Five Seconds
Chapter 9: Back Scratching
Authors Note: I'm glad people enjoyed the last chapter it was my intention to have it be emotional and it seems I succeeded from what reviews say! But now it's time to get back to the action! I don't own anything in the Mass Effect Series, it is owned by Bioware and EA (Still waiting for that update *cough*)
She groaned it felt as if a dozen hammers were raining down on her head, her tongue felt thick in her mouth as she shifted on her bed, moving to a cooler spot on her pillow. Jack had hoped being shit faced would help her forget Daemon and the man of her past, but instead she was rewarded with a fucked up dream of the Colonel playing the piano before he shifted into him with his voice accusing her of leaving him when he sacrificed himself for her.
"I didn't ask you to come back for me, I didn't!" She repeated over and over to him before she finally came back to reality and the pulsing headache that assaulted her.
"You should have drunk water before going to bed," a Japanese voice suddenly came from the shadows.
Jack jerked the pistol she kept beneath her pillow out, waving it around as she tried to find the source cursing, "Where the fuck are you kleptomaniac?"
"Well I'm certainly not going to show myself when you're waving that thing around, we don't need another person in the Med bay," Kasumi said, keeping to her word and not removing her stealth field.
She gritted her teeth as she put her pistol down, "There you happy?" She asked, the throb in her head growing from the thief's antics.
It seemed to have satisfied her because the next moment she appeared squatting on the crate across from Jacks bed, like some kind of Japanese toad as she looked at her, "How's our favorite convict today?" she asked in a sing song voice, but soft, she wasn't about to piss her off it seemed, smart woman.
"Thinking about killing a certain woman if she doesn't give me a fucking reason for being down here, what noise?" She asked, her fingers inching towards her pistol as if to accent her point.
"Oh the Colonel met Grunt today…if albeit roughly," The thief said vaguely, her hand rising up to her face as if she's looking at her nails.
For a reason she didn't understand that made her forget about her headache all together, "What do you mean roughly?" she asked.
The thief seemed to look up at the ceiling, "Welllll…." she started.
"Broken ribs?" She shouted as she stormed into the Med bay. The time between Kasumi telling her and the moment storming in was a blur and she seemed to have lost her shadow on the way since she was the only one walking in from what she was aware of.
The only other people in the room was Doctor Chakwas who seemed very cross at the sudden noise in her Med bay and Daemon who seemed to have just been wrapped in bandages. "He is quite fine dear, now please tone it down," the Doctor said in a soothing tone.
"Shut up," she said to the Doctor before she stomped over to the bandaged Colonel asking, "What the fuck were you thinking tangling with a krogan?"
He didn't seem to be in too much of a rush to answer, grasping the shirt next to him, a button up shirt, pulling it over his muscled shoulders which she couldn't help but look at for a quick moment before resuming her glare. He grimaced slightly when he tried to stand up, choosing to stay down as he sighed, "It's not like I did it intentionally Jack."
"Then that the shit happened?" She asked, "And why am I asking so many damn questions?" she thought to herself.
He rubbed at his brow for a moment as if gathering his thoughts before he looked up at her saying, "This is what happened."
He didn't sleep well that night as usual; haunted by the ghosts of his past and what could be his possible future. When he woke up he saw that Kasumi was nowhere to be found. That started to become something of a common occurrence lately. Sure she was there when he fell asleep, but other than that he rarely saw her in the morning, unless the nightmares were really bad.
As he went into a sitting position the door opened, turning he saw Shepard poking her head in saying, "Good morning Colonel." From the look of her face it was clear she didn't get much sleep either, the bags heavy under her eyes and it was all too easy to tell she had probably been crying the entire night.
He quickly stood up, saluting the woman before he relaxed, "Good morning Commander, are we going on a mission?" He asked.
"We're picking up an old friend of mine, Tali, she's a quarian," Shepard answered.
He had to think back to before Omega and when Shepard showed him holos of each species he'd probably meet. From what he recalled quarians were a race that had such poor immune systems just exposure to the air would make them ill and so they were forced to wear something called enviro-suits for their entire lives. "I see, I'll go get ready then," He said waiting for her to leave, not wanting to be rude and move ahead of her.
"First I want you to go grab Grunt, he's in the cargo hold on the engineers' deck, you haven't met him yet and I want to bring him along," She said holding up a finger before she turned, "I'm going to grab Garrus."
"Alright, I'll go get him," He said, following after her as she left the room, they parted ways as he walked into the elevator, pressing the button for the fourth floor.
She had a feeling she was forgetting something as she was walking to the Battery. Garrus must have been in the middle of calibrations since it took him a minute before he turned around looking at her, "Shepard, feeling better?" he asked, though from the look on his face he seemed to know the answer.
"Not really, but this might help, we're picking up Tali," She said. She couldn't suppress a smile growing on her face at the thought of having another old friend with her.
"Good, we need more familiar faces around here, who else is coming with?" he asked curiously.
"Daemon and Grunt," She answered, "the Colonel is going down now to grab him." She couldn't help but feel like she was forgetting something once again.
Garrus seemed to freeze as he stared at her, mandibles twitching "You do remember krogan are territorial…right?" he asked slowly.
Silence filled the room along with horror before the two suddenly bolted from the Battery, running for the elevator.
He stepped out from the elevator, looking towards the door that led to where Jack stayed. He thought of going down to say 'hi', but decided it was probably far too early for her just to chat. Walking towards the cargo hold the door opened wide, seeing four crates stacked up near the door so he couldn't see the krogan. As soon as he walked into the room he already feel that it was too quiet. Instincts told him not to go further in, but he defied it, taking slow careful steps in past the crates he called out carefully, "….Grunt?"
All hell broke loose, a roar coming from behind the crates before they flew forward, blocking him from the door along with the blur of a charging krogan.
He didn't need the tingle in the back of his neck to tell him of the danger, trapped in a small confined space he didn't have room to maneuver, trying to dive to the side. He hadn't seen the shelf, resulting in his chest smacking against the shelf hard before he felt hands grabbing him. He could feel the wind rushing out of his lungs as he was slammed into the wall, a rock hard fist striking him in the ribs, he could have sworn he heard a crack before a spasm of pain rocked through his body. It was almost impossible for him to breathe as each small intake of breath caused another rush of pain to course through him.
"Human, male," Grunt said as if categorizing him. Despite the pain rushing through him he was able to see what the krogan looked like. He had orange skin and a blue shell like head that looked as if it was shattered, and his reptilian eyes were a blue he didn't think a krogan could have. "Tell me the name of the man I'm about to kill," he grumbled.
"Colonel…Daemon…Heraldson…," he said between short breaths and between gritted teeth. His right hand rose up, pressing against the krogans neck as if trying to push him off weakly. Except he was actually moving his omni-tool to a position for the blade to pop out and take Grunt by surprise, he was hoping it wouldn't come to that, but his eyes were getting blurry. "Commander…sent me…to get you…" he added, hoping that would get the krogan to back off.
A deep throated growl came from Grunt, his strange nose flaring up; Daemon could only assume he was sniffing him. "I've heard of you…you come from a tank, like ice" He said curiously.
"Cryo tank…" He replied with a short breath, considering that since the krogan hadn't killed him after he said his name he thought he had a chance.
"Cryo…yes…" Grunt, well, grunted as if confirming it in his head. It brought a strange light in his eyes before he gave a little, rather creepy, laugh, "That makes you tank brother!" he shouted. The large krogan suddenly pulled him in, next thing he knew he was being squeezed so tightly he thought he heard another rib crack in his chest. He made a sound almost like a dying pig.
That was when he heard the door burst open, "Grunt sto-!" he heard Shepard start to say before she was no doubt stunned at the scene of a krogan hugging a human.
"Shepard!" Grunt said happily, suddenly dropping him, landing on his ass he felt another spasm of pain go through him. Whatever happened next he couldn't remember because the next moment he blacked out.
"And here we are," he finished, his hand gingerly rubbing at his chest before he winced.
"Your ribs will heal in a week with rest Colonel," Chakwas said, "The implants in your body will speed the healing process."
Jack just couldn't fathom what possessed him to go down there by himself, she just shook her head stunned, "You're a fucking idiot, but you got balls."
"Thanks…I guess?" He said with what sounded like uncertainty. She heard him clear his throat before he held his hand out in her direction, "I appreciate your concern Jack," he said with…gratitude?
Her jaw worked up and down for a moment, why the fuck did she rush up here so fast? "Well…duh fucker," She scoffed rolling her eyes stalling so that she could make up a clever excuse, "I had to make sure you can still you biotics for practice," the idiotic words escaping her so quickly it was too late for her to take them back.
"So you'll help me?" He asked in a tone which sounded slightly excited, the glimmer of his green eyes looking into hers caused her stomach to squirm.
She groaned internally, reaching up she rubbed the back of her bald head saying, "That's what I said dumbass…let's get started." She suddenly turned leaving the room before she could say anything else stupid.
"I liked Arizona better," Shepard sighed as she hid behind a pillar, watching as a bug crawled into the light of the sun, only to burst into a small flame.
After Daemon had passed out she spent almost half an hour yelling at Grunt about hurting one of her 'clan'. It seemed that he was actually a bit remorseful seeing the Colonel as some kind of 'tank brother'. "I guess those that lived in tanks stick together?" She thought to herself before shaking her head. After leaving the Colonel in Chakwas care she decided to bring Zaeed along in replacement of Daemon.
"At least the sun there ain' trying to bloody roast us literally," Zaeed agreed gruffly, his own back pressed against the pillar.
The sound of gun fire came from behind the pillar, digging into the stone work. "And I bet there isn't any geth shooting at us," Garrus added, quickly leaning around the stone work, his shields sizzling as he fired off a shot.
It had been like this from the get-go. She, Grunt, Zaeed, and Garrus had been slowed down, diving between pillars and almost frying their shields as they shot at the geth who did not seem too effected by the sun's rays. Finally they had reached a gate to find a dead bloodied quarian and a recording left by the poor bastard. Hearing that Tali was there and that these soldiers were risking their lives to keep her safe gave her a mixture of relief and anxiety. At the pace they were going her anxiety started to grow for Tali's wellbeing.
"This is taking forever," She said as they moved behind another pillar, firing at the shimmering shape of a geth hunter. Those were also a tangent of irritation; it seemed that the upgrades Cerberus gave her allowed her to see the shimmer of the stealth fields where the others couldn't.
"No bits of metal is going to hold me back!" Grunt shouted before he suddenly charged, knocking over two geth, both of which never got back up. His momentum carried him to a large slab of stone, firing at the next on coming geth.
She was starting to appreciate Grunts ability to absorb such damage to his shields, making him an effective battering ram. It was thanks to him that they busted through the thicker lines of geth when she thought it would take forever.
"It's nice to have a krogan charging at our enemies for a change," Garrus saying her own thoughts exactly as they ran to join Grunt.
Finally they went through a tunnel; reaching the end she found a two dead quarians near each other. Bending down she picked up a Tempest-SMG, scanning its structure and blue prints, making a mental note to get some made for the team.
It was after she finished that she heard a voice coming from the dead quarian. "OP-1, this is Squad Leader Kal'Reegar, come in, over!" the voice called out.
She bent down, picking the comm up, speaking into it, "This is Commander Shepard of the Normandy, can we provide assistance?"
The quarian on the other end didn't seem to question her, or perhaps he didn't have the time to ask questions as he said, "Patch your radio into Channel 617 Theta, we were on a stealth mission, high risk, we found what we were after, but the geth found us." As he talked each of them set their channel to the right frequency, catching the next bit in her comm, "They got us pinned down, can't get to our ship and can't transmit data through the solar radiation."
She nodded to the unseen voice, looking out over the area, she saw two quarians standing by a door, "How many of you are left?" she asked.
"We were a small squad," he answered, emphasizing the word were, "dozen marines, plus the science team." He took a quick breath before continuing, "We're down to half-strength now, made the synthetic bastards pay for it though."
"What the hell brought you this far into geth space in the first place?" She asked, wondering what was worth all these lives.
He wasn't much help in that area. "You're asking the wrong person Shepard, I just point and shoot," He replied before he added, "It's something about the sun, it's going bad faster than it should, some kind of energy problem."
She shook her head slightly, a sun brought them there? To some it sounded important, but not to her in the least. It was time to get back to business, "How are you holding up?" She asked, "We can be there in a few minutes."
"We're bunkered down at base camp across the valley, left Tali'Zorah at a secure shelter, then doubled back to hold the choke-point," as he said it the quarians ducked behind their barriers as they engaged more geth forces. "Getting Tali out safely is our top priority," He said firmly, "If you can extract her, we'll keep them off you."
"You sure the geth haven't reached Tali yet?" She asked, practically holding her breath as she waited for the answer.
"Affirmative" He confirmed, she slowly exhaled in relief as he added, "Left my best men with her, when you get here you can talk to her on the comm." "Every marine on this rock is sworn to protect Tali, as long as one of us is still drawing air she'll be safe," He said with a conviction that made her start to wonder.
That was for another time though, she raised her hand to her comm saying, "Hold your position, we'll hit their back ranks."
Just before they were about to join in the battle Kal'reegar's voice came in urgently, "Wait watch your ass! We've got drop ships coming in!"
Just as he said a geth drop ship swooped down in front of the quarians guarding the door, firing blue laser fire upon them. The quarians didn't stand a chance, being wiped out from the first volley. The pillar near the door swaying before it fell in front of the door, blocking it.
"That's just great…" She groaned.
"Nice, if you're trying to lift an ant," Jack said, standing in Daemons room. When he asked her to help him train in biotics she thought refining his skills…not starting from fucking scratch. "Where the fuck did you learn how to use biotics?" She asked almost speechless.
Daemon just shook his head as he sat down on his bed, looking at her as he said, "I didn't even know I was a biotic until….until I was on the Normandy."
She was thankful her hangover had vanished before they started; otherwise she thought she would probably strangle him for making her headache worse. "Fucking perfect," She sighed, looking up at the ceiling, "do it again, and fucking hold it this time."
She watched as he took a deep breath, lifting up a medium sized box as a blue swirl of biotics wrap around it. He brought it up higher and higher until it reached his eye level. They had been going about this for about an hour and the only improvement she saw was going from a ball to a box. While he held the box up she would start to put bottles of alcohol into it, his motivation for not dropping it was rather simple: She wouldn't teach him anymore if he dropped it.
A drop of sweat slid down the side of his face, she saw the concentration in his green eyes. She had to keep looking at his face since he took off his shirt before it got soaked in sweat. She heard a jingle as the box of alcohol started to wobble, seeing his muscled chest rise and fall as he started to get tired, slowly the box was eased back down, hovering above the ground for just another moment before landing lightly on the ground. She looked at her omni-tool, seeing that he beat his old time, "Twenty seconds, I'll be fucked you're actually getting better," She said before she suddenly threw a juice box at his head, "Take five."
She had expected the box to smack him, but his hand shot up catching the juice container before he carefully sat down on his bed. She wasn't sure why it helped, but it was what those fuckers at Cerberus fed her after using so much biotics, maybe those were drugged? She didn't want to think about it. The look on his face however made her wonder what he was thinking about.
The cherry flavored juice went down his dried throat, helping the ease of the throbbing headache he had. He never pushed himself this much when he practiced, the pressure in his head felt like something bad. However, it took Jack to tell him that was how she started to help ease his anxiety, willing himself to push harder. He looked over at her, taking in the scars, the tattoos, the look in her eyes…the sadness, and pain. She must have been through much that she was so closed off, so distant no one could get close.
He decided to try and close the distance asking, "Maybe you could tell me something about yourself?"
She looked shocked as if she wasn't expecting that question, "Why?" She asked, eyes narrowing just slightly.
"Why not?" He countered, his brow perking up just slightly.
That seemed to piss her off, a sneer crossing her lips as she said, "Stop fucking jerking me around and tell me why."
He didn't need his ability to know that she'd probably hit him with another juice box if she didn't get an answer. "I want to know more about you," he replied, looking into her brown eyes to show he wasn't kidding.
She just stared at him for a long moment, turning her head away, "I've been around," she said. Turning she walked over to the piano, looking out into space as her fingers slid across the glossy wood before she continued, "Ran with some gangs, wiped some out, joined a cult, kept the hair cut, I learned how to survive and not be a victim."
"When I hear cult I think of Charles Manson or Jim Jones and they had a lot of rules, doesn't sound like something you'd be into," He said, standing up carefully as he moved to sit on a bar stool looking at her face.
"Don't know who the fuck they are," She said, crossing her arms over her chest. "I was looking for answers, drugs, sex, going to a better place," She scoffed softly, "going to a better place…right, it was all about money to them, shake down a colony to keep up their little vices, and guess who was their ace in the hole?" She asked rhetorically, her eyes never leaving the glass, "They didn't give a shit about me," she said.
"What happened when you realized that?" He asked.
She turned her head looking at him, "What do you think?" She asked.
He didn't need to think too hard, he remembered the Purgatory. "You sound as if you've met nothing but bad people Jack, no one can live their life without meeting at least one good person," he said, moving closer to her, standing on the opposite side of the piano.
"Everyone wants something, because of that everything is fair game," She said. He knew she was avoiding responding to his comment, even more so when she suddenly changed the subject, "Murder, assault, kidnapping, drug stealing, done it all, and that's the boring shit," She said suddenly. And she wasn't done with the list adding, "Piracy, theft of military craft, destruction of a space station, and vandalism," She laughed after the last one, "That was a good one."
"Why would you even mention vandalism in that list?" He asked, his brow perked up high.
"That's what the Hanaar call it when you crash that space station I mentioned into one of their moons and make a new crater," She didn't even bother to hide the grin and chuckle as she said, "They really liked that moon."
He just shook his head, he felt a smile tugging at his lips, "I don't think the people you stole the military craft from appreciated that," he said.
"Shouldn't have left the thing unlocked," She said with a smirk, "besides, parades are boring, I helped."
He couldn't help but conjure an image of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. All the floats and flying cartoon characters, everyone having a good time. Then Jack comes barreling through in a tank shouting "Yee Haw!" shooting down Snoopy with the tanks machine gun. A laugh escaped him at the mental image, having to place his hand over his mouth and that's when he realized it…this was the first time he'd laughed since he ever woke up.
"What's so funny?" She asked a curious look on her face.
He cleared his throat before he sat down on the piano stool saying, "Nothing, sorry…don't you ever regret what you do?" he asked, his fingers brushing over the ivory keys.
"No," She answered simply.
"Shouldn't you?" He persisted.
She flinched slightly, the veil she kept over her eyes slipping slightly showing her true feelings. "I shouldn't be alive, but I am," She said looking down at the ground was there a look of…guilt? She jerked her head up, looking at him; a slight sneer crossing her lips as the veil went back up "You know why?" She asked before answering herself, "Instinct it's worked for me so far and I'm not going to change."
"There has to be something she isn't telling…" He thought looking down at the piano, looking at a reflection of himself in the glossy wood.
"No one's ever asked me about this shit…it's…weird to talk about…" She said rather softly. She looked at him jerked her thumb at the box, "So fuck you, and let's get back to work."
He just sighed, standing up from the stool he shook his arms, ready to get back to it.
Shepard dived behind cover as the explosion sent debris everywhere. When she peaked around to look she saw a huge chunk of the pillar had been blown to pieces, the door unblocked. If the quarian that set the charges of the explosives in two different places wasn't dead, she was probably going to kill them. Grabbing the charges was a fight coming and going, if she were to see another geth after this planet it was going to be all too soon.
"Took us bloody long enough," Zaeed huffed.
"I was hoping for more," Grunt complained.
"I'm betting those aren't the last," Garrus predicted.
"Let's just keep moving," She said, walking towards the door, it opened wide to a scene of dead geth and quarians spread out across the room. She walked in carefully, gun raised, clearing the room she walked over to a terminal, seeing a recording, Tali's face on the screen. She pressed the play button, hearing her voice.
"Our ancestors walked these halls with uncovered heads," She said, "the sun must have been normal back then." She took a breath before she continued, "So much space, walls of stone…I wish my friends were here…I wish Shepard was here…" she sounded rather sad near the end of the recording, Shepard planned on giving the quarian a big hug when she found her.
After the terminal stopped playing she suddenly heard Tali's voice once again, "Tali'Zorah to base camp, come in base camp."
She got confused for a moment before looking across seeing Tali's face on another screen. She walked over to it, reaching out she pressed the speaker button saying, "Tali, it's me Shepard, I'm sorry but everyone here is dead, any survivors must have fallen back."
Tali placed her hand over her heart when she heard her voice, "Shepard," She exhaled with relief, "I'm so glad you're here…we knew this was a high risk mission…damn it…" she cursed. "What are you doing here Shepard?" She asked, "We're in the middle of geth space!"
Shepard just smiled, leaning back she crossed her arms, "I was in the neighborhood, thought, 'hey why the hell not go visit Tali on a blistering hot planet?'" she joked.
Tali just tilted her head down, shaking her head, either from amusement or saying 'not funny' saying, "I appreciate you coming Shepard…it is great to hear your voice." She squared her shoulders as if to get back to business, "Kal'Reegar and what's left of the marines got me into the observatory, from where you are it's through the door and across the field." She took a quick breath before she continued, "I got the data needed, and I'm safe for now, but I've got a lot of geth outside."
Shepard nodded her head, looking over at the door seeing it locked she looked back saying, "It looks like they locked the door to keep any more geth getting through, think you can get it open on your side?"
Tali seemed to have started to press a few buttons, the door on Shepard's end suddenly turning green and opening as Tali said, "It should be unlocked now."
"You're the best Tali," Shepard said with a smile, "We'll see you soon." Tali's face fading from the comm she walked through the now open door.
The next room had closed windows, a console glowing near the middle window, she saw the door was locked. She walked over to the console, pressing buttons to override the lock down. As soon as the windows opened she saw multiple geth across the field, and a shape she wished she had never had to see again. A fucking colossus. The large geth creation slowly turned around to face them.
"Oh crap!" Garrus shouted, just as he said it a blue missile shot towards them, every one diving onto the ground as the explosion rocked the structure.
"Oh crap is a bloody understatement!" Zaeed cursed as he slowly picked himself back up.
"I hope it's like this every day!" Grunt shouted, pushing himself up onto his feet, bouncing as he punched a fist into the palm of his hand.
"God I hope not…" Shepard prayed as she pushed herself onto her feet, she didn't take the time to brush herself off, if Tali was in that door where the colossus was, she didn't have much time. Running she reached a ramp, seeing a red enviro-suited quarian crouched behind the barrier.
"Get behind cover!" He shouted, from the sound of his voice this must have been Kal'Reegar. As soon as the four got behind the wall he said, "I still have no idea why you're here, but this isn't the time to be picky!" A rocket shook the wall they were behind, causing him to jerk forward a bit, "Tali's inside over there," he said, pointing across the field, "The geth killed the rest of my squad, and they're trying to get to her, best I've been able to do is draw their attention."
Another rocket caused Shepard to jerk slightly as the ground shook, shouting, "Are you sure she's still alive?"
"The observatory is reinforced," He reassured her, "Even the geth will need time to get through it, also" He chuckled, "it's hard to hack a door when someone's firing rockets at you." He looked over the barrier a moment before looking back at them, "The geth are near platoon strength," he continued, "but the colossus is the worst part, it's got a repair protocol, huddles up and fixes itself."
"Shit…" Shepard cursed, things just kept getting better and better. "So any ideas?" she asked.
"Just one," he said, "I'm not moving so well but I can still pull a trigger, and I've got a rocket launcher the sun hasn't fried yet." He tapped his rocket launcher with his hand before he said, "You get in close, I'll keep the colossus busy, maybe even drop its shields, and with a bit of luck you'll be able to finish it off."
"You've done enough Reegar, you don't have to throw your life away," She said, disagreeing with his idea.
Reegar shook his head disagreeing as well, "I wasn't asking for your permission," he got up, pointing the rocket as he said, "My job is to keep Tali safe and this is our best sh-"
He was interrupted when Shepard got up, pushing him against the wall shouting, "We don't have enough man power for you to take a hit for the team, stand down!"
She ducked back under cover, Reegar joining her as he said, "I'm not just going to sit here while you run into enemy fire! They killed my whole squad."
"And if you want to honor your squad cover my back in case they bring reinforcements!" She shouted back.
He seemed to be having conflicting thoughts because it took him a moment to finally give in, "Alright Shepard, we'll do it your way, hit-em for me, Keelah se'lai!"
He groaned in pain, getting hit with another rubber bullet in his leg.
"Stop bitching it wouldn't hurt if you just held the barrier up!" She said as she reloaded the pistol. "Be lucky I'm not using the shot gun yet," she patted the weapon set next to her on the bar table.
After their break she had got him working for another hour on barriers, he thought all he would have to do is make it and hold it…then she suddenly pulled out her gun and started shooting live rounds at him. If he hadn't known when to move he'd more than likely been shot when his barrier gave away. She wanted him to stay still, and he wanted her to not kill him during practice. They had reached an agreement in using practice rounds and him not moving.
"You keep shooting me in the exact same spot of course it's going to start hurting!" He said, as he shifted his stance, shaking his leg.
"I can't shoot at your face or chest, so I'm going to shoot your leg unless you want a few more broken ribs," She said as she pointed the gun at his chest.
"No I'm good," he shook his head, his body slick with sweat, he was so tired, but he wasn't going to ask for a break, he focused again, taking deep slow breaths as the blue shimmer of a barrier formed in front of him, wavering from his exhaustion.
He felt her eyes upon him before she lowered the pistol saying, "That's enough, drink a juice bar and wash up before you stink up the place." He watched as she started to leave.
"Jack," He said, seeing her stop and look at him waiting, "You don't have to do this…teaching me you know."
She looked away, hiding her face as she said in a slight harsh tone, "You saved my ass on Horizon, I don't like having debts."
"You don't owe me anything," He said, sitting down on his mattress.
"Well…tough shit," She spat before she left.
He looked down at the ground, his fingers clasping together. He thought about what she said, "I shouldn't be alive, but I am." If anyone shouldn't be alive it was him, what happened in her past that could make her feel so…guilty about being alive.
He was too tired to take a shower, carefully easing himself down lying on his back, staring up at the ceiling. He raised his arm up, omni-tool glowing; pressing a few buttons he lowered his arm, closing his eyes as a song came out from the speakers in the room.
Some nights, I stay up cashing in my bad luck
Some nights, I call it a draw
Some nights, I wish that my lips could build a castle
Some nights, I wish they'd just fall off
But I still wake up, I still your ghost
Oh Lord I'm still not sure what I stand for oh oh oh
What do I stand for? What do I stand for?
Most nights, I don't know anymore…
"Reloading!"
"Firing!"
"I. AM. KROGAN!"
Shepard had decided to go with the high ground, having Garrus and Zaeed shoot the geth on the bottom as she and Grunt moved forward. It was easy to cut through the geth from their position, but then they reached the colossus, that was when things got difficult.
The geth artillery was heavily shielded, a part of her regretting not having Reegar help in firing his rocket. "Switch to disruptor mods!" She shouted, flipping a switch on her rifle as a blue icon of a bullet appeared on the side of her rifle.
The others did the same, flicking a switch on their weapons before they opened fire. "Its' shields are dropping!" Garrus said, looking through his visor as they kept the bullets flying.
"Keep at it," Shepard ordered, putting away her rifle, jerking out her grenade launcher, readying a shot.
"Almost there…" Garrus murmured, reloading his rifle before he fired again, "Fire!"
Shepard pulled the trigger of her grenade launcher, the projectile flying towards the colossus' eye. The colossus' head suddenly exploded, swaying on its' stubby legs before it fell over on its side, crackling violently before it blew up, spraying metal and rubble everywhere.
"About bloody time," Zaeed grunted as the group walked over towards the rubble, looking around before they finally walked towards the door.
The door burst open wide as Shepard walked towards it, dead geth near the door, and across the room she saw the familiar purple color of Talis' enviro-suit. "Just one moment I need to finish this down load," She said, tapping at the console before she finally turned around to look at her. "Thank you Shepard," She started, "If it wasn't for y-Eep!" the quarian yelped as Shepard suddenly grabbed the woman, hugging her very tightly.
"I'm so glad to see you Tali…" she said, feeling her old friend hug her back, for the first time in a while, everything seemed right in the galaxy.
Authors Note: So ends this chapter, please tell me what you think! I personally thought the little scene with Grunt and the Colonel was rather cute, while Grunt is supposed to be a perfect soldier I feel there is a bit of a childish side to him, like Lennie from Mice and Men, but I may be wrong! Tell me in reviews what you think!