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Praise Jack	By : NakedOwlMan Category: +M through R > Mass Effect Views: 21471 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
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
- 6
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- 8
It was the same as she had left it, the last time she went down here two months ago. A rolling, endless field of grassy hills, stretching out to the horizon as far as she could see. Wild horses galloping across the plains, the thick smell of flowers in the air. Just a few patches of white clouds in the clear blue sky.

And in front of her, a small one-story wooden cabin with a lake nearby. Wooden rail fence, smoke pouring from the chimney. Another horse, this one tamed and grazing in a nearby corral.

All in all, it looked pretty good for a prison.

Looking down at herself, Jack suddenly felt disgusted. She willed the set of sheer robes and crown away, and replaced it with the remains of her Purgatory uniform, the outfit she'd been wearing when they first met. Stepping forward, she made her way to the front door and knocked.

Shepard answered the door and offered her a weak smile. "Come in," he said, stepping away from the door and moving back into the small living room. He was wearing a button-up wool shirt and blue jeans, and appeared to be growing out his beard.

"Surprised it's still like this," Jack said, all of the confidence she felt as the god of the universe gone in an instant, "You know I gave you the power to make this place look however you want, right?"

Shepard looked thoughtful as he settled down into an easy chair. "Kid growing up on spaceships all his life, he wants nothing more than a place like this. Wide-open spaces, not having to crowd around other people to get to where he's going. A blue sky instead of the endless black," Shepard forced a smile. "Always thought I'd retire to a place like this. Maybe when I found someone to settle down with."

"I... uh..." Jack couldn't believe how awkward she suddenly felt. Dammit, this man was her prisoner, she shouldn't be like this. "I wanted you to know that your plan didn't work."

"Plan?"

Jack had to laugh. "Dammit, Shepard, I know your hand when I see it. You gave the Council the idea of raising that army against me just before I locked you up here, didn't you?"

Shepard shrugged. "If you say so."

"I'm just surprised you were finally willing to take me out once and for all. Finally regretting not taking that shot the first time?"

"My instructions to Ash were clear," Shepard said. "Disable the Normandy and take you alive at all costs."

She felt her anger flaring. "Dammit, Shepard, you and this fucking naiveté of yours! This belief that you can trust everybody, treat everybody all sweet and nice and they'll play ball. People always told you it was going to bite you in the ass one day, and now look where you are. If you'd taken that shot when you had the chance..."

"Then you'd be dead," Shepard replied.

"And the world'd be a much better place for it, wouldn't it?" Jack said.

Shepard shrugged. "Maybe. Maybe not. I made the call; I have to live with that."

"You stupid fuck, are you still going around thinking that you can save me?" Jack snarled at him. "Still believing that the awesome Commander Shepard can just swoop in and fix me?"

"I can't fix you, Jack, I think I've said that before," Shepard said, his voice remaining calm. "All I can do is to be there for you if you decide you want to fix yourself."

Jack threw up her hands. "You are so fucking maddening. Makes me glad I locked you down here after the last time you tried to take back the ship."

"If you're going to be here a while, telling me how much you hate me," Shepard said, gesturing toward the couch, "You could at least have a seat."

Jack threw herself down into the cushions. "So, Shepard," she said, calming herself down and returning to her normal caustic tone, "What do you do down here all day while I'm up there ruling the world?"

"Some riding. A little reading. Take walks. How's godhood been treating you?"

"It's been..." Jack started to say "great" but couldn't bring herself to lie. "It's been a mess. Things were going great for a while there, then all of a sudden... bam. Nothing satisfies me anymore."

"Sorry to hear that," Shepard said flatly.

"Yeah, I'm sure you are," Jack quipped, then saw the look in Shepard's eyes and felt her good humor die. "I talked to Miranda; she seems to think I'm not happy because I didn't earn this. Because I didn't have to fight to get what I've got."

Shepard gave a nod. "Have to agree with that one. In my experience, some of the best things in life, you have to work through a lot of resistance before finally breaking through." The look he gave her when he said it left no question what he was referring to.

"Stop it," Jack muttered.

"What am I doing?"

Jack jerked her head up to glare at him. "You're acting like we're just two normal people sitting around having a conversation. You're my fucking prisoner; I wish you'd start acting like it."

"Can I ask you something, Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"Why'd you run away?"

Jack crossed her arms. "Run away from what?"

"From us. Deny it all you want, but we connected that night. You let down your barriers for just a minute, and then threw them right back up in my face. Why?"

"Fuck it, Shepard, you still care about this shit? I think we left our 'relationship problems' behind around the time I enslaved the entire universe, don't you?"

"Can you just answer the question?"

The stubborn bastard. "I... I don't know, okay? Things were just... I don't know."

"You do know, Jack," Shepard insisted. "You just don't want to say it."

"Fuck you, Shepard! I should kill you right now, I should fucking rip your head off and never have to deal with you again!"

Shepard betrayed no reaction as he leaned back and simply asked. "Then why don't you?"

Jack jumped up and screamed out in fury, and Shepard's cozy cottage exploded out from around them, the walls and ceiling tumbling off into space, leaving only the floor and the furniture behind. She cried out again, and the grasslands around them spontaneously burst into flames.

"Because I can't!" she screamed to the still calm Shepard. "I can do anything else I fucking want to, and no matter what I can't bring myself to do a damn thing to you!"

Shepard watched her, that fucking look still in his eyes. That look that he'd given her the day she'd thrown him in this prison, the day he'd pointed a gun at her head before she'd thought to make her physical body invincible to bullets. The same one he gave her every time she cursed at him and drove him away after that night in his quarters.

She wanted to rip his eyes out of his sockets and throw that look back in his face, but she couldn't make herself touch him.

"I ran away because I was scared," Jack finally said, feeling hot angry tears rolling down her cheeks. "The thought of being with you and then losing you... it scared the hell out of me. I couldn't do it again, not after Murtock." She pointed a finger at Shepard and bared her teeth. "You son of a bitch, you did more damage to me than anybody ever did, and you did it by caring about me. I was weak, and I was scared, and I went to sleep night after night and saw you dying on me, over and over again, and I couldn't fucking take it anymore."

Jack turned away and stared out at the raging inferno that now surrounded them. Suddenly, she knew what had started all this. The dream of that morning came back to her. It hadn't been dreams of suffering and death as it almost always was. It'd been a dream of Shepard. Not dying and leaving her but with her, the two of them together.

And in that one subconscious moment, she realized that the reality she had created couldn't hold a candle to that one dream.

"If I just could have made you hate me," Jack said. "Could have made you see what a worthless piece of shit I was, it would have fixed it all. You would have given up on me, and I could have left and forgotten all about you. But no, you just couldn't let it go, and now here we are, here in this..."

She sank to her knees and slumped her shoulders. "Here in this fucking pathetic universe I created for myself. Everything I ever fucking wanted, and it's pointless." She felt him move to her, reach out a hand to pull her to her feet.

He pulled her up and immediately drew her into his arms. "What the fuck have I done?" Jack sobbed. "Oh, god, what did I do?"

"Jack," Shepard said. No other words, just her name, over and over again as the flames spread around them, burning higher into the sky. "Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack..."
- 6
- 7
- 8
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Praise Jack