The dim lights of the lounge engulfed the turian in a strange gloom as he sat on the couch with his legs across the pillows. His expression was dark, looking at the datapad in his hand, trying to decipher the information they got from the White Hand. The silence was thick in the room, only Saren's annoyed growls breaking it from time to time.

He sent the info already to his agents back at the Citadel, but simply couldn't leave it at that. He needed to know, he needed to try to find out as much as possible on his own, because he couldn't bare the thought of doing nothing about it. But the more he tried to analyze the data and find anything of value regarding who this Librarian was, the more helpless his situation became.

There was nothing here. Not a single clue. Whoever transmitted these messages, was an expert in hiding information on their whereabouts.

He lost track of time very soon, and only looked up when some noise hit his ears from the other end of the lounge. He didn't even look up as Jane entered the room, freshly showered, her sweet cherry scent already twisting his nose plates. That damned woman smelled so good, it instantly derailed him from his datamining. But his resolve was stronger, so he didn't make the smallest move. He fell right back into concentration.

She didn't say a word to him, just proceeded to get some snacks quietly. When behind the bar, she turned her eyes to Saren, to get a good look at him. He was completely immersed in whatever he was doing, which no doubt was the latest findings regarding the bio weapon. The air was almost cold around him, still, like he was going to explode any minute. She forgot about the snacks and instead started preparing kahve. He didn't even look at her the whole time, buried deep in his analysis.

When the coffee was done, she rounded the bar and stepped to him, silently and slowly, watching if his anger that he clearly held in was going to crush her or not. But when she was close, nothing happened… so she sat down next to him.

Saren saw a cup of steaming coffee float into his eyesight, blocking his vision of the datapad in front of him. The smell was incredible, and he instantly looked to the right to find Jane sitting close next to him on the couch, offering the coffee to him.

"This might help." was all she said quietly with a small smile on her face. He took the mug from her, and watched her lean over his datapad, slowly taking it from his hand, and checking out the data for herself. She was so bold, coming here to him, taking away his stuff and settling down next to him like this was her couch. As if she's been here with him for years now. She wasn't afraid to push a mug in his hand, and let her shoulder brush to his as she leaned back to read the datapad.

She seemed comfortable with him around. It was a very alien feeling for him. He almost forgot his anger about the data.

"Did you find anything?" she asked.

"No" he growled, barely opening his mouth "I've no idea where these messages came from, and my agents haven't replied yet. It's nothing here apart from the instructions… "

She looked up at the ceiling, thinking: "Have you heard about this Librarian before?"

"No" he shook his head "And neither did Aria, nor the shadow broker."

"The shadow broker?" she asked, sitting up on her legs "You know the shadow broker?"

"Of course not. Only a couple of his agents, and they are just as clueless as me."

She sighed "That's bad. It can be anyone then."

"That's not what bothers me the most" Saren said, taking back the datapad, running his finger down the instructions "This whole thing is too much. Someone wants a bio weapon here, sure, nothing we haven't seen before. But look at this.. Whoever struck a deal with the batarians, had specific instructions for everything. This Librarian gave the batarians the egg, the contact and info for Cohen. This is..."

"...Too many steps." Jane finished his sentence, and they looked at each other. Saren downed his coffee. She continued: "If this Librarian wanted to order a bio weapon, he could've just done it. Why need the batarians?"

His voice rumbled as he stood up "Because this Librarian, whoever that is, wants to hide his trail. The more steps, the harder to follow up if anyone starts to snoop around. The Librarian's making sure that whatever he's up to, it cannot be traced back directly to him. Or his boss..." he said as he stepped back, putting down the coffee mug on the bar and heading to the lounge door. She was looking at his back as he was leaving, calling out just as his talon touched the console on the wall.

"Saren?"

The turian stopped. He turned back slightly to face Jane, who stepped up from the couch and looked at him from across the room. "Yeah?" he growled, deep down frustrated, impatient.

"What's wrong?" she asked simply, her eyes focusing on his. Seeing through him.

He hesitated for a second, just staring into those blue eyes of hers. But eventually, on that deep baritone voice of his, he replied. "This is not normal, none of this is. This is more serious than a simple bio weapon."

And with that, he left. Jane stayed there, looking at the place the turian was standing a second ago, trying to decipher what he just said. Was he… worried? He didn't seem to be the type who would worry about anything of this measure, to her, he was more like someone who casually saves the world on a regular Saturday, without giving it much thought.

But it seems he had feelings, after all.

She smiled.

The next morning was, just like the others, quiet on the Sovereign.

They were still orbiting Omega, having no current destination. Jane was still sleeping in her room when Saren was already up, training in the gym which was a daily routine for him. As he lifted the weights one after each other, his mind was racing, not stopping since yesterday.

He had no idea who this Librarian was, but he was damn sure something was going on here, and it wasn't just a simple toxic based bio weapon. His hunch never betrayed him, that was how he managed to save so many missions and disastrous situations in the past. And that instinct was very much sending alarms to him now. And a bio weapon nonetheless… he hated them with all his heart.

But his mind must've started playing tricks on him, because suddenly he remembered Jane and their fight with the batarians, which brought up completely opposite feelings in him. She enjoyed the fight so much… he could hear her heartbeat, and just the memory of it pumped him up.

It was thrilling to see someone not shy away from combat, and see it for what it is: art, life, beating the hell out of your opponent. Most of the soldiers he met so far could fight, sure, but almost everyone was going for the peaceful alternative and politics whenever they had the chance. People were always boasting about how good they were in combat and warfare, but always avoided it at the end of the day.

Even from the spectres, not a lot of them took their pride in combat itself, but rather politics, espionage, or needless tactics. No one really wanted to admit that sometimes all that was needed was a good ass kicking and blowing shit up. But Jane… that woman was blooming when she was throwing the batarians through the ceiling. She understood this language, and they worked surprisingly well together. He needed to build on this, because this was a grand opportunity for them to become a two-person killing squad.

He was just surprised this was coming from a human woman.

The universe was playing tricks on him.

And of course this was the moment the door slid open, and Jane marched in wearing training gear. She stopped in the middle of the room and sank into a hip:

"Good morning!" she chirped "I thought I'd find you here."

"I'm here every morning." he said, putting down the weights "Who would have guessed?"

She shook her head at his sarcasm and stepped to him: "Whoever this Librarian is, we need to prepare. God knows what is coming for us, we need to be ready for anything."

"On that we agree" he replied, standing up. They met in the middle of the room, facing each other. "Let's go."

This was how their training started. They weren't sparring this time, but rather they systematically showed each other their moves and tried to counteract them to perfect them. They spent long hours digging deep into the details of each other's fighting styles, combos and habits, trying to find holes in their tactics and way of fighting. Trying to prepare for different scenarios and creating tactics to negate adverse situations.

By the end of it, they developed tactics for almost any scenario, and were prepared with disaster plans for things they can't really fight or negate. It left Saren a bit calmer regarding the unknown they were getting into, knowing that from a combat perspective they've done everything they could.

"Not bad" he said as they both got up, sighing from the exercise that sent them both to the ground "I'm starting to think humanity might not be entirely hopeless.."

She chuckled: "Liar. You hate us just as much as you did before. Your only luck is that I don't give a fuck."

"My luck indeed" he nodded playfully and started cleaning up the mess they left the training room in, he put away the weights and turned back all the furniture to where they belonged. It seems Jane loved flying everything with biotics, and that was good to know. Once he finished she was already gone, possibly to take a shower to cool down.

And as soon as she left, he was alone with his thoughts again.

Combat training is fine, and it is key for them to be in synergy as much as possible, but then again, he had no idea what was going to happen regarding this bio weapon. He had seen too many things go wrong to be calm about this. Bio-warfare was by far the ugliest, most disgusting part of any war, and it was the only part about it he truly hated.

The door closed behind Jane, who immediately started tossing her training gear all over the floor once in her room, and made her way to the bathroom. Once she was rid of everything and the water was flowing, she stepped into the shower and let herself soak under the water. She thought about how nervous Saren seemed still, just like yesterday, but when they started training it seemed he loosened up a bit.

All her muscles were sore from the session they just had, but she didn't mind the slightest. It was all very useful, and even entertaining. He was a true expert when it came to combat, but he also treated her as an expert. Everything he told or showed her had a certain finesse to it, it was exhilarating to watch. And she showed him her favourite throws, all of her biotic favourites - that could be performed without wrecking the ship of course.

She remembered people back at the Alliance stopping her, telling her that such displays were unnecessary and dangerous, that no matter the circumstances, biotics are dangerous and should only be used with caution. But Saren told her that her favourite, showy tactics were great to confuse enemies, to wreak havoc as they were great surprise elements, playing to shock value… which was the exact reason she loved them so much.

He understood her… even after such little time spent together… so the hours went by fast. But now she got out of the shower and headed to her desk to check the time. It was the afternoon already… they just spent most of their day together, and did not even realize it.

But all her thoughts were interrupted, as she heard Ilsa's voice coming through the comms:

[Warning: Unidentified vessel incoming. Cruiser on intercept trajectory.]

"What?" she breathed, in the middle of putting a top on, making it all wet as she hastily pulled it over her head and her wet hair.

[Shields 100%. Vessel identification failure, not matching any known database.]

She gave up on having time to put pants on, and just left her room the way she was and flew into the elevator, pressing the cockpit button like a maniac. Really? A ship is attacking them now, while orbiting Omega? But that was all the thoughts she had time for as the elevator doors opened and she jumped into the cockpit, running to the main control panel as fast as she could.

"Get out of there!" she heard from behind her back, and as she turned, she saw Saren storm in, pushing her out of the way and sitting down into the chair, immediately manning all the main controls.

"What the fuck?" she cursed, trying to find info about the trajectory on the many screens.

"We're being attacked" he growled "Release autopilot, switch to manual mode!"

[Manual mode toggled. Incoming missile. Impact in..]

The ship shook, sending Jane to the ground.

[Shields 78%]

"Fuck!" Saren cursed, grabbing the wheel. "Are there any more incoming?"

[Three more missiles released.]

"Ok, let's do this..." said the turian, and pulled the wheel as far back as he could while giving gas, and the ship's nose turned up, just pushing away from the missiles that showed as missed on the radar. He released a lock and moved to the left, bringing the ship along, rounding in space to try and provide time for the analytics to run properly. "Jane, the main gun!" he shouted, and pushed the wheel back down again.

She turned around, looked at the elevator and immediately made her way to it. She rode it down to the bowels of the ship and exited to the labyrinth-like deck, turning right then left and entered a small room that was the battery. It was extremely useful to know the layout… good thing she learned it before they even left for the relay on their first run. She hopped into the chair there and put on the headpiece, powered the system up and exhaled.

"I'm ready" she spoke to the comms, and heard Saren's soothing reply from it:

[Then show me.]

She smiled, then fired up the targeting system, ran the algorithms and started controlling the gun like it was a pistol in her hands. The Sovereign turned and leapt in the air as Saren maneuvered it through space, evading missiles, turning so Jane could shoot them right out, without a single mistake.

[Damn right!] She heard through the comms and laughed as the enemy missiles fell prey to her shots, allowing them to get further and further away from the other ship.

It wasn't long before they left behind that unknown cruiser, and Saren could switch to FTL, effectively removing them from danger. He punched in random coordinates, without giving it much thought in the heat of the moment. They jumped completely out of the system, and into the neighbouring one.

"Ilsa, take over and keep all monitoring systems alive. Also run a detailed analysis. I want the identification number of that ship." he said to the AI, who chirped in reply, switching back the ship to be under her control again. Saren got up from the chair and turned to go and get Jane, but she was already there, just exiting the elevator. The looked at each other from the far sides of the cockpit, suddenly both of them stopping in their tracks.

"You had pilot training?" Jane asked, closing the distance between them, sheer amazement in her eyes. This was getting a bit too much now, was there anything that Saren couldn't do? But he almost stepped back a bit.

Her scent was intoxicating, and his sensitive nose was now filled with a dream of cherries.

"Back in the military, yes." he answered after a second of hesitation, with his mandibles almost glued to his face. "Great shots..." he growled, nodding at her very officially.

They were both really pumped.

None of them knew what that ship was, the attack happened very fast, and the adrenalin was still kicking them in the face. As they stood there and just spent a moment to catch their breath, they slowly started to realize their situation.

Neither of them were dressed properly.

Jane was in just a top and some underwear, her hair falling on her collarbone, heavy, wet. Its colour was a lot darker than usually, now resembling a dark brown, rather than red. And between the intriguing sight of that strange wet hair, her cherry scent and her hourglass figure Saren just couldn't register what to look at. She was so ruffled, but looking magnificent at the same time. Her skin looked smooth as silk, her icy blue almond shaped eyes gleamed like jewels in the dark. And she didn't care: it was apparent that she didn't even think about being half naked, she was busy with the thrill of the space battle, and looking deep into his eyes.

That is until she realized how different he looked. He had only a training short on, and all of his silverish, grey plates were visible, guarding some amazingly toned muscles. As his chest rose and fell, she saw drops of water everywhere on him, drawing attention to the hundreds of battle scars on his body. And his eyes were glued on her, his mandibles were twitching in the smallest way possible. He was raw power solidified.

She cleared her throat, coming back to reality.

"Who was attacking?" she asked. He exhaled a ragged breath, slightly turning away as means to concentrate on the situation at hand.

"It was an unknown ship, Ilsa is running the diagnostics now."

"Well" she turned as well "Let me know if she'll have something." and with that she left the cockpit, leaving Saren alone.

The turian turned to where the elevator doors closed, his thoughts racing in his head. They were just attacked, but he simply couldn't focus on it. But he needed to get back to it. So he turned around and walked back to the chair to analyze what Ilsa has been doing.

Hours passed since the incident.

Ilsa couldn't identify the ship that was attacking them, but it seemed the danger was gone. They saved all the data, in case they run into this entity once again. They however never went back to the Sahrabarik. Saren decided to jump out of FTL between two systems, to avoid being followed. This is how they ended up in the middle of nothing, just floating in the emptiness.

And Jane couldn't find Saren. She had dinner, he was not there. She had coffee, and went through all the details about their findings on the bio weapon so far, and he was not there. She went down to engineering, and the hangars, but he was nowhere. They needed to go. Even if they knew nothing of this Librarian, even if they were attacked, they needed to do something, and she wanted to tell him that. She eventually got bored waiting for him to show up.

"Ilsa, is Saren in his quarters?" she asked, looking up at the ceiling into the comms.

[No.] came the answer from the AI.

"Ah, then where is he?" she asked, not so much from the AI, but rather thinking out loudly.

[He is outside.]

She looked up at the comms again, confused. "Excuse me, outside?"

How could he be outside? What the hell?

[He is outside on the shell.]

"Thanks" she sighed, realizing she won't get more info out of Ilsa, and knowing they'll never start without Saren, she decided to see whatever he was up to on the outside shell of the ship.

She went and grabbed her armor, put it on along with her helmet, and stepped into the decontamination zone of the shutters near the cockpit. They were training and being attacked today, and now she's preparing to space walk? What a long day…

The pressure equalizer beeped and she felt her insides leap as vacuum took over the atmosphere around her. She turned on the suction in her boots to keep her rooted to the floor, and as the doors swooshed open, she walked to the edge of the ledge in the shutter. She looked down, then up, not seeing any trace of Saren. She turned suction off and slowly floated off the floor, grabbed onto the metal casing of the shutter, and leapt into space.

A smile instantly took over her as her horizon turned, and her feet landed on the shell of the Sovereign, the suction keeping her there, not letting her disappear into the emptiness of space. She slowly took a step, then another, free of the weight of gravity, her heart beating faster by the second.

It was like she was walking on stars. The optical camouflage of the Sovereign reflected everything to the smallest detail, and as she looked down at her foot, all she saw was the stars and herself. She took her steps further and further up the nose of the ship, looking at how the stars moved behind her, looking like she was in the middle of the everything and nothing at the same time. She couldn't express the feeling of freedom that took over her.

This ship was a masterpiece.

"It's breathtaking, isn't it?" she heard from her comms in her ear, and looked up. There was Saren, sitting right on top of the ship, like he was between worlds of stars.

"I" she sighed "This is eerie..." she blurted out breathlessly, a tiny sound of laughter in her voice. She took another step, faster, eventually almost skipping to Saren, clinging onto this newfound freedom she discovered. In seconds her laughter rang out in the comms, and she arrived next to the turian, sitting down.

"I love this place already."

"It's just the top of the ship" Saren corrected "You love what surrounds it."

If they were inside, not wearing helmets, he would've seen her scolding expression. But she didn't say anything to that, just looked above her head, drinking the sight in. They didn't talk for a long minute, just letting the silence take over as they were both deep in their own minds. Two spectres, sitting on the edge of nothing.

Jane eventually spoke: "I know you're stressed about the bio weapon. And if you think your previous answer satisfied me, you're wrong."

She was right. He gave her no real answer yesterday, just some hush hush. But the real answer was not for her to know.

"Had some bad experiences with bio weapons before." he let on, vaguely, but implying something secretive to her. "I'm careful about them ever since."

She looked at the mirror at her feet. This was him telling her that whatever had happened to him, was something that he didn't wish to talk about. She didn't need to see his face to know this hurt him. This case was bringing memories back up in him, memories he undoubtedly pushed as deep as he possibly could.

He was usually cold, calculated, but his tone was different now. Warm. Sad.

She didn't want to stir him anymore, it seemed cruel.

"This view is beautiful..." she eventually said, deterring the conversation.

It worked. The turian turned to her, his head nodding strangely, as if he just had an idea.

"You like it?" he asked, his voice now a lot more alive.

"I do."

"Well, wait until you see this." he said "Ilsa, let us turn back."

[Of course.] came from the comms in both their earpieces, and the ship slowly started turning, the horizon moved again, and the stars they were looking at until now disappeared, moved out of their frame.

And in their wake, new ones came around, with lights of blue, purple, and a red, slowly creeping in. Jane's breath was taken away as they turned to face the nebula, and where darkness lay before, came a searing light of orange, the dust of the universe painting the stars.

The ship's shell mirrored the nebula, bathing them in stars and light.

She couldn't say a word.

The universe was now under her feet, her hands, colours appeared from everywhere, the distant horizon upside down, making her feel like she was floating. Floating in this space, this vast emptiness. No words could describe how badly she wanted to see this universe, and how it made her feel to see it finally. Like there was no end to it. Like she was a part of it finally.

Saren leaned back, proud.

He could feel her pure awe, how she looked at this world with honest, uncorrupted eyes. A simple view he saw hundreds of times, she valued like it was gone in a moment. He remembered their fights, their training, how well she did and how eager she was to live and fight; how she looked at him, with those piercing eyes when they first met.

He never had a partner as a spectre before her.

Because he was waiting for her. This strong, rare, weird creature. She deserved to see this view.

"This is why I left the Alliance..." she breathed, ending his uncontrolled chain of thought. "If I would've climbed out onto the ship like this, they would've tossed me out of the airlock, because of a million shitty regulations. You have a freedom I never had. I've never seen anything like this before..."

His mandibles moved, a sly smile hidden in his helmet. So much experience, so little freedom. This was the military.

"Come on. I'm sure that Earth you're from has beautiful views like this as well."

She shrugged. "Dunno. Never really had the chance to look."

His smile disappeared.

"I grew up on the streets. In the dirt. Not many nice views there." her voice was cold now, no trace of that wonder from a minute ago. Just the freezing reality of disappointment in her tone.

"I know." he answered instinctively, not realizing what he had just given away.

"Wait..." she breathed, turning to him. "You're..."

"Orphan? Yes." he admitted with a voice so cold, it felt like it froze her blood. "It's written all over my face, or isn't it?"

She was shocked.

Bareface. It had a different meaning to her now, and that meaning she knew will never going to be changed again.

They looked at each other, not a single word exchanged as they sat there, in the light of the nebula, now the only darkness lingering was within their minds. Thousands of thoughts, never expressed into words as they shared this silence.

Whatever dark impulse brought them together… they had no idea. But the more time passed, the more of themselves they recognized in each other.

Long minutes passed, before Jane spoke: "Thanks for showing me this view."

"I didn't do anything. You climbed out here on your own."