Chapter Text
"Yesss!" Hissed Jo, grinning toothily down at the bar terminal through the grate. Her omnitool dinged satisfyingly as the credits transferred to her throwaway account. Within seconds, she got a text from Nico;
"Package recieved. Arrive for payment at your leis-"
"Up there, Zura! The signal is coming from the vents!" A frantic, almost synthetic sounding voice interrupted her reading. The accent immediately gave him away as quarian.
Smile dropping immediately, she pressed her face against the grate to see. At the very corner of her visibility, she saw an asari and quarian speaking loudly over the hubb bubb. The asari was in a rather suggestive black dress that reached for the floor shamelessly while the quarian's suit was white and dark blue.
Suddenly, a tightness akin to a hiccup clenched in her throat before her body jumped in a burp/hiccup like squeak.
"Gly-yick!"
The noise caught the quarian's attention and they locked eyes, white orbs narrowing as he pushed past the asari. "There! That's the thief!"
Great. Now he knew what she looked like. Thanks, tick. Really clutching today, arent you?
"Take my credit chit, if you have to buy a taxi, dont hesitate. Remember - No C-Sec!" Said the asari said in a rather commanding, deep voice.
Jo took off, climbing down to kick out a grate and hop in to a mechanical room. She ran to the door, breaking the lock mechanism with a few tweaks to the steam tank. She was being chased by a god damn quarian. Fuck's sake.
"Gly-yick!"
Which means she needed to be absolutely fuckin' certain that he couldn't follow. Even then, there was probably some way for him to get around the pressuriszation firewalls that went up from her tampering.
But she had time. Time to grab a screwdriver and hop in another ventilation unit. At least if she got cornered she could do a number on him. Just one stab and he'd be in trouble, especially here on the Citadel. Not many doctors able to take care of a quarian around.
Just as she rounded the corner she heard the door to the room slam open.
"Gly-yick!"
Quick bastard. This was going to be a bit harder than she'd like. And by "bit," she meant "Literally fuckin' impossible."
As she maneuvered the vents she split her attention, one on keeping her ears open and the other on where to go next. The Keepers had hidden corridors all around, and if she used them as shields she could probably stay ahead till she got to the docks. Then it'd just be a matter of hyjacking a skycar and getting to the presidium.
Once she made it to another intersection she took a good look at her map. It wasn't precise, but she'd been running around these vents long enough to switch between intuition and the map reli-
"You little Bosh'tet! Just... Just slow down!"
Jo glanced down the grate in the middle of the intersection, making sure not to put her weight on it. The quarian ran underneath, quickly leaving her line of sight. One moment later though, he marched back, suddenly looking up to lock eyes once more with the brunette.
Pinpricks narrowed behind the dark blue mask. "There you are!"
"GLY-YICK!"
Her tick went off again as they stared at each other, her entire body jumping with the anxiety. The quarian cursed and bolted for a door, immediately setting her back off down the vents.
Maybe if she slipped past a clothing store and nicked a hat and jacket he wouldn't be able to recognize her? Aliens had a hard time distinguishing human faces from one another. It was useful now that she was a homeless, lawless deadbeat and would hopefully continue to be.
As she crawled she messed up her hair as best she could, wondering if she might come across a pair of scissors. Damn, she really needed to talk to Nico about those invisibility things that some people programmed their omnitool to do.
Every now and then she heard a curse from the quarian as she passed over the occasional grate. Every time, her tick went off, elicting even more cursing. From both of them.
Just a few more turns and she'd make it to the Keeper catwalks.
As soon as she reached the grate she kicked it out, hitting the ground running. She dared not look back, not wanting to give him anymore to go off of than he already had. If he wanted to catch her he'd have to work for it or get fired by sexy-mistress boss-mommy. Tough break.
It wasn't long before she heard a door open up behind her after she passed it and then metal hitting metal. He was quickly gaining on her. Gritting her teeth to hold back another tick, she began to aim for Keepers. She tried to slip past them at the most opportune times - Particularly when they were taking up most of the path.
"Kiyet! Would you SLOW DOWN?!"
"Potty mouth!" Jo threw over her shoulder, grinning like a madwoman. Despite all the metal in that suit, he was a fast SOB. Fortunately for her though, she was simply nimbler. An office door connected to an overhanging room was coming up quick. She'd have to improvise some more once inside, she was certain. Why couldn't it just be easy? Like an elevator or something? Maybe a chain she could swing on to hop on top of a skycar?
"Don't you dare, you little vot!" His speakers hissed, accent only enhancing the rage dripping from his voice.
Once she slammed the door behind her she threw down a filing cabinet, shoving it against the door. Moments after she turned to run, she could hear the quarian bang on it and start working at getting it open.
Another slew of curses chased after her as she dodged and weaved through the office rooms. Random workers panicked at the sight of her, some demanding that she get out, others running for the exits themselves. She followed those ones and soon she was running on the catwalks once more.
If she could just keep ahead for two more rounds of vent crawling, she'd make it to the docks. But the metallic footsteps never rejoined hers. The ball of anxiety that had been slowly growing began to ricochet in her gut. Taking a tentative glance behind her shoulder, the quarian was nowhere to be seen. It sent a tremble through her stomach.
He was wising up. Probably gonna try and cut her off somewhere ahead. There was almost nothing she could do besides keep running and hope that she was faster.
"Gly-yick!"
-
Twenty minutes of duct traversal, plus some Keeper dodging later and Jo was walking through the docks with fake confidence. Refugees, business men, soldiers, and everything in between passed her without a second glance. It was easy enough to snag a hoodie when no one was looking.
Throwing the hood over her head, she made her way to the very back, where the taxi terminals were situated. Although there were cameras everywhere, Jo knew a thing or two about public hacking.
She pulled up her omnitool casually, faking pressing a comm's button on her ear. "Yeah, I'm here. All the way at the back," while pacing back and forth, she pretended to be waiting for a friend with research papers on engineering gargin. Lies are harder to pull apart when they're glued together with truths.
Within five minutes, she had access to all the taxi terminals and could see which ones were the fastest. Now all she had to do was find a secluded spot and wait till the patrols were thin enough for her to hop on one and hijack the bastard.
As nonchalantly as she could manage, Jo walked around the terminals and headed down a short corridor. No cameras, at lea-
"There you are, ax'kah!" Two three fingered hands wrapped around the brunette's scrawny shoulders. Tick going off, Jo puddled like a tantruming toddler and dropped to the floor. "Bosh'tet!" The quarian hissed as he tried to keep his grip.
Jo squeezed through his legs, pulling his arms with her and making him slip slightly. He let go and before he could stand up fully, Jo shoved him to the ground, both palms of her hands to either asscheek. Yet another slew of curses nipped at her heels as Jo danced over top the alien, running down the corridor.
The screwdriver bounced against her thigh in her pocket as she darted across the tops of the makeshift dock structures. It was like a small village in the bay, which she supposed she could use to her advantage. Again, the screwdriver bounced against her thigh. Was she ready to stab someone for money? And it was a quarian. He could die.
"Gly-yick!"
Curses filled the air behind her once more and she knew she was running out of time. Was she ready to kill for money?
"Gly-yick!"
Rounding yet another corner, she made a split second decision, fishing out the screwdriver and turning on her heel. Carefully pressing herself up against the wall of the corner, she waited and counted the metallic footfalls.
A few seconds passed, the footsteps getting louder and the string of curses ever more colorful. The moment Jo saw a millimeter of the white suit, she pounced, eliciting a terrified screech from the quarian. He was a lot sturdier than she'd anticipated, but still fell to the floor with her.
"Shhhhh!" She hissed, one hand on his mask, the other holding the screwdriver to the side of his neck. "I don't wanna hurt you, but I'm leaving with my catch." Using all of her weight, she pressed down on his helmet to keep him in place as she spoke. "One way or the other." Her voice was a whispered purr, as menacingly sweet as she could possibly muster.
"...Vot."
Jo couldn't help the smirk that tugged at her lips. She'd always loved studying curse words from other languages, and Keelish ones were strangely cute. "So, what's it gonna be?"
"If I let you go, I'll be kicked off the Citadel without Zura's protection. You'd essentially be killing me." The quarian stated matter-of-factly, his white orbs piercing between Jo's fingers, staring right through her.
"Gly-yick!"
Jo's grip on the screwdriver loosened, and in seconds, the quarian rolled them both over. With the element of surprise, it was rather easy to take the alien down. But now she had no tricks, and that sturdiness of his made it pretty clear she stood no chance in pure muscle.
It didn't take long for Jo's squirming to be stamped out as the alien pinned her arms behind her painfully. She kicked his back with her calves and heels, making him curse, but doing little in the way of getting him off.
Damn those exosuits.
Soon, she ran out of energy to squirm and fight, and she had to let out a long breath.
"...Shit."
She felt the quarian laugh more than heard him, the metal in his suit vibrated with it. "You..." It took him a few moments to catch his breath and steady his chuckling. "You're a fast little Bosh'tet, aren't you?
"No, I'm just well acquainted with the area." Jo sighed, resting her cheek on the cool tile, only now realizing just how exhausted she was. Nico had to have got the money and deleted the account by now. They weren't getting anything back, especially not by wasting time with her. At least her friend was another step closer to getting off this pisshole.
"If you knew the Citadel even half as well, you would have got me in the mechanical room." It was the truth. She was only playing at the trade, quarians were on another level.
Jo watched him out of the corner of her eye as best she could. A few silent moments passed between them. "I..." He shook his head and leaned forward to lock gazes with her once more. She felt him try to discreetly stuff a metal disc in her hood. "Flattery will get you nowhere, human."
Cute.
"Flattery?" She scoffed, rolling her eyes and shoulders in tandem, beginning to feel sore. "You're a quarian. If ya haven't noticed, humans don't really compare to yall's mechanical talents."
Again, he shook his head before grunting to lift his weight slightly. "Just... Who are you working for? I doubt any duct rat could get through all the firewalls I put up on their own. Zura's terminal was a fortress."
Shifting underneath him, Jo sighed and yawned, starting to get bored on top of exhausted. "You'll never figure it out, and even if I told ya, you wouldn't be able to find 'em. So just take me to your mistress and let her step on me as punishment, kay?"
The quarian stuttered, his grip on her arms loosening. "Zura is- She's my boss."
"Mistress." Jo smirked, wiggling her brows suggestively. "You even got sugar mommy's credit chit, adorable."
He lifted a hand off her arms to hold his mask, shaking his head. Jo took her chance, grabbing his wrist and using it to flip around while wrenching him to the side to offset his balance. Within seconds, she squirmed out from underneath him. She scooped up the screw driver and climbed on his back, monkey style. The alien grunted, trying to get back on his feet while reaching around to pull her off.
Holding the screwdriver right under his armpit with one hand, she used her omnitool to scramble his suit filters. Jo stole a few code lines while she was at it, leaving a virus to mine data.
Immediately, the quarian began to cough violently, and Jo was off, watching him over her shoulder as she darted away. "You filthy littl-" He wretched, desperately typing away at his omnitool to fix her sabotage.
All his other curses were cut off when she rounded the corner. She had at least five minutes to get the fuck out of the Wards.