A/N: Apologies for the delay with the updates, due to life in Uni and the editing process were taking longer than usual. I'll try to be quick about with the chapter updates, as much as possible, but no guarantees since real life comes first. Also thanks to Battlechantress for pointing out the flaws and the problems in the earlier chapters, back in the ME fan fic forums, which I've managed to fix it up. Also, reviews and criticisms are always welcome.

Chapter Three

Walking on Fire

It was supposed to be a simple escort mission, where all they had to was pick someone up from the Purgatory prison ship, without any fuss since Cerberus had done most of the work for them. However, things took an unexpected turn when the warden changed his mind about the deal. Instead he wanted to keep Commander Shepard as a trophy, much to the dismay of the party, especially Garrus.

"Lay down your weapons and proceed into the cell. You'll not be harmed," the warden ordered them over the ship's speaker.

The prison guards waved their guns in a threatening manner, ordering them to hand over their weapons, but they refused. Since Shepard and the team resisted it, the guards quickly attacked them, trying to wrestle the guns off them. Garrus immediately rushed to her side, shielding her from their reach. It was bad enough that these Blue Suns guards were trying to grab her in a crude way, but the thought of seeing her being locked up in a dark, dirty cell, where prisoners had the opportunity to brutally abuse her; made him sick to his stomach. It didn't help that he heard an earlier conversation from the one of the prisoners, who explicitly revealed his life as an inmate on Purgatory, including his recollection on how he had lost his 'dignity'.

He continued fighting them off, making sure they didn't damage a single strand of her hair. All of a sudden, he heard a chilling laugh from Shepard. Garrus shuddered in fear from the sound. Despite the ambiguity of human emotions, he knew the Commander's feelings and quirks well enough, including the tone of her laughter. He recalled that there were two types of laughter when it came to Shepard. The first laughter was a genuine expression of joy. He had rarely seen her letting her feelings out in the open, except a couple of times back on the old Normandy. However, the other laughter that she had even rarely expressed to other people, was the one that Garrus feared the most. He knew that whenever Shepard was really pissed off, she'd start laughing in a scornful manner, before giving that seething ugly scowl from her.

He had only seen that laughter once. Two years ago, she had stumbled across an old nemesis from the Skyllian Blitz, who was hiding out somewhere in an uncharted world, plotting his revenge on her. She wasn't pleased with the 'reunion'. The results were ugly but predictable to the point, that Wrex made a remark in the aftermath of that mission; "What an idiot. Should have run, instead of taking on a woman that wiped his whole pirate army, single-handedly."

The laughter stopped, being replaced by a brief silence. The eerie stillness made him feel uneasy, as he braced himself for the wrath he knew she was going to unleash at any moment.

"I've got three words for you, Warden Kuril: Go to hell!" Shepard yelled, before her whole body was shrouded with a light violet aura.

The next moment, Shepard swirled her body around in the room, waving her arms elegantly as she lifted all the guards into the air. Then she swiped her hand harshly, as her biotic abilities responded to her gesture by throwing them across the room. The hapless guards were slammed into the wall, resulting in sharp cracks as the bones were snapped on impact. Garrus cringed as he watched them dropping to the ground in a dull thud, the lifeless eyes staring back at him and the faces twisted with horror. It was a deadly reminder to him, that the same woman he was always sworn to protect was far from the vulnerable colonist girl who he knew two years ago back from the Citadel Gardens.

He wondered if Shepard was a human woman at all? The way she kept her calm determined stance in a heated situation like this would perturb the most battle-hardened turians, let alone some lousy mercenaries who were only trying to make some quick cash.

"Garrus! Mordin! Is everyone alright?" Shepard asked, her eyes widening with concern.

"Apart from the minor damage to the kinetic shields from the Blue Sun guards, we're in perfectly good shape," Mordin replied, while adjusting his lab coat.

Garrus gave her a worried look, "Don't worry about us. What about you, Shepard? The way they handled you..."

He couldn't finish his sentence. Garrus gritted his teeth in disgust, while feeling offended at the way the guards tried to seize her before.

"It's alright Garrus, I'm fine now. They haven't broken me," Shepard replied, trying to reassure him.

Suddenly there was a loud siren coming from the alarm system. As the sound wailed through the whole ship, she quickly ordered them to get into their defensive positions. There was a biotic flash that shrouded her body for a brief moment, before crouching down in a nearby cover. They were preparing for more reinforcements from the guards, who were staging an assault into the room.

"Guards! What's going on down there?" Kuril growled frantically in his speakers.

Shepard yelled into the air, replying back at the warden in a dangerous, almost-seductive tone, "I've already sent them down to hell, I'll be sending you there next, Kuril."

"Shepard has escaped from the containment! I repeat! Shepard has escaped!"

The guards started to charge down the corridors, leading into the room where they were holed up. Garrus quickly shifted his position and kneeled quietly beside Shepard. While he finalised the configuration settings on his sniper rifle, he heard a small faint curse, coming from Shepard. He gently prodded her.

"Are you really sure that you're alright?" Garrus asked.

"Well, I haven't got the slightest scratch from them... it's just every time I see a slaver, I'm seeing red. Kuril is a perfect example of a two bit slaver asshole," Shepard growled while tossing a singularity vortex at the doorway.

Garrus raised his right eyelid at her. He was bemused with the crude language coming out of her mouth, especially when the Commander usually kept her professional stance no matter how the situation hits them. Understandable if he were to hear those terms from an uneducated citizen on Omega, but coming from Shepard, who was known to be the golden girl of humanity and her cultured poise? Despite the time they spent together back then, he realised there were still a lot of things he didn't knew about his human friend.

As soon the singularity vortex couldn't handle anymore hostiles, Shepard summoned another biotic ability to combust the vortex into an unstable explosion, causing anyone that are nearby the blasting radius to be gravely injured. The Blue Sun guards were scattered all over the place, dazed from the after effects of the blast, which gave Garrus an opportunity to pick off the stray opposition with his sniper rifle.

Once they finished dealing with the assault from the guards, Garrus turned his direction to Shepard, as he noticed from her body language that she was getting irritated.

"Shepard... you've seem to be getting tense about this. I've never seen you use profane words before," Garrus remarked.

"I know that! I don't have the time to act all polite and proper when the galaxy is at stake already." Shepard replied in an angry tone. She pulled the trigger onto a nearby corpse with her pistol, making sure that the guard was dead.

There was a brief moment of silence, as both Garrus and Mordin watched her checking the last few corpses. After they were dealt with, Shepard took a few deep breaths to regain her composure, before her eyes focused back on her team. There was a small frown on her face, as she started showing her guilty conscience from her brief lashing at them.

"Garrus... I'm sorry about this. I didn't mean to yell at you, it's just..."

"I know. It's about Mindoir again, isn't it?" Garrus asked.

Shepard nodded back at him with a distasteful expression, "Every time I've run into those slaver scumbags, I've wanted to gun them down. The thought of them raiding other colonies like Mindoir irks me."

She took another deep breath while Garrus tapped her lightly on the shoulder, trying to give her some comfort.

"Shepard, I know you don't like slavers and I don't like them either but... we have to focus on Jack first. This mission is too important to let our personal feelings get in the way."

She nodded back at him in acknowledgement. "You're right Garrus, we've got a job to do besides indulging into petty vengeances. Even if I've killed Kuril, there other human colonies that are still in danger of getting abducted by the Collectors, including Mindoir. Come on, let's find Jack."

They rushed out of the room and ran through the corridors, gunning down the other guards who are attempting to block them, before they reached the entrance to the control booth. Shepard signalled them to take cover at the side of the doorway, then she activated her omni-tool and started to hack through the security lock by adjusting the circuit modules. After a few tweaks, the colour holographic interface of the door had changed from orange to green, indicating that they had access to the room now. She tapped the interface lightly with her index finger and the door slid open. It revealed a jittery technician, repeating the same announcement about Shepard's escape on the mic, unaware the escapee was standing right behind him. She pulled her pistol out and pointed at him.

"Switch that mic off and turn around... very slowly," Shepard warned him in an angry tone.

The technician reluctantly turned the mic off and raised his hand into the air. Garrus peeked over from his cover and studied him carefully. He noticed that his eyes had started to shift, searching for something in the room. Garrus wasn't sure what he's looking for, but he didn't like where this was going, from what the body language of this technician indicated.

Shepard continued, "You've got one chance, don't make any sudden moves or I'll..."

Before she got the chance to finish her sentence, the technician quickly activated a master lockdown on the console. When she saw him him pulling out his side pistol, Shepard quickly dodged the incoming bullet, by side stepping to the right. She quickly pulled the trigger and shot back at him, which resulted in a single bullet landing between his eyes. His body slumped slowly to the ground, knees landing first, before his whole body toppled forward, while Shepard still pointed her gun at him. Once she was sure that the technician was dead, she quickly approached the console and started to skim through the system, while Garrus and Mordin got out of their cover and followed her.

Shepard slammed her hand down on the surface of the console in frustration, "That's just great. There's only two ways to override the master lock down. Either I have to pry the code from Kuril or I have to activate the emergency override. And we don't have time to jerk around this hellhole any longer."

"Shepard, if you override it, all the cells on this ship will be unlocked," Garrus protested. It was bad enough that they had to deal with the guards on the ship, but letting all the psychotic prisoners out from their containment? He could not help but shake his head at her.

"Well, we've got no other choice. Besides having the guards distracted by these thugs might buy us some time to get Jack and escape from here. I'm doing it, so be ready," Shepard replied before tapping onto the holographic keyboard and initiating the emergency override.

Outside the control booth, the giant robotic arm came to life, as it moved itself towards the cryogenic status pod where Jack was being kept. The claw then slowly lowered itself to the hook and pulled the pod out carefully from the containment. Everyone was speechless when they saw Jack for the first time; the revelation of to the convict's identity surprised them all.

"That's... Jack?" Garrus asked, as he studied the criminal that they were supposed to recruit into their fold.

It was a human girl. Her build was petite in size. The upper body was close to being topless, if it weren't for the tattoos and the belt that covered her chest partially. For all the tension build up, as the guards and the inmates talked about the horrors of her murderous psychotic rage, this woman didn't seem threatening to Garrus. He tried to figure out why this criminal seemed to be frightening to everyone on the ship; she didn't seem to look even remotely dangerous. The fact that she was sleeping peacefully in her containment didn't help her case either.

Then Jack snapped her eyes open violently. She screamed angrily into the air, while she ripped the iron braces that bound her in the pod, with her bare hands. Garrus' eyes widened; he was surprised with the raw strength that the criminal possess. He continued to observe her through the booth's window from above, feeling tense when he saw three heavy mechs closing on her. He was trying to figure out how to get her out in that situation, when suddenly she screeched her rage out in the open. Jack raised her fist into the air, her body shone brightly from her biotic abilities and charged towards the mechs without any hesitation. The next few moments were fast and blurry to his memory. There were violent biotic flashes as the mechs were torn apart, followed by the explosions that the floor shook underneath them. After the haze was lifted from his memory, he was lying on his back to the floor, with Shepard lying on top of him, held in his arms.

Garrus felt flustered by this position they were in. He attempted to retrace the events in his mind: as the floor shook, Shepard was loosing her balance, Garrus quickly tried to stop her from falling to the ground by grabbing her. However, the strength of the tremor was too strong for them to be able to stay on their feet, which resulted in them tumbling to the ground together, arms intertwining while their eyes were locked at each other's.

After a brief pause between them, Shepard's cheeks were glowing with a faint pink hue. She took a quick glance at Mordin, who was getting himself off the floor. His back was turned against them, probably unaware of their situation. She shook her head and quickly got up from the floor, freeing herself from his arms, before Mordin could see them in a compromising position. She offered Garrus her hand; he reached out and gripped it tightly as she pulled him off the ground.

They looked over the window again, examining the destruction that lay before them. The heavy mechs in the room were nothing more than a pile of scrap metal now. All caused by this one human Girl, who was armed only with her biotic abilities. Garrus began to understand why everyone feared her.

"Impressive abilities... Might be problematic for the Normandy," Mordin remarked.

"Come on, we have to get to Jack before the Blue Suns do," Shepard replied, before rushing downstairs. As they followed her, Garrus gritted his teeth, bracing himself in case they had to deal with Jack's wrath during their introduction.

"I just saved your ass," Shepard growled at Jack.

The convict shrugged at her, while looking over at the dead guard who Shepard killed before, "He was already dead. He just didn't know it. Now, what the hell do you want?"

Garrus gripped his pistol tightly, as he watched them getting into a heated conversation, feeling uneasy about her. It was not just the destruction that was created by her that made him feel agitated for Shepard's safety, although the heavy damage that Jack caused within the Purgatory ship was part of it. It was her unpredictable, violent emotions that made him wary about her. He was getting ready to jump to Shepard's side and shield her from Jack's anger, in case the conversation went poorly at the end.

"My name is Shepard, you're in a bad situation. We're going to get you out of here."

"Shit, you sound like a pussy," Jack replied in a dismissive tone.

There was a brief silence between them, as Shepard narrowed her eyes and glared at Jack, expressing her irritation. Garrus felt repulsed when he heard Jack using that human word, especially when she describing Shepard in a vulgar way. He was about to step in and give the convict a piece of his mind, when Shepard gently lifted her right arm to block him. She twitched her mouth into a disapproving frown, ushering him to back down. He nodded at her reluctantly and quietly stepped back to his position.

Jack gave Shepard another snide remark, "I'm not going anywhere. You're Cerberus. Do you think I'm stupid enough to board a Cerberus frigate?"

"This ship is going down in flames, I've got the only way out. I'm offering to take you with me. And you're arguing," Shepard retorted angrily.

Garrus felt his patience with this convict slipping at every second. He decided to take this matter into his own hands, "We could just knock her out and take her."

"We're not going to attack her," Shepard snapped back at him.

He was about to protest about her decision, when Jack replied, "Good move."

Garrus then gave Jack a wary look as she approach towards them, feeling the uncertainty about her next reaction. He placed his hand on the pistol, locking his eyes at her, while he took a few steps closer to Shepard.

Jack continued, "Look, you want me to come with you, make it worth my while."

"Tell me what you're thinking," Shepard asked while she took a few cautious steps towards Jack.

"I bet your ship has lots of Cerberus databases. I want to look at those files. See what Cerberus has got on me. You want me to be on your team, let me go through those databases."

Shepard nodded slowly at her. "I'll give you full access."

"You'd better be straight with me," Jack threatened her.

Another loud explosion echoed from the main entrance, which caused everyone to jump. Jack took a quick look around the corridor, before snapping back at Shepard, "So why the hell are we standing here?"

"Move out," Shepard ordered.

As they walked towards the exit, Garrus rubbed his forehead with one of his talons, feeling drained from dealing with Jack. He pondered; How in the spirits had Shepard managed to keep her cool with this convict? Especially when Jack was deliberately toying her nerves with petty insults and a stubborn, immature attitude. He took a sneak glance at Shepard, who was still keeping her calm professional stance, hiding her exasperated feelings behind her.

Despite the difficulties when it came to integrating Jack into Normandy's crew, there was no single incident happening since she first settled down on the ship, at least not one ending with her breaking people's spines with her biotic abilities. Still, that didn't stop from the crew members watching their speech carefully whenever they had to communicate with her or avoiding her like a plague if they had the chance to do so.

"Jack's psych profile seems to be unpredictable at best." Kelly gave Miranda a worried look as she browsed through her datapad.

The two Cerberus employees were discussing the convict in the Mess Hall, near the kitchen counter where they waited for the coffee machine to finish brewing. Despite them talking in a low voice, Garrus still managed to hear them, over at the dining table. He was about finish up with his snack, when he heard Kelly complaining to Miranda about the difficulties in drawing up Jack's profile due to her aggressive attitude. Garrus gave out a tiny smirk on his face. He wondered if he should take a few notes from Jack, by acting all grouchy and moody. It certainly helped Jack in scaring away Kelly, so why not him? His scar and the intimidating turian features would certainly help to make him look menacing.

"Don't get me started about the Commander giving Jack access to the Cerberus databases on the Normandy," Miranda grumbled.

"Speaking of Shepard, what is she doing down at the Cargo Hold?" Kelly asked.

"Probably inspecting the krogan pod that we've picked it up recently from Kortus..."

Miranda paused for a moment when she mention about the pod, she gave Kelly horrified look at her startled realisation, "Did you see the Commander arming herself with a pistol?"

"Well, yes..." Kelly replied.

Miranda quickly rushed out of the counter and headed towards the elevator. It took Garrus a few seconds to realise what was happening: Shepard was opening the krogan pod. He jumped off his seat and followed her, while shaking his head. If there was one thing he could point out about Shepard's sudden change after her 'death', it was her recklessness. He knew she wasn't the most stoic soldier back then, but at least she managed to keep a clearheaded outlook. Now, she seem to jump into life-threatening situations without thinking carefully first. As they waited for the elevator the door swung open all a sudden, revealing a giant krogan who was staring back them, cracking his knuckles. The same krogan who was locked inside of the pod before, was now walking freely around the ship. Garrus noticed the shifty eyes from him, indicating that was looking for something. Whatever that is, it couldn't be good.

The Cerberus operative quickly activated the biotic glow around her, while standing in a defensive posture. Since Garrus didn't have any armed weapons on him, he quickly took off one of his hardsuit's gloves, revealing his sharp bare talons. He pointed his talons at the krogan, while his other arm wielded the omni-tool holographic interface. Before they got a chance to strike, Shepard stepped out from the shadows within the elevator and ordered them to stand down.

"Commander, you shouldn't have opened the pod and let that krogan run around freely without back up!" Miranda chided at her.

"His name is Grunt, Miranda," Shepard replied cooly at her. She continued, "I've already checked up on him, he's fine. From now on, Grunt is a part of the crew, so treat him with respect like any crew member, or otherwise..."

Grunt gleefully punched his fist into his hand, giving them a devious grin, before looking down at Shepard.

"Well, you're all aware how dangerous krogans are. Grunt is no exception," Shepard gave Miranda a mischievous smirk after she finished her sentence.

Then there was a loud rumble coming from Grunt's stomach. He was hungry. Shepard pointed him at the kitchen counter, telling him about the leftovers from yesterday's meal with the crew, before she allowed the krogan to wander freely on the ship at his own device. While he was heading towards the kitchen counter to start raiding the leftovers, with Miranda chasing after him with an exasperated frown, Garrus approached her.

"Shepard, is everything alright? I'm pretty sure that Grunt didn't first greet you with a friendly hug when you let him out of the pod."

"It took some persuasion, but I managed to convince him to join us without firing a single shot," Shepard gave a brave smile while trying to reassure him, but he noticed something behind it.

Her amber eyes gave out a pained expression on her face, while she quickly adjusted her collar to hide something on her neck, but unfortunately his sharp eyesight saw that bandaged area first.

"Don't try to hide it from me. I saw that bandage on your neck. Be honest with me, what happened?" Garrus asked.

Shepard placed her hand onto his mouth, ushering him to keep his mouth shut, "Not so loud! I don't want them to know about this. Look, if you really want to know the whole story, come with me to the Main Battery."

They both walked towards the main battery, passing by the Mess Hall, ignoring chaotic mess in the kitchen that was created by Grunt. The door to the Main Battery opened automatically for them, Garrus stretch his arms out, gesturing her to walk into the room first before him. They stepped in and as soon the door closes behind them, Shepard made a loud sigh of relief, before unbuttoning her jacket, just to loosen the tightness of her collar. Garrus gave her a concerned look, as he observed the exposed neck that was covered with flimsy strips of cloth; there was a bit of blood soaking into the bandage.

"Shepard, you might want to see Dr. Chakwas about that..."

"I'm fine, it's only a minor injury. It will go away tomorrow morning," Shepard interrupted.

"A minor injury? Your neck is bleeding for crying out loud!"

"Garrus, will you stop overreacting? It won't do you any good for your health and safety."

"And what about you? You've risked the whole crew, the mission and yourself; by opening the pod that contains a krogan that could have killed every one of us on this ship!" Garrus scolded her.

"Look, I had no choice but to open the pod. He's either an addition to the crew or a time bomb. I have to deal with it now or he might affect the mission in a bad timing. Besides, we're on a suicide mission; there's nothing left to lose really."

"Damn it Shepard! Just because we're on a suicide mission, that doesn't mean that you have the privilege to do something reckless and life-threatening."

Shepard glared angrily at Garrus, her temper getting the better of her, "And since when do you have the privilege to start barking orders at me? Don't forget that I'm still your Commanding Officer, Vakarian!"

"I'm not ordering you around or questioning your leadership. I'm only telling you to be more careful from now on," Garrus gave her a calm reply, while bracing himself from Shepard's incoming fury, as soon he noticed the subtle angry reaction from her body. Even though she had been killed once, her heated temperament was still there.

Just like old times. Well, almost.

The whole room went silent, as Shepard's temper was subdued all of a sudden. She sighed and looked down in an apologetic manner. He gave her another concerned look. This wasn't the Commander Shepard he knew, who usually kept her chin up high and made no apologies when it came to her authoritative stance. Instead her temperament was dampened, either from the after effects of her death, having her hands tied up by Cerberus or both.

Shepard shook her head slowly. "Look, I'm sorry about this. It's just that this mission had put me on edge... I just had to do something that might increase our chance of survival."

"By opening the pod that contains a sleeping krogan, without any back up or assistance?"

"I guess I behaved too irrationally. You're right Garrus, I've should have taken a few more precautions, but to be fair if I had some assistance at the time, the 'recruitment' would probably have been screwed up by interference. At the end of the day, it's best if I do certain things personally."

Garrus sighed in resignation. "Fine, you might have a point there. Still, if you're going to do something reckless, at least just warn me next time."

"I will, if you promise me not to do anything reckless either, by pulling a stupid heroic move, like jumping into my way and blocking an incoming bullet or something."

Both Garrus and Shepard shot a funny look at one-another, with him tilting his head to one side and lowering one of his plated eyelids, while she folded her arms and raised her left eyebrow. A few moments later, they chuckled quietly together, after reflecting on the irony about their attitudes both being reckless, in their own ways.