Got your update here and now. Or something like that. This chapter is purely Johanna interacting with Jack and Kasumi. Read, Enjoy, Review.
Johanna crossed her legs, looking over to the workstation where Garrus was usually working, his head bent low and his eyes furrowed in concentration. However, now, the turian was currently out with her brother on the citadel, hunting down the person who had killed his team. She remembered the look in the Turian eyes when he got the message. A look of hate, anger, and vengeance, a look that was scary on his face. Is that what she had looked like when her brother had prevented her from shooting Greer? If so, her brother was right to stop her and hopefully he did the same for her Turian. She wondered to herself why she didn't go along? Why wasn't she there to support the Turian in his own personal mission? She rolled her eyes and realized that it would seem hypocritical to go along on his mission for revenge and stop him. And her brother insisted she at least take a week to get her thoughts in order from their mission, assuring that it wasn't him treating her like she was weak. She should have never told him.
It had been a while since Johanna and her brother had their little outing, enough time to recruit a drell and asari while also dealing with the XOs daddy issues and blowing up Jack's childhood home. She wondered if everyone on this ship had childhood issues that they needed to deal with. Sighing, she went back to her omni-tool, focusing on ordering the modifications for Turian armor. If things were really going to get as serious as her brother was trying to tell her, then it was best to suit their teammates up with the best equipment that they could get. Garrus refused to part with his heavy armor despite its glaring wear and tear, so she was doing the friendly thing and modifying it. The excuse didn't even convince her. She knew that the turian was perfectly capable of buying his own equipment to his own standards, but Johanna felt the need to do it for him. She always felt odd when she was around him. Not the odd she felt when she had first met the race of Turian where she wasn't sure whether she should be afraid of them or not. This was different. She had to be like her brother and get attracted to an alien.
She wasn't some delusional person that would deny her feelings and claim that she couldn't something for anyone like people like to perceive her. Still, it was odd she would feel this way towards a Turian. She could see why people were attracted to an asari, they had something that every species could relate to. The scalp crests related to turians, the basic structure appealed to humans, they had extended lives like the Krogan, and Salarian said they shared the large array of skin tones with the Asari. Even she had been tempted by some asari but had kept her thoughts mostly to herself. But a Turian was a different matter altogether. They were scaly, three fingered, dextro-amino based, beady eyed bipedal race. They didn't relate to any of the other species much beyond the small similarity of the asari. Maybe the Shepard siblings shared more than a common DNA. After all, her brother fell for a woman that whose face he had never seen. But, while on the subject, the Turian also seemed like the most reasonable person on this ship to fall for.
The Drell, while his air of enigma and cold justice would intrigue any woman, it just seemed cruel to fall for someone who was doomed to die. Give someone something to live for even though they are doomed to die soon was something that even she thought was horrible. And Jacob, the Cerberus operative who was always holed up in the armory, was clearly not one for a committed relationship. Even the self-appointed XO of the Normandy agreed with her on this, the two rarely agreeing on anything. She'd no doubt any relationship started between the two would end later, though not on her choice. The idea of dating Mordin or Grunt just seemed ridiculous, and she would date Zaeed after she went blind.
And Garrus passed the checklist their dad had given them. He was certainly best friend material, bantering with her and challenging her in everything they did. And he hadn't lied to her yet. Everything she asked him, either personal or otherwise was masked with humor but never a lie. She remembered the look in his eyes as he talked about his team, the one that died while he was in charge. The one thing that he seemed to regret the most. As she thought about this, the door to the main battery opened and entered a woman that drug her from her own thoughts.
Jack stood there, looking around for someone, a black leather shirt covering most of what she exposed. She'd donned the outfit shortly after the mission on Pragia, without an real explanation to anyone who asked. "Looking for someone Jack?" Johanna asked from her position on top of the guns. Jack started and looked up, seeing the Shepard for the first time, squinting as though to tell whether or not it was actually her. She couldn't blame the former convict, it was the first time Johanna had changed into something casual since she had been on the Normandy. It was her old N7 sweatshirt, something she had not even considering wearing for a long time. Something about her brother always made her nostalgic for her Alliance days.
"Yeah. Where's your Turian boytoy? I'm gonna kick his ass." She told Johanna walking around and looking behind the main cannon as if Garrus was hiding behind it.
"Why are you hunting Garrus?"
"He said some shit about me being a loose cannon with an addiction to violence. I'm gonna teach him a lesson." She growled, realizing that Garrus was not in the room.
"So your solution is to prove him wrong with violence? Smart, he'll never see that coming." Johanna mocked playfully. Jack huffed with annoyance and looked away from her, leaning on the console. "So, what's up with you? You seem more irritable than late and that's saying something."
"I don't need to explain myself to you. Why the fuck do you still care? You should have enough information to satisfy you urge." Jack retorted.
"You can never fully know everything Jack. Things can change monumentaly in a few seconds. Besides, I would have to cry myself to sleep without your pleasurable company." Johanna pointed out.
"Shit man, I didn't think of it like that. I fucking hate it when stuff makes sense." Jack complained. She was silent for a moment. "Been thinking. We've seen a lot of shit together now. And you're always coming to talk to me. You attracted to me in some lesbian way because I don't need the complication." Johanna held back her smile.
"I don't buy it, Jack. You're trying too hard." Johanna played, making her tone seductive and suggestive as she could. Jack didn't look at her but Johanna could feel the air shift around her. "C'mon, I'll show you my N7 tattoo. It's in the lower wards, near the bottom."
"Screw you, you don't know me. I've had enough!" She growled. Johanna held back a laugh. This was anger, something Johanna would normally avoid with someone like Jack but this was not a hating anger. It was confused anger.
"Fine with me." She shrugged, this time letting her joking tone in her voice, taking over her suggestive one.
"Right. You're too needy. That's not my thing." Jack quickly tried to brush off.
"Right." Johanna exaggerated the word the best she could, dragging it out and putting emphasis on it. This finally got a reaction out of Jack. She spun towards the woman with her fists clenched in anger and her eyes glaring with confusion.
"Stop that. Stop playing with me. This should be easy. Why aren't you easy?" The tone of her voice made Johanna lose what amusement she had gained from the thing that happened. "I don't want to deal with this right now. Leave me alone, Johanna. Just…for a while." She started walked away but Johanna would not let the woman leave so easily. Pulling out her omni-tool, she quickly hacked the door and engaged the magnetic locks, keeping the convict sealed in. Jack turned towards Johanna in anger, threatening to send a biotic shockwave at her if she didn't leave soon.
"Alright, Jack. I'm not attracted to you in some "lesbian" way. Now talk to me."
"Why? I'm not interested in some dumbshit friendship or love affair, it never goes right." Jack growled at her, pacing back and forth in front of the door, her anxiety about the current conversation topic showing. Johanna nodded and jumped down from her little perch, landing next to the console before continuing.
"Why do you keep running Jack? What are you afraid of?" Johanna asked. Jack took a deep breath to calm herself, stopping her pacing and looking Johanna in her eyes. They held eye contact for a few moments, Jack silent as if dealing with some internal issue. Then, she looked down at the floor and finally spoke:
"Murtock. A guy. Used me like the rest—for sex, for biotics. It was fun. And he ruined everything." As she spoke, she walked past Johanna, retreating into the darkness provided in the area beside the guns for maintence. Johanna turned to where she had gone but didn't follow. "We tagged a weapons frigate with a batarian escort and got separated. He had a choice: Leave with the guns, or come back for me."
"I take it he left with the guns?" Johanna guessed, all of Jack's stories normally ending the same way. She trusted someone, thought they were decent, found out differently and killed them. It wasn't hard to guess where the story was heading. But Jack let loose a sad laugh from the darkness.
"No, that fucking idiot dumps the score and wades in the squints. I made it to the shuttle, but no way was he getting out." She told the Shepard twin, surprised her with this. However, Johanna could sense that this wasn't the end of the story.
"What happens next?"
"I fly for a day or so and then the shuttle kicks out this recording. He set it to play if he hadn't checked in. He figured it would mean he was dead. Talked about the future we were supposed to have. How he had planned to set us up a home. How he—How he loved me and he was sorry it wasn't going to happen." Johanna couldn't sense any hint of anger or hate in the voice. Just sadness. She almost thought all emotions were lost on Jack except for the former two.
"How many Batarians did you kill for that one?" Johanna wondered, assuming this would be the woman's response. She heard Jack take a deep breath from where she was, as she was trying to calm herself down.
"It wasn't their fault. It was his. You feel, you get sloppy. It's that damn simple. He found out, and you'll find out." Johanna could hear the woman fighting off the tears. It was easy enough to see now. Jack was suffering through survivor's guilt, and pretty badly. She remembered the first few weeks after Akuze, where she wanted to die along with her squad. Why should she have been the one to survive when there was all those people to choose. She would have gladly died if it meant saving another of her team. She left the Alliance over this, thinking that if she got assigned to another unit, they would just die off like they had last time. Shortly afterwords, the guilt turned to rage and she was consumed with revenge, directing most it at the Batarians responsible for Mindoir. It was there fault that she had joined the Alliance and was forced to watch her squad torn apart. Her brother had made her realize this. Huh, the bastard was right about gathering my thoughts.
"If he had left you, you would have died." Johanna pointed out. Jack emerged from the darkness of the cannons, storming over to where Johanna and taking an aggressive stance towards Johanna.
"So what, you ever seen me flinch? Or run? Death's easy. Fucking on/off switch." She growled at Johanna before taking a more defensive stance. "But this, it just burrows in. Like those husks, you end up with nothing inside. I'm supposed to take that and say "Thanks, dead guy?" Jack huffed and turned away, obviously tired of Johanna's attempt to be her friend.
"How about a little effort there Jack? People get tired of the wall you put up. I might be your only friend before long." Johanna told her.
"It's there for you, too. Don't you get it? This will screw with the mission. You want out alive, you goddamn run." Jack told her. Johanna just chuckled at this and leaned back on one leg.
"Good thing the mission's suicide then, huh? Everything works out then." Johanna pointed out. Jack shook her head with confusion.
"Are you nuts?" She asked. Johanna laughed heartily at this. A psychotic biotic capable of ripping apart three YMIR mechs apart with her bare hands out of pure rage was questioning her sanity? The irony of the situation was delicious though expected. Insanity ran deep in the Shepard family.
"I've survived much harder things. Do your worst."
"Okay, what the fuck Johanna?"
"Look, I know you've made a great tower of shit to hide behind but you should know by now, nothing scares the Shepard family." Johanna told her with an amused expression. Jack seemed surprised by her words looking at her with attempted anger but the mixture of emotion that did show was hard to discern.
"You think I did this to myself?" It was more of a question than a demand. Johanna acted she thought about it for a single moment before nodding her head in agreement.
"Little by little."
"So why put up with it?" Jack asked, stepping back from Johanna.
"Small ship I guess." Johanna shrugged, stepping towards Jack. Jack sighed, her face scrunching up in confusion, then she walked up to Johanna.
"I….I need some time to think. Really, just leave me alone." Jack told the woman before walking past her towards the door. Realizing that Jack would need the time to think this time, she pressed the button on her omni-tool and opened the door to the crews quarters. Jack shook her head and muttered: "Goddammit." Just loud enough to hear before she stormed off. Sooner or later, this conversation would have to come again. Johanna decided that later would be a better option. The woman before her was not exactly the healthiest emotional mind ever and Johanna was sure that keeping her locked in this room any longer would end with her as a splatter against the nearby wall. Jack wasn't gone more than a minute before there was a sound of the Master thief decloaked behind her.
"Well, isn't she just turning into a ray of sunshine." Kasumi greeted, leaning on the nearby railing behind Johanna. "Three minutes, thirty-four seconds by the way."
"I may have to actually start trying soon." Johanna replied in turn then made a move to get back on the main cannon stopping only for a second before turning towards. "Tell me about Keiji." She asked, leaning against the gun's console and staring at Kasumi. The Master Thief jumped at the mere mention of the name and quickly did her best to hide that she had been surprised. It wasn't very successful.
"Why?" She asked, nervousness slipping into her voice.
"Every time I take a look at anything in your room, most of it has to do with this Keiji and you're willing to take on Donovan Hock to get the greybox back. I know Hock isn't the biggest fish in the sea but he's certainly not someone that people mess with lightly. Keiji must have meant a lot to you." Johanna noted to the master thief, telling her things that she had noticed. Kasumi smiled sadly and looked as though she was lost in memories for a moment before answering.
"That obvious huh?" Kasumi said with a sad sigh. Johanna shrugged to her question and waited patiently. "Well, Keiji, was a brilliant thief. Not to my level but…."
When I tried to write about Kasumi, I realized how little she actually tells you about Keiji. She tells you how they met and how he died but that's about it. So I left it up to the reader's imagination. And its pretty much hinted at through one of conversations that Jack is bi or is open towards that relationship. If not, I'm ascertaining it. And yes, I'm holding that the two Shepards are bi. Also, last thing, Jack's dialogues are cut really short during the romance like they couldn't get anything out besides Jack being confused at the relationship. And I understand it and all but its a drag getting everything out of her.