[Book Three] Chapter 32: Like brother, like sister

[Book Three] Chapter 32: Like brother, like sisterChapter 32: Like brother, like sister





“3, 2, 1...”



The bomb that James had brought and armed exploded, creating a big hole in the archives wall. Now with an open path, the team got inside the underground building. They arrived in a big square room with plenty of terminals and desks. Rick supposed that it was in a room like that that every data was archived.

When everyone was inside, each was targeted by lasers. Immediately understanding that the mercs had been waiting for them and set an ambush the crew went all out. Two teams, Mako and Hammerhead were on the upper floor, dealing with the enemies on the same level, leaving the ones on the ground to Team Shepard. Everything was going well when a familiar voice shouted over the gunfire to stop fighting and for the crew to drop their weapons or they would kill Brooks who got herself taken as a hostage.



“Go ahead.”

“Rick!” Jane chastised, playing his game whatever it was.

“Just saying.”

“Drop your gun. Everyone else too.” she ordered and was obeyed.



With everyone disarmed the mysterious figure holding Brooks in the shadows pushed her forward making her fall to the ground floor.



____________________________________________________________





Jane was in a very foul mood. She had a living clone that took her identity, and now it was about to take her ship. Cherry on the top of the cake, she had pissed off her brother and hurt him by trapping him in a vault. She had been trapped too but she wasn’t the one having panic attacks in those situations. To be honest she got a lot of mixed feelings when she saw Rick brutality when dealing with the grunts on their way to the Normandy. They were dealt promptly and looked like blood stains on the short walls. At least for the unlikely ones that weren’t just sent flying above the rails. Reaching the ship’s sas just as it was about to depart, they met Traynor. The poor Com specialist didn’t know what just happened to her but proved that she had a fighter in her when she saw Jane and began to yell at her for firing and discharging her.



“Traynor! It wasn’t me! It was a clone!”

“A... clone? You really believe that I’d...”

“Yes. Otherwise I would still be inside the ship and not doing my best in a hurry to get in!” she replied before talking to Rick who suddenly was kneeling and opening the emergency sas. “What’s going on?”

“The sas is locked and we can't get in.” answered Liara as her boyfriend began to focus his biotic on his hand to work on opening their only hope.

“That’s... I can’t do it. I don’t have such fine and precise control.” he confessed.

“Here, use this.” The young woman said as she presented her toothbrush to him. “Cision Pro Mark 4. It uses tiny mass effect fields.”



Everyone looked at her like she had lost her mind before Rick ripped it out from her hands and began to work with it.



“You just won a lifetime supply of toothbrush from me, or me going easy on you at chess once. Pick whichever.”

“You going easy at chess!”

“Really? From what I remember your toothbrush is worth thousands of credits.”

“Commander, a toothbrush can be replaced. A win against him at chess is priceless! I’m tired of losing, so even if he would be going easy on me, I'll still take it!”



Rick opened the entrance and immediately went inside, tossing the toothbrush back to its owner. Jane then Liara followed and entered the ship without problem just as it left the dock.



“Are you going to be alright?” the redhead whispered to her brother as they were currently moving like ducks in the tight space right under the ship’s bridge.

“I’m too furious to care.” he whispered back.



Reaching the exit of their small access, Rick opened and charged the first guy he saw, relieving it of its head with his lightsaber, before kicking it in midair with a roundhouse kick right onto another grunt on the other side of the CIC. Jane and Liara used the distraction to attack the others mercs and in no time the Deck was cleared.



“Where is she?” the redhead asked to see Rick using a terminal.

“Cargo Deck.”

“Can you do something about the Normandy? Take back control?”

“Yes, but it will take time, the security EDI and I installed is playing against us. It doesn’t help that she’s disconnected.”

“Can’t you put her back online?” Liara inquired.

“I’ll need to go to her servers’ room but we’ll be sitting ducks.”

“Then we deal with my clone fir... Oh hell no!”

““What?!””

“Look!” Jane said as she walked towards the elevator. Next to it was a big garbage with all of her stuff in it, including the space hamster Rick had gifted her. “That’s personal now.”

“Really? It’s personal now? Not after stealing your identity and your ship?” Liara said with a brow raised, incredulous.

“I mean...”

“She’s mine. You can play with what’s left of her after.” Rick said as he entered the elevator.



Following him both Jane and Liara readied themselves. The latter feeling talkative.

“You know... I’m really glad this elevator is faster than on the first normandy. It was a torture. Thank the goddess Tali and you tweaked it, though it was perhaps going a bit too fast.”

“You did what?!” Jane exclaimed. “What are you talking about?”

“Tali and I worked on the SSV’s elevator to make it go faster.”

“Why was it always so slow when I was using it then?”

“You forbade us to do it but we said fuck it and so to not get caught I put a emitter and receiver on its ceiling. Everytime you entered it your omni-tool’s ID would be read and you would be recognized, making the elevator go at its original speed.”

“I can’t believe you!” Jane shouted as Liara laughed at her dumbfounded face.

“I told you back then that I wouldn’t obey stupid orders.”

“We’re talking about this later.” she announced, frowning.



The elevator stopped at the right deck and opened its door. In a flash the trio was out of it and took a defensive stance looking around for any hostiles. The deck was full of big containers and big crates everywhere. The gym area has completely been dismantled, pissing both Rick and Jane even more. Their entrance was not missed as the mercs appeared in position for a fight. The clone came out from between crates dressed in a full N7 armor and opened fire, prompting everyone on the team to take cover.



“Stop shooting my ship!” Jane shouted.

“It’s not your ship!”

“It is, you idiot! Jesus! Just because you’re stealing it means it’s yours! Just like my identity, that I restored by the way! I can’t believe it, you know?! You could have been someone. You could have been your own person but nooo, you had to be the walking talking cliché of the clone wanting to take the place of the original because their inferiority complex was bigger than the moon and were too scared and too pathetic to make their own feats and life!” Jane said, as she signaled Rick to be ready to create chaos.

“I am not! I’m Shepard! Better than you ever were! Unlike you, I don't need worthless friends good only for worshiping me and kissing my ass!” replied the clone as it fired again in Jane’s direction.

“Oh, Puh-lease. Conrad Verner is a better me than you will ever be.”



Another salvo of bullets hit the console Jane was hiding behind and when it stopped and heard the distant click of an empty gun, both she and Rick acted. They send two Throws and hit two mercs sending them backwards. Liara created a singularity blocking one aisle of crates and began to shoot at mercs in another. Jane went after her clone as she was closer while Rick, despite his limited movement for his fighting style, unleashed his shotgun on any enemy he met. It was a very difficult fight as there were perhaps a dozen mercs fighting alongside the clone while there were only three. The team had much more experience however, and it showed as one by one the mercs fell to its unrelated assault until only the clone was left.

Out of thermal clip, it ran towards Jane preparing a biotic laced punch and Jane answered in kind. They may have been identical but the training each underwent was different. Jane had been taught by Jack and Rick the two best human biotics in the galaxy. Be it raw power or more importantly control Jane had her clone beat. Proof was that Jane would have made a biotic charge instead of running towards her opponent like her clone did. Another proof was that she wasn’t even going all out with her biotics, simply matching the amount of power in their biotic lock. Using the tricks she learned from her brother and adding a bit more power, Jane began to dominate her clone, who was trying its hardest.



“How?!” it said with greeted teeth.

“Experience. I was trained by the best.” Jane said with finality and sent her clown flying away backward, winning the biotic contest.



Rick was upon the clone in an instant, straddling her and beginning to punch her face with everything he had repeatedly. Over and over again with no end in sight.



“That’s for making me love you!” he shouted, hitting her left cheek. “For making me dependent on you! For abandoning me!”



Each time he gave a reason he hit her and there were a lot of them. The clone’s face was completely bloody and unrecognizable and yet Rick kept punching. Jane knew that enrolling in the military had hurt him deeply, leaving scars that had never properly healed and still hurt to this day. But seeing him giving his all to punch someone with her face with so much fury... She didn’t know how to feel but she finally understood the depth of his pain. Deeper than anything she had ever thought. And the fact that so far he only choked the life out of her and nothing more was astonishing. He hasn’t been that violent with her, in fact choking aside he never raised his hand against her and that puzzled her. The difference of treatment he gave between her and her clone.

She would have pondered more on that if Liara hadn’t run forward and tackled Rick to the side and pinned him down.



“Enough! This isn’t like you! This is not the man I fell in love with!” She yelled as was trying to fight her so he could go back to beat the clone to death. “Please! Stop!” she added as she put all her weight on him and grabbed the sides of his helmet with both hands.



That had the desired effect as Rick stopped struggling and became motionless with the exception of his torso, raising and falling heavily in accordance to his ragged breath.

While the two of them were busy, Jane walked toward her clone gun in hand. She wasn’t sure if she could call it her clone anymore, its face being so much of a mess that it could have been anybody. She looked back at the swelling eye, full of blood that could still be opened and saw only defeat and pleading. Its wounds were extensive and downright disgusting. Jane wasn’t sure if it would survive. She would have tried her best had the clone not demonstrated a xenophobic attitude and a blatant disregard for anyone but itself. It had never cared a second for all the mercs that the Normandy’s crew had killed, not even Brooks. It had been furious, yes but more because it had lost an asset than anything else.

Jane made her decision and simply raised her gun and pulled the trigger, putting an end to her clone and its plan.