The pilot scrambled at Shepard's behest and together they hoisted up the board Mordin was on. Outside the Kodiak, Jack turned and watched, arms crossed.
"You're a knowledgeable man, Thane. And I bet you've handled the dead before." Shepard said, steadying the salarian as they stepped off the shuttle.
"Yes," Thane flatly replied, hands behind his back.
"Then check the dead man's teeth and let me know if you find anything."
"Very well."
Left standing outside the Kodiak, Jack looked the drell over as he watched Shepard go. Then she glanced back in the shuttle.
"Where's the quarian?"
"She was abducted by the 'traders'."
"Shit." Jack lingered by the small kinetic cage that held the unconscious Lawson. "I kept telling her it was a damned trap."
Thane remained quiet as he turned back onto the shuttle. Flipping the dead man over his shoulder, he carried him out into the hold and lay him on a workbench as Jack looked on.
"I told her about all this crap too. Ceberus. Trusting them like this." Jack shook her head. Thane cracked off the helmet as she continued, "It bit us in the ass."
Light aglow on his omni-tool, Thane pried open the stiffened jaw of the corpse and looked over the man's teeth. The rumble of sound in his throat drew Jack a few steps closer.
"What is it?"
"A modified molar. This man is Cerberus."
Nose wrinkled with distaste, Jack looked from the subtle blue barrier that held Miranda back to Thane, "So it was all some plan of theirs? And they took Shepard's friend."
Thane put them helmet back on the man, "That is how it seems."
"I'm going to fucking murder her!" Jack turned towards the containment fields, her biotics already charging along her body.
With quick steps, Thane kept up with her jaunty pace, though he knew better than to grab her, "Jack - Shepard wouldn't wish that."
"She'll thank me later."
"Miranda may have information on where they've taken Tali'Zorah. Shepard will want to question her."
"Yeah," Jack sighed, turning and running a hand over her head, "Yeah I know."
"Thank you." Thane's posture remained proper, even as his thoughts fled to many other places, "For your assistance in keeping the Normandy from being lost as well."
"Saving my own ass from ending up in a cell again."
"Then I am glad for the additional benefits that resulted."
Jack's eyes stayed on the inert, restrained form of Miranda a while longer before nodding her chin Thane's way. The drell stood ramrod straight, hands clasped behind his back with the same casual confidence he always carried.
"Go see Shep. I'm fine - I'll keep an eye on them."
"No need." Still clad in her battered hardsuit, Shepard clomped out of the elevator. She gave Thane a light touch on the back before resting her hands on her hips and standing beside Jack. Her expression was hard.
"So you going to let me kill her this time?"
"No." The word was firm and simple. With her helmet off, the fine cream dust caked in any crease aged Shepard and lightened her hair. "EDI, did you get anything on the ship that left?"
No reply came and Shepard let the air seep from her. Things were bad.
"Do you think she'd kill herself?" Shepard asked no one in particular.
Thane handed Shepard a medi-gel from a nearby station, able to see the movement of blood she leaked. Barely looking at him, she injected it into her suit and sucked a breath through her teeth.
"No. She has too much self worth. If she even has the same dental implants."
Eyes unfocused, Shepard nodded, looking at the woman she'd been arrogant enough to place trust in. Less than she had in the rest, and with lingering doubt - but she had believed her. And she had coordinated it all.
She still was just a lap dog for the Illusive Man. It soured Shepard's mouth, and her cheek twitched - as much from the thought as from the medi-gel coursing through her weaves.
"She's too perfect to hurt herself," Jack added.
Blinking lengthily, Shepard nodded before touching her comm, "Garrus, join me in the cargo bay."
"Aye, Commander."
Jack watched Shepard, and the woman looked at her.
"Jack, would you get rid of that body for me?"
Halfway to a sneer, Jack saw the drawn fatigue on Shepard's face and said, "Yeah, fine. Thanks for the privilege."
The comment quirked Shepard's lips a moment, but then it was gone. Jack turned and swaggered towards the workbench and plucked him up with a controlled biotic lift.
"He was Cerberus," Thane said.
Shepard sighed, gingerly crossing an arm to support the other.
Garrus met Jack at the elevator, and sidestepped the oddity, walking with a bit of a limp out to join them. Shepard hadn't looked away from Miranda, her jaw set in a hard line.
"Shepard - you look about as good as I feel." Garrus took his place at her side, leaving her framed by the two men. His voice dropped, "I can't believe they took Tali..."
"They wanted me. And the ship."
"Think she knows where they'd take her?" Garrus motioned to Lawson.
"She'll know something."
Thane shifted his weight, "I think she regretted what she saw as the necessity of her actions."
The rich voice drew Shepard's eyes to him, expression losing some of its harder angles.
"Before I disabled her, she was speaking with Jacob. They had a heated exchange - and it was clear she was distressed."
"Wake her."
Adjusting the kinetic field surrounding Miranda, Garrus looked from Shepard to Thane, who produced an injector. Reinforcing and checking the restraints holding her, the drell easily plucked the needle against her skin. The field around her sprung back to life, with Garrus monitoring as Miranda's head lifted, eyes sluggishly opening to meet Shepard's unforgiving gaze.
Tossing her disorganized dark hair over her shoulder, Miranda looked between Garrus and Thane, gauging her situation. Shepard maintained her military posture.
"Hello, Miranda." Shepard's words were cold and slippery, like glacial ice, hard and clear.
Thane left Shepard's side, moving to stand behind Miranda.
"Shepard." The woman's eyes flecked between the two men again, expression hardened to some unreadable place.
Supporting her injured arm, Shepard stared at Miranda. The seconds ticked in the quiet before the Commander said, "Was it worth it?"
"Obviously not." Miranda tried to shift, but the barrier sparked, and she let her muscles go lax.
Shepard sighed before saying, "I trusted you. In the end, I was never really more than your project. I must have disappointed you. " She raised a hand to silence Miranda, "I helped you with your sister, I pushed you to speak with her. I even brought your sorry ass back from an impossible mission, unscathed. I did what Cerberus wanted."
Miranda's eyes dropped and it was a moment before she said, "Do you remember what I said to you on the station right before you, Jacob and I investigated Freedom's Progress?"
Shepard blinked lengthily, a soft huff in her throat before she said, "We were strangers then, Miranda."
"I meant it, Shepard - I told you that first day that I'd follow your orders as long as you didn't betray Cerberus. Even if - " Miranda looked at Garrus and tilted her head to see Thane in her periphery. The drell had his hands clasped behind his back, "Even if I believed that you destroying the Collector's base was the right thing to do - you went against Cerberus and the Illusive Man."
"Did he threaten Oriana?"
"No... no, he didn't need to."
Shepard gave a little shake of her head, "I'm just trying to understand this, Miranda."
"I was here because the Illusive Man instructed me to be. Because I'm the best."
Unable to look at the woman's face any longer, Shepard turned, "Is that why they took Tali, too?"
"What?"
"Oh right. You knew the lies to try and catch me, but you were too busy up here to pay attention to what was going on down below." She cracked her neck from side to side, gaze cutting back to Miranda, "You knew enough that they'd failed, waking to see me. That you'd failed too."
"Shepard, I... " Miranda held her tongue as the subtly glowing eyes of the Commander focused back on her. She could remember what they looked like on the surgical tray - what they'd looked like before they had grafted and regenerated Shepard's eyelids. Before they had life. She gave a slight shudder.
"Where would they take her, Miranda?"
Blood dripped off Shepard's elbow, and she turned away to snag a medi-gel from the station on the far wall. She propped her foot onto one of the exchange fans and injected the gel into the trauma module on her hardsuit. Both Thane and Garrus' concerned eyes followed her.
"I don't know, Shepard."
"I'm tired of games." Shepard's throat croaked, and her lips pressed into a line. "I'm the closest thing to a friend you have on this ship. I'm what's keeping you safe."
Shepard moved with fatigued steps towards the elevator, "I'll give you some time to think about that. But I don't think I'll want to protect you much longer." Her tongue was thick, mouth dry, "Garrus, do you need to see the doctor?"
"It can wait."
"See her." Shepard cast him a glance before she looked to Thane too, face ashen. The door closed.
"The bullets were laced with a toxin. For now, I am keeping him in an induced coma." Dr. Chakwas' face was drawn from the extensive xeno-surgery of her previous two patients. She tweezed the packing out of Shepard's wound and flushed it again, "If you'd taken more hits than this, I'm not sure we'd have seen either of you again."
"It is a synthetic toxin, believed to have been developed by Aldrin Labs, despite Citadel conventions preventing such research." EDI contributed, before her visage flickered into nothing again, still unstable.
Shepard closed her eyes under the prodding of the doctor. She rarely let her operate under general anaesthetic, preferring lucid discomfort to the odd darkness of going under.
"He'll pull through." Shepard murmured.
The doctor worked in quiet for a while, suturing the deep tissue that was lacerated by the shot. "What are you going to do about Tali?"
While Shepard's mind could only offer an unknown, she kept the strength in her voice and said, "Find her and get her back."
"We all know the possible outcome of the work we do, Commander." Dr. Chakwas looked up briefly, retrieving another suture to close the wound.
"I would have thought Cerberus would know who they're dealing with by now." Shepard shook her head, her hair in disarray on the pillow underneath her. "Kidnapping has nothing to do with bettering humanity."
"Cerberus did this?"
Shepard opened her eyes, sitting up the moment she felt the soothing presence of medi-gel sealing the doctor's work, "Of course they did. They tried to get me and the Normandy in one go. Makes the Illusive Man seem desperate."
A grim line fashioned the doctor's lips.
"How are you at pulling teeth, doctor?"
"I - it is simple enough, Commander." The furrow on Dr. Chakwas' dignified features deepened as she bandaged Shepard.
"Thanks." Shepard was on her feet the moment she was allowed, pulling her shirt back on. "Please keep me informed of Mordin's condition."
The Illusive Man flecked his cigarette, looking over the expansive array of vids. Behind him Sarpov stood at attention, his armour dusty and bloodied.
"Shepard isn't some green marine, Sarpov."
"Yes sir, I know, but -"
"She isn't stupid enough to be duped into a situation like the one you're proposing."
The man dropped his broad chin, clamping his mouth shut. Drawing the ash of his cigarette down, the Illusive Man casually lit another. It flared to life, burning like he did inside.
Miranda had been right. Their viewpoints on missions had never varied so greatly, but he was a man of action. He had gotten desperate and it showed. Their investment was slipping from his grasp, and it had been arrogance on his part for believing that he could continue to manipulate Shepard from afar. For thinking his best could stop the grandeur of the Commander's tenacity.
Miranda had missed their appointed communiqué.
"When you saw the situation was out of hand, you should have withdrawn, regrouped, and assessed the situation. The Persephone could have weathered the storm, and you would have been in a superior position over Shepard's unguarded team.
"She'd already reached the decoy."
The Illusive Man kept his back to the holographic projection of the cell leader, reinforcing the waste of time Sarpov's presence and actions were.
"So instead of maintaining your cover, letting Shepard rescue someone she thought was her brother and plan a follow-up... you decided to take one of her team that has seen her through two lifetimes?" The Illusive Man crushed the butt of his cigarette down into the moulded tray on the arm of the chair he stood beside. "I provided you with extensive details, Sarpov. I had believed you more than capable."
"I believe we can use Tali'Zorah to rope Shepard in, sir. We just need time to plan the proper execution and be set up for her." Sarpov shifted his weight, hands linked behind him, "We know everything about Commander Shepard. We can use that."
Closed eyes were the only expression of displeasure from the Illusive Man, and he replied, "Treat the quarian properly. We don't have an upper hand." He finally turned, looking at Sarpov with glowing eyes. "She's our bargaining chip. Contact me once you've reached the base, and I'll provide you with further instructions."
"Yes, sir. Of course."
Index finger stabbing the disconnect on the arm of his chair, the Illusive Man sighed. The chair moved to meet him as he sat down at the wide haptic terminal, and lifting a decanter, refilled his chilled glass with cognac. Typing a succinct message, he hit send and delivered the order.
They hadn't been able to properly recover a number of key systems yet. The crew was bitter, but not at each other, and they diligently worked towards bringing propulsions back online. Thankfully, EDI had made stealth a priority. For the time being, they were concealed.
In general, Jack felt particularly useless down in her hovel. She wasn't much of a techy, never paid much attention to first aide, and she'd been relieved of her first shift of guard duty. Sleep wasn't a high priority, as nearly blacking out during the mutiny had left her jittery.
Jack had extensive experience with a wide range of drugs, illegal, experimental - and more than once in her lovely childhood, tolerances had saved her. She couldn't count the times they'd had to double or triple the sedative doses to calm her down after a fight. Probably because of the fights. Sometimes the air filled with a nerve toxin and became pretty good motivation to stay awake. She couldn't lose, she had to beat them or suffer.
It still gave her a rush. Earlier that day, when she had stayed conscious, clawing to the stairs deep in the ship as her limbs begged to sleep, her body had reacted, conditioned, and her senses flooded with sweetness.
Spending a lot of time on the same deck, Tali and Jack invariably had talked at some point - at the quarian's doing, really. Sociable, she said, since they were cut off from everyone by their suits. For such a small woman, she'd proved resilient and commanding. Tali had even taken time to help install the mods she'd made for her own shotgun into Jack's.
These ideas and memories really only half-entered Jack's thoughts, though. Given wide access to the ship's info and databases, she knew of Shepard's history with the curvaceous alien.
That and the fact Shepard had hauled all their worthless assess back through the Omega 4 relay had been gnawing a deep hole into Jack over the past few hours. And they called her a psychopath. Beyond that, even she had enough sense to realize that while Shepard could pussyfoot around and gave way too many second chances, you just didn't fuck with her.
But what if she went soft this time?
It was late after a harrowing day, and Jack still had a good deal of energy to burn. That was one of the reasons she volunteered to take another guard shift in the hold - but not the main one.
Slipping out of the shadows, Jack nodded Jacob's way. "You look like shit, Taylor."
The man crossed his arms, weight on his hip as he looked towards the voice, "Not the best of days." Jacob regarded the barrier holding Miranda.
"Well, that's why I'm here." Jack crossed her arms, mimicking his stance. "Let you get some beauty sleep."
Jacob nodded and strolled past her, "Hope the time goes better for you."
"Wasn't my 'friends' who mutinied against the woman who saved the human race – so yeah, maybe just a little."
Jacob stopped in his tracks, back to Jack. The woman grinned, knowing full well it hit a nerve with the soldier. She was disappointed as he continued walking away. She turned around to look at the queen bitch. Miranda's head was drooped forward in either with fatigue or sedation.
Tapping through a few things on her omni-tool, Jack scanned Miranda, confirming her suspicions about her amp. Lowering the kinetic field protecting the agent, Jack ensured the restraints were firm before stepping in.
It was the sound of Miranda's scream that pulled Thane from his meditative rest. The day had weighed into him, and he'd sunk deeper than intended. Opening his eyes, he moved with stealth from his perch in the cargo bay.
Unable to assist with getting the ship's AI and systems running again, Thane had taken it upon himself to be secondary watch in the hold. Trust was a fickle thing, and the tension in Shepard had strengthened his resolve to do all he could to minimize collateral damage.
"You couldn't resist giving Shepard another quick mind-fuck."
Thane assessed the threat. Jack hovered over Miranda, and there was a spatter of blood down her white Cerberus uniform. Smiling, Jack raised a small bit of tech for appraisal before dropping it and crushing it under her heel.
Its shape and detail compared with the catalogue of Thane's memories - it was Miss Lawson's biotic amp. Even the removable part of the wetware was unable to be extracted without considerable pain - Jack was no surgeon. A delicate situation. Miranda's pallor indicated the injury as not life threatening.
"She's going to kill you," Miranda weakly laughed.
"Doubt that," Jack twisted the restrained woman's wrist, and there was a sickening crunch. Miranda cried out, her eyes closing as her body tensed, a reflexive shimmer of an uncoordinated biotic field over her body. "Just tell me where they took the quarian and I might leave the rest of your limbs alone."
The words gave Thane a moment of pause as he silently dropped behind an exchange fan. He had initially thought Jack were merely taking advantage of the situation to inflict vengeful pain on the Cerberus operative. Thane had no doubt it was a perk in the biotic's mind, but Jack was trying to extract information on Shepard's behalf.
The situation might not be as difficult to diffuse.
Thane had seen Jack's prowess in the assault on the Collector base - beneath Samara's protective barrier, they had fought through seeker swarms, husks, and scions. He knew her from their training skirmishes, and another scant mission or two. All else he knew about Jack was from others.
"Jack's had a very hard life. She may have done a lot of terrible things - but who are we to talk? I know you see the body as separate... Perhaps, all she has done is a result of the conditioning she had forced on her as a child." My head inclines to her insight, the wave of her hair capturing my eyes. "I think she wishes she were different - sometimes, anyway. Don't we all?"
Miranda was not cooperating. More words had exchanged between them in Thane's lapse, and he crept closer.
"Need to learn how to play with others - you know what?" Jack swaggered, her eyes alight, "If you're so eager not to tell me how to find her, why don't you show me instead?"
Miranda shook her head as Jack used her omni-tool to open the Kodiak. "EDI!" The woman cried out, before adding with a dry laugh, "You really are insane, Jack."
Casually glancing back, Jack said, "Oh, I'm not even warmed up." She motioned to the shuttle, "After you, ma'am." Her biotics came to life, and Miranda made a pained sound as she was lifted and tossed into the waiting shuttle. Jack was close on her heels.
Thane vaulted over the fan junction and sprinted to the shuttle, the time for stealth gone, "Jack!"
The woman turned from where she activated the systems, and seeing Thane standing over Miranda, her biotics flared. Unable to avoid the entire blast of energy, the throw caught his shoulder and flung him back into the seats. The impact winded him, and the drell gasped in, his illness - his nemesis - exacerbating it.
"You of all people," Jack spat, and a barrier rose from her free hand, absorbing the pull Thane tried to throw in response. "Why try and stop this, Krios - after what this bitch did to Shepard?"
The initiation sequence in the shuttle kicked into full gear, and the door sealed shut, pressurizing as confirmations and haptic interfaces buzzed behind Jack. Miranda lay unconscious on the ground.
"This isn't what she'd want." Thane found his voice, the timbre rich despite the struggle for air.
"She wants Tali'Zorah." Jack watched him a moment before turning, "And I plan to deliver. I owe her - and you're not stopping me."
Reaching for his pistol, Thane was caught in another burst of biotics that slammed him back into the wall. Wheezing, he slumped to the ground, his body responding with a shot that only met wall. The door to the cockpit was already shut and locked behind her.
"Shepard - come in."
With EDI still scrambling to maintain vital systems, Jack overrode and opened the cargo bay doors with relative ease. A few decks up, Commander Shepard worked with Garrus to prioritize and assign work to those able to do it. She touched her comm, stretching her arm back as she stood.
"Thane?"
"Jack has commandeered the Kodiak and has Miranda on board." Thane regained his footing, and stepping over Lawson, accessed the only terminal in back. The Kodiak lurched, and Thane caught himself against the door.
"Joker - what is the status of the cargo bay and Kodiak?"
"Uh non-vital systems - EDI?" Joker manipulated a few controls, and there was the garbled sound of the AI's voice, but no solid reply. "Can't tell, Commander."
"Do we have absolutely no eyes or anything without EDI?" Shepard dropped the data pad in her hand and sprinted towards the elevator, Garrus immobile in surprise before he took after her.
"Jack! Jack - there's no reason for this, we can help Shepard on the Normandy!" Thane shook his head as the door wouldn't open to his request, and he touched the comm again, "I can't stop it Shepard, she's disabled the back terminal. I'm trapped in the passenger hold."
"I'm almost there, Thane - just stall her if you can!"
The Kodiak escaped out of the bay with a quick jaunt, the kinetic barriers of the Normandy only visible as a flicker of blue as it passed through. In another few seconds the thrusters powered, and it made the jump to FTL.
