Hello again everyone, back at it with another new chapter for the story and this time it's Jack's turn to be won over by Shepard. Next two or three chapters that will come out will be a couple more loyalty missions before Shepard and co secures the reaper IFF tag. Other than that, not much else to say and without further ado, onto reviews.

Review Time:

Mandrake: I thought so as well, but it's always nice to have a second opinion on things just to help push you one way or another. And as for the whole trap thing, it always bugged me about why they never made sure to head to a safer area in space, namely a human controlled or even council controlled area before they tested the IFF tag. I just blame lazy 2010 writing, in all honesty; but hey, on the bright side, we get to play as another person besides Shepard for once. And yes, many things in many series, movies, games, and even books can be dumbed down to someone being stupid lol.

Blaze: Devin's loyalty mission happened when he had the imulsion parasite removed and when he and Tulma finally confided their feelings with one another, as for Jay's we already discussed this in a pm.

That's all for the reviews and I hope you all enjoy the chapter and are staying safe during this shutdown. Enjoy!

Chapter Twenty-Eight: A Little Girl's Past

She found it, she can't believe that she actually found the source of all of her childhood pain and trauma; the nightmarish hellhole that caused her to become who she was today.

Jack set the datapad back down on the crate beside her cot, her left hand holding her head up as her right simply lied across her knee; her mind going through several thoughts a second as she processed the information bit by bit.

Shepard kept his end of the deal, which didn't surprise her all that much considering his helpful demeanor and upbeat attitude, but what really surprise her was that that she felt obligated to help him as well.

To give him everything that she had so that they could take the fight to the collectors and save the galaxy.

Her. Saving the galaxy… she only just realized the irony of that thought as she took a look back at everything she's ever done, all the crimes that she's committed in her life after escaping from the Cerberus facility, and shook her head at the absurdity of it all.

She couldn't believe that she was… actually wanting to help everyone get through this whole ordeal alive.

Maybe Shepard was finally getting through her thick skull.

Not that she'd ever admit it.

Jack took one look back at the datapad and smirked to herself, a plan formulating in her mind about what she was going to do once she went back to her childhood home.

"Can't wait to see the fucking crater." She mumbled to herself, smirking at the thought of what was going to happen soon.

She can't wait to get at as soon as possible, all she needs is a very big bomb.

"You want to do what?" Shepard asked the woman, staring intently at her with a raised eyebrow as she leaned back onto her cot, her facial expression never changing as she repeated herself once more.

"I want you to take me to Pragia where Cerberus held me all those years ago, so I can plant a big fucking bomb right in the room they kept me in and watch it blow up from up from orbit. Afterwards, I'll uphold my end of the deal that we made." She told him, getting up and stretching her back as she waited patiently for what the man had to say.

"I mean, I'm not against the idea of doing that to the place that basically tortured you and countless other children for the sake of science, but why a nuke?"

Jack snorted at the question, crossing her arms as she looked at the man with a deadpan expression.

"So I can literally and metaphorically blow it the fuck out of my life. There, good enough for you?"

All Shepard could do was shrug at the remark, telling her that he doesn't mind it one bit that she made that request at all.

"So when do you want to do this and who else you want on this mission with you?" He asks her, watching as her thoughts went in and out of her mind at choosing who should go with them, should there be a problem that arises.

Knowing Shepard and his luck, they were definitely going to run into trouble.

"Right now, preferably, but I know that it'll take us a couple of days to get to Pragia. As for who can come with us… Tali."

"Tali?"

"What? She knows her way around a terminal or an interface, but so does Justin, that weirdo. Besides, we might run into a locked door that Cerberus activated to keep us from going further into the facility, and if you think for one second that I'm going to let a locked door keep me from getting this done, then you're sorely mistaken. Besides, quarians have never done me wrong before, so I have no reason to hate them as much as I hate everyone else." She told him, handing him the datapad so that Shepard could give the coordinates to Joker for him to take the Normandy to where she needed to go.

"What about me?"

"I'd sell your soul to the devil for a single corn chip."

Shepard only smiled at her response, took the datapad from her hand and turned around, heading for the stairs that led to the elevator, but not before getting the last word in on her.

"I see that I have some value in your eyes after all! I'm so proud of you!"

The gruff of annoyance and snide remark that he received was music to his ears.

"God I love doing what I do."

"Can't believe it's still there," Jack thought aloud, looking at the degraded facility and the surrounding area as rain fell from the sky above, the occasional lightning bolt arcing through the sky being visible to the three of them, "I thought that the plants would've definitely overran this shit hole long ago. Whatever, at least I can still blow this place sky high."

"Keelah… Cerberus really kept kids here?" Tali asked, looking back from the site to Jack who only shrugged in response.

"Yep, at any given point there were around sixty, maybe seventy kids who were studied and experimented on; I got the worst of it all. Anyway, if memory serves me right, I still know the layout of this place and where my old room was." She explained, standing up as the shuttle landed and Shepard opened the door, the three of them stepping off and began looking around the landing site.

"When you said that the plants here would overrun the place, I thought that was a little bit of an exaggeration, but I guess it wasn't after all."

Coming upon a stairwell, the group sees that it was left in major disarray after years of being exposed to the elements, most of the handrails either missing or rusted beyond repair, the stairs were covered by thick ropes of vines that were twisting amongst each other, forming a barrier across the entrance of the facility.

With her omni-blade active and ready, Jack began cutting through the thick vines, cursing under her breath as the rain kept getting in her eyes and blurring her vision.

"I forgot how much I hate this fucking place; it was a mistake to come here Shepard." She told him, turning around to look at the man as he reached out and put a hand on her shoulder.

"You'll be alright Jack, we're here for you; I understand that this is difficult for you right now, but you're the one who wanted to come here and get this done, and Tali and I are going to be right beside you the entire time. Just take a minute to get your bearings and we can move on, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah you're right, it's just… I never thought I could actually come back here myself. Okay, let's get a move on; this place isn't going to blow itself up." She told him, nodding her thanks to him as Tali finished cutting the last of the vines from the door, allowing the group to enter the facility.

Upon entering the room, Shepard had asked Jack about what had happened here, to which she explained that she'd never seen the room before, but judging from the containers that were present, she guess that they most likely brought other kids here within them for processing, most of which were starving or messed up in some other way, but alive.

Usually.

Tali was appalled by the thought, voicing her opinions as to why would a human centric group be experimenting on human children.

All Jack could do was shrug at her question, telling her that she doesn't know.

"It looks as if there's a terminal here that is still active, maybe whatever is on it could point us in the right direction as to what happened here." Shepard told them, pointing at the device in question as the three of them made their way down the flight of stairs, with Tali crouching beside it and opening a rear panel before activating her omni-tool and using it to help see if she could get it working.

After several minutes of muttering under breath, she stood up and dusted her hands off, motioning for Shepard to activate it as she stepped back from it.

"I did all I could to get it in truly working order, but there's just too much damage here and not enough tools to fix it to see what's on it." She explained, watching as Shepard nodded at the information as she activated the terminal.

Once it powered up, a heavily distorted image appeared before them, the sounds of static filling in the background as two men were speaking with one another.

"The Illusive Man is requesting progress updates and operation logs again; I think he's starting to get suspicious."

"When we get results, he won't care what we did here, but if he finds out before we do get any…"

"He won't find out, I assure you."

That was when the message began repeating once more, the same two people having the same exact conversation replaying just as Shepard switched the terminal off.

"It sounds as if they were beginning to go rogue or something." He commented, looking back at Jack as she sneered at the terminal.

"That's a load of bullshit, besides he didn't say what they were hiding from the Illusive Man."

"Regardless of what happened, we still have to get through this facility and plant that bomb. Let's go." He told her, Jack sighing as she followed behind the man as Tali kept pace beside her.

Coming back here was definitely giving her more questions than it was answering, that's all that she knew for sure.

"It looks as if this place was set up like an arena of some sort."

"You'd be right on that Tali; every once in a while, the guards would stage a fight between me and the other kids who were here. I loved it, as it was the only time that I was ever allowed out of my cell."

"Did other children die in these fights?"

"I was a kid filled with drugs; I got shocked when I hesitated. Narcotics flooded my veins when I attacked."

Shepard got pissed immediately, asking her if they actually rewarded her for attacking and what was wrong with those who allowed it to happen.

"Shepard, I can see why you'd be upset at that, but this was my life and they knew how to set it up for me. I still get warm feelings during a fight, from time to time, and as for what was wrong with them, I don't know, it doesn't matter now; most of them are dead anyway." She explained, looking down at the metal floor where faint, years old scratches could be seen, her mind drifting back to the memories of what happened in the arena, before she was brought back when Shepard called out her name.

"What?"

"I asked you how often these fights would take place, but I'm guessing that you don't know the answer to that." He said, standing still as he waited for the woman's response.

"When you're locked in a cell for most of your life, filled with drugs and other stuff, time doesn't really have a meaning to you. I'd wager that it happened maybe once a month, twice if things were getting slow. As for what they were studying, I don't have a fucking clue; probably a way for them to get their kicks. Anyways, let's move on, I don't want to be in this room any longer." She told them, pushing past the man as he looked at Tali and shook his head solemnly, knowing that she isn't in a good place at the moment.

Both literally and metaphorically.

"This is Security Officer Zimkl, Teltin Facility! The subjects are tearing this place apart! Subject Zero is going to get loose; I need permission to terminate, I say again, I need permission to terminate!" The man in the recording requested urgently, the sounds of gunfire and biotic attacks echoing in the background as the man awaited a response.

"All subjects besides Subject Zero are expendable; keep Jack alive at all costs!" The voice from the intercom ordered him, the man in the recording nodding his head as he gave his affirmative back before Jack abruptly destroyed the terminal with her biotics, seething with anger as Shepard stepped up to her.

"THAT is complete BULLSHIT! That isn't what happened at all; I broke out of my cell when my guards disappeared. I started that riot!" She exclaimed, looking back at Shepard, seemingly for any answer that he may give to her.

"There was a lot going on from the sounds of things in that recording, Jack; as you said, there were rooms here that you've never seen before, meaning that a multitude of things could've happened that you didn't see." He explained, watching her step right up to his face, a look of confusion, anger, and denial crossing over her features.

"The other kids attacked me, the guards attacked me, hell even the security systems attacked me! That doesn't leave a whole lot of room for interpretation, Shepard."

"I'm telling you what I've gathered from the last few recordings and from what you yourself has told me Jack. I want to help you, that's why I agreed to this mission of yours, but you're going to have to work with me here if you want this mission of yours to succeed."

Hearing the man say that, Jack finally took a couple of steps back from him with her eyes closed, a sigh leaving her body as she simply nodded her head.

"I know Shepard, and I do appreciate you two doing this for me, but I know what I saw and what was happening from my point of view." She relented, seeing Shepard and Tali nod their heads in understanding as they entered the next room.

"Who the fuck shot that varren? This place is supposed to be empty god dammit and that is a fresh kill." Jack pointed out, to which Shepard immediately agreed with her assessment that someone else was in the facility with them.

"Everyone, keep your weapons ready at all times from here on out; I don't like the look things here and if there is someone else here, they may be hostile." He warned them, pulling his rifle off his back as Tali and Jack did the same with their weapons.

Upon entering the next room, the three of them sees a small group consisting of three vorcha and two krogan, the krogan conversing amongst themselves as the vorcha were looking around to see what caught their interest. And, as usual, all of them were armed with weapons ranging from a flamethrower to heavy-duty shotguns.

This only caused Jack to let out a snarl as she quickly took aim at the nearest vorcha and began firing straight into its unshielded head, killing it almost immediately as Shepard cursed under his breath, ducking down behind a wall to avoid the gunfire that was sent their way.

"And what did that accomplish?" He asked the irate woman, seeing her glowing blue with biotic energy as she threw out another attack before getting back into cover.

"Relieved a little bit of pent up anger and besides, I don't like seeing that there are others here that will get in our way of us planting this bomb and blowing this place straight to hell!" She screamed, with Tali sending out her combat drone as a distraction as she modded her shotgun to fire incendiary rounds while Shepard only shook his head, telling her that nothing is going to stop them from getting their mission done.

Peaking around the corner, Shepard sees that the two krogan are separating from each other, seemingly trying to flank them from both sides at once, with one headed to the catwalk that stretched across the room and the other staying on the ground floor, while the vorcha in the middle is laying down whatever little suppressive fire that it could.

"Tali, you take care of the vorcha in the middle while Jack and I take on both krogans at the same time." He tells her, receiving a nod from Jack as Tali gave her affirmative as she loaded a fresh thermal clip into her shotgun.

"Will do, Shepard; try not to get tossed around like you were at Noveria." She teased, receiving a frown from the man in return as he shook his head at the remark.

"That was one time."

"And yet you still complained about having back pains."

"Yeah, yeah; just do what I told you to do."

"Aye, aye Commander."

With two vorcha down and Tali taking care of the last one, Shepard fired a continual burst from his rifle at the krogan that was on their level, taking his shields out as the krogan got behind a pillar for cover, waiting for his shields to recharge as Jack kept throwing out biotic attacks at the one on the catwalk, keeping him pinned down.

The last vorcha fell as Tali's drone launched an incinerate at it, catching the fuel tank of the flamethrower ablaze, causing the vorcha to give off one last scream of various emotions before it exploded, killing it immediately as the explosion sent deadly shrapnel deep into its head and body, shredding it apart in mere milliseconds.

"Vorcha down, Shepard." Tali called out, receiving a thumbs up from the man as he threw a frag grenade over their cover and near where the krogan is hiding, shredding the container that it was using and sending him into a blood rage.

Before he could make it past three steps, Shepard had fired his widow sniper rifle straight through the front plate of the krogan's head, killing him immediately and sending its corpse tumbling to the ground, its orange fluorescent-like blood slowly pooling around its body.

The last krogan, upon seeing this, had dropped off the side of the catwalk and landed on the floor, his gun firing at the group as he slowly made his way to them, but before anything could happen, Jack had leapt over their cover and charged him, biotic energy coalescing over her body as she reared her hand back and threw a warp at the charging giant.

Following this, she then used her other hand to launch a throw at him, the two biotic energies reacting negatively with each other as their polarities weren't matched, causing a biotic explosion to occur and throw the krogan off his feet, his shield emitter being crushed as he landed on his back against a nearby pillar.

Before he could do anything to retaliate or even get back on his feet, Jack simply aimed her shotgun right between his eyes and fired, the rounds tearing straight through the head plate, putting the krogan down once and for all.

After doing this, Jack huffs in annoyance and kicks the body, turning around and looking at both Shepard and Tali as they came up to her.

"Thanks for the ammo type there, Tali; definitely helped putting the fucker down."

"I figured you of all people would've had shredder rounds installed onto your omni-tool, but you are welcome nonetheless." She told her, looking around the room as they finally had time to see what exactly was in it.

"Looks like some sort of morgue, if I had to wager a guess; could be that they were experimenting with them on some other project. Even then, I'm not sure." Shepard commented, collapsing his rifle and putting it on his back, looking at Jack as if to ask her for an explanation.

"I don't know why they needed this place; could be to burn the bodies of those who died, maybe even do an autopsy. Regardless of why it's here, it's still bullshit and I made it out alive."

Seeing as how no one learned anything new about why the room was there, the three of them left the room and ventured deeper into the facility, with Jack seemingly more on edge the deeper they go, which isn't that much of a surprise to Shepard, considering all that she went through whilst being locked up and studied here for all of her childhood life.

"It's so strange being back here, after all these years, you know? Like, I feel like I'm even more pissed off than usual and that I'm a dangerous bitch… but then, I'm a little girl again. Fucking hell… this shit is confusing and even more complicated when I actually think about it… let's just get to my room and plant this damn bomb." Jack told them, her eyes wandering around the various walls and walkways that they've passed, the lightning and rain catching her eyes as they passed through a door at the far end of the hallway.

Upon entering through the door that was at the end of the hallway, after killing a few vorcha who tried to stop them, did Jack actually drop her gun, hey eyes going over every detail of the new room that they had found themselves in as she walked silently along the metal walkway, headed for the mirror that was built into the wall as both Shepard and Tali shared glances at each other, with Shepard picking up Jack's shotgun and Tali following along silently as Jack traced her fingers along the glass.

"I… I can't believe it. This? This is a two-way mirror? My cell is on the other side, I could see all the other kids out here. I screamed at them for hours, banging against the glass hoping that someone would notice me, but they always ignored me." She tells them, her voice low as she stood there and stared at the glass wall in front of her, hoping that she could peer through the mirror and see if it was possible to see into her room, but no avail.

It wasn't the other kid's fault for ignoring her, after all.

Shepard could only pat her shoulder, drawing her attention as he held up her weapon, giving it to her as her hands closed around the hand guards and pistol grip, only nodding her thanks to him as she led them out of the room, but not before taking one last look at the window just before the doors closed on them.

Now she was ready to get the hell out of the facility and to kill whoever was in charge of the Blood Pack that was here with them.

The revelation that Jack had went through with the last terminal that they found had completely shattered all preconceptions about what had happened to her and the other children who were being studied. After all the years that she's had to live with what Cerberus has done to her, all the countless experiments and cruelties that they had forced her into, the pain from their tests, the drugs they forced into her system, and the days where she wished she would die came out and pushed her over the edge.

The three krogan and their vorcha underlings were going to be the target of all her pent-up emotions, and they'd better fill that role well.

"I'LL KILL YOU ALL!" She screams, lifting a vorcha into the air with her biotics and tossed him into the far wall, crushing the organs as they followed basic physics and were crushed within the chest cavity from the sudden stop.

"Push them now! We have both numbers and firepower on our side!" Kureck, the lead merc, ordered, shouldering his rifle as the other two krogan charged forward, their shotguns and rifles firing at the trio as they went back into cover.

"Shepard, the only room that's left is my old cell; Aresh has to be in there and once we're finished fucking these bastards the fuck up, we go in there and fuck him up even more, plant the bomb on his corpse, and blow this place to hell." She tells him, her biotics flaring as she gritted her teeth as Shepard nodded his head at her, looking over at Tali and motioning for her omni-tool.

"Tali, I need you to distract the vorcha while we deal with the krogan, just like last time. Make sure your shields are at a hundred percent; don't want to explain to Chakwas about why her favorite quarian's suit is ruptured and that she's running a fever along with it."

"I can take care of myself Shepard, I'm not a young girl on her pilgrimage, you know. Go get them, Chatika!" She shouts, cheering her combat drone on as it raced through the fallen debris towards its vorcha targets.

(I forgot if the drone's name was Chatika or Chakita, but I know it's definitely one or the other so please correct me if I'm wrong here)

With Tali and her drone dealing with the last two vorcha, Shepard and Jack leapt over their cover, one firing his rifle into the nearest krogan and the other throwing as many biotic attacks as she could at the other one, each attack just as dangerous as the last.

With the krogan just a few feet in front of him, Shepard leapt to the side and rolled back to his feet, silently thanking the lessons that Devin gave him a few weeks earlier about the proper form needed to pull off this maneuver, and swapped to his shotgun, letting the rifle cooldown in favor of something that hits harder at closer ranges, and fires it into the knees, watching as the krogan buckled under his own weight, dropping his gun entirely to keep himself from falling over.

Before Shepard could deliver the killing blow, Kureck began firing at Shepard, hitting the man's shield a few times as the man dived for cover, noticing that from how little he was hit, his shields were half way depleted.

Upon closer inspection, Shepard could only sigh as he saw the weapon within the krogan's grasp.

"Of course it's a damn revenant, because why not?" He cursed to himself, thinking about how many people he's fought who had one in their arsenal and how they're supposed to be quite expensive considering the materials put into them.

But it seems as if they weren't that hard to come by.

With this information in mind, he switches over to his widow and takes aim at the krogan who finally got back to his feet and fires a single round through his head, watching as the body simply dropped to the ground before ducking back into cover to avoid yet another burst from the krogan's machine gun.

Shepard called out to both Tali and Jack, asking how they're holding up on their end, only receiving curses and slurs from Jack as she knocked the krogan that she's dealing with off his feet while Tali calmly answers the man ,telling him that the last vorcha was dead and that she can help whoever needs it.

"Give Jack a hand, will you? That way we can deal with the big man together."

"Of course, Shepard; try not to get shot while we're at it."

Shepard only rolled his eyes in response, shaking his head as he peaks around the pillar that he's using as cover, seeing that Kurek is still firing at him but looking back and forth between him and the other krogan, leaving gaps in his attention that he would sure capitalize on.

"Must I do everything myself? You were all weak, regardless and after I'm done killing you three, I'm killing Aresh!" Kureck screamed, seeing as the last krogan fell dead with several chunks missing from his corpse as Shepard, Jack, and Tali advanced up the elevated platform for a close confrontation.

Kureck was surrounded on all sides, the quarian activating a function on her omni-tool that caused his gun to misfire and jam, which in turn made him throw it into the armored human, causing the man to stumble back as he fumbled with the large weapon in his hands.

The other human, however, was proving to be far more of a nuisance than the other two as she kept hitting him with biotic attacks while the quarian fired into him with her shotgun. But, as with all things, he couldn't hope to withstand their onslaught and fell over on the ground, blood flowing freely from the numerous bullet wounds that he had been riddled with, and did nothing as the shirtless human raised her fist high into the air, more biotic energy flaring from it, before bringing it down on his head, killing him immediately.

"Fucking hell, I think I broke a knuckle or two there." Jack groaned, holding her right hand with the left one as Shepard shrugged in response, telling her that medi-gel would only help with the pain and not actually give her any form of treatment.

"Let's get in there and meet up with this Aresh guy, plant that bomb, and get the hell out of dodge." He tells them, walking through the doors and seeing that the room was seemingly empty.

"Come on out, we know you're here." Shepard says aloud, hearing the sounds of a desk being moved, the three of them watching as a man in his early twenties standing in front of them.

"Who are you?" Jack immediately questioned the man, a pistol armed in her good hand as the man looked at her with almost no emotion.

"My name is Aresh, as you probably know by now. You're breaking into my home, but I know who you are, Subject Zero. So many years have passed since we all escaped, and I thought that I was one of the few remaining survivors."

"My name's Jack, dick bag. How in the hell do you know me?"

"We all knew who you were, knew your face, Jack. The scientists inflicted horrors upon us so that their experiments wouldn't have a chance to kill you. You were the question of their research, and I'm back here looking for the answers."

"Looks like you're not the only one who was pulled back here, Jack. Question is, why is here." Shepard told her, watching her look at him confusedly as Aresh answered the question himself.

"I tried for years to forget this place; but a place like this… it doesn't forget you. It follows you around in the back of your mind, always there watching you, even when you sleep. I hired these mercs and came back a solar year ago, hoping to rebuild this place piece by piece. I'm going to find out what they knew and to unlock it the true biotic potential in humans; I'm restarting the Teltin Facility." He explained, gesturing around himself to the facility as a whole, catching Jack off guard as she stared at the man in disbelief.

"I wanted a fucking hole in the ground and you're standing here justifying all the fucked up shit they DID TO US?! You're wanting to do to kids what they did to us? Give me one good reason to not blow your FUCKING brains out!" Jack screamed, rage crossing her features as she held the pistol tight in her hands, aiming straight at the Aresh's head.

"Everything we've went through must've been worth something dammit! Why would they do all those things to us if there wasn't a good reason?!"

It finally clicked in Shepard's head about why the man was acting the way he was: a twisted form of Stockholm Syndrome.

Jack walked up to the man and sent him to his knees with a biotic push, the man staring straight at the floor as he awaited his inevitable death.

"Jack, we can still blow this place but he's stuck in the past. You need to move on from yours; that's why we're here."

"He wants to restart this place! To do all those twisted experiments to other kids as Cerberus has done to us! He needs to die, Shepard."

"Dammit Jack, he's fucking crazy and is never going to be able to restart this facility! You need to let it go; your past doesn't control you! If it did, then you'd be the one on the floor wanting to restart this place alongside him. You're better than that, I know so and I can see it plain as day when I look at you. Let it go."

Jack clenched her eyes shut, baring her teeth and the pistol and her hand began to shake, before lowering her aim, telling the man that he'd better leave or that she was going to put a bullet through his head.

"Just… give me a minute to look around, okay? This room was my whole childhood," she started, looking out the window as she touched the surface with her hand, "I thought that room right there was the entire world. I'd pound, yell, scream, and cry while hoping that someone on the other side would notice me… not that it did any good." She solemnly tells him, pulling away from the window to look at the bed.

"Sometimes I dream that I'm still here, reliving this nightmare that all of this is just a dream and that I'd woken up right back on this bed. I don't want to come back here anymore. Not as long as I'm alive. The table here was my best friend and used it for everything, even crawling under it to cry. Looking back at it now, it must've been a pathetic sight to see."

After she was done with the room, Jack walked back to the door and crouched near the wall opposite of it, looking at a smear that was still faintly visible on its surface.

"The scarring on the wall here was from the first person I've ever killed; he tried to stop me from escaping this cell. In the end, I stopped him instead. Let's go Shepard; I want to plant this bomb and not sit here wallowing all day long." She tells him, walking back to her room as Shepard and Tali readies the nuke, but before sparing the room one last look before she closed the doors for good.

"Hey Jack, I heard that you and Miranda got into it and that it was pretty nasty." Tali says, stopping by the crate at the foot of Jack's bed as the woman merely glances up at her.

"Yeah, I was getting ready to smear the walls with that fucking bitch, but Shepard came in to save the fucking day." She tells her, growling as she spoke but ultimately sighing as she dropped her head.

"It's for the best though; I understand that Shepard is merely wanting to keep us from attacking each other because she's Cerberus' fucking cheerleader, but if we stand any chance of stopping these bug bastards, then we'll need to play nice. So… what brings you down here?"

"Well I came to check up on you, seeing as how you finally left a large chunk of your life behind and that you had to deal with Miranda's remarks, but I came to give you this." She explains, holding out a book in her hands as Jack looked on with a puzzled expression.

"I found it beneath a fallen bookshelf in your room and seen that this was the only book that was still in decent condition. Just something to keep as a reminder of where you came from, you know?"

Jack could only laugh at the question, taking the book from her as she looked over the cover and even through the various pages that it contained.

"Thanks Tali, that's… actually very kind of you. I appreciate this." She told her, smiling gently at the woman as she simply nodded her head in return before leaving the area, going up the stairs and back to working on her station.

"Fucking Don Quixote… let's see if I remember where I left off." Jack said to herself, opening the book and sifting through its pages, losing track of time as she done so.

And that's all for this chapter! I hope that you enjoyed it and that the addition of some extra dialogue and scenery made it a little more appealing than a standard copy/paste of environments.

Next update should be sometime later this month and as always, I hop you all have a great week and that you all stay safe during these times, especially if you're in the path of that hurricane along eastern US. I've been through hurricanes Irma, Harvey, and Maria myself a few years back and it was definitely not fun.

Stay safe out there everyone!