Joker was still at his chair, even at three past standard time midnight, though he'd settled past monitoring thrust levels and engine output curves to engage in his second passion, Galaxy of Fantasy. His human necro-thief was battling another player in a automated duel; but despite a immersive sound and near 3d display from his omnitool, he had spent the last 22 minutes focused on a narrow string of red and white number strings scrolling above each avatar's head. It was this focus, and perhaps the near ear shattering metal soundtrack being played in his ear buds that kept him completely unaware of the person gesturing and waving in front of him before he felt his seat pitch to the side, avoiding a broken pelvis only by the momentary lift field that let him impact with the force of a feather.
Looking up in shock and anger, he saw a obviously irritated Jack and switched his expression to terror and the need for a bathroom break. He slowly reached over to his omnitool and tapped the power button, pulling out his ear buds in to pop in the small compartment along the wrist. "Sorry about that, I wasn't meaning to ignore you. What do you need?" The words came out in a small torrent that had Jack cocking her head.
"Edi, is this guy messed in the head or something?" Jack looked over her shoulder to the small speaker box at the fore of the ship as Edi's voice sprung from it.
"No, Mr. Moreau was just fixated on a fantasy game, or porn."
Hearing this Joker immediately jerked a fist at the camera, "Bite me, Edi, I was playing a game." at the same time as Edi added, "That was a joke."
Jack looked at the heap that was the pilot angrily murmuring "Stupid freaking AI answer machine", a moment of indecision playing across her face before she held out a hand. Joker looked at the gesture and for a second couldn't figure it out. He'd seen the gesture a thousand times, would've immediately taken the offer of assistance from anyone else out of a simple urge to get the Helpful Harry out of his hair, but seeing it from her had him drawing a blank. Was she demanding money? Maybe she was bored with the silence and wanting to break a few of his fingers?
Jerking her hand back, she snarled, "Fine, fucker, pick your own damn ass up!" before turning away to leave.
"Wait! I didn't mean anything by it, just didn't expect it. Please." It severely hurt to add the last, but he'd take the hit to make up for his idiocy, this time.
"'Kay, just whatever." Jack turned back to Joker, jerking a hand out almost imperiously before she settled a bit and calmly held out a hand. After a few seconds of muffled groans from Joker and Jack trying not to just jerk her hand back from the arm in her hand, Joker was able to lever his hips back into his seat. As soon as he'd let off slightly, Jack's hands both whipped back behind her to loop through her belt. Knowing the social withdraw tick from his own less than spectacular social development, he fought the urge to grin at another minority out of the human race's general 'blah' of normalcy. He also knew not to point it out, as it kind of came with the territory that you shouldn't point out other people's hangups unless they brought it up.
"Now that we're both feeling a little uncomfortable, what can I do for you? Or you just wanting to check out the best spot on the ship?" Joker gestured to the star field outside, closer points of light seeming to stretch out to the horizon while far off points out slowly track out of the window's field of view.
"Hear that you were on the previous Normandy, nearly went down with the ship." Joker looked over his shoulder out the window to just stare off.
"I heard you were some crazed biotic who couldn't keep her shit together," seeing her eyes narrow and her fists start to rise, he continued,"I'm just trying to point out that some crap doesn't need to come up in the first twenty words we share."
Jack stood there for a second, not really seeming to come to a decision for a moment, just waiting, before finally lowering her hands and settling back against the wall of the cockpit. "Not coming up here to let you cry about it, I'm just wanting to confirm the facts, mainly, did Shepard really die?"
"Oh, yeah, guess that's fair since you basically joined up with just his word and name for reasons why to trust the enemy." Joker had had to stop himself from just spitting out a snap answer. Jack had seen enough of the bad in the world from Cerberus and likely the Blue Suns that she'd never let something go without knowing for certain, and Joker didn't want to leave her in doubt about the Commander.
"I was dragging ass in the evac, trying to maneuver the ship into shielding the escape pods with no thruster or engine control. By the time Shepard comes to physically drag me out, I was mostly in a daze flicking back and forth between damage reports. I just fucking couldn't leave, not scared, just already thinking I'd rather be scorch mark with the ship than dead sardine in a six foot tube. Shepard just walks over, taps me on the back of the head, the moment I look back he grabs my arm and yanks me into the hall. Moving me like that fractured my arm in three places, but if he'd taken the second to remove the harness, I'd be dead. No way those Cerberus jerks would've shelled out three billion for me. He pitches me in but got his mags shorted or something by a hit we took a second later. He's just about to float out of reach when he stabs the auto cycle on the pod. Last thing of him I see up close is the happiness on his face."
"Happy, what the hell?" Jack looked over at him, beginning to think she was hearing another tale, her ire at being lied to bridging the gap between controlled frustration and blackout malice.
"You had to know him then, the man was what they call him now, Paragon of the blah, blah, blah. Watch the old vids and actually listen to what he says, a lot of that crap video editing that happened later made him seem irrational or shortsighted only happened after the council fucked things up at the battle." Seeing Jack perk up, Joker waved his hand in negation,"that's crap you'd have to ask him, and don't try to worm it out of anyone else, he'd take it personally. The things he did to that reporter after she cornered Tali," Joker shivered involuntarily at the comment before continuing,"anyways, he was probably happy he'd gotten off pretty much everyone, including Ashley. It took him coming back and having a few nasty surprises to change him. Day we met after his reunion with Tali, I'd have sworn Cerberus had skipped resurrection and just teleported him instantly to that moment. He was the same."
"The guy who walked out of the cargo hold earlier to talk with the Illusive Dick wasn't a fucking paragon of shit, I was expecting to hear a call a hour later to funerary services for the Bitch." Hearing this, Joker couldn't help a small grunt as he tried not to laugh at the Illusive Man's new moniker. He quickly reined in the eruption as he saw Jack glare at him.
"Sorry. Continuing on, he's had some stuff behind the scenes happen; and in addition, in public he's been the target of ridicule in the media for his statements about the Reapers before he died, he came back to find the Alliance had dropped the ball with the council, and even Anderson basically said he needed hard proof to make any real headway on preparations. I'd say his return from the Archangel rescue mission was the first time I'd encountered this facet of Shepard. The swearing, the lack of biotic control when he's pissed, the tendency to make his enemies hurt before taking them out, that shit's new. Kelly just says it's venting or calibrating, or some such crap. Hopefully Garrus will have some tips."
Jack just looked at him expectantly for a minute before he added,"That's it, you want more, ask the man himself.", before turning back to the stars and turning his omnitool back on. Seeing the obvious dismissal had Jack almost jerking him back before she caught herself. She wanted more, and could easily make the cripple sing, but knew the look in his eyes as he eyed her slowly levitate a loose clip of wire from some shoddy clean up. He'd tell five hundred lies, each more believable than the last before she'd get near the truth. Huh, no fun if he's actually on the level.
Dropping the distraction, she nodded curtly before smoothly walking off. Joker could hear her boots tapping down the hall and only when he heard them knock against the stairs did he release the breath he'd been holding.
-.
She was back in her old cell, hearing muffled shouts of protest as kids were dragged in pairs down the hall to experimentation. Siblings, rivals, they tried to grab at any hand stretching out from the cells lining the halls. The floor vibrated as the howls of hundreds of children could be felt though her cell. The floors were covered in finger paints depicting people bent over in pain, the x's for eyes clearing showing those past help. Around the walls were pictures of giants, each distinct and cruel looking, she'd obviously spent much more time on the white coated guards than the hastily drawn victims.
She'd long ago stopped allowing herself to feel pity for people just out of reach, she started to hate them, wishing just a few could be taken off without all the screaming, crying, and dragging ass. Not like it'd ever saved a single one, so why keep fucking up her sleep. She'd tried a couple times in the beginning to beg for mercy, to plead for these nameless strangers, but their only response was to take special interest in those she'd try to save. They'd be just as like to be tortured in front of her as thrown in the ring to fight. The only thing she could do was mark the walls, tell the story for anyone coming along to this hell someday, seeing her mummified corpse next to a group of scratch marks at the door, the only evidence of each victim being a plainly done stick figure drawn anywhere there was room. Jack often had fantasies of being that skeleton, somehow seeing herself just gone from the world.
Hearing the cries die down, she rolled over, bringing her knees to her chin as she tried to squeeze her head into the pillow and block out the last dregs of misery before people got back to the steady state of depression. Her eyes popped back open at another cry, this time from her wing. Yelling in frustration, Jack flipped her pillow above her head and forced her head tight against the cot, hoping a vice of pressure might block the noise. Her eyes popped open to trace her latest addition to the walls.
Standing in a field of green, the only green used in the entire room, stood a negative of the guards, black against a white sterile horizon, the green a wash as though the rain had been colorful. The black suited shape was hunched over one group of victims, seeming to try and reach from the walls to the floors figures. Jack couldn't remember is she'd ever seen the figure before, or if she'd imagined him, but she'd talk as though he could hear, her only companion.
"Should've tried biting through their arteries instead of hoping to drag ass." The figure on the wall stood silent, as though in approval sentiments. "Hell, I'd do it if I wasn't hoping to take a few with me when they come." Hearing no words of vilification or rejection, she allowed herself a moment of happiness at the idea of the figure was praising her wit.
Her distracting herself had let her hand slip, the cries piercing her bubble a moment before she could pull the pillow back up and imagine that her room was all that existed of the universe, that she was one and soon to die. Huffing with frustration, she slung the pillow and thin sheet into the corner to stubble over to her window. Knowing it was useless, she thumped her fists a couple times against the glass before giving up, just deciding to lay on the floor with her x-eyed companions. Today was her birthday, not that she'd have cared to know, and twelve year old Jack was only nine years away from her eventual escape.