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Slaves of Cerberus	By : NakedOwlMan Category: +M through R > Mass Effect Views: 138070 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: Mass Effect and all the characters in it are owned by people that are not me. I have not made a cent off this work of fiction

Chapter List
- 13
- 14
- 15
After getting away from the trail of vomit left by Lisa, Kasumi's explorations brought her to a dark, obviously seldom visited area of the lower decks. She heard movement up ahead, and following the sounds soon brought her to Javik. He was leaning against a workbench, staring at a datapad and muttering to himself.
Kasumi cautiously moved in close, wanting to catch a glimpse of what the mysterious prothean was reading. As her foot silently made impact against the deck, Javik's head slowly pivoted upward. "I know you are there, human. Your pitiful attempts at cloaking yourself are painfully obvious to detect."
"I dunno, they've been working okay up until now," Kasumi said, deactivating her cloak and moving to lean against the workbench next to Javik. "Guess it's a good thing I don't plan to rob any protheans any time soon."
Javik said nothing, simply stared at Kasumi with a dour expression.
"Sorry for snooping, but you've been pretty quiet," Kasumi finally said. "Anything you feel like talking about?"
"Perhaps it is because we did not serve on the Normandy concurrently, but I would have thought Shepard had informed you that I do not enjoy idle conversation," the Prothean said.
Kasumi shrugged off this obvious attempt to brush her away. "But even so, back when I first saw you at Shepard's party, you didn't go for thirty seconds without another..." Kasumi deepened her voice and put on a terrible accent, "'In my time, we used to use Salarian finger bones to stir our tea' or some other pleasant story like that."
"Ridiculous," Javik said. "Salarian finger bones... the marrow would make the tea too bitter."
"So come on, what's up with you?" Kasumi said. "Something to do with those Collectors you spent time with before coming here?"
Javik let out an aggravated sigh. "Did it ever occur to you, human, that perhaps the reason I haven't spoken about this is that I have no desire to?"
"Oh, come on, everybody wants to talk," Kasumi said with a friendly smile. "Even grouchy people like you."
"But I..." Javik cut himself off, then shook his head. "Fine, if it will get you to leave me alone. The time I spent with the twisted remnants of my people that humans have dubbed 'the Collectors' was... not productive."
After a long wait for him to elaborate, Kasumi spoke up. "What do you mean, 'not productive'?"
Still looking aggravated, Javik nonetheless obliged her. "The Council has been studying them, trying to see how much they still remember of their original identities as protheans. Many of them are simply clones, of course, but they are still clones of former protheans. Several scholars of my people's history had been working with them, but making little progress." He let out a weary sigh. "Perhaps they thought that bringing the last living prothean to meet them would help them regain their minds. A foolish notion."
"So, what were you doing with them? Just talking to them in your language or something, seeing if they understood?"
"We tried everything," Javik said, his attention focused on the nearby wall instead of Kasumi. "Showed them ancient artifacts of my people, tried to teach them how to read and write again. Even something as simple as this," Javik turned to Kasumi and gestured with his right arm, bring his fist up to his left shoulder and pounding it twice. "The Ka'Lash, the salute of the Prothean Empire. Every morning when I would meet with these Collectors, I would perform the greeting for them. Hoping that at least enough of their minds remained that they would recall it," Javik shook his head. "Foolish. There is nothing remaining of them but whatever the Reapers decided to leave there. They are no more Protheans than you are."
Kasumi shook her head. "Damn. That's rough."

Javik laughed bitterly as he turned away from Kasumi to lean on the worktable. "Yes, rough. But at least my foolish illusions have been destroyed. With the alterations the Reapers have made, these Collectors will live for many centuries, far beyond my own lifespan. I had hoped that, perhaps after I have died, they would be able to live on as a reminder to the rest of the galaxy. Of who the protheans were, and the sacrifices we made. But it seems that my death will truly bring an end to my species after all. All that will remain are forgotten records and crumbling artifacts, and these twisted imitations of who my people once were."
Kasumi didn't know how to respond, and Javik finally glanced over his shoulder at her. "Did that fulfill your desire for conversation, human? Or were there other painful memories of mine you wished to bring up?"
"Sorry," Kasumi quietly said. "I'll leave you alone now."
"An excellent idea," Javik said, ignoring Kasumi as she turned her cloak back on and vacated the area.
She was starting to think maybe she'd better find her bunk and call it an early night, but there was one more place on the ship she hadn't visited yet. Making sure nobody was watching as she reached the lift, she opened the doors and pressed the button for the main CIC deck.
As she had guessed, Jacob was there, standing in the midst of the night-shift crew at the top of the CIC platform, and studying a series of reports on his holographic display. Kasumi could tell right away that the man was tired, but forcing himself to stay awake.
For a moment, Kasumi just stood and watched him from under the safety of her tactical cloak. It had been three years since she'd last seen him. Shepard's party... what a night it had been. And yet, for all the couples that Kasumi had observed sneaking away to engage in a little "one-on-one time" over the course of the night, she and Jacob hadn't been one of them.
But of course, back then Jacob had been with Brynn, or "the roadblock" as Kasumi had come to know her at the time. That entire night, while moving from shadow to shadow and watching couples sneak away from their groups to find some time alone, Kasumi had imagined what that night would have been like if Jacob wasn't already taken.
But all of that was just fantasies back then. Kasumi had missed her chance on the Normandy, and all she could do back then was watch. But now here she was. Back on the same ship as Jacob again, and with Brynn out of the picture. Should have been a golden opportunity to make up for her previous mistakes.
But under the current circumstances, Kasumi told herself that it wouldn't be right. Not while Shepard was in danger somewhere. And on top of that, from what Kasumi had managed to observe, whatever had happened between Jacob and Brynn had obviously hurt him deeply. She hadn't managed to get the details, but the way that XO Rooker and the rest of the crew seemed to avoid certain topics around him, it was obviously still fresh for him.
As Kasumi pondered these things, she saw Jacob start to reach for a nearby coffee cup. In his current half-awake state, however, his fingers fumbled, and the mug started to tip off the edge of the ledge it had been placed on.
Moving fast, Kasumi darted forward and just barely managed to grab the mug before its contents were spilled. "Watch yourself," she said, using her free hand to deactivate her cloak and grin at Jacob. "Doubt a ship as cheap as this has a budget for cleaning staff."
"Kasumi," Jacob said, too tired to register much surprise at her sudden arrival. "Thanks, I was... I guess I slipped."
Kasumi handed Jacob the mug and leaned against the railing of the CIC next to him. "You look terrible, Jacob. Well, relatively speaking, that is. You at your worst could still steal any girl's heart."
Jacob gave her a weak smile. "Well, when it comes to stealing, I'll leave that part up to you."
"But seriously, you need to get some sleep," Kasumi said. "You'll be no good to the crew or to Shepard working in this state."

He took a sip of his coffee and shook his head. "I'm fine, really. Need to go over these reports. Seeing if we can track down any traces of Cerberus activities. We get lucky, maybe we can capture some of their people and get some information out of them."
"I guess it could work, but... from what I understand, Cerberus used to operate in isolated cells," Kasumi said. "Even if we manage to find the guy who reports to the folks up top... would they really know where the Normandy is?"
Leaning forward against the railing next to her, Jacob stared into the display with a furrowed brow. "You're right. It's all a longshot at this point. If we had more people, more ships, maybe we could make it work." Looking over at Kasumi, he gave her a weary smile. "Hey, you ever thought about captaining a ship before? It's a great job, low stress, high pay. Just let me know and you can have the bridge. Because I sure as hell don't know what I'm doing here."
"Sorry, I wish I could be more helpful," Kasumi said. She hated seeing him like this. Even before the mission against the Collectors, supposedly a suicide mission, he had managed to keep his spirits up. But now, he looked so defeated. And they hadn't even started the mission yet.
"Times like this I remember why I quit the Alliance the first time," Jacob said. "So much bureaucracy, too hard to get a damn thing done. And it doesn't help that they still look at me as a Cerberus traitor." Straightening up, he rubbed at a spot on his back. Kasumi guessed there was a scar there similar to the one she had seen on Riggs earlier; the place where they had put the tracking chip.
"I came back and I've done nothing but bust my ass for them," Jacob said, aggravation in every word. "Proved to them over and over again that I was loyal. And still they don't trust me. Hell, even Miranda got better treatment than I did, and she wasn't even in the Alliance before she went to Cerberus." He smirked. "Guess she put that winning smile of hers to good use on them. God knows it worked on me back in the day."
"Doubt it was her smile those dirty old men from the Alliance brass were staring at," Kasumi said with a knowing grin. To herself, she added, Shame, if they'd had somebody like me on the review board, I'd have had much more appreciation for a fine ass like yours, Jacob.
This managed to get a chuckle out of Jacob. "Yeah, maybe," he said. Glancing over at her, he said, "Be honest with me, Kasumi. Why'd you sign up for this mission, anyway? Not like there's gonna be much profit in it for you."
"I dunno about that," Kasumi said with a casual shrug. "Somebody out there bankrolling a new Cerberus, they've got to have a few credits for me to help myself to." Seeing Jacob continuing to stare at her, she relented. "Fine, maybe the truth is that I missed all this. After the Omega 4 Relay and the Crucible Project... maybe going back to breaking and entering and casino heists didn't hold the same appeal anymore. I have to admit that it was kinda nice to be a part of something bigger. To feel like I'm contributing to something other than my own bank account. And you can't get much bigger than rescuing the two first human Spectres and one of the most influential asari in the galaxy, all while taking down Cerberus 2.0."
She smiled warmly at him, and added, "And dammit, maybe the truth is that I missed all you guys. Garrus, Tali, Joker, Grunt... and you... it's nice to be working with friends again."
Jacob nodded, accepting Kasumi's half-truth of an answer. "Yeah, it is nice. Just a shame it had to happen like this. God only knows what those people are doing to Shepard and the rest of them right now. Assuming they're even still alive, that is."
"They have to be," Kasumi reasoned. "Otherwise, why go to all the trouble of abducting them from the Archives? Why not just kill them there?" Kasumi hesitated, and then reached out and placed her hand atop Jacob's on the railing. "We'll get them back, Jacob. I know it."
"Hope you're right," Jacob said. "And hope I can figure out how the hell I'm going to do it."
"I believe in you, Jacob. You'll figure it out," Kasumi said. "But you're not going to be any good to us in this state. Go, get some sleep. You'll think clearer with a good night's rest."
Jacob nodded. "I will. Just give me a few more minutes, and I'll go," he saw her staring and laughed. "I will, I promise! You should go get to bed yourself. Probably going to be a long day tomorrow."
"Aye, aye, commander," Kasumi said, giving him a stiff salute before triggering her cloak and vanishing.
She stayed a few minutes longer, long enough to see Jacob finally let out a long yawn, step down from the CIC and shuffle his way to his quarters. Satisfied, she went to the lift and headed down to the crew quarters.
She had one more person to visit tonight. Probably the most important of all.
Making her way quietly through the bunks, careful not to wake any of the resting marines or crewmembers, she found her assigned bed and settled in. From her laying position, she reached under her bunk and pressed her thumb against the biometric scanner of her personal storage container. When it popped open, she grabbed the sole item inside.
"Hey, Keiji," she whispered to herself, as she activated the greybox and pulled up the memories of her former partner. "Know you probably think I'm an idiot, but here I am again. On another dangerous mission against an enemy of unknown power. At least I've got you along to talk sense into me if I start to do anything else totally stupid."
She talked to Keiji for the rest of the night, and he kept her company until sleep finally proved unable to resist.
- 13
- 14
- 15
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Slaves of Cerberus