#jack harper

She had no choice in chasing Geth rather than Reapers either.

She woke up in a lab. An experiment of someone else's choosing.

She stood before the Illusive Man. He offered her no choices, knowing as well as she did that once he'd said Reapers she had only one course before her.

In the end, there was only ever one thing she could do. Dead Reapers are how we win this.

At least she woke up in a bed this time.

The politics of it all. Treaties had been made during the war and now they needed to be followed up upon. The war had left ruin in its wake. Resources were scarce. The knives were sharp.

She walked out of a Council meeting. She'd fought. She always fought. But in the end, there was never any choice.

She walked out and paused, resting against the wall. A moment to recover. And when she looked up she met his eyes.

His head tilted slightly, just enough to indicate a question.

And in that moment, she made a choice.

From one choice flowed others. Inexplicably--in her opinion anyway--he'd chosen politics. And she needed an ally.

Together, they proved formidable. She the war hero. He the mover in the dark.

What the war had brought together, recovery threatened to tear asunder.

She wasn't having any of it. And, unexpectedly, neither was he.

"Why?" she'd asked once, simply.

He'd looked steadily at her. "I want humanity to thrive," he'd finally replied.

She returned his look with a long one of her own before nodding, just once.

The nights were long. The work wearying. Once she fell asleep at the table. She'd awoken to a blanket placed around her and a cup of steaming hot coffee in front of her, milked just as she liked it.

There was no choice in the work. If not her, then who?

But one day, as they packed up after yet another long meeting he asked. "Dinner?"

She thought and then she chose. "Yes."

Something lightened in his expression.

It didn't take long for her to realize that his kindnesses were all for her. In Council meetings he was the same as he'd ever been. Ruthless. Firm. Sure. Walking on the edge between insufferable arrogance and simple self-assuredness.

A reporter tried once to demand an interview of her. She was cornered after yet another lengthy meeting, one that had gone poorly. She was exhausted and slow. The questions were asked rapid fire; loaded and in bad faith. He smoothly interposed himself between her and the reporter before Inara could even think. "There are channels for these things," he'd said icily.

And then a hand on her shoulder, an arm around her, as he led her away.

"Why?" she asked.

"I chose this," he said, "you didn't."

Inara blinked in surprise. She'd been unaware that he'd noticed.

One choice spawned others. And slowly she found that she was choosing him over and over again.

Yet another tiresome political event foisted upon her. "You're expected," they told her. She'd gritted her teeth and nodded.

And to her surprise, he again came and acted as her shield. It was subtle. Only the keenest observers would really have seen it. But he stood by her side, his physical presence a barrier around her. It wasn't that he glowered at the room. It was the way he looked at them with an expectation that they would leave her alone unless it was truly important.

And they did.

"Thank you," she murmured as he helped her gather her things at the end of the night.

Again, that long look of his. "I couldn't not," he replied simply.

They were halfway to her home before she realized he'd just as simply accompanied her. At her door she paused and looked at him. Properly, honestly, truly. She almost smiled.

He nodded soberly and gestured for her to go in, watching her as she went. Only after the door closed behind her did he turn and leave.

Their meetings moved. Instead of offices, they met at his place and hers. It became comfortable, easy.

Their positions shifted. Across from each other. Adjacent to each other.

Next to each other.

And then, one day she looked at him and made another choice.

She leaned and pressed her lips to his. The kiss surprised him, she could tell, but she gave him a moment, and then his arms were around her and he was responding.

"Why?" he asked then.

"Well with that settled," Amelia said, "we should head out. Sleep on the ship. It'll take a few hours to make all those jumps. It'll be cozy with the extra heads, but we'll make it work."

"Not in our bed," Jack grumbled.

She shot him an amused look. "Of course not." Then she yawned. "Or maybe we should go in the morning."

"You have, I assume, confirmed that they've actually left the Citadel, correct?" Kaidan asked.

David nodded. "I did," he replied. "Amelia being gone gave them no incentive to stick around, and since we managed to mess up whatever they were up to in the Archives…"

"I've been thinking about that," Amelia replied. "I'm pretty sure they were going after my biometric markers. Replace them with the clone's."

Jack nodded thoughtfully. "That does seem most likely. That would have given her full access to everything—and locked you out."

"Well, then I guess it's good you're all still on top of your skills," Kaidan said.

Steven shot him an unamused look. "None of us are retired yet, Major."

"Though some of us are closer than others," David murmured.

Kaidan, who, Jack noted, had been around long enough by then to grasp the banter of the group, looked completely unapologetic.

Amelia laughed. "I think the important parts have been settled. So. Sleep or leave?"

"Sleep," Jack said firmly as he watched her stifled her fifth yawn in as many minutes. "Leave," Steven said.

Amelia looked between them, clearly amused. "Sleep it is," she said. "Thankfully." She pulled up the time on her omni-tool. "We'll leave at 0600. Sharp."

Amelia stood at the helm behind Joker, her helmet in hand, as they prepared to enter the Anadius system. She looked at Clone-Jack. "You're sure they won't have a fleet to greet us with?"

He shook his head firmly. "Rasa's aims aren't quite so militarily-oriented," he said. "Not yet anyway. She may have the resources to hire a mercenary army of sorts, but to build a fleet? Not at all."

"Perfect," she replied.

"There it is," Joker said. He pointed at the station on the map. "Should be about ten minutes now."

Amelia looked over at Jack, and he realized that upon her return she'd immediately and instinctively taken command of the operation—and no one had gainsaid her, not even David and Steven. "Shuttlebay," she said. "Joker, let everyone else know we're meeting to depart."

Two of the Normandy's shuttles brought the assault teams to the station. Jack was impressed by how smoothly it all went and hoped that meant that Rasa wasn't nearly as good at all this as she tried to be. Amelia glanced at him, her eyes sparkling with mischief. "I need to get you out and into armor more often," she said.

He gave her an exasperated look, but she simply grinned in response. "Focus," he said.

"Oh, I definitely am," she replied.

He sighed. The way her eyes drifted told him exactly what she was focusing on.

She laughed. "Come on," she said, as she pulled out her rifle and left the shuttle.

They divided into two teams. Kaidan went off with James Vega (whom Amelia had demanded be reassigned to her once he finished N-school), and a few other soldiers Jack didn't know.

Amelia led the rest of them. Resistance was surprisingly light.

"Do you think she's low on funds?" Amelia asked after a firefight so brief Jack wondered if it even deserved the name.

"More that she didn't really anticipate us coming here. I suspect she pulls in troops as needed," Jack replied.

"Makes sense," Amelia said, "and I'm certainly not complaining."

"I don't like what she's done to the place," Oleg commented.

"You're critiquing the decor?" David replied.

"Well, look at it," Oleg said. "These halls used to be gleaming, perfectly, all identical. Now you can tell which ones get used and which don't. There are crates in some of them."

"They're going to hear us if you keep this up," Steven interjected.

"At least then it'll get interesting," Amelia replied.

Clone-Jack laughed. "Remarkable to think this is the group that won us the war."

Amelia sent a glare his way. "And we took Cronos."

"Ah, but you didn't keep it, did you?"

Jack had to restrain a snicker.

Amelia sighed and activated her comm. "How's it going, Alenko?"

"Easiest mission in years," he replied.

"Same here," she said. "Keep me updated if anything changes."

"Will do."

"Maybe my presence was overkill," Amelia joked as they took down another patrol without any trouble.

"Too much backup is better than none," Steven said.

She smiled in his direction. "True. And look at us: step-father/step-daughter outing," she added with a laugh.

Jack could only laugh at Steven's answering expression.

"Should be just down this hallway," Clone-Jack said, interrupting them.

They entered the room Clone-Jack had directed them to and as they had expected, they found Rasa and Amelia's own clone in the room, deep in discussion at a terminal. Amelia eyed them before turning to Jack. "Unnerving," she commented quietly.

"It is, yes," he replied—unfortunately, a little too loudly.

Amelia's clone whirled around and began to shoot as soon as she saw them.

"Must you shoot up my space station?" Jack called as he reached cover.

"My station now," Rasa said. "And yes, that's how one rids one's self of invaders, after all." Jack watched as she peeked out from behind cover.

"I really do have to wonder how you plan to get out of this," Amelia said. Her eyes met Jack's and he saw an unnervingly gleeful twinkle in them. "So far, all of your plans have been stopped. And for once, I wasn't there for the excitement, either."

"How convenient for you," her clone shot back.

"It was, yes," Amelia said.

She and Jack had been advancing carefully from cover to cover while the others spread through the room. Jack had lost track of his own clone in the process. He watched as Rasa pressed a comm button and summoned the extra troops to their room. He hoped Steven and the others were up to the challenge as he had no intention of taking his eyes off of Amelia's clone.

Behind him, shots began to ring out.

Amelia looked at him and then he heard her voice quietly over their private channel. "You take Rasa. I have the clone," she said.

He didn't much care for that plan, but the look in her eyes shut down his protest. He nodded and the relief in her expression made his concession worth it.

Behind them a grenade exploded. Amelia's eyes danced with laughter and he knew who'd sent that one flying.

And then she burst into action and he wished he could keep his eyes on her.

Instead, he turned to look for Rasa who was clearly hiding in cover somewhere. "You were a competent agent," he said, "but you never did quite get the hang of planning and executing these sorts of things, did you?" He taunted her, hoping to drive her out from her hiding spot.

It worked.

As they exchanged fire, he saw Amelia working out of the corner of his eye while behind him he heard the noises of an intensifying firefight. Rasa seemed to have summoned all available troops. Still, he saw no sign of his own clone.

Deciding to risk it, he dashed to the next bit of cover, a bit nearer to where Rasa was firing from. She shot at him and he barely made it.

"Careful!" Amelia's voice crackled as it came over his comm.

"Don't you want me to capture her?"

"Ideally, yes," she said. "It would be—"

"Hush and concentrate," Jack snapped as a hiss of pain interrupted whatever she'd been about to say.

"All right, all right," she said.

Jack turned his focus to his own target. Rasa had made a little nest for herself out of crates. It would take doing to get her. He thought for a moment and then sent out his little test drone, having ordered it to distract her.

She emerged right into his line of fire and within moments he had his drone restraining her. "You're lucky," he told her. "Amelia's far more pragmatic about some things than I am. I would have simply killed you."

She glared at him silently, so he simply smirked at her before turning away.

Amelia and her clone were still at it. Too evenly matched, he realized. Steven and the others were still tied up and he moved quickly to join them.

"You're getting slow, Steven," he called as he arrived.

"I've taken five to your one," Steven replied. "Six," he corrected himself after taking another shot.

"Using grenades for that doesn't seem like it should count," David interjected. He himself tossed one of his own grenades into a cluster of oncoming troops.

"You were saying?" Oleg.

"Let's just get this done quickly, shall we?" Jack asked. "Amelia and her clone are too evenly matched for comfort."

The clusters of incoming troops had already slowed by the time of Jack's arrival. Within minutes, it was down to a trickle until they stopped coming at all.

Upon determining that it was safe, Jack turned, looking for Amelia. Instead, he found his clone, standing and watching, his face set in concentration. Jack frowned, uncertain what to make of it.

Oleg came from behind him. He studied Clone-Jack carefully before saying, "I think he has a plan."

Jack frowned and raised his rifle, but Oleg placed his hand on it before shaking his head. "They're too quick," he explained. "And too similar. Besides, you'll never get through that armor of hers."

Jack sighed but acknowledged the truth of what Oleg said. He lowered his rifle and watched. His clone moved, then, closer, before pulling out his own omni-tool—and sending a combat drone towards Amelia and the clone.

Steven came up alongside Jack. "He really is you," he said with a laugh.

"Evidently," Jack replied dryly.

The combat drone exploded in a blaze of light that brought down the tech armor Amelia's clone wore—while Amelia's remained intact. Jack raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Impressive," he said.

That was the opening Amelia needed. She raised her rifle only to be beaten by a second drone who moved into position and stunned her clone before rapidly releasing a cord that restrained the clone, much as Jack had done earlier to Rasa. Amelia lowered her rifle, clearly surprised, and looked around until she spotted Clone-Jack.

Clone-Jack approached Amelia and her own clone, and in the silence Jack and the others made their way over to them. "You're taking her," Jack said.

His clone looked at him. "Yes," he said.

"But…" Amelia trailed off and frowned.

Clone-Jack smiled sadly at her. "The memory imprints from Rasa were… imperfect, incomplete. But… sufficient for some things." He looked down at Clone-Amelia. "Rasa may have done her best with Amelia's clone, but I suspect not all is lost. Not yet," he added.

And Jack suddenly understood. "Of course," he said, unable to say anything else.

Steven glanced between the four of them and Jack saw understanding dawn before he frowned. "I admit, I'm not sure I like this."

Amelia shook her head. "I—I don't think I really like it," she said, "but I understand it." She looked at Jack and he saw in her eyes that she did understand, possibly better than he knew.

David stepped forward. "But where will you go? If you stay in Council space or Earth space…"

Clone-Jack nodded. "I have plans. New identities for us both. The systems in the Traverse still haven't fully recovered from the war. They could use us, I think."

Oleg nodded. "Having seen how things operate out there, I agree," he said.

Amelia looked at Clone-Jack. "But if either of you try to use our names—our selves…"

"Agreed," he replied. He looked at Jack. "Thank you," he said.

Jack looked down at Amelia's clone and back at his before nodding silently, feeling that he'd already said all that he could. But then—"Good luck."

Clone-Jack smiled and finally Jack saw that it wasn't identical to his own.

Mop-up was easy enough. Alenko's team joined them after clearing the rest of the station. The two clones—Jack wished he knew which names they had chosen—left the station.

"We'll send in a team," Steven said, approaching Jack from behind. "Get the bodies home. With luck, their DNA will be in the Alliance's database."

"Assuming they are all still the dishonorably discharged," Jack pointed out.

Steven made an "it is what it is" gesture. "We'll do our best," he said.

Jack sighed but nodded. What else could they do after all? His eyes roamed around the station. "I wonder if I should just destroy it."

Steven turned to look directly at him. "Why didn't you do so earlier?"

Jack shrugged. "For a long time, I assumed it had been—in the war. And then… it didn't seem to matter anymore. The Alliance had dismantled what was left of Cerberus."

Steven studied him and Jack fought the urge to shift under his gaze. Then he turned and looked around. "Cerberus guards the entrance to the Underworld," he said. "It seems that enough ghosts have been laid to rest. Maybe it's time to let an old dog rest."

Jack snorted. "That's an impressive array of metaphors," he said. "But yes, I think I agree."