"Jack. I want to talk."
"Fuck off."
Garrus raised one talon before setting it lightly against the 'CELL-BLOCK EVACUATION A' button.
"Tell me to fuck off one more time, Jack. Please. You'd really make my day."
She didn't say anything.
Satisfied with her silence, he decided to speak.
"I want you to know I'm the good guy here."
"The good guy? The good guy."
Garrus curbed the urge to just press the evac-button after Jack's effortless sneer and eye-roll.
"Yup. I fucking buy it." She continued, "What kinda 'good guy' threatens a prisoner with sending her out an airlock?
"A very fucking pissed off one, Jack."
She crossed her arms and shrugged.
"You killed two of my guys back on Purgatory. Two very good men."
"You were trying to take me."
"YOU struck first."
"I'm a crazy bitch."
"EDI. Vent the cabin pressure in cell one, please."
"Yes, Mr. Vakarian."
The room's typical white lighting turned yellow before a klaxon blared in her cell.
Jack's eyes widen slightly when she could hear a rotor prep the airlock evacuation sequence.
"What the fuck are you doing?"
"The attitude better drop in the next fifteen seconds, Jack, or I watch the air get sucked freely from your lungs." He took a step back and crossed his arms, "Do you understand?"
"You're bluffing."
"Cabin pressure evacuation sequence initiated. Please vacate cells immediately."
Hissing air crept around the seals on Jack's cell door.
"Willing to bet your life on that?"
Five seconds pass.
"Stand by. Interior pressure equalizing with exterior atmosphere."
"…Okay! Okay! Fuck!"
"EDI?"
"It's done, Mr. Vakarian. Evacuation disengaged."
Garrus waited for Jack to catch her breath and stared at her darkly.
"Jesus Christ… dude… What the hell do you want from me?"
"An apology."
"I did what I thought I had to do. I didn't know, okay?"
Garrus dragged a stool over and sat right up to the plexi-glass and stayed quiet for a minute.
"We're going to get to know each other a little better, Jack."
"Fine. Let me put on a shirt. It got fucking cold as shit in here." She took off the leather strapping around her chest and put on a shirt.
All in front of Garrus.
"Space is cold." Garrus said tersely.
As odd as it was, she laughed. "No shit, dude… what do you want to talk about."
"I want you to know about the men you killed. So that way, you think twice before killing someone you know nothing about. To know that they had lives, and dreams, and feelings. That they might still be here right now, had you not attacked us outright after you saw the Cerberus markings on Miranda and her soldiers."
He took a deep breath and began.
"Their names were Jugath Ishvak and Amarath Sentaih. Ex-cabal and STG; both explosive experts. They had their moments. Hot headed, both of them sometimes. But they righted more wrongs than you could possibly count. Saved more lives than I can remember. Thousands of people, maybe." Garrus lectured.
"Guess where that got them, Jack." He asked rhetorically with a crass sounding hiss, "Biotic inflicted rebar wounds. Jugath took six to the chest. Amarath took two in the lung and one in the eye socket."
Jack's silence was Garrus' invitation to continue.
"Let me set this straight for you." Garrus said factually, "Realize that I'm a non-human working on a pro-human ship. Everyone here? Save for Miranda and Jacob, do not have careers in Cerberus outside a year. They're all here for one purpose. Would you like to know what that purpose is?"
Jack crossed her arms and sat on the floor. "Why."
"To stop the collectors from abducting hundreds of thousands of people away from their homes."
Jack's gaze broke and she stared at the floor nonplussed. "And what. You were coming to me for my help?"
"Exactly!" Garrus lashed out as he thudded the plexi with a pointer, "And you killed good FUCKING people because we, the galaxy, needed you."
They stayed quiet for another minute and Jack hung her head low the entire time.
"I think it's my turn, now." Jack murmured lamely, "I don't know how much you know about me or my relationship to Cerberus... but they had a cell group way back. With some fucked up intention to enhance biotic potential in children."
"They kidnapped you." Garrus said as more of a statement then question.
"Yeah. They did." Jack took off her shirt again and traced the scars that ran the length of her sternum, neck, and back. "See this? See these scars? I was a lab rat for years. Years."
Garrus' mandibles pressed into a low frown.
"I wasn't the only one either. Hundreds of kids. Funneled through like trash. Terrible. Fucking terrible."
Garrus understood how deep Cerberus' went to keeping their book of principle and morality conspicuously absent.
But children?
To Garrus, TIM probably spent all of about a minute writing up a manifesto for Cerberus.
"The means were justified if the ends were met with satisfactory results."
Probably framed the thing or put it on a plaque to look at. You know. To make him and everyone else sleep better at night for all the shit they'd tuck under their belts at the end of every day.
"What happened to the place?"
"I got out. Killed anyone that got in my way. Don't know what happened after that."
"And you've been on your own since." Garrus assumed.
"Yeah. So you can understand how bottomless my hate goes for Cerberus, Vakarian." She murmured, "Falls to fucking infinity. I acted on impulse from experience."
"While I understand your intention, Jack, it isn't an excuse for just killing people."
She got up and went right up to the plexi before pointing at him. "Fuck. You."
"EDI," Garrus said while watching Jack flinch slightly, "please access log six, index one, Purgatory file. First person perspective, please."
"Yes, Mr. Vakarian. To whom should I play it to?"
"Subject Zero."
Just as Garrus ordered, a screen in her cell turned on for Jack to watch.
"This from your view?" Jack asked as she watched.
"Yes." Garrus answered.
The video played and Jack watched Garrus load his bean bag rounds, prep his tazer, and pepper spray, while the others in his group did the same.
On the other side of the locked door, they could hear the muffled sounds of some Blue Sun guards getting ripped apart (quite literally) by their objective.
"She's right through the other door." Miranda said, "Steadfast. ROE's changed now. Less than Lethal rounds only. Pacify the target if necessary. Understood?"
A small chorus of 'yes ma'ams' sounded.
"Open the door."
The door opened and they walked through carefully with their guns raised to scan the room.
Other than the sound of their foot-steps scuffling across the grated floor, was Jack's labored breathing with her back facing them.
"Jack?" Garrus called out as carefully as he could, "We're not here to hurt you."
The topless woman turned around and saw the Cerberus markings on Miranda's uniform and another from the lapel on a Cerberus soldier.
Suddenly, her biotics glowed vibrantly while her sneering frown turned into gnashing teeth.
"Jack! Please, listen! We're aware of your connection to Cerber—"
"Freeze it there EDI." Garrus asked.
In the vid, as Jack charged, the vid she was watching froze.
"Now play at half the speed. Right after twenty five point three."
"Yes Mr. Vakarian."
"Right there, Jack." Garrus pointed as Jack continued watching, "See that?"
Jack saw the nine or so rebars she'd thrown with her biotics at the salarian and batarian. All of them hit home, both of them dead before they even hit the floor.
Ordinarily, Jack felt fine killing people the way she did. Proud even.
It was a high, honestly. Warmed her right up, head to toe.
But reflecting on what happened…
Understanding now the good willed intentions of those she'd killed?
And watching herself do it…
She felt like hurling.
The woman couldn't bring herself to say anything. So she kept silent and rubbed her eyes with her arms to keep the tears from falling.
"You were smiling, Jack." Garrus growled, "Smiling. Who does that."
Several long seconds pass and the two of them said nothing.
But the gravity of the situation was dawning on the woman. She was a monster. And it was all because of Cerberus.
"I need help." She whispered, "A lot of it."
"I don't think I can ever forgive you for what you did, Jack. But I'm willing to put it behind me if you think you can handle yourself."
She nodded. "Yeah. I can do that."
And as simple as that, Garrus opened the door to her cell and sighed. "When's the last time you've had someone to talk to like this."
"Years dude." She rasped quietly, "Thanks."
Garrus remained steadfast. "Don't thank me. Do you know who I am, Jack?"
"Yeah. You served with Shepard on the old Normandy two years ago with some others and kicked Saren's ass."
"We also kicked Cerberus' ass along the ride. So don't disillusion yourself with some idea that I don't realize that Cerberus is bad. Real bad, in your case."
"It sucks you won't have Shepard to help you guys this time."
"Oh, he's still alive." Garrus motioned for her to step out of the cell.
"No shit. I should've expected that."
She webbed her fingers together and bit her lip, "Uh, you know… That was nice. Talking to someone for once."
"It's better than killing people, absolutely." Garrus agreed.
"I have to ask though… were you really going to throw me out the airlock?"
Garrus looked at her with a blank stare. "It was a serious consideration."
She smiled.
"I'm not joking."
She didn't seem all that affected by him telling the truth.
"Where we going?"
"Up to CIC. You can meet Miranda and tell her first hand that you'll cooperate with us." He pressed the button for the elevator and waited.
"After that?"
"We'll find you something to eat, then we'll requisition you a cot and supplies." He said before glancing at her prison jumpsuit, "...And a proper uniform."
"So you said we're after Collectors. We got a mission or somethin'?"
"Yeah, actually. We're en-route to picking up Shepard himself right now."
"Sweet."
As they step inside the lift, she turned to him and crossed her arms. "Thanks for being straight with me."
He gave her a sideways glance. "Of course."
"You guys gonna give me my amp back?"
"That's not up to me." Garrus faced her, "But the answer will be no. You're the first person here to inflict casualties to the crew. You're unstable, Jack. The crew does not like you. And right now, I don't like you either."
"I guessed so."
When the elevator door opened, Miranda was already there with Jacob close by and a soldier clad in white armor to greet them.
"EDI tell you?" Garrus said as a way of greeting.
"Yes." Miranda replied before staring at Jack, "How are your injuries?"
"They're fine." Jack said, automatically disinterested in looking at the brunette.
Garrus cleared his throat to remind Jack of what she needed to say.
"Oh. Right. You have my full cooperation too, cheerleader. I ain't gonna hurt anyone on the ship. Promise."
Miranda raised an eyebrow. "If you need anything, Jack, please put in a requisition order and we'll have it delivered to you."
"Right-o."
Miranda waved Jacob and the soldier off. "Anything else?"
"Nope."
"Very well. You're dismissed." She faced the turian, "Garrus, if you could get her up to speed with everything, please?"
"You got it." He pressed the button and the elevator closed before bringing her back down to engineering.
"Everyone here, Jack, are trained and capable soldiers. Including the crew." He faced her, "You try anything, pocket a shiv, or disturb the peace, there won't be any second guesses. They'll kill you. Or lock you up until we drop you off at an Alliance prison. Don't screw this up."
"You guys sound like a bunch of assholes." She quipped.
"We are when you kill our guys with rebars." Garrus said, denying her humor.
She frowned.
"How much of an introvert do you consider yourself, Jack?" Garrus asked.
"A huge one. Put me away from everyone else."
"Works for me. We'll put you down in maintenance below engineering. I'm sure Donnelly and Daniels will love that."
Jack's brows furrowed. "Who?"
"You'll know soon enough."
"So… you wanna tell me more about picking up Shepard?"
"Right. Our ETA's in an hour. He's with a bunch of quarians right now." Garrus explained.
"What the hell for?"
"If you know me, then you should remember Tali'Zorah from the vids too."
"Yeah. I do. Why's he with her?"
"It's a long story. And one I don't feel like repeating." Garrus murmured, "I don't know what's going to happen, but I'm hoping this goes through without incident."
"Heard that never happens when you run with the Normandy."
"You heard right. But I'm hoping this'll be different."
"Why would this be hard? You act like he doesn't know you're coming."
Garrus gave her the hardest look of his life.
"That's because he doesn't."
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