Chapter 14: The Dark Past

Shepard let out a heavy sigh when the doors to her cabin opened. She had been expecting this for a few days now and it was only a matter of time before the issue that she had been putting off would rear it's bald head.

Shepard looked up from her model of the liveship Rayya and set her paintbrush down when she heard the heavy boot falls storm into her cabin. Shepard looked to see Jack with a snarl on her face storming up to her.

"Jack." Shepard greeted the biotic with a cool even voice.

"Time to pay up princess." Jack snarled and dropped a datapad onto Shepard's desk, narrowly missing the half painted model.

"Got the info you were looking for?" Shepard asked, picking up the datapad and skimming through the contents.

"Better." Jack grinned maliciously.

Shepard looked to the wiry biotic with a raised eyebrow.

"I've got the coords of the planet where the lab is. And I've got the nuke to blow it to hell." Jack grinned evilly, crossing her arms over her chest.

Shepard slapped her forehead with her hand and held it there for several moments before letting out a heavy sigh.

"If it wasn't for having been in an outfit with people that are more insane than you are, I'd probably be concerned that you have a nuke on my ship." Shepard told Jack turning back to the datapad.

"Wh-what?" Jack stammered. "There are people more insane than me?"

"I'm one of them." Shepard replied. "How do you think I managed to do half the shit that I've done and come out of it mostly in one piece?"

Shepard put the datapad down and looked the biotic in the eyes.

"Jack, be straight with me." Shepard began, her tone commanding the other woman's attention.

"Why is it that you want to do this?" Shepard asked. "Digging up the past isn't good for one's mind, no matter how damaged or scarred."

"I'll have closure." Jack snarled, clearly angered that Shepard would ask.

"Blowing that lab up will be almost as good as when I ripped the heads off my tormentors when I escaped." Jack snarled and Shepard simply nodded.

"If that's what it will take to get you to stay focused until we're done, then I'll help you without any regrets." Shepard told the lithe woman plainly.

"Now if that's it, I can get back to my painting." Shepard gave the woman a half smile.

"Whatever." Jack snorted. The bald woman turned on her heel and left the cabin.

Shepard sighed in relief. That had gone much better than she could have hoped for. With Jack's temper, Shepard was surprised that the woman hadn't come into the room and tried to strangle her for putting off talking to her for as long as Shepard had.

Shepard turned back to the still unfinished model. She wanted to finish it, but not tonight. The memories that she had unintentionally brought up were rushing to the forefront of her mind. Instead, she turned her attention to the terminal on her desk.

She quickly powered the terminal on and routed herself to one of her many storage servers. One of the perks to being a member, even just a former member, of an outfit that never, and still doesn't, exist was having unlimited access to files on things that only a handful of admirals knew about. The server that she routed herself to was one that held such information and was protected by at least three AIs at any given time. Her access was still valid and with the protection of the AIs she could view the information without fear of Cerberus getting their hands on it.

Shepard smirked while she put in the needed information to gain access to the server. While AIs were "illegal" in council space, that never stopped any race from having them to some capacity. The ones guarding the servers and other extremely classified information and tech in the Alliance were perhaps the oddest bunch that she knew of. Each of them were only a body away from being a typical super-genius.

Shepard found the file that she was looking for and grinned. On her screen, the information on one of her old squadmates appeared. It was the only file that would actually have the right information, and with none of it blacked out or deleted.

Shepard read the name at the top and felt goose bumps pebble up on her skin. It had been years since she had last seen him, and even longer since she had last seen him outside of a suit of armor.

Shepard didn't hear the door open, nor the heavy footfalls behind her. She almost jumped out of her skin when a pair of leathery arms draped themselves over her shoulders. Shepard relaxed when she heard Garrus' thrumming purr reverberate in his chest behind her.

"Robert 'Rah' Carmine?" Garrus asked in a mocking purr.

"Reminiscing over old boyfriends Kate?" Garrus asked in a slightly hurt tone.

"Not in the slightest." Shepard chuckled and leaned back to look up into Garrus' icy blue gaze.

"He's an old squadmate of mine." Shepard told him wistfully and Garrus rested his forehead against hers.

For a moment they simply stayed like that, content to be in eachothers presence. After a few moments, Shepard stood up and Garrus sat down in her chair. Shepard quickly settled herself into his lap, bringing her lips to his mouth plates. When they parted she rested her forehead against his and smiled to him. Garrus began to lightly drag his talons over her back, sending shivers down her spine.

"What got you thinking of him?" Garrus asked, nodding to the still open file.

"Something I said to Jack." Shepard replied, looking back to the file and the picture that went with it.

"That's a really old picture." Shepard chuckled, not giving Garrus the chance to think about what she said.

"That was taken just after Elysium." Shepard smiled to the picture, thinking back to that day.


"You ok Sarge?" The voice of Rah broke into her state of near bliss. Shepard quickly hid the vial and injector from view before turning to the private at her door.

Rah wasn't what anyone would expect out of a marine, only the innumerable scars that covered his body on every inch seemed to fit the bill for an Alliance Marine. Otherwise, the kid looked like he was more suited to being a salesperson, or in a desk job, not out fighting for the lives of people he would likely never know. At first glance, the boyish features of his face seemed unfitting to his bulky build. The wild look in his eyes however told of someone that had been through a great deal of pain before his current life.

"Never better." She grinned and stood up, her biotics flaring to life. The young marine grinned back at her and slammed his fist into his other palm.

"Now that's the Sarge I know!" The marine boomed, his crazy grin splitting his face ear to ear.

"What's the current status of the Batarian forces?" Shepard asked, walking up to and past the private.

"They're trying to make it past the minefield right meow." The marine replied and Shepard sent him a glare over her shoulder.

"Sorry." Rah flinched and Shepard turned back to the hallway in front of her. She marched down it with the private at her heels.

"Our IEDs have slowed them down and taken out a good chunk of their numbers." The marine continued and Shepard nodded with approval.

"Good." Shepard replied. "And our defenses?"

"We've got the civvies sheltered in the bomb shelters and tunnels below the city. All the entrances to them are barricaded save for one. That one has a squad posted at all times on it with overlapping fields of fire covering all approaches to it."

"Even better." Shepard grinned. By the sounds of things, there would be no one in the way for her to hurt when she unleashed the building biotic power inside her.

"What of the rest of the soldiers?" Shepard asked and Rah gave her a shake of his head.

"We've got a sniper team on the highest building picking off what we think are leaders, but they can only hit the closest ranks of the squints." Rah replied.

"The others are stationed at key points that lead to the open entrance to the civvies and the tunnels." The marine continued.

"We don't have enough men to man every route though." Rah sighed, and Shepard raised an eyebrow at him.

"There's one hole left that you and I need to fill." Rah supplied.

"I'll fill it. Find yourself a place that needs more support and go there. I can handle whatever the Batarians throw at me." Shepard ordered the private, receiving a booming laugh in response.

"Sir, with all due respect, fuck that." Rah replied, his grin still ear to ear.

"I gave you an order private." Shepard snapped, and Rah snorted in response.

"And I don't give a single fuck." Rah chuckled back.

"Sir, I sure as hell ain't lettin' you go and hold a breach by yourself. And I am not gonna let this baby go to waste." Rah grinned to her, pulling a weapon out into view that had been slung behind him.

The weapon was old, but Shepard knew what it was. In the FIrst Contact War, one of the terrors that humanity unleashed was a weapon that could throw out bullets so fast that it was almost like a beam of lead firing from the weapon. It was modeled after the fully automatic machine guns from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. How Rah managed to get his hands on one was both a mystery and the most terrifying thing in the 'verse.

"Where the hell did you get that?" Shepard asked, eyeing the weapon with caution.

"Old armory I found." He shrugged in response.

"Now, lets go kill go kill some four-eyed fucktards." The private grinned to her.

Shepard let out an explosive sigh. She had no choice now, the weapon Rah had would very well keep her alive long enough for the drugs in her system to kill her.

"Fine." Shepard sighed. "But once this is over, I'm beating the shit out of you."

"YES SIR!" Rah boomed, laughing madly.


"Sounds like an interesting... Character." Garrus spoke when he finished reading the file.

"Interesting is like saying you're a terrible lover." Shepard chuckled and lightly sunk her teeth into the leathery skin of Garrus' neck.

"Go on." Garrus purred, craning his head back to give Shepard even more access to his sensitive neck.

"Like saying you're a poor shot." Shepard replied, her voice taking on a husky and sultry tone.

The thrumming in Garrus' chest deepened when she brought her hand up to the back of his head and began massaging the sensitive spot there.

In one swift motion, Garrus stood up and brought Shepard with him. He cradled her in his arms and when he looked down at her, Shepard could see the burning lust in his eyes. The look he gave her accompanied by the continued thrumming of desire sent sparks of lightning down to her core.

"You going to stand here all day Garrus?" Shepard chided him, digging her fingers into the back of his neck.

Garrus growled in lustful desire and carried her over to their bed. Her lover tossed her onto the bed and she let out a gleeful shreek. She knew now what kind of a mood that this would set for the rest of the night, and it was one of her favorites.

Garrus was on her in an instant. His mouth quickly latched onto her neck, trailing little licks and nibbles from her shoulder to her jaw. Shepard melted into him, letting him mold her and be in complete control.

With Garrus, it was the only time she could ever let herself not be Commander Shepard and simply be his Kate.


Shepard double checked her weapons, making sure each was primed and ready to go should the need arise.

It was just her, Garrus, and Jack in the shuttle. They were all armed for a standard mission, but if the intel that Jack had given her was right, the lab that they were going to would be empty save for some wildlife.

"The landing pad is up there." Jack's voice broke the silence in the shuttle when she pointed out their destination to Garrus.

"It needs to be on the roof or the plants would overgrow it in a matter of hours." Jack stated. Shepard looked to the bald woman and immediately noticed her hands clenching and unclenching.

"Looks like we're not the only ones here." Garrus spoke out.

"What the fuck is that thing?" Jack snarled, looking out the front viewport of the shuttle.

Shepard stood from her seat and moved to stand behind the biotic. She looked out and spotted what it was that had both of their attentions.

"It's a Ghost ship." Shepard snorted. "A modified one at that."

"Again, what the fuck is that?" Jack snapped, glaring at Shepard.

"It's a ship for a part of the Alliance that doesn't exist. If it's still owned by the original owner, we need to be careful." Shepard supplied, looking out at the ship.

"It looks like an Alliance fighter." Garrus mussed and Shepard nodded.

"All of them are long range fighters, typically modified to take one or two soldiers to wherever it is they are going. It's usually only used in stealth or recon ops." Shepard told them, looking back at the ship.

"Looks like this one is for two and has been modified to jump to FTL." Shepard told them.

"What do you want me to do Shepard?" Garrus asked, as they neared the pad and the ship.

"Land next to it. Whatever happens, only ship is leaving today." She replied grimly.

Garrus nodded and set the shuttle down in the empty space still on the landing pad. When Shepard stepped out of the shuttle, she stepped up to the craft and ran her hands over the metal surface.

The craft wasn't in Alliance colors, but none of the Ghost ships were. This one was painted midnight black and had what looked like blood spatter painted in red across it's wings. Something in the back of her mind told her that this was familiar, but she couldn't place it.

"Come on." Shepard spoke to the other two. "We should get going."

She slapped her hand onto her chest and her helmet sealed itself around her. Garrus and Jack took up positions on her flanks and the three made their way into the facility.

They stopped however after descending a flight of stairs into the facility. a the base of the stairs, boot prints dented the metal of the floor.

"What the fuck?" Jack asked.

"I have no idea." Shepard replied, stepping past the marks. "Just keep your eyes open."

"Looks like whoever did this landed in a weird position." Garrus mumbled and Shepard glanced back at the marks.

Garrus was right, something was definitely off about it. It almost looked like however had made the mark was dancing as their descended the stairs.

Shepard shook her head, clearing the stupid idea from her mind.


Shepard, Garrus, and Jack stopped in a massive room that looked like it had once been a gym of some sort. there was a catwalk around the room and what looked like a massive mirror on one side of the room.

"This is where they'd bring me to fight other kids." Jack sneered, looking around at the crumbling room with hate.

"The guards would make beats on how long it would take me to kill the other kids." Jack snarled.

"And I thought this place was messed up enough as it was." Garrus spoke almost nervously.

Shepard didn't blame him for his nervousness, the way Jack was acting, the way she seemed like she wanted to punch holes in everything she saw, made Shepard uneasy. All Shepard wanted do was to set the nuke in the place and get the hell out. It was only on Jack's insistence that they didn't just do it on the landing pad. She had insisted that they put it in her old room.

"That's my room up there." Jack pointed to the massive mirror.

"Lets put the nuke in there and get the fuck out of here." Jack snarled and Shepard couldn't agree more.

The three of them crossed the massive room, but stopped when they spotted three bodies on the floor. The corpses looked like some weird dog creature, something even worse than verran.

"These kills are fresh." Garrus growled, looking around him with unease. "No more than a few hours old."

"Then lets go find the fucker that killed them and kill him too." Jack growled in response and charged off deeper into the facility.

"Damn it." Shepard sighed before chasing after the woman.

"Don't mind me." Garrus grumbled behind her. "I'll just carry the heavy nuke."

Just behind the sounds of her and Jack's boot falls, Garrus' grumbling and the dripping of water, Shepard thought she heard a faint sound in the background. She couldn't quite tell, but it sounded like music.


"Wow." Jack gapped when she finally stopped running.

The room she had emerged into, the one right before her old room, was just as she remembered, only the bodies were different. The floor of the room was stained with the blood of almost a hundred corpses. Around her, the corpses of Korgans and Vocha, or what was left of them, littered the ground. As far as Jack could tell, all the bodies were Blood Pack mercs.

At the far end of the room, the body of a single human was propped up against the wall. The only marks on him, a single bullet wound through his forehead.

"Holy shit." Shepard spoke behind her. "This has to be an N7."

"Why the fuck would an N7 do all this?" Jack snarled, waving at the carnage of the room.

"No idea, all I know, is that an N7 did this." Shepard replied, struggling to process the gruesome sight before her.

Both Jack and Shepard snapped to alertness when the sound of heavy boot falls resounded around them, shaking the very ground itself. The sound seemed to come from the door on the other side of the room. The door that lead to Jack's old room.

Both women flared up their biotics and took cover from the door. The door opened and the strangest thing happened.

Out from the door stepped out a guy in heavy armor. The armor looked like it was made from the plating used on tanks. It was painted the same way as the ship outside was, just with two glowing red slights from where the guy's eyes would be. On the shoulder of his armor was the N7 marking, just as Shepard had said.

The guy was literally armed to the teeth. Jack counted a heavy machine gun, an assault rifle, two different shotguns, four sub-machine guns, a rocket launch and at least four grenades. All of it seemed to rest comfortably on the guy's armor.

The weird thing wasn't the walking tank that was casually striding out of what used to be her room, it was what he was doing. The fucker was singing.

"If you believe in magic, come along with me!" The voice from the armor's speakers sang out in a voice that was both musical and also somewhat alluring. The voice pulled at something in the back of Jack's mind, something that made her enraged.

"We'll dance until morning, just you and me!" The voice sang and Shepard stepped out from her hiding spot.

Fcking idiot. Jack cursed Shepard in her mind. Jack also noticed that Shepard was no longer glowing azure and her weapons were all away.

"And maybe, if the music is right, I'll meet ya tomorrow so late at night!" The soldier sang. In a blur of motion, the soldier pulled out his assault rifle and aimed right for Shepard's head.

"We'll go a dancin' baby then you'll see, all the magic's in the music and the music's in me, yeah!" The soldier sang, not taking the barrel of his rifle from Shepard's head.

"Do you believe in magic? Yeah!" Shepard sang back, stunning Jack.

"Believe in the magic in a young girl's soul." Shepard sang reaching up to her chest.

"Believe in the magic of rock n roll. Believe in the magic that can set you free." Shepard sang and released her helmet, exposing her head.

"Good to see you again Rah." Shepard smiled to the soldier who lowered his gun.

"Sarge?" The soldier, Rah, asked in disbelief. "What the actual fuck is going on here?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing." Shepard chuckled, motioning to the carnage around them.

"Why are you here?" Shepard asked. In the doorway to the room, Jack could hear Garrus slowly making his way towards them.

"Came to get some closure." Rah shrugged.

"Came to blow this place to hell and back. Shit they did to me and the others here has been haunting me ever since." Rah told Shepard, a smirk almost in his voice.

"You're a biotic?" Shepard asked, taken aback.

The leather grip on Jack's shotgun creaked as she squeezed it tighter and tighter. She was the only one that survived this place. She was alive today because she was stronger than the others. SHE was the one that made it out alive to be stronger than the others.

"What the fuck do you think this thing is?" Rah snorted and a bright, near blinding, light shimmered around him. Even from a good ten meters from him, Jack could feel the biotic power crackling around him.

A moment later and the light and power faded. Jack looked to see that he was completely at ease now, completely open save for his armor.

"Figured it'd be better to set it off in the room of this one girl that was here. Even with all the rage in her, even when she tried to kill me a few times, she was cute. Wonder what happened to her." Rah smirked and Jack finally snapped.

Jack let out a yell and charged out from her hiding spot. She only faintly heard Garrus when he stepped into the room and didn't hear Shepard bark at her to stand down. All she could think of was that this asshole needed to die. She didn't know why, just something told her that if he didn't she would.

Jack charged up her biotic energy and raced towards Rah. She pulled back a fist and force all of her power into it. Without thinking, her fist raced towards his helmet.

Jack was shaken from her rage and fury when her fist was caught by the soldier's gauntleted hand. Rah's other arm raced around to clasp behind her back and forced her into him. One of his legs snapped forwards and swept one of hers to the side and back, taking her off balance. The hand that caught hers forced her fist open and then held it gently.

"And now we waltz!" Rah chuckled, acting as if it was the most natural thing in the world for this to happen.

Uncharacteristically, Jack felt a coloring come to her face. She looked away to try and hide it from this man that somehow made her do something that she never remembered doing before.

"Well, got the answer to my question then." Rah chuckled.

He used his leg to pull hers back in, giving her back her balance. He let go of both her back and her fist and took a step away. He crossed his arms over his chestplate and looked down at her. Even though she couldn't see his face, Jack knew he was surveying her.

"Let me guess." Rah mussed, glancing up to the doorway and then back to Jack.

"Sarge brought you here to blow this place up?" Rah asked.

"Why the fuck else would I be here?" Jack snarled.

"Well." Rah began and pointed to the human corpse behind him. "Dipshit here wanted to start the place up again."

"You're fucking joking." Jack snarled in disbelief.

Rah snorted. "Wish I was."

Rah looked back up to the doorway and Jack followed his gaze to Garrus.

"Oh look!" He exclaimed in joy. "Another nuke! Twice the power, twice the bang!"

Rah stepped past Jack and walked up to Garrus. He took the nuke from the stunned Turian's arms and proceeded to carry the nearly three hundred pound nuke like it was a pillow back into the room that was once hers.

When he returned, Rah looked around at all of them staring at him.

"What?" Rah asked, looking down at himself. "Do I have ketchup on me or something?"

Jack held in a chuckle. There was something about this guy that she liked. She didn't know what it was, but it was there.

"Whatever." Jack scowled. "Let's just get the fuck out of here Shepard. I want to watch this place burn."

"Mind if I come with Sarge?" Rah asked and silence settled over the four of them.

"What?" Rah asked when noone said anything for a solid minute. "I'm a Ghost, I know that the fuck it is you're doing. I've been given clearance to assist you if I manage to run into you. Everyone but Draven has."

"Why not Draven?" Shepard asked.

"He's playing bodyguard for your mom and babysitter to a bunch of N1s." Rah snorted.

"Well, no point in passing up the firepower you bring." Shepard smiled to him.

"It'll be good to have an old friend around." Shepard smiled.

With that Rah shrugged and walked past them.

"See you on the Normandy!" Rah called back to them.

"WAIT!" Shepard snapped and Rah snapped to attention. Jack barely held in a giggle at the reaction.

What the fuck is wrong with me? Jack asked herself. She had no answer to it.

"How do you know about the Normandy?" Shepard demanded.

"Foxtrot picked you up when you entered the system. You're not as stealthy as you think." Rah replied.

With that, the soldier in his walking tank left the facility.

"What was that about?" Garrus asked, speaking up for the first time since he entered the room.

"That was Rah." Shepard smiled to the Turian.

"Oh." Garrus replied, disappointment in his voice.

"And here I thought the most amount of crazy we needed to deal with was Jack and you. Now we have him." Garrus shook his head.

Jack looked between the two in confusion. There was clearly something that she was missing out on.

"Let's go. Best not keep the nukes waiting too long, they might decide to not work." Shepard chuckled, following Rah out.

Numbly, Jack followed Garrus and Shepard. There was no way this day could get any weirder.


A/N: And there we are! Looks like my muse has found herself a nice balance between my two stories! Hopefully it'll stay like this for the foreseeable future.

And now I get the introduce my comic relief character! He's going to be funny/comical when needed, serious when it's not. He'll also let me play around with some of the characters that I haven't spent much time with in this story.

Anyways, please let me know what you thought! I very much appreciate any and all thoughts, if not, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and take this where I want it to go.

Until next time!

Ps. this is probably going to be closer to my normal length for chapters for a while. doing 6-10k words was just too much for me to manage.

Pss. if anyone wants to know, the song is named Do You Believe In Magic by The Lovin' Spoonful