The House of Eezo
Jasmine scanned the clusters of people, taking in their shaved heads and long, bleak, gray robes. She'd never dealt with a cult before, but of course, she'd heard plenty about them and the twisted things they brainwashed people to believe. The cult Subject Zero aka Jack belonged to, though, was a special kind of scary. They were predators. Predators who targeted the abused and abandoned, the forgotten and the damaged.
She knew their kind of people. She'd dealt with their type as a kid, trying to survive out on the streets. They were the kind of people who took in a half-starved pre-teen, called her family, got her hooked on drugs, and then tried to push her out onto the streets to sell herself for more.
Luckily—if one could call it that—Jasmine got away before her body became a commodity, but not before the red sand dug its claws into her something fierce.
The people in front of her, she saw it in their eyes … they may not be doped up, but they were just as addicted. Drugged on the high they got from a sense of belonging, of feeling wanted. It came from being a part of something 'bigger' than themselves.
But it was every bit as much of a lie as the shit she was told as a teenager.
"The three men standing by the main building …." Isaac trailed off, but it was enough for Jasmine to get the hint.
"Will we wait for them to come to us or go to them?" Avalina asked, seeming to understand, too.
"We wait, but in the meantime, we should talk to some of the others. Keep it basic, just general questions about their beliefs, or whatever." Jasmine shifted her weight and looked around, scanning the crowds and letting her gaze sweep over the trio Isaac identified. "Let them take their time, check us out, size us up. If they come to us when they're ready, they'll feel more in control of the situation, perceive us as less of a threat."
Isaac stood a few meters away, talking to a couple of men, but Jasmine knew damn well he never let her out of his sight. Avalina sat on a cement bench, allowing the little boy standing up there next to her to run his tiny fingers over her crest. Together, the three of them had positioned themselves within the crowd in a loose, triangular formation. It allowed them to watch one another's backs while mingling.
"I'm sorry, I'm not sure what else …." The woman Jasmine had been chatting up stopped talking, relief flashing in her hazel eyes as a smile lifted the corner of her lips, and she pointed. "There's Father Simon, I'm sure he can answer all of your questions."
Glancing over her shoulder, Jasmine let her gaze drift a little before locking onto the familiar face of one of the men who'd watched her team like a hawk since they arrived. She turned when the man made eye contact with her, deliberately opening her body language to show she welcomed his approach. Gaze flicking back to the woman, Jasmine offered her a smile and said, "Great, thank you."
"Of course, dear." Patting Jasmine on the shoulder, the middle-aged lady nodded to Father Simon as he neared. "I'm sorry I wasn't of more help." She didn't give Jasmine the chance to respond before turning on her heel and walking away.
"Hello," Father Simon said, coming to a stop just out of arm's reach. "Welcome to The House of Eezo. Have you come to join us?"
Letting out a soft chuckle, she shrugged with one shoulder. "Unfortunately, I'm not a biotic." She gestured toward Isaac who busied himself in conversation. "My friend is, however. He heard about a group of biotics up here and asked me to come with him to learn what you're about. I hope we're not disturbing anyone; we're just curious. Could you … maybe tell us a little bit about The House of Eezo?"
Wary stare shifting from Jasmine to Isaac to Avalina, the man pressed his lips together and nodded. Turning to the side, he swept his arm out toward the main building. "Of course. Please, come inside with me, and I'll answer whatever questions you may have."
"You believe biotic humans are something new? A separate species, evolved beyond homosapiens?" The disbelief in Avalina's voice did nothing to hide the asari's amusement.
Father Simon, however, was most definitely not amused. "Yes. We call ourselves homobioticus." The look on his face dared them to laugh, and Jasmine very nearly accepted the challenge.
Homobioticus? Oh, God. Are you fucking kidding me?
"Are you not something different from the asari of the past?" Gaze locked on Avalina, he waved his hand with an agitated flick of his wrist. "Discovering prothean tech on Mars and then the mass relays jumped our technology ahead by centuries. In a handful of years, we achieved feats only dreamed about before; the fanciful creations of authors and filmmakers." Pressing the tips of his fingers together, he leaned back in his chair and studied Avalina for a moment. "Why shouldn't the exposure to element zero likewise jump our evolution ahead centuries?"
"So … The House of Eezo … what? Worships element zero?" Tone quizzical and non-judgemental, Jasmine kept her face as neutral as possible—no easy feat with the hysterical laughter bouncing around inside of her head.
He looked at her as if she were an insect, a fly on the wall that suddenly grew twenty times in size and began singing love ballads at the top of its lungs. "I suppose I can see how one might come to such a reductive conclusion, particularly someone without biotics." A condescending smile graced his lips and he added, "I mean no offense, of course."
She forced a smile onto her face. "Of course. None taken. If The House of Eezo doesn't worship element zero, what do you believe?"
"We view element zero as the catalytic spark which spurred our evolution. Earth was the cradle for humanity, allowing all genetic variations to come about, take root, and grow, but we went as far as our environment allowed us to reach. We became the apex species, and our evolution dwindled to a stop." He smiled and sucked in a deep breath. "True evolutionary growth, though …. Our ascension could only occur once humans left the safety of home like a bird leaving its nest in order to learn how to fly. We needed a new environment, one with new challenges to force us to adapt beyond what life on Earth required. Not all who were exposed to element zero were able to adapt, many died or were born disfigured. Those of us who were able, however, became something greater than before."
"Survival of the fittest." Jasmine really, really didn't like the arrogant bastard, but she managed to play nice.
She knew he wasn't entirely wrong, but the way he looked at her, the way he talked about the whole thing …. He acted as if the stillbirths and disfigurements of babies who weren't able to adapt to the forigen chemical poisoning their mother's womb were merely a side note, a necessary evil so people like him could 'ascend'. Homobioticus. What an ass. Biotics might be a side effect of an adaptation to element zero, but it sure as hell didn't make them a whole new species let alone a better species than the rest of humanity.
Pressing his lips together, and obvious show of disappointment, Father Simon sighed. "It's just not something you'll be able to understand without being a biotic yourself. No more than I can understand what it feels like to have a child growing inside of me, or what either of us can comprehend what it means to reach inside the mind of another and create life from the experience as asari do." He waved a hand, the gesture dismissive. "It's simply something you aren't biologically capable of, an organ you don't possess. So many of you turn to red sand, wanting to know what it means to be biotic and hoping to ascend beyond your status as a homosapien, but it just isn't possible. It can give you nothing more than a false sense of what it is to be a bird in flight, but it can't give you true wings."
I really hope you do something stupid so I have an excuse to shoot you, asshole.
Isaac gently cleared his throat and leaned forward in his chair, his height enough to—probably intentionally—partially block Father Simon from Jasmine's sight. Elbows on his knees, palms turned out, he asked, "What do members of The House of Eezo do here? If I wanted to join, what would be expected of me?"
"Our members do whatever they want. No one is forced to take on any particular role within the community, though most do ask how they may best be of service." Father Simon shrugged and smiled at Isaac. "Otherwise, all that is expected of you is for you to commit yourself to living among your own. Help your species to grow and be prosperous. You understand, of course, only homobioticus are allowed to live within the compound, but your … friends may visit you whenever you wish."
"Of course." Isaac glanced at Jasmine, who gave him a reassuring smile, and then Avalina before looking back at the cultist. "Is it alright if we spend some time looking around? I'd like to get a feel for the place, the people, while I decide."
"Certainly." Father Simon pushed his chair back and stood. "Take your time. I only ask that your companions not enter the temple."
They'd walked around the compound for three hours, introducing themselves to damn near everyone they saw. Of course, they were really only interested in Caucasian females with brown hair and eyes who appeared between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five. They knew Jack was born in 2161, making her 19-years-old, but there was no telling how she'd aged; what sort of impact her time with Cerberus had on her physical appearance let alone her life since her escape from Pragia. It wasn't much to go on, but a patchwork description was the best they could pull from Cerberus' files.
They'd decided as a team not to go into The House of Eezo asking around about the girl in specific, they didn't want to spook her and send her into fight or flight or draw undue attention to Jack. It was starting to seem as if they didn't have much of a choice, though. It wasn't like the mostly-open-door policy offered by Father Simon extended to the personal residences of the cult's members.
But then, she saw her. It had to be Subject Zero. No one else around carried so much fire, so much barely subdued rage, in their eyes. The tattoos creeping out of her robe and up the backs of hands and neck certainly spoke volumes, too. Her bone structure was exquisite, lips full and plump. The girl was freaking gorgeous in a scary, I'll-rip-your-head-off-for-looking-at-me, sort of way. Deep, brown eyes locked onto Jasmine's, and those tempting lips lifted in something halfway between a condescending smirk and a sneer before Jack's gaze slid away again, dismissing Jasmine.
Challenging Jasmine.
Slightly insulted, but mostly just amused, she decided to take the bait and crossed the courtyard without even glancing at Isaac or Avalina. She trusted them to keep an eye on her, though. They were both too damn maternal not to. Jack returned her attention to Jasmine when she came closer, giving her a very obvious once over. It wasn't lust in Jack's eyes, though, but apathy.
Leaning against the wall a few meters away, Jasmine turned her head to meet Jack's gaze and smiled, tipping her chin up in greeting. "Hey."
"Hey." Jack looked away from Jasmine again, gaze lazily drifting from person to person. "If you're thinking about joining this freakshow, don't waste your time."
"I'm not a biotic. Excuse me, 'homobioticus.'" Jasmine waited until Jack looked at her again before asking, "If you don't like it, why stick around?"
Jack's shoulder popped up, and she looked away again. "If you're not a biotic, what the fuck are you doing here?"
"Looking for someone … you, I think." Jasmine smirked when the younger woman's head whipped around to give her a death stare. "You're Jack, aren't you?"
"Who the fuck are you?" Jack sneered, biotic flames beginning to lick across her skin.
"Someone fighting to put an end to Cerberus." Jasmine kept her body language neutral, trying her best to convey to Jack that she wasn't a threat. "My friends thought you might have some info. I thought you might like to join us … use what they gave you to put them on their asses."
Jack watched her in silence for several, long, tense seconds. "Bullshit. You're with them, aren't you?"
Pursing her lips, Jasmine slowly shook her head. "Nope. Never even heard of them until recently. But since then, I've been digging to find out everything I can about them. It's how I learned about you, what they did to you. My friends and I have been picking off their facilities, one by one. We went to Pragia … to the place where they kept you, and we saw the damage you caused getting out."
Pushing off the wall, Jack turned outward to stand in front of Jasmine, hands balling into fists at her sides. Her biotic flare drew the attention of a few others nearby, but no one came any closer. Jasmine glanced past Jack to Isaac and Avalina, giving them a reassuring smile. Jack very well might turn Jasmine into a ragdoll, but she damn sure wasn't going to let the woman see even a hint of fear.
Jack's jaw locked, her words sliding through her teeth on a hiss. "You don't know me or anything about me." She scoffed, her gaze running up and down Jasmine again. "What? You think you can come here and manipulate me into being a weapon for you? Fuck you. You're not better than Cerberus. Do you think you and your friends are bad enough to take me anyway?"
Letting out a weary sigh, Jasmine shook her head again. "If you don't want to work with us, you don't want to talk to us, then we leave. That's it. No one's interested in trying to manipulate you or force you to do shit, so settle the fuck down before you really make an ass out of yourself."
Eyes widening, Jack blinked twice, and then let out a bark of laughter. Her biotics started to fade, and she shook her head. "You're a crazy bitch, aren't you?"
Grinning, Jasmine shrugged. "Maybe a little."
Jack pulled her robe off over her head and tossed it on the back of a chair before plopping down in the seat. Beneath the robe, she wore olive green cargo pants, torn down the sides to show her heavily tattooed legs from upper thigh to lower-calf. The tops of her combat boots peeked out through the slits. A black tank top completed her outfit, sliced up, the fabric split and knotted together to show off the upper curves of her breasts and her midriff, revealing even more tattoos.
Lifting a leg, she planted the sole of her boot on the edge of the table and draped her hands over the arms of her chair. She glanced up at Jasmine, Isaac, and Avalina and raised her eyebrows. "The fuck are you still standing for? Sit down."
Smirking, Jasmine moved around the table and took a seat opposite of the younger woman. Avalina sat next to Jasmine, but Isaac perched on the arm of the couch, long legs stretching out in front of him and arms loosely crossed. Letting her gaze roam over the room, Jasmine noted the exits again before taking in the cluttered mess. Her gaze snagged on a pair of men's sandals—several sizes too big to fit Jack—sitting beneath a side table. Hair raising on the back of her neck with the unsettling realization that Jack didn't live there alone, Jasmine strained to listen for signs of movement within the prefab. She didn't hear anything, but it didn't mean there wasn't someone else there.
"So, who do you work for?" Jack's fingers twitched toward Avalina, but her gaze stayed on Jasmine. "You've got an asari with you, so I guess that means you're not with the Alliance."
Well, I'm not here for the Alliance, at least.
"We work for ourselves," Isaac said.
Jack's gaze shifted toward Isaac, seemingly on reflex, but she didn't quite look at him before returning her attention to Jasmine. "So, you just decided, 'Fuck Cerberus,' and started hunting them down?"
Jasmine shrugged. "Pretty much. Long story short, I found out they're doing some crazy crap, and I couldn't just turn my back on what I learned. No one else seems to be doing anything about them …."
"So we are." Shifting a little, Isaac crossed his ankles. "We've got a few other people working with us. Well trained and highly skilled in various areas. We have research specialists who've already turned up quite a bit, but anything more you can tell us about Cerberus would be greatly appreciated."
Eyeing him up and down, Jack finally said, "I doubt there's anything I can tell you that'll help. All I really know about Cerberus is they're sick fucks who like to torture little kids. I got the fuck out of there and put as much distance between myself and that hell hole as I could at the time. Later, I tried to learn more about them, but they're like ghosts." She glanced between the three of them and said, "You're the ones acting like some kind of stupid fucking heroic vigilantes. If you want me to join you so much," she said, gaze settling on Jasmine once again, "why don't you tell me what you know about Cerberus?"
Thane waited for the shuttle to open, hands tucked behind his back. Avalina exited first when the door lifted, and then she turned to look back inside. A moment later, a human woman, lithe and covered in tattoos with shaved hair, climbed out with a bag slung over her shoulder. She stopped and looked around the ship's hangar, eyes wide and wild, like a trapped animal. She barely glanced at Theodus, but her gaze lingered on Thane a moment, assessing him as if she recognized him as a potential threat. Lifting a hand, she wrapped her fingers around the strap of the bag and shifted it further up her shoulder.
Avalina said something to her, and the woman shuffled forward, moving out of the way of the shuttle. She turned sideways, keeping Thane in her peripherals while she watched Jasmine step out of the shuttle. As if drawn to Thane by some invisible source, his wife's gaze shifted right to him, and a beautiful smile graced her face. He wouldn't have been able to keep himself from returning her grin even if he'd wanted to, and seeing her there, whole and unharmed, relaxed the fear which gripped him since she'd left the Iliad.
Holding her hand out toward Thane, Jasmine said something to—presumably the young woman was Jack—and waved for the stranger to follow her as she started toward him. Adjusting her bag, Jack cast a glance back at the shuttle as Isaac climbed out, but she did as Jasmine asked.
"What a fascinating appearance," Theodus whispered, "though Jasmine was right, she certainly looks as if she'll lash out at the slightest provocation."
"Indeed," Thane said, watching the two women approach. When Jasmine came within reach, he held his hand out to her in invitation.
Moving to his side, she slipped her arm around his waist and smiled up at him before turning her attention back to the woman. "Jack, this is my husband, Thane, and his cousin Theodus."
"'Sup," Jack tipped her head back in acknowledgement.
"It's a pleasure to meet you." Thane dipped his head, cupping Jasmine's shoulder and pulling her in closer.
Theodus extended his hand, a big grin on his face. "Hello, Jack."
She grunted and looked at his hand for a second or two but only tightened her grip on the strap of her bag. Turning her attention to Jasmine, she asked, "Where can I put my crap?"
