-Garrus-
As Jane speaks with the tracking officer that has supposedly been keeping tabs on the Justicar, Garrus sits just outside the open office on the bench, both listening in to the conversation neither woman was trying to keep quiet as well as keeping an eye out for anything. He meant what he said to her about this place being no better than Omega, just with brighter lights, better paint, and prettier citizens, and he wasn't too thrilled with the tactical disadvantage of this Officer Dara's office.
From the sounds of this woman they're to try and meet, Justicars seemed like the very thing he had strived to be all his life, the epitome of justice. Above Asari law and governed only by some monastic code, they seemed like the perfect thing for a corrupt universe that contained the dirty, underhanded worlds like Illium and Omega. Only something just didn't feel right with the way the officer portrayed this Justicar, Samara.
How can someone supposedly 'stop lawbreakers, often with lethal force' if that term could actually apply to anything from murderers to shoplifters? The officer's concern about the strict nature of the Justicar, even when around aliens unaware of the power these Asari have, is more than justified it seems. None of us has 'clean slates', as Jane would say, and we all have done things that would apparently condemn us in this woman's eyes… Should be entertaining to see how this goes.
Their conversation stops as Jane walks around the small dividing wall, looking so much larger than she really is in her set of full armor and arsenal of weaponry. She carries a contemplating look on her face as she sits beside him on the bench, her brow lowering in time with her body to the seat. He takes a moment to look her over, gauge the situation of the conversation he was only half listening to, before he speaks loud enough for her to hear, but low enough to keep it between them. "That looks like doubt."
Her face relaxes with a couple blinks in confusion as she looks to him, his response obviously snapping her out of her thoughts. "What?"
"Something about Samara has you worried?" he tries again, lifting a brow plate.
She sighs and leans her elbows onto her armored knees, linking her fingers together as she stares off into the expanses of Nos Astra. "I'm starting to wonder if it's such a good idea bringing a supposed hard-assed Justicar on the Normandy with a bunch of, let's face it, criminals." She lifts her clasped hands and bumps a knuckle on her lips. "What's to keep her from shooting us all and ruining the mission because we have all done something that broke one law somewhere or another?"
"You really think she'd risk a bigger mission because we've all done something against the law? Wouldn't taking out the Collectors be a bigger cause for her to get behind?"
She shrugs and says, "Fuck, man, I don't know. I don't know how Justicars work and I don't have a clue on all that Asari mumbo-jumbo, high-and-mighty shit. What's to say she won't just look at us and shoot us before we can even think the word 'Collectors'?"
As unlikely as that exact kind of situation sounds, Garrus nods in agreement, but doesn't speak as she seems to be too focused on her dilemma. If he knows her by now – which he's pretty sure he does – she's running scenarios in her head, trying to weigh her options should everything work or, more likely, go horribly wrong.
With a huff of frustration, she slaps her gloved hands against the plate of her thigh guards and stands. "Fuck it…we're going after her." She rolls her neck and turns to him, her eyes steely with her decision. "If she tries something, what are the odds she can take out three of us at once?" she asks with an equally sharp smirk.
He chuckles and stands with her, glad to see some of her usual determination back. "You're putting an awful lot of faith in us being able to take out a Justicar," he quips. "Some of the crew aren't so fast on the draw, so it might just be you and me against her." He hums in thought, running actual situations through his head contrary to his flippant attitude. Jane's worry is legitimate, after all, because, as Dara said, no one has seen a Justicar outside of Asari space, so there was never a reason to learn how they worked and that now leaves them in a precarious predicament – and he never did like going into a fight blind.
"That's means we get a good chance to try out our newest addition," she says with a nod as she crosses her arms over her chest, her usually bright green eyes cloudy from her thoughts. "I figure an assassin with hundreds of years of training would be good. And, besides that, we've done plenty of other equally outrageous things. How hard can taking on some Asari monk warrior be?"
"We have done some things that are difficult for even me to believe," he agrees, "and I was there." A soft huff comes from her and her eyes soften a bit. "And I think your information is a little inaccurate." Seeing her unease lightening and wanting to draw her out, he flicks his good mandible, smirking. "If Thane had 'hundreds of years of training', he certainly wouldn't have sounded like he was playing The Elcor Symphony in the ducts back when we recruited him."
She laughs at him bringing that up again and he can't help his low purr of triumph or the pull of his mandibles, even if the right one screams in pain at the movement. "Jesus, he was fucking loud. I don't know how Nassana's men didn't hear him sooner."
"Probably because you have a certain way of attracting attention when you get into a rant." He chuckles at her eye roll. "And you do know that, if you do choose to call Krios out to find Samara, you're going to have to hold off on that certain habit you have of charging into people's line of sight on a moment's notice." He smirks with a low thrum to his vocals. "Not every sniper can adapt to your unique fighting style as easily as I can, Jane."
"Wait… Thane's a sniper?" she asks with a tilt to her head, her lips puckering in that certain way when she's often trying to think back to something.
He snorts and rumbles in amusement. "Did you not pay attention to anything anyone said this morning in that mandatory – what did you call it? – 'team building exercise'?"
He still remembers the look on Grunt and Jack's face at being woken up so early to share breakfast with the rest of the ground crew, but the prospect of hot food got their attentions elsewhere quick enough. Also, he has to admit, everyone is starting to warm up to not only Jane, but the others because of these unofficial bonding exercises just like on the hunt for Saren. They just may have a bigger chance of surviving this now that the crew isn't at least at each other's throats.
"I was tired, Garrus," she mock whines as she pulls up her Omni-Tool. "I was chasing this Drell all around these two giant towers all night." He lifts a brow plate and she stops tapping to look to him, matching his raised brow. "And the worst thing? Man didn't put out… made a girl chase him all night. What a tease."
"Too bad you were stuck with your husband, instead," he deadpans and she chuckles with a smirk.
"Ah…don't be jealous." She steps close, making their armor clink together slightly as her rounded chest plate hits his jutted keel armor. She lowers her voice to that teasing tone that comes with heated stares and a lot less clothing and armor. "He may have the spit to make me high," she runs her hand slowly – teasingly - up his arm, "but he doesn't have the reach you do." She leans up and tilts her head to his ear, speaking into it in that husky timbre. "Oh, the wonderful things that tongue of yours can do."
He growls heatedly, turning his head to see her knowing smirk just as an awkward cough sounds over her supposedly open comm channel on her Omni-Tool. She snorts and looks to her Tool just as the image of their recently acquired crew member projects itself about her wrist. "Ah, Thane… just the guy I was looking for," she says with a quick glance in Garrus' direction and that same wicked smile.
The Drell clears his throat over the line, his expression clearly uneasy about what exactly Jane could mean as he tries to avoid direct eye contact with either her or Garrus at her side. "This is an uncomfortable situation for me. Perhaps you could explain what it is you are needing of me."
Jane starts laughing and shakes her head, trying to collect herself. "No, no. Not for what you're thinking. Although…" She tilts her head, as if considering, and Garrus growls lowly so only she hears in reprimand, making the corner of her lips quirk. "No, never mind," she 'amends'. "Get your scaly ass over here, Krios. We got a Justicar to find." She taps in coordinates and he nods.
"Of course," he assures with a bowed head before the connection is cut, leaving Garrus with his wife and that knowing grin back on her lips. Refusing to add fuel to that particular fire, he shakes his head with a sigh.
If he knows anything about her, it's that her nature to shamelessly flirt – and that's a giving term for her special brand of flippant views on sexuality – it's that the more hesitance or discomfort someone shows to it, the worse her teasing will become. It was certainly something some don't ever quite get used to, but he knows his mate well enough to see how it's one of the best ways to help her ease out from behind those high walls she's made for herself. Besides, it's not like he doesn't share in her amusement when she does manage to 'make someone squirm'.
V.v.V.v.V.v.V
On their way back towards the detective's office with evidence of the Volus merchant's murderer for Anaya as well the ship name of whoever Samara's fugitive, this 'Ardat-Yakshi', was smuggled off of Illium in hand, they find their way blocked by a pacing Pitne For.
"Thank you for removing the Eclipse threat, Earth-clan! -tssht- It will take them months to rebuild their organization," he says with the most cheerful tone Garrus thinks their translators can produce for the wheezing Volus. He steps into Jane's way, making her lift a brow in amusement at the man's attempt to block her access to the law enforcement offices. "Also… -tssht- merely out of curiosity, when you were poking about, did you perhaps run across a shipping manifest that belongs to me?"
Jane smirks and rolls her eyes to the sky with a drawn out hum, as if thinking. "You know… I think I did." She pulls a small OSD from the strap of heatsinks on her thigh and holds it out, tugging it away at the last moment. "This is quite the incriminating information, Pitne. What's it worth to you?"
Garrus narrows his eyes at her for even thinking about letting the little man get away with this, but he holds his tongue, waiting to see if that curl to her lips is more than she's letting on. Pitne For's lit eye sockets of his suit blink as he nods. "For the manifest, I'll give you all the creds I made selling the Minagen. –tssht - Detective Anaya will only reward you with a pat on the back, Earth-clan."
She taps the tip of the OSD chip on her chin once before nodding. "Fine, but word to the wise, don't write down when you're doing something stupid and illegal. Or at least not happen to leave your evidence wherever the hell you want like it's some kind of read for the shitter." She tosses the chip to him through the air, making him jumble a bit before he manages to grab a hold of it.
He looks it over before nodding. "An excellent point, Earth-clan. You're clearing a better criminal than I. –tssht- I pleasure doing business." He gives a final nod before pocketing the OSD and waddling his way back to his guards and packed shuttle.
"What the hell, Shepard?" Garrus growls once he knows the man is far enough away. "Did you really just let him bribe you?"
She snorts and turns to him, a smirk on her lips. "It's not really bribery if I didn't sell him anything illegal." He opens his mouth to protest when she holds a hand up with a chuckle. "Just because I gave him an OSD, doesn't mean it was the one he wanted."
"Devious plan." Thane's gravelly voice intones from his distance away from the two, his hands clasped behind his back.
Jane makes an exaggerated bow as Garrus narrows his eyes, his anger dissipating a bit to be replaced with confusion. "Just what did you give him?"
"A copy of 101 Positions for Interspecies Coitus," she answers with a grin. "Don't you think Mordin would be happy or mad that I made a man pay me," she looks at her Omni-Tool, "nine thousand credits for something he just sent through the ship on a mass email? Besides, the asshole's stupid Minagen gave me a fucking headache to kill a damn Elcor."
"That's only because you insisted on standing in it." He still doesn't know what death wish she had to not try and avoid that biotic poison, but he can't completely fault her when every bit of cover had at least one container in its vicinity. In one instance, he had had to rush into fire, completely abandoning his sniping position, in order to pull her out of a red cloud of that cloying chemical when she had become too focused on the approaching gunship.
Garrus sighs in exasperation, rubbing a hand over his cracked brow plate to try and ease the headache from that thrown Minagen container back at the Eclipse base. He hears Thane try to cover his chuckle with a clearing of his throat and he can't help his free mandible flicking in amusement. "I can't believe you just conned a conman." He chuckles when she holds a hand to her chest plate, as if flattered. "You know, normally people tend to avoid getting on known criminals' bad sides," he jokes, as if she'd ever imagine doing it any other way.
"Oh? And what would he do? Send his twin guards after me?" He raises a brow and she nods towards Pitne's two Turian guards. "Those two have to be related… and don't you dare say that's racist."
He chuckles at her threatening glare and takes a second look. "They do look alike, but I doubt they're twins. Brothers maybe, but twins are rare in my species." She turns her head to the side a bit, her brows raised, and rolls her hand, asking wordlessly to continue. "Plates limiting the space?" he leads, as if it should be obvious. She makes a 'O' with her lips and he shakes his head with a flick of his mandible.
"Right… well, let's go keep Samara from going all bat-shit crazy on everyone." She heads into the offices, giving Thane a chance to look to Garrus in silent question, to which he just smirks with a shake of his head. You'll get used to her eventually.
"You're back," the detective says with a look up from her terminal, the Justicar in meditation on the short wall at her back. "Did you find what the Justicar is looking for?"
"You're damn right I did. And I brought parting gifts too." The Justicar opens her eyes, dissipating the light field around herself as she waits for Jane to continue. "Your Ardat-Yakshi left of the AML Demeter."
"You impress me, Shepard." She unfolds her legs, making Garrus cringe slightly at the odd angle no matter how capable he knows legs like the Asari and humans actually are. "You have fulfilled you part of the bargain, and I will fulfill mine." Hopping down from the half-wall, Samara looks to the detective, proclaiming, "I am ready to leave immediately, if that will satisfy your superiors, Detective?"
Anaya returns the older woman's polite bow with a nod of her head. "You're free to go, Justicar Samara. It has been an honor having you in my station… and it's nice you didn't kill me, either," she adds.
Samara turns to their group just as Jane crosses her arms, looking the woman over. "One thing before I let you on my ship. You may follow this code of whatever the hell religious shit your people believe in, but I'm running a military ship, not a monastery."
"You wonder if I will refuse to follow orders because of my code?" The woman's expression does not falter, does not fall from the stern mask.
"I wonder if my men will have to constantly watch their backs just because they may have crossed your fucked up code in some way or another. I won't let you endanger our mission to follow your sense of justice." The detective opens her mouth in silent shock at Jane's language, but, still, the Justicar doesn't seem moved beyond her professionalism.
"By agreeing to follow you, I am compelled to swear the most difficult of Justicar oaths – the Third Oath of Subsumation. After I do, your orders will override the Code." Jane tilts her head in silent 'I'm listening'. "You should know, however, that I'll still give you my opinion if the situation warrants."
With a snort and chuckle, Garrus' wife relaxes her posture, her arms dropping. "Everyone else on this damn ship can't seem to shut the hell up, so you'll fit right in. The Normandy is docked back on the main trading floor. Thane," she turns to the Drell, "you think you can show Samara the way while I hand over Detective Anaya's evidence?"
The man nods in understanding just as Samara speaks. "I must be sworn to your service, so that I am never forced to choose between your orders and the Code." Jane opens her mouth to speak, looking to the detective as the Justicar's eyes begin to glow, her body engulfing itself in violet and blue. She kneels, causing the detective to lean in her seat to get a better look, and declares, "By the Code, I will serve you, Shepard. You choices are my choices, your morals are my morals. Your wishes are my code." Her biotics pulse and fade as she stands, at the end of her 'oath'.
"Wow… never seen anyone declare an oath like that." Garrus isn't sure the detective is in awe of the proclamation itself, or the fact that, supposedly, this deadly warrior has put aside her strict set of rules to follow his mate's orders.
"If you make me do anything extremely dishonorable, I may need to kill you when I am released from my oath."
Jane shrugs with a dismissive expression. "You wouldn't be the first, so I take it as a compliment." She nods and smirks at the Justicar. "Welcome aboard, Samara. The Normandy will definitely show you all you've been missing stuck in Asari space," she jokes, making Garrus' mandible twitch in silent amusement at the true meaning in her words. What did Jane call the first crew? Right, a 'troop of lunatics'.