Executor's office. C-sec Headquarters.

"Leng." Jane said in an icy voice, dripping with contempt.

She raised her gun to point it at the dark haired man standing in front of her. He'd changed since she last saw him, his black hair was longer and pulled back in a messy ponytail and were once had been the N7 symbol on his midnight black armour was now the crest of Cerberus.

"Shepard." the assassin replied with a smirk, not taking his eerie glowing eyes off the frightened Salarian Councilor in front of him. "Long time no see."

"Not long enough." she replied slowly circling around the Salarian to get a better aim at Leng."Wearing a mask now, huh? Can't blame you. With a face like yours..." she sneered, noting in satisfaction when his smirk faltered slightly. He'd always been an arrogant ass.

"You know him?" Vega asked, mirroring her actions on the other side of the Councilor while Garrus stepped backwards, seeking higher ground for a shot from his rifle.

"Oh I know him." she replied, baring her teeth in a snarl. "Kai Leng, former N7, dishonourably discharged for murdering a Krogan and two of my friends."

The man with the shoulder long dark hair began to laugh, a humourless and mocking sound. "They were weak." he conjured a ball of energy in his hand and pointed it at the trembling Councilor's face. "And so are you, Shepard."

Jane almost growled but did not answer, instead she aimed her gun directly between Leng's eyes. "Step away from him, Leng." she ordered. "I won't say it twice."

"I wouldn't fuck with the Commander if I were you." Vega advised, getting into position as well.

"Shepard, he's going to kill us all." The Salarian Councilor said in a trembling voice.

"I don't think so." Jane said, fighting to keep calm despite her boiling blood. "The only one in trouble is you, Councilor."

The Assassin face split into a sneer. "You haven't changed a bit Shepard."

"That's not what I meant." the Councilor spoke up again. "It's Udina. He's staging a coup. He's got the other-" Leng's biotics flared suddenly in warning, stopping the Salarian's explanation.

"Three on one, pal. It's over." Garrus voice came from behind her.

"No." Leng replied in a calm almost excited voice. "Now it's fun."

There was a soft thumb and the faint clicking of a safety being taken off a gun. Thane was standing behind the Assassin holding a pistol to the man's head. Before Jane could adapt to this new situation, Leng had already spun around and started a fight across the room with the Drell. The two Assassins hit and dodged around each other in smooth and controlled martial art's movements, it looked more like an intricate dance than a fight.

Jane was following the movements of the evenly matched combatants with her gun, but she dared not to shoot, they moved too fast, too unpredictable to even think of risking it.

After a heavy blow to the chest, Thane was thrown half across the room, but rolled to his feet and attacked again in one smooth motion. Leng was forced backwards by Thane's counterstrikes and finally drew his Katana lunging at Thane who easily dodged the swipe and landed a blow against Leng's chest that made him stumble.

This was Jane's chance to shoot, she let out a slow controlled breath and aimed the gun at Leng's head finger steady on the trigger, but her worry over Thane's condition made her hesitate a moment too long.

Leng suddenly spun around, his sword swishing through the air directed at Thane's throat. The Drell leaned backwards, avoiding the sharp blade only by a hair, when Leng changed the direction of the Katana in a fluent motion and stabbed at Thane.

Jane's eyes widened in horror and disbelief when the sword smoothly slit into Thane's unprotected side. The tip of the Katana protruding out of Thane's back in an instant covered in brilliant red blood. Thane sank to his knees as Leng began to pull his sword slowly out of the Drell with a gruesome smile on his face as if the Assassin was enjoying every moment of this.

"Thane!" Jane cried in desperation, already running to her friend's side, while Leng spun around on his heels and flet toward the entrance of the building. "You bastard!" Jane shouted, her biotics flaring up in a bright blue corona of dancing flames around her. She fired several rounds from her pistol at Leng's back, but her calm was gone and so was her steady hand and she missed.

"Go after him." she heard Thane's voice. The Drell was lying on the floor, pressing a hand to the wound at his side while blood already pooled around him seeping out off the opening at his back.

"But-." Jane started to object when their eyes met, emerald green with dancing blue on obsidian black as deep as a starless sky. Thane's thin lips split into a warm smile while a thin trail of blood ran down one corner of his mouth. "I have time." he said in a low reassuring voice. "Go catch him, Siha."

Jane nodded, her already diminishing corona flaring up at his words, fuelled by a desperate need for revenge. With one last glance at Garrus and James, who'd already ordered medical assistance for Thane, she jumped over the tables and ran at full speed after the retreating Leng.

Elevator shaft, Presidium

Jane looked down into the shaft after the already vanishing elevator. She would have loved to rip Leng's throat out for what he had done to Thane and her friends, but stopping him from reaching the Council would ruin his day completely after she had gifted him with a long nasty cut along his cheek. It'll do, for now, but one day, she knew, their paths would undoubtedly cross again, and on that day she'll make him wish he'd never crawled out of his mother's whom.

Jane took a deep soothing breath. She felt the dark energy surrounding her slowly retreat back to the place deep inside of her where it originated, leaving her with only a faint humming in her ears and a soft tingling on her skin. She wouldn't need her biotics for that slimy and treacherous politician anyway, a simple bullet between the eyes would be enough for him.

"Shepard. You've almost reached the council's elevator." Commander Bailey's voice wrenched her out of her thoughts again.

"Good." she replied already turning to her right.

She crouched and tensed her muscles in preparation and as soon as the elevator came into view she jumped over on top of it. Her heavy boots causing a loud clang when they connected with the metal beneath her feet. There was a muffled shout coming from inside the elevator and several bullets shot through the ceiling of the elevator.

Jane cursed between clenched teeth, and twisted and turned in several directions to avoid being hit, trying not to cause too much noise to avoid giving away her position, but despite her efforts some of the bullets came fairly close...far too close. Whoever was shooting at her, wasn't bad at predicting where she would be next, as if he or she could sense her.

The elevator came to a stop shortly after Garrus and James joined her on the elevator and they could make out muffled voices over the sound of hurried footsteps. They waited a moment to be sure the shooter, probably a bodyguard, wouldn't be in the elevator anymore. If he or she was that good at aiming without seeing her, she rather not risk it. Her barriers weren't strong enough to stop a bullet at close range. She wasn't a Sentinel like Kaidan, who was trained in defense and far better at it than she was.

Jane signaled James with a nod to break the maintenance entrance open. The heavy armoured tank of a man went immediately to work, breaking the door in with two well placed stomps of his heavy boot. He jumped down first closely followed by Jane and Garrus.

"No one in sight, Commander. The Council must have escaped through the door up ahead." James informed her. They could already hear the sound of gunfire coming up through the elevator shafts. Cerberus must be close already.

They made their way carefully through the open elevator door and down the short hallway to the door James had mentioned. The door was locked of course and Garrus immediately went to work to hack the door, he nodded once when the light of the door turned green and stepped aside to take his usual position on Jane's right side while James moved to the left beside the door.

"Ready?" Jane asked, tapping into her power once more until her skin glowed in a faint blue light. She dared not flare completely, not only because she didn't want to roll in on the Council on a wave of biotics, possibly spooking their bodyguard into shooting first and asking questions later, but also because she'd already used a lot of her energy while pursuing that bastard Leng.

This barrier wouldn't stop a bullet, but maybe it would let the bodyguard hesitate before he or she attacked, giving them time to explain things. At least the basics before she killed Udina, well, probably killed Udina, she usually offered everyone a chance to surrender… exactly one chance.

"Ready when you are, Commander." James said, his hand hovering over the door to open it at her sign.

Jane stepped back from the door, half raising her gun and exhaling audible. What ever would greet them behind the door, she was ready to face it. James slammed at the button and stepped back.

The sudden sunlight burned in her eyes as she stepped out of the hall and into the light and for the fraction of a second she couldn't see clearly. When her eyes started to focus again she stared directly into the barrel of gun, pointed right into her face.

Jane trained her own weapon at the aggressor, her biotics flaring up by instinct alone at the immediate threat. She blinked in surprise when her power clashed against the energy that emanated from the man standing in front of her. Her eyes suddenly widened in shock and she almost dropped her weapon.

Nothing could have prepared her for this.