So it's been a while since I touched this little venture into Sci-Fi. I didn't actually mean to completely abandon it back then if you can believe that, but that being said things just happened and I completely forgot about this in turn for more anime esc projects… All of which have taken a back seat for now.
In short: Welcome back to 'Don't Go...'
( - 0 - )
(John Shepard – Unknown Space – Unknown System)
The soft vibrations of the unfamiliar shuttle continued to send more unsettling tingles and pinching sensation through his battered frame, making him hiss a few times when a particularly rough section of the flight would send him swaying involuntarily from the harsher movement. Though when he looked to his left he could see that his 'kidnappers' were just as discomforted with the shitty transport if the black man's unhappy facial expression was anything to go by.
Though the service was the last thing on John Shepard's mind…
It had been over an hour since he had made the questionable, visibly desperate decision to join the Cerberus Operatives on their trek to wherever it was they were taking him. Even now he still couldn't tell how to feel beyond the usual, tremulous emotions that stirred within him whenever Cerberus was at the forefront of his mind.
Even now, he kept sending them obvious looks of immense distrust and scorn, these were the same people that had destroyed him. They destroyed him and killed his men, his squad and left him a complete mess.
The same group that were now – for some reason – helping him.
A scowl settled on his face when he watched the busty woman casually get up before making a bee-line for the cockpit of the shuttle, her face had been steeled into a relaxed expression that oozed of deception as she moved the metal slider to the side before shutting it behind her.
"An operative who can't take a bumpy ride?" He rasped, chuckling mirthlessly as he tried not to fall into a coughing fit for the attempted mockery. His expression fell to the man, now looking at him – and trying not to show his poorly hidden horror – with curious look.
"How'd you guess that?" He replied, his tone implying his curious nature. Then again, the entire feel of this guy felt familiar for some reason, but he couldn't put his finger on it. His posture wasn't slouched nor was it completely stiff, alert but not alarmed.
John didn't care either way.
"Please..." He sneered, giving the man before him a bitter glare. "She'd been shuffling in her spot like a drugged up Pyjack. She doesn't hide her emotions as well as she seems to think she does."
His kidnapper just shrugged in return. "Miranda is just like that, don't let her prissy attitude fool you, Joh-"
"Shepard..." John glared at him, doing his best to keep his throat from collapsing from the hateful growl he let out. The man's face fell a little as he raised his hands up defensively. "You don't get to call me anything other than that, Cerberus."
"Sorry, Shepard." He grimaced. "I probably should've seen that coming. But since we're on the topic of names, mine is Jacob and I've already told you Miranda's."
The names of his two kidnappers rung in his head for a second, processing the information. Another thrum from the shuttle sent tingling bolts coursing through his veins again, he grunted in pain before relaxing yet again; glaring right through Jacob.
"You're all just Cerberus to me." He spat hatefully. "The only reason I'm here is to verify that my sister is actually here and if I don't see her, I'm going to-"
"Going to do what, Major?" The cool, confident and appealing voice lilted from the slight slit of the cockpit slider. "You are hardly a threat to any of us in the state you're in, but you can rest assured that we are not lying to you."
A dark, humourless laugh escaped the broken man's dried throat, dripping with derision and disdain. "Sure I'll believe that just like believe your tits are real or that the catsuit is actually included in your field gear." He watched Miranda's face scrunch up in disgust at the crass reply, but otherwise found her remaining silent as he continued on. "Cerberus is an organisation of nothing but fanatic lunatics, killers and lying sacks of Thresher Maw shit. You're attempts to say otherwise are just more lies to pile onto the shit heap of other lies."
He would've said more, he wanted to say more' but his throat had finally shut him up with a painful bout of dry, ragged coughs that made him curl in on himself in a vain attempt to alleviate the pain. Though he didn't care much, he'd spoken his piece with these scumbags.
"You say that." Miranda's voice drawled, practically radiating a smug crispness that almost seemed to speak about her more than anything. "Yet here you are, on our shuttle of which you willingly followed us to…"
John could already see where this was being taken, and he fucking hated it.
"So that begs the question: If we're lying to you, why did you agree to come with us?"
'Because my sister deserves to live.'
"..."
"… Nothing?"
John only glared harder at her, but remained angrily silent.
Her self-satisfaction was suffocating…
She broke from the gaze being laid upon her, choosing to acknowledge Jacob who had only watched awkwardly as the two argued.
"We'll be arriving in 10 minutes. The Illusive Man wishes to speak with our crippled friend here before we formally begin anything." Miranda merely turned back to the cockpit, ignoring the smouldering gaze of the cripple in question before closing the slider fully.
"Well..." Jacob coughed into his hand, trying to ease the tension in the room. "That went as well as expected..."
He wasn't acknowledged in the slightest…
The rest of the shuttle ride was just as silent as it had begun. With a quiet, fuming Shepard losing himself to his memories…
( - 0 - )
-5 months ago-
"So you're telling me," John grinned smugly from behind the Mako, looking at his now blushing sister as he pried a piece of particularly awkward shrapnel from the combustion manifold. "that you went on a 'not-date' with a certain plain-faced Canadian?"
"John, shut up. That's an order!" Jane demanded, glaring a him with cheeks as rosy as her hair. Her flustered expression doing nothing to belay the devious grin that was beginning to split her brother face apart.
"Sister-dearest… You should have known that you're fate was sealed the moment I caught wind of this event. I should buy Garrus a drink for his hard work."
"And I should pour it over his head!" She huffed, her cheeks puffing out slightly like they did whenever John felt like getting under his sisters skin.
"Aww, don't be like that, Jane." John snickered in response. "My partner puts in tonnes of hard work everyday to fix this damn thing for your next disastrous endeavour, what would it show to have his captain pour his favour bottle of Turian Whiskey over him instead of in him?"
Jane growled back. "Then i'll stick the bottle up his ass, he'll have no trouble tasting that shit then."
From the back of the Cargo bay, John could see Garrus had just stepped out of the elevator in time to hear the threat, and paling like no other turian could, the brave Vakarian Sniper merely turned back around and pressed the elevator upwards once more.
John couldn't stop the trembles that racked his body, bursting out with laughter in front of his tomato-like sister as her face darkened.
"He was behind me, wasn't he."
A statement, he noted. Not a question.
He only laughed harder.
The noise had attracted a certain quarian from the engineering deck, as he watched her head poke out from the doorway before she saw the two Shepards interacting. John noted the way Tali's head tilted adorably in a questioning way.
'Note to self: Never let Tali realise the true nature of that head-tilt, or we'll be dealing with a WMD before we know it.'
Jane – seemingly catching the look on his face – turned around to see Tali watching from the same place John had spotted her. Her glowing eyes widened a little bit when she noted the red hue on her captains face before squealing a little bit before giving Jane a thumbs up and running back to the engineering deck.
"Oh? So our resident quarian was in on this, but your loving, caring brother wasn't allowed?" John asked, faking a sniffle as he finally tore the shrapnel out from the mobile-nausea APC. "Truly, I am hurt. Would never question your desire to be with a discount frenchie, sis."
"Bite me, you ass."
"That seems to be Kaiden's job."
Jane merely stalked towards him, her face stony and promising a punishment he wouldn't enjoy.
"It seems you need to be reminded of who's in charge, Major." She spoke, forcing a stern tone that made John shudder a little. "I think a small spar is in order for you." Briskly moving towards a more open area of the docked Normandy cargo bay, Jane merely turned back to face her brother with a steely look.
"Please no, Captain."
She raised her fists up, taking a boxers stance.
"I haven't fixed the Mako yet."
She only stared harder. "Get over here and spar with your sister, Jonathan Shepard."
Sensing his doom approaching, he looked up to see the silent form of Wrex merely watching in morbid amusement.
It was his only chance, sure he could beat his sister but that didn't mean that he'd have to work for it!
"Wrex, buddy, pal-"
Wrex only turned to look at Jane. "Can I watch?"
John Paled, Jane smirked.
And nodded.
The hulking krogan laughed a little in response, shifting into a more comfortable position on the cargo bay wall. "This'll be fun…"
And with that, his fate was sealed.
He released a small sigh and accepted the fact that he had pushed his sister too far as his feet plodded sullenly towards their owners inevitable bad time. Slowly and tiredly, John shifted into a Muay Thai stance that shook with the lack of energy he had.
"Bring it on, Sister dearest..."
As the two circled one another and John felt his stomach meet his sisters clenched fist, he started pondering on one thing…
'Maybe I should've just kept my mouth shut...'
( - 0 - )
-Present Time-
The memory of that day washed over him briefly, he could almost feel the way her fist buried into his stomach, the force of which he struck back with, the adrenaline… Every little emotion he had experienced in the little silly bout over his sisters boyfriend to be becoming her official boyfriend… as far as they could go at least with Alliance regulations getting in the way.
It had struck him like a brick that it was one of the few days he had been able to fully let go of everything up to that point and be the man he used to be, the brother Jane deserved. Back there, in a damn sibling quarrel about boys of all things, acting like they were dumb kids again as he ducked, twisted and redirected everything Jane threw at him before managing to tackle her to the ground in an arm-lock!
She even ended up breaking the 'Stern Captain' act and began calling him an asshole over and over again before submitting to defeat before he'd allowed her to get back up from the ground with a half-hearted glare.
But he had seen her small, almost hidden smile break out on her face when he hugged her and gave the 'discount frenchie' his approval.
That moment had allotted to less than 3 minutes of their time, and yet he could only ever remember it as if it had been years long instead and everything he had felt extended to far bigger, complex feelings that left a ghost of a smile on his withered, leathery face for a brief second.
Back then, they had been brought back from the world of their spar to see a small ring around them and a small pile of credits laying on the floor next Wrex and Ashley, Tali had silently but eagerly congratulated him on his win as Garrus slapped him on the back as he laughed at something stupid from said turians mouth.
It had been great…
But the only thing to bring out of his stupor this time was the painful throbbing of his worthless fucking body, and a shuttle filled with people he'd sooner kill than spar with…
And no one he cared for around anymore.
It was through the oppressive humming and silent clearing of Jacob's throat that had brought him to the awful conclusion that was his life now.
He was alone, and it wouldn't change anytime soon.
'God, I hope this isn't some sick plot… Please, for once just let me have this small hope.' He silently pleaded, his useless tear ducts aching yet remaining dry despite his shaking bodies demands.
'Please let there be hope for Jane...'
( - 0 - )
(The Illusive Man – Chronos Station – Horsehead Nebula)
Piercing blue eyes of tech scoured through the recent manifest of supplies. Huge crates of tech, credits and personnel all shifting, moving from place to place by the power of his word and his word alone. The amount of damage that could be done by others in similar positions of power often rang from the back of his mind, the destruction caused, the chaos spread.
But he wasn't like them, previous, corrupt individuals with greed and pride smearing their goals. He wouldn't allow himself to become like them either.
Because as it was with so many things in life: Bigger things were happening behind the scenes.
And project Lazarus needed to be a success to put a stop to the biggest of those things…
The illusive Man took a long drag of his cigar, his brow furrowing in concentration as he made several calls and appointments with other cells and agents. Time was of the essence.
Then he had a notification, one that drew his attention immediately.
"I see..." He stared in satisfaction, he couldn't overstate just how important this would be for his plans to move forward.
All that he required now was one small conversation…
And things would all fall into place.
His roamed the short message, precise and to the point and he couldn't mask the smirk that followed from the contents.
'Operative lawson -
Major. Shepard has been retrieved, Project Lazurus may begin on your orders'
( - 0 - )
Fuck this feels weird. I haven't written for this game for ages and I already miss doing so. Though typing with cold fingers seems to be an awfully difficult task.
God the typos are going to be fucking numerous...
Updates may be a little random, but I can ensure that there will be more. Hopefully not to fa in the future though. Though the remastered edition might effect this depending on how much they've censored. I fucking hate censorship.
Well, I'll see you all again at some point.
-Viperhat
