AN: I know, it's all out of order, and I know Garrus and Tali and for that matter Jack weren't there at the start of the game. I was sort of locked in. This is not a game novelization, it's an adaptation of a particular storyline.
I hereby declare this to be spoiler-land for ME3
As great as it was to see Liara again, Shepard was hoping to avoid gunfire for a few hours. It was less than a day since the Reapers had shown them a new level in destruction.
The sound of gunshots chased them as they ran through the base, running past bodies as they moved deeper into the base, Liara leading them to the archives.
"Almost hard to believe it was named after the God of War." Vega commented as they took cover.
"Liara, do we need to worry about friendlies?" Shepard demanded.
"I have one other in the Archives, but I don't know if she's alive. As a matter of fact, its..."
"Lookout!" Shepard grabbed the Asari by the wrist and pulled her quickly behind different cover as their attackers flanked them. Shepard brought up his pistol, his quick-draw legendary across eight worlds. The battle was heated, but short, and the Alliance soldiers crept up on the corpses, making sure they weren't faking.
"Cerberus?" Ashley hissed once she saw the familiar insignia.
Shepard felt a spike go through him. The Illusive Man didn't forgive, and he certainly didn't forget. "What the hell are they doing here?"
"Don't you know?" Ashley asked, and immediately regret it.
"Et Tu Ash?" Shepard was stunned. "For anyone who may actually think I'm not full of it, I was never part of them. I ate their food, used their ship, and fried the Collectors, and then I told them where they could put the rest of their agenda."
"I know..." Ashley conceded immediately. "It's just... The Tribunal was right about one thing. They went to a hell of a lot of trouble to bring you back. And you've never closed the door on anything that might be useful later. I figured you might have some links... an informant, a friend on the inside?"
"And when would he have contacted them?" Vega pointed out. "He's been under strict watch since he turned himself over." Vega tried valiantly not to smirk. "Not as much as he could have been, of course."
Ashley and Shepard both found something fascinating to look at as they ran to the tram station.
Liara keyed the door to the tram station, and the large hatch opened...
Giving them a real good view of the enormous mounted turrets that was swiveling toward them.
Shepard started to shout for them to take cover, but far too late. The huge guns opened up with a furious burst of hellfire, the roar of the guns loud enough to deafen them all, the machine reaction times too fast for them to so much as duck...
They all closed their eyes instinctively. No time to react, barely enough to realize. They were dead.
The gunfire continued, and the whole team dared to peek...
A wall of blue light shimmered in the center of the hallway. A biotic barrier.
As the gun continued firing, the whole team could see the bullets smashing against it, suspended in place. Hundreds of them, thousands of them...
The huge turret overheated, and paused, venting steam as it cooled. The biotic field vanished instantly, the thousands of bullets dropping to the floor like rain. A moment later the turret turned again to face them...
Blue fire flashed across the barrel of the gun, and the huge turret actually caved in, crushing inwards like a crumpled can.
Shepard knew even before he turned. There was nothing else like it. The faint smell of ozone, the frenzied breathing that came from feral combat...
Sure enough. It was Jack. She stalked up behind them. "How did you idiots ever survive without me?"
She saw the exact moment of realization on her face. The exact moment that their eyes met. A shock ran through him. And her. She had changed.
She was wearing the leather belts as usual, with the jacket of a pressure suit over the top, worn open in her typical aggressive style. She had grown her hair out, now with a pony-tail and a short Mohawk.
Huh. A distant corner of Shepard's mind noted. Would have thought she was a redhead...
And then Jack stopped looking at him, and looked back at his team. She recognized Garrus instantly. Then her gaze fixed on Ashley.
Ashley looked back. No words were needed, no introductions. Ashley was a Spectre now, and she recognized the fact that everyone was looking from her, to Jack, to Shepard and back again.
Liara saw the tension starting to build, and kept on message. "I have to get to the archives, see what Cerberus left us."
Liara left them then, heading downstairs. Jack calmly walked up to the team, and paused, less than two feet from them. Despite themselves, everyone who had been on the Normandy 1 Crew backed away a little bit, giving the three of them some extra room.
Shepard couldn't help the glance at Ashley. Ashley was noticing the way Garrus was glancing back and forth between Jack and her.
Jack had noticed it too. She recognized Ashley of course, from the photo in Shepard's cabin. She just looked at the Spectre like a bug to be crushed.
Shepard could see the exact moment the light-bulb went off in Ashley's mind, and she gave Jack a look, up and down. Her eyes focused on the tattoos, the haircut, the outfit… and she just... reacted. "Really?" Ashley's voice was incredulous. "I mean... seriously, Skipper?"
Jack ignored that completely. "Well." She told Shepard. "Didn't take you long."
"Shepard! We have trouble!" Liara called from the next level down.
"Oh thank god." Shepard breathed.
"Cerberus stole the data! You got incoming! Be careful, she's fast!"
They barely got the warning before the woman came up the ladder, heading for the main hallway. Those with weapons drawn started shooting instantly. If the bullets came anywhere near her, it didn't show.
She ran straight at them, unafraid. She came closer as fast a freight train.
Jack moved fast, hurling a shockwave in her path, head on. The woman leaped, clearing the shockwave, and the Normandy Crew in one jump. She didn't even seem to be breathing hard.
Shepard moved fast, chasing after her, her mercurial speed enough to lead them all the way back to the airlock.
"MASK'S ON!" Shepard snapped, grabbing for his helmet as the mystery woman leaped through the view-port, the atmosphere rushing out after her. Vega was ready first, and climbed out after her, his size working against him.
The others had their gear ready soon after, trying to keep up.
"VEGA! WAIT FOR US!" Shepard roared.
Vega ignored him, charging like a tank.
The mystery woman made it to her shuttle and climbed inside quickly.
Vega didn't chase her, running to the Normandy shuttle. Their shuttle landed recently, the engines still at 'ready' status, whereas she had to start her engines up from scratch. Vega saw his chance and hit the afterburners, digging a gash in the tile and metal of the landing pad. The shuttle became a battering ram. He barely had enough altitude to keep from crashing himself, and he met the slowly lifting Cerberus craft head on.
The Mystery Woman was knocked off course, her shuttle rolling once from the impact, slamming into the refueling station. The explosion was quick and vicious.
Vega worked the controls quickly, trying madly not to kill himself. He landed hard enough that he stayed upright, though it likely didn't do the shuttle a lot of good.
The rest of the Normandy crew had got the door open, and Shepard stormed the landing craft as Vega climbed out. "What the hell was that?" Shepard demanded.
"It worked didn't it?" Jack called from behind them.
Vega started to answer the commander when there came a banging sound from the shuttle wreck. The Team turned to look... And out of the burning debris stepped a gleaming chrome shape. It was bizarrely feminine, unnaturally so. But it was strong, and it was fast, and it moved with mercurial wrath, no longer content to run, now on the attack. Garrus barely had time to turn with the blow as she struck a blow powerful enough to dent his armor inward, and send him skidding across the pad. Vega was next. The huge mountain of a man tried to get a hold of 'her' arm, and the Machine tossed him back and forth over her had, in a flawless double axle, taking him straight off his feet.
The Machine turned to face Shepard, and suddenly Ashley was right there between them, bringing her rifle up. The machine caught Ashley by the face-mask, and hoisted her off the ground, too fast to follow.
"ASH!" Shepard shouted as the Machine slammed her down again. He could see gusts of condensation as her suit breached, her face smashed.
Jack's skin flashed with blue fire again, throwing her hands forward. The woman was suddenly wrapped in a shield, and she smashed at it, pneumatic fists slamming against the invisible walls around her.
Shepard put his pistol away, drew something bigger, in now particular hurry.
Jack bared her teeth under her face-mask. "If you're planning on doing anything..." She growled. "Do it. Now."
Shepard slapped in the armor piercing rounds, and took aim, taking his time to do it right. "Now!"
The barrier dropped instantly, and Shepard let the thing have it.
As Shepard knocked it down, the rest of his team gathered themselves. The whole fight had lasted less than eight seconds.
Eight seconds, and one casualty.
"ASH? ASH?" Shepard demanded, throwing himself down next to her. When she didn't respond, he quickly lifted her, trying to keep her prone. "BACK TO THE SHIP!"
"She needs more than I can do for her here." Chakwas said gravely. "How long till we reach Citadel?"
"Another hour." Liara thought aloud.
Jack never took her eyes off Shepard. Shepard never took his eyes of Ashley.
Tali slipped over next to Garrus. "Hull Breach waiting to happen."
The Turian nodded.
Jack turned on her heel, and stalked out without a word.
They made it to the Citadel and announced they had a wounded Spectre. It got them to the head of the queue. There were hundreds of ships lining up. More on the way. Warships, transports, medical ships... Anything that could fly.
Jack had kicked aside all the junk that the Alliance construction crews had dumped down in the Pit, and turned a crate on it's side to make a place to sit. Or sleep.
Sleep... Jack thought miserably. She unscrewed one of her spare heat-sinks, revealing it to be hollow. She tipped out the pills, grabbed a handful of them, and swallowed them dry. Stretching out on the crate, she shut her eyes, and pretended to sleep. Usually the pills would do it.
But not this time.
Jack wanted badly to have Shepard back on board. She wanted to climb in next to him and sleep like the dead, for just one night. She wanted him to whisper something nice to her and she would breathe him in slowly, and the universe would be far away, and the bad stuff would be far away, and the crew would leave them alone, and everything would be back the way it was.
Meeting Williams had been... unexpected. She hadn't expected him to find her again so fast, though she knew that he still loved the Alliance soldier, even while they were together. At the time, she didn't care. She didn't expect either of them to live out the month, and she... needed what they had far too much. There was no future for them, and she knew it, so she didn't call him on it.
But she wanted to. She didn't want Ashley to die exactly, she just wanted everyone else to just go away and leave her and Shepard in peace so that they could whisper soft forgiving things in the dark again.
"Attention All hands, Prepare for Departure." The PA announced.
Jack blinked. They had been on the Citadel less than two hours. They were supposed to be organizing a massive counter-attack... To say nothing of Williams...
Bad news. Jack thought to herself, and got up. She made her way upstairs, trying to avoid everyone she could, which led her to rooms that weren't there a month before.
"You're not serious." Garrus blurted.
"I know." Tali wailed. "I can't tell him. I can't face him!"
"Tali, you're not going to run out on him without saying goodbye." Garrus said plainly. "It would a an awful. And something that's happened before, I might add. You have to go, then fine. Another terrible thing that's happened before. But you at least have to tell him."
Tali stared at her shoes, and finally nodded.
"Tell him now, before we find out whether or not Ash is going to live." Garrus advised. "You can either be bad news, or bad news on top of worse news."
Tali nodded. "Oh Keelah, what do I say?"
The Clinic was the best on the Citadel. Ashley was a Spectre, which granted her a private recovery room. Assuming she recovered. A luxury that was worth all the more. The Clinic was filled up, the rooms having triple numbers, the hallways full of cots, nurses moving back and forth between cots, stacked on top of each other like bunk-beds. The refugee crisis was getting worse.
Shepard was pacing out front of the OR. Tali slipped in next to him. "Hi." She said, not looking at him. "Liara says it was worth it. We got plans for some big Reaper-Buster gun."
"Hackett knows. He's building it." Shepard looked through her. "She's still in surgery."
"I have to leave." Tali blurted, trying to get it out before she lost her nerve.
"I tried to get her family on the line, any of them. Extra-net isn't even registering Earth Beacons, let alone communications. I can't find anyone."
"I won't be coming back." Tali added.
"I used my Spectre Clearance, and found out she had a newly minted brother in law in the Alliance military... I don't dare try and contact his Unit..."
"Shepard, this is goodbye." Tali pressed.
"Military Units are being fried a dozen platoons a shot." Shepard continued, before his eyes suddenly refocused. "What?"
"I... shouldn't be telling you this. The Admiralty has recalled... everyone." Tali explained." All out Units, all our ships, everyone on Pilgrimage. We're all under orders to return to the fleet."
Shepard's face hardened. "They're running, aren't they? They're bugging out, leaving the planets to burn."
"I think... I think so."
Shepard looked... sad. The list of things in his universe seemed to be shrinking rapidly.
Tali stepped forward and took his hand gently. "I have to go. I... I have no idea where I'll be next week."
Shepard nodded thickly. "Tali... I know I should say something, but... I got no words."
"I know." She said forgivingly. "Give Ashley a hug for me?"
"If I can." Shepard whispered.
Tali felt for him. He was carrying the whole galaxy on his back, and the weight was breaking him at last. He had the most to carry, because he had known. He had been screaming into the wind for three years and nobody would listen, and now he was blaming himself when they all died.
Tali longed to hold him. It was not a new feeling. She also knew he thought of her like a kid sister. He loved her, wanted to protect her, but he would never share his pain with her. The man who made it part of the Normandy's mission to sort out her personal problems, as well as the problems of everyone else on the ship, and he would never ask anyone to help him.
Except for Ash and Jack. And both of them had walked away.
And then come back.
"Shepard... John." Tali began to say. "Thank you. For... everything. I hope that... that one day, the universe will remember what you did for it, and be worthy of all the work you put into saving it. I... I hope I can be too."
Shepard finally smiled, just a little. "Tali... you always were."
Tali looked down, sniffing a bit. "Am I still... Are we still..." She peeked up at him. "Are we still friends?"
Shepard put an arm around her, as they watched Ashley get put back together by frantically working surgeons. "More than friends." Shepard said quietly. "Family."
Garrus came around the curve of the bulkhead, and found Jack tracing her fingers of the Memorial. Names they both knew, names neither of them had ever heard before...
"Did Shepard put this up?" Jack asked finally.
Garrus shook his head. "The Alliance did when they got Normandy back. Shepard had them add a few names. The ones we lost on the Collector Mission. Alliance fought him on it, said they weren't officially part of the team, and the Collector Mission was illegal, so... Shepard carved them in himself."
Jack nodded, her hands falling to her sides. Sentimental bastard.
Garrus sighed. "The Council said no."
Jack barely reacted.
"They're freaking out " Garrus continued when she didn't answer. "They figure as long as the Reapers are throwing everything they got at Earth, they'll live longer."
Jack didn't blink. She had never seen Earth.
Garrus tried again. "Shepard is ready to strangle someone. I think he went back to his quarters. It's the first time we've gotten a break since the Reapers, and once we get to where we're going... This is gonna get a whole lot worse before it gets better."
Jack's lip twitched slightly at that.
"Shepard has this idea to ignore the Council and get allies ourselves. It's a big job. It's never been done before."
Silence.
"Williams?" Jack asked, the first time she had spoken.
"Will live." Garrus confirmed.
Jack didn't react.
Garrus tried again. "Why'd you come back?"
Jack didn't answer. Garrus honestly didn't think she had one.
The Turian probed gently. "Jack... you can tell yourself that you're not sentimental, but the thing is, all the names you might want carved on this wall? Tell me you don't already have them tattooed all over yourself."
Jack twitched, but didn't answer.
Garrus nodded, like that was exactly what he expected. "We're shipping out soon. Ashley will have to stay in the Citadel Hospital a while, but... That won't last forever."
Jack shrugged. "I don't care. I'm not with him any more, remember? You thought I was getting coffee all that time? He can spread it around as far as he likes. I got nothing to say to him."
Shepard looked exhausted as he opened the door. "Since when do you knock?"
Jack stepped forward and smashed her mouth against his savagely. He didn't respond right away, and she tried harder, almost climbing up his body.
He pulled his mouth away. "Wait."
"We got time." She hissed like a cat. "Don't tell me you haven't just been waiting for a chance." She attacked again.
"Jack. Stop." Shepard snapped.
It was like a bucket of ice-water had been thrown on her; and she stepped back to arms-length. He looked as exhausted as she felt, and she wondered if maybe he wasn't sleeping either...
"So. It's like that then?" Jack said finally. "You and Williams, I mean?"
Shepard sighed hard. "There's no way to put this off?"
"Put what off?" Jack challenged. "You're with her again, just say so."
"I don't know. All right? I don't know! I thought I was, because I sure as sin never thought you'd come back into my life!"
Jack spun in surprise. Shepard had never snapped at her before. He was the only one in her life that hadn't. She looked at his face for the first time and it hit her suddenly. He was pissed. He was mad at her for the first time.
Shepard growled low under his breath, running a hand through his hair in frustration. Jack damn near purred at the sound. Just because he was the only one ever to be gentle with her didn't mean she didn't like him when he was dangerous.
"Jack, what the hell do you want from me?" He demanded finally. "I've never betrayed your trust. Same for Ashley. I told you that. I've never lied to you and I won't start now. But I am so pissed at both of you I want to scream. You both walked out, and I really didn't deserve it either time, and now you're both here. What the hell am I supposed to do with either of you?"
"I don't know." Jack said quietly. "I really don't."
"Ash took such a beating, and I can't even be there right now, because I have to go and beg strangers to help before you and I are members of a dead race. Do you have an idea how many people I have held vigil over while they hovered at death's door? I don't like it! I got a wall full of names Jack! And those are just the ones that didn't make it!"
"I know." Jack said quietly, adjusting her view of the Ashley situation. Shepard would have reacted the same way for her, or for that matter, for Joker. One of his was bleeding, and Mr-Fixit-Boy-Scout-Of-The-World couldn't help.
Shepard was still ranting. "In the meantime, we've got another thing going on. Just a little thing called the extinction of all galactic civilization! People are dying by the millions, and like an idiot, I went and volunteered to do something about it. I can't have this fight with you Jack. I need everyone to at least be civil with each other till the stars stop going out. Scratch that, we need to be a team here. We've all risked our lives for each other, and the stakes are higher than they've been, anywhere in the galaxy for ten thousand years. So Jack, can we please, just for now, just this once, be smart?"
Jack met his gaze coldly, finally stepping into the ring. "I handled working with Miranda. I can handle Williams once she's back. But if you're gonna be 'smart enough' not to sleep with me again, you should think about going to her room, because you need to get laid worse than I do apparently."
Shepard sighed. He had gone too far. "Jack-"
But she was already gone.
She stayed away for nearly three hours. It was not a new situation. He'd say something, she'd run away, she'd do a slow boil , rehearsing all the things she should have said a billion times, and go charging back, fully intending to conquer…
He was gone. Jack noticed the view out his view-port. They were in real space again... She saw distant weapons fire...
Jack came sprinting into the Shuttlebay. Shepard was heading down to the planet, with Garrus and Liara. Jack caught his eye at the gun-bench. She looked the question to him, and he picked up his rifle pointedly. Jack didn't wilt, didn't even blink. She just took his place at the gun-bench, and laid out her shotgun. She worked with it for a while, trying not to think. She started putting the bits back together when she realized she had company.
"He doesn't trust me either yet." Vega said quietly. "Not like Garrus or Liara."
"After that stunt on Mars? You blame him?" Jack asked. "Shepard is... He'll give you a thousand second chances, and he'll make you family. But he hates being disappointed. He gets disappointed when people hurt themselves and don't have to." She stroked a finger over her wrists absently.
"How do you know him?" Vega asked.
"I disappointed him." Jack said without hesitation.
"You don't strike me as the kind to care what people think."
"Shepard's not people." Jack said, and finished working on the shotgun. She stalked out without another word.
Liara looked up as her door opened. "Meska'Jah." She said with a smile when she saw Jack come in. "What can I do for you?"
"I was wondering… What could you tell me about Williams?" Jack swore colorfully under her breath the moment she said it. Dammit Zero, when did you become such a girl!
Liara took it in stride. "I'm The Shadow Broker, Jack. I could probably tell you what she had for lunch on her first day of school."
"Well… start with three years ago."
Liara knew exactly what the tattooed woman was asking for. The Asari handed her a pad instantly, with information indexed on it already.
Jack didn't bother to thank her, or register surprise that she'd anticipated the question. She just took the screen and went back to her Pit.
Waiting for him to get back, Jack started looking through the information Liara had given her.
There was footage of various fire-fights, of them protecting each other, striking and defending in turns. There were glamor shots of them getting medals for saving the Citadel, a few candid shots of them together when they didn't know anyone was looking, standing shoulder to shoulder, overlooking Illium...
God, they look right together. Attractive, smart, confident, dangerous, dynamic…
Equals.
Partners.
Jack felt a great calm sweep over her. Yes. They belong together. Look at them. They fit. They make sense. You don't make sense. It cannot work with him. You knew that. That's why you left.
Leaving was a mistake.
Not the worst one you've made. Might even be a smart move for once. Maybe that's why you came back, to settle that. Closure?
You've never wanted closure before. You want him. You want this. You're in love.
Wouldn't be the first time you don't get what you want. This time… would actually be an easier heartache to live with. If you tried to make it work… he won't choose you over her. And if he did, it still wouldn't work. Isn't it better to bow out than to stay and make him hate you?
You're talking to yourself again, you crazy bitch, do you realize that?
Oh shut up.
The pills were making her head spin, and she passed out, clutching the screen to her chest.
Shepard hadn't slept, yet again. Garrus commented that the wear was starting to show. He hadn't slept since blowing up the Relay. What little rest he got was haunted by nightmares of earth.
And of Mars. The memory of the sickening crack when Ash's head was slammed that way... He couldn't even make out her face beneath the bruises and swelling on the Citadel. They said she wuld recover, and he knew her spirit was strong...
The Master-chief at Boot said that rest was a weapon. He said that a soldier had practical limits, as did any weapon, and needed to be maintained... Shepard hadn't slept more than a few hours in weeks. What rest he had made him feel more exhausted when he woke up than he did when collapsing.
Giving up again, he went to the mess hall. The crew gave him a wide berth these days, afraid of him; afraid for him. They all knew the weight he was carrying and didn't dare intrude on his thoughts or his company...
He stared at his eggs for a while, when he caught the scent of ozone and gunpowder. Sure enough, Jack was sitting down right next to him. "Hey."
"Hey." Shepard said coolly.
Long silence.
"I ain't never apologized for anything in my life." Jack said. "So... I'm sorry."
Shepard just looked at her.
"About last night." She clarified.
Shepard just looked at her.
"Say something." She told him. "Scream at me, hit me with your tray, just... say something."
Long beat.
"Why didn't you say goodbye?" Shepard asked finally.
Jack shivered, glancing around. Nobody wanted to intrude on Shepard's business, and certainly not Jack's. "If I tried..." She said finally. "If I tried, I never would have been able to."
Silence.
"I thought I would never see you again. I figured that was the end of our story." Shepard said finally. "I'm used to that; it's life of a soldier. Especially during a war. You go somewhere, you fight with someone, you save their life, they save yours, then you get sent worlds away and you hear a month or two later they died, or more often or not you hear nothing at all." He took a deep sip of his coffee. "It's the life of a soldier."
Silence.
Shepard tried again. "Jack... if we weren't on a suicide mission, would we have gone as far as we did?"
Long silence.
"When I was four years old, they sent a spider into my cell." Jack said, speaking softly enough that they couldn't be overheard. "A nice big hairy one. I freaked out a little. They asked me if I was scared of it. I said yes. I was four years old, and scared of spiders. Big deal, right? They filled my room with sleep gas, and when I woke up, I was in a box about the size and shape of a coffin, with a thousand spiders just like the one that scared me. I screamed bloody murder, and we were packed in so tight they were crawling into my screaming mouth. Next day, I woke up back in my cell, and they sent in a rat. They asked me if I was scared of it. I looked them square in the eyes, grabbed the rat and killed it with my teeth." Jack said, no anger, no fear, no fury. "I haven't admitted to being scared of anything since I was four years old."
Shepard didn't dare show sympathy on his face. He just met her eyes, waiting for the point.
"You scare me." Jack said softly. "I left and… I devolved. I really thought I was getting better, but when I was gone…"
Shepard took her hand gently, and she froze. But he just turned her hand over. "No scars. You've stopped cutting?"
"Uh-huh." Jack sniffed.
"I don't smell tobacco. You stopped smoking?"
"Yeah…"
"You've got hair now. It looks good on you."
Jack sniffed, staring at her tray, pulling her hand back, coiling in on herself again.
"Seems like progress to me." Shepard offered.
"Yeah, but..." Jack sniffed a little. "It's different now, isn't it? Nothing's the same any more."
Her words proved to be prophetic.
Nevertheless, they went on the next mission together. It proved to be the right choice. While Liara and Jack held up a barrier against almost two dozen Reaper Brutes, protecting themselves, Vega, and Garrus; Shepard and Mordin ran on ahead to the lab.
Jack didn't believe the things she'd half heard over the radio from underground. She'd seen the Thresher Maw before, even helped kill one, but when the hammer strike rumbled through their feet, making the ground shake, even from that far away, Jack simply couldn't believe what she was looking at. Her brain refused delivery on what her eyes were telling her.
It was an incredible sensory overload. Jack hadn't felt so psyched since the Collector base. It was just too much, coming too fast. Too many Reaper-evils, the mother of them all standing directly ahead, trying to crush their puny nothing bodies with it's feet! The ground wouldn't stop shaking, and everyone was shooting, and everyone was screaming, and Jack was struggling not to have an accident she was so jazzed. This was exactly how her story was supposed to end! It would be a good death.
And then it just got bigger and badder!
The beast from beneath the sands was... Massive. Even against a Reaper it was terrifyingly huge. The ship was a shadow on even Jack's poison soul, but the thing just leaped out of the ground and damn near swallowed it whole.
The attacking Brutes were knocked off their feet, as was the Normandy crew, and a team of Krogan Warriors chose exactly the right moment to come to their rescue.
But nobody could really take their eyes off the clash of the titans. It was off-the-charts how EPIC it was, the Reaper outright panicking under the fangs of an Unholy Thresher God, constricting around it like a boa constrictor, pulling the whole thing deep into the earth.
"DID YOU SEE THAT?" Jack shrieked orgasmicly, even as the Krogan threw their heads back in a victory roar. "DID YOU SEE THAT?"
Everyone was just staring in brain lock at where the two monsters were a moment ago, and Jack was leaping up and down, on the high of the century, almost doing cartwheels from the rush. "SERIOUSLY! DID YOU SEE THAT?"
And then the Shroud sent up a plume of white clean 'snow' a tribute to something wonderful happening. The Krogan assembled reached out and touched it, nearly bursting into tears. The end of a century of waiting for something that was never going to come.
Until today. Until Shepard.
If he'd been there, Jack would have pounced, even with all of them around. She loved him. She knew that now.
I would even share with Ashley if he insists. Where the hell is he? Doesn't he realize what a sure thing I am right now?
And then the Shroud collapsed in flames.
Jack pointed, still bouncing. "DID YOU SEE THAT?"
Shepard came to them at last, moving slowly, head down.
She ran at him, waving her arms dementedly. "SHEPARD! DID YOU SEE THAT? GET OVER HERE! I"M GOING TO DO YOU RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW! DID YOU SEE THAT?"
She skidded to a halt the second she saw his face. "What?" She demanded. "Hey! Buzz-Kill! What the hell could possibly be wrong?"
Shepard looked up to face her. "Mordin's dead."
She stood with him while they added his name to the Memorial.
Garrus came by. "We're in business." The Turian said grandly. "Anyone on Tuchanka that can't 'negotiate a breeding contract' tonight might as well go out and marry a tree." He drawled. "You did it Shepard. I don't know how you did it, but you did it. A Turian-Krogan Alliance. Never thought I'd see..." The Turian looked closer. "Shepard? You don't look so good."
Shepard just looked through him, not having an answer.
Garrus sent Jack a look. She nodded slightly.
"Get some sleep you two. You earned it." Garrus said lightly, and moved on.
"Come on sexy. Take me to bed and ravish me." Jack told Shepard. "I won't even let Ash find out."
Shepard didn't answer.
"Shepard? I'm not kidding. This was exactly my kind of day. If I get some before midnight, and round it out with a few hours of actual sleep, it counts as the best day of my life. Wanna make it perfect?"
Long silence.
"I could have saved him." Shepard whispered. If he'd heard a word she said, it didn't show.
Jack sighed. "You say that about every name on the-"
"No, I mean..." Shepard rubbed his eyes. "I got an offer. If I sabotaged the cure, then the Salarians would build the damn superweapon. I told Mordin, and he... I traded the Krogan for the Salarian, and that may yet come back to bite us in the ass."
Jack didn't have anything to say to that. She grabbed him by the collar and pulled him toward the elevator. He didn't fight it.
Jack licked her lips as they made it to his room. She was almost carrying him. If she pushed the moment a little, she could probably stay the night...
But instead, and without really knowing the reason, she put him in bed and tucked him in. He was too baked to talk to her. Adrenaline had faded, and taken him from super-human to barely alive.
"I can hear them." Shepard whispered in exhaustion. "All the names on that wall. I can hear them. They talk to me when I sleep. They blame me." His voice was so hollow that Jack almost expected to see a Husk looking back at her. "They stay with me."
Jack sat on the edge of his bed, stroked his face for a while. Adrenaline had faded from her too, making her hollow and numb inside. She was coming down from a high. A feeling she knew well.
Finally, she went back to her room and took a handful of pills to make her sleep.
Why didn't you stay with him?
Because I'm not the one he wants.
You don't know that.
Neither does he.
He needs sleep too.
Jack's spinning head carried her to oblivion before she could get up and go back to his room.
The Reapers were spreading like a tidal wave. The only thing that spread faster was the fear. The irrational dread of the monster under the bed now released on every species.
The Normandy Crew tried not to watch the news. Most of it was speculation, a lot of it was panic, and only very little of it was proven.
Cerberus was the wild-card. Nobody could tell what they were doing. They were doing everything in their power to destroy the Fragile Alliance that the Normandy was playing host to, and nobody could understand why a pro-human group would so violently oppose a fleet gathering to save Earth.
Nobody had heard from Tali in over three weeks. She had never been incommunicado this long. There where whispers from the Spectres that the Quarian Fleet was in hiding, the only race without a world or a colony to be Reaped. Quarians were omnipresent in the galaxy, and now they were gone. When the drifters went to ground, only people like Shepard took notice and he was worried about one of his closest friends.
Shepard took his banner to the battlefields. Where he had friends, he recruited, where he had enemies, he earned, where he had neither, he proved worthy. Armies began to mesh in a way never seen before. The Reapers forcing alliances to form of desperation, and Shepard drawing them together under one banner.
Shepard's name was whispered in awe when Allers announced to the galaxy that the Turian-Krogan Alliance was real. Krogan were marching to save the Turian perimeter. Turian warships were fighting for humanity, with compliments of Commander John Shepard.
In a week of impossible unbelievable things that left the universe shivering in shock, this was still an incredible feat.
But the killing went on.
The Crew of the Normandy applauded when Ashley walked back on board. She wasn't limping, wasn't leaning on anyone, and she seemed embarrassed by the attention, but she got a standing ovation when she came back.
Jack clapped too, though less enthusiastically than anyone else. The Spectre didn't even have the decency to be horribly disfigured by the whole event.
Those that knew her came over, taking their turn to welcome her back. Jack didn't move, but Ash had to walk past her anyway. "Miss me?" Ashley challenged the Biotic.
"With every shot so far, but at this range, things are looking up." Jack returned, unafraid.
Joker sent Shepard a wry grin. "You been looking forward to this? I have."
"...indicate total destruction across thirty worlds so far. The Batarian Hegemony, the Turian Naval Forces, and the Alliance Systems have all been decimated. A list of the dead and Missing is still being compiled, but at this point it's clear that it will be in the hundreds of millions..."
Jack came off the elevator and keyed the door. No answer this time. The door stayed shut.
Despite herself, she felt an awkward chill. She knew she shouldn't, but... The lock didn't slow her down for long. She let herself into his room...
And found Ashley Williams sitting on his couch, her hair loose around her shoulders. She looked like she was ready for a night at a club, but she was sitting alone on the couch. "He's not here." She told Jack simply. "I don't think he's coming back."
Chakwas glanced over at Shepard, trying to sleep on one of her medbay cots. "Coward."
"I know." Shepard said, not really caring.
Jack and Ash both left his quarters at the same time. They said nothing on their way out of the room. They said nothing while they waited for the elevator. They didn't even look at each other when it arrived, and they didn't speak a word the entire time the elevator moved to the lower levels.
"He won't cheat." Jack said finally. "Don't read anything into my being there tonight. He won't cheat."
"You offered?" Ashley said without showing any emotion.
Jack didn't answer, but inwardly she felt her guts twist. Offered? I damn near begged.
Jack set her jaw, still looking squarely ahead of her. "He won't cheat."
Ashley looked over at her for the first time. "I know." She said softly, kindly. "He wouldn't on you either. See… I'm not actually with him right now. We were…"
The elevator stopped and the doors opened before she could finish that sentence. They found Garrus waiting, and he froze. He looked from one to the other a moment, and waved it off. "I'll get the next one." He said easily, and the doors closed again.
"This is stupid." Jack said finally. "I hate this."
"Hate what?"
"Killing you ain't gonna help. That's new for me. I ain't never had a problem that couldn't be solved with a shotgun before."
"I know." Ashley said.
"What?"
"I'm a Spectre now. I looked you up." She said. "There were a few bits of footage that Cerberus didn't get to."
Jack twitched. "What footage?"
"Omega, Purgatory…"
Jack grinned. "Wondering how your boyfriend could handle me?"
"Oh please." Ashley snorted. "If there's anyone who knows what Shepard can handle..."
"Anyone other than me." Jack put in pointedly.
Chilly silence.
"This is nuts." Jack said. "Shepard's right. The galaxy is burning. We can't do this now. He won't cheat. Leave it at that."
"I'm not worried about that." Ashley said calmly. "Two years is a long time. Especially in combat. So no, I'm not surprised he found someone; and I'm not surprised it was over fast." Beat. "I'm a little appalled at his taste..."
Jack lunged. She had her hands wrapped around Ashley's throat, and was squeezing for all she was worth when it felt like a grenade exploded beneath her ribs. Another came a second later, and Jack lost her grip.
Ashley kidney-punched her one last time, and hooked Jack's leg, putting the biotic on the floor. A moment later an Alliance issue combat boot was on Jack's throat. "Too small in here for biotic attacks." Williams said calmly. "What else have you got?"
Jack was no slouch, but Ashley was trained, experienced, cool-headed and without biotics for help, Jack was already at a disadvantage. The thinner woman slapped the floor, the traditional way of conceding defeat in a match with Garrus.
Williams let her up. "Ever hear the story of the black-belt and the boxer?" She said lightly. "A black-belt will always win, until you make them fight in a phone booth. Or in our case, an elevator."
"Three seconds once we leave this damn box." Jack snarled, getting up. "Your lifespan? Three seconds."
"No doubt." Ashley said coldly. "But as you said, that won't help."
The elevator stopped, and Williams swept out without looking back.
"...continues to expand, Human and Salarian Authorities are urging citzens not to attempt a return to any colony or homeworld currently affected by the Reaper Invasion. An influx of civilians will only compound the existing problem. Questions should be directed to nearest embassies, who have asked for patience..."
Jack woke up as her Omni-Tool buzzed. "...ht...?"
EDI's voice called again. "Jack, the briefing started five minutes ago."
Jack swore, but slurred enough to be unintelligible.
"Would you like me to tell Shepard you're not coming?"
Summoning all her will, and gathering all her strength, she managed to lift one finger enough to flip the AI off.
"I'll tell him you're on the way." EDI said diplomatically, and disconnected.
Jack fought to pull her bag out from behind the crate she slept on, and grabbed her wake-up pills. Sleep pills made her unconscious, but she still felt exhausted after. A handful of the pep pills hitting her stomach made her run to the nearest head. By the time she was done puking her stomach inside out, she was awake, her head clear enough that she could get to the briefing.
Shepard spared her a nod as she came in, looking hungover. Not an unusual look for her. He continued the report as the information scrolled past on the holo-map of the galaxy.
"...were able to disarm it before the blast, and the Krogan are being real nice about it. They kept the bomb, so I'm sure we'll be seeing it again at the least convenient moment. As much as I'd like to call it a day, we're going back to Tuchanka immediately."
Reactions went around the room.
"I know, I want to see trees again somewhere too." Shepard said agreeably. "But our old friends Cerberus are operating in several places. Intel from The Shadow Broker says that Cerberus Units are definitely working in an ongoing campaign. We don't know what they're working towards, but their tactics so far are a series of offensives that seem to be geared toward keeping all parties off balance and in states of chaos and conflict. One of their offensive campaigns involves Tuchanka. Once we and the STG team drove them away from the bomb, they didn't go far. Our intel is late on this, so we're playing catch-up. Cerberus is entrenched, so we're going to dig them out."
"We're going Cerberus hunting?" Jack asked, the unspoken thought clear in her voice. Don't even think of side-lining me.
Shepard met her gaze quickly. Can you handle it?
Jack spared Ashley the barest glance and nodded exactly once.
"Yes we are." Shepard answered her question without missing a beat. "Gear up. We arrive in an hour, and we land immediately."
"Hey."
Garrus looked up. "Williams." He said evenly. "I was wondering how long it was going to take you to come down here and visit me."
"Been slightly busy." Williams pointed out.
"Right, I have no idea what that's like." He drawled back sarcastically.
Ashley smiled. "It's good to see you. I... I'm glad you and Tali were here during the Collector Mission. Closest thing I could get to being here myself."
"We did our best." Garrus conceded. "But the truth is, he's been wearing out since... well, since he died. You know him, he's got a lot of heart to give, but he's got limits, same as everyone else."
Ashley nodded. "He did it Garrus. Turian-Krogan alliance. He's got aliens fighting for humans for the first time. I just came from Liara, and she says that he's tracking Mass Effect Relay traffic, trying to find the Geth and the Quarians. If he can do that, it's going to be a sight to see, and I mean A Sight To See." She almost seemed to laugh for a moment. "It's never been done before."
"No it hasn't. And I can see why." Garrus admitted. "It's... a hell of a thing we're doing."
"Yeah it is." Ashley admitted quietly. "I can't believe I'm part of it. I really can't believe Joker's part of it."
They both laughed loud and long.
"So..." Ashley said finally. "Jack... she's really-"
The Turian's face turned into a perfect stone wall. "Held onto that goodwill for as long as you could, didn't you?"
Ashley almost flushed. "I wasn't buttering you up or anything, I just thought that since you were there for the whole Mission..."
"See you Ash."
Inwardly, she wasn't a bit surprised at that. Garrus was all about loyalty to Shepard. He wasn't going to give an inch, and she knew it before she came in. "Fair enough." She conceded. "Forgive me?"
"What? You think I should hold a grudge against a sniper?"
Ashley grinned at that, knuckled the man's shoulder and headed out.
"Ash?" Garrus called after her. "I... I don't want to get in the middle of this, but you know that nothing would have happened with Jack if..."
"If I hadn't turned him down on Horizon?"
"Yeah."
"I know. Just like nothing would have happened with me if he knew Jack would be back a month later. Nothing says you can't love two people. The rules are quite specific on how many people you can date at once, but..."
"I'm just saying, walking away was your call."
"Yeah. I think I may have screwed up there."
"Well... we've all done it." Garrus said honestly. "But if you do decide to... reclaim your territory, would you do me this favor and give us all some warning, so we can put money down?"
"What kind of odds would I get?"
"That would be telling."
The team landed on Tuchanka again, and came out guns blazing. Cerberus had entrenched their position well. Mounted turrets and Centurion teams were all over the place.
Shepard, Jack, Ashley and Garrus were moving quickly. In any other place, it would be a scramble for doorways, but the Turian Homeworld had plenty of debris available. Most of it big enough to kneel behind easily.
Urban warfare was what Shepard had trained for. He'd been turning over rocks in enough intergalactic jungles, but he'd grown up in slums, where eyes watching from windows meant death or capture. He saw angles everywhere.
"Garrus, up above!" Shepard roared. "Explosive rounds!"
Garrus shifted his sniper rifle, aimed upwards at the second level. Turrets had been set up there, and Garrus knocked them down, his explosive rounds knocking them off their tripod bases.
Grenades came, hurled over their barricades.
Shepard began to scramble out, when Ashley pulled him back, sweeping out first to gun down a few waiting soldiers. They both scattered to other cover, in time to
And above them all, the enormous cannon kept firing into space.
"Shepard! We got a Cerberus cruiser incoming!" Joker shouted.
"Can you intercept?" Shepard roared, as Garrus covered him dodging to another position.
"Negative. In fact we can't even hold this position. Between the cruiser and that cannon, we're boxed in!"
"Then get the ship clear, we'll figure it out!"
"3 o'clock!" Jack called, alerting them to a flanking attack by Cerberus.
"Damn!" Shepard hissed. They were being surrounded, one side at a time. If they withdrew, they were certain to be driven off, or boxed in by another group on the other side. Cerberus wouldn't leave them a safe direction to go. "LC, we need real estate."
"Yessir." Williams responded crisply, and the two of them leaped, side by side over the barricade.
In unison, they began hunting, walking in a half crouch. Ashley stood back to back with him, and they both marched, both circling each other, facing outward.
"Rockets!" Ashley yelled, reaching behind her with one hand to shove Shepard away from her. The RPG passed over their heads, more or less between them, and they both stepped lively. They fired constantly, drawing a line of protection for the others back, keeping each other protected offensively.
Ashley's weapon suddenly clicked.
"Reload!" Shepard shouted, tossing her a heat sink with one hand, firing over her shoulder to cover her direction as she slapped the clip in neatly, now firing past Shepard to cover his back as he'd protected hers. They swapped places and resumed their hunt without missing a beat.
When one moved, the other moved with them. When one turned, the other turned to keep an eye on what was passed. When one missed a ducking opponent, the other caught it as they came around to follow. The two of them cut a circular swathe through their foes, moving around cover with every step, the flawless teamwork becoming one long flanking manoeuvre that marched right down Cerberus throat.
Garrus was still at the original defense point. As the Cerberus teams stepped behind their cover, protecting themselves from the two moving attackers, they had to show their flanks to the direction they came from, where the Turian cut them down. One Shot, One Kill. Over and over.
And Jack stood up, not concerned with cover, surprised to realize she wasn't required for what was clearly a well practised, long used move.
They were so good together. They were a single weapon, aiming in every direction. They needed nothing added, they spared nothing taken away. They were perfection.
Well then. Jack thought to herself. I can see I'm not needed here just now.
Without hesitation, Jack turned to run the opposite direction.
Once they took the room, re-targeting the cannon was easy. The second they knew the Normandy Crew had the control room, they ran for it. The battle was lost the second the cruiser went up in flames.
"Direct Hit!" Joker called.
The team cheered.
"EDI, call Wrex, and tell him I have a new toy for him." Shepard grinned. "With the cannon under our control, they've got the skies back. Let's see Cerberus get a cruiser in here now..." He paused as he looked around. "Where's Jack?"
"And if that sentence doesn't scare the hell out of you by now, then you haven't been paying attention." Garrus told Ashley, and they started running.
Even from two hundred meters away, they could see clearly. The Cerberus troops were fleeing to their shuttles, getting clear. The last shuttle was being attacked by a rampaging biotic in a foul temper.
The Cerberus teams were wearing Booster Packs, flying the thirty feet up to their waiting shuttlecraft, eager to escape. Except for one shuttle. The last one, the crew were trying to boost up, and were failing, as they were being yanked back down violently by flashing biotic fields.
"Jack!" Shepard shouted.
She waved over her shoulder as she started to glow blue, and she took the thirty foot leap easily, boarding the shuttle herself. The doors shut behind her, and the shuttle rocked back and forth a bit, weaving in the air, before it turned and took off in pursuit after the other Cerberus shuttles.
They returned to the ship, with nothing else to do. The Cerberus fleet had retreated to the Relay, and there was no way to track them from there.
Liara came to them in the Medbay. Even in an easy victory there were scrapes and bruises, and the world they just left was still heavily irradiated from a long ago war.
Shepard didn't come to Medbay. Chakwas wasn't a bit surprised.
"He's been dodging me for weeks." Chakwas said. "I think he knows that if I got him on the scanner, I'd see signs of light fever, mild malnutrition, an overtaxed immune system, high blood pressure..."
"Sounds like exhaustion to me." Ashley said, an offhand remark.
"It is. I don't think he's slept since..." Chakwas hesitated. "Well, take your pick."
Ashley jumped off the bed instantly, heading for the door.
She found him by the Memorial. There was one just like it in the Citadel. Thousands of names, letters, photos... hundreds more being added every day. Those that added their mark would deny it was a memorial to the dead, but that was what it was.
Shepard was standing before it, head bowed. He seemed on the verge of tears. Back in the old days, he never would have let it show. Back then he could have carried the world on his back. And he frequently did. He never would have let his crew see weakness. Right now he seemed barely aware of his crew at all.
Garrus is right. Ashley thought. The cracks are starting to show.
"So. In your exert opinion..." Ashley said by way of greeting. "What the hell is that psycho doing?"
Shepard rubbed the back of his neck. "Trying to land a blow against Cerberus. A win that matters." He groaned. "You were there. Cerberus is fighting a series of campaigns. We drove them off Tuchanka..."
"And they're off to their next target, and we have no idea where that is." Ashley finished, realizing. "Does Jack have a transmitter?"
"Nope. At least, not that I know of."
"So what do we do?"
"We wait for her to contact us."
AN: As I play the game, I'm adding elements. They seem to be playing up the 'end-of-all-things angle in this one. I wanted to play up the fact that Shepard can set the world on it's head, do impossible things, become hero of the galaxy, and then have nightmares about it all once the shooting stops.
Never have I played a game, where I saw to myself 'Oh please, let that be the right thing to do' so often. It seemed like the direction to take this. Shepard hold's Jack together. So who holds him together?
So far the Jack or Ash question has been answered evenly, right down the middle. This is intriguing. With this chapter as a development, anyone ant to change their vote?
RIP Mordin.
PS: I liked how Jack had progressed in ME3, but the Jack I have created isn't there yet. Give me time.