The convict and the demolitions specialist passed an attendant flanked by security mechs that Jax eyed carefully as they passed before proceeding through an immigration office to another jaw-dropping sight. Jax approached the railing to the serene vista, the incredible sunset glittering with a thousand lights as the day sank further into the evening. Jax was no stranger to thousands of lights, they were an ever present fixture in Omega and even more prominent on the Citadel but here, they seemed to be a natural fixture, like the world had been constructed around it, like water dancing through the spray of the waves back on Aeia. Indeed, even the buildings were shaped with hypnotic arcs reminiscent of the waves, there seemed to be an infinite variety of details for Jax to take in.
"Yeah yeah it's fucking pretty, so what?" Jack's voice cut in as she annoyedly pulled at him with a lasso of biotic energy.
Jax stumbled along behind her as she took off before stopping at an intersection of three paths. "What are we looking for?" Jax asked.
"Somewhere where the less reputable don't keep their heads down" Jack replied, looking around like a bloodhound trying to narrow down a scent.
"Most things are legal here" Jax reminded her, "most shifty people don't qualify as shifty here. Still, there's a bar up that way?" He suggested, thumbing towards a neon sign labelled 'Eternity'."
"Too clean" Jack rebuffed. "We need to find a way down to the lower levels, everything's uglier underneath."
The elevator was quick but even in the lower levels, the chrome sheen was still as omnipresent as ever. Jax didn't know how, but somehow he just knew that Jack was brimming with a growing gnaw fury. "You hate this place" Jax said, more of a statement than a question.
"It's all too shiny, too pristine, it's lying inside and out" Jack replied harshly. "This place sells drugs, weapons, fucking slaves even. Mercenary groups operate out of here with as much freedom as the pet store back topside and yet it likes to pretend it's all so clean. This place is soaked in blood" she spat, looking back at Jax, sparks blazing in her eyes. "Time to add to the canvas." Jax followed her as she rounded corner after corner, the dying red sunlight piercing through archways and lighting her up. The howling started light at first, barely the prominence of Jax's pulse within his own body but Jack was drawing them closer. These kinds of places called to her, and she was hungry like the wolf. Men were now posted in the halls as they entered a building that at least seemed partially rundown.
"What is this?" Jax asked.
"True freedom" Jack replied. "The only vestige you'll find in this pit."
The door before them shot open the yells reached deafening pitch. There was a muffled sound and the crowd within reacted with a synchronous 'ooh'. Jax eyed the crowd as they pushed through. Various species covered in junker armour and reeking of the barely distilled alcohol both consumed and stained upon them. Jax moved between two people to catch a glimpse of the spectacle. A pentagonal cage stood in the centre. A turian and an asari were in the middle, circling each other. The turian was covered in splotches of varying colours and shades of blood, his rival much more clean. The asari chased him with a series of kicks, her movements were poetry in motion, she rippled like water turning her fury into elegance. The turian continued to duck and evade, his ugly black eyes clearly looking for an opening. Then, he found it. The turian's arm shot out with his superior reach and caught her ankle in mid-flight. The asari hesitated in surprise and the turian took advantage, twisting and throwing her against the cage wall. The crowd reacted with a simultaneous 'ooh' as the astir struggled back to her feet, clearly hurt by her hard impact. She extended an arm as a blue aura enveloped her and she lashed out with a blue tendril of energy. The turian simply charged through her weak attempt at a throw however, grabbing her by the wrist and twisting it away, forcing the asari to her knees. The asari was helpless as the turian landed a clean shot to her face, followed by another, and another. The crowd's cheers slowly began to die as the turian rained down shot after shot into his helpless opponent, blood was erupting from every hit and coating the floor, the walls and the fighters. Suddenly Jax realised why the turian was covered in so many different varieties of blood; this was not his first fight. He gritted his teeth, was everyone here going to watch a woman be helplessly beaten to death? He went to stand but someone had beaten him to it.
"You want a challenge?" Jack spat at the turian from the other side of the cage. "I'm right here."
The turian regarded her briefly before dropping his previous prey to the floor in a limp mess. His teeth resembled fangs behind his mandibles as he forced a malicious smile. Jack's face was bared in a humourless snarl as her fist curled around a ball of biotic power then clenched, extinguishing it. Jax blinked, what was she doing?
"I won't give you the mercy of making this quick" Jack told the turian as she drew closer. "I'm going to make this hurt."
The turian charged and Jack sidestepped his punch, bringing back her elbow into his head, knocking him off balance. She ducked under his swing and replied with a heavy uppercut, a line of blue blood flying as the turian's head snapped back with a crack. Jax expected Jack to stay on the offensive, press her advantage and hammer home more strikes but instead she walked away, leaving the turian to gather himself again.
"Is this what you want?!" Jack yelled at the crowd, holding up a blue bloody fist. "Is this what you sick fucks came for!?"
The crowd screamed in reply as Jack turned and charged at the turian. She leapt with her knees raised, smashing into the jaw of the recovering turian and crushing him against the chain link walls of the pentagram, letting him crash back down to the mat again. Jax winced, that blow looked painful. Jack left the turian to show off for the crowd again, the fight clearly won. She gripped the chain on the other side and screamed at them, it was like she and the crowd were feeding off each other's frenzy, mutually spiralling into a pit of bloodlust. The turian shakily recovered to his feet as Jack ran a thumb along her throat to the crowd. Even from the distance in the midst of the crowd, Jax could see the hate etched in his face. This had been his castle, his crowd and Jack had taken it all from him. He reached down to his ankle, a knife holster, the military grade talon glinted red with malicious intent as he spun it around in his bony hand before charging. "Jack! Behind you!" Jax screamed but his voice was lost in the crowd.
The turian stabbed forward at Jack's back but suddenly she was no longer there. As everyone watched, Jack ducked and spun, going down on one knee and under the knife. Her right arm came around with her, Jax saw the glints of her power within her hand as her fist clenched around it and she punched the turian in the centre of the chest. There was a massive shockwave of power as the turian went flying, his armour disintegrating into pebbles as he cleared the cage wall and landed outside in a broken heap. No one moved, there was no point in checking if he was alive, the blow that did that to ballistic armour would've turned his ribs to dust, crushed his internal organs and turned his spine into a shredded slinky. There was a second of aching silence, Jax quickly felt for the heavy pistol concealed on his person, getting ready to fight his way out when the first spectator, a krogan obviously, laughed in a deep voice and cheered. Before Jax knew it, the entire crowd had joined in and Jack was becoming imbedded in history as a legend.
"So what was that?" Jax asked after Jack finally managed to rid herself of enough supporters to join him at the bar, albeit with a couple dozen free drinks waiting for her. "Needed to blow off some steam?"
Jack waved him to join her as they made for the exit. "That," she told him, "was an alibi. They're going to be describing me all night down here."
"An alibi for what?" Jax asked.
"I said this place was a shithole but it's even worse than that" Jack told him. "It's a shithole hiding behind clean walls. We're going to tear a few of them down."
"Any walls in particular that you have in mind?" Jax asked.
"This one" Jack said, punching in the command to the elevator. The entire floor she had selected belonged to one company; IndentureTech. "I grew up in a cage," she told Jax with barely controlled anger in her voice, "and these assholes make billions on credits trading scared people in cages around with paperwork. Not if I have anything to say about it."
"Whoa whoa whoa," Jax replied, "you want to stage a jail break from a multi-billion credit firm? Just like that? I thought this was just about fun, shouldn't we at least have a plan first?"
"There is a plan" Jack told him. "I got us alibis, the stories they're telling down there right now are probably already exaggerated beyond belief. Shepard can hardly have a problem with me when she hears that apparently I beat twenty opponents blindfolded with one hand tied behind my back."
"Which is brilliant, assuming we don't get caught" Jax reminded her. "And a firm like this, they'll have their own security and police will race there as soon as any call goes out. We need a distraction."
"You got something in mind?" Jack asked.
Jax let the wheels click over in his head for a few moments as he looked at the listings for the adjacent floors when one caught his eye. "That depends," he said with a spark in his eye. "You still got any creeper on you?"
The door hissed open one floor below their initial destination and the pair strode out. "Where to?" Jack asked.
Jax craned his neck, listening. "Follow the jingle" he told her, hearing the repetitive tone. They made their way into a market, small stalls cramped against each other with stools outside them all as the translated accents of a galaxy's worth of food vendor's fought for the prospecting customers.
"What are we looking for?" Jack asked, growing impatient.
Jax looked down the near avenue, seeing nothing but haggling salarians bickering. He checked the next one before pointing with a smirk. "That" he announced.
Jack followed the direction he was looking to see the blue neon sign of the Fishdog Food Shack and more specifically, the hulking krogan surrounded by empty bowls stacked as high as he was. Jack burst out laughing. "And people say I'm batshit" she remarked.
Grunt turned from his varren steak at the sound of her laugh. The telltale signs of his unnatural birth were apparent, the multiply segmented crest on his head rather than a full single plate despite his impressive size and his blue eyes instantly stood him apart. He chomped down another piece of meat before shrugging himself off the seat and approached them. "Meat" he remarked, looking between the two of them. "What do you want?"
"We want to share some food with a comrade" Jax said breezily, "form some bonds between comrades before the fight."
"There's no fights here" Grunt said, almost dejectedly. Jax realised that for a creature near solely born and bred for violence, Grunt must have felt almost as aimless here as he did when Sidonis died. Grunt stalked back to his seat at raised a talon to the synthetic attendant which wheeled over another plate.
"What if there was a fight here?" Jack asked, taking the seat beside Grunt, Jax sliding into the one opposite. "Would you be interested?"
"If there is a challenge, my blood demands I prove myself against it," Grunt growled, "test my strength, prove myself worthy to and determine the strongest."
"There's fights here" Jax promised. "But I'm not sure you're strong enough."
Grunt finally abandoned his attentions from his food to round on Jax. "And what would you know about strength? You, who relies on bombs, and traps, clever but weak. And as for your pistol" he said, noting Jax's hand falling closer to his hip in reflex. "Imprints from my tank showed me hornets on Tuchanka that have greater stings."
Jax's eyes flickered as he watched Jack take advantage of Grunt's pride, emptying the small container of creeper spores over his food. The mould was barely discernible amongst the slop. A pang of guilt almost touched upon Jax, Grunt was virtually an infant with the lack of opportunity to develop his social skills, goading him had been almost criminally easy. It eased his conscience to know they were only acting with the best intentions but even then, that didn't make it right. "Well finish your food first and we'll take you to the fight cage, no lack of challengers to prove your worth against, ease the voice inside your head."
Grunt finished the entire meal, including a chip of the plastic plate that broke under his tombstones for teeth, with a single bite. "Take me there" he commanded.
The pair exchanged a knowing look before agreeing. "Come on big boy" Jack said, slapping the back of his armour. "Let's get you where you belong."
The creeper was already doing its work in the elevator, Grunt was already starting to mutter to himself, he was blinking noticeably often and his black pupils were swelling to blot out more of the blue. Jack pushed him out as the doors opened, "Follow the yells" Jack called out as the doors began to close.
"Will he be fine?" Jax asked as the doors shut on the young krogan who had begun to stumble his way down the hall.
"He'll be fine" Jack told him, "it's just the hallucinations starting to creep in. Chances are with all the shit he had to put up being grown it'll feel like home, images and voices."
"I wonder what it's like" Jax said as the elevator began to rise again. "For the voice in your head to not be your own."
"You don't want to know" Jack said quietly, not looking at him.
Jax looked over. "Are you okay?" The door hissed open.
"I'm fine" Jack said, still avoiding his gaze. She stepped forward with purpose in her stride. "Let's just do this."
Jax fell into step beside her. "EDI," he said, opening his omnitool. "Patch me into Nos Astra local authorities dispatches, quietly if you can."
"Of course Jax" EDI obediently replied and a chart appeared, lines of text concerning multiple minor callouts to be investigation scrawled across.
"Now we wait for the inevitable riot to be caused by a super soldier krogan who sees enemies everywhere he looks."
A very short while later, there was an audible explosion down below. "Sounds like they tried stopping him with a grenade launcher" Jax noted, knowing it by the sound alone. A sinister chuckle penetrated his tone. "They're going to need to find something much bigger than that to stop him."
"Well let's take advantage" Jack said, "I'm fucking tired of waiting."
She commanded the doors to open and strode across the halls. Something in her eyes must've been detected by the receptionist or her lack of official identification detected as the doors to the office slammed shut instantly. Jack never even slowed, booting them in with raw power. She reached over the desk and dragged the terrified asari out. "Where are they?" She growled.
The distraught employee could do naught but point before Jack threw her to the ground and stormed off in the indication direction.
Jax helped her to her feet. "Get out of here, now," he ordered her, "and you never saw us." Looking around, he planted a bomb against the archway before chasing off after Jack.
Jack was a tidal wave of destruction, she twisted and flowed around bullets before crushing the mechs into balls with one hand and punching another so hard it shattered like glass around her fist. A bullet pinged against her shield and Jack roared, the waves of energy pouring off her throwing the enemies in front of her to the floor. Every organic she found gave her a new direction before she left them, with the exception of a security guard who had more heroism than brains who Jack folded backwards like a piece of tin foil. Anyone or anything that tried to stop her wasn't just killed, they were annihilated. The L5's Shepard had helped her manufacture recently were still taking some time to adapt to and fortunately this was exactly the environment Jack was happy to commit overkill within. Doors flew off their hinges rather than warping out of her way, mech were disintegrating when she targeted them and were thrown to the ground by her fluctuating barriers when she wasn't.
Jax was chasing afterwards, occasionally shooting a stray mech but mostly planting more explosives at critical junctures and following the signs and sounds of the mayhem that could only be Jack.
Jack gestured and the twin doors in front of her peeled out of their frames and clattered on the ground beside her. The mere reverberations of her efforts was cracking the lights in her sockets, throwing sparks and flashes over her. Jack looked inside the room and found what she wanted. White rooms and flawless glass couldn't obscure what these were though, each small pristine room holding an individual. A cell was a cell, no matter how nicely they had dressed it up to make a sale. Her lip curled Jack stretched out her arms and screamed. The glass walls all shattered, shards falling like rain catching the flashes of the lights all exploding with bursts of sparks in a single, beautiful, violent moment. Jack looked around at the speechless indentured servants, who didn't know whether to be thankful to her or be afraid of her. "Get out" Jack spoke softly, though everyone heard her words above the faint ringing of the last shards finding their rest.
"But, they promised to pay our debts" one volus protested.
"They know who we are, they'll find us" a quarian added.
"I know how slave transactions work" Jack told the turian, "they paid for you upfront. And as for them coming for you? I think they're going to be much more busy looking for me."
Jax suddenly joined her then, his breathing was slightly elevated but he seemed to still be in control. "Police have nearly calmed down Grunt, despite their resupply orders after exhausting all their stocks of krogan tranquilliser, we need to go."
Jack looked back to the former slaves. "Get out. I won't repeat myself a third time."
"This way" Jax called as he led them out, the group running down the vandalised halls.
Jack took an extra moment to look around her at the cells, so many moments from places like here she carried with her always, in her soul and on her skin. I need to leave this behind she thought as she left after the group, she had to make sure the others got to safety. She needed to be the person she had needed so long ago. She exited to see Jax ushering a portion of the group onto an elevator before sending it off, waiting for the next to send off a dozen more, calling them forward, organising them like the sheep they were. Despite all the anger built up inside her, Jack allowed herself a smile. Who ever said a fucked up maniac couldn't do a bit of good?
She let herself walk across the plaza as Jax sent off another elevator, it was only the two of them left here now. He turned and regarded her briefly. "Not to sound like a glitched audio track, but are you okay?" He asked her.
"I'm fine" Jack said. "This helped, and not just me"
"Not finished yet" Jax said. "The quarian was right, they will be found, inside that building is their registry, all their information. Maybe even still the slavers in panic rooms who claim to own them."
"Then I'll tear it all down and bury them" Jack said, although truth be told, she was feeling drained, her rage had fled with the slaves.
"No need" Jax said, opening up his omnitool. He brought up a command prompt and offered it to Jack. She looked at him briefly before coming over to him and touching the prompt.
Inside the building, a series of bombs beeped briefly and exploded. Fire ripped through walls, barrelled down corridors and blew out windows. The roof lifted off, seemingly intact at first before disintegrating into molten shreds, the chrome sheen quickly dissipating to black as the entire building was swallowed in fire, the only sound above the roar of the flames the corrupt framework falling to the ground.
Jack watched, the flare of heat suddenly swallowed away by a coldness through her body. "Thank you" she finally said, the flickering flames a shimmer in her eyes. "I needed that."
Jax just nodded. "We did good. Galactic terrorism, but good."
"We better go. No need getting either of us in further trouble with the cheerleader if we can avoid it" Jack said, "I could stand to avoid the headache."
The destructive pair made it back to the Normandy without further incident, although the heavily increased security presence made the going slow. Jack instantly made for her nest down in the subdeck but Jax was stopped.
"Hi" Kelly said quietly.
"Hey" Jax replied evenly. The destruction and the screams of police sirens outside swapped for the quiet calm environment of the CIC was somewhat muting.
"I just wanted you to know, I put you back on the mission roster" Kelly told him. "Shepard's free to select you whenever she wants."
"Thanks" Jax replied, "what changed your mind?"
"To be quite honest?" Kelly asked. "The way Jack was when you two just walked in. I've never seen her so calm, she's always been so temperamental but just now, it almost seemed she had peace. Sure, it might've been the peace in the eye of a hurricane but it was peace all the same. I don't know what you did out there but it was worth it."
Jax nodded, barely hiding a grin.
"If I may" Kelly dared, "can I ask you a question?"
Jax shrugged. "Shoot."
"Why did you book transport back to Omega of your own accord?" Kelly asked. "I was watching to see whether you would make use of Cerberus accounts to get a ticket but Kasumi told me you never even visited the transport depot."
"You asked Kasumi to watch out for me?" Jax asked.
It was Kelly's turn to shrug. "It pays off to have friends. But why didn't you try to leave of your own volition?"
"I'm not entirely sure" Jax said. "I guess I needed someone just as much as they needed me. This place, this crew… you even. It can be nice to feel needed sometimes."
"Needed" Kelly said, a smile and a soft blush creeping up on her features, "and wanted."
This time Jax's smile was warm, and full. "Maybe even that" he conceded. Kelly's green eyes shone from behind the fallen red strands of her fringe. Jax found it a rare ray of happiness, he dared not say anything for fear of ruining the moment.
A shrill alert on Kelly's monitor cut into the moment. Her eyes turned apologetic. "I need to get that" she told him. She pushed her fringe back up over eyes in a professional manner again.
Jax just nodded. "It's okay. I need to ditch the demolitions suit anyway." He made towards the elevator.
"Jax?" He heard Kelly ask. He turned to look at her as she gave him another smile. "It's good to have you here."
Jax thought about his place there for a moment. It was easy to look at all the specialists, these titans of combat and see them as nothing else but looking at Jack, who put seemingly everything on the surface, there was so much more to them than met the eye. Maybe he didn't have to be like their image. Maybe they were all different shades of colour, each a different brushstroke on a fucked up canvas. All that mattered was the ending painting at the end and maybe he could help with that. For the first time, Jax finally started to feel like he was fitting in. Maybe that's what Jack had planned all along, their excursion may have served him as much as it did her. "It's finally good to be here" Jax finally returned as the doors hissed shut, taking him back to his place on the Normandy, this place was finally starting to develop a sense of familiarity, it was starting to feel like home.