A/N: Alright ladies and gentlemen, good news and bad news. Good news first. I still have a steady source of income. Bad news? I despise my job. Want a hint. W. There. Yes*shudders* I've been working there as an unloader, but I won't say anymore than that; don't want any of my bosses knowing WHO I am exactly, and getting rid of me. I'll probably be hunting for a new job, soon anyways; because I can't take much more of this crap.
I am a human being, and I deserve to be treated like one, not shat upon!
So that's basically it ya'll, and it annoys the ever-loving piss out of me. Slaving away for seven days in a row doesn't help. Working for stupid ol' Wally world stresses me out even when I'm not at work, and knowing that they just might cut me because they're retarded assholes only makes things worse. I REALLY REALLY REALLY wish I could just make money writing on this site all day but, alas, that's not possible. If it is I would gladly do it.
But there we go, I'm alive and kicking, and working my ass off day and night.
And so, I happily bring you the next chapter of...
...BRING DOWN THE SKY! People who were expecting shit to hit the fan? Here it comes...bombs are dropped!
"Love. Sometimes it hurts, terrifies you, makes you cry, breaks your heart...but that's when you know its worth more than anything else imaginable.
~?
Center
"Are you insane?"
"You are correct, sir!" Naruto chirruped, happily lounging on his cot and, to Shepard's dismay, looking as though he were king of the entire universe. Smug bastard probably felt like he was. "Or is it ma'am? I always get the two confused. Wouldn't it be sir, ma'am, yes ma'am?" his head tilted, burying itself deeper into the pillow. "Or is it ma'am, yes ma'am, sir. I can never tell the difference. Maybe its-
"Naruto!"
Her helmet came sailing at Naruto's head; only to be caught in a gentle biotic pull moments later. He held it there a moment longer, the crimson mass effect field cradling the dented carapace alofts, before lowering it to the floor. His fingers flicked again, and she found herself flattened against the wall by a giant red hand, frozen against the steel. Not a once did those blue eyes open to regard her.
Not.
Once.
"Would you kindly stop throwing things at me, now?" he asked, his closed eyes still regarding the ceiling. "Blink once for yes, if you please. I don't want this to hurt anymore than it has to." He made a violent clenching motion, and his biotics crushed her tighter, drawing a pained gasp from the Commander. Shepard blanched. Right...she'd nearly forgotten; Naruto liked to use dark energy to create hard-light constructs; much like the massive palm currently flattening her to the door.
Shepard blinked.
"Thatta girl, Isabelle-chan." His hand waved again, and she flopped forward, gasping. Eyes still closed, Naruto pivoted, tossing her helmet back to her. She caught it dead in the chest; the battered thing clunking solidly against the thick plating she still wore. She hadn't had time to change after blowing the hot labs an hour before.
Carrying a half-dead asari matriarch had not done wonders for her mood, either.
Noveria was long behind them now, little more than a bluish jewel from orbit, but Naruto's return made the icy planet look positively warm by comparison. For in his abrupt return, he had brought some complications at his heels.
Many complications.
"Are you going to tell me why we have a starving girl raiding the mess hall?" she asked at last. Naruto laughed almost immediately.
"That'd be Jackie. My best friend. Best godamn biotic I've ever seen."
"...she isn't going to be leaving anytime soon, is she?"
His head tilted back towards her, considering. Then he grinned.
"Ma'am, no. Ma'am. Aha! Got it that time!"
Chakwas's tender care had dealt with the devastating whiplash that came with what the boy called Hiraishin, a technique he swore he'd never use again. She promised him the blindness would be temporary at best; yet another reason he seemed unkeen on using such a unique technique. His momentarily loss of vision, however, seemed only to have made him even more snarky than usual. It wasn't helping! Not at all!
"Will you please take things seriously for once?!"
"What?" The blond sighed and finally opened his eyes, whiskered cheeks pinching in an a rare frown. "What's there to be serious at besides sleep right now? We won. Both of us. His fingers flicked towards her, creating a small flinch in the elder operative. "Me and you. Saren's been foiled again at his own schemes. The Rachni queen's gone, promising to behave. Blue's mom is gonna be just fine," She didn't even want to start in on his nickname for Liara, "We know where to go next-aaaand I got my Jackie back! All's well that ends well."
Isabelle Shepard went very still against the wall, a touch of renewed dread plucking at her breast. Jackie. That last sentence had her more than a touch worried. He was acting as though Tali didn't even exist. Didn't he know? Granted, he hadn't been able to see when they'd brought him up to medbay, but even so...even so...
"You attacked me, assaulted my crew, hijacked our ship-
"And?" Those blue eyes, now slightly milky as they recovered, swiveled blindly in her general direction. "What of it?"
"You betrayed us."
Ah.
There it was.
Out in the open, then.
...would it help if I said I was sorry.
A silence followed that, weighed down by regrets on her part. Stubborness on his.
Naruto met Shepard's glare with one of his own, unseeing eyes utterly unrepentant for his actions. "I was never officially a part of this crew. I'm free to come and go as I please. No jurisdiction, remember? Besides," he gave his hand a jaunty little wave back in Shiala's direction, "I don't recall any of you offering to help me." that young face puckered, as though he'd just bitten into a sour lemon. "I admit, things got a little crazy when the ol' fox had his little power play there at the end. Wrex attacked. I defended myself. Things just went haywire after that. S'ides, I'm back again and that's what matters."
"And Tali?"
A flicker of pain crossed his face. "What about Tali?"
Shepard bristled, the realization overtaking her all at once.
He didn't know.
SLAP!
Her hand cracked out in a biotic roundhouse, knocking the unsuspecting boy from his bed. He was up in an instant, snatching her by the wrist when she moved to hit him again. They grappled for a moment, mass effect fields flaring furiously before he finally pushed her back. Almost immediately a hand went to his cheek, cradling the dent she'd given him.
"Ow?! What the hell was that for, 'ttebayo?!
Didn't he know?
She thrust a finger into his jest, jabbing.
"Because of you, Tali's in a coma! How is that all well, huh?!"
That slapped the smile right off his face better than her hand ever had.
...what?!"
Tali was in agony.
There could be no other word for it; the way her body convulsed on the table against her will, creating muted thumps int he medbay as she unthinkingly strained back upon forces she couldn't see. Against the restraints she was powerless. Even so, their bindings did nothing but hold her in place. Numbness was not felt, nor it seemed, did her body want it.
All the pain, the agony as her immune system struggled to fight-to accept-what was being done to it, unable to make up its mind.
She felt it all.
The spark that first surged through her bloodstream was a wildfire now; a raging inferno in her veins that left her drenched in her own fever sweat. Her body shook and shivered and shuddered inside the suit, swimming in antibiotics. drugs that only served to blunt the razor edge of pain, not break it. She cried and whimpered in her mind, her mouth refusing to move, refusing to open, refusing to acknowledge the pain.
Because she was certain that, once she started screaming, she wouldn't be able to stop.
Just let go, a dark voice crooned inside her head. Stop fighting. Give in, and it'll be alright. He doesn't love you. He never did...
Fingertips ghosted across her flesh, something she shouldn't have been able to feel. Tali could hear a voice speaking now. As though from a great and terrible distance, the angry, dismayed tones telling her the opposite of what the other voice said, that she had to be strong, that she had to fight, that he was so, so sorry...
By the fleet, she was hallucinating again. Wasn't she? If she wasn't...then she felt wretched. She didn't want to be seen like this.
Naruto.
He'd done this to her, accidentally exposed her and keelah, despite that, she still loved him. More than anything. She wanted to make things right between them-after she gave a good slap for scaring her!-but the pain it was everyone and everything and everywhere and she could barely focus despite that...
And all the while, that little red spark, something so small, worked. Hardening her. Faster. Better. Strengthening her. Making her...
...stronger from within.
Elsewhere, more bombs were being dropped.
"He...what?!"
The tray clattered out of Jack's hands with a dull thud-her foodstuff all but forgotten at the table. Her body hunched forwards across the seat like a coiled viper, every muscle tensed-ready-coiled to spring at the woman who'd just dropped the bomb on her, shattering her fragile little world to glass. It took everything she had not to reach out and crush her throat. Only moments ago, she'd been calm, cool, collected even. She'd had her center.
Damnit, for once, she'd actually been happy!
Thoughts of bringing food up to Naruto's room, of cuddling with him, maybe stealing another kiss, all dashed. Gone.
Now, the temptation was there.
Lingering.
Garrus swore, snatching up his own tray and beating a hasty retreat. "And on that note, I'm out of here." He had no desire to be paste!
Because Jack was positively glowing, tiny blue embers of biotic power burning around her body as she fought to control herself. Destroy. Her first instinct was to do what she'd done since she was little; find the problem and smash it, beat it down until it couldn't hurt her anymore.
Sadly, that wasn't an option.
She'd seen Naruto enter the medbay, that listless, wandering gait telling her his vision had yet to fully return. But the way he'd clenched his jaw-all but ignored her as he swept out of the elevator...something was wrong and she knew it. She simply hadn't know the who, what, when, where, or why. Shiala had been awfully quiet on the matter.
Now she knew why.
And it hurt.
It hurt, it hurt, it hurt, to know that someone else had swooped in and laid
Shards of agony stabbed at her heart, but she stubbornly fought the pain, the tears, the instinctive urge to shout and swear and scream and rail against what she'd been told. That damn alliance woman had made some stupid offhand comment again. Ordinarily she would've been ignored, but when the Krogan said something too, then Blue, agreeing with her, well...
"Whaddya mean he's with somebody?!"
Liara flushed. "I...ah...yes. He is. I mean, I think he might be. I am...uncertain, now."
"Eh?" Ashley Williams, for her part, didn't seem much fazed by the outburst. "You didn't know?" Her head tilted towards the sick bay. "She's in there. Got messed up pretty bad when he went to bust you out. Punctured her suit and everything; she's got a bad infection-
Deep in Jack's mind, wires crossed. A quarian. He was with a quarian. Somehow, that rankled her even more. She'd thought he was with another human, or at the very least, an Asari. That stung badly enough, but...to hear this...it was...INFURIATING!
Her fist smashed down on the table, eliciting a series of charigned looks.
"A fucking quarian?!"
"She seems nice." Alenko suggested. A withering look silenced him.
Ashley's eyes flashed, seemingly oblivious to the feelings of DOOM leaking from the tattooed woman like a cracked sieve. "Unlike you. I hope you're worth it after all the trouble he went through to bust you out of jail."
On any other occasion, Jack would've destroyed her for saying that. Torn her to pieces. But the wide-eyed look said otherwise. It told her the Alliance broad was either very, very stupid, or she'd simply assumed her to know. The chilly looks were bad enough, but knowing...knowing...KNOWING...
She stood stiffly, her body on autopilot. A strand of hair swung down before her face and, numbly, she pushed it aside. Then she started walking.
Wrex rumbled aloud; it was a deep, throaty laugh. "This oughta be good."
"Where are you going?" Shiala, silent until now, called after her. She made as if to rise-
"Leave her!" Shepard swung out of the elevator, looking frantic. "Don't touch her, anyone!"
"Oh, Goddess!"
"Liara, what're you-
Jack didn't answer, even as Liara hastened after her, no doubt, to ensure that her comatose mother wasn't caught up in the fireworks. Or maybe she cared, too. Jack didn't know. Didn't care. She was seeing red, all the room falling into a scarlet haze around her, as though she were trapped at the bottom of a bloody ocean. And there would be blood. She'd thought she had no claim to him until that kiss. To have something like that, to experience it again, have all those feelings rushing back all at once...
...no. There would be a reckoning for this.
When the guard at the door tried to stop her, she flung him into a bulkhead. Then she pried the locked doors open. With her bare hands. Steel yielded before her with an explosive screech, alarms sounding as she took her first steps into the sealed bay.
Ohhhh, he had some explaining to do!
Then she saw him. The quarian first, then, him. A flash of pity filled her chest, then ignited into a firerstorm of jealousy.
Naruto.
Her lifelong friend stood there at the end of the bay, grasping her small hand in his. He glanced up at the sound of the broken doors, looking towards her. Yes, a reckoning. A reckoning indeed. Jack stormed forward, a fist clenched, her jaw set in an angry, stubborn line.
"Before we do this," he began, "I don't suppose I could ask that we take it to the cargo bay?"
Nope.
Her hand grasped the collar of his jacket and bodily hauled him away from the quarian, drawing him forward to her.
"You," she started slowly, "have some fuckin' 'splaining to do!"
A/N: YES, I went there with that last line. Aaand there we go! I know it took terribly long to update this, but I've been dealing with work and a nasty bout of depression lately. Seriously, I never thought one job could beat a man down so much, but apparently I was wrong! Honestly, if I didn't have this site, if I couldn't WRITE, I'm fairly certain I would've gone crazy by now. Speaking of cruel craziness, I'm sure you're all looking forward to the insanity that's about to follow with Naruto, Tali, and Jack.
Needless to say, I'm about to up the ante in that regard.
So...in the Immortal Words of Atlas...
...Review, Would Ya Kindly? And of course, enjoy the preview! Two this time! MAJOR CANON SHIFT A-COMING! And you guessed it...NO MORE SUIT NEEDED FOR TALI!
(Preview!)
Naruto's jaw clicked open.
The warning died on his lips as Tali released the seals on her helmet, pulling back the veil that covered her head. He watched, dumbstruck, numb, as she painstakingly removed every layer that separated her face from him, deliberately destroying the lone barrier that'd stood between them all this time.
"Its alright." she soothed. "I'll be fine; I'll even explain it to you later.
Dread gripped his heart, throttling him.
"No you won't! Put that back on right now! Before you...you...you...
"I want you to see me," when she spoke, her voice lacked the distinctive warble of her audio filter, now unplugged. "I NEED you to see me without this...this... thing in the way." She sounded small and afraid, and oh so very sad.
As he looked on, her three-fingered hands reached around, hooked inside the helmet, and pulled. It came free with a soft hiss of pressurized air, the violet glass that always hid her face now falling away to clank numbly on the floor. Her helmet followed suit seconds later.
Dark hair tumbled down around her face, and, there she was. His heart broke, came back together, shattered all over again. It was like meeting her again for the first time-falling in love!-all over again. Pale eyes shone out at him, her mouth curled in a small, shy, tentative smile.
"Well," she spoke, her voice a breathy whisper. "What do you think."
Only one word came to mind.
...beautiful."
Man and turian collided; and one lost an arm.
The over-jagged sound of metal rending metal keened out once, followed by a warbling cry of pain. They broke apart, came together, and broke apart again, trading blows and bullets until their weapons clicked empty; overheated and slagging from the rapid rate of fire.
Naruto tossed his shotgun aside started forward, slowly.
"You hurt her." his voice was a hiss, a physical edge. If a knife could speak, this would be what it sounded like. Bloody, beaten, and battered, he came on, the skies darkening overhead. "Tali...Jackie...You hurt them...
Like a slow-moving train building up steam; his advance started slow and began to accelerate. Craters appeared in the floor-one for each step-steel sundering beneath his striding boots. Saren's broken arm lay clutched in his hand, the artificial limb still spitting sparks as it was cast aside. The bright sun of Virmire lit his eyes an unholy red, his body swaying in the backlash of the Normandy's still departing engines, a puppet cut from its master's strings.
He didn't glance back as Ashely walked/stumbled up the ramp to safety. He didn't see the Normandy shrink into the distance. Didn't see anything at all, except the bastard before him.
Fangs flashed, those eerie red lights trailing around him, almost like a second skin.
...YOU HURT THEM!"
Saren physically shrank back at the sight, eyes agoggle as the blond stormed towards him.
"Sh-Shoot!" He barked at the geth behind him, drawing back. "SHOOT HIM!" The first of many fired then; pinged harmlessly off his shields, diffusing in a shower of old and cold sparks. The second he slapped aside with his geth arm, contemptuously catching the high speed projectile in hand.
The next slammed right through him, blowing a hole in his torso. Another shore off his human arm, suit and all. He did not slow. All the while the incessant thrum of the bomb grew steadily louder in their ears. Naruto kept coming. The fingers of his remaining hand, the geth hand, found Saren's throat and began to squeeze.
"This. Ends. Now."
CRACK!
Something broke.
Did Naruto succeed?! Is Saren dead?! Did I actually kill that fucker off early?! Stay tuned to find out!
R&R!=D