"What…in the SHIT...is this?" Jack demanded, recoiling back a step in revulsion.
The soldier's mismatched eyes fixed on her before narrowing at the tone in her words; then she stood to face her from the other side of the glass enclosure, her mutated form stark naked. She glanced once at Roksar before replying.
"This is Lieutenant Katrin Turner," she spat in a voice accustomed to command and devoid of shame. "Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?"
Jack was taken aback by the woman's aggression, but in a good way. A smirk crawled across her face as she said, "Name's Jack." She slung a thumb over her shoulder at the Krogan standing a pace behind her. "Old Roksar here thought you were getting lonely and I know I am. Whattaya think? Slumber party?"
The Lieutenant answered by pacing and giving her the once-over. "Never thought I'd see a human being become a Krogan flunky."
"Hey," Jack countered with that same cockeyed grin and a spread of her hands, "I'm a captive here, same as you." Then she tilted her head appreciatively at the coiled violence in the woman's stance. The half of her that wasn't twisted was inky black perfection. "Well, clearly not the same, but…"
Kat folded her arms irritably. "Yeah, you look like a prisoner," she quipped.
"Oh," Jack answered, realizing how it looked before explaining with hand gestures added for punctuation. "Thing is, I gotta play nice so they don't hurt my friends." Then she turned to look at Roks. "What's she in for, anyway?"
Roksar was watching the exchange with keen curiosity. "The Lieutenant here is guilty of murder," she said smoothly, clearly prepared for what came next.
"You attacked us, bitch," Kat barked. "What was I supposed to do, stand there and die?"
Roksar ignored her and directed the answer to Jack directly. "The Lieutenant and her accomplice violated our territory and killed seven Krogan before they were put down. The Alliance has denied any involvement, so we are forced to treat the situation criminally."
"Uh-huh," Jack crooned noncommittally before looking back at the prisoner. "Seven," she remarked with an impressed look. "Not bad." She narrowed her eyes before asking, "How many of 'em were yours?"
It was hard to read her face with one eye being so big, but she focused on the normal one and saw it harden with pride before she heard the reply.
"Be stupid to answer that, don'tcha think?"
Jack liked her. "Alright. Wanna tell me what's going on with this?" she asked, motioning with a hand to her pale body-length disfigurement.
Kat flexed her neck from side to side before unabashedly resting raised hands against the glass. "Why don't you ask Miss Frankenstein, here?"
Roksar huffed repeatedly in what must have been her laugh. "I've told you a thousand times I had nothing to do with this."
Kat pushed herself away from the edge of her cage in exasperation. "Yeah? Well I sure didn't look like this when I got here." She turned to Jack looking for sympathy. "What she won't tell you is I actually woke up missing an arm...and an eye. She had them strung up like some kind of anatomy project."
Jack swung her head to look damningly at the Krogan.
"I never denied it," Roksar admitted freely. "You were dismembered at the end of that fight and brought to me like that. I was understandably curious, considering the hostile environment outside these walls. You have the same prosthetic technology Kravarog possessed. All I did was put you back together and let that tech heal you; something I didn't have to do, I might add. The rest happened on its own."
"Ahhh bullshit!" Kat shouted before Roksar even finished. "Look at me...Jack is it? You believe that for a second?"
Jack immediately understood she'd just been made part of a long-standing argument, probably for Roksar's amusement. Her eyes widened in response to seeing both sides of the story; inclined to believe Kat over Roksar but also knowing she needed to make the Krogan think she was sympathetic if it furthered any chance of getting back to Grunt in time.
"Uhh," she stammered before looking at the Krogan and her Asari compatriot. "I mean, you should have some idea of what's going on, right?"
Roksar's lips curled into a hideous shape Jack took as a smile. "I've offered to investigate," she said, "But she won't let me take the samples I need."
"Like I'd let you keep experimenti..." Kat was shouting.
"She continues to react violently," Roksar overrode her, "Until I'm forced to discipline her."
The yelling continued, getting louder, but Jack stopped it all with a word directed at the Krogan. "Discipline?"
"Yes," the scientist confirmed after they paused their mutual onslaught. "She has the strength and capability to break out of her cell. I can't allow that to happen, she's a prisoner."
Jack looked back and forth between them expectantly when their argument turned to silent glares. Must've been a sticking point as it seemed neither wanted to address it out loud. "How do you 'discipline' her?" she asked finally.
The pair stared at one another and Jack could swear she heard Kat's teeth grinding. "Well?" The N7 operative said with a dark glitter in her only normal eye. "Go ahead. Tell her."
Roksar's expression didn't change from one of patient disapproval. "I vent her cell to the outside."
Jack's eyes widened in shock but the Krogan continued. "These rooms were not designed to be prisons. She loses consciousness and I cycle the atmosphere. She recovers quickly, I assure you."
"That's fucked," Jack said, looking at Kat with a pre-apology before adding, "Why don't you put her in a real cell? I know you gotta have 'em."
"We do," Roksar confirmed. "Unfortunately Kravorog would prefer her dead. Her life was spared," she said while turning her gaze to the woman, "Because I asked it to be. He won't allow her anywhere near him, so I brought her here, instead."
"You act like I should be thankful, " Kat growled.
Before Roksar could respond, Jack held up a hand. "So why are you doing this? You think she's just going to settle into her new prison life here with you and whistle a medley? News flash. She hates you. I would too."
"Because I'm just as interested in what's happening to her as she is," Roksar reasoned. "Living here can be pleasant if she would only let it be."
"No," Kat replied with a furiously pointed finger, "You want me to be a guinea pig, just like the other half-baked Krogan you're cooking up in this place and I won't do it."
"But I might be able to fix you!" Roksar plead with spread hands.
"Wait a minute, Roks," Jack interrupted. "Did you bring me over here just to see if I could convince her?"
"My patience isn't limitless," Roksar said with a lift of her chin. "If she will not cooperate then I will turn her over to Kravorog." The female met Jack's eyes sincerely before turning away, speaking over her shoulder. "I'd rather that not happen." Leelia followed respectfully, re-entering her office and shutting the door.
Jack's jaw tightened, her chest filling with a sympathetic feeling of helpless resentment she'd worked years to forget. It flooded her limbs, fingers to toes, white hot...and she curled her hands into fists against it. Kat's form was still relaxing against the walls of her prison when she next looked, but Jack now understood the source of the hostile expression on her face like few others could.
"Yeah," Kat groaned, "Can't wait to hear this sales pitch."
Jack couldn't speak yet. The words were a meaningless logjam in her throat. She began pacing, looking around her and the cell and up and down the hall.
"I didn't murder them," Kat insisted, walking along the inside of the window in step with her. "They came at us ."
Jack continued to pace, mind whirling until Kat interrupted her with waving hands. "You hearing me? You gotta get me out of here."
She paused and walked closer to the glass, looking at the woman eye to eye. "Relax. I don't care if you ate their babies," she growled. "THIS ?" she motioned around them with a finger, "Is some bullshit."
The relief on Katrin's face was clear, but also shortlived. "They're probably listening," she warned, eyes flicking toward the Asari's office door. "Got a plan?"
Jack folded her arms and leaned back against the glass beside the prisoner. "Stuck on the 'kill them all' urge at the moment and that ain't gonna work." She turned her head ninety degrees to look at her. "Just to check in, your options are doing what she says or probably dying. You're N7 so I already know you're batshit, but are you really willing to take the dark walk rather than let her work while the Alliance gets you out?" She paused, watching the gears turn in her head. "I gotta know before I commit."
"What do you think you know about N7?" Was Kat's answer instead.
Jack peeled her lips back into a wolfish smile. "Oh, I've worked with a couple o' you jarheads before. Was good for a laugh."
Kat looked her up and down doubtfully. "Uh-huh. Who? There aren't many of us left."
God dammit, Jack snarled inwardly. She was not about to fucking namedrop, one name especially. "Nevermind," she spat like puking up day old fish.
"That's what I thought," Turner huffed. "I came here to do a job and waiting for mummy and daddy to pick me up isn't on the docket. Killing that crazy cunt would be a bonus."
Jack tightened her lips and sighed through her nose. "I might not be the best judge of character, but I've met a lot of people," she said plainly, "And I'm not sure Roksar's lying about this stuff."
"Yeah?" Kat retorted, her head drawing back in anger. "And you've spent so much time with her. What the hell do you know?"
"I know that if she really wanted to take samples from you," Jack said flatly, "All she had to do was keep that back door open and send one of her 'abortions' in to get whatever she wanted while you were dead to the world." She watched the woman's eye tighten in thought before adding. "You know, the ones that can breathe that shit out there?"
She could see the frustration build up in her like gas in a piston engine. "I wasn't like this before they took me apart!" Kat yelled shortly after, a fist hitting the artificial glass so hard Jack could see it bend before snapping back into place. Alarms went off and the back window of the soldier's cell began to open, the outside air violently mixing with the interior, and in a few seconds Leelia came running out of her office with wide eyes turned to them.
"She's fine!" Jack said as Kat ran to a corner and made herself small, "She just got mad. Turn it off!"
The asari raced to a panel and began pressing buttons but Jack only saw it peripherally, her gaze fixed on the human holding her breath, a hand raised uselessly against the poisonous gas that enveloped her. She wanted to smash the glass between them, to free her; but that breach could incapacitate them all.
"Why did she do that?" Leelia cried. "She knows it could kill her!"
Jack was overwhelmed by memories, though. Flash after flash of her childhood. Panic and anger and pain and fear blending into something else...something that would dominate or die and be happy with either outcome. There was nothing in between, a complete void of personality that had only barely been filled to date. "You have no IDEA !" she shouted at the Asari, seeing her wilt at the response. "You've never been trapped in your ENTIRE LIFE !" Her breath was coming fast, the fine level of control she'd built over time flooded with that emotional intensity. "Turn it off!" she managed to command with the barest grip of sanity.
"I have!" Leelia replied, returning to her doorway and whatever weapons she probably had waiting inside.
But the process wasn't a quick one and while the large window had already begun to close the air inside the space was hopelessly corrupted. Jack moved to Kat's side and took a knee, palm spread on the glass as surrounding fans spun up for decontamination. They stayed that way for what had to be more than 3 minutes but even Kat's engineered body had its limits; her wildly mismatched eyes staying fixed on Jack's and her face contorting with the discomfort of holding her breath even as she began to lose focus and fade. When they closed, she saw Kat take in a breath, cough, choke...and then convulse.
By that time Roksar had entered and began demanding updates. Jack didn't react kindly, jumping to her feet enshrouded in blue and shockwaving both the mercenary Asari, the unsuspecting Krogan, and scattered equipment and desks to the floor. She was atop Roksar in moments, biotic coated fist raised to punch a hole in her face while the other hand pressed her down by the throat.
"I do NOT want to hurt you!" Jack snarled as an introduction while the Krogan blinked up at her in surprise. "Okay? But here's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna get you your samples, and you are gonna let her out of there. Clear?"
The scaly reptilian face curled in on itself in argument. "She's a murderer. She's not going anywhere."
She laughed at the words, then replied, "So am I. Normally I'd just prove it, but if you die then I do too and I've got things to do. We're stuck on a frozen wasteland where we can't breathe and there's 600,000 krogan between us and the god damned spaceport. She'll behave. Alright? I'll protect you."
The Krogan's chest heaved with laughter so hard it threatened to dislodge her. "You'll protect me," she wheezed, hands spreading to show she wasn't a threat.
"Yeah," Jack said with a tinge of disappointment before releasing her and standing, the blue fire lighting her skin dissipating into the air. "I will."
"Fine," Roksar growled then began pulling herself to her feet. When the Krogan looked past Jack, she turned to see Leelia holding a rifle aimed at the back of her head.
"I've worked for some really sorry people in my life," the Asari said calmly. "She's not one of them. I won't let you hurt her."
"It's fine," Roksar repeated in a deep voice, motioning with her hand to lower the weapon. "Thank you," she added with an appreciative nod, then looked back at Jack. "Leelia knows what samples I need. Perhaps it would be better if I wasn't present."
Jack dipped her chin in agreement. "You should go talk to Grunt is what you should do."
"Yes," she said. "I'll do that."
"The hell I will!" Kat snarled, fists balled at her sides. "Did you not hear a single word I said?" Her voice was rough and thick and she still coughed up fluid from her latest encounter with the outside, but anger propelled her well enough to argue.
"What I hear is a big fucking baby crying," Jack threw back at her from the other side of the glass. Leelia stood several paces away, watching them with doubtful curiosity and a table full of instruments nearby.
"Ohhh," Kat breathed, her face contorting with rage. "Oh I hate you. You've got no idea what this is like."
"Actually," Jack crooned with a wry grin, "I do. And if someone told me all I had to do was give a few bits of flesh to get out I'd have taken it. Don't you have a 'job to do'?" she mocked. "Tough doing it in there, isn't it?"
"They're not gonna just let me leave, stupid. Tomorrow it will be 'oh, just one more sample or you go back in', then 'just one injection, I promise'," she ranted, pointing at the floor. "I'd rather die on this hill right here than be one of those drooling sacks of meat in the other cells."
Jack laughed, then held up a finger. "Okay. One," she said, "You might already be turning into one of those drooling sacks of meat for all you know, and two," she said with a second finger, then paused, wondering if she should actually say the words. The challenging look on the soldier's face made her grimace and get it out there. "Two," she said again, "We all might be dead in the next couple of days anyway."
That got things quiet.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Came Leelia's voice.
Jack looked back and forth between them. "It means that if Kravorog doesn't go back to Tuchanka with Grunt, Urdnot'll rain asteroids down on this place like he's dancing on an anthill."
A blue hand covered Leelia's mouth in shock while some choice words were uttered inside the cell.
Jack put her own hand on the glass as she peered inside. "Look. If we don't all die tomorrow I can try and work something out with Grunt and Kravorog for your freedom, yeah? Plus, I've got a greeeat bottle of hooch in my room," she added with a wink. "Whattaya think, want a drink?"
She could see the look on Kat's face softening toward agreement, but Leelia interrupted her victory.
"There's just one problem," she said.
"Oh yeah?" Jack asked lightly.
"Yes," she confirmed. "Kravorog can't leave this place. He doesn't breathe regular air anymore."
Perfect. Just fucking perfect. "Well," she admitted, "I...guess I need a drink too, then."
Once Leelia was done with her samples, she wheeled out the table and opened the door to the room fully, stepping aside to set Kat free. Jack had Kat's black form-fitting underarmor clothing waiting for her. As the woman dressed she noticed that the white mutation had covered more of Kat's skin than it had just in the time since they'd met, but she kept her mouth shut about it.
When she was finished she took a deep breath of air and Jack knew exactly what that was about.
"Come on," she said, striding toward the other side of the complex, and Kat followed. Leelia waved and went back into her office and they were finally alone. Kat wasn't moving very fast, so she slowed her pace until the woman caught up before giving her a sidelong glance.
"How you feelin'?" she asked.
"Hard to catch my breath," Kat said, metering out her words. "Hurts."
Jack nodded and palmed the panel to open the wide doors that separated the medical wing from the rest of the floor. Kat looked around the place as they walked like she'd never seen it, clearing her throat from time to time with a grimace.
"How many times?" she asked with a jerk of her chin back towards her former cell.
"That makes five," she said in a voice like stone, then followed Jack into her room.
She motioned to her bed and Kat took a seat gratefully while she rummaged for the bottle. "See if this doesn't put a spring in ya," she said, handing it to her.
Kat's face up to now had pretty much been a solid scowl, so the transformation of it when she tasted the liquor was dramatic. Her eyes widened and her mouth formed a wide 'O' as she exhaled. "Hoooooo," she exclaimed before smiling wide and licking her lips. "That is…"
"Pretty fucking good, huh," Jack chuckled and sat beside her.
"I dunno what this is," she said in more of a question than a statement before coughing and clearing her throat, "But I'm buying stock, haha!" Her laugh was full and rich and throaty, making the room ring with it.
Jack took the bottle and a swig herself, enjoying it more now that she had the time. She passed it back with a warning. "Go ahead, but we gotta leave some of it. Was supposed to be a gift for Grunt."
Those mismatched eyes looked at her like she didn't have to ask twice and kicked back another belt without a word. She handed the bottle back, blinking at the smooth punch of the alcohol before looking at her directly. "So what, you're here with Urdnot?"
"Yeah," she sighed, "We've got history."
Now Kat's face relayed surprise and she shrugged. "But why would they take you along?" She tilted her head for a second then continued, "Unless…" She looked at Jack differently, then. "Okay," she said simply. "That Jack."
Her brows furrowed and she jerked her head back at the way she said it. "What? You heard of me?"
"Mmnhmm," was her reply, followed by, "Now I know which 'jarhead' you were talking about, too."
Jack's face sobered and she nodded curtly. "Yeah," she said after a moment but nothing more, expecting questions she really couldn't give a fuck about answering.
Instead, Kat broke into a fit of nasty coughing. It was wet and heavy sounding and Jack ended up pounding on her back as if that did anything but make herself feel better about it. The end of it was a bunch of wheezing that looked really painful.
"You good?" Jack asked roughly, watching the woman's hands curl up in her sheets while she drug in one breath after another.
Turner only nodded, working through it with experience until she could speak. "What's your story?" she croaked, clearly not ready to engage, herself.
Jack cringed, but felt obligated to entertain. "She broke me out of prison," she said. "Needed my help."
"How'd you," she coughed again, "Land there?"
"Well that's a long story," she said evasively, "How about some food? I can get some stuff."
Katrin just stared her down until Jack rolled her eyes.
"Shit caught up with me," she said with a grind of her jaw. "A world of shit." Jack looked at her, a feeling of defensiveness creeping up her spine. "Nobody cares about this crap."
The soldier pushed herself back farther on the bed until her back was against the wall, looking like a kid wanting a goddamn bedtime story. "You might be the last person I talk to in this god-awful life," she said, "Humor me."
She took a moment to consider the woman. The rough patch Kat just went through had clearly brought back some of her own bad memories. She'd normally never talk about it with anyone but Kat was right; they might be dead tomorrow. Maybe, just maybe, the mutant soldier would understand. Jack pinched the top of her nose between two fingers and sighed expressively, trying to figure out where to even begin. "I don't know how much you do know, so don't bitch if you get bored." The words earned a crooked smile.
"I grew up in a research facility," she began. "I'm a biotic and that terrorist group Cerberus corralled a bunch of us up as kids to see if they could make us better biotics for their mindless little army. Did a bunch of horrible things, but I managed to get away when I was a teenager." She peered at the woman, waiting for some smartass comment but she just sat there. Jack extended a hand, palm up, in explanation, "I didn't know shit about shit. No money, no skills, couldn't read. I was fresh meat and there were plenty of sharks. I busted my way through one mistake after another with Cerberus hunting me the whole time, so I was constantly getting in fights. Picked up a sand addiction quick as you please. It was a mess."
"Then I ran into this couple," she said with a twist of her lips. "She and her boyfriend were con artists that ran the length of their rope and needed some muscle to pull in a big score. They talked a good game; telling me all about the oppressed and downtrodden and how we needed one another to raise us all up as one, right? After I saved their asses they told their associates how great I was while neatly parting me from my end. Now I might have been dumb as fuck but I wasn't an idiot so I killed them; but their 'associates' came a calling. Point is they got me connected to a criminal enterprise that called themselves the Hand."
She paused to see if Kat had fallen asleep yet. She hadn't.
"That was an improvement," she said. "I had allies, now. Allies that knew every dark corner and hidden alley on dozens of worlds. Cerberus had a harder time fucking with me and I liked that," she said with a bemused smile. "Thing is," she continued, "The Hand turned out to be more than just another gang." Her eyes went back to Kat's. "Heard of 'em?"
"No," she said, "Go on."
"Alright," she hummed, thumbing her chin as she considered what to say. "Was a wreck when they took me in. They gave me a spot to hunker down, gave me food and clothes. Never asked for anything. They got me clean," she said with lingering amazement. "Taught me my letters and numbers, how to manage a credit account. Still never asked for anything."
A crooked smile formed on Kat's lips. "Uh-oh," she said.
"Right?" Jack sniggered. "But I needed it so I stayed. The people I ran with all had it hard, harder than most. The Hand seemed to give a shit, you know? They'd tell us not to be discouraged, that the problems we were facing only made us stronger and we had to build on that. I mean," Jack chuckled, "I never had a family and I ain't gonna lie, I ate it up."
Kat nodded, chuckling at her naivete right along with her.
"It... was a fucking cult," Jack admitted.
Kat's eyes widened. "Some kind of religion?"
"No," she said, shaking her head. "Cult of personality I guess. They had this... notion," she breathed, pulling the fingertips of her right hand to a point, "That people are forged by life. That you would never ever know who you really were until you went through pain and suffering. Lots of people out there sit on their asses and do nothing but consume, but we were better, you see. We were stronger than the rest of the sheep because of all the bad shit we'd experienced in our lifetimes; and," Jack just shook her head again, "Pain was something I knew very very well. By the time they put me to work I was on fire for it. We had to earn for the Hand so we could take care of our people and... there was nothing I couldn't do. Nothing I wouldn't do and they used that."
"Sick bastards," Kat said.
"Well now, hold up," Jack said defensively. "We actually helped a lot of people who had no other options. We were a family. Fucking twisted family, but…" she chuckled. "And if we destroyed some lives in the process, you know, they figured it was just another recruiting ground."
"Sick. Bastards," Kat repeated, but Jack was already laughing at how that had sounded.
She threw up her hands. "So anyway, I was pretty good at this stuff. Got promoted enough that they let me get a peek behind the curtain, met most of the inner circle…" She spun a hand around, "And that's where things started getting interesting. Wasn't just a soldier anymore," she said. "Started seeing the bigger picture. Started getting creative. Made them a fuck ton of money and made just as many enemies, but they couldn't touch me. I was a Captain and the Hand had my back."
"Until they didn't," Kat surmised.
"Yeah. Bored yet?"
"You might bribe me with another swig," she teased.
"Whatever," she said, but handed over the bottle. "There was this one gig that... went a little sideways," she said, lips twitching. "The Hanar are an uncompromising bunch of pussies who'd been hassling me for months over some stuff in their territory. So? I went to talk it over with them in my usual fashion."
She waited a breath to build tension. She liked this bit.
"I may or may not have 'decelerated one of their space stations until it made contact with a moon','" she said with air quotes.
Kat nearly spit the precious clear fluid in that bottle, but managed to keep it together and blink at her in disbelief.
"Went to prison for that one. That's not the one Shepard broke me out of, though. The Hand did what they could to get me early furlough and when I was finally out I'd earned a meeting with the power couple that led the organization, personally. While they liked my initiative, they said, I was reckless."
Kat looked confused. "Why would they bother getting you out of prison if they were going to cut you loose?"
"Thought they could guide me." She held out a hand and twitched her fingers toward her, asking for the bottle, and took a deep draw before sealing it and putting it away. "Worked for awhile, too. They were…" Jack cleared her throat as if the liquor caught her unexpectedly, "Very convincing."
She wasn't going to say the rest; what she did for them or what they did to her. They were her everything and regardless of morality she'd wanted it. No excuses.
"They didn't like how often I was killing people," she continued after a momentary pause. "Wanted me to be more subtle. After all, you can't convert a corpse and it was drawing too much attention from law enforcement. I disagreed, and the problem was there were more and more members who liked my methods. It's tough to testify if you're dead." Her eyes flicked up to catch Kat's reaction to the naked truth of it. "I'm a killer," she said without shame. "It's who I am and it's why Shepard broke me out of that prison. She needed that. They didn't, and couldn't afford the mutiny coming down the pike."
"But," Kat protested, "How did Shepard even know about you? Why did she need you?"
"Hah!" Jack barked, settling back against the wall. "Remember, Shepard was working for Cerberus at the time. She needed troops against the Collectors and Cerberus wanted nothing more than to have me in play again so they could put a target on me. They fed her the intel; they just didn't expect her to give me intel on them at the same time. She got what she wanted, and I got my chance to take them down."
For the first time since she'd started this story, Kat looked impressed.
"You know," Jack said bitterly, "If you just wanted me to talk about Shepard you coulda said so."
The woman tilted her head. "Why do you care if I ask about Shepard?"
Because that's all anyone ever does, she thought, but stood instead. "If you're not hungry, I am. I'll...bring you back somethin'," she said, and stepped out of her room.