AN: Another minor deviation.
John, SR-2 Normandy, Port Observation Deck
"Are you sure this is what you want?" John asked as they watched the ships of the Quarian Fleet shrink into the distance.
"No," Tali said, staring ahead. "This is not what I want at all."
"Then-"
"But we can't be selfish, John," Tali smiled taking his hand in hers. "I have my happiness. I am here, with you. Let Shala and Hannah make their plans. We will finish this mission. We will stop the Collectors and come home. Then we can have our Ceremonies."
"You've been watching those vids again," John chuckled lightly as he pulled her closer, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "I have been thinking about something…."
"And what is that?"
John smiled as his fingers slowly traced up Tali's sides, across her ribs. They slide down again, eliciting a small moan from her as they gripped her hips firmly and pulled tight against him.
"I think we need to find out a way to make this work. Soon," his voice was low and primal as he pressed his mouth against the curve of her neck. She groaned again, with a slight growl echoing under it as her hands came up, gripping his head and pulling him against her.
"Umm...I'm here, guys," Kasumi cleared her throat as she decloaked, startling the pair apart with curses. "Sorry, but you were having a moment and I didn't want to disturb you….but…."
"It's fine Kasumi," John chuckled as he pulled Tali against himself again, this time more casual. "It's probably good we stop there anyway."
"Speak for yourself," Tali said throatily as she pulled away, yet letting her fingers linger on his stomach for a moment. "I should get to engineering. The thanix cannon draws more power than I expected, so I have to balance the load with the new cyclonic shields."
"I love it when you talk tech," John laughed. "See you tonight."
"Wouldn't miss it," Tali giggled as the door closed behind her.
"It's nice to see you in high spirits," Kasumi leaned back on the couch with a grin. "Thanks for the book, by the way."
"Worth it," John laughed as he turned for the door as well.
Tali, SR-2 Normandy, Main Cargo Bay
"What's the power level?" Tali asked as she make a few adjustments to the reaction matrix.
"I'm seeing about half a kiloton," Gabby giggled darkly. "If this doesn't wipe that place off the planet I'll eat my shoe."
Tali paused and looked up and the woman with mild horror. "That's disgusting!"
"I think that be the point, lass," Donelly chuckled. "Did the Commander want a timed detonator?'
"No, he specifically said manuel raio trigger," Tali said as she went back to her fine tuning. "Blast radius should be fine. Stability in the reaction matrix is solid. Casing is good. Fuse...looks good."
"Still, feel like this is overkill," Donelly said with a shake of his head. "Where did we even get this thing from, anyway?"
"Hmm?" Tali aske absently as she looked over her readings. "Oh, from the Fleet. This is the core for an old salarian drop shuttle. It had developed a major crack in the core housing so it needed to be pulled."
"This...is a cracked engine core?" Gabby looked down at the device they had made. It stood maybe three feet tall and was about as wide around as Grunt was. They had made a cradle with three prong like legs to hold the thing up. The outer case was covered in wires and dampeners.
Yes," Tali nodded. "Normally the Fleet would repair it and put it back into service, but the core decayed too much to be worth the expense. They had planned on dumping in the next star they stopped at to harvest hydrogen."
"Well...I hope the Commander gets pictures of the boom," Donelly chuckled. "Because this is going to be epic!"
Jack, Drop Shuttle Alpha
She stared at the device. The bomb.
It didn't look much like a bomb to her. Looked more like an oversized microwave reheater had sex with an electric water heater. Then drank ryncol while it was pregnant.
"You sure this is gonna work?" Jack asked idly as the shuttle began to shake, signalling that it had broken atmosphere.
"Yup," Shepard nodded as he sat casually, leaning back in his seat with his arms crossed. His head was leaned back and his eyes were closed. He kinda looked like he was trying to take a nap. "Tali supervised it. I went over it as well, though after her there wasn't much point.
"It'll be a big one," Grunt grinned evilly as he rubbed his hands together in glee.
"It's not going to...like...just knock down a bunch of walls and stuff, right?" she was still sceptical. She had blown up a lot of things in her time, and this didn't look that impressive. Though, to be fair, the things she had blown up were small ships, a space station, things like that.
"Nope," John smirked. "This is going to leave a crater and shards of building, if that much."
"Think I see the base," Grunt said, leaning to a window. "Looks like shit. There are trees growing out of it."
"That's Pragia," Jack laughed humously. "Some dip shit brought non native plants here and they went out of control. Whole colony had to be abandoned because the plants grow back almost over night. And some of them mutated to eat people."
"Huh," Grunt frowned. "Wouldn't be very satisfying to fight a shrubbery."
"Look alive," Shepard sighed as he sat up and began to check over his rifle. "Pad's on the roof of the building because of the plants. We get in, drop this thing off and be back to the Normandy in time for lunch."
"Pff," Jack rolled her eyes. "Famous last words."
Grunt, Pragia Facility
"What did you say, Shepard?" Jack spat as she leaned out from her cover wand fired a couple blasts from her shotgun. "Back in time for lunch?"
"We still have time," he said with a chuckle. "Though I want to know why Bloodpack is here. And why now?"
"Does it matter when?" Grunt shrugged as he cut down a stupid vorcha. Damned things smelled worse than salarian food.
"A group of Bloodpack mercenaries happen to be at this abandoned facility at the same time we show up?" Shepard shook his head. "Something is up, and I want to know what it is."
"I just figured people didn't like you," Jack grinned for a moment before a small barrage impacted the wall she was behind. "You know, fuck this!"
With a surge of power, Jack stood, ignoring the hail of mass rounds as they were vaporized on her swirling barriers. She thrust out her right hand and a packet of dark energy lept from it, streaking across the room and catching one of the krogan in the stomach.
The mercenary stumbled back a few steps but kept his feet as he stomped forward with a feral grin. But it was short lived. Normal warps impacted a target and dissipated, doing some extra damage as it did so. But not Jack's. Jack's warp lingered. The gravitic energies ripping into the krogans armor, the into his stomach, burrowing in. By the time the power was spent, the krogan was little more than a hollow shell that dropped to the floor with a meaty thud.
While the krogan died, Jack turned her attentions to the last of the vorcha, pulling them off their feet, she slammed them into the ceiling, then the floor, then the ceiling again, back and forth until they were reduced to sludge held together by Jack's will.
Grunt sniffed. She was useful sometimes. He supposed. Maybe.
"Okay, that's gross," Shepard shook his head as he stood, stowing his rifle.
"Effective," Grunt chuckled. "I like it."
"Didn't think it was overkill?" Jack snickered as she dropped what was left of the vorcha to the ground.
"Nah," Grunt waved a hand. "More like 'just enough' kill."
Jack, Pragia Facility
"...Illusive Man is beginning to ask questions that I don't have answers for," the scientist in the recording said as he seemed to wipe sweat from his face. "We've contracted out and have started to buy slaves from batarians and pirates. Any place we could get more subjects. Some of the tests have worked, taking a lot of our stock. Tomorrow we'll use the safer ones on Subject Zero. I have hopes that…"
Jack frowned as the screen went back to fuzz. "That...that isn't what happened! They did it all to me! The needle, the ice baths. I remember them splitting open my arm and laying in extra wiring to boost the power!"
"There may have been more you didn't see," Shepard just looked at her, grim faced. "That's all I could pull from this terminal, we should push in."
"There!" Jack turned and pointed to another room at the end of the short corridor. She jogged to it, almost desperate. In the center of the room was a series of low wall set in a near circle. Inside the ring were blood stains. "This is where they made me fight the other kids."
"They had you fight in a ring?" Shepard frowned.
"Yeah...to the death," Jack gave an evil smile. "They would drug me. Make me go mad. I had to kill them or they would kill me. Then they gave me happy drugs when I won. Made me like killing. I still get...feelings."
He didn't say anything. He just stood, frowning at the ring.
"Look at that…" Jack realized where they stood. "That mirror. My room is on the other side. I would see the other kids and would pound on the things for hours, yelling and screaming. But nobody saw me. It was a mirror the whole time." She looked down and realized she had been rubbing at her knuckles. The scars from beating at the glass.
"Another terminal," Grunt called as he poked at it. "Think it's got power."
Jack walked over as the screen flared to life, flickering as the previous one.
"...csfully modified the Subject with the stock DNA. The biotic potential was increased significantly. Wherever Mister Lawson got this sample, but it's impressive gene work. Tomorrow we will start the implant procedures for the new amps."
As the screen flickered and died Jack stood staring. "Lawson…." she said quietly. "What the actual fuck!" Her biotics burst to life as she kicked the terminal, bending it into itself in a cloud of acrid smoke and sparks.
"I want to kill this man more and more," Shepard lay a hand on her shoulder. She wanted to jerk away. Her instincts told her to break the fingers.
"Yeah, I got some questions for the cheerleader," Jack growled before pointing to the next hallway. "My room is that way. I want to get this shit….wait…"
There was light. At the end of the hall was another room. She remembered that room. "That was where they did the surgeries. Sometimes they used anesthetics…."
"Maybe we should go say Hi," Grunt smirked, drawing the plasma rifle he carried.
"Oh, fuck yes!" Jack grinned as her barriers came up.
She wasn't subtle. She knew how, of course. You didn't survive some of the places she had lived if you didn't. This time, however, was not one of those moments. As she reached the door, Jack reared back and kicked, smashing the door down and sending it skidding across the room and crashing into the far wall.
Inside the room was a man. He was average height, browned skin. His hair was dark, wild and unkempt. His face was covered in half grown stubble and his eyes… They were dark, feverish.
"Subject Zero!" the man grinned. "Providence! Providence, providence!"
"Who the fuck are you!" Jack demanded as her aura rippled in time with her anger.
"I'm like you," the man smiled crookedly. "I was made in this place."
"Bullshit!" Jack spat. "I was the only one who got out of here alive! ME!"
"Hardly," the man gave her an almost pitying look. "They did so many things to us, you know?"
"Boo hoo, you fuck! They did it to me!" Jack took a half step as her eyes narrowed, glaring at this piece of shit.
"Yes...yes they hurt us all. They killed us, so that they could make you work," the man blinked. The right eye, slightly behind the left. "They made us here!"
"How did you get here, and who are you?" Shepard stepped next to Jack. His rifle was in his hand, but not pointed at the man.
"I'm Aresh. I spent so long looking for this place!" Aresh turned around the clutter filled room. Absently, he went to one of the broken windows where vines have worked their way in and cracked the perma-crete. "Then I found it! I spent all my money getting the Bloodpack to bring me here."
"Okay...why?" Grunt shrugged. "You want to blow the place up too? 'Cause, get in line. Our bomb is probably bigger."
Leave it to Grunt to have a bomb size competition, Jack almost laughed. Well...she didn't dislike that part of the iguana.
"What?! No!" Aresh looked back at the group, shocked. "No, no, no, no, of course not! I want to start it!"
"What the fuck?" Jack blinked. The idea was so ludacris she almost couldn't process the words. "You want to do it all, again!?"
"Yes," Aresh nodded seriously. "I have to, we have to! That's why we are here together! Providence! It was meant to be! It has to be done! Otherwise, it wasn't worth it. It has to be worth it. There were reasons. They wouldn't do those things without reasons."
"Yeah, they were fucked in the goddamn head!" Jack unfolded her pistol and aimed between the man's eyes. "If you think you are going to do it again, you are fucking crazy!"
"Jack…." Shepard said quietly. "He is crazy. Look at him."
Glancing at Shepard she turned back to Aresh. She was looking at him. What the fuck did he...then she noticed. He stood, rocking from foot to foot. A pistol was aimed at his head and her just...blinked. That weird staggered blink. His hands scratched absently at each other.
"They hurt him as well," Shepard said, pity in his voice. She didn't need his fucking pity!
Then it occurred to her. He wasn't pitying her. He was pitying the broken little man in front of them. The fuckers had destroyed him, just as they tried to do to her. Slowly, she lowered the gun.
"Get the fuck out of here," Jack said quietly, her voice full of menace. "I'm going to blow this place into a glowing crater whether you're here or not."
Aresh stood for a long moment. His gaze slowly lowered until he was looking at the floor. Then, without another word, he simply walked out.
"I knew you were better," Shepard looked at her with a small smile.
"Yeah well, fuck off," Jack closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. "Let's go to my room."
John, Pragia Facility
"This was my world," Jack stood in the center of the destroyed room. Dirt and water poured in from the shattered skylight above. "This was everything. They took me out to hurt me. Or make me hurt others."
John followed her quietly as she looked out the window. "A fucking mirror," she said quietly. Bastards let me see people. They talked and stuff and all I got to do was watch."
Still, John was silent as Jack walked to a child sized desk. "This was my best friend. I would hide under it. From the pain, the doctors. The needles. I felt safe, a little anyway."
"Is that why you sleep in the hole?" Grunt stood in the doorway, his arms crossed.
"Yeah, actually," Jack half smirked. "I like it small and dark."
The she stopped and frowned. Slowly, Jack walked to one of the corners and squatted down. Pushing aside an old rotted blanket, she picked something up.
It was a small stuffed bear. It was covered in dirt and grime. But even wet and more than a little moldy, John could see that it had once been yellow, with a small red t-shirt.
"I...remember this…." Jack stood, staring at the bear. "There was one man. He was..what are those people called...they do the manual labor shit in hospitals?"
"Orderlies?" John, suggested.
"Yeah...of them…" Jack stared at the bear with a strange look of...not quite wonder, but also sadness. "He was the one that took me to and from the other rooms. He was...nice. He comforted me. Or tried to. He gave me this bear once. I remember the doctors finding out about it and he got in trouble. They took it away."
"How did it get back?" John asked quietly, as if trying not to shatter the moment.
"He...he smuggled it in," Jack frowned, thinking. "He was bringing me back from...something. I was groggy. It hurt. He was careful. He was always careful. I remember him putting me in bed, and he slipped the bear under the blankets with me."
John stood for a moment. He thought, hard. He reached out to Tali, touching her mind gently. He didn't really know what he was doing, but he wanted...something. Support, maybe? And she reached back. She supported his flagging emotions. He made his decision.
"Jack...I had found another thing in the data files," he said walking to her. "I wasn't sure if it was something you would want to see."
The, blinking, as if waking from a dream, Jack looked up, her face hardening as her voice dropped octaves. "I'm going to fucking hate this, aren't I?"
"Probably not," John's mouth tightened. "But it might give you something."
"Fine," Jack shook herself as she set the bear on the desk. "Let's see it."
With a short nod, John brought up the file on his omnitool.
The footage was a little fuzzy, clearly from a surveillance camera, and slightly degraded by damage. It showed a man, dressed in scrubs. He was looking back and forth, nervously as he slowly moved to a control panel.
"I'...ad enough. I can't sta...hat they are doing...these kids. I wan...eave the moment I got here, but I tho...ould try to ease their suffering, if even a little. The..ren't men and women. These aren't ...ntists. They...ome sort of demons. I'm letting them out. I'm going...ry to get Subject Zero out of here. They...the things they did to her…."
The man at the terminal turned, taking a deep breath. Then, he did something. Lights started flashing, there was some sort of alarm. The man moved to run, but then staggered back, clutching at his stomach. Then it dissolved into static.
"I...remember," Jack slowly looked at John. Horror and anger fought behind her wide eyes. "I remember. He...he came in. I remember him grabbing me and taking me out. He was bleeding."
Jack turned and began pacing like a caged cat. "There were guards. I think...I think they shot him. I was angry. I killed them. I killed and killed and killed. Then he picked me up. He carried me. He was hurt...there was a shuttle. We left, and...he died. We got to the relay and through it. I tried to wake him up. 'Wake up, wake up…' but he didn't….."
John stood, watching as Jack stopped in front of him. "He died trying to save me, Shepard. ME! Worthless, worthless…."
"No, Jack," John shook his head."He thought you were worth something. I think you're worth something."
"You're stupid, both of you," Jack laughed as black streak ran down her cheeks. "Fuck...there goes my goddamn makeup."
"You punch stuff real good," Grunt spoke up for the first time. He simply stood. His arms were crossed as he deadpanned. "You can keep up. Barely. That's something. Hurt the things that hurt others. That's honor. Be worthy. Become someone willing to sacrifice. That's love."
John and Jack, both stood staring at the krogan in disbelief before he began to fidget under their gaze before he finally spoke looking between John and Jack. "What?"
Later
Jack sat in one of the shuttles jump seats. In her hand was the trigger for the bomb. A simple metal cylinder, with a flip top. Which she flicked opn. Then closed. She repeated the motion over, and over as she stared at the small, wet bear in her other hand.
Slowly, she looked up at John. Then, as he rapped on the door to the pilot's compartment, she pressed the button.