Chapter 15: The Odd Marine

Tali sighed in exhaustion. She had decided to work through both the second and third shifts to give Gabby and Ken some time off. While she had given them time to think of something other than work, she gave herself none. Tali knew that if she ever did "stop and smell the roses" as Shepard once told her, her mind would turn to mush thinking about one person.

Tali felt a smile come to her lips as she let her mind wander a little. The time that she had been given to share with Kal had been the best that she'd ever remember. Granted it did get her sick, but in her mind it was totally worth it.

"TALI!" The excited voice of Kasumi broke into Tali's day dreaming. Tali could hear the small woman calling her name repeatedly as she sprinted from the elevator to the engine room.

"TALI! TALI! TALI!" THe woman shouted her name in excitement.

Tali looked up from her console when the door behind her opened and in rushed the small asian woman. Kasumi rushed over to her and grabbed her arm, an excited look on her face that culminated in a massive grin.

"COME ON" Kasumi shouted. "You need to see this!"

Tali was stunned as to what would make the small woman act this way, but let the other woman pull her along. As Kasumi pulled her past the stairs down into the cargo area where Jack dwelled, Tali swore she could feel a pair of eyes on them. Tali wasn't given any time to ponder over it before she found herself in the elevator with a giddy Kasumi.

"Kasumi? What's going on?" Tali asked hesitantly.

"You need to see this for yourself." Kasumi replied with a grin. Tali shook her head and simply waited for the elevator to take them to their destination.

When the doors opened, they stepped out onto the crew deck and music filled Tali's helmet. The music was pleasant to listen to, but there seemed to be two singers, one male and one female, both singing the exact same thing. When Tali breathed in, an almost heavenly smell filled her nose. Tali didn't know what it was that was making the smell, all she knew is that she wanted some of whatever it was.

Kasumi lead her out into the dining area of the deck and then stopped short. Only two people were up right now, one of them sat at the table, and the other stood behind the counter.

Samara, of all people, was out of her room for once and was sitting at the table. In front of her was a plate with some odd human food, burritos Tali remembered Shepard calling them. The matriarch Asari also held one in her hands, with half of it already having been consumed. The look on the Asari's face seemed to be one of bliss and remembrance.

Standing behind the counter, that was now covered in plates, utensils, and other cooking items, was a human that she'd never seen before. He stood there cooking something, likely more of what he'd given Samara, his body bobbing up and down and swaying back and forth. The human wore nothing but a pair of loose fitting shorts and his active omni-tool. The skin that Tali could see, nearly all of it, was covered in scars and ink. His hair was sandy brown and closely cut and his body was well muscled, more so than Jacob Taylor was. As he moved, Tali could see his muscles rippling just below his skin. Tali's eyes were drawn to his back between his shoulderblades. There rested a tattoo of the N7 marking. Just under the N7, a laughing skull seemed to be cackling in a mad glee.

When the human turned towards them, eyes on the counter looking for something, Tali saw that his mouth was moving as the singer sang the lyrics. That's when Tali realized that he was singing with the music and noticed the alluring quality to his voice. Tali also noticed the heavy black lines that circled the man's eyes and then extended back towards his hair line. The lines also dipped into a hook on his cheeks. Tali didn't know where, but she remembered seeing this mark before. Tali noticed that there were two pendants hanging from his neck. One was a small gold cross, and the other seemed to be an eye that was the same as the markings around his eyes.

"Kasumi?" Tali asked, keeping her voice low. "Who is this?"

"Name's Rah Tali'Zorah." The human called out, looking up to meet her eyes.

"I'm an old friend of Shepard's." The man, Rah, smiled to her. Tali couldn't help but notice that his smile had the same mad yet joking quality that the skull on his back had.

"What? How,,,,?" Tali began, stunned that this person knew who she was.

"I'm one of those people that knows things that I probably shouldn't know but I do." Rah smiled to her and then gave her a wink.

Tali felt a flush coming to her face and was once more thankful for the suit that encased her. The grin on Rah's face took on a knowing look before he turned to the Justicar sitting at the table.

"How is it Samara?" Rah asked the woman and Samara finally opened her eyes for the first time since Tali had come onto the deck.

"It's amazing." The Asari replied, giving him an almost sad and remembering smile. "It reminds me of better days, simpler days."

"Thank you Justicar." Rah replied, bowing theatrically. "Your praise is high and weighty."

Rah smiled looked to Tali and Kasumi and raised an eyebrow."Would either of you like to try some?"

"If it tastes as good as it smells then give me twenty." Kasumi replied hastily, rushing up to the half naked soldier.

Tali held in a giggle when Kasumi "accidently" bumped into the muscular human. Tali knew all too well from talking to the lithe thief that she like muscular men, having one on display must have been one of the best things to happen to her all week.

Rah handed the lithe woman a plate of food and then turned back to Tali. "Would you like some? Made from food good for dextros too. Just flavored to not taste like shit."

"Do you have a way to filter it?" Tali asked, stepping towards him hesitantly.

Rah grinned and pulled out a clear tube that was filled with steam. "Knew you'd want some." Rah grinned and tossed the tube to Tali.

Tali snatched it from the air and held in a chuckle at hearing Kasumi moaning in pleasure when she bit into her first burrito. Tali clipped the tube to the underside of her mask and into the food induction port. She couldn't agree more with both Samara and Kasumi. The food tasted like home. It tasted like what her mother used to make for her before she passed away. It tasted like everything she missed from her childhood.

Tali was halfway done with her meal when the door to Miranda's room swished open. Out from the room, stormed an angry Shepard. Tali had heard that Jack and Miranda got into a bit of a hissing match after Shepard, Jack and Garrus returned from their mission. Shepard clearly wasn't happy about what had happened and needed to push her point across.

"Sarge." Rah grinned to Shepard, handing her a plate heaped with burritos.

"Thanks." Shepard mumbled. Without another word, Shepard stormed to the main battery and ducked inside with her food. If anyone could calm Shepard down, it'd be Garrus.

"What was that that you called Shep?" Kasumi asked around a mouthful of food.

"Sarge?" Rah replied with a smirk.

"There used to be a rank in the military listed as sergeant which was a non-commissioned officer. Sarge was a nickname for people in that rank." Rah explained, turning his attention to the food that was still cooking.

"While there's no rank of sergeant in the military anymore, there are non-commissioned officers still. When I was first in Sarge's squad, she was a NCO, so I started calling her that." Rah shrugged.

"I had a lot of colorful nicknames for the guys in that squad." Rah grinned to himself, remembering back before he became an N7.

Tali nodded and continued to eat the heavenly food that had been given to her. Her jaw was starting to hurt from using it though, one of the drawbacks to not being able to eat solid food regularly.

She couldn't help but stare at Rah's body. It wasn't the muscles and the way they moved under his skin that caught her attention like it had Kasumi's, it was what covered the skin. The scars were all old, most of them seeming to come from his childhood. At first Tali thought that he might have been abused as a child, but then she spotted the marks on his arms, just above his veins. They seemed to tell of someone that had been injected with needles time and time again. For all Tali knew, this guy could have once been a drug addict until he became a marine, maybe he still was.

"Something on your mind Miss Zorah?" Rah chuckled and Tali's gaze snapped to Rah's face. It was eerie how he hadn't looked back at her yet.

"I was just wondering about your ink." Tali lied.

"Not much to tell about them." Rah chuckled.

"Each one has a meaning, each one is a different memory of my past." Rah smirked and looked Tali in the eyes. While his smirk told the world that everything was fine, his eyes were haunted and tormented. Tali knew that most of those memories were ones that one would be best forgetting, and yet he remembers them every moment.

"What do the ones on your back mean?" Tali asked and Rah grinned, his eyes matching his smile this time.

"Well, the N7 is when I graduated the N program, the party after I got it was painful, but still worth it." Rah smiled wistfully.

"And the skull?" Kasumi asked in interest.

"Have you ever been to Elysium?" Rah asked and both shook their heads no.

"Have you Samara?" Rah asked, looking over to the Asari. "I bet a woman of your standing has been most everywhere in the 'verse by now."

Samara nodded. "Indeed I have, it is a beautiful garden world." Samara told them.

"And still there thanks to Sarge and I, with some extra help." Rah chuckled, winking at Kasumi. Tali noticed the slight coloring coming to her friends face and grinned at her.

"shut up.' Kasumi mouthed to her, making her grin even wider.

Tali heard the door to the crew quarters hiss open and looked to see who it was. A yawning Kelly sleepily stepped out into the dining area, her hair ruffled and sleepwear still on.

"And how about you Chambers?" Rah called out to her, without looking towards the door.

"Uh? What? Who?" Kelly muttered, jerking into full wakefulness.

Rah simply chuckled and looked to both Tali an Kasumi.

"Sarge and I held off the main force of squints during the Blitz." Rah smiled to the two woman.

"The lovely people of Elysium were kind enough to make a statue in honor of us, Sarge was the one pushed into the spotlight though, much to her disgruntlement." Rah chuckled.

"Anyways, the statue they made has Sarge and I fending off the squints. It's modeled after an image that was on of of the fucker's gun cams." Rah gave them a sheepish grin.

"That's you?" Kelly asked, almost in awe. It seemed that the bubbly redhead had snapped out of her initial jolt of surprise and was now eyeing Rah closely.

"Yeah." Rah nodded to the woman.

"The skull is in memorial to both that event and my death." Rah told them with a sad smile.

"The laughter and crazy mirth in the grin on it shows what I was like then. It being a skull shows that I can never go back to my old life. When I became an N7, my death was faked. No family to grieve over me and no ties holding me down." Rah told the four women in the room.

"Hold you down to what?" Kasumi asked. Tali looked at the asian woman and could tell that her mind was in a completely different place.

"If I told you I'd be forced to kill the four of you." Rah smiled cheerily to them. His eyes told of just how serious he was.

"I believe you would hold true to that." Samara spoke to him, standing up from the table.

"It was a pleasure to meet you." Samara nodded and turned to leave.

"The honor was mine Justicar." Rah replied with a theatrical bow.

Samara left the dining hall and Rah returned to his cooking. After giving a plate to Kelly, Rah scooped up the rest of the food and made to leave.

"It was nice meeting you ladies, bio's and threat indicators only do a person so much justice." Rah smiled to them before ducking into the elevator.

"Well, that was certainly an interesting thing to wake up to." Kelly giggled, looking after the N7.

"Yeah." Kasumi agreed, her voice far away.

"Kasumi?" Tali asked, looking at her friend.

"Hmm?" The woman responded, not really acknowledging her.

"You're drooling." Tali pointed out.

Kasumi shook out of her day dreaming and quickly wiped the trail of saliva from her face. Kasumi looked around and then quickly withdrew into her room.


When Rah ducked into the elevator on the Normandy, he let out a sigh of relief. He liked meeting new people, just he didn't like it when they oggled him. It was interesting talking to the Justicar, something he never thought would happen to him, but when his AI, Foxtrot, let him know that a cloaked Kasumi Goto was watching him, he felt uneasy.

He knew that to some women, and even some men, he was considered attractive. His build, prominent facial features, and supposedly his voice, were all things that drew people to him. Rah never really understood why he got as much unwanted attention as he did, but he grew comfortable around his mates when they had down time between missions. Other people, typically ones that he first met, were always odd to him until he got comfortable with them.

When Goto had rushed off and then returned with the Quarian, Tal'Zorah, Rah was glad that Zorah didn't have the same reaction as Goto. Instead, she was interested in what covered his skin. Rah knew that she was wondering what it was that had caused his scars, everyone he met did, but he was grateful that she had chosen to ask about his ink instead. For him, just as he said, every bit of ink on him was symbolic, a reminder to both his triumphs and his failures. The ones that could only be seen when he flared up his biotics were testament to it.

Rah looked to his free arm, the one not holding a steaming plate of food, and flared his biotics. As always, the biotics caused the special ink to glow blood red on his skin. Rah looked at the half dozen names written on his arm and sighed. There was not a day that went by where he didn't remember those names or try and honor their owners in some way.

Rah shook his head and slapped the control to drop the elevator to the engineering deck. The one person that he wanted to talk to had yet to show her face since he boarded the Normandy. He knew he shouldn't have expected her to come to him, but Rah was still interested in the woman that was Subject Zero.

Jack. Rah reminded himself. Zero was her name as a monster. The girl in her is Jack.

Being in the Ghosts outfit of the N7's gave Rah access to information that was thought to be lost or destroyed. After gaining his status that he had now, the first thing Rah did was find out what exactly it was that Cerberus was going to him and the others.

The Alliance hadn't put all the facts together, but they had tracked the disappearances of biotic children over the years. Rah found out that he wasn't the only one to be taken from Eden Prime all those years ago. He, along with a dozen others, had been reported as being killed or dying due to their biotics. One in particular was a young girl that had been taken. When Rah had opened the file to see a three year old Zero in the picture, he knew that it was her.

Rah was surprised to find that her middle name was Jacqueline and the only part of her old identity that Cerberus allowed her to keep. When a galactic fugitive was let loose onto the galaxy that went by the alias of Jacqueline Naught, Rah volunteered to track her down. Needless to say, until now, he was unsuccessful. Now that he had found her, something told him not to follow his orders to bring her in or kill her.

"You know exactly why you don't want to follow them" The smirking, teasing voice of Foxtrot spoke in his mind.

"Not having this conversation with you Fox." Rah scowled.

Moments later, his omni-tool flared to life and Foxtrot's avatar shimmered to life in front of him. Foxtrot's shimmering blue form leaned against the doors to the elevator and gave him a knowing smirk. Just as usual, the AI insisted on assuming the form of a human female who's only clothing was a stream of ones and zeros that flowed over her body.

"I'm in your skull." Foxtrot smirked to him, her avatar's lips moving as she spoke. "You're having it weather or not you like it"

"Nah." Rah replied and mentally flipped the switch to cut the connection between his armor and his implant.

The only place that had the power for his AI to run was either his ship or his armor. It was just easier for Fox to be in his armor and not in his ship most of the time. The way she was able to communicate to him was by interfacing into his implant and sending pulses into his brain.

"Me one, Fox zero." Rah smirked to himself. He knew he'd get flack from the AI when he turned the connection back on, but he'd dealt with it before.

"Figures that Sarge doesn't need to deal with that anymore. Delta would've been a massive pain in her side." Rah chuckled and the door opened to the Engineering deck. Rah stepped out and found the stairs to the lower part of the deck. He began descending them and felt a shift in the air. Jack knew he was coming.

"Wakey wakey Princess!" Rah called out, not really caring that he had already given Jack a nickname. He gave one to every squadmate, it was only a matter of time.

Rah grinned at hearing a growl coming from the dark room that Jack had claimed.

"The fuck do you want?" Jack snarled at him, the red lighting of the room throwing eerie shadows over her. Rah couldn't help be think they suited her.

"Came to bring ya some grub!" Rah announced walking towards the slim biotic.

Rah noticed that Jack was sitting on a crate next to the head of her bed. When he got to the foot of her bed, nothing more than a military cot, Jack's biotics flared. Rah held up his free hand in surrender and the glow around her faded.

Rah sat down on the foot of the cot and placed the plate of food in the middle of it.

"Want some?" Rah asked, taking a burrito for himself.

"What the fuck is it?" Jack snarled, but Rah could see the interested look in her eyes.

"Sausage, egg, an' cheese burritos." Rah replied after swallowing a mouthful of the food.

"Where'd you get the shit to make this?" Jack asked, hesitantly taking one. Rah smiled at her before taking another bite.

"Last of my supplies. Was going to restock after nuking that hell hole from our past." Rah shrugged and picked up another burrito after finishing his first.

Rah left that as it was. He knew better than to push his luck asking Jack questions. He'd let her start anything if she wanted to talk. He knew better than most that to press someone like this when they don't want to be is a death sentence.

The two ate in silence. Rah let himself show his lopsided grin at seeing that Jack seemed to eat the food he'd brought slowly, almost as if savoring the taste. After he'd finished a few more of his own, Rah stood up.

Rah nodded to Jack before leaving her dark room. Every step he took he could feel her eyes boring into the back of his skull.

When he began ascending the stairs, he allowed himself to begin whistling the tune to a song that was one of his favorites, one that very few still knew about.


Jack stared after the retreating N7's back. She still couldn't believe that he had actually sought her out. Jack wasn't used to anyone save for Shepard coming to check up on her. She would have thought it more likely that he'd come to try and kill her. Hell, if what he said really was true, he'd have more than enough reason to want to kill her.

Instead, he had come down here with food. She was hesitant at first, but somehow, the way it was made, or maybe something he put in it, made her think of a life she never had the chance to live. As if she had been given something that her mother had made early on a saturday morning.

He didn't speak, but Jack felt like he didn't really need to. He told her the answers to what she asked, and nothing else. He didn't pry, he didn't offer anything of himself, he was simply there. Jack was for once, glad that someone seemed to know what she wanted. She wasn't used to someone come to just be there and nothing else. Someone always wanted something, even Shepard.

And for once, she had found someone with almost as much ink as her. The only parts of Rah's body that weren't covered in ink were the scars. Rah seemed to have an air about him, both of sorrow and of comforting warmth. She didn't know what it was, but he just seemed like the kind of person who you could let your guard down around. The kind of person that had been through too much shit in his life that he shouldn't have gone through. The kind of person that others were drawn to, like moths to a flame. It had been a long time since she had met someone like that, and because of that person, she knew it would be bad for her to let her guard drop around the marine.

Jack lay down on her cot when memories of that person came flooding into her mind, someone that she had once thought didn't want anything, but proved her wrong.

After what seemed like hours of trying, and failing, to hold back the memories, Jack's omni-tool flared to life.

"Shepard to all ground team members." Shepard's commanding voice filled Jack's room.

"We are heading to Tuchanka. We will arrive in roughly thirty seven hours. I want everyone combat ready by then and to meet me in the hangar when we arrive." Shepard ordered.

"Any questions, please come and see me. Shepard out." With that, Shepard's voice left her room and her omni-tool closed itself.

Jack found herself wondering if Rah would be coming with them.


A/N: So, faster update than expected, but writing papers for college made me want to write something not for a class -_-. Figured I'd use this chapter to fill in a bit more information about Rah, and the kind of person he is and what you'll see of him in here. He is going to become one of my main characters in here and will give me the chance to show other parts of what happens other than just Shepard and Garrus' PoVs.

Anyways, Hope you all enjoyed! Please let me know what you thought! I very much appreciate any and all feedback!

I've forgotten to do this in a while but, thank you all so much for continuing to read this. Even if only a handful are reading, it's still awesome to know that someone is enjoying this.

Until next time!