tell them they'll be safe if they don't move. It's a lie of course.

Finally the double doors at the end of the hall open up for me and reveal the ship's small drivecore. I waste no time getting to work and open up the briefcase. Inside is a series of wires and one hell of an explosive. I'm told the bomb comes from a design created by the turians centuries ago to blow the krogan back to hell after them and the salarians neutered them. The Genophage was about the only good thing that came from the salarians, but thanks to humanity's own patron saint Commander Shepard the Krogan are once again a threat. Typical human, taking charge of something she doesn't understand.

I plug the wires directly into the drivecore just as i've done a dozen times before and quickly activate the detonator's timer. There's a spring in my step as I walk back down the hallway and past the still cowering salarians under me. I can see into the small ship's cockpit and two pilots are staring at me as they franticly try to radio for help. I give them a wave and a smile before walking back to my ship.

I bring the Nara out of the hanger quickly and make sure to be a safe distance away from before finding my vantage point. As I sit there waiting for the show I put my feet up on the flight consoles. I find watching a ship explode to be a great time for reflection. It's in these quiet moments alone that my mind goes back to her. Leoni was and always will be what i'm fighting for. The driving force behind all of my actions in the past centuries. I wonder where she is, I wonder if she ever thinks about me, I wonder if she's happy. There's not a thing I wouldn't do to be with her again.

But I haven't seen her since that night. Sometimes I think about changing that but I can't bring myself to hurt her again. The explosion snaps me from my thoughts. As I watch the ship get torn to pieces I can't help but smile. It vanishes as soon as I remember I have business on Earth to attend to. The time has come for Admiral Hackett to meet the same fate as Valern. Which means I have to deal with my favorite idiotic human and whomever it is Shaw's chosen to carry out the job.

Still it's all finally coming together. Centuries I've served beside Aquilla all in pursuit of a singular goal. And soon all of that work, all of those sacrifices will have lead me to the conclusion I've dreamed of ever since that night on Illium. One day soon, it will all be over.

But where will that leave me? When it's all finished...what's left for me then?

Notes- Sorry for the delay. I've been out of town a lot recently but I'm pleased to announce I am back for good now and will resume my regular posting schedule. So I'm curious what everyone's thought are on Ereyla. i hope you'll share them with me in the reviews and that you enjoyed this one-shot. Rise of the Asari will hopefully continue tomorrow with a Felina and Matriarch Aethyta centric chapter. And Felina will be the focus of my next first person one-shot as well. One last thing, the cover image for this story is of Charlotte Sullivan whom Ereyla's appearance is based on :)