Chapter 42: Awakening

Liara was buried into her work and almost didn't notice when a yell of hate rang out in her room. The surge of a large biotic power coming from her bed however, jerked her head from her consols to the source.

LIara looked over to see Rah sitting up in her bed, his skin covered in sweat. His biotics were active and he was breathing hard. The glowing tattoos that covered the N7s body however, made her shiver in fear.

Liara saw over a dozen names written in blood red glowing ink on his chest and arms alone. The glowing ink on his face however, made her eyes widen. The Ancient Egyptian tattoos, known as the "Eyes of Ra" to any that had studied the ancient culture like she had, had be covered in blood red ink as well. The tattoos had been changed to make it look as if Rah's eyes and the skin around them were glowing in the same color, the sight was almost demonic looking.

"Rah?" Liara asked, finding her voice after a moment. Rah's biotic aura faded, as did the glowing ink. Rah looked up at Liara, his eyes wide with unimaginable fear in them.

"Where am I?" Rah asked, his voice coarse and rough.

"In my room." Liara spoke, standing from her chair and walking towards the marine. "You collapsed on Kat, so we brought you here to sleep."

Is Jack-?" Rah began, his eyes now guarded. Liara cut him off however with a wave of her hand.

"She's recovering, but Doctor Chakwas still has her sedated." Liara replied. "She's in a deep sleep, so we thought it best to let you rest."

"Is she-?" Rah began, but Liara cut him off again.

"She's fine." Liara smiled, coming to stand in front of the bed. She mentally grimaced to see that where Rah had been laying was now covered in the man's sweat and some of the dried blood on him had rubbed into the sheets.

"Good." Rah sighed. The marine swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. "Thanks for letting me use the bed Liara. I'm sorry about the mess though."

"It's fine." Liara replied with a smile, refusing to acknowledge that he'd ruined rather good and pricey sheets. "Go get something to eat and let Kat know you're awake."

"How long was I out?" Rah asked, cracking his neck and moving his muscles around. From the way he was acting, Liara guessed that his sleep had been fitful and might not have helped him much.

"About ten hours." Liara replied and Rah frowned, "Jack only got out of surgery three hours ago."

"Damn." Rah muttered and rubbed his neck. "Feels like I got only twenty minutes."

Rah shook his head and began walking towards Liara's door. "Thanks for letting me crash here Liara."

"Of course." Liara smiled politely, not letting herself frown at her ruined bedding until Rah left and the door closed behind him.


Rah sat down on a bed next to the one that Jack occupied in the Normandy's medbay. In his hands, a hot bowl of canned ravioli steamed up at him. Rah knew that he needed to eat, but his nightmare had driven any hunger he had from him. He could still see it whenever he blinked, whenever his eyes closed in the slightest. Even though Jack was laying in front of him, her face peaceful and her breathing even, Rah couldn't stop reliving his nightmare.

Mechanically, Rah forced himself to eat. He tried to concentrate on the act, but his mind still wandered.

Rah's eyes darted around the pristine white halls of the Cerberus base. He'd slaughtered every Cerberus operative he'd come across until now, he was just looking for more.

Rah grinned when he ran into a large cafeteria like room. All the tables had been flipped over to be used as cover. When he was no more than ten feet into the room, a myriad of Cerberus agents popped out of cover. There was everything from the shield wielding Centurions to the lithe and agile Phantoms.

Rah planted his feet on the floor below him and opened fire with his machine guns. The Cerberus agents opened up on him as well, but their rounds only bounced off his shields and his heavy Terminator armor. For several minutes, Rah grinned in evil delight while he cut apart the Cerberus ranks. The barrels of his guns were glowing red hot by the time he finished off the room full of Cerberus.

Rah looked down at himself to see his armor now battered. There were scuff marks and even a few bullet holes, but nothing had fully penetrated the thick armor. Rah looked up when he heard a door open on the other side of the room.

From the door, a lone Cerberus Phantom calmly strode in. The woman didn't say anything, she just looked at him. Slowly, and without fear, the woman walked towards him. Rah knew that his guns still needed to cool before he could use them again, but he had other ways of killing Cerberus scum.

Rah pulled his hammer off his back and grinned to himself. The Phantom drew her sword and took up a stance. Rah yelled out and charged the Phantom, using his biotics to increase his speed. The Phantom charge him as well, only the lithe woman was faster.

When they connected, The Phantom had the time to find a weak spot in his armor before he could swing. Rah snarled in pain when the woman's blade was shoved into his side, but still landed a solid blow on the Phantom. With a massive boom of his biotics discharging, and a sickening crunch from the Phantom's arm, Rah sent the Cerberus agent flying into the far wall.

Rah grinned in sick delight at seeing the Cerberus woman crumple to the floor. Rah began walking over to the woman to finish her off for good, but the woman got to her unsteady feet.

"I…." The woman spoke out in a voice Rah never thought he'd hear again. "Will….. Destroy you."

"Jack." Rah stammered out. The Cerberus agent said nothing more, but charged him again, her movements seeming to be unhampered even with injuries he'd given her.

Rah's body acted without any thought from his mind. Much to his horror, Rah reflexively swung his hammer at the charging woman. He connected and the woman went flying again.

"No!" Rah cried out, but it was too late, he couldn't turn back time.

The Cerberus Phantom slammed into a wall, but this time she didn't rise again. Rah dropped his hammer and ran over to the mangled body. He dropped to his knees and pulled the Phantom's helmet off. To his horror, his fears were confirmed. The face before him, was one that haunted his life ever since he'd failed to save her from the Cerberus cruiser. Jack's once beautiful brown eyes, were now soulless pits of black. The skin around her eyes was now dead and lifeless, Reaper implants had long since been integrated into the woman's flesh and had taken hold.

Jack's corrupted body coughed and took in a ragged breath. Jack looked up to him with her soulless eyes.

"You." She coughed out. "This….. Is your…. Fault."

"I wasn't good enough." Rah replied to Jack, pulling his helmet off. "I never am."

"You're…. worthless." Jack spat at him. Rah let his sorrow flood out and he began to sob. "Never…. there…. for me."

Jack's entire body relaxed in his arms, the last of what life she had leaving her. Rah touched his forehead to hers and felt one thing he'd never understood before, a reason to take his own life. For him, life was meaningless without Jack. Until now, he had a reason to believe she was still alive, still able to be saved. Now, there was nothing, there was no reason, there was no point.

Rah looked up when soft footsteps stopped behind him. Rah spun around, expecting another Cerberus agent. What he found, was a smirking little boy, the same one from his dreams in the forest.

"This will come to pass." The boy told him. "You can't stop it."

"Watch me." Rah snarled to the boy. Rah raised one arm to fire at the boy, but the next thing he knew, he was in Liara's bed.

A warm, small hand found the ones that still held Rah's now empty bowl. Rah realized that his hands had been shaking and he forced them to be still. Rah looked up to the owner of the hand and found a concerned Jack looking back at him.

"Hey." Jack spoke, her voice laced with the very concern that showed on her face. '"You good?"

"I should be asking you that." Rah replied with a soft chuckled and set his bowl aside. "How are you holding up?"

"Better than when you found me." Jack replied, looking away from him slightly. "Hell of a headache."

"Could be worse." Rah shrugged and Jack looked up to him, a curious look to her face. "It could be raining."

"Ass." Jack shot back, turning away from him, but Rah still caught her smile.

Rah grinned to her and looked up when the door to the medbay hissed open. Doctor Chakwas and Shepard came walking in, involved in their own conversation. The conversation stopped when the two women noticed both Rah and Jack were awake.

"Decided to stop being lazy for once?" Shepard shot to Rah with a smirk.

"Hey, you didn't need to stumble about yourself after waking up in a strange bed." Rah spat back. "Knowing you though, you'd find a way to not only get yourself laid, but also leave before whoever's bed it was woke up."

"That happened once!" Shepard replied, her face beginning to turn red. "And it was for a fucking mission!"

"Suuuuuuurre." Rah drawled out, rolling his eyes. "And you just happened to be able to seduce your target for the info we needed. Could've got it without that, hell I was able to get what I need by just drugging my target."

"You had the guy's wife!" Shepard shot back, her face turning beet red in embarrassment. Rah knew that she never liked talking about some of their missions as Ghosts but he'd baited her into it. "God knows she was a twit."

"Yeah well." Rah grinned to her sheepishly.

Rah glanced to Doctor Chakwas, who had been silently grinning at the two N7s while waving her omni-tool over Jack.

"How is she Doc?" Rah asked, his hand reaching out to find Jacks.

"There is no damage from removing her biotic amp, and all traces of any Reaper tech are gone." Chakwas told them all. "I'm afraid you'll need a new omni-tool however Jack. Cerberus took it from you when they took you."

"I was wondering why everyone sounded different." Jack replied, a look of understanding flashing over her face and she turned to Rah. "It was hard to understand you while you were talking to Kat. You seemed to be changing between a few different languages at once."

"Sorry about that." Rah grinned sheepishly to Jack and rubbed the back of his neck. "I have the habit of not knowing what language I want to speak at any given time, translators fix that so I just speak them all."

"What were you speaking?" Shepard asked him, raising an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Basic, Spanish, Osirin, German, Gang." Rah listed off without blinking an eye.

"Basic is Earth's standard language, Spanish I learned in ICT and found it and useful so I can cuss out Loco." Rah grinned, knowing that some of the languages needed to be explained. "German was what my parents spoke and what I was taught to speak before Cerberus took me as a kid."

"What about the other two?" Shepard asked. "Never heard of Orisin and Gang can't really be a language."

"It is." Both Jack and Rah replied at once.

"It's a mix of every human language and gangs, usually all human merc groups or cults, use it. Just makes it harder to listen to and harder for omni-tools to translate." Jack supplied to Shepard and Chakwas.

"Pretty much." Rah confirmed. "And Orisin is the closest translation to the name of the Asari language."

"Where-?" Shepard began to ask, but the light clicked on in her head. "Ilium?"

"Ilium." Rah nodded.

"Kat knows about that?" Jack asked, her face a little surprise.

"Sarge here is the sister I never got to have." Rah replied with a shrug. "Only people that know more about me than her is a synthetic."

"For now." Shepard smirked to him.

"I'm going to hurt you." Rah replied, glaring daggers that the other N7. Shepard held up her hands in surrender.

"Karin." Shepard turned to the elder woman, who had taken a seat at her desk. "You need to keep Jack here? Or is she good to go?"

"I'd like to keep her here until we reach the Citadel. With Reaper tech, you can't be too careful. Plus I need to make sure there is no lasting damage done from removing the amp."

Jack grumbled from her spot in the bed, but Rah squeezed her hand reassuringly.

"Mind lending Jack something to wear till then?" Rah asked Shepard. "You're only one size bigger."

"You calling me fat?" Shepard asked in mock offense.

"I'm calling Jack a twig." Rah replied and winked at his lover.

"Fine, long as she doesn't mind smelling like Turian." Shepard replied and Rah shuddered. "What's wrong, put something wrong in your head?"

"No, I just haven't gotten their stink out of me since Menae." Rah replied and looked to Jack. He felt his chest swell at seeing the mirth in her eyes. Rah cherished every time he saw that light in her eyes, it reminded him that she was still alive, that he still had something to fight for.

"I don't mind." Jack replied with a shake of her head. "And they don't smell that bad. Least Garrus doesn't."

"You'll also be smelling like roses for a while." Shepard shot back and quickly left the room.

"What?" Jack asked, looking baffled.

"Sarge washes in rose scented everything." Rah replied, a sickened look coming to his face. "Even found rose scented laundry soap."

"Wow, Kat is actually a girl." Jack replied, her face still baffled.

"So are you to be fair." Rah chuckled out and Jack glared at him. "My girl, but a girl none the less."

"Ass." Jack replied and rolled her eyes.

"So what did happen to my clothes?" Jack asked after a moment.

"No clue, just found you naked on the Cerberus cruiser. What they did with them, I have no idea." Rah replied. "On the upside, it gave me a reason to see you naked again."

"You just need to ask for that." Jack replied to him slyly.

"Sure, with a million strings attached." Rah replied with a chuckle.

"Will you be fine if I leave for a few hours?" Rah asked after a few minutes of silence. "I need to go take care of a few things back on my ship."

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Jack smiled to him. "Don't take too long."

"I won't." Rah replied. He stood up and bent down to kiss her. When they parted, Rah felt a twinge of pride at the near blissful look on Jack's face.

I'll need to remember that look. Probably won't happen again anytime soon. Rah thought to himself before leaving.


A/N: There we are folks! I actually had a completely different chapter in mind for this one, but I think I like this one better. Hopefully you all like it as well! I don't know why, but for some reason, I've always thought of Liara as one of those people that don't like spending money, or spending it when she otherwise wouldn't need to, whish is why I have her act the way she does in this chapter.

Anyways, hope you all are doing well! Thank you all so much for the continued support and continuing to read this story!

Please let me know what you thought!

Until next time!