Betrayals
For a long moment, no one moved. Then the N7 took a step back, pushing Hackett who hadn't moved behind her. Other armored forms had appeared behind the pair, these in normal Alliance marine armor with standard weapons. Four of them.
"Jak, don't be stupid." Hackett said slowly. "We don't want you dead."
Jak glanced from him to the N7 and back, not speaking. Korri didn't move, her hands at her sides. Jak glanced at the reinforcements and shook his head slowly.
"Neither did Cerberus or my people." Korri said quietly. "But quarians nearly killed him anyway." She shook her head. "Whatever you are planning for Lara or him, we want no part of it. We will not help you."
"Korri, is it?" Hackett said slowly. "We are trying to help him and Lara. The docs detected a number of odd things in her bloodstream. Things that do not make any sense." Korri just looked at him and he shook his head. "Yes, the brass are nervous. Lieutenant Collains here was one of our best. The mere thought of him being suborned..." He paused a Korri growled..
"By anyone else. If you do it, its fine." Korri had a snarl in her tone that was utterly unlike her. Jak looked at her and she shook her head. "Jak… I don't want to die, but to save Lara what my people did to her? I will if needed."
"Young lady, there is no need for that." Hackett tried again. "I can understand Lieutenant Collains' hesitation to trust after what he has gone through, but we are not going to hurt him or Lara."
"Cerberus said the same." Jak grated out and then clenched his jaw shut.
"Lieutenant, you are not going to win here." The N7 said calmly. "Even if you blow that, it won't kill you instantly and we have medics standing by." Indeed, two more marines appeared behind the first four They had had medkits ready. "Let's all just calm down and talk about this."
"I have nothing to say to you!" Jak bit out the words as if he were in pain. Physically, he wasn't, but his entire world was shattering as the Alliance troops closed in.
He went still as music sounded in his mind. The rachni. They were not happy. Korri stiffened as well.
Jak! Illia's voice came and he relaxed, just a little. What the hell?
The Alliance is doing what Cerberus and the quarians did, Illia. Jak replied. I don't think they can block this. But they may be able to detect it.
Oh no. Illia sounded sick now. We thought you were safe. We are too far away to help. Jak...
Stay safe, my friend. Jak cut the connection.
"Who are you talking to?" The N7 demanded. Jak ignored her, focusing his rage on Hackett who winced.
"You will not use us as experimental animals, Alliance." Korri said quietly. "You will not."
More than one of the advancing Marines paused at her calm and matter of fact tone. The biotic froze and then she slowly backed up another step, pushing Hackett back again. She wasn't eyeing Jak or the small bomb he held in his hands, she was eyeing Korri!
"Girl. Korri." The Alliance biotic said slowly and carefully. "Be very careful. You are about to make a hell of a mess."
"I am about to make a mess?" Korri asked, still calm. "You are about to get three civilians killed in the need to experiment on them. You won't let us go, so that leaves me with one option."
Was it Jak's imagination that blue-black energy was swirling around her hands? It wasn't! Oh SHIT! Korri was a biotic! He hadn't had a clue! Had anyone?
"KORRI!" Jak screamed as energy flared from her hands to surround the pair of them. It didn't hurt, indeed, it felt supporting even as power flared around the pistol in Jak's hand and it suddenly wasn't in his hand! It was floating in mid-air, surrounded by the same biotic power. It blew, but the blast was a flat crack and none of the fragments went anywhere, consumed by the dark energy that surrounded the detonation.
"Girl! Stop!" The N7 shouted. "You cannot control that much without an amp!"
"What do you care?" Now Korri's emotions were given free reign and all hell tore from her mind, given form in the energy she was now throwing at the N7 who retreated, Hackett being shoved back into the ring of marines who were wisely retreating. Normal soldiers had no place in a biotic confrontation.
The energy that Korri threw hit a wall of energy that the N7 threw up and the detonation was titanic. The walls and floor shook. Korri threw her hands forward and energy flew from them to impact the wall again and again. Each impact caused another explosion, but the N7's energy barrier was solid. The walls, floor and ceiling around it were showing wear.
"Girl, stop!" The N7 repeated. She wasn't even winded even as Korri started to gasp. She was far more powerful and she was trained. Korri had no chance against her. "I don't want to hurt you! You are hurting yourself with that! Stop! Please!"
"I don't believe you!" Korri screamed as she threw more and more energy at the Alliance biotic who did not respond. "You took my sister! It is what your kind do! Hurt people! It is all you know how to do! You kill people! For your masters! The only difference between you and Cerberus is the uniform you wear! You both will use us or abuse us and for what? To know what we do? Screw you boshtets! All of you!" She spat.
"Please stop her!" The N7 pleaded to Jak. "I don't want to hurt either of you and she will kill herself!"
"Of course you do not want to hurt us. You want us intact so they can experiment on us." Jak's voice held scorn that might have etched titanium. He shook his head and moved to flank Korri as she threw another pair of energy bolts at the N7 which rattled the walls and did nothing more. "Fuck you. Rather die than feel Lara or you go that again, Korri. What can I do?"
"Sorry abut your pistol. I shouldn't have stopped you. I thought I could get us out. I was wrong. We cannot escape. Knife in my boot." Korri was obviously gritting her teeth as she kept throwing energy at the N7 who deflected it effortlessly. "I hoped to explain… I didn't want to say. Illia said everyone might be afraid of me if I showed it and..." She trailed off, energy still flying, but smaller bolts and fewer.
"It was a surprise, but I am not afraid of you, Korri. I know you just as you know me." Jak said gently as he bent down to take the knife out of her leg scabbard. Just looking at it, it was obviously razor sharp. "The ability to manipulate dark energy like that doesn't make you evil. Or good." He said sternly to the N7 who shook her head. He sighed. "You will not experiment on us."
"We don't want to! Don't make me do this!" The N7 begged as he reversed the blade and held it to his own neck. "Lieutenant, stop! Let us talk this out! We can help you and her!"
"No." Jak plunged the blade into his own neck and many things happened at once.
The N7's barrier vanished and Korri gave a sharp scream as black energy tendrils swarmed around her, tearing into her even as her own blue black energy fought them off. Jak collapsed to his knees and he could hear Lara crying from a long ways away even as warm wetness fell down his front. Hackett shouted as the marines ran forward, weapons and medical gear at the ready, only to retreat as Korri lashed out at them, forcing the N7 to protect them. Then the music soared through his mind and he was pulling away. It felt so comforting to be pulled into the music, but he…
Spiky red torments grabbed hold of him and held him in place even as the music fought to free him. He fought the torments with everything he had. Then music sounded and it wasn't the same music. Lara was singing and the red torment were forced back yet again.
Then everything went away.
Some time later
A loud song ran thought Jak's mind. A battle song.
Jak was fighting before he was fully awake. Hands held him down, but he had once trained to handle just such events and now? He was in shape to fight again. He slammed the hands that held him aside, hearing two cries of pain as he spun his legs away from whatever was trying to bind them. He connected to something and then he was fighting for all he was worth. Whoever these were, they were not prepared for him.
Something was covering his face, and he ignored that as he lashed out with everything he had. He latched onto a hand with his teeth and bit down, hard. A female scream sounded as other hands tried to hold him, but Jak had fought orderlies before. He knew the tricks. Even blindfolded, he could fight and did. He slammed his forehead into something and someone gave a pained grunt as the covering fell away. What met his eyes was horror.
Lara floated in a horizontal tank of some kind, her face scrunched up in a rictus of pain or terror. She wore some kind of body covering, but it left little to the imagination. Energy played across her whole body. The mask over her nose and mouth and the tubes into her body in various places enraged Jak in the moment he took to see all of that. Then he was off the table he had been laid out on and lashing out at everyone within reach.
"No!" One of the forms in Alliance uniform shouted, but it was too late as Jak danced into their midst, feet and hands flashing in old patterns that had never truly faded. Martial arts had never really been his thing, but hand to hand was fairly simple if you knew what to do. Hit an enemy, hurt them and move. Never stay still. Never get predictable. Assume you would get hurt and do your damnedest to hurt your enemy worse. He was wearing a patient gown and had no weapons.
It didn't matter. He was pissed!
A tray flew to brain one person in surgical scrubs. That man fell as if poleaxed. A nurse tried to run for a half seen door and Jak tripped her into a cart filled with medical gear. She fell and lay, clutching her face. But there were three more and they were all wary now. One cradled a bleeding hand. He stalked toward them and they split up, each moving a different direction.
"No harm, my ass!" Jak growled as he slammed into the closest, a large man who gave a cry of fear and tried to bat Jak's hands away as they gripped the front of his tunic. He spun, throwing the man into the female doctor with the bleeding hand as she darted for the door. They tangled and went down. He snarled as the door crashed open and two Alliance soldiers ran in. Neither had weapons in hand although both had them on their persons. One was the N7 from before! They took in the scene and froze. Jak did not. He scooped up an old style metal scalpel from a tray nearby and threw it at the closest marine's visor. Even it hit point first, not likely since Jak wasn't practiced with such, it wasn't going to penetrate the plastic, let alone the kinetic barriers. It was only a distraction. Before either of them could react, Jak had one of the docs in a headlock. His hands shifted just a little as the marines stiffened into immobility again. His hands were poised to break the doc's neck. But one hostage wasn't going to get him out of here, was it?
"You know you are not getting out of here." The N7 -he had never gotten her name- said flatly. "Stand down. Let him go."
"You take one of mine." Jak said just as flatly. "I take one of yours." He twisted his arms slightly as the other marine took a step forward and the doctor moaned in fear and pain. "Go ahead, fool. Give me no way out. See what that gets you." The marine took a slow step back. "Smarter, but still dumb."
"We haven't hurt her." The N7 held up empty hands. Not that she needed weapon. She was one. "We haven't hurt you. We healed what you did. No more. We were worried when her vitals flat lined with yours."
"Don't tell me that Hackett hasn't seen the reports. I know Shepherd sent one. Do you know what the word 'linked' means, dipshit?" Jak demanded. "You are not stupid or you wouldn't have passed that training." He shook his head and forced his rage back. It wouldn't help. "You didn't kill Korri or we would all be dead."
"Girl has guts, I will give her that. No experience or sense, but lots of guts." The N7 said with a deep sigh. "No, I didn't kill her despite her trying to get me to. I had to beat her down hard and we are worried because we don't have a lot of data on quarian physiology."
"So scan her!" Jak all but exploded at the soldier. "That was the whole plan, right? You want data? Get it! Who cares about what it does to the subjects? Morals and ethics are for civilians! Such are not the Alliance military any more than they were for Cerberus!"
"If that were true, you never would have woken and you know it, Lieutenant. I can stop you. I don't want to." The N7 said sharply. "There are those who want to dissect all three of you. Who do you think is stopping them?" She demanded.
"Why?" Jak snapped right back. "You get what you want and everyone else gets fucked! A good old fashioned Alliance compromise. Always fun to see!"
"Clear the room." Hackett's voice sounded from the door and everyone turned to see him standing there, Korri's limp from in his hands.
"Sir!" The N7 protested.
"Clear the fucking room, Captain. Now." That was not a request. Hackett set Korri on the table Jak had recently been on and straightened her a little.
The N7 waved and the other marine started to help the moaning doctors and nurses to their feet before moving them towards the door. She did not move and the eyeslits of her helmet never left Jak. In less than a minute, the only people left in the room were Jak, Korri, Lara in her tube, the doc Jak held hostage, the N7 and Hackett.
"Out." Hackett snapped.
"I can't do that, sir." The female Alliance soldier said calmly. "Reprimand me if you must, but my orders are clear. You are not to be alone with him."
"Fine, whatever." Hackett snarled and then bit back a sigh. "Jak, let him go. Please? We haven't hurt you or her." He nodded to where Lara hung in the tank. "When you stabbed yourself, she flat-lined. The docs freaked. They pulled her out of the scanner and put her in that life support tube to keep her safe while they figured out how to help her."
"They can't." Jak growled.
"No." Hackett agreed. "They can't. No matter what the docs tried, her heart would not start back up until the medics managed to resuscitate you." He shook his head. "This was never the plan, Jak. She wasn't supposed to wake up. You were not supposed to know. You were not supposed to do what you did."
"Who gave the orders?" Jak demanded. "It had to be high up to get you involved."
"Does it matter?" Hackett asked sadly as he patted Korri's still hand. "You will blame us all. And you have cause."
"No, I blame you." Jak snarled. "If you had simply asked like a civilized person, we might have agreed. We probably would have if you promised not to hurt me or Lara. I was loyal to the Alliance. Until now." He shook his head. "But you had your orders, so it didn't matter. Just do it and to hell with the consequences. 'Befehl ist Befehl'". He spat the words and Hackett froze solid.
"Sir?" The N7 asked. "Was that German?"
"Jak... Ah. Yes, Captain. It was. Didn't expect him to invoke Godwin's Law." Hackett said weakly. "A quote attributed to a man named Jodel at the Nuremberg Trials after the end of World War II. Literally 'An order is an order'. It is a defense that many have used since then to justify war crimes."
"Jodel." The N7 said slowly. "I don't know the name."
"Just as well, not a good role model." Hackett said quietly. "Jak, this isn't the same. We didn't hurt either of you. You did." Jak looked at Korri and Hackett sighed again. "You know the Captain could have killed her easily. She didn't."
"And that makes it all better." Lara couldn't have bettered the syrupy sweetness in Jak's voice.
"No." Hackett admitted. "We cannot fix this, can we?" He asked a bit plaintively.
"Nope." Jak said flatly.
"You will not trust anything we try to set up, will you?" Hackett slumped a bit.
"Nope." Jak was still flat.
"She won't be able to walk." Hackett waved at Korri. "She used up a lot of her body's energy reserves even discounting the beating the Captain had to give her to make her stay down. Then she flat-lined with you and Lara."
"Tough kid." The N7 said quietly, shaking her head. "Didn't know the quarians had biotics." Her eyes were on Jak who did not react. "Sir..." She complained.
"Would you trust Ryder?" Hackett asked after a moment. Jak looked at him. "He isn't Alliance anymore and we all know he can keep his mouth shut. The last thing we need is for the newsies or the Initiative's lawyers to get hold of this mess."
"Probably too late." Jak said mildly and Hackett made a face. "We called for help when you trapped us. Illia was pretty pissed." Hackett seemed to wilt and Jak twisted the knife a bit. "Then again, she had no reason to trust you like I thought I did."
"Get Ryder here." Hackett ordered and the N7 sighed but nodded and keyed her com. "Maybe he can come up with a way to keep this from splashing all over the nightly news."
"You know? Press or Illia pissed?" Jak said with a wince of his own.
"I would take the press."