Chapter 45
"You still doubting Shepard?" Jacob asked, loading in another clip to his ammo clip to his armor.
Miranda glared at him, folding the gun and attaching it to her back. She didn't respond.
"Staying quiet isn't going to make the problem go away."
"I don't know, it might if you shut up."
"Maybe it is something bigger. Are you jealous you don't get to go on missions as much?"
She shot him another look.
"I'll take that as a yes. It's a large squad. We can't always be on the team, you know."
"I know we have a lot of new people and we have only been focusing on our mission so there hasn't been time to have all of us out several times."
"Then what's your deal?"
"Nothing."
"I know you and that's not nothing."
Turning her back on him, Miranda marched towards the airlock. He was right, it was more than just not being on the team. She knew she was only distancing herself but she wasn't the type to just buddy up to someone; she never had been that type. Besides the few mission briefs and checkups she and Shepard had shared, they hardly interacted. The commander definitely had more of a connection with Joker and the turian but that was to be expected since they all had a history, but it did seem like she was hearing of more interactions between the thief and the criminal. Even the AI seemed to be gravitating towards Shepard. Almost none of the team had sufficient training as a soldier and that bothered Miranda as well but at least they were willing to join.
She heard laughing coming from the cockpit and paused. It wasn't long before she heard EDI interrupt them to notify Shepard of her arrival.
"Hello, Miranda," Jane stood up and came out into the hallway. Looking over the woman's shoulder, she nodded at Jacob, "You both ready?"
"Yeah," Jacob answered, "I brought you your missing clips," he held them out to her. In the movement he caught Miranda pointedly looking at him with an accusing look that said 'kiss ass'.
"Thanks, Jacob," she stowed them away. "You two ready to face our Justicar? Hope you don't have any dark pasts she might want to go after."
"You seem to be in a chipper mood," Miranda commented.
"Well," Jane sighed, "I sat myself down and told myself that I could keep moping and being full of self pity, or I could get my head out of my ass and lighten the fuck up. I find when I am more open with those around me, they tend to relax more and then we are all friendlier and it makes for a better work environment."
Shepard smiled at Miranda and walked past her into the airlock. Lawson could hear Joker trying to suppress a laugh and looked at Jacob who was doing his best to hide one as well but wasn't succeeding. She glared at the two men before following. Jacob looked over at Joker who had spun in his chair to look at him, silently chuckling. He quickly sneaked into the cockpit and stuck his fist out for Joker to lightly bump it before jogging off to follow the two women.
"You know, I still find it surprising we get access to areas relatively easy," Jacob said as they walked past the police tape. "Especially with us being three humans."
"All thanks to the Spectre status being reinstated, I suppose," Shepard said absentmindedly. "Keep your eyes peeled."
They walked through the alleys, their hands hovering over their weapons. Passing another set of boxes and another line of police tape they hear someone shout. The next thing they saw was an asari screaming as she was thrown into the wall next to them; Miranda and Jane jumped back, pulling out their weapons. There was movement on the level above them.
"Those were my best troops!" another asari backed up into a wall.
Jane could hear the click of someone's boots against the floor and saw another asari with her biotics humming around her.
"Tell me what I need to know and I will be gone from here." She circled her prey. "Where did you send her?"
"You think I'd betray her?! She would hurt me in ways you can't imagine!"
Jacob leaned in towards Shepard and Miranda, "I'm guessing we shouldn't interfere."
"You heard the cop," Miranda answered, "If you want to die you can try to break it up."
"The name of the ship," the justicar spoke, "Your life hangs on the answer, lieutenant."
"You can kill me but one of us will take you down, Justicar!" she raised her gun.
Bright blue surged from the justicar as she reached out her hand, grabbing her foe and throwing her through the window. She jumped through as well, covering herself in her biotics and gracefully lowering herself to the ground.
Jane was fascinated by her movements and what someone with biotics as strong as that could do. She didn't know that Miranda was already wondering if Jane could be capable of half a justicar's power. No human could fully match it but she might be the one who could get closest.
The justicar stepped towards her target and pinned the asari's neck down, "What was the name of the ship she left on?"
"Go to hell!" she rasped out.
"Find peace in the embrace of the goddess." She jerked her foot to the side, snapping the criminal's neck. Glancing in the direction of the new arrivals, she stepped back from the body and started to walk towards them. "My name is Samara. A servant of the Justicar Code. My quarrel is with these Eclipse sisters but I see three well-armed people before me. Are we friend or foe?" she asked, stopping before the blond human that she recognized.
"That merc was wounded and helpless. Do you just kill anyone who won't help you?"
"If my cause is important enough, yes. Are you different?"
"I've killed enemies, but always with good reason."
"I answer to a code that is clearly defined. If my actions are true to that code, then I am just. If they are not, I am unjust. I don't pretend it is a simple matter or that it seems right to everyone. But I sleep well at night and that is more than some can say. How may I be of service to you?"
"That Volus was surprising forthright with information. Alright," Jane sighed, "we need to find the name of this ship before a bunch of Illium's police force gets massacred."
"And before anymore of this Minagen X3 gets sent out," Miranda said. "We will all want to avoid that stuff."
Shepard nodded in agreement but could tell from Lawson's tone that she was more concerned with Jane coming in contact with it. Jane didn't blame her; Miranda had witnessed her losing control before.
They entered the elevator and Jane slid in the card. Jane pulled out her weapon and the others followed. She assumed that their presence was already noticed, so there was no way of telling what would be on the other side when the door reopened; what made things worse was they were sitting ducks, no cover.
The door opened and they snapped their weapons up, expecting an army. All that was there was a lone mech that started unfolding. Firing a few shots destroyed it before it had even completed its task.
"That was underwhelming," said Miranda.
"Yeah, you would think they would take the chance to get the jump on us," Jacob added.
"They're probably just more prepared in the next room. Miranda, I want you on my right, Jacob, my left." She looked to see them nod. Approaching the door, she snapped her pistol up as the door opened.
A canister flew towards her smashing into the wall releasing a red mist above her. She tumbled to the side coughing to expel anything had gotten into her. Jane felt the vibrations of her shield being hit and dashed towards cover. The bullets were flying from both sides before she could even get a look at what they were up against. Miranda and Jacob were still pinned down in the other room.
The Eclipse guards backed up from where Jane sat, blocking their view of Miranda and Jacob, giving the duo a chance to run out. In the pause, Shepard leaned out to open fire. Her team helped finish off the guards but before they could take a break, a door opened from the side and three more emerged, guns blazing. Several shots damaged Jane's shield prompting her to change her cover. A stack of crates gave her Cerberus operatives a chance to come out and help her. Jacob come to the cover spot closest to her so she could move easily and Miranda went to the side with a better visual range. When silence returned to them, Jane exhaled as she popped her clip out, letting it fall on the floor. She took a few deep breaths, waiting to feel a rush of pain or biotic energy, anything that could indicate she had been poisoned.
"Did you inhale it, Shepard? Are you feeling okay?" Miranda asked.
Jane reloaded her gun with her eyes closed, "I don't think I did." She stood up, "Thanks for checking." She scavenged a few unused clips and tossed her extras to her squad mates. They started down a hallway and they were about to walk past an empty room when Jane heard a scuff of a boot.
She walked in and after scanning the room she saw the edge of a boot sticking out and a pistol on the ground. Jane stepped forward, her pistol ready in her hand, going so slow that her boots almost didn't even make a sound. She could see the fringe tips of an asari and aimed her pistol at the same time the girl stood up.
"Wait! Stop! I never fired my weapon once!" she held her hands out. "I pretended to because the other Eclipse sisters were watching but I didn't really shoot."
Jane eyed her and glanced back at her group. The asari sounded convincing but there was still doubt.
"I'm not one of them! I'm new! I thought being Elnora the mercenary would be cool but I didn't know what they were really like."
Shepard saw Elnora twitch for the gun on her back. She remembered that the officer had said everyone in the sisterhood had to kill. Jane raised her own. "You chose your side Elnora. And you lost."
"Screw that, bitch!" She fired her gun at Shepard.
Jane's shield shook, absorbing the shot as she pulled the trigger on her pistol and heard Miranda and Jacob fired their guns as well, for good measure. The girl fell to the ground in a bloody heap.
"We made the right choice," Miranda said looking at Shepard.
Nodding, Jane led her team out, hoping Miranda was right. As they moved through the compound, Jane was relieved when they found the recording incriminating Elnora. She stored a copy on her omni for Anaya.
The sound of a door alerted her. She turned and saw her new company. Downing the last of her drink, she wiped her mouth and spoke to them, "Everything's gone to hell since we smuggled that filthy creature off world. First that justicar showed up, now you." She slammed the datapad down, "At least I can take pleasure in turning your head into a pulpy mass!" Her body glowed with biotics as she picked up a container and hurled it at the team.
Jacob dashed to the side. Jane was going to follow but saw that the container was heading straight for Miranda. Grabbing Lawson's arm, Jane yanked the woman past her and tried to duck out of the way. The container didn't hit her but exploded on the wall at her side. She could hear the gas hissing around her as she tried to roll out of toxic air.
She coughed, "Miranda, take right. Jacob, center." Running to the far right side, she hoped that splitting up would lead to less chance of them inhaling the toxin.
Jane could feel her heart start to race and her skin felt like it was crawling, no, vibrating. She crouched behind her cover, trying to calm herself. Struggling through the fight, she tried to contribute as much as her teammates. Checking her sensor, she could see that Wasea's barrier was down and was down to only her armor as protection. It's about time, she said to herself.
She tried to get back into the fight but her thoughts felt heavy, weighing into her very being. She blinked, trying to clear her mind and get back into the fight. Her body seemed to send out pulses but at different times and intensities but she soon realized she wasn't sending them out, she was receiving them; sensing every movement in the room. She felt something heavy fly across the room; it was another minagen X3 tank, heading straight for Miranda. Sticking her arm out, she wrapped her biotics around it, freezing it in the air. She could see Miranda look over at her. Jerking her arm back, Jane sent the canister across the room to shatter into a wall nowhere near anyone.
"Ah, so you are a biotic?" Wasea called out. "Careful you don't get too much!" She threw another canister at Shepard but it was deflected into another wall.
Adrenaline coursed through Jane and with it came confidence. Jane stood up from her cover. She clenched her fists, shook her arms out and flared her fingers out, lighting her body in biotic fire. "And here I was trying to stay away from it."
Wasea tried to hide her surprise at a human with that much biotic ability. The blue energy didn't move around the human like it did asaris but she wasn't going to let that deter her from killing the woman. She launched biotic balls at Shepard, one after another, after another, hoping to overwhelm her. Shepard only raised her open hands to stop them in front of her and when she clenched her fists, all the energy evaporated.
Miranda and Jacob watched in awe. They looked at each other as if asking for the other to give some insight. Knowing they wouldn't get an answer from each other, they both went back to firing at the asari.
The captain started becoming more and more upset. The damn human was barely breaking a sweat guarding against her attacks and her companions were damaging her armor. A buzzer went off, notifying her of her armor in imminent failure. She grit her teeth and surged her biotics again, this time, reaching out to all of the boxes, crates, and canisters around her. Raising her hands up into the air, her projectiles lifted, rising almost to the ceiling. She yelled at the exertion with her arms fully extended above her and threw them forward, sending the heavy items at all of the humans.
Jane heard Miranda call for her to take cover and even heard footsteps running towards her, but she knew what to do; she felt what she should do. She raised her hand, as if to wave politely, and a screen of rippling blue biotic energy formed from wall to wall, floor to ceiling. All of the items stuck in her biotic net, hovering in the air. Shepard could see the shock in the asari and smirked. Clenching her fist, the objects flew one at a time but in quick succession towards their target.
Wasea deflected the first and the second but the third clipped her right side, throwing her off balance. Her left side took most of the impact of the next one, another hit her right leg as another slammed directly into her chest, knocking her to the ground. She threw the last of her energy into a thin shield around herself as she was pelted with more of the crates and containers, forming a heavy heap above her. Even through her biotic shield, she felt the weight trying to crush her.
Her breaths came in quick rasps, each exhale bringing her shield in closer to her and leaving her less room to breathe in. She tried to push her shield out and felt blood begin to run down her face. Were those voices? How was she not dead? Maybe they assumed she was and would leave, giving her time to escape. She couldn't tell how much time had passed. Hours? Minutes? Seconds? No matter what it was, she didn't need an answer anymore.
Boots echoed, slowly approaching her.
The room stood still. Miranda and Jacob looked at each other, both trying to see who would break the silence first. Lawson stood by her leader, "Shepard?" she whispered, "Shepard, are you alright?"
Jacob joined Miranda.
Jane took deep breaths from the biotic rush but showed no signs of stress or exertion. Her biotics still burned around her. She rolled her neck and sighed, ending with a look over her shoulder at them. "I feel fantastic," she gave a devilish grin.
Jacob's mouth dropped slightly. He couldn't look away from her eyes that seemed to burn with biotic energy, even her faint scars looked blue underneath. "Okay… we need to take care of our villain over there. Should we even turn her over to the authorities?" Jacob said tentatively.
"She's too dangerous for that. We might as well take her out," Miranda said bluntly.
"We'll let her decide," Shepard said. She knew there wouldn't be a surrender from Wasea. She took a step forward, followed by another, closing the distance to her target. Stopping next to the pile, she looked down at it and could hear the short breaths beneath it. Raising her hand, she paused to admire the dim blue fire covering it. She flicked her wrist and fingers in a dismissing motion, sending the boxes flying across the room. "Ready to give up?"
"How?" she choked out, blood spitting out of her mouth, "How can you," she coughed again, "a human," the spittle of blood seemed to have appropriate timing, "be so strong as a biotic?"
"Life finds a way. The asari shouldn't have all the fun."
"Yes… we should."
Wasea moved for her gun but Jane was faster. Shepard pulled her pistol out and fired two shots into the asari's chest. She started to walk away before stopping, pointing her gun behind her and firing a shot through the asari's head.
Jane looked at her team, "Check the room." She walked the perimeter as Miranda and Jacob spread out from the center. In the back of her mind, she knew they feared her, but it didn't really seem to matter at the moment.
"I've got something," Miranda called out.
Shepard accepted the datapad from Lawson and read over it, "Looks like what our Justicar needed. Let's head out."
Samara walked behind the team of humans. She appreciated them getting the information for her so she wouldn't have to kill the officers holding her. She assessed the humans as they walked, they all had biotic abilities, that she was sure of, but one, the leader, Shepard, had biotics off the charts for a human. Never one for being silent and skirting around an issue, she spoke up, "Shepard, if I may, your biotics are… intriguing for you being human."
Jane almost didn't hear Samara, she was so busy focusing on keeping her biotics in check. "Well, I did get hit by some of the minagen X3 while we were out. I'm sure that is what you are picking up."
Even mentally adding that variable, Shepard seemed to be much higher than most, if not all, humans Samara had encountered. It was obvious that now wasn't the time to bring it up but after their first battle together, she would have a better idea what kind of biotic user Shepard was.
Jane could feel herself starting to come down from her minagen high but it wasn't in the way she was hoping. The confidence was washing away from her but the biotic energy was still lingering. She couldn't wait to get through debriefing with Samara.
Garrus's eyes checked the time again; two minutes after he had checked it before. He didn't like acting like this. Normally, he would work until exhausted or until someone ordered him to stop. There was no reason for him to be this unfocused. Jane had gone on hundreds of missions before in her career, he shouldn't worry for her. She knew what she was doing. Still, he worried, because the one impossible thing had happened before; she had died. That one normal act made the universe seem a lot crueler.
He applied his latest configuration to the guns and sent another upgrade suggestion to Jane. With nothing left to do, he stood staring blankly at the clock. Shouldn't they be back by now? He thought that maybe he should socialize a bit. Outside of missions, he hadn't really talked to any of his teammates but what would he say? Deciding that Joker was his best beet to start off with, he headed in that direction then would try to make friends.
"I've been expecting you…" Joker said as he spun around in his chair to face Garrus, his fingertips touching to make a triangle. "No, not really," he dropped the act, "What are you doing here?"
"I can't come up here to hang out?"
"Well, of course, because you've always been sooo social before. But I'm just surprised you're not with Shepard."
Garrus shrugged, "She didn't pick me for the mission, it happens."
"Yeah… but… they're back. I thought she would have called you or been down to see you. She looked a little on edge."
Garrus shuffled his feet, "Why would you expect her to see me after a bad mission?"
Joker dramatically rolled his eyes and head, "You know, I know. I won't say anything." He half turned back to his console to bring up the cameras in the med-bay. "It looks like she already left the medbay. She's probably up in her cabin."
"Thank you," Garrus said, now assuming that his worry was warranted.
"Garrus, she's okay. Don't worry. And seriously, I'm glad you two have each other. Have you told John yet?"
"I would like to tell him in person but I can't even get a message through to him."
"I'm sure we'll see him soon and will be okay with you and his sister… you know… doing… activities."
"Yeah," Garrus agreed, matching Joker's sarcasm, "I'm sure he'll be thrilled."
Joker laughed, "Alright, go, go. Don't keep your lady waiting."
Garrus tried to remain calm on his way to Jane's quarters but it wasn't easy. Had she been shot? Broken bone? What had gone wrong?
He entered her cabin but didn't see her. There was a pile of armor and clothes next to her desk. Faintly, he could hear the shower running. He knocked on the door, "Jane?" There was no answer but he opened the door anyway. He felt the heat rush out at him. She was sitting on the floor, her knees tucked up to her chest, her head down, arms wrapped around her legs, all while being directly under the flow of water. "What happened?" He looked her over again as he waited for a response, her skin looked very pink almost red in some places but he didn't exactly know the meaning.
She kept her head down, muffling her answer, "Nothing major. Got Samara without unnecessary killing. She's down in Port Observation now."
He leaned against the door, "Then what happened to you?"
There was a long pause, "There was this drug that affects biotics but it's essentially poison. I inhaled some of it," she snapped her head up to look at him and raised her hand realizing what she had implied, "I'm fine, really. Chakwas checked me out and I have no health problems."
Garrus leaned in and turned the water off so he wouldn't flood her room. She scowled at him. He ignored her silent protest. Crouching down, he took off his gloves and cupped her face, "You can still feel it."
She nodded, "It was so intense… I've never felt power like that before. What's worse is that I liked it. Really liked it…" she shook her head, "I need it out of me."
"So what are you doing in here?"
She looked around the room that had lost a lot of its steam, "Trying to sweat it out," she laughed. "But I don't think it's working. I don't know if it does work that way."
He looked a little harder at her and saw that in the faint scars of her cybernetics, it wasn't red but blue underneath. He moved his hand to her shoulder and realized it felt like it was scorching. He looked her over and touched parts of her skin along her arms, legs and sides, "Jane, you're burning up! How hot was that water?"
She looked at herself, "I didn't notice."
"Come on, let's get you out of there. You could have burns."
"Please don't," she resisted. "Even if it isn't helping take it out, it helps me feel calmer." Jane gave him a faint smile, "Besides, I'm fine. The cybernetics will have me healed by tomorrow. And it will take at least two days to get to where Tali is."
Garrus sighed and shook his head, "Why are you always so difficult?" Standing, he removed his clothes and got into the shower with her, sitting next to her. He reached over her to turn the water back on. It was extremely hot by human standards, it was almost on the hot end for him. Turning down the heat, he put an arm around her and rested his head against the wall.
Jane smiled at him and sighed as the water reached its setting. Looking up into the stream, she noticed it wasn't hitting Garrus as much. She scooted over and pulled on Garrus's arm until he had moved, she then sat between his legs so she could curl up with him better. His mandible came to rest against her head and he ran his talons from her hair, to her neck, and down her spine; it was such a relaxing touch for her.
She completely forgot her troubles.