Cursed

by Hookshot25

Clayton Carmine has only known hate and carnage for so many years. But once he survives the war he hoped to die in, things get strange. When people need help he isn’t one to shy away, and while helping Baird he gets sent to a place in dire need of a man like him. A man that can’t be claimed by death as easily as his kin.

8. Grunt Work

"You'll be headed to Korlus. There's a krogan warlord named Okeer. He'll be valuable to the mission, but you know what I really want to talk about Shepard. Clayton Carmine. I'd like to have a word with him, make sure we're all on the same page." The Illusive Man says while puffing on a cigarette.

Shepard blinked at the Illusive man, "Carmine's been asleep the past two days, and I have no intention of waking him. He sustained multiple wounds during our last mission."

The Illusive man sighed and rested back into his chair, tilting a glass of whiskey. The ice cubes clinked against the glass making Shepard narrow her eyes, fists clenching at her sides, 'Jesus Christ just spit it out.' she thinks, rather annoyed with the head of Cerberus.

"If you have something on your mind I'd suggest you let me know." Shepard says in an annoyed tone.

The Illusive man didn't look at her, he simply took a sip of his drink before setting it down, "I want a conversation with him sooner rather than later. If you won't wake him I can always contact Miranda."

Shepard grumbled and scowled at the head of Cerberus, she speaks through clenched teeth, "Alright, I'll see to it."

"Very good. Thank you Shepard." He says rather dismissively.

She didn't bother saying anything in return to the man as she leaves the conference room. A smirking Miranda is leaning on the wall outside. Shepard sighs, it was too early to deal with her and the Illusive man.

"Would you like me to come with you to grab Carmine?" Shepard shot a light glare in her direction and shook her head no, not bothering to speak to her as she walks away.

'The big guy has been out for the past couple days, no way am I bringing her. I had Karen go check on him so I know he's alright, just finally taking a good sleep after all that fighting I guess. It's weird how much I miss him...' The commander grumbles and sighs in the elevator as she thinks about the gear. Running a hand through her hair. She pauses before putting her hair up into a ponytail.

It doesn't take her long to reach the big man's room. As she opens the door and steps in she sees the gear face down in his bed. His blanket covering him from the waist down, her eyes swerved down to his hips and she found no pant line.

Her face heats up, 'I hope he doesn't sleep naked. Or do I?'

Shepard blushes lightly before shaking away the thought of stumbling upon Carmine naked. She carefully approaches and catches sight of his left hand first, which dangles off the side of his bed. His brother's tags are wrapped around his fist as it clenches his combat knife tight.

She looks at the tags with sadness in her eyes, if she had any siblings Shepard is sure she would have more insight into Carmine's situation. His big brother mentality carried into his personality often, and she smiled at the thought of his overly protective nature. Shepard always thought she'd be a good big sister.

Shepard takes the time to inspect the scars on his back further. Pausing as she hears him mumble, but can't make out what he's saying since only his messy black hair is all that can be seen of his head as it's buried in the pillow. His right arm rested above his head, and Shepard flashed her gaze onto his tattoo with a smile before returning to her original goal.

Shepard quietly inches closer to him to get a better look, she knows it's probably a bad idea but she can't help herself. She reaches a hand out unconsciously and presses her fingertips into one of his hook scars, the big man tenses underneath her touch for a moment.

Shepard freezes, the knife wielding hand of Carmine tightens as his head raises enough for Shepard to clearly hear him, "Keep your fucking hands to yerself Bryne."

She chuckles at his sleep talk, "What if I don't want to?" the commander mutters.

He mumbles more incoherent babble into his pillow before relaxing a bit. Shepard takes that as a sign to keep going and trails as much of the scar as she can from her angle. The deeply scarred tissue must have been hell to deal with when it was fresh.

Shepard couldn't imagine the amount of pain it must have caused to have even one of these kinds of wounds, let alone have one closed up. But as she counted, she noted that there were eight that dragged across the strong muscles of his back.

"Why did they do this to you Clay?" Shepard says as she pressed her hand flat against the big man's bare back. She feels him almost completely relax.

She smiles and sultrily whispers to the sleeping man, "You like hearing me talk while you sleep Clay?"

Shepard raises an eyebrow as his skin seems to get hotter under her touch, and she trails her fingers across the scars of his back up to his neck. Shepard has to inch closer to the sleeping behemoth to properly touch him.

She touches his hair, and finds it's surprisingly smooth. So much so that she can't help herself from burying her small hand in the hair at the back of his head.

The thick black locks completely drowning her small, pale hand in a sea of ink. Shepard blushes deep as a small groan comes from the sleeping man. He shifts and she quickly pulls her hand back.

He grumbles and turns his head so the right side of his face is visible. Shepard can't help herself from staring at the man. His face was contorted, a mix of pain and sadness etched onto his features. She hesitated but reached her hand out again and ran it along his jaw. She enjoyed the feeling of his light stubble, not yet quite a beard, but it was getting there.

A small triumphant look comes to her face as she sees his face relax slightly. His bullet scar catches her eye, and she takes the moment to trail it with her finger, lifting his hair to look at the rest of it.

"You've taken so much punishment. Why did you even agree to help me?" Shepard says quietly while feeling through the hair on the top of his head.

"Because it's all I know. And Garrus still owes me that drink." Carmine cracks his steel eye open and Shepard is frozen in place, hand stuck in his jet black mane. The gear smiles warmly at her though. Shepard mildly panics as shes practically looming over his sleeping form.

"Uhhh, hi Clay-I mean Carmine. I was just coming to grab you. Sorry for all that." Shepard stumbles as she pulls her hand from his hair, awkwardly coughing as she backs away from him. She almost trips over the arm of the sofa in his room but steadies herself and chuckles nervously.

'God you're whipped, but I will admit. She's too cute sometimes.' Carmine narrows his eyes but partly agrees with his inner voice. He flips himself over and gets out of bed. Shepard's breath caught in her throat, he was only in his boxers.

She averted her eyes, "Oh umm. Oh my god. I'm so sorry. I-I can come back later. S-sorry to bother you Carmine."

Before she can leave she feels a warm hand grab her shoulder. She turns with her head tilted upward to avoid her urges of staring at his delicates, "I appreciate the sentiment but you can stay if you want, I'll be quick."

Shepard's eyes betray her as she tilts her head back down to look him in the eyes, his steel orbs piercing into her like the blade in his left hand. She feels her inside melt at his warm gaze, "Alright sure."

She gives him a small, yet nervous, smile as he turns to place his brother's tags and his knife down. His own Cog tag jingles as he leans down. Shepard can't help as her eyes flick down to his lower body.

She pauses as her eyes trail over seemingly new scars, 'Wait! Holy shit those were the wounds from the prison! How the fuck did they heal so fast? They're fully scarred over.'

Shepard shook off her shock as she looks further down, her eyes almost bugging out of her head as they skim across his southern region.

'Holy fuck...I shouldn't be surprised, but damn.' Shepard thinks with a harsh blush as her pants covered thighs clench to quell the fire in her. She can't stop the torrent of thoughts that invade her mind now that she has a pretty good idea of what Carmine is working with.

Carmine quickly grabs some pants, socks, and a shirt. Like he said, he dresses quickly, lacing up his combat boots. He slipped his helmet on and let a blush come to his face. The smell of Shepard's arousal was extremely hard to ignore.

'Jesus Shepard. What the hell has her so riled up? Fuck it's hard to get out of our head, it smells so...sweet. No no, cut the crap Clayton it's not because of you. It will never be because of you. A beautiful girl like her would never stoop to your level.'

Carmine growls low to himself, he knew the voice was right. The mindset allowed him to push away her scent and focus on getting himself ready. When he looked up to Shepard from his bed she had a small disappointed look on her face.

"Everything alright Cherry?" Her eyes snapped to his helmet and she nervously laughed.

"Ha yeah I'm alright Carmine just thinking of something I'll have to do later is all." In reality she didn't like that he put his helmet back on. She really enjoyed talking with him when he didn't have his head protection on.

Carmine shrugged, her answer making enough sense to him, 'Well she is a commander after all. Plenty of responsibility.' He thinks.

Carmine stood and put his gun belt on, slipping his boltok into it after checking to make sure it was loaded. He opens his blue omni-tool to check his messages and Shepard chuckles.

The big man turned to her and smirked, "What?"

She waves dismissively, "Ah nothing, just funny to me that you have the first ever non-orange omni-tool."

"Huh, that's wild. These things can do all sorts of shit, I'm surprised they can't change color. Well mine did but it's probably something to do with the whole, dimensional travel bullshit."

The pair share a friendly laugh before Carmine checks his tool, his eyes widening, "Jeeze how long have I been out?"

Shepard smiles cutely and rests a hand on her cocked hip, "Just about two days."

He freezes, 'Fuck, guess that was bound to happen. We did take quite the beating. Guess we needed the rest. Our lazy ass definitely needs to him the gym after whatever Shepard needs us for.' Carmine shakes his head gently, successfuly brushing off the voice in his head.

Shepard covers her snicker with her hand as she watches Carmine. He comes out of his small stupor, "Ah shit, well sorry to say but that's probably going to be normal if I get too banged up out in the field."

Shepard nodded, "It's alright Carmine, I noticed your wounds were fully healed anyway. So if you have to sleep to get yourself better then go right ahead."

Carmine nods back to her and checks his messages finding two from Garrus and Doctor Chakwas respectively.

Those parts came in for your helmet. Kasumi helped speed up the process so thank her when you can. I realize you're probably still sleeping so just drop in whenever you want to fix that cracked lens. Sleep well helmet head.

-Garrus

Carmine smirked at the message, "Hey Cherry you mind if we stop in with Garrus before we go wherever you need?"

Shepard smirked, "Sure thing Cla-er Carmine."

Carmine chuckles at her slip up and nods. He opens the next message from the doctor.

Hello Carmine, I know you're still sleeping but I thought I'd just notify you of your test results. I know I've said this before but you are truly an incredible being.

Besides having no apparent allergies, you should be able to consume most alien foods and drinks, and not that it's important but you can have "physical relations" with other alien species with no negative effects. Do with that what you will. I hope to see you for those other, more extensive tests soon. I'm getting Professor Mordin involved as well, I hope that's ok with you.

-Dr. Chakwas

Carmine's neck was significantly red after reading the last bit. Shepard eyed him suspiciously, "You alright big guy?"

He slowly turned his helmet to her and extended his tool for her to read. She raises and eyebrow but takes the opportunity to get nice and close to him as she reads. She hums gently as his natural heat soaks into her, even without touching him.

Her face turns equally as red as she finishes reading it, "W-well that's kind of good news I think?"

Carmine shrugs and the pair stand in awkward silence for a minute, "So what was that thing you needed me for Shepard?"

The commander recovers from her stunned state and gently shakes her head. Carmine smiled as her red ponytail flips back and forth, gently slapping his arm.

"Yes that." She cleared her throat and took a small step back from him.

"The Illusive man, wants to speak with you. He's the head of Cerberus. I'm going to warn you now, he will try to manipulate you. I don't trust him, but I don't really have a choice when it comes to working with him."

Carmine paused for a moment, rubbing the front of his faceplate before shrugging, "I'll see what he's got to say, but I'm loyal to you. Not Cerberus. Nothing he can say to change that."

Shepard smiles and sighs in relief after hearing the big man say that, "We'd better get going, or Miranda is going to come looking for you. Or even worse, come looking for me."

Shepard wrinkled her nose at the mention of the operative. Carmine chuckled and shook his head, "Well, ladies first after all." The gear motions with his left hand to the now opened door.

Shepard snickered at him and led the both of them back through the bay to the elevator. The pair make their way up to Garrus, who upon seeing Carmine springs up from his seat where he'd been tinkering on something.

"Hey hey, the sleeping giant is finally awake. How do you feel Carmine?" Carmine accepted Garrus's extended hand and shook it.

"I feel about the same. Itching for a workout though, maybe some food, a stiff drink." Garrus and Shepard chuckle, the two nodding to one another.

"That drink will come soon enough. Those custom lenses came in, and I got your replacement as well as a couple extras just in case. Here, I'll let you have a go at it, feel free to use my tools." Garrus extended his hand that held the packaged lenses.

Carmine took the small pouch from the turian and smiled, "Thanks Garrus, this means a lot to me." Garrus waved a dismissing hand at Carmine as the gear sat down and pulled off his helmet.

Shepard smiled as his messy black hair came into view. She'd just gotten a taste of what it felt like to touch his locks and she wanted more. She clenched her lightly twitching hands and stuffed them into her pockets a Garrus and herrself made their way over to Carmine in order to watch.

"Damn these things are perfect, I can't wait to see properly again. You'd be surprised how much those cracks can fuck up my vision." Garrus nodded as he watched Carmine separating pieces of his helmet skillfully.

His helmet was custom after all. He knew all the ins and outs of his equipment. Carmine carefully removed the cracked lens from its socket and replaced it. Shepard nibbled her lip as she watched his precise hand movements.

"Damn Carmine, no wonder the engineers have been asking for help. You're really good with you hands." Garrus said as Clay chuckled. Not stopping the assembly of his head protection.

'Oh god what I want those hands to do to me.' Shepard thinks, biting hard into her lip to quell her urges. She looks to Carmine's face and finds a small warm smile. Her own smile finds her face.

It doesn't take long for the gear to put his helmet back together and place it back onto his head. It's lights are nice and bright now that he has both lenses in working order.

"Ha, sweeeet. Thanks again Garrus." Carmine extended a fist to him, and the turian quirked an eyebrow.

"Come on, don't leave me hanging chicken head." Carmine jokes.

The turian rolls his eyes and bumps Carmine's fist with his own, Carmine made an explosion noise as their fists hit. Shepard snickers at the big man's antics as Garrus sighs dramatically, but smiles at him.

The pair say their goodbyes to Garrus before heading out. As they're walking Shepard's stomach rumbles loudly, making the two stop walking and look at each other.

Shepard breaks first and the two have a nice laugh before Carmine says, "Damn Shepard, you didn't eat yet?" Shepard shook her head no and blushed, looking away for a moment. Her smile still plastered on her face.

"You want to grab a bite? I'm starving." Carmine smiles at her.

"Yes!" Shepard says eagerly.

She pauses, clearing her throat and standing a bit more straight, "I mean yeah that would be nice." Carmine's smile persists at her rather cute antics.

They make their way to the mess hall and over to their table. Kasumi, Jack, and Zaeed are already there. Kasumi was the referee for an arm wrestling match between Jack and the veteran mercenary.

Shepard and Clayton plop down in their usual spots across from one another and observe the match with interest. Jack was losing badly, but just before her hand touched the table it glowed blue. Zaeed's hand was forced down as Jack used her biotic power to beat him.

With a small yelp of pain from the merc, he yelled out, "That's fucking cheating you cunt!"

"You didn't say no biotics so go untie the knot in your panties somewhere else bitch." Jack said back with a smug look on her face. Zaeed glared at her and looks to Kasumi who shrugs.

"She's right, you two didn't agree on no abilities. She wins." Kasumi's little smirk is hidden just beneath her cloak. Carmine saw it and snickered at the master thief.

Carmine's nose was assaulted by breakfast. He smelled fresh French toast and by god, could it be? Carmine pulled his helmet off faster than Shepard has ever seen and inhale deep.

"No fucking way...Patrick you awesome Irish bastard." Shepard was confused, raising an eyebrow as Carmine's mouth turned upward into a devious smirk. His eyes glimmered with some kind of raw, primal joy.

"You stay right here I'll be back." He says to Shepard as he sprung up from his seat and set off toward the counter. Leaving a confused Shepard, and giggling Kasumi behind.

Zaeed grumbled and walked off. Jack stared at the gear as he approached Patrick, who greeted the big man rather loudly, "Look who the feck is awake! Great to see you boyo!" The red-haired cook exclaims excitedly.

Jack had seen his bare arms before, but the tight tank top Carmine wore left little to her imagination. His face was the real shocker though, his jet black locks bouncing as he laughs next to the Irish cook.

"Holy shit Carmine." Jack says while looking at a few visible scars on his back, peeking around the fabric of his shirt. She didn't expect the big man to look as good as he did.

Shepard overhears the biotic and looks over past Kasumi to Jack, "Oh yeah, forgot you haven't seen him without the helmet."

Jack bites her bottom lip as she memorizes every muscle that the gear had on display, "Damn he's fucking hot."

Shepard nodded in agreement, her sights locked on the big man as he talked cheerfully with the cook. Kasumi snickered as Jack's eyes raked along the large man's exposed arms. The biotic powerhouse notices his tattoos immediately. She smirks at the exposed ink, trailing her eyes down his right arm to the lancer tattooed on his forearm.

Born to saw was written underneath the tattoed lancer, 'So he likes his ink too. Well that makes wanting to fuck him harder to fight against.' Jack thinks with a small bite to the inside of her cheek.

Shepard notices the lust filled look on her face and she frowns, 'Chambers did mention something about Jack being extremely forward with sex. But Carmine wouldn't just fuck her, would he? Wait, does he prefer almost naked women with tattoos?'

She is brought out of her small bout of self doubt with a hand on her shoulder from Kasumi, who gives her a knowing smile, "Don't worry about Carmine and Jack. He isn't that kind of man and you know it."

Shepard returns the smile and nods to Kasumi. They're both surprised however as Carmine gently plops down in front of them, carrying multiple plates and a pair of drinks in his long arms. He places one plate and a glass of orange juice in front of Shepard.

Shepard looks up to him gratefully as her eyes widen slightly. Carmine had a plate full of bacon, the other was full of french toast. He also has his own OJ which he sips greedily.

"Shit it's been waaaay too long since I've had the best food ever created." Shepard and Kasumi snicker as he holds a crispy strip of bacon up like a holy relic. Taking a hefty bite he groans at the crunchy bacon goodness.

The noise makes a small blush finds Shepard's face. Jack gets up and maneuvers over next to Carmine. She watches the man eat with vigor, he hasn't had bacon in quite some time.

"So pyjack, Shepard told me you were from another dimension." Jack says as she sneaks a strip of bacon off Carmine's plate. The big man quickly snatches the biotic's wrist and plucks the strip from her hand.

"Don't touch my bacon little girl." He says with a side glare, not bothering to look at her fully as he finishes chewing. Shepard and Kasumi watch curiously as Shepard finishes her own plate that Carmine thoughfully prepared for her.

Jack recoils at Carmine's touch and snarls at him, "Do I look like a fucking little girl to you? Just answer the question."

Carmine sighs and finishes his juice, he moves to gather his now empty plates but Kasumi snatches them with a wink in his direction. Swiftly moving to return them to Patrick.

"You don't look like a girl at all actually, not with all those damn tattoos. If you didn't have so much of your chest exposed I'd probably assume you were a guy. But yes, I'm from another dimension." Carmine says with a small smirk as he turns to look at the fuming Jack.

She's about to say something, but she locks eyes with him. His steel orbs hide a deep pain she recognizes almost immediately. She realizes he's being honest though, and stops herself from berating the man. Instead a small devious smirk comes to her face.

"Alright, let's say I believe you. Doesn't explain why you're looking at my tits." Jack smirks triumphantly as a deep blush comes to his face. Shepard laughs at the embarrassed gear.

"I-I wasn't looking. Just something I noticed is all." Carmine stumbles a bit, and Jack smiles predatorily at him.

"You always notice a girl's tits when you talk to her pyjack?" Carmine's face burns a hotter shade of red as he quickly looks over at Shepard who is dying laughing at the exchange.

"I'm not answering that." Carmine mutters as Shepard wipes a stray tear from her eye and Kasumi comes back to sit.

"It's perfectly normal to notice a girls attributes Carmine. Just own up to it, I know you sneak looks." Carmine's eyes widen and he clenches his fists in frustration.

"I'm not some fucking pervert always looking at women's bodies. Shepard you can vouch for that, shit we've spent the most time together." Shepard waves her hand out in front of her.

"Ohhhh no no, this is your mess big guy. You get to clean it up."

The slightly exaggerated look of horror on his face makes the women at the table laugh. Carmine looks to them with narrowed eyes as he grabs his helmet and slips it over his head. It's blue lights flicker before turning back on. He crosses his arms on the table and rests his helmet-covered head on his forearms.

"You're all going on my shit list." The big man grumbles as the door to the mess hall opens. Miranda walks in with a rather irritated look on her face.

As Shepard, Jack, and Kasumi all calm down from the endless teasing they've subjected Carmine to, Miranda strides over to them.

"Ah wonderful. Carmine, the Illusive man wishes to speak with you. I've been ordered to escort you to the conference room personally." She speaks fast yet clearly.

Jack glares at the Cerberus operative as Miranda stands closely beside Clayton. Shepard also shoots daggers at Miranda, "I told the Illusive man that I'd grab Carmine. What are you doing here?"

Miranda glances toward Shepard, "The Illusive man is growing impatient. I have my orders Shepard, nothing personal."

Before Shepard can protest, Carmine stands up and loops his thumbs into the front of his gun belt, "Ah yeah, that Illusive guy. Sure I can go talk with him now. Sorry for the wait, just had to get some fuel in me."

Miranda smiles at his manners and gently lays a hand on his bicep, making the muscle tense uncomfortably, "It's quite alright, follow me."

The woman turns and begins to walk toward the door. Carmine can't help but dip his head slightly to watch her hips as she walks, 'Ah shit, maybe I am a pervert.'

He looks back to the three women at the table who look mostly angry, minus Kasumi who shakes her head at him and smiles.

"Well as riveting and embarrassing as this conversation has been, I should be going. Thanks for company Shepard. Oh and thanks for the help getting my lenses Kasumi." The two woman across from him smile.

"Any time Carmine." Kasumi says with a wink.

Carmine turns to Jack, "If you need more proof I'm not from here, my room is just past the shuttle bay. I'll be around later."

Jack nods to him and waves him off, "Yeah yeah, I'll probably have shit to do later though. Now go stare at the Cerberus cheerleader's juicy ass some more."

Another wave of red hits his neck as he stiffens and grumbles, turning and following Miranda out of the room.

The three women watch him leave. Shepard lets out a depressed sigh and rests her forearms against the table, taking a small sip of her unfinished juice.

"So, have either of you fucked him yet?" Jack's statement catches the commander off guard as she swallows the juice too fast, and begins aggressively coughing. Kasumi pats her back and answers the biotic.

"Nope. He's very fun to tease though." They both look to Shepard who wipes her mouth with the end of her sleeve.

She blushes and shakes her head, "No I haven't. Carmine has proven himself a loyal and trustworthy friend to me. I wouldn't dare take advantage of his kindness like that. He's not some prize to parade around."

Jack burst out laughing at Shepard's statement, "Him? Not a prize? You're crazier than I am if you think that. He's a gorgeous, absolute unit, who according to Kasumi is packing some serious heat. Which is easy to believe, he's massive and that dick of his is probably no different."

Shepard glares hard at the biotic as she continues, "He isn't a one time fuck, he's a fuck him and try and hold on for as long as possible kind of man. A man I plan on trying to sink my teeth into."

Shepard bares her teeth at the biotic, who sits smugly, a triumphant look on her face as she realizes she was able to piss off the commander. What she didn't expect however was the taller woman to rise from her seat and place her hands on the table, looking Jack right in the eyes.

"He isn't that type of man. I advise you don't try and pressure him into doing anything. Carmine is an extremely damaged person, and if I find out you tried to force yourself onto him there will be hell to pay. We clear?"

Shepard's piercing blue eyes glared through Jack's very soul. But the biotic only smirked and stood, "Whatever you say commander." Jack mockingly salutes Shepard and walks off.

Shepard huffs and turns to look at Kasumi, who's placed a gentle hand on her forearm, "Don't worry about Carmine, he's a big boy. But I'm sure you know all about that from when you went to wake him up. He doesn't wear much to bed does he?"

Shepard's head snaps to look at her with a fierce blush on her cheeks. She narrows her eyes at the master thief, "Kasumi!"

Kasumi disappears with a giggle and the blink of an eye, and Shepard grumbles to herself as she starts off for the gym, 'I need to blow off some steam.'

---

Carmine stands outside the conference room with Miranda, the pair having only just arrived. Miranda stops him before he can walk in. Her hand placed gently on his right peck.

"Before you head inside, I recommend keeping an open mind." She smiled warmly at him. A gesture he doesn't return as he firmly pulls her hand off of him and releases it. Finding her disingenuous as he looks deep into her eyes.

"Oh sure, I'm known for my open mind back home." He mutters sarcastically as he makes his way inside. The operative glares at his back, her attempt to sway him utterly failing. The door shuts behind him and he cocks his head to the side and shrugs before walking up closer to the railing. Not entirely sure where to stand in the rather large room.

A blue hologram of a man comes into view past the railing, he puffs on a cigarette and turns in his swivel seat to look at Carmine. He stares blankly at the giant man for a moment as Carmine loops his thumbs into the front of his gun belt.

"Nice to finally meet the man behind the file, Clayton. I'm sure you know already but I'm called the Illusive man. I'm the head of Cerberus, as well as this little operation that Commander Shepard has recruited you for. From what I hear you're a pretty exceptional human being."

Carmine holds up a hand to stop the man, "First off, you don't get to call me Clayton. It's Carmine to you, and everyone else on this ship. Only my family and close friends get to call me by my first name."

The Illusive man takes another puff and nods, "Very well. So Carmine, from what I've been informed on you're from another dimension. One in which humanity was almost pushed to extinction. I realize the reason you stepped up for this mission is most likely due to the threat the collectors pose to this dimension's humans."

Carmine nods, crossing his arms over his broad chest, "Yeah, that's about right. Not a fan of grubs taking people."

The Illusive man smirks, "That term, grub. I've heard that you use it to describe your enemies. But it comes from the creatures that almost destroyed your people, the Locust correct?"

Carmine's jaw tenses, and his arms flex instinctively after hearing their name, 'How the fuck does he know so much about this.'

Clay nods to the Illusive man, "Cut the small talk bullshit. You're too well informed for that. You want something from me right? Might as well get to it."

The Illusive man picks up a glass of whiskey and clinks the ice in the glass. An action that makes Carmine's eyebrow twitch in frustration.

"Your file did mention that you're smarter than you let on. Your weapons, they were made to destroy beings far stronger than anything in my dimension. I'd like you to donate them to Cerberus so we can protect humanity the same way you protected your people."

Carmine didn't hesitate to answer as he unfolds his arms, grabbing a hold of the railing in front of him, "I'd rather die than give my guns over to someone I don't know."

The man sighs as he sips on his drink, "You need to think bigger Carmine. Think about all the family's you'd help protect with the schematics of your weapons. Families like yours, who have yet to experience your tragedy."

Carmine shakes his head and clenches his hands tighter around the metal rail, "My family has nothing to do with this. If Cerberus can't even make sure Shepard and her team don't walk into a trap, there's no way in hell you're going to keep my guns out of the wrong hands. You're not getting them. We done here?"

The blue projection's unfeeling, glowing eyes stare blankly at Carmine before sighing. Taking a few more blood boiling seconds to do the mundane acts of sipping his drink and smoking. He was starting to get on Carmine's nerves, especially after the comment about his family.

"You're making a grave mistake here Carmine, you don't want to make an enemy out of Cerberus. Your weapon designs could help save hundreds of millions, perhaps billions of lives. If you help me I can have Cerberus's top scientists work on the artifact that brought you here. They can help get you back home."

Carmine pauses, did he even want to go back home? Sure Delta was there, but they were better off without him. Weren't they? Besides, Shepard needs him here, and he doesn't plan on leaving the crew anytime soon. He shakes his head as he realizes the Illusive man is trying to manipulate him.

He lets his mind wander to the rest of what the Illusive man mentioned, and his teeth creak from the pressure of his clenched jaw, "Are. We. Done."

The Illusive man sighs deeply and scowls at the large man. Carmine was getting angry, steam was starting to rise from his expose skin.

"You don't know what you're doing. You're lost in a world you barely understand. You lack vision and yet you're a capable soldier. Perhaps that's why your brothers died and you survived. It's either that or dumb luck. The offer still stands if you change your mind. I will get my way, on your terms or mine. You'll never understand how important this mission is to me. To all of humanity."

Carmine's hands bite into the steel railing, denting it under his intense hold. The Illusive man noticed his enraged state, and lifted an eyebrow curiously as he sipped his drink once more.

Carmine was practically growling at the hologram of the man, his teeth bared at the mention of his fallen brothers. He was already a little angry when the Illusive man brought up his family. But once his fallen brothers were directly insulted, the rage that coursed through every inch of his body was just begging to be let out.

"You'll never understand what was taken from me. Don't you dare act like you give a fuck about anyone but yourself. You seem to know so much about me yet you don't seem to understand just what I can do."

Carmine raises himself back to his full height and points at the Illusive man, "You and the rest of Cerberus are no better than the grubs, nothing more than locust to me. If anyone ever tries to touch my guns or any of my equipment without my concent they'll die, slowly and painfully."

"You don't know who you're talking to-"

*BANG*

Carmine smashes a fist into the railing to cut off the Illusive man, "No! You don't know who you're fucking with!"

Clayton takes a second to attempt to settle down, his hands twitch at his sides and he laughs grimly, "Ha, you leader types are all the same. You promise to save the people, to save humanity. But you'll turn tail and run once the blood starts filling the streets."

Steam steadily rises from the gear now as his blood boils over. Carmine practically rips his helmet off to look the Illusive man in his cold, unfeeling eyes. Clayton's steel orbs are full of rage as they bore into the Illusive man. The head of Cerberus felt a small chill at the hardened gaze of the veteran gear.

"As far as I'm concerned you're the enemy. Threaten the people on this ship, or touch my shit, and I'm coming for you. We'll see how long you last against a man with nothing left to lose." Carmine felt like he was on fire, he was burning up. Clay either needed to dunk his head in cold water, or hit the gym.

He turned to leave and as he made his way to the door he heard the Illusive man say one last thing, "We shall see."

Carmine growled low, his teeth felt like they'd crack any minute from how long he'd been clenching his jaw. He ran a frustrated hand over his face before slipping on his helmet and exiting the conference room, 'Well that went about as bad as possible. Shepard was right about that cunt though, I'll have to thank her for the warning.'

As he left, Miranda stepped in front of him, "It would be wise not to oppose us Clayton, I-" She was cut off by Carmine who wrapped a hand around her throat, lifting her easily and pushing her into the wall.

He reared back with his right hand and threw a nuclear bomb of a punch. Miranda closed her eyes as the fist landed mere inches from her head, Carmine's fist dented deep into the metal wall. Causing her to flinch heavily.

"You don't get to call me that, bitch." He chuckles, then laughs sadistically. Miranda tries using her powerful biotics to seperate them. Blue rings of energy wrap around Carmine's wrists and neck. He feels the pressure trying to pull him and squeezes harder. His rage being far too much to be moved by her power.

"Anyone touches my things, even if it's you or Jacob. You'll wish you died like this. Understand?" Carmine practically growls out at her, his helmet a few mere inches from her face.

Miranda nods furiously as her oxygen supply runs low. Desperately pawing at his wrist as her biotic power fails her. He lets her drop to the floor. She falls to her knees, hands gently massaging her already bruising throat as she gasps for air.

Clayton clenches his fists tight, "There won't be a second warning." He mutters as he leaves the Cerberus operative to glare up at him as he storms out of the room.

'We need to get this out of our system, get to the gym now!' The voice rings in his ears, and he nods. Hastily making his way back to the elevator.

---

Shepard had just finished washing up. Carmine hadn't shown up at the gym by the time she was done getting her frustrations out. Shepard looked in her mirror and pursed her lips, taking a look at her body.

It was hardened by years of fighting and constant exercise. Her small, yet muscular frame was lean, and she smirked at her prominent set of abs. Her scars from the procedure Cerberus put her through were properly healed thankfully. She was genuinely surprised with how well Cerberus restored her body.

"I wonder what kind of woman Carmine finds attractive?" She asks herself as she cups her sizable bust in her hands.

Her cheeks warm at the thought of being cuddled up to the big man. He had such prominent body heat that she wouldn't ever need a blanket, she could just curl up in his arms. She sighs before drying off and dressing, leaving her bathroom.

She takes a seat at her personal terminal and is surprised to see a new file in her inbox. She notices the video attached to the message and quirks her eyebrow.

Was able to rip some of the footage from the purgatory. If you needed any evidence to trust Carmine when it comes to his abilities, then take a good look at this."

-Garrus

Shepard plays the video and leans back in her chair, a hand holding onto her chin inquisitively. She watches Carmine pull off his armor, and listens to the exchange between him and the prisoners.

She leans forward as she watches him start to look around rather frantically.

"No no, you're dead. I killed you, all of you! But you..."

Shepard watches with bated breath as Carmine raises his boltok.

"You took him from me. You burned him. You...are going to suffer."

Shepard's eyes widen. He was having some kind of mental breakdown. But who was he talking about? One of his friends, his brothers? Shepard has so many questions but continues to watch as the big man tears through the prisoners, taking a few wounds in the process.

"Jesus Christ, he has an insane pain tolerance." Shepard says in disbelief as she watches him pull a few knives from his body while approaching a crawling prisoner. The video ends as Carmine picks the begging man up by the throat, his thumbs headed straight for the man's eyes.

Shepard wears a worried expression and checks the time, "It's been more than a couple hours since Miranda disappeared with him. He would've worked out and come up for a shower by now. EDI, can you tell me where Carmine is?"

The intelligence takes a minute to respond, "Yes Shepard. Carmine is currently in the training room. It appears he's over exerted himself and is asleep."

Shepard shakes her head at the thought of Carmine's sleeping form from this morning, "Is anything happening to him, elevated heart rate, sweating, shaking?"

"Yes commander, all of those actually. Do you wish me to inform doctor Chakwas?"

The commander rushes to her feet and throws on her shoes, "Not necessary EDI, thank you."

Shepard is hit with a wave of worry for the gear. She quickly ties her slightly damp hair into a ponytail and makes her way to the elevator, "I'm coming big guy."

---

"Carmine, we have to go. Carmine!"

He can barely hear her voice over the ringing. The hooks in his back go numb, his blood dribbles down the long streaking wounds that mark his skin. The bullet wound that tore through his shoulder stung, but the tears in his eyes stung far worse.

He killed his brother. David begged him to shoot, and he did. Now Clayton holds his weak, limp body in his arms. His padded knees dig into the rocky floor and his left hand dangles at his side holding a boltok. All he can smell is the burnt flesh of his brother. The charred meat singing every inch of his nasal cavity.

Sam thanked god they were a good bit from the fighting that took place near the front of the camp. Her heart broke as she watched Carmine hold his brother's corpse. The locust weren't letting the camp fall. They drastically underestimated how many grubs were in the camp.

"Control, we managed to save most of the gears left alive but we're taking heavy fire. Yes sir!"

Sam looked to their commanding officer, Sergeant Daniel Henderson, as he talked to control. She set her rifle on a nearby rock and cracked a locust with a bullet from her long shot, the gray beast's arm was torn off at the joint. She smiled through her scope, having saved a gear from being stabbed in the neck.

"Bryne! Get Carmine and let's go, we've been ordered to retreat and regroup with another unit. The grubs want this camp so bad they can have it." Henderson barked out as he fires a few rounds.

Sam nodded and carefully made her way to the big gear. His hair was matted in blood and sweat. Her heart ached to see the state of his back, the odds of him surviving were low.

"Hey, Carmine. I'm so sorry about David, I really am. But we have to go. You can take him with you, but we need to go Carm...Clayton?" She crouched around to his front and grimaced at the state of him.

Half of David's head was blown off from the boltok shot, and his blood was splattered across the big man's broad chest and face. Tears rolled down his dirty cheeks steadily.

His empty eyes met Sam's chestnut orbs as she gently pulled his chin to look at her. Her mouth moved but he couldn't hear what she was saying. He couldn't hear anything. He felt her gloved hand try to wipe away his tears and cup his cheek. Simply smearing dirt and blood across his face.

'Make them bleed. Make them pay.'

A voice pierces the ringing and Carmine blinks. Looking down to his younger brother. He gently sets the young man down and grabs a hold of David's tags, pulling them from his tortured body.

"Clayton, please. We have to go." Sam's voice comes to his ears, and he looks into her eyes, they're riddled with worry for him.

He passes his boltok into his right hand. Clenching David's tags in his left hand. Sam cracks a small relived smile as the big man starts to move.

"Come on you two, hurry the fuck up, more grubs are coming! Bryne get that big idiot's wounds closed up as soon as possible, we need to move!" Henderson nags from over the coms.

Sam glares at their commanding officer, urging Camrine to turn around and face away from his brother's corpse as she takes a look at his back. He follows her guidance and kneels away from David's tortured body.

She'd need to wrap his torso with gauze and bandages after she removes the hooks. The bullet wound could wait. She eyes the number of hooks stuck in his flesh and grimaces.

"Clay I have to pull these hooks out, and it's not looking pretty here mate. Here, just try and keep a bit quiet." She tries to hand him a small bit of leather to bite down on. He doesn't take it from her. He just stares at the rocky ground in front of him as he kneels. Bringing David's tags in front of him, grasping them in both of his hands as he gently wipes the blood from the metal.

Sam gauges how deep some of the hooks are and prepares a relatively clean cloth to soak up any fresh blood. Sam grimaces again as she pulls the first hook from his back. The big gear doesn't make a sound. She wipes the fresh crimson that spurts from the wound.

Sam rinses and repeats, pulling hooks and cleaning wounds. Carmine has been extremely quiet, only grunting once or twice from the depth of a few hooks. She bites her knuckle and pulls a small bottle of hydrogen peroxide from her medical pouch, "Clay, if that shit didn't hurt too bad, this is definitely going to hurt."

Like before he says nothing as his hands slump back to his sides. Sam sighs and pours the bottle along the top of his back, trying to cover as much ground as possible. He grunts in pain and clenches his fists. The peroxide bubbles and does its work. This is when Sam realizes she doesn't have nearly enough bandages for this.

"Bryne what the hell is taking so long. Christ they fucking hooked him..." Henderson says from behind the pair.

Sam looks up to the man nervously as he pulls off his helmet and runs a hand through his sweat matted blonde hair. He looks to her sternly, "You know what that kind of torture does to a gear. We're going to have to leave him behind if he isn't able to move out."

Sam scrambles up to her feet and juts her pointer finger at the sergeant, "I'm not leaving him here. He's not like the rest and you know that. He fought through that bloody camp to get back to us. If he was like the rest he'd have offed himself once he got a hold of that boltok."

The sergeant sighs, "We don't have time for this. Jameson, grab her and let's go."

Jameson looks to her reluctantly, but does as he's told. Sam tries to fight the man as Carmine stays kneeled, "No you fucking bastard! I can help him! Clayton!"

Carmine's ears perk up at his name and he snaps from his trance, the pain of his wounds comes back to bite him harder than ever. The voice echoes through his thoughts again, 'Get up. You're not done, not by a long shot. Get up, and fight!'

In a flash Carmine stands and separates Jameson from Sam, grabbing the man by the throat and tossing him aside. The gear's lancer clatters to the ground and Carmine uses his boot to flip it up to himself.

"I'm not like them. And you better not touch her again." Carmine says menacingly with a crazed look in his eyes.

Sam looks to the man with relief, she'd hug him if his back wasn't covered in gaping wounds.

Their sergeant turns around and marches up to the pair, "Oh yeah? Well you're certainly acting brain dead. Get your head out of you ass Carmine, we're leaving. Grab your dead brother or don't, I couldn't care less."

Carmine bares his teeth and leans in closer to the man, "I'm not leaving him here, and I'm not leaving those grubs alive."

The sergeant grits his teeth, "Then you're disobeying a direct order from command, don't be stupid Carmine-" The man doesn't get to finish his smug remark as Carmine smashes his fist into his face.

Henderson recoils and falls the ground, his nose very much broken. Sam spits at him as he struggles to get up. Jameson tries helping him but he swats his hands away.

"Fine, you want to stay here and die, what do I fucking care?" He tosses his free hand up, the other nursing his already swelling nose.

As the rest of their team attempts to retreat a viscous roar erupts from the battlefield. A large grenadier elite with a scar across his eye emerges from the camp gates with a platoon of drones. The elite brandishes a scorcher and puts it to work as he burns a wounded gear alive, the man's horrendous screams echoing through the tunnel.

"Shit shit shit! Look what you've done! Now we're all fucked!" The sergeant says while leading the rest of the squad to the front lines to fend off the incoming grubs.

Carmine see's the elite and clenches his teeth to the point of almost shattering, "That's the one who tortured me. Tortured most of the gears in there. It tortured David."

He points to the grub, and Sam pulls up her rifle, watching him and the drones as they work their way through their front lines. Inching closer by the minute.

"Well, we're going to have to kill these cunts one way or another. I'm with you Clayton." Sam passes him a couple spare mags for his lancer and he nods, taking them.

He doesn't bother grabbing cover as they approach the front lines. Only when a bullet smashes into a rock, splintering fragments into his face does he grab cover next to Sam. The cold metal barrier lights his back on fire, but he has no choice, it's take cover or die.

He sets his lancer down and pulls out Anthony's tags, wrapping them tight around his left hand with David, "Clay, we have to be careful alright? They have the numbers, and you're not in your right mind-"

Carmine pays her no mind as he vaults their cover and starts picking off drones. He shoots down two before wounding one close to him with a few shots to its legs.

Carmine feels a rush of energy hitting his system as he approaches the downed drone, 'Yeeeees, bleed them dry!'

The voice roars in his mind, and Carmine lifts his lancer, sawing through the top of the grub's head. The whirring blades go around halfway through his body before ripping the chainsaw out with a wet squelch. Clayton's hands shake with profound rage as his steel eyes meet with the elite.

The large scar faced grub points at him, "Hostile!"

Carmine growls and raises his blood soaked gun, slipping a fresh magazine in extremely fast, "Come on! Bend over!" He cries out as he charges into the fray.

"God dammit Clayton get back in cover! Clayton! Clayton!"

"Clayton! Wake up big guy come on."

Shepard gently runs a small hand through the big man's hair as he shakes in his slumber. He had passed out on the bench press, having shed his helmet and gun belt on the bench where Shepard and him usually kept their things while working out.

His face was contorted into a look of pure rage as he sweat profusely. A few tears gently ran from the corners of his eyes. Shepard did her best to wake him gently, but it seems the nightmare he was having wouldn't let go without something more drastic.

Shepard sighs, "I'm not letting you suffer if I can help it Clayton. I'm sorry in advance."

Shepard quickly goes to snatch the canteen from his gun belt and comes back over to him. She unscrews the top and holds the battered container over his face. She takes another moment to watch and see if he comes out of his night terror, then shrugs.

She dumps the water on his head and the gear shoots awake. He looks around the room as his soaked hair hangs over his face and clings to his skin. His breathing comes out fast and rough as his body forces air to and from his lungs. His hands cling to the sides of the bench press.

He spots Shepard and starts to calm himself down, 'It's just her. Calm down, it's just Shepard. Fucking nightmares. Shit never stops.' He thinks with a sneer.

Shepard reaches out with the canteen and shakes it gently, a small smile accompanies the worried look in her eyes. He takes it from her with a small nod and downs a hefty amount of its contents.

Shepard watches him drink, drops of water trail down his throat past his rather visible adam's apple as he greedily gulps. She shivers while watching him before pushing those feelings down. Carmine gasps for air as he pulls away from the canteen. Shepard hands him the cap and he gets up, walking over to his things. His expression is uncharacteristically blank.

He uses a towel to dry his head and face off before slipping his helmet on, 'She shouldn't have seen that. You can't afford to be weak.' He thinks with a heavy sigh.

Carmine clenches his fists and turns to her, expecting the commander to cuss him out because he didn't share that he had such bad nightmares. Instead he was met with a worried look as she gently fiddled with her hands, her icy blue eyes watching him with nothing but pure intention and worry.

He kept his gaze hard on her, the pair staring at one another for a while. Carmine broke their staring contest, taking a seat on the bench next to his things. Shepard said nothing as she moved to his right, taking a seat next to him.

Carmine tenses as he feels her small hand touch the tattoo of his brothers, "Was it about them?"

Carmine pulls away from her as if he'd been burnt, a pained look finds the commander's face. It fades as fast as it appears. She doesn't retreat, instead she inches closer to him.

Shepard notices he's staying as still as a statue, his hands clenching and relaxing in front of him as he leans his forearms on his knees, "Carmine."

He doesn't answer her, his fists clench tight, 'I don't want your fucking pity, and I don't want to talk about this.' His thoughts are running wild.

"Carmine. Look at me." Shepard says sternly.

He ignores the order and Shepard looks at him angrily. She gets up and stands in front of him. He quickly points his head down to look at her shoes. Completely avoiding looking at her face. He doesn't want to see what is in her eyes, "I don't need your pity. Just leave it alone Shepard, its nothing."

Shepard lets out a frustrated noise, 'He thinks I'm going to feel pity for him? Well you know what Clayton, I don't. So quit being so difficult with me.'

Shepard gently reaches out to grab under his chin and he slowly pulls his head away from her. That's the last straw as she snaps and quickly grabs a hold of the bottom of his chin, tilting his helmet covered head to look up at her.

He see's the frustration, worry, and understanding in her eyes. He lets her hold his head in place. She glares into his helmet's eyes.

"Now shut up and listen to me. I know we haven't know each other very long but you need to understand that I care about you. And that we are not leaving this fucking room until you tell me what's going on in that head of yours. Understand?" Shepard finishes and grips his chin harder to emphasize her point.

Carmine is silent for a moment, but Shepard holds her ground. Then he snickers, which turns into a chuckle, and finally full on laughing. Shepard looks at him extremely confused as his shoulders rumble from how hard he was laughing.

He reaches up and gently takes her hand from his chin and holds it, "Heh, you remind me a lot of Sam. Both of you are so damn stubborn, and bossy too."

Shepard lets relief flow through her as Carmine gently rolls his thumb across the back of her hand. She blushes and pushes the immediate question of, 'Exactly how close were you and this Sam girl?' Deep down into her stomach. It wasn't the time to be getting jealous.

Carmine lets go of her hand and motions to the bench beside him. He starts to tell her about his nightmares.

How they usually consist of the replayed events of his past. Wether that be the deaths of his brothers and parents. Or other wartime events that changed who he was as a person. He leaves out crucial details, such as how exactly his brothers died, and the specific events that made him so numb to killing.

Shepard doesn't falter her attention the entire time he talks. She saves her questions until he's done talking, of which she has plenty of.

He smiles at her attentiveness and begins to tells Shepard about his talk with the Illusive man, and how poorly it went, "So he offered to help fix the artifact that brought me here in exchange for my weapons. I refused, and he had some choice words to say about my family. Let's just say Cerberus is on my official shit list now."

Shepard looks like she's about to blow a gasket as her anger completely flushes away any questions she had stewing in her mind, "That manipulative fucking weasel. I'm glad you didn't fall for his bullshit Carmine. I'm sorry he brought your family into this, that's a low blow. Even for the likes of him."

Carmine shrugs and Shepard looks to her hands as they fiddle in her lap. Trying to remember her questions. The gear chuckles at her, and correctly suspects she is deep in thought, "That's about all that's going on in my head. T-thank you, Shepard. It's hard for me to talk about this stuff, but you make it a little easier."

Shepard blushes at his kind words but quickly brushes it off, flipping her ponytail over her shoulder, "Pffft, come on big guy no need to thank me. You saved my damn life, and you've proved yourself a reliable teammate out in the field. The least I can do is try and help a friend."

Carmine smiles at the word friend as it leaves her smooth lips, and leans closer to her while curling his right arm. Shepard watches the veins run along his bulky arm and her mouth dries. He points to David's helmet.

"I know I've probably mentioned it, but David was the second youngest. He would've liked it here, lots of fresh faces. Tons of new and interesting people to talk with. He was a real social gear from what I'd heard. Kid was always a hit with the ladies. He would've liked you." Shepard was shocked to hear that from the gear.

"Why do you say that?" She says as her fingers fidgeted a bit more frequently.

"Eh, me and my brothers have always had this mutual attraction to shorter women. I'm the tallest but my brothers were only a couple inches shorter than me. Maybe it's why I'm starting to feel more comfortable around you." Shepard blushes up a storm but tries to play off the subtle unintentional confession of Carmine's attraction to her.

"Hey I'm not that short. I'm tall for a woman. You're just a giant." Carmine was struck with a sense of familiarity, he'd heard that exact phrase before. From Sam.

The gear chuckled and shot the commander a look, 'There's no way she's like some kind of alternate dimension version of Sam is there?'

He shakes the thought away gently as Shepard stands back up and walks in front of him. She's only a few inches taller but smirks down at him, "Ha, now who's short?" She flicks the dent on the temple of his helmet.

Carmine snickers at her and stands slowly. Shepard's eyes follow his helmet and she sighs, hanging her head slightly, "I'm short."

Carmine smiles at her defeated tone and stretches, his muscles were extremely sore from all the working out he'd done. Shepard bites her bottom lip and takes the moment to hug him, all her feelings were amped up as she felt his natural heat soak into her.

She fits her small arms around him as best she can as she shoots into his middle like a red bullet. The big man lets out a small grunt and holds his hands up as she rests her head on his lower chest. Carmine is unsure wether or not to hug back at first, until Shepard's muffled voice sparks into his ears.

"You don't ever need to thank me for this. I'll always be around if you need my help Carmine. And if I'm not around, I'm sure you could always find someone who would help you. Like it or not Carmine you're stuck with us now, and I know it's not just me who sees you as a friend."

Carmine felt a small smile play on his lips as he let his arms wrap around the red head. She clears her throat as they separate, a hot red blush on her cheeks as she looks away and twirls the end of a stray bundle of hair, "Sorry, I know you're not a big touchy feely kind of guy."

Carmine nods, "True, but I'm warming up to it. I hate when random people touch me. But you're right, you guys are the closest thing I have to friends in this place. We should...do this again sometime, just hang out and talk." Carmine blushes as he rubs the back of his helmet.

"I s-should probably go shower." Clay stammers out as Shepard keeps her eyes locked on the big man.

Shepard nods, "Sure thing, head right up whenever Carmine. I have to go talk with Jack anyway, she's coming with me on the next mission. Oh and so are you if you want."

Carmine pumps his fist, "You're damn right I want to."

Shepard laughs at his excitement and opens her omni-tool as he moves for the door. He pauses though as he hears her blowing air at the stray strands of hair that usually hung in her face and grumble about it.

He sighed to himself as he thought, 'This isn't a good idea, you're going to make yourself look like a damn fool.'

Carmine hesitantly turns and walks back toward her. She puts the tool away once Carmine's large body comes back into her view.

"Anything else you need Carm-" She freezes as he reaches a hand out and slowly tucks her stray bundle of red hair behind her ear. She shivers at his touch, and is warmed by the gesture. A couple of his fingers linger at the back of her jaw.

He coughs nervously as she lovingly looks up into his helmet covered eyes. Pulling his hand away he says, "Sorry, just always seem to have a little bit of hair in your way. I really like your ponytail too, its nice...I'm leaving now."

Shepard smiled extremly wide as she watched him leave. Slightly hearing him mutter, most likely berating himself for the soft hearted words and action. She waits till he's gone before she lets out a deep breath. She laughs and does a happy little dance before calming herself, "Jesus Christ Jane, you're a spectre for fuck sake. Be professional."

Her smile stayed plastered onto her face as she left for the elevator, a noticeable pep in her step, 'Well, he's stubborn. But not unwilling to be open. He just needs a little affirmative action. Carmine mentioned that I reminded him of that Sam girl from his home. I'll have to ask him about that someday. Maybe when we hang out and talk next.'

Shepard giddily laughs to herself at the thought and pushes the bottom button on the elevator, it whooshes closed. Shepard rests her head on the back wall of the elevator and makes a content noise.

"Seems that little trip went well." Shepard jumps and draws her gun as Kasumi appears in the elevator with her.

Shepard growls at her, "Jesus Kasumi, you've got to stop with that."

Shepard sighs and runs a hand over her face as she holsters her carnifex. Kasumi just smiles as she crosses her arms in front of the commander, "So, any interesting updates on the big man? I left after you splashed water on his face."

Shepard eyes Kasumi cautiously, "Nothing too important. He's starting to see us as his friends which is a big step. Other than that, just more of Carmine being Carmine."

Kasumi nods to her and smiles a genuine smile, "Good to know. The big guy is tough on the outside, but I can see how soft he is past those walls. Just going to take some work to get through them."

The elevator doors open and Kasumi vanishes. Shepard smirks, 'I just have to keep chipping away at them.'

Shepard checks her omni-tool before leaving the elevator. She has a message from the Illusive man and scowls, her mood souring immediately.

Shepard, we are trying to get a better read on Warlord Okeer's exact positioning. I recommend taking up to five days before you head to Korlus. I'll keep you posted.

Just so you know, handing over Jack's file to her has been a rather large blow to our research team. Oh and I'm sure you've already talked with Carmine. Keep those dogs of yours on a short leash, or I'll deal with them.

-Illusive Man

Shepard clenches her hands at the thought of the Illusive man threatening her team and she hastily writes a reply.

Affirmative, make sure to forward the details to my personal terminal. Oh and with your regards to how I run my team. That's my business. You gave me the info I needed to get my team together, and I'm doing what I have to in order to secure them. I'm only going to say this once.

Don't ever threaten my team again, or you'll answer to me.

-Commander Shepard

---

Around a full week has passed since the incident with Carmine and Shepard in the training room. And to say that things were going well for the gear would be an understatement.

He wasn't going soft, but he allowed himself to hang out and talk with a few members of the crew. Garrus, Zaeed, and Jack all had their moments with the last Carmine brother. Of course Carmine also spent a decent bit of time with the Irish cook when he couldn't sleep at night.

Garrus and Carmine bonded over helping the engineers install new weapon systems in the Normandy. Carmine being the human forklift that he is, used little to no effort holding the heavy bits while they were properly secured. The small group of them had joked around and bonded during the manual labor.

Carmine met with Zaeed a few days later when he went to test out his new ammo that he got from Jacob. The pair accidentally ran into one another at the firing range. They talked about many of the fights they'd been in, and each of them found a new respect for one another as warriors.

Jack had bumped into him one night when he was coming back from a workout, and proved to be rather annoying. She had tried hitting on him, but the man was too thick in the skull for his own good. Jack was the only person besides the majority of the Cerberus personnel that he didn't trust.

Shepard wasn't left out by any means. Whenever Carmine ate it was usually with her, they worked out at the same time nearly everyday, and always shared nice conversation. Carmine wouldn't admit it, but he was growing increasingly attached to the red head.

Shepard could say the same about the large man. Although she knew he probably wouldn't reciprocate her affections due to realizing he has a serious lack of self worth. It didn't stop her growing feelings for the big guy though.

Today is just a normal day for Carmine though. When he wasn't helping someone out he was usually just sitting on his couch in his room listening to music until he went to eat or work out.

He didn't really like the newer musics that initially came on when he first tried, but all it took was a little digging to find the good stuff. To his surprise a lot of music was very similar to stuff he remembers hearing back home. He's wearing a comfortable set of black cargo pants and a white short sleeved shirt with his normal boots as well.

His beard was starting to set in, not quite full yet, but the dark hair was noticeable. A few of his facial scars made gaps in the growing facial hair.

Carmine was feeling a bit lazy, and was comfortably spread out. His left arm relaxed against the armrest as his right arm extended along almost the entire top of the couch. He let his muscles loosen in his seat, eyes closed. Carmine tapped his foot and gently nodded along with the beat of the song. He was listening to some rock.

Carmine's door opened with a gentle whoosh and Shepard walked in, smirking at the big man as he cracked open one steel colored eye before smirking back and settling back into the couch. Shepard's eyes flash over to the big, glowing blue ammo box next to his equipment.

"Good to see you're restocked big guy. Didn't take you for much of a music guy Carmine. Learning new things about you everyday." Shepard chuckles as she takes a seat next to him on his couch, sinking into the comfortable seat.

"I do enjoy my music. What's up Shepard?" Shepard sighs and crosses her legs.

"We're all set to go on that mission to grab Warlord Okeer from Korlus if you're still interested big guy." Carmine shoots up out of his seat and looks to her.

"Oh fuck yes! Are we going right now?" Shepard laughs at the big man's excitement and nods her head as the song changes.

"Yes and no. Yes we are on our way there, but wont be there for at least another five hours. Oh oh, I know this one." Her head perks up at the familiar beat and Carmine shakes his head and laughs as sits back down in his previous position.

Shepard narrows her eyes, "What? I was a bit of a punk in my youth back on Earth."

Carmine stares a little in disbelief at her, "Really?"

Shepard flashed him a proud smile, "Yep. My mom would take me to concerts every couple months for years until I enlisted in the marines. Ugh I used to have a black streak in my hair, and I wore a choker." Shepard shivered slightly at the image of her younger rebellious self.

Carmine couldn't stop smiling as he pictured Shepard as a rambunctious teenager.

(So you) cut me down just to push me around like I'm your

Punching bag

Just another pot calling the kettle black

Take it out on someone who won't hit you back

'Til we're all as broken as you

Oh, yeah

Say goodbye to your Mr. Nice Guy

You got your wish, he's rotting in Hell

I'm up all night when you think I'm sleeping

People pleasing's never good for your health

So go fuck yourself

Carmine chuckled as the commander swung her hair to the beat before sinking back into the couch. He noticed she was fidgeting a bit.

"Sorry I don't have anything more comfortable to relax on in here, well unless you want to lean on me that is." Carmine joked. What he didn't expect was the commander to give him a sly smile as she scooted over and leaned her head into the right side of his chest.

Carmine tensed as her loose red hair splayed out onto his peck. His hands twitched as the smell of fresh strawberries invaded every inch of his nose.

"Is this alright Carm?" Shepard asks with a slight nibble to her lip as he looks down at her with a small blush. He raises his left hand and waves at her dismissively.

"Sure, as long as you're comfortable." Shepard smiles warmly and closes her eyes, letting the beat come to her as her feet tap accordingly.

Carmine settles in as well, enjoying the feeling of her frame against him. He opens his eyes and looks back down to her, "Do you and your mom have a good relationship?"

Shepard smiles at the question and turns her head so he can see at least one of her icy blue eyes, "Yep, she's military as well. Captain of her own ship in the alliance. I always wanted to be like her growing up, even as moody, teenage me. My dad passed when I was little, and I know I was a handful at times, but I couldn't have asked for a better mom."

Carmine snickers at her, "Thats awesome. I bet your momma's proud of you Cherry. Always off saving tons of lives and stuff. I read up on what you did at that Citadel place, crazy shit, but totally badass."

Shepard's heart thumps faster from his praise, and her cheeks reflect his nickname for her as a warm blush comes the her pale cheeks.

"If it's not too much to ask. What were your parents like Carmine?" Her question causes him to pause for a moment, his foot stopping it's methodical tapping to the beat. Shepard feels like she's overstepped for a moment before his foot resumes tapping.

She sets her eyes on him and is met with a deep in thought expression on Carmine's face. He looks down into her eyes and smirks, "Well I can tell you a bit, but I don't feel like getting too deep into right now. Is that alright?"

Shepard nods hastily and a laugh rumbles in the big man's chest at her eager reply, "So my father was a part of a military family. He served in the Pendulum Wars but was honorably discharged with a blown off calf muscle."

She smiles at him, eagerly waiting for him to continue, "My ma, she was the nurse who treated him for his blown off calf. Heh, I can remember my mom always saying she had my old man wrapped around her finger from the day they met."

Carmine smiles as he reminisces. Shepard chuckles at the shared memory, 'God she's got such a cute laugh.'

He shakes the thought away and keeps talking much to Shepard's pleasure, she always likes listening to him talk. Especially since she can feel the vibration of his deep voice as they roll through his chest into her.

"But it makes a bit more sense now that I look at it. Benjamin and myself were more like my Dad. Soft spoken, gray eyes, not really good with the ladies."

Shepard cracks a doubtful look at him, but allows him to continue, "My other brothers though, Anthony and David, were like my mother. They always seemed to have a girl swooning over them. Had my mom's green eyes. Damn, it all makes sense now."

Shepard can't help the intrusive thought as it spills from her lips, "I know you always say you aren't good with women, but what proof do you have to back that up? Because I can't believe in my right mind that a strapping young Clayton Carmine didn't get any female attention."

Carmine blushes at her comment and breaks eye contact, "Well...I guess I did, but I never really knew how to respond to their advances. Once I met Sam all that kind of stopped though, I just assumed it was because of me."

Shepard quirks a curious eyebrow at him, "You mention that woman a lot. Samantha Bryne right?"

Carmine smiles at the name of his oldest friend, "Yeah, surprised you remembered. I've known her almost the entirety of my service, around eight or so years. She's had my back through a lot of shit, and I had hers. I'd say she's like a sister, but I'd be lying. I had a terrible crush on her for a long time."

Shepard felt a twang of jealousy hit her and was thankful Carmine wasn't looking at her as she scrunched her nose. She tried not to make it seem so evident as she asks, "So why didn't you try and make something work? Your military obviously didn't care about intermingling."

She makes the big man blush and close his eyes, a gentle sigh coming from his lips, "After my brothers died I kind of shut myself off. Turned myself into something the grubs would fear. A monster to the monsters. Sam just kind of moved on once we joined up with Delta squad."

Shepard rolls her eyes but smiled as she turned to look at him, "You're not a monster. When you say move on do you mean she found someone else?"

Carmine chuckled cynically, "Yeah, she would always talk to me about a guy who would get on her nerves. Makes sense though, she probably just didn't know how to approach him. But with the war ended I imagine they're shacking up right about now."

Shepard sympathizes with him, but slaps him gently on the leg, "The way you've talked about this Delta squad, I have no doubt they're trying their best to figure out what happened to you."

Carmine smiles and nods, "Yeah...you're probably right. Thanks Cherry."

"No problem Carm." Shepard blushes lightly as she faces forward and sinks a bit further into his right side.

The two continue to relax as music plays. Both falling into a comfortable position as time passes.

---

Marcus walks into his father's secret lab. Anya follows closely behind him. It's been over a week since Carmine was sent to another dimension and Sam has taken it as poorly as they thought she would.

She barely sleeps, preferring to keep watch over the cube. Someone has to bring her food and water to make sure she doesn't starve. If Marcus does order her to take some time off from cube watching all she does is go and drink herself drunk all day.

To say she's a mess is an understatement, her only comfort being when Cole and Baird come to hang out with her. The pair being entertaining enough to distract her for the most part.

Marcus and Anya come upon the brunette passed out in a chair, her short hair spread out on the desk her head is laying on. Anya takes a sad look at her close friend and Marcus presses a hand on her shoulder.

Sam shoots awake and looks around, meeting Marcus's eyes, "Shit is it time? I'm sorry I just needed a bit of-"

"Calm the hell down Sam, it's not time. You didn't miss anything. We came to swap out with you." Marcus takes a plate with a tasty looking sandwhich on it from Anya and hands it to Sam.

She takes it hesitantly, "I don't know if I should leave, what if-"

Marcus holds his hand up, "We've been over this plenty of times Sam."

Anya steps in front of Marcus and shoots him a stern look, making him sigh and cross his arms. Anya squats down next to Sam as she nibbles on a bit of the sandwich. She noticed Sam had finally taken off that bandage on her cheek, and the small scar of a knife slash marked her deeply tanned skin.

"Sam, Baird said it would take a minimum two weeks until the cube could work. You've got another week or so until you get to come back here. Before you protest everyone has agreed on it. You need to rest."

Sam swallows the food in her mouth and sighs. Running a hand over her tired face, "I guess you guys are right. Every time I check this bloody thing it says Clayton is doing just fine. I-I really should just give it time."

Anya smiled at her friend and hugged her. Sam gave her a small smile and stood. Marcus pat her on the shoulder and gave her his patented sergeant Fenix look.

"I better not catch you in here. Oh and quit drinking, you need to be sharper than your knife if you're going to get him."

Sam straightened herself and saluted him, causing Anya to chuckle and Marcus to crack a small smirk. Anya waved goodbye to her friend as Sam finished the sandwich and left the lab, heading toward the hotel room she'd claimed. Ironically enough it wasn't very far from the secret lab.

Sam plopped face first into the covers and kicked off her boots. She looked to the corner of her room and saw all her gear, primed and ready to go, she even managed to find a hat like her old one she wore back during hollow storm.

A look of determination found her face as Marcus's order rang in her head, "I'm not just going to be sharp, I'm going to be fucking deadly." She growls out.

Before she drifted to sleep, Sam decides she's going to go hit the gym. She is going to be in peak physical condition for when they go to get Carmine. That meant no more boozing, properly eating and drinking, and lots of working out.

She slipped her boots back on and grabbed her canteen as she closed her door behind her. The newfound goal of being in peak health taking her priority over sleep at the moment.

She counts the door numbers before smiling and knocking on the custom numbered door. Number 83 opens up, and none other than the Cole Train answers.

"Hey mate, sorry to bother ya but I have a personal favor to ask." The fire in her eyes was apparent to the thrashball star.

Cole smirks at the obvious change in Sam's demeanor, "Ohhh I know that look. Lay it on me sister."

"I'm going to need some help training. I want to be in top shape for when we go to get Carmine. Could you be my, I guess personal trainer?" She asks with a smirk.

Cole wiggles his eyebrows at her, "Getting all muscled up for Carmine huh? Well shit it's not like I'm doing much else, let's get moving girl. By the time we get to him, Carmine's helmet is going to pop right off, I promise you that." Cole held up a finger and closed his door.

Sam smirks at the visual. She kept in fighting shape usually but never really worked out. Fighting the lambent and grubs was a good workout enough. Only crazy motherfuckers like the majority of Delta squad's men worked out in their downtime. The real wackjobs like Cole and Carmine found time to work out every day.

Cole reopened his door and started leading Sam to the training facility in the hotel, "Let get to work baby. Whooo!"

A shadowy figure watches with interest, and follows the pair.

---

Shepard sat next to Jack in the shuttle as they approached Korlus, 'Well on paper this team seems like a pretty good combination.'

She chuckles a bit as she notices just how much space Carmine takes up in the shuttle as he clutches his lancer close to him. Her mind falling to how brutal he was in their last mission together, 'I wonder if he'd consider changing his ways?'

She gently shakes the thought from her head as she turns to Jack who is looking over her shotgun, "You settling in alright Jack?"

Jack looks up to her and nods before looking over to Carmine, "Yep, don't have to worry about me. Can you tell me what exactly that big pyjack over there has to offer besides taking bullets for us and looking pretty?"

Carmine makes an annoyed noise and clenches his lancer tighter, "I'm not some fucking monkey. I'm a gear, so watch your damn mouth wretch."

Jack stands as her eyes glow blue, "Why don't you make me pyjack!"

Carmine stands, towering over her, "Say the word!"

Shepard wedged her way between them, "Hey hey! Both of you shut the hell up and sit down! Now isn't the time to be fighting." She glared at Carmine who scoffed and sat back down.

Jack did the same and Shepard scowled at the pair, "Fight all you want back on the ship but right now it's our lives on the line. So do me a favor and focus that anger on our enemies, not your allies. Understood?"

Jack nodded to her and Carmine sheepishly ran a hand over the back of his helmet. Shepard ran an armor covered hand over her face, 'I hope it's not like this all mission.'

"Commander, the LZ is hot. I'm going to drop you a small distance away. Approaching now, keep in touch commander." The pilot says from the cockpit.

The shuttle lands and the trio make their way off, grabbing cover and clearing the area. Carmine is the first to speak, having advanced a bit further up, "No grubs here Shepard, but I do hear some a bit further up."

"Good to know Carmine." Shepard says as her and Jack advance up to the big man.

Carmine takes a moment as they make their way down a rocky path. He looks around and notices something that makes his eye twitch.

Broken and dilapidated buildings littler the landscape, it reminds him of his hometown, and how his youngest brother died. He clenches his hands around his lancer, "Fucking worm." He mutters to himself.

"Okeer's signal is here but we don't know if he's here willingly." The distant sounds of gunfire make the commander narrow her eyes as she leads Jack and Carmine further.

"Assume hostiles until proven otherwise." Shepard says. A big smile finds Carmine's face as his rage builds. He can't wait to kill some grubs, as usual.

Shepard and her team advance until they come upon a blue suns barricade. The mercs instantly engage with them. Carmine yells out, "Cover!" Before pushing the women toward rock formations, diving behind his own cover right after.

"Woah! Good save Carm." Shepard praises, getting a nod from him in return.

Bullets smash their rocky bits of cover as a seemingly endless wave of suppressing fire rains down on them. A few minutes pass of the three trying to exchange gunfire with the mercenaries, but they're far too dug in.

"Jack, use your biotics!" Shepard orders.

The small angry woman smiles and launches a shockwave that knocks the small team of mercs from their cover.

"Now Carmine Advance!"

Carmine doesn't hesitate to vault his cover and charge the blue suns. He fires from the hip as he advances nailing a couple mercenaries. A lone man quickly recovers from the shockwave and attempts to aim at the gear.

Carmine simply lowers his chainsaw bayonet while revving it and skewers him, raising him high before tossing him over his shoulder. The man's organs spilling across the ground as he crashes down.

Carmine quickly aims and fires a few rounds into an asari, ripping a hole through her stomach. She is unfortunate enough to get the saw as well as she drops to her knees. Carmine drags the lancer through the alien woman's shoulder to her hip, splitting her in half, "Oh it's a beautiful thing!"

The next woman gets off much easier as Carmine raises his boot and smashes the merc's skull with an earth shattering curb stomp, "That all you got!" Carmine screams as he continues to shred the remaining mercs with his hearty supply of bullets, courtesy of Jacob.

Jack and Shepard watch in awe as he dismantled the merc team by himself, "He's good. Damn he's more ruthless than I am. Worse than a krogan too."

Shepard smirks at Jack as she compliments the big man but she stops to think for a second, 'I know how brutal he is. But would he ever considering changing that? Could he even change after so many years of fighting? Do I want him to?'

They approach the barricade once Carmine's voice hits their ears, "We're clear up here. Ehh well, mostly." The first thing she notices is an injured man holding his leg as blood stains his pants.

"You left one alive?" Shepard asks the big man as he shrugs and reloads his lancer.

"I just missed is all." Jack laughs and Shepard sighs as they approach the panicked man. He looks to them wildly and holds up one hand, the other pressed firmly to his wound.

They pause as something comes over a loudspeaker nearby, "There is only one measure of success: Kill or be Killed! That is your goal!"

Shepard notices as Carmine grip his lancer tighter while he shifts his stance, "Oh now that is a grub I'd like to kill." Shepard shakes her head with a smirk, but in her mind she worries for his mental state.

The man starts to speak, "Fuck, so much blood. C-can't stop the bleeding. Shit I'm gonna-no no."

"He doesn't look too bad actually." Jack says as Shepard turns to her. The commander quietly hushes the biotic

"He doesn't need to know that though." In reality the man had taken merely a flesh wound. They all could tell he didn't get hit anywhere too important. There would've been a lot more blood if Carmine hit a major artery.

The man starts to get up and leans himself against a wall. Shepard approaches him, "Tell me all you know about Okeer and maybe I'll toss you some medi-gel."

The merc glared at Shepard and she sighed, of course he was going to be difficult with her. The man gasped in pain before he started speaking to her, "Fuck, should've known it wasn't berserkers. Too much range, alliance maybe or-"

Carmine felt the small thread of sanity snap in his brain once the word beserkers slid out of the merc's mouth. It was almost like someone flipped a light switch.

Carmine pushes past Shepard and goes over to the man, grabbing him by the throat with one hand and hoisting him up to meet his helmet's eyes, "Where are they?" Carmine growls out at the man.

The injured mercenary chokes, gasping for air as the gear's gauntleted hand squeezes tighter. Shepard barely had time to register what was happening. The gear yells in the man's face, "WHERE ARE THE FUCKING BERSERKERS GRUB!"

Clayton smashes the man against the wall he was previously leaning against and he gasps out in pain as the pressure against his neck increased.

"Carmine let him go! Fuck, Jack use your pull to get Carmine off of him!" Shepard orders as she tries yanking on his arm but he doesn't budge. Instead Carmine easily shoves the commander away with his free hand. She stumbles and growls at the big man as he bashes the mercenary against the wall again.

"Back up Shepard." Jack says. The commander obeys as blue energy surrounds Jack's fist. Blue rings form around Carmine's neck, middle, and wrists but he still doesn't budge. Shepard can see the steam coming off his exposed skin. She's flabbergasted that he can't be moved by even Jack's biotic power.

Jack pulls hard and barely moves the gear, who snarls like a feral beast as he continues to choke the man, "Shepard what the fuck is he!? How is this even possible?"

Shepard goes back to the raging man's arm and starts pounding into it with her fists again, "Carmine, drop him now! That's an order! Clayton!"

All it took was that one simple word to send him back to the early years of the war. It was well known that even one berserker and no hammer of dawn meant the death of an entire platoon of gears.

In his eyes he is squeezing the life from a locust beast handler. The pitiful grub spits blood onto his forearm. He hears a faint echo of his name, 'This needs to be done. Get the info, then butcher the grub.' The voice in his head orders him. As bloodthirsty as always.

All Carmine can think of is getting the location of the berserkers at any costs. It's all he can focus on, and he'll kill anything or anyone to keep his team safe. He won't let the grubs kill any more gears.

He clenches his eyes shut as Shepard pierces through the veil with a yell of his name. The locust in front of him turns back into the man with the hard blink of his eyes. He finds the crack in the illusion and breaks free. Using every ounce of willpower he had he regains control over his anger.

His rage starts to clear, the steam coming from his arms simmers to a mist as he drops the man, who coughs viscously. Carmine looks to his blood covered hands as they gently shake. He clenches them and snatches his lancer off his back as he storms ahead.

"Goddammit, Carmine wait! For the love of-Jack apply some medi-gel to the shot on his leg and get that information." The stunned biotic nods and does as she's told. Shepard chases after Carmine.

Clayton stops up ahead and drops to a knee, "They're not here...no grubs, no berserkers. Not in this world." He lifts his helmet for a moment to wipe at his eyes with the backside of his forearm, as to not get blood in his eyes.

Shepard hears his distraught voice, and slows her chase. She comes upon him kneeling, breath coming out harsh and ragged. He shakes his head a few times and corrects his breathing.

She approaches him from behind. He quickly spits and lowers his helmet, standing to face her. He wipes his blood soaked gauntlets onto his pants, and clips his gore stained lancer to his back.

Shepard looked at him for a second before a blinding rage came over her. She tries to push the big man and barely moves him, only making him take a half step backward, "What the FUCK was that!?"

The gear lowers his helmet-covered head, "Nothing Shepard, don't worry about it." He says dismissively.

Shepard's eyes widen, "Don't worry about it? Are you joking? You almost killed that man back there."

Carmine raises his head and speaks through grinding teeth finding himself growing annoyed, "Yeah? And so what? He's just another grub. Doesn't matter if he lives or dies. Shit, you're lucky I'm able to control myself as much as I did. So quit pushing it!"

"Don't you yell at me private Carmine, I'm not the enemy. I'm your commander and your friend. And as your friend I want to help you if you have a problem. So what happened?!" She raises the tone of her voice to match him.

She watches the big man scoff and shake his helmet, "Why the fuck do you even care anyway!?" Carmine shouts as he points his index finger at her.

Shepard doesn't react, her years of service had her used to men yelling at her. She quickly snakes past his extended arm and reaches up, grabbing a hold of the front of Carmine's armor. She yanks him down to her level. He's surprised by her strength as his eyes widen accordingly.

"Because I do care about you Carmine. You're my friend, and a part of my crew. Wether you accept my help or not I'm just going to keep bugging you until you let me help you. Have you already forgotten our little chat after your nightmare in the training room? I'm not letting you face your demons alone, you're not alone anymore."

Carmine stares into her angry, ice cold eyes as his smirk slowly rises, 'Ok maybe she does care, but why? Not like You're anything special. Damn, she really can be scary when she has to be though. So damn bossy too. Heh, now I'm not entirely convinced she isn't another dimension's Sam.' For once Carmine finds himself not trying to silence the voice in his head.

He gently reaches his left hand up and pulls her armored hand from the front of his armor's collar. Shepard's face turns a light tint of pink at the contact as her eyes flash to his hand as it holds hers, but she keeps her angered expression.

"I'm sorry Shepard. It was just something from my past. That grub triggered a bad memory. I lost my nerve, but I'm alright now." Shepard sighs and leans her head forward onto his chest armor.

"I know it's not your fault. But, just do me a favor and don't be so bull-headed about it in the future when I'm trying to help you." She says with a small pout.

It still troubled her to see that kind of mental episode from him, but it was somewhat comforting knowing he didn't do it willingly, 'What the hell happened in that war to do this to you Carmine?'

Carmine chuckles lightly and pats the top of her head as she bonks her forehead into his armor again, "I'll try Shepard."

He savors the feeling of her smooth hair on his fingers for the moment before Shepard pulls herself back and looks up at him with a smirk. Worry shoots onto her face though as she looks to his neck, a large red ring was starting to form around it.

Jack catches up with them just as Shepard makes this discovery and she takes a healthy step away from Carmine, "Shepard, that sniveling pussy back there didn't give me a lot to work with, but here."

Jack transfers the data to Shepard through their omni-tools, "Thanks Jack. Alright you two, let's get moving. Our warlord is somewhere in Jeodore's lab."

Carmine nods and the trio take off. Jack quietly observes the large man as a bits of blood and meat drop off the chainsaw on his lancer with each step. She looks to his neck and sees the ring, now a fully formed bruise. She frowns at her discovery, 'How the fuck was he able to resist my biotics so easily?'

Before Jack can inquire about the bruising, Shepard leads them around a wrecked building. Two mercenaries spot them from high above and are about to shoot.

Carmine smiles and quickly aims up at the pair but they're engulfed in blue energy before he can pull the trigger. He looks to Jack and sees a similar smile plastered on her face as she pulls the mercs off their vantage point and smashes them into the ground, killing them instantly.

The symphony of crushing and cracking bones made a chill shoot through Carmine's spine. He did love a good broken bone.

Shepard nodded back to her, "Nice work Jack."

Carmine bumped her with the butt of his lancer, "Hell yeah, you crushed those grubs."

Jack hides her smirk and scoffs at him, "Yeah, you aren't too bad at killing either, for a big pyjack." Carmine shakes his head and snickers at the small biotic.

Shepard chuckles at the back and forth between the two, 'They're getting there. At least both of them are trying to play nice with each other.'

As they progress Carmine spots two more hostiles on a bridge and swaps out his lancer for his boltok. He pops two rounds off, swiftly killing the pair. And Shepard discovers she'll never get used to seeing the enemy have their heads burst like melons. Jack on the other hand, enjoyed Carmine's weapons immensely.

It's a few more moments of walking before they hit another pocket of mercenaries. It's a mix of high and low targets as the mercs start to fire on the trio.

Jack fires a few shots with her pistol but misses all of them, "Fucking piece of shit." She peeks out of cover to launch the gun at a merc, nailing him it the forehead.

Carmine laughs as he blind fires around his cover, nailing said mercenary in the chest with a slurry of rounds. Jack had never seen weapons like his before. The red mist that exploded from man's chest made her sadistic smile grow. A hole tore through the man's chest cavity as he dropped dead, a large pool of crimson leaking across the rocky ground.

"Jack, get ready to push those mercenaries out of cover like before. Carmine take the middle. Once Carmine gets in there Jack, we'll take out the small groups on either side. You take right, I got left." Shepard ordered.

Carmine nodded to her and Jack chuckled, letting her biotic power flow into her hands. Shepard popped out of cover with her sniper rifle as Jack launched a powerful shockwave toward the rest of the grounded troops.

Carmine practically hurls himself over his cover to charge the enemy. A bullet smashed into the right side of his chest armor and he growled. A merc had managed to keep their weapon when they were knocked down.

Carmine swiftly approached the turian and grabbed the gun, wrenching it from his grasp. The turian looked to him wide eyed as Clay jammed the barrel of his lancer in his mouth. Carmine pulled the trigger, effectively splattering the turian's blue blood and brains, "Oh yeah! That's what I live for!"

Shepard and Jack start cleaning up on their respective sides, "Carmine! On your left!" Shepard yells out at she aims her sniper rifle at a mercenary with a rocket launcher. Shepard breaks the merc's shield and puts him down. The impact of her sniper launching him backward, his RPG firing into the sky and blowing up soon after. Shepard looked over to catch Jack blasting a turian with her shotgun.

The two women finish killing the mercs on their respective sides before joining back up in cover, "Good work Jack. Now let's go help Carmine."

Jack chuckles and points the barrel of her shotgun toward the sounds of pure carnage that Carmine was currently dishing out, "Thanks. I don't think he needs our help though.

They peek out of cover and watch the display of violence with an odd perversion as Carmine carved, shot, and stomped his way through the remaining enemies. There's only two left, and besides being splattered in viscera Carmine looks to be just fine.

"Fuck! What the hell is that thing!" The panicking man whimpers to his companion.

The asari next to him sighs, "We just have to hit him in those exposed bits. His armor is too thick, so aim for his neck and arms."

Carmine chuckles as he hears the conversation, and begins a slow walk toward their cover, eyes stuck to the piece of rock they hide behind. He clips his lancer to his back and slips out his boltok, holding it tight in his right hand.

The two pop out and Carmine rushes the asari first, grabbing her around the throat with his left hand. The man panics and fires blindly toward him, a shot digs into his right bicep, dangerously close to his tattoo. Carmine bares his teeth and growls out at his next victim, "Oh now you've done it grub. Come here!"

Carmine's fingers tear into the asari's throat as she claws at the big man's forearm. Her feet kick as she gurgles on her own blue blood, spitting some onto Clay's chest armor. The man drops his gun and tries to run away, doing the exact opposite of what the burly gear yelled at him.

Carmine quickly pulls up his revolver and fires two accurate shots that take the man's legs off at the knee causing him to cry out in pain and crash to the ground.

The blue woman's body goes limp in his other hand and he tosses her to the ground. Spinning the revolver before holstering. Grabbing a hold of his combat knife which he uses to dig the small slug out of his right bicep, grunting lightly as the sharp blade cuts into his wound, 'Good, now finish off the worthless grub and let's get back to the ladies.' Carmine nods and sheathes his knife, pulling out his lancer.

Jack bites her lip as she watches him close in on the last hostile, who is crawling away. A thick trail of blood follows the man as he digs his gloved fingers into the ground. His legs rendered useless by Carmine's powerful rounds.

Shepard grimaces slightly at the display and heads up to him with Jack in tow. Before Carmine can reach the man, he feels a familar small hand touch his bicep. He turns his head to look at Shepard and she sighs, "Just make it quick."

Carmine smiles and nods, quickly walking up behind the merc. He flips him over with his boot and curb stomps him. The fresh red and gray splatters onto the ground underneath the gear's heavy boot.

"Oh you're going to have to teach me how to do that." Jack muses while watching him step over the now headless and legless corpse.

Carmine scratches the back of his helmet, "Maybe some other time. I can't be giving away all my grub killing techniques."

Jack chuckles at the big man. Shepard smirks at her two crazy companions and calls them to her as she checks her omni-tool's map. She leads them toward the next area, "Come on, let's get going, we're almost to the lab."

Carmine grunts as the loudspeaker pipes up again, the same message as before. "Alright, that's seriously starting to piss me off."

Shepard hears his angered mutter and lets herself fall into formation next to him. She bumps his left hip with her elbow and he looks down to her with a small smirk. Her icy blue orbs look up to him with worry.

"I'm good Shepard, the grubs had a queen that talked a bit like that. Pompous bitch that she was." Shepard chuckles at the big man as he straightens out, replacing his lancer with his gnasher.

"What is it Carmine?" Shepard noticed his change in posture immediately, knowing trouble must be somewhere close.

"A lot of grubs up ahead, a mix of aliens and people. Keep your eyes open." He replies, his voice coming out deeper than usual. Carmine's big brother instincts were kicking in as he stepped himself in front of both Shepard and Jack. Shepard catches onto this immediately and smirks at the protective gear for a moment. She nods in thanks to him and keeps her eyes active, scanning the surrounding area.

They hear gunshots as they get closer, and Carmine fights off the urge to run ahead to join the battle, 'Need to keep these two safe. That's all that matters to me out here. The killing is just a bonus.' Carmine thinks.

His ears perk up however as the gunfire stops, the familiar scent of blood and death filling his nose as he takes a deep breath.

Shepard and her team come to a clearing with loads of dead mercs and a few krogan corpses. One krogan stands idly, the front of it is covered in blood as it clenches a shotgun. It doesn't immediately attack the trio however, and Shepard raises an eyebrow at the krogan.

"I got this grub Shepard." Carmine says as he raises his gnasher. Shepard quickly sets a hand on the top of his shotgun and pushes it down.

"Wait a second Carmine, he hasn't attacked us yet. Let's see if he wants to talk." Shepard was happy to see Carmine shrug and nod to her. He lets her take the lead as they approached the krogan.

The large alien sniffs the air for a moment before speaking to them, "You are different. New. You don't smell like this world. Seven night cycles and I have felt only the need to kill. But you, you make me speak."

Carmine cocks his head like a confused dog and looks to Shepard, "Uhh, I'm no brain surgeon but seven night cycles sounds like seven days. There's no way this big ass grub is seven days old is there?"

Shepard shrugs, "I'm not sure, but he seems harmless enough. I'm going to see what I can get from him. Hopefully more information about our warlord."

Carmine nods and stands back with Jack as Shepard approaches the young krogan. Carmine keeps himself primed in case the krogan decides to attack Shepard, half tuned into their conversation as a precaution.

Jack takes the opportunity to talk to him about his resistance to her biotic power. She looked up at his neck and was stunned to see the bruising was almost completely faded away.

"Hey pyjack, take off those gauntlets and show me your wrists." She ordered him. The big man looked down to her and raises his eyebrow.

"Now why would I do that?" He questions.

Jack grumbles before glaring at him, "Because it's either them or you lift up your shirt and show me those abs. Nothing happened when I used my pull on you earlier. I want to see if there's at least some damage."

"I think you're going to have to ask nicely." He teases as he puts away his gnasher and crosses his large arms.

Jack felt her eyelid twitch and she stomped over to him, "Come on just fucking show me pyjack."

"Not if you're going to be a bitch about it." Carmine take a little step closer to her and drops his arms to his sides as he looms over her.

Jack groans and slumps, remembering when Shepard went to talk to her about being decent with the rest of the crew, 'God that fucking choir girl is trying to make me soft. Ughhh I fucking hate that it's working.'

"Please." Jack strains as she says the magic word. She can barely believe that she said it. And by the look of it she doesn't think Carmine expected it either.

Carmine scratched at his helmet before slipping off his gauntlets. Two large mirrored bruises circled around his wrists, "Huh. Wonder when they got there?" He mutters as he turns his wrists over to look at the dark colored bruises.

"Ha I knew I'd at least leave some damage. What the hell kind of man are you Carmine? There's not one person I've ever known that can resist, let alone ignore my power." Jack say as she examines his scarred hands a bit.

Carmine slips his gauntlets back on then lifts his armor and his tank top under it, "Can you check if I have bruising on my stomach? I can't exactly see past my armor."

Jack's mouth waters at the sight of his exposed middle. Deep scars were littered across his extremely defined muscles. Jack has to clench her fists to stop herself from reaching out and trying to touch him. She quickly notes that the bruising was extremely faded compared to his wrists, more similar to his neck.

"You-uhh, you're pretty much all good." Jack looks away as she feels heat pool in her stomach.

Carmine shrugs at her odd behavior and gets himself back in order. Slipping his lancer into his waiting hands. Jack looks at him angrily as he starts to laugh.

"I can't believe you used your manners, Haha. That's a win for the gear." He says smugly. Jack glared daggers at his helmet-covered head and grumbles to herself, crossing her arms and turning away from him.

'Maybe we were too harsh on her. Jack doesn't seem that bad. She knows how to kill grubs pretty good with that blue shit she has too.' Carmine shakes his head a little as his laughter settles.

"Hey. If you'd like, we can train together sometime and I'll show you some old techniques I used against the grubs back home." Carmine says as he reaches a hand out and playfully punches her shoulder.

Jack lets out a small grunt from the punch and turns to Carmine with a small smile, "I'm pretty busy these days but sure. I'll see where I can fit you in." She says with a hint of suggestion, which completely blows over the gear's head as he nods.

'Huh. Maybe being nice can work out for a change.' Jack thinks with a hidden smile. She squashes the smile as she turns to back to him.

"Still haven't answered my other question. What the hell are you pyjack? Nobody can resist my biotics like you did."

Carmine takes a few moments of contemplation before answering her with a shrug, "Eh I guess us gears are just that tough."

Jack narrows her eyes as she thinks, she's heard him use the term before, "You keep saying that. What the hell is a gear?"

Carmine grins at her question and pulls his Cog tag out from the top of his armor. He leans down to show her, "You already know I'm from a different dimension. In my world our soldiers that served under the Coalition of Ordered Governments or Cog, were called gears."

Jack hums as she stares at the large metal cog around his neck. She catches a blood stain on the metal piece and snickers, "Huh, real imaginative of them."

Carmine snorts at her and straightens out, his tone turning a bit more serious, "Look Jack, I think for Shepard's sake we should at least be civil with each other. You don't seem too bad for a wretch of an ex-convict."

Jack scoffs and shakes her head at the big man as she jabs his side with the barrel of her shotgun, making him flinch, "I can't believe I'm agreeing to this. But you aren't that bad either, for a big pyjack."

Carmine chuckles and nods his head to her. Jack hides her smile from the gear again as she turns to look around the area and at all the dead bodies.

Shepard comes over to the pair and is surprised to see they haven't torn each other's heads off yet. She smiles as Carmine seems to have kept his eye on her the entire time, having barely moved from the spot she left him.

"Come on you two, let's get moving." Shepard orders.

Shepard leads them down a path the tank bred krogan pointed out to her. She kept her eyes peeled for hidden mercenaries, although she's certain Carmine would've said something if there were any.

It was eerily quiet, and Carmine felt a chill run up his spine, 'Something isn't right.'

Carmine's thought was proven soon after as he hears multiple sets of footsteps approaching them. A group of mercs rush at them, and one of them screams out, "Fucking run! They're loose!"

Shepard quickly shoots one of the mercs down as two more rush at her. She dodges the wild swing of the first merc and uses her omni-blade to quickly stab into his stomach, blood spills from the man's wound as she kicks him to the ground.

She catches sight of Jack tossing a couple people off a nearby cliff into the black abyss below, "See you later fuckwads!" She yells out, followed by a sadistic laugh.

Shepard sets her sights on the next merc as they rush her, but before he can reach her, Carmine steps in from her left and revs his chainsaw. The metal teeth drag into the man's waist. Shepard looks away as the man screams in pain, still not used to seeing Carmine's brutal executions.

"Suffer Bitch!" He yells out as he finishes sawing the man in half, with a hefty bit of blood splashing onto the front of his armor. The man falls apart and Carmine lets out a deep, satisfied breath.

His keen ears pick up more movement up ahead and he isn't able to reel himself in as he takes off, heading to where the mercs were running from, 'Get ahead of the game. Protect them. Kill the grubs and keep them safe.' Carmine doesn't resist the voice's orders, agreeing wholeheartedly.

Jack chuckles from Shepard's right as the pair look at the dead man. His insides are spilled across the rocky ground, his torso still twitched from its distance away from his legs, "Damn, now that's just nasty." Jack says with a smirk.

Shepard sighs and closes her eyes for a moment, 'Come on Shepard, pull it together. You've seen him do way worse. Not that it makes watching any easier.'

She shakes her head gently and looks back to Carmine only to find an empty space. She looks around, then down, finding a trail of giant bloody boot prints leading ahead.

"YEEEEEEEAH!" They head the gear's battle cry, followed by the sound of his lancer firing.

Jack and her share a look before jolting off to catch the rampaging man.

Carmine's lancer clicks empty as he finishing gunning down another bunch of fleeing mercenaries. Clay has left a trail of bodies in his wake, and he reloads as he rounds a corner. He gets a prime view of a man completely eating shit with a mean face plant. The smaller man scrambles backward on the ground.

He runs right into Carmine's armored legs and looks up to the source of blue lights as they shine down on him. The overwhelming scent of death and fear make Carmine grin sadistically.

"I got some bad news pal." He says to the man as he lifts his boot. The man tries to shield himself but is powerless to stop the large boot as it crushes his arms and head. Blood and brain matter splatter onto Carmine's leg armor, 'Fuck I needed this.'

Carmine looks up and sees four krogan finishing off the remnants of what appears to be a large group of mercenaries. A mix of multicolored bloods and body parts are scattered around the area. Carmine feels his grin grow wider. Steam rises from his enraged form.

Shepard and Jack catch up to Carmine, only to watch him charge toward the group of krogan, "Ah shit he's gonna get himself killed." Jack says. She is stopped by Shepard when she moves to go help the big guy. Shepard notices the visible rage trailing behind the gear as he runs toward the krogan.

Jack looks to Shepard bewildered, "Let him blow off some of that steam. We'll help if we need, but he can handle a few krogan."

Carmine meets the first krogan head on, firing a few rounds into his legs and dropping him to his knees. He quickly swaps out his lancer for his boltok and takes the krogan as a meat shield. Carmine was surprised to see the krogan actually covered most of, if not all of his body, 'Thank fuck, a meat shield that can actually cover me.' He thinks giddily.

The krogan yells out in pain as Carmine drags its torn up legs along the ground, "Oh what's the matter little baby, did I hurt you? Fuck You!" Clay yells into his meat shield's ear as he fires a couple rounds at the approaching krogan. He misses them completely as his meat shield struggles, making it hard for him to hit his shots. The other krogan begin to fire on the pair.

Carmine smiles as the rather large alien starts to soak up bullets from his companions. The meat shield's struggling weakens and Carmine manages to shoot one of the approaching krogan in the head. His head being completely destroyed from the powerful round. The krogan's body hits the ground with a weighted thud.

Carmine laughs as the other two krogan don't even bat an eye at their fallen companion, and continue to blast rounds into the meat shield, "I'll never get tired of this life!"

Carmine's grip on his boltok tightens as the words leave his mouth, and his teeth grind as he tosses the body of the bullet riddled krogan down. He gives the beastly alien credit. Even with a countless amount of bullet wounds leaking fresh blood, he tries to get up, "Look at that, a grub with heart." He taunts.

Clay slides his boltok away and yells to the remaining krogan, "Come on grubs, you want a fight? Come and get it!"

The two krogan look to each other before tossing their shotguns down. Both bang their fists together before looking back to Carmine, 'That's right motherfuckers. Come on.' The voice is muffled by the thump of Carmine's heart. He is more than excited from all the slaughter.

Clay smiles before lifting his boot and stomping in the head of the downed meat shield. With fresh blood making its way onto his armor Carmine feels his hands shake. Adrenaline courses through his rage afflicted body.

Carmine swiftly elbows the first krogan in the face as it bum rushes him, sending the alien reeling to the ground as a large cut spits blood from it's eyebrow. Before Carmine can capitalize however, he is tackled by the second krogan, who manages to pin him down.

Carmine gets hit by a couple punches to his helmet, the old metal head protection holds up pretty good as the powerful punches smash into it. His head however is a different story as the force of the punches don't get midigaged very well. Carmine feels he's taken enough damage however, flipping the berserker off of him. He feels a slight metallic taste in his mouth and grunts as he flicks his tongue over a cut in his mouth. A nice long gash on the inside of his upper lip.

"Gotta love the taste of your own blood." Carmine says with a bit of a chuckle as the pair stand back up and square off. Sure his helmet absorbed a lot of damage but his head also felt the sting of the krogan's power. Not anywhere near the pain he felt getting battered by even a lowly locust drone.

Clay growls angrily as he dodges an incoming powerful swing of the krogan, slipping around and wrapping his arms around his waist. He suplexes the krogan, smashing the rabid alien into the ground, 'Fuck these assholes are heavy.'

Carmine quickly gets on top of the krogan and begins smashing his face in, "Oh you can dish it out! But you can't take it?!"

Jack and Shepard watch the display of dominance with rather similar perverse thoughts. Shepard looks to Jack before speaking, "See, told you he'd be fine. The big guy lives for this type of stuff."

Jack snickers as her insides burn, the dominant beating of multiple krogan simultaneously made her rather explicit thoughts of the gear even worse. Especially as she watched him easily lift a krogan, "I bet we don't weigh a damn thing to him. He could hold us up and-"

Shepard coughs loudly and looks away with a blush on her face, "Maybe you should keep that thought to yourself."

Jack realizes she'd been thinking out loud and clears her throat, standing up a bit straighter, "Ah I see...fuck."

Shepard snickers at her before placing a hand on her shoulder, "Come on, let's go grab him. He's almost done."

Jack nods, looking away to hide her mild embarrassment. The two start to approach him as they hear the sickening pop of bones, and spurts of blood.

Carmine has seriously done a number on the krogan he's beaten down. The final krogan still hasn't fully recovered from the elbow he took either, and watches the beatdown while rather disoriented. Carmine pulls back and takes a second to admire his handiwork. The krogan's eyes are both swollen shut, and it's teeth and chipped and broken. Chunks of teeth and blood leak from his mouth.

Carmine breathes deep, and grips the front of the mangled krogan's armor, dragging him to a cliff, "I'd say enjoy the view, but it's not like you can see it." He says before launching the krogan into the black depths below with a hefty grunt.

Clay turns back to catch sight of the last krogan standing, finally having recovered from the near concussion he sustained at the gear's hands. He looks to the left and his eyes widen as Shepard and Jack are casually walking toward him. The krogan looks from Carmine to the women and charges them instead.

"No no, we're not done grub!" Carmine yells as he dives and intercepts the big alien halfway to his team. Carmine grabs the krogan by the throat and starts choking the life out of him. Carmine raises them to stand, his right arm able to bear the immense weight of the krogan. Granted it took a bit more effort than usual.

The krogan threw punches and scratched at the big man's arm, opening up a decent sized gash on the inside of his forearm. Carmine made an annoyed noise, forcing his fingers past the rough skin of the krogan's neck, and into his throat as his fingers pierce the skin.

"You don't get to walk away from me, bitch." Carmine growls out as he slips his knife into his left hand. With a swift thrust, the knife is buried into the krogan's gut. Carmine twists the large serrated blade and drags it up into the krogan's chest. The krogan spits up blood and wails at his new wound, the noise being masked by the gurgling of his blood.

Carmine takes one good last look at the krogan before haphazardly tossing the blood covered alien to the ground. He wipes his knife on his blood stained pants and trades it for his lancer, reloading the well kept firearm.

Shepard clears her throat noisily from behind him and his head perks up, 'Ah fuck. She's probably going to be pissed at me for running off. Might as well face the music.'

Carmine slowly turned himself toward the two women and was surprised to see Shepard's rather amused expression instead of an angry one. Jack took a step closer to him and jabbed him in the arm playfully, "God damn Carmine! You took on four krogan and you're barely winded."

Carmine and Shepard snicker at her, "Eh it's nothing too impressive. Killing grubs is all I know."

He catches the slight frown come to Shepard's face as she takes a step closer to him, "Don't be so modest. Jack is right, taking them all on is impressive. Just try not to make a habit of running off."

Carmine shrugs, "No promises." He says as she passes, blushing lightly as she runs a small armored hand across his right bicep while she passes.

"The lab is just up ahead. Let's grab ourselves a warlord. Oh and just to be clear Carmine he is a krogan, so keep the safety on unless I say so." Carmine nods at her orders and smiles.

"Got it Shepard." He replies as Shepard turns her head to flash him a cute smile back. His eyes meet her own icy blue orbs and he finds himself entranced for the second they connect.

He shakes his head gently, and the trio continue, 'Christ, why does she have this effect on me? It's not like I haven't dealt with beautiful women before. But Shepard just has a knack for getting under my skin.'

"Carmine keep up. I don't want you slacking behind around here." Shepard's voice hits his ears and he's quick to work his way back into formation. He hadn't even realized he was zoning out so much. Clayton shakes his head a little, 'Can't be getting distracted out here. Focus up moron.'

He immediately betrays his thought however as his eyes wander to the hips of the two women in front of him. Clay quickly swats himself, 'Hey! What did I just say!?'

Carmine keeps his helmet tilted up and squeezes the grips of his lancer tight as the three keep moving toward the laboratory. As they make their way inside, Carmine pats himself for his ammo.

He grunts in annoyance once he finds a considerable amount is gone, 'Seems like my saw is going to get more playing time.' He chuckles lightly at the thought.

Carmine is quick to raise his weapon on an asari woman who pops out from behind a desk. Carmine lets his eyes rake over her, taking the time to actually observe her features rather than blindly sawing through them. He let out a small hum, 'Besides the tentacle hair thing they got going, some asari aren't that bad looking.'

The asari speaks up, "Oh thank god, it's really just you Shepard. I shut off all the security cameras once I saw what I thought was you out there. You remember me right? Man am I glad it's you shooting this place up." She ends with a nervous chuckle.

"A friend of yours Shepard?" Carmine asks as he lowers his barrel slightly. The commander sighs, not looking away from the scientist.

"Maybe?" The commander says with a raised eyebrow.

"Sorry, Rana Thonoptis. You ran into me when you destroyed Saren's lab on Virmire. I had to outrun a nuke but hey, it was a second chance." The blue woman says, trying to jog the commander's memory.

"Ha a nuke? I bet that was a fun ass mission." Carmine says with excitement, making Jack snicker at him and bump him in the side with her shotgun.

"Calm down there ya big pyjack."

Shepard dismisses Carmine's statement and pauses to think, then nods and holsters her rifle, "I see you're putting that second chance to poor use."

While the two women talk, Carmine takes the opportunity to look around, finding what seems to be a burnt pile of human bones. He sniffed the air and wrinkled his nose, 'Yep, definitely human. Even got those big toad grubs on a few tables. Like they're dissecting them or some shit. What the fuck is this place?'

Carmine's thoughts are interrupted by the blue blur that takes his focus, he quickly turns and raises his gun on instinct. Shepard lifts her hand and shakes her head, "She's alright, let her go."

Carmine lowers his gun and scoffs, "Huh. What is it now, third chance?" He jokes, making the commander roll her striking blue eyes at him and smirk. She gently pushes past him, and he feels a small wave of heat rush to cheeks as she bumps him with her hip.

'What the fuck is wrong with me? Why does her touching me always feel so damn good?' Carmine sighs.

Jack taps the big man's arm as he stands as still as a statue. It effectively breaks him from his internal scolding as he blushes and scratches the back of his helmet muttering, "My bad."

The trio enter the next room and Carmine immediately spots the large krogan typing away at a console, he snorts in an annoyed fashion, "About damn time you got here. Certainly took your time with those mercs."

Carmine lets out an annoyed sigh and rolls his eyes, 'Great, a smart one.'

Shepard shoots a glance at the big man before looking back to the krogan, "I take it you're Okeer. You don't appear to be caged, or grateful I'm here."

The krogan turns to them, staring at Carmine for a noticeably longer time than anyone else before scoffing and looking into Shepard's eyes, "You may claim to be here to help. But the appearance of the formerly deceased commander Shepard, does not warrant a gentle change."

Carmine's eyes widen as he turns his head to look at Shepard, "What the hell does he mean by formerly deceased?"

Jack pipes up as Shepard turns to look at the pair, "Ah I remember reading something about that when I was fucked up last night. You got rebuilt by Cerberus. Or was it cloned?"

Shepard lets a small sigh slip from her lips as she looks up anxiously into the big man's helmet, it's shining blue eyes looming down onto her, "I was killed on the original Normandy roughly two years ago as it was destroyed. Cerberus found my body and reconstructed me, or at least that's what they told me..." She breaks eye contact with the gear, feeling his gaze burn a hole in the side of her head.

"I-I understand if that changes how you see me Carmine." The big man doesn't hesitate to walk over and clasp his giant hand on her armored shoulder.

"Don't be talking like that. It changes nothing Shepard. A bunch of crazy shit has happened to me in the past week including being sent here in the first place. So you coming back from the dead isn't so bad. From what I've seen and heard you're still you. That's all I care about." He ends with a gentle squeeze to her shoulder, and the commander blushes mildy as a smile creeps onto her lips.

They share a small nod before Jack clears her throat, "I hate to break the moment between you two love birds but we've still got a warlord that needs recruiting."

Carmine quickly pulls his hand away in embarrassment as he scratches the back of his helmet. The commander has a fierce blush on her face now, but turns to Okeer to talk with him.

Carmine decides to take a little stroll around Okeer's lab and comes to a large window. He looks around the lower area and spots a blonde woman, her armor matching that of the mercenaries. A small smile comes to his face as his blood pumps a little faster, 'Well this is going to be interesting.'

The blonde opens her omni-tool and speaks into it. Her voice carries easily throughout the large room due to her being linked to the loudspeakers, "Attention, I've traced the krogan releases back to, surprise surprise, Okeer."

Camrine feels his blood run hot as mercs begin swarming the lower room. He swaps to his gnasher and pops a shell into the glass, shattering it.

Shepard's head snaps over to him, "Carmine what are you-" she's cut off by the big man whooping as he jumps out of the window, and into the room below.

He hears her yell behind him, "Goddammit Carmine you big idiot!" He chuckles at the angry woman and racks a shell into his shotgun. He rushes the incoming group of mercs, hip firing his first shell into a man.

The man explodes in a puff of red gore, splattering hunks of meat and blood onto his armor, making him laugh in satisfaction, "Ha! Got some on me."

He feels shots smash into his side and growls as he turns and rushes the next victim, who tries to dodge the large man's attack. Carmine catches the merc's ankle as they try to leap away from him, "Where do you do you think you're going grub?!"

His voice booms throughout the room, and the sickening sound of bones being cracked takes its place as Carmine easily lifts and swings the man down onto the ground.

Carmine holds up the man and watches the blood spill from a newly opened head wound. He smiles before pressing his gnasher to the man's stomach and firing, splashing himself, and any mercs close to him in viscera.

Carmine laughs sadistically as he takes more gunfire. The gear dives to his right into cover before blind firing. He hears the sickly scream of a woman as her leg is torn off from his wild shot. He racks another shell as the screams fuel his rage, "Come on grubs! I'm not even trying here!"

Shepard sighs and grasps the bridge of her nose. Jack watches Carmine's display of violence with deep interest. Okeer motions to the broken window, "I recommend you go help the brute."

Shepard narrows her eyes at the krogan and pulls out her avenger, "Let's get down there. The big guy could probably use our help."

Speak of the devil. As the women follow suit and drop into the room, they spot a large mech keeping Carmine pinned down. Of course Carmine is strangling a mercenary anyway however. The man's face had turned blue and he was gurgling. Carmine snaps his neck and focuses on the slugs smashing into his cover.

"God I hate you mechanical pieces of shit." He grumbles, swapping to his lancer and checking the mag out of habit. He grins. A full magazine always made the big man happy.

"Carmine, draw the mech out into the open. When he does, you have to hit it with a shockwave Jack. I'll finish it off." Shepard's voice fills his helmet and his grin widens. Her shots echo behind him as her and Jack begin sweeping up the remaining mercs.

'I get to play bullet magnet. Hell yeah.' The gear waits for a gap and takes it, springing out of cover and peppering shots into the mech. His bullets tear into the metal, but no serious damage is done as Carmine moves out into the open.

The mech follows, managing to catch Carmine in the back with a small burst of gunfire. Five rounds quickly smash into the gear's armored back, pushing him forward slightly. He turns and fires a few accurate bullets into one of the arms of the mech, disabling the arm entirely.

The mech wobbles into the open and Jack yells to the big gear in front of her, "Out of the way pyjack! Unless you want to get sent flying!"

She hears Carmine chuckle before quickly fixing himself into cover out of her way. Jack fills herself with biotic energy and forces a shockwave toward the mech, knocking it's weakened state onto its back.

Shepard primes an rpg from her vantage point, and fires, blasting the mech's underbelly wide open. Effectively destroying it.

Carmine yells, "Oh hell yes! Eat that rocket you big metal bitch!" Shepard holds back a snicker as she angrily makes her way down from her vantage point. Carmine goes and checks to make sure the mercs are all dead.

Which doesn't take long as well over half the dead bodies in the room he personally tore apart with his gnasher. The fresh scent of blood and entrails keeps Clayton's blood burning as he tries to settle himself. He reloads his weapons and smirks, 'Look at that. I didn't run out of ammo this time.'

He rounds a piece of cover and finds the blonde woman sitting against the wall. Blood spills from her mouth as she clutches a crimson soaked wound on her stomach.

She looks up in fear as the large man approaches her, crouching down right in front of her. His blue lights illuminate her face, and he can see every scared little detail etched onto it.

She stumbles over her words before saying, "P-please don't kill me. I promise if you let me go, I won't come after the krogan. You won't-" She is cut off by a harsh cough, blood spilling from her rather soft looking lips. The crimson hits the floor right by his boots.

"I won't ever be a problem for you. You'll never see me again." She finishes.

Carmine snickers at her and reaches a hand out, she shies away from it. He roughly grasps her chin, making her look at him. He wipes bits of her blood off her mouth with his thumb, 'Stop playing with your food. Make her suffer.'

The little voice in his head echoes and he growls low. The hand that grips her chin grows tighter, and she lets out a pained whimper.

The noise makes Carmine recoil his hand as if it had been burnt. The noise was familiar, it haunted some of his dreams like all the other fucked up memories that tormented him.

Clayton contemplated helping her. But he shakes his head free of the thought almost immediately. He growled low again as he stood and pulled his boltok out. Maybe he could show mercy just this once.

*BANG*

Shepard hears the loud gunshot and rushes in its direction, spotting Carmine as he rounds the corner. He's relieved to see her, even as she angrily storms over to him, "What have I been saying about running off Carmine?!",

He chuckles at the outburst, replacing the spent round in the chamber before he spins his revolver and holsters it, "Us gears act fast Shepard. What can I say?"

The commander groans loudly and turns, hiding the small smile on her face, she can never stay mad at him for too long, "Whatever big guy. Come on, we should head back to Okeer."

Carmine nods and follows the red head, his eyes tilting down every so often to catch the sway in her walk. They meet with Jack who energetically approaches the big man, "Ha that was fucking nuts! For a big pyjack you're a bad motherfucker."

Carmine laughs and shakes his head, waving a dismissing hand at her, "Yeah yeah, stop stroking my ego." Jack bites her tongue as she holds back a sexually charged retort.

Shepard and her team file back into the room where they left Okeer and find his corpse laying next to a large tank.

"Ah shit, the damn grub bit the dust. Guess this trip was a fucking waste." Carmine says as he pushes Okeer's body with his boot, getting him on his back. A small data pad lay under him in a pool of his blood.

Jack notices the tank and the krogan inside, "Why the hell would Okeer have this?" Carmine shrugs and taps the glass.

Shepard curiously picks up the data pad and reads through it, looking to the tank while smirking, "Okeer's note said this krogan in the tank is apparently pure. This may have been worthwhile after all."

Carmine catches on as he nods, "Fuck it, why not right? Those grubs can pack a punch, might as well use him or her, or whatever the fuck it is." He says with a scratch to the back of his helmet.

Shepard chuckles at the big man as she gets in contact with the ship, "Normandy? Okeer is a no go. But I've got a package that need's retrieval, and he's a big one."

---

As they board the ship Shepard dismisses Jack, stopping Carmine in his tracks as he moves to head to his room, "Come on, we're heading to Chakwas."

Carmine tensed, "And why is that? All I have are a few grazes."

Shepard smirked smugly at him, "Did you think I didn't notice you pull a bullet out of your arm? You need it checked out, and those grazes need to be closed properly if they haven't closed already. Don't argue Carm, lets go."

Carmine felt his cheeks heat up, enjoying the authority in her voice, "Yes ma'am." He says with a smile.

Shepard smiles back triumphantly, 'Following orders like a good boy...' She pauses for a split second as her body heats up.

'Ok don't be thinking that in public.' Shepard's cheeks burn hotter as she rushes to the elevator, Carmine hot on her heels. Not that he was trying. His legs were simply long enough to catch up to her easily.

They head to the med bay and are greeted warmly by both Mordin and Dr. Chakwas.

"Ah wonderful timing Shepard. Great, Carmine is with you as well, this is important for both of you." Carmine raises his eyebrow.

"Is it something we can discuss while you patch up helmet head?" Shepard jokes.

"Hey! Don't be disrespecting the helmet Cherry." Carmine shoots back with a small chuckle. Shepard looks back and smiles at him.

"Yes, Chakwas can patch wounds while I deliver the discovery." Mordin approaches them and Carmine immediately tenses.

"As long as you keep those hands to yourself professor, I don't care what happens." Shepard snorts out a laugh, and covers her mouth with the back of her hand.

Carmine pulls off his gear and takes a seat at the foot of one of the beds, "It's nothing much doc, just a few grazes. Oh and I had to dig a round out of my arm. Shepard is just being a bit of a hypochondriac."

Shepard glares at him but smirks as he lets out a surprised yelp. Chakwas had stealthily stuck him with a needle, "I'd be careful if I were you Carmine. Hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn."

Carmine grumbles as the doctor checks him over. Mordin comes over with a data pad and a creepy smile, "Carmine, your blood has proven superbly unique. Your cells regenerate at an incredible rate. A rate not possible for any species, possibly due to inter-dimensional boundaries. The scientific possibilities are endless."

Carmine let out a low hum, "Uhh, alright. That's good yeah?"

Chakwas and Shepard laugh as she finishes cleaning Carmine's wounds, tapping his shoulder when she's done, "Yes Carmine it is very good. You're all set by the way."

Carmine nods to the doctor and stands as Shepard speaks up, "Well as interesting as this has been, I think we both could use a hot shower. Mordin, forward your research to my personal terminal, I'd like to look into it at some point." Mordin nods to the commander and they all say their goodbyes.

Shepard and Carmine are back in the elevator. Shepard keeps sneaking looks at him every so often as the elevator ride drags on. He catches her every time, and his smile grows wider each time her icy blue orbs look to him.

"What are you looking at?" He asks as he steps closer to her.

Shepard jumps a bit and looks at him with a nervous smile and red cheeks, "I uhh, nothing."

He chuckled at her, finding her incredibly adorable. He stops though, becoming as quiet as death. Shepard cocks her head in confusion as the elevator door opens and they head into her room.

Carmine rubs the back of his neck nervously, "I don't have any clothes to change into so I'll probably come back up later if that's alright with you."

Shepard chuckles at him as she trails the thick, defined muscles of his arms, "Well why'd you follow me in here if you didn't have clothes Carmine?"

He clears his throat, and continues to rub at his neck, "I don't know, just felt kind of natural. I like being around you. It's easy, just like how I used to be with Sam. I uhh, I'm sorry I should probably go."

Shepard blushes at his small confession but smiles warmly at him, quickly grabbing at his forearm before he can leave. He turns back to look at her and chuckles awkwardly, "It's ok, I get it. Honestly I like spending time with my crew but it's like you said. Just seems easier to be with you. You compare me to Sam a lot." Her tone drags down near the end.

He blushes but before he panics and starts trying to defend his statement, Shepard cuts him off, "But she must have been one stupid woman if she let you slip from her fingers. So in that aspect, I think me and her are a bit different."

He stumbles out a, "H-how so?"

Clayton feels his face heat up as Shepard takes a step into his personal space, yet his body doesn't tense like normal. He feels oddly calm, yet still nervous. Their armor gently grazes one another.

"I'm not going to let you slip away you big goofball." She grabs at his armor as she tucks herself into his side, hugging him. She feels him tense and almost rethinks her move. That is until she feels his warmth surround her as he tucks her closer to him, wrapping his arms around her armored shoulders.

"I'm sorry I lost my shit a bit today." She hears him mutter, she doesn't want to pull away from his surprising warmth, but does anyway. She takes a step back and looks up at a reasonably comfortable Carmine.

She smiles up at his helmet-covered head, "You don't have to worry about it Carmine, we're good. Now go grab your clothes. We have a krogan tank to go open up and I'd like you to be a bit more clean for it."

Carmine smiles back at her and straightens out, saluting her, "Yes ma'am."

She scoffs and rolls her eyes playfully at him as he laughs and leaves. She lets a hand rest over her heart, and blushes as she feels her heart pounding rapidly against her ribs. Even feeling the rhythmic thumping through her chest armor.

---

"So remind me again why you wanted me here? Wouldn't you rather have Jack or something? She's got that blue biotic stuff." Carmine said as he scratched the back of his helmet.

It didn't take either of them too long to wash up and head down to the bottom floor where the krogan tank was being kept. As the words left his mouth Shepard quirked an eyebrow at the nearly eight foot tall man beside her.

"Well I want to talk to him, he's a pure krogan. So either he'll be a welcome addition to the team or he's a walking time bomb. I'd rather be sufficiently protected if it's the latter." Shepard says with a small smile.

Carmine blushes light as he shrugs, "I'm just good at getting hit for other people."

"Well if that's the case then I have you here to get hit for me." She winks at him, a playful glint in her blue eyes.

Carmine smiles, and motions to the pod, "Alright, stand by. I'm releasing him." Shepard says as she opens her omni-tool. Carmine watched as the water drained from the pod.

The latch hissed as it opened, and the large krogan came tumbling out onto the ground. Torrents of water were hacked up and out of the krogan's mouth. After he was done he rose up, towering above the commander. Carmine was still the tallest in the room, and he made sure to stay close to Shepard.

Carmine caught the krogan's eyes and he saw an all too familiar look, pure rage. He tried to step in but it was too late, he was a step too slow. The krogan rushed Shepard and grabbed her, slamming and pinning her to the nearby wall.

Then he spoke, "Human. Female. Before you die I need a name."

The krogan instantly felt the cold metal of Carmine's knife as it was pressed against the front of his throat. As an added measure Clay put his boltok against the side of the krogan's head as well. Clayton towered behind the krogan. Shepard, while reeling from having her head smashed off the wall, smiled weakly at the gear.

"You put the little lady down, or I'm going to spill your little grub insides all over the floor." Carmine said through grinding teeth.

The krogan growled at him, and Shepard spoke, "I'm commander Shepard. And as you can see neither me nor my big friend here take too kindly to threats."

She motioned for Carmine to back down, which he shook his head no immediately. She gave him a hard glare and he reluctantly pulled himself away from the krogan, slipping his knife back into it it's sheathe, but kept his boltok trained to the back of his head.

The krogan growled at Shepard as Carmine jabs the barrel into his head from behind, "No, not your name. Mine. I am trained, I know things. But Okeer couldn't implant a connection. His words are hollow, legacy, warlord, grunt. Grunt, hmmm. This will do."

Carmine was starting to get pissed, his teeth were bared and his muscles flexed, begging to be used to murder the krogan. His finger slipped onto the trigger and Shepard quickly shook her head and motioned for him to calm down having seen a lick of steam rise from him.

Carmine didn't like it but he did as he was told and pulled his finger from the trigger. Trying his hardest to stay calm, 'You better know what you're doing Cherry.'

Shepard pondered to the krogan, "You wouldn't prefer Warlord or Legacy?"

Grunt shook his head no, "I prefer grunt, it matches the training in my blood."

Carmine removed his boltok from Grunt's head and scratched the side of his helmet with the barrel, "And what exactly were you trained for?" He asks as he moves to Grunt's right rather than behind him.

"I was bred to kill, to fight. To determine the strongest enemy on the field and kill. Kill them all until-"

"There's no one left standing." Grunt looked to the gear as Clay finished what he was going to say.

"To make sure every grub in front of you is dead before you walk away." Carmine says as he gripped his boltok tighter.

Grunt nodded, "Yes, to kill without remorse, sympathy, or mercy." Carmine then burst out laughing.

'Damn, who would've thought we have the most in common with a fucking toad grub.' His laughter was met with a raised eyebrow from Shepard and a blank stare from grunt. Carmine holstered his boltok and slapped a hand onto Grunt's shoulder.

"What did you say again your name was?" He asks.

"Grunt, but I have no clan." Grunt answers, still holding Shepard against the wall.

"Well Grunt, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Clayton Carmine, but you can just call me Carmine. I got a feeling we will get along just fine." Clayton says with a big smile as Grunt smirks at him and nods in approval at the massive human.

"That's great that you two have something in common. Can you maybe, I don't know, let me down?" Shepard asks as she kicks her dangling legs freely. Grunt nods and lowers her, Carmine immediately checking her head.

Shepard blushes as he sifts through her red hair, checking for wounds, "I'm alright Carmine."

"Just making sure Cherry. Can never be too safe." She shoots him a look and he shrugs.

"Ok I'm not always that safe but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be." Shepard snickers at him, and he smiles before gently pushing her shoulder with his hand.

Shepard was about to push him back when Grunt chuckled, "I see you two are mates. I understand why you were so protective Carmine."

Carmine froze as Shepard's face lit up like the star on top of a Christmas tree. She furiously shook her head at the krogan, "Nonono, we're not together, or er-mates. Carmine is protective over everyone. At least most of my crew."

Grunt snickers and shakes his head at the pair, "Whatever you say Shepard."

Grunt heads back over to his pod and starts stripping away some of the parts. The two humans turn and look to each other with harsh blushes, 'Goddammit, at least you have that helmet to cover up your embarrassment.' Shepard thinks as she catches him rub his neck.

"I guess I'll just head over to my room then, heh. I'll see you tomorrow Shepard. Have a good night." Clayton says to her as he awkwardly pats the top of her head, not that she was complaining.

Before he leaves Clay turns to Grunt, "Hey Grunt, want to go to the shooting range with me tomorrow?"

The krogan eagerly nods his head and smiles at the gear. Carmine shoots him a thumbs up and heads out. Shepard simply smiles and shakes her head, "Boys." She says as she blows a stray set of hairs out of her face.

---

Author's note:

Howdy, and holy shit, eight whole chapters. I can't believe it honestly. I never thought this story would catch as much traction as it did either. So from the bottom of this cowboy's heart, thank you.

Now onto more pressing matters. I am extremely interested in the whole twin Shepard concept. Mostly because it'll allow me to write both paragon and renegade Shepard without having to blend the two together into one Shepard. So I plan on implementing that at some point, not at the moment, but I'll leave little Easter eggs here and there throughout the future until the renegade clone shows up.

Thanks to those who left comments, I always read them. Feel free to comment, like, follow or none of them. Do what you please. But as always thank you for the continued reading of my silly little story, and I hope you're enjoying it. I meant to get this out on Christmas, but I suppose it'll have to be a New Year kind of upload.

Love ya'll and Happy New Year

Adios