Roarkshop here: So this, hopefully, marks the last of my long ass authors notes, as I should hopefully be launching my blog soon.
Happy New Year People! I hope your 2012 is full of love and laughter! I wish all the best for all of you! As a New Years present, along with the new chapter, I am also updating the first 10 chapters to the re-edited, new and improved versions. I have fixed a lot of the awkward parts, spelling, grammar, and just generally cleaned them up a lot. Also there are a couple NEW SCENES! A few people requested that I delve a little deeper into certain parts and so I've gone back and added some stuff I thought would make the chapters a little richer, but not effect the overall story at all. So feel free to go back and reread them if you're interested, but if not, know that the story isn't effected by any "new" information like that.
The blog is coming along nicely! I've almost got it done and am excited to get it launched. I should be doing it in the next couple of weeks, ideally that is if my current situation doesn't impede me too much.
Now for the bad news: The people we are renting our house from have sold the house, so now we have until the end of January to move. Inconvenient. So while I will make sure that it doesn't effect posting day on Monday, it might effect how quickly I get the blog done or something like that. If it DOES effect a post day, I will mention it on any or all of the other social media I am currently using to communicate with you guys. I'm sorry for any delays this causes, but life happens.
I have updated my main profile here so if you're interested in any/all of my contact information on the internet that I'm slowly taking over (Insert Mr. Burns hands here), just go to my profile page from here on out and I won't have to be all like "HEY CHECK OUT MY FRICKING WHATEVER ACCOUNT". I hope to talk to you all sooN! ^_^
Thank you all again, I hope, by now, you realize how much your continued support means to me. But if you don't, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO ME AND I LOVE YOU GUYS!
Be safe! And live with love!
Roarkshop.
"She's really not a bad kid," Shepard said, watching Miranda shyly talk to her estranged sister. They were both smiling and laughing. Shepard thought it was good to see the relief in Miranda. "Maybe this will loosen that stick up her ass."
"You're so sentimental, Shepard," Garrus teased.
"It's weird," she said tilting her head to the side. "For a genetic twin, they really don't look that much alike. Maybe Oriana wasn't genetically modified like Miranda was?"
"Or maybe Oriana is just wearing clothes."
They both had a good laugh at that as they made their way back to the Normandy, leaving Miranda to her family.
Shepard spent the next few hours scanning planets for valuable resources while the crew filtered off to bed. She didn't really realize how late it was until Joker came down from the Cockpit.
"Still up, Commander?"
She laughed and leaned her hands on the railing. "Yeah, I guess I should turn in soon."
"Hey uh," the pilot cleared his throat. "Shepard."
"Hmmm?" She turned around to face him and leaned to sit on the railing behind her, crossing her arms.
Joker rubbed the back of his neck, obviously uncomfortable. "I'm sorry for getting you killed."
She smiled. "What are you talking about, Cripple? The Collectors destroyed the Normandy."
"Yeah," he said. "Yeah I know but..." Shepard didn't know how to respond to Joker trying to have a serious conversation. She never really saw him even attempt it.
"What's on your mind, Joker? I've never needed to give you permission to speak freely before, you've kind of always just... done it."
He laughed a little and nodded.
"Talk to me," she said. There was a long silence as he thought out his words before he spoke.
"When Cerberus first brought you back, I could see that something was super wrong with you. I mean it was you, but it wasn't. I don't know how to explain it." He took his hat off and rubbed the top of his head before putting it back on. "I thought maybe you were just pissed at me for getting you killed, which I wouldn't have blamed you for. Which was why I've kinda been at arms length this whole time. But I realize now you weren't mad at me, because you've come back full swing and you and I picked up like nothing even happened. So I never really got the chance to apologize to you...for... you know... the day you died."
"Joker," she said, approaching him.
"If I hadn't stayed in the Cockpit... If I had evacuated like everyone else...Maybe, I dunno, maybe you could have made it out."
"Don't do that, it's over now. I don't blame you, I never did."
He scoffed. "You'd be the only one, then. And it doesn't make me feel any better about it. The Normandy was my home, I just didn't want to let her go. But it was just a ship, Shepard. And I watched you get spaced all because I didn't realize that."
"Joker, no one blames you. And if they do, tell me. I'll break their legs."
He laughed.
"It's over now," he said. "I don't know that anyone still holds it against me, what with you walkin' around and shit now. Kaidan didn't talk to me for about a month. And Garrus, Jesus, I've never seen someone so angry."
"Garrus was mad at you?"
"Well I never really knew what he was thinking back in the day. He was always so military, so 'ex-cop'. But I was there when Anderson told him you went down with the ship, it was pretty brutal. I think he still blames me for it."
She sighed and moved next to Joker to lean on the railing with him. "I didn't think he would get so hurt," she said. "I watched the vid of my funeral. Christ, he was so sad."
"Yeah, we all were, Commander. But you and Garrus, well, you've been close since we picked him up on the Citadel. It hit Garrus a special kind of hard."
"I didn't think it would hit him that hard," she admitted. "I didn't think it would hit him 'go-to-Omega-and-kill-everyone-I-see' hard."
"Yeah, I can't think of a worse fate than getting beat to death with the stick Garrus had up his ass for 2 years."
She laughed.
"He stayed on the Citadel for a while," Joker continued. "He tried to pick up your mantle after you were gone, he really did. I was grounded on the Citadel and watched when he would try and tell people the Reapers were coming. But when the Council finally dismissed you as the 'over-tired specter' well, I think that was the last straw for him. It was the last straw for a lot of us."
"The fucking Council," she said with a scoff. "I swear they must be like... Reaper sleeper cells or something."
"I wouldn't be surprised."
"What happened when he found out?"
"He burst into Anderson's office demanding he tell him where you were. I guess he found out about the Normandy going down but didn't know anything else. Then Anderson told him you were gone and he threw some dudes."
Shepard laughed. "That sounds like him."
"It was crazy, Shepard. He's always so calm and collected. I had never seen him lose his shit like that."
"I've only seen it once. We sparred once for about ten minutes, on the SR1, because we were both so pissed about that.. god damn... expose that reporter did. I was winning so I think his fury got the best of him. God, he was so pissed. He pinned me down by my throat and honest to shit, Joker, it's the only time I've ever been afraid of him."
"Maybe that's how turians do foreplay," Joker teased.
"It totally is, I bet," she said with a laugh. "Still it wasn't that. I think I'd know if it was that sort of thing. No, if it had been anyone but me, I think he would have killed them."
"Shit, remind me never to fuck with you when he's around."
"You should know better than to fuck with me no matter whose around, Brittle Bones," she taunted.
"Rude," he said.
"You just better hope he doesn't die," she said with a laugh. "I might end up killing all of you."
Joker eyed the Commander up and down for a long moment with his arms crossed.
"He really means a lot to you, doesn't he, Shepard?"
"He brought me out of my psycho-haze after I woke up. And before you say anything: No," she interrupted Joker as he opened his mouth. "It wasn't with sex. He just brought me back to reality. He's the closest thing I've got to family, Joker. I think I'd honestly be lost without him sometimes."
Joker wrapped an arm around her neck and pulled her down, scratching his knuckles on the top of her head. "How could you get lost? You have the best pilot in the universe!"
She laughed and wriggled out of his grip, smacking him on the shoulder. "That's definitely true," she said.
"The Illusive Man has an urgent mission for you, Commander," EDI chirped.
"Thank you, EDI," Shepard said with a sigh. "I swear to god, that guy..."
"Yeah he seems kinda pushy," Joker said. "What with the AI spying on us and the cameras everywhere."
"Tali's working on that," Shepard said heading towards the armory as Joker followed her. "I don't think we can disable EDI, but the listening devices maybe."
"That's a shame. I would really like to be able to fly the ship without her commentary all 'Mr. Moreau this, Mr Moreau that.' It's like being in flight school again."
"Really? She's kind of growing on me."
"E'tu, Shepard? Must I wage this war alone?"
Shepard laughed as they stepped into the armory where Garrus was tinkering with something or another.
"Hey Garrus, what are you doing up so late?"
"Fixing your assault rifle that you fried with red sand," he said without looking up from his work.
"What would I do without you, Bird-lizard?" she said in a mocking tone before heading towards the comm room.
"Love you too, Bug," he said as the doors closed behind her. Once her scent disappeared, Garrus turned to Joker and looked at him sideways, exhaling through his nose.
"What?" asked the pilot.
"I never blamed you, Joker," Garrus said.
Joker swallowed, suddenly very embarrassed. "Sheesh, Shepard wasn't kidding about your hearing."
Garrus laughed. "It can be quite the curse," he said, wiping his hands on a rag as he turned to lean on the table. "If anything, I was mad at Shepard. That first few months I tried to hate her for it."
"You tried to hate Shepard? For dying?"
"Well yeah, anger is much easier to deal with than grief," he admitted with a sigh. He put the rag to the side, looking at the floor. "She's too good, Joker. If she would just... I don't know... show some semblance of self preservation maybe I could sleep better at night. But she doesn't. She would always rather it be her than any of her people."
"Maybe she's learned her lesson," Joker said, leaning on the wall. "Seeing how everything fell apart without her, maybe she's realized how valuable she is."
"You show me a Jane Shepard who doesn't throw herself in front of bullets for her people, and I'll show you someone who isn't Jane Shepard."
Joker laughed.
"I love what they've done with the place," Garrus said as they entered the disabled Collector vessel.
"It's like a giant insect hive," Grunt said.
They passed horror after horror on the vessel. Shepard was finding it harder and harder to stay positive. Piles of dead bodies, sick experiments, realizing that it was the same ship from both Horizon and that killed her two years ago. On top of all that, the protheans had been turned into the Collectors, enslaving their entire race.
It was like Shepard's own little personal hell. All that was missing was a hospital.
"Something's not right, Shepard," Garrus said. She turned around to look at him and he shook his head.
"Really? I think it's kind of homey," Shepard teased, very seriously considered heading back. She trusted Garrus' instincts enough to know that he wouldn't say it if he didn't have a really bad feeling.
That's when they saw all the pods.
"They're going to target Earth," Grunt said, realization hitting the three of them.
"Not if we stop them," Shepard said, storming off, suddenly committed to completing the mission. But once she accessed the panel, there was a weird power surge. "What just happened?"
"This was not a malfunction, Shepard," EDI said. "This was a trap."
"God damn it," Shepard said as the Collectors started closing in.
"I knew it," Garrus cursed, helping Grunt up after the platform had knocked him over.
Harbinger, husks, Collectors, you name it, they were pouring in on them. Every time they eradicated them, another platform flew in with more shit to kill. Shepard stood on the head of a possessed Collector and fired a shotgun blast into it.
"Releasing control," it bellowed.
"Pussy," she said with a smile.
Shepard had a rather unpleasant conversation with EDI about the trap, leading to the realization that the Illusive Man knew it was a trap before he sent them in.
"And here I thought I'd had my betrayal and attempted murder for this year," Garrus said with a sigh.
"Looks like we have to fight our way out," Shepard growled. "Let's get a move on so Joker doesn't have to leave us behind."
They killed their way through the ship, a special kind of determination in her. She wasn't going to die, not again, and not without giving the Illusive Man a piece of her mind that she could cram down his pathetic throat.
Suffice it to say she was angry.
She sent Grunt and Garrus up the ramp to get a better look as she took out a few collectors from short range. Shepard charged a Collector, thinking it was the last one, pouring a stream of rifle fire into its torso as she ran at it. By the time she saw the Praetorian it was already firing at her.
The blast from its laser eyes hit her in full force, out in the open. Shepard saw blue exploding all around her and her speakers crackled in her ears.
She screamed as the pain burned through her, and a chill went through Garrus. It was a horrible sound.
"Shepard!" Garrus called, coming out of cover to try and distract it. She collapsed as it turned to fire a shot at him and Grunt up on the ledge, and she took the opportunity to crawl behind a small wing of cover. She saw Garrus take a hit, and cursed to herself for not being more careful.
She took out her shotgun and waited for it to make its way around her cover so it could fire at her. She heard Garrus' furious rifle fire as he tried to drop it.
She waited as it started to float over the cover she was behind, then summoned all of her strength and hurled herself onto the top of the block and put herself directly under it, where it couldn't hit her with its laser. She fired directly up into its stomach and, as she expected, it hurled itself down to try and regenerate its shield, right on top of her.
Garrus saw the grenade in her hand, but she couldn't have been planning what he thought she was planning. It was only as they made eye contact, right before it slammed down on top of her, that he knew she was.
"Shepard, no!" he called out.
Just as she was flattened under the thing, she slapped her omni-tool to activate the command that restored her shields, and pulled the pin from the grenade. It erupted in a bright ball of yellow flame and greenish blue goop.
Garrus and Grunt rushed down to the center of the explosion to see her lying there, covered in muck, trying to hoist herself up.
"Spirits, Commander," Garrus fumed. "What's the matter with you?"
"That was impressive, Shepard," Grunt cheered as he picked her up with one hand on the back of her armor.
Her shields were down and she had obviously taken some of the blast as she swayed back and forth like a drunk, looking at her hands.
"Well...that's...just...disgusting..." she slurred.
"Looks like you took a nice blow to the skull," Grunt said.
"I think ...you...took a blow to the face!... Hah!"
Grunt slapped her on the back with a cheer.
Garrus laughed and put a hand on his helmet, shaking his head.
"Commander," Joker said. "You may want to double time it, you know so we can leave before they blow the Normandy in half."
Two hours, Garrus thought, stomping toward the elevator back on the Normandy. Two hours since we've been back and she still hasn't come to the Med Bay. Stubborn, stubborn human.
He burst into her room, mandibles pulled against his face angrily, clenching his fists. It looked like she was reaching for a spot on her back that she couldn't quite get. She stopped when she saw Garrus.
"Hey, Buddy," she said, putting her arms down.
"Don't give me that crap, Shepard. Why haven't you gone to the Med Bay?"
"Grunt took a pretty bad shot to the side," she shrugged. "Didn't want to take up the docs time with something minor."
"Bug, Grunt regenerates. You almost exploded."
She held up a finger and smiled.
"Ah-hah! Operative word being almost."
He smiled, he couldn't help it, damn her.
"What is it you are trying to do?" he asked as he approached.
"I'm trying to take my shirt off," she said, reaching awkwardly. "But it's, I don't know it's stuck to me."
"Let me see," he said waving a hand, motioning for her to turn around. She did and he recoiled. "Agh!"
"What?" she said panicked.
"Oh nothing," he said. "Your shirt is only melted into your skin,"
"What?"
"Yeah, come on," he said, taking her hand. "We're going downstairs."
"No, no. It's fine. It doesn't even hurt. Just take it off."
"Shepard..."
"Seriously, Garrus. It's fine."
He sighed through his nose. He knew how much she hated the Med Bay, and why she was really avoiding it. He also knew how stubborn she was. Not to mention that she was coherent enough that flinging her over his shoulder would be a much bigger struggle than when she was high on red sand. He turned her around to face him and hooked his talons under the bottom of the tight fabric of her shirt.
"This is probably going to hurt," he said to her. "A lot."
"I love it when you talk dirty," she said with a grin.
He laughed. "Would you shut up and put your arms up?"
She did and he lifted her shirt until she was exposed from the neck down, besides the bra she had on covering her curves. The shirt stopped just as it covered her face, only her hands sticking out the top of it, the shoulder where it was coagulated to her skin wouldn't give.
"AGH," she wailed. "Holy-jumping-fucking-jesus,".
"Yeah that looks painful," he said laughing. She looked rather ridiculous, with her arms straight in the air, her head still in her shirt. She bent over so he could look at where the shirt was attached to her, and he tried to peel it off. Which lead to another stream of curses from her, stomping her feet around. He laughed again as she flailed in her shirt, unable to see him through it. That was when the doors whooshed open, a furious Dr. Chakwas filling the space. "Uh oh."
"What?" Shepard said as she stood up, forgetting her arms were still extended over her head and accidentally hitting him in the face with her hand, knocking his visor off. She looked at him, or at least she thought she did, she still couldn't really see through the shirt over her head.
"Doc's here."
Shepard turned to where she figured the doctor was, but was off by about 15 degrees. Her hand coming out the top of her shirt waved. "Hey, Doc," she said happily.
"This isn't what it looks like," Garrus said, his hands up defensively.
"Right, Garrus and I uh..." Shepard struggled in her shirt but still couldn't get it to come back down so she could see. She finally gave up, and embraced it. "Garrus and I were just about to have some hot human-on-turian action."
Garrus face-palmed.
"And," she continued. "Since there's nothing wrong with kinky, inter-species sex between consenting adults, I'll kindly ask you to-"
"Her shirt is melted onto her skin," Garrus interrupted, pointing at her.
"Judas!" she shouted, whirling on him, accidentally hitting him in the face again.
"No," he said pointing to himself. "I'm Garrus."
"No," she scoffed, still hidden in her shirt. "Judas is a very notorious betrayer back on Earth."
"Oh, that makes more sense. Would you like me to put your shirt back on?"
"Yes, please."
Dr. Chakwas started laughing so hard they were sure Joker probably heard it in the Cockpit.