Five Seconds
Chapter 6: A Time to Talk
Authors Note: Thank you to everyone that have added this story to your favorites and story alerts. It makes me feel like I'm doing something right here! Again I do not own anything in the Mass Effect Series that is under the ownership of Bioware and EA.
"We're getting out of here come on!" He shouted to a group he couldn't see. They were all just blurs of shapes and colors of blues, greens and oranges. He started running down a cavern of stone, yet with steel doors that opened before them. Bullets dancing all around the group, but he could see the Normandy right outside, they were going to make it! That's when he heard a cry, and the sound of someone falling, he stopped, turned and saw a blur on the ground. If they stopped now the group could be over taken, but he couldn't abandon this person, they were too important, to who? The team? To him? That wasn't possible, but he swore to never leave a comrade to the enemy, so he turned back, running, strange blurs of glowing yellow eyes to meet him. He had tried and he had failed, there were too many to shoot, and he couldn't even use biotics properly to save a life, watching as the blur that was important being dragged into the darkness.
His eyes snapped open as he drew in a sharp breath, his hand slowly rising up to the side of his face; he could feel it was slick with sweat. He hoped it wasn't one of those dreams, but it felt so real…
"Bad dream?" a Japanese accented voice came to his ear, he slowly sat up, seeing the thief sitting on the couch, her arms wrapped around her legs, her face hidden beneath the hood.
"You could say that," he picked up a shirt from the ground, slipping it over his chest, wearing just pajama bottoms around the thief didn't sound like a good idea to him. He walked over to the couch, sitting down, hunched over as he clasped his hands together.
"I would be too if I went through what you did," She said. She revealed to him that Shepard explained his situation before they met; he could only assume every new recruit would have to be taken through that tiny spiel.
"Mm…" He hummed in thought as he rubbed his hands together. "How long have I been out?" He asked.
"You must have been tired cause you've been out for a while now," She answered as she tilted her head up so that he could see her face better, "Shepard came to get you to pick up a krogan warlord, but you were so out of it she let you sleep."
"Really?" He asked in surprise, "I'm used to getting up early and shouting at the men to get up." He bowed his head, his mind thinking back to his squad, and the explosion that took all those good men away.
"I think the Commander is a bit different from your average superior," Kasumi's voice interrupting his thoughts.
"Apparently," He said, his feet shifting on the ground before he stood up, "I'm going to walk around." Seeing her just nod at him he turned, leaving the room.
He walked into the elevator, not even looking as he hit one of the buttons, he paced back and forth in the elevator muttering, "Why is this thing so slow?" Apparently in the 170 years that past they figured everyone needed to slow down in the fast pace technology life by making the elevators move at a snail pace.
The doors opened to reveal that he pressed the engineers' deck; he heard that Zaeed was setup down here. He thought of paying him a visit when he heard a female speak.
"Did you hear we got a crazy lady in the hold?"
"What?" A Scottish voice asked sharply, "She touches anything I'll kill her!"
"And that the only thing she wears above her waist is tattoos?" The woman chipped in again.
"Really…" The Scottish voice asked now interested, "perhaps I should go down and say hello…"
He was starting to see where this was going when the woman added, "Oh and she's a murderer with biotics that would tear you in half."
"Dammit girl quit toying with me!" The male whined.
"So she's down there…" He thought to himself, the image of her face popping up into his mind unbidden. Before he knew what he was doing he was going down the steps towards the red glow of the light.
He saw her sitting on a simple portable bed, staring down at what he guessed were the files on her. He could see the scars on her arms amongst the tattoos; he couldn't tell if some were self-inflicted or from her years on the run from whatever law there was in this galaxy. He started to wonder if he should go when she finally lowered her arm, brown eyes looking at him saying, "Hey."
He hadn't thought of anything to say, pointing at the files he asked, "Finding what you wanted?"
She looked down at the file before she tossed it onto the file, "Not everything," She answered, "but I found other things that I didn't expect."
"Well at least you found something," He said, leaning back against the wall.
"Thanks for getting Shepard to let me look at these," She said, the 'thanks' sounded odd on her lips, as if she wasn't used to saying it.
"I didn't really do anything," He said, moving a bit closer, he felt nervous for some reason when he got closer, not out of danger, if there was danger he'd know about it. "I didn't even say anything," he pointed out.
"Maybe, but you still made the deal," She started to laugh after she said that, "besides, the look on the Cheerleaders face was priceless."
He couldn't help but feel a smile tug at his lips after that, "It was a bit yeah…" he admitted. "So what are you going to do with what you find?" He asked out of curiosity.
The answer wasn't what he expected, but in hindsight he wasn't too surprised when she said, "I'm looking for names, when I find them I'll go hunting, anyone that screwed with me pays, their associates pay…galaxy is going to be emptier when I'm done."
He could see the fire of anger in her eyes as she talked, the amount of hatred she had for Cerberus was more then he imagined. He couldn't help but ask, "What did they do to you Jack?" His voice softer than he intended it to be.
She stayed silent for so long he wondered if she would ever answer. Finally she stood up, saying in a monotone voice, "They raised me in a research facility, I escaped when I was a kid." She turned her back to him, only the outline of her body could be seen in the glow of the red light, she continued in that emotionless tone, "Been running ever since, and they've been chasing me ever since…but soon, I'm going to be chasing them."
He watched as she pulled out a pistol, looking down at it as if she couldn't wait to use it. He decided it might be better to change the subject, looking around at her living space he said, "You know you don't have to be down here, Shepard could set you up somewhere better."
"I like it down here," She disagreed, "It's dark, quiet, and hard to find, that spells safe for me." He watched as she turned around, walking over to the table, hoisting herself onto it, crouching as she looked at him, "You know…" she said, "This ship is a power house, between you and me? We could take over the ship, go pirate."
"Not sure that'd be the best thing to do during the mission," He said crossing his arms, concern crossing his features that she was actually serious.
"Think about it, lots of creds, cause mayhem and kill anything we'd want for no fucking reason other than to just do it," She persisted, slipping off the table, the glint in her eyes showing the excitement at the thought.
"Why does killing excite you so much?" He asked, changing the subject rather than commenting on what she said.
The excitement faded from her brown eyes as she put her gun away replying, "I figure every time someone dies and it isn't me, my odds of surviving go up. Simple." She sounded so casual about it that he had no doubt that she meant it.
"I guess I should go, my roommate might start stalking me if I stay away for too long," he said already looking over his shoulder as if he expected to see her right behind him.
"Stuck with a roommate huh?" She said with a smirk, "looks like I made good choice staking claim on this spot then."
"It's hard when you're roommate is a Japanese woman who likes taking claims," he said with a shake of his head. "We'll talk later?" he suddenly asked without thinking.
"I'm not here to make friends," She said in a rough tone.
He felt himself flinch slightly why did he flinch? It shouldn't matter to him…Confused he just nodded his head, "I'll give you your space," He said, turning to walk away.
Just as he was about to go up the steps he heard her call out, "We might talk again…maybe not…"
He stopped to show her he heard, nodding his head slightly before he went up the steps, leaving her to herself.
"What is his angle…" She thought as she heard his footsteps fade away, her hands reaching up grasping the sides of her head. "Better yet why did you say 'maybe' you fucking idiot, he was going to leave you alone," She cursed at herself as she turned, lying down on her bed, eyes staring up at the ceiling. It was those eyes of his, those damned green eyes, when they first met his eyes were so focused, alive. However when she looked him in the eye in the comm room she saw something completely different that made her do a double take. The eyes that were so bright and lively were dark, full of fresh loss and sadness, something about it made her feel like he understood, something, of her pain.
Her mind shot back all those years ago, still so fresh in her mind, curled underneath that desk. Letting herself slip into the delusion that she was safe there, that it was safe to cry, to scream for someone to pull her out of that hell. No one did though, no one cared, not even the kids that played outside her window. How long did she pounded and screamed at that window for someone to help? Long enough that her hands bled and her voice was hoarse, only to crawl beneath her desk to cry once more.
"You're bleeding Jack," A voice snapped her out of her dark thoughts.
She looked at her hands; her nails had dug in so deep that blood seeped through her fingers. A rush of anger went through her as she sat up shouting, "The FUCK do you want?" Only realizing then who she was shouting at, Shepard but her sight was starting to get blurry.
"I just came down here to see how you were doing," The woman raised her hands up in a non-hostile gesture, "I'll leave you be, do you need me-"
"GET THE FUCK OUT!" Jack screamed at her as she got up onto her feet, her biotics flaring up inside her, if this woman didn't get out before she started to cry she would murder her.
The woman didn't say anything else, instead she just turned, walking away, climbing the steps.
She waited until the steps faded away until her eyes finally over flowed, tears pouring down her face in black drops of makeup, falling back onto her bed, burying her face in her pillow, leaving red streaks from her hands on the soft fabric.
Shepard turned to her left towards the port cargo hold as she pressed her back against the metal. "Holy SHIT I thought she was going to try and kill me…" She thought to herself. Kelly had warned her that Jack was a hair trigger with her anger, but that wasn't anger, that was full blown RAGE. "What does that make…two crewmates in one day?" She wondered to herself. The second crewmate of the day was Grunt, the super soldier krogan that she picked up after the Warlord Okeer gave his life to save him. She didn't waste time opening the container to let him out, but she didn't expect the violent reaction he gave. It was a miracle, but she was able to talk him down to join her 'clan' at first he had no respect because she was a female. However, after he noticed her gun pointed right in his chest she thought that impressed him.
"Looks like you had a scare Commander," A female voice spoke up out of the blue.
She looked around for a moment, not seeing anyone until the shape of Kasumi Goto appeared right next to her, leaning against the wall. "A bit…how's the Colonel?" she asked.
"As fine as anyone can be in his situation, when he came into the room after coming down here he looked like he needed to be alone so I gave him his space," the thief answered a blue visor like holo appearing in front of her eyes as she nodded, "He's sitting at the piano."
"You've got surveillance on him?" She asked with a sense of disturbance rising up in her.
It must have shown since Kasumi shook her head with a laugh, "No, Cerberus does," She replied, "I just took over the live feeds. Wanted to make sure the Colonel doesn't do anything rash yes?"
"Fair enough…" She gave in hesitantly. Her eyes blinking for a moment, "You said he came down here?" She asked.
"To have a talk with Jack," Kasumi explained, "I didn't listen in, but I believe their talk went better than yours."
"No kidding," Shepard sighed.
"By the way," Kasumi added, "I heard what you said to Miranda after Jack came on board, do you really plan on putting the Colonel in second command?"
"Not really," Shepard answered, "I just wanted to remind Miranda that I won't stand for Cerberus bull shit and who's in charge, while she's cold she knows what she is doing." She wasn't really surprised that Kasumi was listening in; if she had a cloaking system she'd probably be hard to resist the temptation to listen in either.
"I doubt the Colonel would be able to handle it in his state, though he wouldn't say no if you promoted him," Kasumi said, "He's so focused on being the perfect soldier that he doesn't take time to be a human being."
"To be honest I think Jack is the first person he's gone to talk to on his own," Shepard said looking over at the door thoughtfully.
"Anyways, I think I'm going to go slink off somewhere," Kasumi said as she pushed off the wall, arms swinging before she vanished from Shepard's view.
She shook her head as she walked back to the elevator, pressing the third floor button, leaning back against the wall of the metal container. After spending time with two hostile people and a sneaky thief she needed a face she knew well. As soon as the doors opened she made a beeline for the battery, as the door opened she saw the blue armor of the turian working at the console.
He turned around to look at her, the bandages on the side of his face still there, the damage seemed to be healing well enough, but it still made her wince inside as the image of him bleeding on the ground popped into her head. "Shepard," Garrus started the conversation, "Glad you're here I think I've got something to upgrade the Normandy."
"Upgrades are music to my ears Garrus," She said, moving to stand next to him near the console, having to tilt her head up to keep eye contact, "lay it on me."
"Well if I laid the upgrades on you it migh-" He stopped and blinked, raising an armored finger, "Human expression, right." He cleared his throat continuing, "Anyways I think if I pull some strings I can get some new guns that might give us an edge on the Collectors, what do you think?"
She perked her brow up some as a wicked smile crossed her lips as she said, "You know I can't say no to a big gun Garrus," her grey eyes twinkling with amuesment.
"Really?" The turain asked in a playful tone, "That explains a lot then."
Her jaw dropped a little as she gave him a little teasing shove, "I can't believe you just said that, wait scratch that," She said with a shake of her head, "I can believe that."
She heard him chuckle before he turned back to the console, tapping at the screen for a moment before looking back at her, the look on his face getting more serious as he said, "It's good to be back Shepard, being here with old friends."
"Yeah…" She sighed, looking down at the ground as she crossed her arms beneath her breasts, "I just wish all of them were here." Her mind going back to the old Normandy crew, Tali, Wrex, Liara, Pressley, and most of all Kaiden.
Garrus seemed to know what she was thinking because he reached a claw down, gently tapping her on the bottom of the chin to get her to look up at him, "You'll find him, I know it," he reassured her.
"Thanks Garrus," She said with gratitude, bringing a small smile back to her lips as she reached out, patting his arm.
"Anytime," He waved his hand dismissively, looking back at the console, "I should get back to this, I'll make the order for the new guns, and we should be able to pick them up by the time we go back to the Citadel."
"Alright, I think I'm going to get some shut eye, I'll talk to you later," She turned walking through the door.
He turned back to the console his eyes staring at it for a long moment. She might have left the room, but her scent stuck around and it taunted him. Why couldn't he have forgotten those feelings that grew in silence? Shepard had made her choice, not that he ever showed his interest since she never showed interest in him. Or maybe she had? And he just couldn't tell as inexperienced as he was back then in understanding human body language and tones. He kept thinking back to those times they talked together, did she ever show signs of interest? He didn't know. He shook his head to dispel the thoughts; he had to focus because he had a big order to make to get the Thanix Cannons he promised to get Shepard. If only the scent didn't linger.
"Commander Shepard," The synthetic voice of EDI burst into Shepard's dreams.
Her eyes snapped open as she groaned. She had slept in boxers and a tank top; her body throbbed dully with the exertions from yesterday. Turning she placed her bare feet on the cool floor as she grumbled, "Yes EDI?"
"The Illusive Man needs to speak with you, he says it is 'Urgent'" EDI answered in her normal tone.
That elicited another groan from her, falling onto her back as she pressed her pillow against her face as if hoping to suffocate herself before she had to talk to him. But alas, she wasn't able to go through with that so she finally got up, getting dressed as she made her way down to the comm room.
As soon as she stepped into the hologram she was greeted by a rather excited Illusive Man, "Shepard I think we have them!" he started, "Horizon, one of our colonies in the Terminus Systems has gone silent." He took a drag from his cigarette as an image of the planet popped up beside his chair. "If they haven't been attacked yet they soon will be," He continued, "Has Mordin produced a counter-measure for the Collectors seeker swarms?"
She shook her head, "Not yet," she answered.
He didn't seem satisfied with that answer, "Let's hope he works well under pressure then," he said.
"I have no doubt he'll get it done, we'll take care of this," She said as she turned to leave.
"There's something else you should know," he added before she could leave the circle.
The tone in his voice made her stop, turning around she asked "What is it?" The look she saw on his face building up anxiety in her chest.
The next words he said made her turn pale, "One of your former crew, Kaiden Alenko, is stationed on Horizon."
So ends the sixth chapter of this story! I'm sorry if you all are disappointed in not seeing them pick up Grunt, but I wanted this chapter to be more relaxed and mainly conversation. I promise the next chapter will be longer and have more action! Also tell me how I did writing from Jacks point of view along with any of the other characters; I appreciate the insight from readers that love the series like I do. Please review!