Grunt had lost his goddamn mind. It was the only possible explanation.
Jack reached to her right with a clench of her blue, glowing fist and dropped a heavy canister on one of the assassins out for Aria's blood. How stupid could you be to just stand there and aim? She lifted and dropped it on him again on principle, a grin breaking across her face at the audible thump.
I mean look at me , she thought. Do I look like somebody who's gonna convince anyone to sing kumbaya?
"Jack!" Aria snapped, and Jack focused in time to see the grenade dropping behind them in a graceful arc.
"Shit," she growled and batted it back where it came from with a Shockwave that turned over all the fine furniture they'd just passed, followed by a frustrated, "Fuck!" at the crystalline scream of dying fragile items. She'd had to listen to dozens of lessons about the preservation of valuables and intelligence and self-fucking-control and just knew there was a lecture waiting for her when they got back to the club.
Aria was more focused on her own demolition than Jack's at the moment though, striding with tall lethality toward the shifty-eyed double-crossing arms dealer who just found himself alone under his desk. Jack took that as a cue to finish off the coward(s) slinging explosives behind them. She paused behind a wall and waited for the one she'd returned to sender to go off, then raised her barrier and slid into a wall of smoke and debris.
Jack had long ago gotten used to the red and purple shift of hidden objects to her bio-mechanical eyes and could see her prey withdrawing with a sharp limp through the thick smoke. Maybe he'd got a taste of his own shrapnel? Her adrenaline spiked and she picked up the pace, blood tingling for another kill.
Maybe he wanted her to fail, she pondered as she prowled . Give Urdnot an excuse to finish the sonsobitches off? The idea made her brain hurt, but it was just the sort of thing she'd come to expect from people in high places. People like Aria. People like Miranda.
A pang of longing came and went at the thought of the woman, making Jack both angry and sad at the same time. Definitely not the right time to be dwelling on their split, but just thinking about the complexity of her ex made it clear that Grunt wasn't and couldn't ever be in her league. Chances of him trying to manipulate her? About zero.
Her quarry's trail took her through a darkened warehouse area and toward a staircase marked exit. For a moment Jack thought she spotted some movement in the spreading smoke and paused, all her senses searching for it. When she heard a grunt of exertion behind her she spun, almost quick enough to dodge the blade aimed at her back. The edge still punched through a gap between her chest and leg plates and pain blossomed brightly there. Her finishing spin brought her face to face with the surprised attacker, a slender shape in armor who withdrew the blade and slashed again with lightning quickness.
Jack's frantic biotic lift on the woman managed to keep her own head on her shoulders, the swinging blade passing harmlessly above. As the assassin flailed in the air high above her, Jack took a step back and grinned wolfishly before her left arm glowed blue and reached out with a perfectly placed Lash. It yanked the assassin back down to earth at high speed, leaving her in a tangle of bruised limbs on the ground in front of her, blade clanging loosely nearby.
She could feel the pleasure building in the back of her head now, the tingles waiting to spread through her scalp and down her back like an orgasm in reverse. It always made her want to hurry but she'd learned real quick that chasing that tiger while someone else might be angling for her led to bad things.
She put a gloved hand around her side to the wound instead and it came back wet and slick with her own blood. She looked around for anyone else in the vicinity before stepping toward the wannabe killer who was trying to pull herself off the floor. A swift augmented kick to her ribs convinced her to roll on her back instead, coughing and lifting her hands in surrender.
As Jack pointed the barrel of her sidearm at the woman's eyes all the old feelings spilled out from whatever fucking hole they disappeared into when it was quiet. She wrestled with all the pros and cons and calculations of the deed, wrapped neatly in the guilt Shepard had worked so hard to plant in her on the Normandy. All of Shepard's reasons and all those youthful faces looking to her to be some kind of model towered inside when all she wanted….all she really wanted was to feel good again.
After the gun went off she sighed and gave in to it for a second. Keeping an eye on that staircase door took an edge off the racing icey bliss that settled in all over and made her shiver in appreciation, but yeah. Yeah….killing a surrendering opponent might be wrong, but this cunt was no source of vital information, no political bargaining chip, nothing useful at all, just a waste of flesh like thousands before her who ran into that inevitable someone better .
And maybe that's all it was, she thought as she straightened and headed back to Aria's side with an afterglow that possibly only she in the universe had ever felt, the one gift from Cerberus that kept on giving and didn't die in a wreck of overreaching failure. Maybe all Grunt really needed was an edge.
Talking to Aria about this stuff was a proverbial two edged sword, cutting you no matter how you went about it. She had to broach the subject because number one Aria could refuse the extra time off and two, maybe she could give her some advice. Aria was such a bitch, though. Any advice would come with a hefty side of criticism and ridicule but as far as Jack was concerned she was usually a smart and fair bitch. Jack always knew where she stood, no bullshit, and that was alright. The problem was, if Aria decided to be possessive bitch or her famous can't be bothered bitch today she'd either have to up and quit this gig or shut up and leave Grunt hanging. She'd normally have asked Miri about how to go at it first, but Jack must've burnt that bridge pretty good...she hadn't returned any of her calls. So Jack chewed her lip and tried to think of the best way to bring it up as they rode back to Afterlife, one-sided arms agreement from the humiliated weapons dealer in hand.
"So….about my vacation," she started lamely after her boss disconnected a call to Bray about shipments and the onboarding of new 'recruits'.
"Patched things up already?" Aria asked with a sidelong smile, "That was quick. Who's going down on whom in apology?" When Jack clenched her jaw, Aria laughed, "Well that answers that question."
"Actually," Jack said in as neutral a voice as possible, "Something else came up. I'm gonna need more time than I scheduled for the Virmire thing."
"How much more?" Aria replied, her body growing momentarily still. That was Possessive bitch's danger signal. Shit.
"Got a friend with some drama spiraling is all," she said with fake disinterest, "If I get there quick I can nip it in the bud."
Aria deactivated her omni and turned her full attention to Jack then, hands folded across a knee. Her eyes didn't even settle on Jack's face for long, but took in everything about her; how she was seated, what her hands were doing, if her foot was tapping the floor...she read her in an instant and damn Jack hated that. She found herself weighed and when she gave a moment's thought to what'd just came out of her mouth realized she'd fucked up right outta the gate.
"You didn't answer my question," Aria purred, a smile curling the left side of her lip in a way that said she was pleased at the slip, "But go ahead. Tell me more."
The look in Aria's eyes was the same one she wore when she was ready to tear anything Jack said to pieces...one of her favorite pastimes. "Forget it," Jack responded irritably, "I'm not in the mood for your shit."
Aria shrugged lightly and settled back in her seat, "Alright. How much time do you need?"
Jack shook her head, "I'm...not sure."
"Guess." Aria said without a moment's hesitation.
She paused and chewed her bottom lip again. The texture was rough from ill-treatment and a loose piece of skin tantalized her tongue. Without thinking, she took it between her teeth and pulled until it came loose, the taste of blood following on its heels. She sucked on it in thought, the small sting helping her focus. Hell, she figured, if her trip took longer than her guess then it must be fucking important, right? If Aria said no to an extension then she'd just quit. No big deal.
"A month," she said, finally.
Aria's eyes narrowed and her face grew hard, "The Freedom Festival is in three weeks."
"It's a festival , boss. Bray'll be here, you'll be fine."
Aria leaned toward her, eyes widening, "There'll be more anarchists on this rock than we get tourists in a year. I need you here, this is precisely what I pay you for."
Possessive bitch it was, then. Great. "Oh bullshit. You pay me for what I did back there," she said with a jerk of her thumb behind her, "Not for arm candy. Don't you have some Eclipse on hand for this shit?"
"Jack," the Asari said in a frosty tone, "You've got two choices. One," she said as she held her thumb aloft, "You can tell me what's important enough to take you away for a full month, or two," an option with her forefinger held high, "You can pack up and see who else will pay you as much as I do when those talents come along with your mouth."
And so..here they were, just like every replay of the thing she did in her head beforehand. Yay clairvoyance? Jack sighed, dropping her chin in frustration. "Fine," she said, "I'm going to Tuchanka."
Aria looked incredulous. "Tuchanka," she repeated slowly, like she wasn't sure she heard right. "Why is that?"
Jack sighed again, knowing there was no way to say it that wasn't going to get her laughed at. "Grunt.." she stopped, then started again, "The Krogan asked me to come mediate between Urdnot and the clan that killed Wrex."
A smile grew wide on Aria's purple face, "The Krogan asked you to be an envoy of peace?" Her chuckle was rich and deep with amusement, "That's either going to be the greatest story ever told….or the greatest story ever told." Her voice grew sharp at the end of that sentence, a clear warning. "Why you?"
"Because Shepard said no?" she answered with a grimace, then outstretched a lazy palm. "I don't know why. All I know is they're pissed off enough over there to kill each other and they figure I can't do worse than that."
Aria went quiet then, looking out the window of the skycar as it raced through the twisting passages that approached the upper levels. She was quiet so long that Jack wanted to interrupt it, get an answer...take off the pressure she felt building like a vice in the back of her neck.
"If you're telling me the truth, this is a big deal," Aria said finally, almost a whisper, then turned to look at her again. "You know that, right?"
The car stopped and her driver waited for her customary exit. She made no such move though, only lifting a chin at him to depart, which he did without a word.
The silence in the skycar was almost as oppressive as Aria's steady gaze, and Jack suddenly felt uncomfortable. "Yeah, I get it," she said with a shrug of her shoulders.
"You 'get it'." Aria repeated with a smirk before leaning in closer for emphasis, "You get that the decisions they make in the next few weeks, decisions heavily weighed by your actions, may determine the future of the Krogan race? That whoever ends up in charge in that hellhole may or may not decide to try conquering the rest of us? That a war of that magnitude could give the Reapers a run on body count?"
Jack snorted, "Christ, no pressure or anything. You act like I'm a kid with a hand grenade."
"Because you are ," the asari enunciated carefully.
"You know what? Don't worry about it," Jack growled, her temperature rising, "I quit. Okay? Is that what you want?"
Aria leaned back against the side panel of the car with that stupid, insufferable, know-it-all smile of hers. "That's not what I said. You've got your month."
Something in the way she said it though, something in the way she looked at her said she wasn't finished. "But?" Jack pre-empted.
"But," Aria crooned, "There's something else you need to do while you're there. Something for us ."
"Alright," Jack murmured, her forehead knotting with suspicion. "I'm listening."
She played loud music as she packed just to drown out the thoughts in her head. As much as she liked Grunt and as much as she was flattered by the ask she was already regretting saying yes and hadn't even made it out the damn door yet. There were a lot of people expecting things from her and she didn't know how she'd accomplish any of them; which is precisely why she hated responsibility in the first place. But as she walked to the spaceport, bag slung over her shoulder, she realized that part of her problem was she'd gotten way too accustomed to asking for help from a certain someone she was purposefully not thinking about, which left her feeling even more alone in the whole mess. Nope, she was on her own this time, so she did her level best to remember that they had in fact asked her, right? They knew what they were getting..so why should she be the one feeling doubt?
She prepped her shuttle and departed, purposefully building a sense of pride about the whole thing just to keep her from bailing on it. There was one reliable source of advice she could get, after all, and that was from the person who'd already turned down the job; so Jack laid in a course for Thessia. If Shepard wasn't going to help she could at least give her some fucking direction; and having a Shadow Broker there wouldn't hurt her chances, thinking about Shadow Brokers brought her imagination back to a raven-haired beauty with ice-blue eyes, but before she could shut the thought away it occurred to her that Miranda wouldn't miss the opportunity to see the new T'Soni kid. Maybe she'd be there, too. She hated the sense of hope it gave her. The woman was probably laughing at her...that it took as long as it did for Jack to break it off. Stringing her along for years….making her think they'd actually have something together when all she wanted to do was..
"God dammit!" she swore into the empty cockpit before continuing in a growl that ended up a shout, "Do you fucking...hear yourself?!"
She shook her head in disgust and ran rough fingernails through her hair from the front of her scalp to the back. She sighed slowly then, listing all the ways she was stupid in a low voice before finally relaxing and calling up a playlist. These feelings were like some kind of disease. Every time she thought she was past it all she'd cough up her heart again, fresh and beating in her hands so she could dash it against a wall. If there was one good thing about this trip and all it's complicated prospects it was that she'd have less time to run herself through this endless emocoaster.
After hitting the first relay she set the shuttle on auto; not much to see in the Eagle Nebula and Eclipse and the Blood Pack knew better than to give her pause. In the meantime she sent Grunt a message, not really in the mood to talk to anyone vid to vid.
: Grunt, I'm otw but making a stop on Thessia to see Shep + the new kid. Anything you want from this place? You like Asari spirits?
Thoughts about Asari turned to Aria and then...helpfully...to the meditation techniques she'd taught her.. The point of it all was to give her finer control over her biotics and that had been a success, though she hadn't quite got to the point where she could sling singularities around. She also found it gave her the ability to put thoughts away when they were unhelpful so that's where she put it to work now.
It's not like she didn't know what the problem was in their relationship; it's that there was nothing she could do about it. Put your own shit aside for Miranda and that's too clingy. Don't put your own shit aside for her you wait a goddamned eternity for her to show any interest. If you show any interest in something else while she ignores you...then you've moved on. Well? She was finally moving on, right? If Miranda didn't do anything about it then it was over….and Miranda didn't seem to be doing squat at this point. Simple. She wasn't really interested in her and had probably never been. Who could blame her, really? After a taboo fling what was left? House and white picket fence? Long nights drinking that swill she called fine wine and talking about philosophy or some shit? Adopt a bunch of kids that piss themselves like Garrus and Tali did? Yeah, death first.
Jack needed to move. Needed to work. She was like a shark that way...swim or die. Miranda was like that in her own way too. One of their few things in common, they were literally designed for a purpose. Unless Jack was suddenly able to grow another brain or Miranda go on the run from the authorities again though...their paths simply weren't going to cross anymore; and Jack refused to pine away for something that never fucking was. Except that's exactly what she was doing. Constantly. Aria was probably right as she infuriatingly often was. She should have just moved on without saying a word, leaving the door open for Miranda to come to her for a fucking change. Woulda coulda shoulda.
Her eyes were drawn to a flashing reply on her Omni.
: Don't know. Try them all and bring me the best.
Jack grinned to herself at the challenge and whispered, "Can do."