Sorry for the long wait but I had no access to my pc for a while and the financial year end at work made for lots of overtime. And I changed where the chapter was going several times. But hopefully you will like this final variant. And I will be going back over the stuff I have already written to fix the spelling mistakes I have made, really I am quite appalled at myself for how many I found while skimming it. Anyway, please review and/or pm me with any questions you might have.
Walking through the door of the krogan armorer's workshop I was met with an angry snarl followed by what most people would call shouting but for krogan was barely even considered a raised voice.
"I told you senile pyjack, I don't want Garrod, I want you to make my weapon. You made one for my father and my father's father. Now it's time for you to make me a weapon, a weapon worthy of a clan chief." A krogan in green and yellow armour bellowed at Jarrg who stood there and if I understood krogan facial expressions well enough he was clearly not impressed but then again even I was not impressed by the other krogan as he was clearly young judging by the partially fused plate and he was only two thirds the size of Jarrg.
"And I told you that I don't give my weapons to varren dung like you. Your father was a great warrior who knew when to let a weapon talk and when was the time to put it away, your father's father was a friend of mine back when we were both whelps and happily stomping some turians into the ground. You are none of that, now stand aside and let me give my attention to someone actually worth it." Jarrg said and swivelled one of his eyes at me with a slight crinkling of his lips, I imagine he was amused and interested to see what I was going to do with an angry krogan that has just been deemed less worthy than a human. I didn't know either at the moment and I didn't have long to come up with something.
The krogan turned around and looked at me and I could see that the accusation and implication stung deeply. His blood red eyes locked on me and with two large strides he was but a step away from me.
"You, puny human, how can you be more worthy than me? I will tear out your guts and use them to make a leash for my varren, though I doubt they are strong enough to hold them. I shall split your skull and drink ryncol from it. I shall…" the krogan was trying to insult me but I didn't want to waste time answering C-sec why I killed a krogan, not that they cared much when it came to krogan but there would still be an official report which I wanted to avoid. So instead of waiting for him to attack me I used all my strength to headbutt the guy. Maybe I was slightly angrier that I thought. I heard a crack and the krogan dropped like a sack of potatoes to the ground. I could feel the skin split and my blood running down my forehead. And my neck will be stiff for a few hours.
First looking down at the unconscious krogan I looked up at Jarrg with a mute question.
"You hit him, you deal with him." He answered still with an amused grin on his face and turned away as if stacking mods on the shelf was a far more important matter than an unconscious krogan on his floor. Not wanting to argue I grabbed the krogan by his foot and dragged him outside, I saw a nice smelly looking alley around the corner where I left him safely. He was alive but I must have given him a concussion and there were a few cracks radiating out of the place on his headplate where I hit him. Calling an ambulance for him through a nearby public terminal I walked back to the shop, someone would have seen me but this area of the Ward was not known for liking C-sec.
"Are you sure you don't have any krogan ancestors Sam? We do have some colony ships that never made it to their destinations." Jarrg asked still the same amused grin on his face
"I told you last time, krogan and humans can't have children, we are not asari. Humans can have children only with other humans." I said shaking my head from the sheer strangeness of this conversation and remembering the last one. You don't forget explaining the birds and the bees to a twelve hundred year old krogan.
"Yeah, yeah I remember. But you dealt with him in a very krogan way. A clan chief way." Jarrg said and I could see that he had been impressed. I couldn't really tell him that I just copied what Commander Shepard could do in ME2. So I simply nodded with as much poise as I could and walked up to him.
"Glad you liked it. Is my armour ready?"
"Of course it's ready. Weapons too. I even modded them properly. Come on, let me show you." Jarrg said and waving for me to follow went into the back of the shop where his workshop was. I have to say that I was quite surprised seeing the tools in it, a lot of them looked very familiar to me, lathes, belt sanders even an anvil with a kiln. Jarrg went to a large work table and hoisted a huge crate from underneath it.
"Here it is." He said tapping in the code and opening the crate. Inside there was the armour I remembered designing all those months ago with Kal'leenas help. Blood Dragon Armour, white with the dragon across the right shoulder painted on in deep blood red.
"It did take me longer than two weeks I originally promised, it was a challenge, to build an armour for someone as tough as a krogan but smaller and more flexible. Krogan armour is simple in comparison, here I had to get devious." Jarrg said and did that slow krogan laugh I remembered so well from Wrex and Grunt before continuing. "Removable ballistic plates, dual kinetic barrier generators, triplex weave in joints, built in support exoskeleton. No strength enhancement however, that would put too much strain on the power pack. Stealth field generator and something I borrowed from turians."
Picking it up and turning it around Jarrg showed me an articulated plate on the back which covered a thruster.
"Turian Havoc troopers use this, a thruster and a mass effect generator working together will make you able to do very high jumps. Though the turian version needed a generator half the strength that is in this one. "
"I am now worried to ask about the price." I said indeed quite worried, this armour looked like it could do everything I ever needed it to do and I knew that such luxuries did not come cheap, a good suit of armour could cost upwards of quarter of a million credits, a great suit of armour could cost as much as half a million.
"Bah, don't be. Your girlfriend came in and paid for it, she also helped me make the modifications. She said you would need the best when you came back." Jarrg said waving his huge arm dismissively at me.
"Kal'leena and I are not like that" I said slightly to fast then added "how did she pay for it? I know how old she is but I didn't think she had that much money."
"We came to an arrangement." Jarrg said and I knew what Kal'leena had done.
"Cookies?" I asked even though I was sure of the answer.
Jarrg only nodded in reply.
"Anyway, she was right I do need the best." I confirmed knowing full well that Jarrg's cookie obsession was only rivalled by love for weapons.
"Then you are going to like this." Jarrg said and pulled a large weapon case from under the table. "Look at this." he said and opened it. Looking inside all I could do was smile.
"Hue, hue, hue." Jarrg laughed seeing my smile and I knew that we understood each other perfectly.
It took me a few hours to get familiar with the armour and weapons that Jarrg provided me with and I left his shop with a weapons case in one hand and armour case in the other. It was already 1705 hours so I only had an hour to get back to my hotel room, get cleaned up and get to the address that Ray gave me. Even using the rapid transit shuttles it would take the best part of half an hour for the road itself, I also needed to bring something as a gift to Ray, after all it would be rude to show up with empty hands after everything he did for me and now Jack.
Fifty minutes later I was standing in front of the door belonging to Ray's apartment, in one hand I had a metallic container that held inside a 45 year old scotch and in the other a small hamper of "Galactic Delicatessen Levo edition". I would have brought a gift to Jack but I knew next to nothing about who she was right now. The Jack I knew, even viewed through the narrow lens of a game, did not exist. Pressing the sensor plate to announce my presence I settled in for a wait but three heartbeats later the door swooshed aside and I was assaulted by a tangle of limbs somehow attached to a torso that flew into me with what must have been a low power biotic charge. I stumbled back a few steps and looked down at the perpetrator. What I saw surprised me more than what happened a moment ago. Instead of the sickly looking, rail thin and razor edged kid I was looking at a gangly, braided teenage girl with a mischievous glint in her eyes.
"Didn't expect that, didncha?" she said and as if to affirm her words punched me in the stomach grinning wildly.
"I certainly did not." I stared at Jack trying to reconcile the mental image I had with what I was seeing in front of me. She was at least an inch taller than when I rescued her and easily a few kilos heavier. She also had hair which was tied into at least a dozen short braids sticking out in all directions.
"I hope you don't greet Ray the same way, I can take it but Ray..." I said making a show of rubbing my stomach as if I was hurt.
"Nah, K won't let me. And I knew it was you, the VI butler told me." she replied with a typical childish petulance, another thing I was not expecting to see from Jack.
"I see. Can we go in now?"
"Sure but Ray is not here yet. He messaged earlier saying he was going to be a few minutes late." Jack said and with a whoosh of displaced air charged back into the apartment and judging by the sounds of it crashing into something.
"JAAACK." I heard someone shouting and followed in curious. It was a short hallway followed by a living room with Jack laying sprawled across an expensive looking tub chair on it's side which tripped her as she charged. Just to the side from the hallway entrance where I was standing emerged from what I guess was the bathroom a rather angry looking Kate Shepard. In practically nothing. She must have been in the shower as she was standing there dripping wet and holding a towel to cover her front. I was however behind her.
"What did I tell you about biotics at home?" she said as she moved toward Jack and then noticing me. Her head whipped toward me and her eyes getting that 'deer in headlights' look as her intentions changed and she twisted in place to put the towel covered area towards me. An understandable reaction but a bad idea as the sudden change of direction along with her original motion and the wetness of her feet made the choice of her destination for her. I saw her foot slip backward, her over-correcting and then slipping forward. And then I moved. It really was just an automatic reaction and not out of some desire to hold an attractive young woman in my arms. So I moved a step, dropped the things I had in my hands and steadied her by holding her shoulders. Needless to say while she was trying to balance herself holding onto a towel was not an option.
"Are you alright?" I asked as she looked up at me and cringed inwardly at how stupid that question was. I was however very careful to look her directly in the eyes. Though I must say it was as good a sight as anything else about her. Pale green with a ring of gold flecks around the iris complimented her auburn hair currently plastered to her face. The blush that was growing hotter by the second made it only that much better. It started on her cheeks but it went down to her neck and back to her ears making it really hard not to glance and check where else it went.
"I..." Kate started to say something but was interrupted by the sound of the door unlocking. Of course it would be the exact time for Ray to come in. Of course it was. I would decry it as some kind of cheap comedy moment from a romcom if I wasn't actually in a world from a game. So I span Shepard around and gently but firmly pushed her back into the bathroom, then with my left foot I pushed the towel on the floor, wiping up the biggest pools of water and sent it flying back into the bathroom too just before the door closed. Then I bent down to pick up the things I had dropped earlier. Which is how Ray found me. Bent over reaching for the hamper and the metal container, a tub chair on it's side, Jack standing with her eyes as wide as possible and blushing furiously the way only teenagers can. The scene must have been weird but at least I was not holding his wet naked daughter right in front of him.
"Oh, hey Sam. Jack using the biotic charge again?" Ray walked in holding a bag of what looked like boxes of takeaway chinese food.
"Yes?!" I stammered somewhere between a question and a statement.
"Really I don't know where she gets the energy to do that, her school is supposed to have lessons for biotics that even tires out asari girls. Have you been drinking Kate's coffee again?" Ray shook his head in wonder and looked at Jack
"It tastes good." Jack replies averting her eyes
"That explains it but you know you are not supposed to drink it, large amounts of caffeine are not good for biotics. And Kate gets cranky if she doesn't get enough of it. We don't want that." Ray said as he walked across the living room and into the kitchen.
"Kate's coffee?" I picked up the hamper and the container with the scotch
"I don't think it counts as coffee the way she makes it, more like scalding hot caffeine extract. It's really Hannah's fault, she drinks it the same way, hot enough and caustic enough to degrease engine parts if needed. "Ray answered as he was unpacking his bag pulling out the containers.
"You don't drink it the same way do you?"
"No, caffeine doesn't really affect me much anymore so I go for taste these days. Here where I come from it's customary to bring a little something for the hosts." I said putting them down on the table
"Thanks. Just caffeine or other stimulants too?"
"So far most of the ones I have tried including the asari stuff. Alcohol too. Trying to get drunk is futile and expensive."
"Really..."Ray sounded like he was about to propose an experiment but before he managed to form the thought the bathroom door opened and Kate walked out in standard Alliance BDU's and her hair tied back in a loose ponytail.
"Now that everyone is here, let's eat." Kate said and brushed past me as she walked into the kitchen.
The rest of the evening passed by without incident. Kate behaved like nothing had happened, Jack kept bouncing off the walls, sometimes quite literally, Ray kept sharing amusing anecdotes of his life as a military doctor. All in all it was a nice relaxing evening. I must have been strange company but none of them seemed to mind that and when it was time to leave they extracted a promise to visit again. Not that I put up much of an effort to refuse it so on my way back to the hotel room I indulged myself in feeling the warmth that Shepard family had managed to give me. I didn't realise how much I missed being with people. Kate Shepard, I wondered if I would be able to shift the balance even a little to make it easier for her when the time came and seeing Jack, the scars still vivid, made me lose all the doubts to what my next mission will be. In a few hours I was going to meet Miranda and I would be remiss if I didn't bring her a gift to compliment the one I gave her during our first meeting.