A/N: As strange as this might sound a brief lesson in oral tradition is needed here. A common rhetorical technique used in oral tradition to place emphasis where needed is repetition, both the repeating phrases and subtle differences within the phrases. Once recorded in writing this repetition lost its ability to impact the audience, for example the violence of the Iliad or the genealogies in the Bible are boring to modern readers but were essential to the original audience that heard rather than read the story. A segment of this chapter has such repetition, though I hope it's not boring, and it is there to provide emphasis, not to be merely excessive.
Warning: Rape scene ahead. Seriously, WARNING, don't read if it offends or could cause greater distress than it's designed to.
LUMEN ET UMBRAE
As clumsy as her sisters' plan had been that did not mean it had been ineffective. Perhaps it actually had been the reminder of the food, though the wine and Unicom they had plied her with was probably more responsible, but Ashley couldn't stop thinking of Budapest…of John. Sitting alone in her room having retired for the night, the alcohol having gotten to all of the sisters, Ashley let her mind wander. And, as usual, it wandered straight for Shepard.
Ash looked out over the swollen Danube as she waited for John's return to the hotel room that his status as humanity's hero had allowed him to commandeer despite the scarcity of lodgings in the flooded city. The view from the ordinarily exclusive hotel looked out from the top of Buda hill across the river to the Pest side of the ancient city was much better than the barracks she would have been in if not for John's influence.
While their planned leave hadn't happened because of this emergency Ash was nonetheless satisfied with her 'vacation'. No one was shooting at her, she was in quarters far superior to military grade accommodations…and John was here, at least when his off duty shifts happened to correspond with her own. Looking around the private room she shared with John Ash felt guilty at the pleasures afforded by the luxury hotel and the peace she enjoyed in John's arms while the rest of the city was enduring its worst disaster in over two centuries. Shaking off the nagging guilt Ash decided to simply enjoy her time here, after all she'd be returning to geth space with John soon enough and she deserved a break after the recent stresses of chasing Saren. Having resolved to claim her pleasure wherever possible Ash went to the room's balcony as the sun sank under the low hills behind her to the city's west.
With the fall of darkness the lights of the constant rescue operations were transformed from the images that were revealed by sunlight. Under day's scrutinizing glare the activities surrounding Ash were simply ugly scenes of panicked humanity trying to salvage what little remained of their lives from the despair of the consuming flood waters. But with night's comforting blanket of darkness that scene was transformed into a beautiful display as flashing emergency lights were broken into countless sparks of light refracted by the roiling waters of the surging Danube and sent dancing across the dark river. This transformation, this willful ignorance of reality's harshness was her guilty pleasure; here in the midst of tragedy darkness was a blessing. Usually darkness brought with it fear of the unknown but when the known was so terrible the unknown seemed a welcome reprieve.
Just then the door to her room was flung open briefly revealing John's silhouette in the doorway as a corona of light surrounding his dark form burst into the unlit hotel room from the hallway. Quickly crossing the large room John stepped close to Ash encircling her waist with one arm and pulling her close with an irresistible strength. As she was crushed against the familiar surface of his N7 armor his other hand raised itself to her face, fingertips brushing along her cheekbones as John reached up to gently brush a strand of hair that had escaped her tight ponytail out of her eye before his hand moved to cup the back of her head.
Moaning her pleasure to the darkness Ash tilted her head back surrendering herself to John. Lowering his head John began placing brief kisses along her jaw line which soon grew in intensity as his mouth drifted lower devoting its attention to her neck as he tasted her pulse with his lips. Moving his hands to her waist John slid his palms under her fatigue top tracing the contours of her body as he drew his hands up her slender, muscular form enjoying the feel of excited shivers coursing through Ash at his touch. Her shirt caught on his wrists moved up in conjunction with his exploring hands until he had reached her underarms, his thumbs brushing the sides of her breasts with each of her increasingly rapid breaths. Raising her arms Ash allowed John to pull her top over her head before stepping backwards, away from him.
Smiling at the low, frustrated growl this separation of their bodies drew from John Ash slowly walked past him towards the door John had just entered from. Without looking back at his shadow obscured form, knowing that he had turned to watch her, Ash walked away from him exaggerating the sway of her body's motion enough that it was visible even in the dim light to the SPECTRE's implant enhanced eyesight. Reaching her destination Ash flicked the lights onto full brightness the sudden flare of illumination momentarily blinding her. Turning back to John Ash smiled at the irritation on his face as he pressed his eyes shut at the discomfort caused by the light.
"What, mood lighting not good enough for you?" he complained blinking as his eyes struggled to adjust to the light.
"Nope, I want to see all of you." Ash said, her voice dark with desire. "Now get that armor off, Skipper."
Okay, maybe nightfall was her second favorite part of the day.
"Uh…Commander, you might want to get down to engineering. Apparently, Jack's tearing the place up and scaring Ken." Joker reported sardonically over the ship's intercom.
Exiting the elevator on the engineering deck Shepard could immediately hear the irate yelling of the biotic psychopath. Shaking his head in grim amusement at the dysfunctional crew he had assembled Shepard opened the engineering door to reveal Ken cowering in a corner while Jack's petite body somehow managed to loom over the large Scotsman. Actually, Shepard realized on further reflection, it was quite obvious how Jack managed to look so imposing; it had to be the shimmering biotic field surrounding her and the large shotgun which dwarfed the small hands pointing it at Ken.
As amusing as it would be to watch as the irritating engineer got splattered across the bulkhead Shepard knew he couldn't allow that to happen. The ship needed an engineering crew and if Ken died Gabby would be useless in her grief and Tali was probably going to leave once Shepard finally got around to telling her that their brief romance was off. Sighing in frustration at the demands of being in charge Shepard stepped forward to intervene.
"Jack, get back to your quarters." Shepard growled, the tone in his voice leaving no room for argument or disobedience.
Seeming surprisingly cowed, at least for a powerful, insane, biotic,Jack stormed off to her makeshift quarters the echoes of her parting 'Fuck you Ken, you skirt wearing fag!' ringing throughout the engineering deck.
Rubbing his temples to fight away his approaching headache Shepard wearily motioned for Ken to explain. Trying to regain some dignity Ken straightened himself up and gave a refreshingly concise, military sounding report.
"Sir, engineering lost power for thirteen seconds due to a power surge that caused both the primary and emergency lighting to go down. Once power, and lighting, were restored specialist Jack arrived from the lower deck complaining about the power outage." Ken's authoritative voice trailed off as he could no longer ignore Tali's muffled giggles or Gabby's unabashed chuckling.
Managing to stifle her laughter Gabby chimed in, "And then genius here decides to tease Jack and accuses her of being 'a little girl afraid of the dark'."
Shoulders slumping at Gabby's account Ken lost his military bearing and sheepishly finished explaining to Shepard. "Right, so I guess that struck a nerve and…well you saw the rest of it."
"Got it, Ken. I'll go talk to Jack about this." replied Shepard, an odd, excited smile growing on his face.
Entering Jack's little red lit realm Shepard stopped at the base of the stairs watching the powerful biotic criminal. Jack sat huddled on the narrow cot, knees curled up to her chest and arms wrapped around her shins. Shepard stood watching Jack who appeared too caught up in whatever had set her off at Ken to notice Shepard looking at her. Observing the obvious distress on the woman's face Shepard smiled, here was a problem that needed solving; and a woman who wouldn't fault his more…ruthless actions.
Oblivious to Shepard's presence Jack hugged her legs closer to her body and rocked back and forth lost in vivid memories unable to escape her past.
Jack knew something was wrong the instant she saw the door to the decontamination unit. Every three days the first pair of guards escorted her here where she was handed off to a second pair who stood guard at the door of the unit. It was a regular routine on Prugatory designed to prevent the spread of the infectious diseases so common to both ships and prisons, and exponentially worse on prison ships.
Routine was dangerous. Jack had expected her first test to happen here where her enemies knew when and where she would be giving them the advantage of choosing the ground. As Jack and her guards rounded the last bend before the decontamination unit she noticed the pair that always guarded the chamber were conspicuously absent, apparently her intuition was correct. Smiling in anticipation of the fight, and inevitable killing, she sensed approaching Jack nodded agreeably to the suddenly on edge guards as they motioned for her to enter the chamber before locking the door behind her.
Entering the dimly lit room Jack quickly took stock of her surroundings turning her back to the room and facing the door once she ascertained that no threats would come from within the small chamber. As she waited for the inevitable attackers to spring their 'trap' Jack let her mind wander while keeping her attention fixed on the door through which her assailants would burst. Jack was surprised at how long it had taken for this to happen here on Purgatory. Based on her prior experiences in various penitentiaries she had come to expect the first real test of her strength to come within a week, Jack had now been here for three weeks with nothing but weak, individual attacks to threaten her. That probably meant her attackers were scared or that the guards were harder to bribe, either way it could only help her.
After several minutes of waiting Jack's unimpressive amount of patience was exhausted. Bored, Jack decided that at least she could use the decontamination unit while she waited for her tardy attackers; it would save her a trip later and, besides, perhaps her enemies had pussied out. After several minutes during which the sterilizing beams passed over her repeatedly destroying any foreign bodies Jack knocked on the metal door letting whoever was out there know that she was done. The door didn't open but Jack knew the guards would be back with a new prisoner soon so she settled down to wait disappointed at the failure of the expected attack to materialize.
Soon afterwards the locks clicked off and the door slowly swung open revealing the familiar hallway...which was now completely dark. It was only possible for Jack to see several yards into the hallway before the darkness swallowed the weak beams of light issuing from the decontamination chamber. Seeing movement in the darkness right at the edge of her eyesight Jack felt a sense of foreboding crushing her.
Suddenly a shape stepped into the small pool of light that stabbed into the hall; it was soon followed by several other forms with still more flitting around the edges of the light. Jack swore loudly at the sight of the menacing figures, they all had night vision equipment. Without warning the decontamination unit's lights went dark leaving Jack surrounded by an impenetrable darkness. Swearing at her earlier overconfidence Jack realized her attacker's delay spoke to a terrifying organization and patience she had yet to meet in a prison population rather than to any weakness.
Hearing the rush of footsteps Jack blindly threw a panicked shockwave into the hallway satisfied with the sounds of screams and snapping bones punctuated by the sight of flailing limbs revealed in the biotic power's blue, strobe like illumination. Her exultation died, however, as the chaos she had caused quickly dissipated into the impenetrable darkness leaving her position unimproved. The pained moans caused by her shockwave having died down Jack detecting an increase in movement tugging at the periphery of her senses. Jack gathered her powers to release another powerful attack when a searing pain erupted in her head. Stunned, Jack heard a metallic clang as a heavy object dropped to the floor. Reaching a hand to her forehead Jack felt a familiar tacky wetness flow between her fingers before her unseeing eyes crossed and she collapsed onto the unseen, distant floor.
Consciousness filtered back to Jack in increasingly unappreciated stages. First to return was hearing. A loud buzzing noise filled Jack's ears driving her to shake her head in an attempt to banish the sound; unfortunately she succeeded. The buzzing having gone Jack's newly rediscovered sense reported several deeply pitched grunting noises counterpointed by a higher pitched, wavering note. Slowly more details filtered through; the various noises were picking up speed and there seemed to be words barely discernible amidst the heavy grunting.
These sounds washed over Jack in rhythmic waves that synced with the sensations reported by her next returning sense. Jack's confused mind attempted to make sense of the various feelings that bombarded her diminished awareness…the pain, the pressure, the pain, the aching, the pain, the exhaustion, and the pain. Spurred by her body in a reflexive attempt to discover the cause of her distress and how to end it Jack's mind fully surfaced into the nightmare her body already inhabited.
Working in terrible concert Jack's senses flooded her mind with information. The sound as a hand slapped her bare skin, the feeling of fingers harshly twisting, pulling and pinching a nipple, the smell of sweat, the taste of blood that had run down her face and across her lips, and the sight of darkness enveloping her. Desperately Jack tried to stem the flood of sensations but they kept assaulting her; the sound of a man grunting his pleasure behind her, the feel of a penis stretching her cracked and bleeding lips wide as it pressed into her mouth, the smell of unwashed skin pressed against her nose, the taste of precum mingling with her saliva, and the sight of darkness enveloping her.
She couldn't stop it; the sensations, the rape, her mind…it all continued without end. The sound of flesh slapping against her ass, the feel of her dry vagina slowly becoming slick with her blood, the smell of the surrounding men's arousal, the taste of bile as she gagged on the cock invading her throat, and the sight of darkness enveloping her. The sound of her muffled cries, the feel of her anal ring giving way to persistent pressure, the smell of her bowels, the taste of semen as the intruder in her throat partially withdrew, and the sight of darkness enveloping her.
It continued without end, and time lost its meaning becoming merely one more thing to hate. The sound of her rapist's triumphant, climaxing shout, the feel of hot sperm shot into her ass, the smell of her vomit as she heaved in disgust, the taste of her own feces as a soiled penis was thrust into her face, and the sight of darkness enveloping her. The sound of men talking, the feeling of mixed ejaculate and blood cooling and drying on her skin, the smell of fresh air as a door opened, the taste of urine as one man decided her humiliation wasn't complete, and the sight of searing light as power was restored to the room after her rapists had left reentering the concealing darkness of the hallway.
"Jack, what's going on?" Shepard asked, his voice pulling her from the memories. Whirling about to face him Jack pressed herself further into the Normandy's bulkhead frightened at a male presence. Cautiously stepping further into her commandeered quarters Shepard asked again,
"What's wrong, Jack? Tell me what happened."
"I killed them…actually it might not have been them, but they fucking knew about it. I killed the leaders of each prison gang, the two guards who weren't there, and several others because they sounded or smelled like they might have been there. And I never went into the fucking dark again."
"But I thought you liked the dark, isn't that why you chose to live down here?" asked Shepard, determined to keep Jack talking.
"It's not too dark here, asshole. My eyes can adjust and give me the advantage over someone whose eyes haven't adjusted. It's not the darkness." Jack replied, her voice dropping to a whisper. Looking at Shepard strangely Jack slipped away into her reverie once again.
There was no elaborate plan this time, just an electrified segment of flooring a guard activated as Jack walked over it sending her plunging into darkness. Giving the device several additional pulses after she fell, both to ensure her compliance and as revenge for the two Blue Suns she had killed, the mercenary approached her still form while his squad mates covered him warily. As ordered by Warden Kuril the mercs dragged Jack's unconscious form to the cryo chamber as fast as they could.
They made it just in time. As soon as Jack's arms were restrained she regained consciousness straining to get out of the framework that held her in its immovable grip. Laughing at her struggles one of the mercs signaled to a technician who watched from an overlooking control room. Nodding, the man depressed a button which began the freezing process. Jack frantically scanned the room for a means to escape…there were none. As this realization sank in her muscles locked up from the freezing process and light began to flee Jack's eyes. Blackness crept into the edges of her vision bringing with it pain and despair as Jack was forced by her traitorous muscles to watch the man manipulating the cryo controls finish freezing her. Soon Jack's eyes saw no more, once again darkness reigned.
Jack had no idea how long she had been frozen for. Her mind had been active the whole time but there was no reference point to gauge the passing of time by. Instead she was trapped in her own mind, the darkness forcing her into repetitive, vivid recollections of the last time she had stared into the darkness. Suddenly, a pinprick of light penetrated the permanent night; hope surged through Jack as her mind regained control of itself.
Her vision recovered Jack immediately began to assess her situation. The first thing her returned senses reported was the image of a man standing at the cryo controls. Hatred flared through Jack until her mind finished interpreting the scene she saw. Clad in a dark armor, definitely not Blue Suns issue, a human male stood in front of several other figures wisps of smoke caused by sustained firing curling from his gun's muzzle. His feet were planted in the floor which was irrigated by the blood of the cryo technician the half of whose face remained Jack recognized from the moment of her descent into freezing darkness. The man caught her stare and returned it giving Jack a smile and welcoming nod before motioning her attention towards the YMIR mechs surrounding her that were now activating.
Snarling at the welcome sight of enemies Jack charged her biotics and easily broke her foes asunder causing a satisfying explosion. The grim smile fled from her face, however, as Jack was surrounded once again by darkness when Purgatory's power flickered. Looking around in terror Jack's eyes were drawn to a the faint light coming form the control room window where the black clad man still stood watching her.
Frowning Jack stared at the man, who appeared to be…glowing. Not believing her eyes Jack took a closer look; but it was true, a red light seemed to shine from his whole face, but was especially bright where it came from his eyes. Finally emergency lighting kicked in bathing the ship in a reddish light that concealed the man's glow. Growling at her childish fear Jack turned away from the man and tore a new door for herself in the metal bulkhead with her biotics. She didn't know who, or what, that red man was but he was lucky to never have to be in the darkness.
A/N: The title is new, it is not the second part of Falsa Opinio. That will resurface later but this particular title was too perfect for this chapter.