-Jane-

When she agreed to this, she hadn't expected to have to endure staying in the MedBay for long periods of time… or big needles. Needles nearly as long as her forearm, but she may be exaggerating. She's also pretty damn sure Chakwas is having all too much fun watching her Commander squirm under Mordin's scrutinizing exams and endless, mind numbing questions of her 'condition' at every second.

Hissing at the needle's intrusion, she scowls at the Salarian and ignores the chuckle from the two other women. "Jesus Christ, is turning me into a kabob necessary?"

"Rescind earlier observation of Garrus. Mate much more suitable." She swears that's a jab at the joke of a conversation she walked into at her expense before, but it still gets him a glare. "Yes, much more likely. Shame female."

"If what you say is true, it might not matter," Eve matches his joke, to which Jane throws a pillow at her, hearing her low chuckle.

"Please, Shepard. Limit movement. Would not want mate's ire for your constant movement." She sighs and relents, letting the Professor inject some sort of milky pink liquid into her stomach before pulling it slowly out. "Complete. Suggest remaining in position for while longer. Will help injection take."

"So what exactly am I, now? An incubator?"

As he goes to, most likely, correct her, Eve shakes her head from her seat on the bed beside hers. "You are a mother to my people, Shepard. I didn't think the Krogan has many allies left in the galaxy, but you and your mate have passed far beyond that. No matter what may happen, I am honored to call you a sister and Garrus a brother for you potential sacrifice." She drops her hooded eyes to the ground. "A sacrifice that my people have known for over a thousand years, but that you would give willingly."

Frowning, Jane sighs as she looks to the ceiling. "Not too willing, and I have to admit that it isn't all too noble of a reason. No cure, no Krogan in the Alliance for an army, and if there is a cure, but you die, then the future of a fertile Krogan species without female guidance probably means another Rebellion. I mean, I trust Wrex, it's all the others I don't trust. Neither of those options is acceptable for my own babies."

"Noble is not something that can be easily defined. I see it as a chance to give your children the future we could all hope for and, in doing that, you have given the Krogan hope. A fact that I will never forget, that I will make sure my people never take for granted." She chuckles and looks to Jane, a smile in her eyes. "But only if you allow me to see these children of yours. Wrex is not the only one to be able to see them."

Snorting, Jane nods. "I'll be sure to find out where my husband has taken them." Talking with this woman, hearing her story and her motives, she can't help but be reminded of a similar Krogan many years ago. A Krogan she will, unfortunately, only be able to remember through memories now that her artwork is nothing but ashes back on Earth. "You know, I still think it's funny how different the genders of your species are."

"How is that?"

"Well," she explains with a shrug. "It's clear that all the stereotypes about Krogan are only about your males. True, you're only the second female I've met in my entire life, but you and her both shared that sense of calm, of calculation and looking into the consequences and reasoning of an action, a decision. I can't help to think what if the galaxy didn't just know the bias against your males?"

"It would not have changed," Eve answers. "The Krogan deserved our reputation when we demanded more than was given, more than what we had destroyed by our own hands. We had no one to blame for our destroyed colonies but ourselves and we blamed others for our nature."

"Do you think that can be changed?"

"I will make it my sole purpose when I return to Tuchanka. Raising our children to repeat our mistakes will only bring more pain."

Hand unconsciously on her belly the entire conversation of children, Jane nods with a deep breath and looks to Mordin tapping at the monitoring equipment at her bedside. "Do you even think this will work? That you can clone this anit-whatever?"

"Very possible. High predicted percentage of success." He gives her a confident smile. "Producing children of Turian human nature much less likely. Once ran statistics and probability with Jharen Choren."

At her name, she frowns and says softly, "Mordin, Jharen… she didn't make it off Earth."

His hands still for a moment as he ducks his head with a deep breath and "Unfortunate" before he continues. "Always knew better make better Dalatrass than most. Females too focused on self, but not her. Focused on others. Future." She can see actual frustration on his face as he shakes his head. "Would not be question of alliance with Krogan, Turian, and Human."

"Yeah," she agrees with a frown, remembering the older woman and the way she didn't see species, but mother and children. "She was certainly special. I owe her my children's lives."

"Was no other. Would have gotten it wrong." His agreement comes with a stern nod as he completes his work. "Can move. Oh," he stops mid walk back to his makeshift station in the MedBay, "Must use contraceptive during intercourse."

"What," she deadpans, feeling like one of those vids about sex ed. "Why the hell would I do that? Do Turians even use condoms?"

Eve chuckles as Solus nods. "Most species have means of control of unwanted pregnancy. Shouldn't contaminate cultures with Turian DNA. Would be… most unpleasant."

"Serious? No one told me I can't fuck because of this… I didn't sign up for that."

"Not abstinent. Birth control. Can provide-"

Waving her hands in the air, she cuts him off with a rushed, "I don't even want to know why you have Turian or human condoms or whatever you have." She groans as she rubs her hands down her face. "Dammit. Fine, give me the rubbers. Can't believe I have to tell my Turian husband that we have to use protection."

Eve, damn her, merely chuckles from her place on her bed. "Just remember how it could be worse."

"And how could that be?"

"You could be Krogan."

Snorting, Jane nods. "Thanks for that potential mental image." Eve chuckles as the Commander with a false name heads to the doors to look for her mate and children, wherever he may have taken them, to, unfortunately, get back to work. It seems her unwanted duties of keeping the resistance afloat was a never-ending struggle.

"Shepard." EDI approaches her from around the corner of the lift. "May I ask a question?"

"Depends, but shoot," she answers, crossing her arms. The last time she had to answer 'questions', it lead to a weird conversation about her sex life and how EDI could entice Joker into a relationship. Not sure I want to know how one leads the to other, or picture how it's possible.

"Within the MedBay, you spoke of sacrifice for your children's future, even at the possible cost of yours and Eve's health. I understand that organics value the concept of preserving one's genetics through future generations, but you are potentially sacrificing that ability when it would seem more efficient to maintain the unique ability to produce offspring with Garrus. You and Garrus have also expressed that you would choose the other and your children over the lives of countless others, even your own safety."

Sighing, Jane rubs her head and wonders how she can explain the often idiotic nature of love in its many forms. "Consider that whole 'organisms passing genetics' thing like your shackles, EDI. Our organic 'programming' tells us to reproduce, carry on our bloodline, just like yours forced you to serve Cerberus' intentions, limited you. You being unshackled is like organics gaining sentience, higher thinking. We don't see them as means to carry our genes, we see them as individuals we love greatly, would sacrifice everything for in order to see happy and healthy. That is what love is."

Tilting her head, EDI crosses her arms behind her back and asks, "Is there a different kind of love that one can share between those not involving their offspring?"

"Well," Jane starts with a pout of her lip in thought. Her record with 'love' doesn't expand beyond her experiences with Garrus and the twins. Hell, she grew up thinking such a thing was but a lie to mask someone's true intentions to cause harm and now she sees it as her driving force in this war. "Everyone's answer to that can be different and it may be that only you can truly add value to your love, but, for me, I love both Garrus and our twins unconditionally. Every sacrifice I would make for the babies, I would make for him and vice versa. When you love, there is no fear, no pain, and no weakness because you find that strength to overcome in them." She steps to EDI and lays a hand on her shoulder. "In times like these, it is easier to find the will to fight when there is someone to fight for. That is love, in and of itself."

"I see, Shepard," she responds softly, lost in thought from those words, and Jane leaves her, continuing on her way to find her mate.

She finds him, James, Wrex, and, surprisingly, the Primarch within the Lounge, talking around shared drinks. Obviously, whatever they are talking about isn't from the war or the Primarch and Clan Chief would be at each other's throats, so she's sure the drink has a small part in that. Another pacifier could be the children in Wrex's and Garrus' arms.

"So, let me get this straight," Victus says with a chuckle. "You claim to have ridden a Harvester that you trained from birth and Wrex swears, on his glass of whatever potentially hazard concoction he's drinking, that he has ridden a Thresher Maw over Tuchanka. Garrus, I cannot wait to hear your own claim of greatness."

The deadpan in the man's voice makes her chuckle as she comes up behind her mate on the closest, couch, leaning over to give his forehead a kiss. "Did you tell them about taking down the giant Reaper baby by yourself?"

James snorts on the opposite end of the same couch. "Come on, Lola. You gotta have something better than that."

Wrex barks a laugh which, surprisingly, doesn't bother their son all that much, and responds. "He's calling you on your shit, Shepard. Better put him in his place."

"That's fine, I'll just let him and Garrus go one on one down in the Cargo Bay. If I dropped him, then there's no way it'll last longer than five seconds." She smirks.

"Who said I wasn't going easy on you?" he says with a smirk of his own and she grins as she grabs a pinch of his hair between thumb and forefinger, giving it a hard yank. "Ay! Pinche madre!"

She laughs and pats his shoulder as he rubs his scalp, looking to the Primarch. "No big tales of your own."

"Unfortunately, none that would sound as fantastic as these young bloods," he answers as he motions Garrus and James.

Snorting, Wrex says, "Who said anything about having to be young?"

Chuckling, she hears the doors open and turns to Liara and Traynor entering, speaking softly over a datapad. "Oh, Shepard," the Asari says, handing the datapad. "I managed to find something in my network you may want to see." The room quiets as she continues and Jane tries to read along, even if it's just for show. "Grissom Academy has requested and Alliance evacuation because they fear it is only a matter of time before the Reapers locate the station."

"Okay… and I take it something is suspicious about this?"

"Yes, very. The request was answered by a Turian evacuation transport-"

"But the Turians haven't moved in to assist Earth, let alone human systems."

"Correct," Liara answers with a nod. "And I'm sure the Primarch and Praetor can agree with me that no such evacuation would go without word to the Hierarchy?"

Humming in thought and with furrowed brows, Victus nods. "There have not been any reports of a Turian vessel anywhere within Alliance space."

"So we're dealing with a fake," Garrus adds with a growl. "Any idea who?"

At that, EDI appears in her long obsolete, or so Jane had figured, glowing orb. "Doctor T'Soni asked me to analyze the data. It is within the same parameters of the same signal that has lead you to the Collector trap with only minor alterations within the code to remain harder to detect. I was able to accurately detect the inconsistencies thanks to the previous false distress signal."

"Good find," Jane says to the group who brought it to her and she looks Traynor. "Send an alert to the Alliance that Grissom needs and evac. The Normandy will try to cut off Cerberus from whatever shit they are doing, but there might be more students than we can safely transport."

"Right away, ma'am."

With the woman leaving in a hurry to pass on the order, Jane smirks and looks to the crew in the Lounge. "What do you say we hit some Cerberus bastards where it hurts? Wrex?" She looks to him with a raised brow. "Want in?"

He grins as he stands and stomps to her, handing over her infant. "You have a quad asking that," he gives in answers with a smirk and cracks his neck, heading out to get his weapons from his 'bunk' in the War Room.

"Just like old times, Jane," her mate rumbles with a smirk as he stands.

Giving a nod of goodbye to the two men, she leads him to the MedBay, explaining, "I promised Eve she could see and care for the babies. And what would you know, but this is the perfect time."

"Is it bad I actually trust leaving them alone with her more than Wrex?" He chuckles and gently pulls Cassia from his cowl. "At least I won't have to worry about Eve trying to teach our son to headbutt."

"Oh, poor baby," she says with a hint of amusement, not over her tough as nails child taking to a Krogan, but her husband constantly stressing over their care. It's actually pretty damn cute.

Eve is more than happy to have the children entrusted to her and, despite her size, her touch is soothing to them, calming enough to put them to sleep even though they are being handed to and left with anyone else beside their parents. Usually, it takes a good ten minutes, or longer, to get them to sleep so the two can leave quietly, but, here, they are wide awake and near mesmerized by some crystal the female Krogan shows to the little twins.

So, with babies secured in the caring hands - maybe not so much in one of their cases- of Eve, Chakwas, and Mordin, the two head first to their Cabin for armor. Next is a stop to the Cargo Bay armory for their weapons as the Normandy sets flight for the Academy.


Jack storms over the corpses, still smoking from the searing hot ammunition sent into their flesh, and straight at her, punching her squarely on the jaw. How she can still get a chance to throw Jane for a loop is still pretty hilarious, if her jaw wasn't currently yelling 'that bitch punched me!'

"I can finally do that now that you popped that fucking kid out," the biotic snarls.

"Funny, I didn't think babies come from human mouths." A three fingered hand lands on Jane's shoulder, gently squeezing in question, and she nods in reassurance.

"Fuck you, Garrus. Actually, no. Fuck her. No way I want your mutant babies."

"What makes you think my kids were his?" Jane lifts a brow as she crosses her arms, jaw feeling better thanks to the cybernetics she doesn't want to think about right now considering what and who they are fighting.

Snorting, the younger woman rolls her eyes. "With how long and often you two went at it, there's no way you had anyone but his boney headed, no-nose, dog legged-"

Wrex's loud laughter interrupts and drowns out any insults she may have added. "I like this one, Shepard."

"And who the hell are you?"

Jane sighs at the fact that she seems to be surrounded by more children than the ones that are, dishearteningly, missing from the halls of this school. "Jack, meet Wrex. Wrex, Jack. Jack, can you tell me what happened here? How are your students' conditions?"

"They're tired, but okay." Her answer comes from a voice she hasn't heard since the beginning of the fall down the rabbit hole that was the Omega-4. A voice that also, during their last meeting, nearly sent her addicted and withdrawing husband into a rage, Kaidan Alenko. "Good to see you again, Shepard… Garrus," he's makes sure to add tentatively before looking to the Krogan from his past. "And you too, Wrex."

Wrex gives an all too Krogan grunt in response and Garrus a nod that, if she's reading the situation correctly, seems to cool the air between them. With a sort of truce between the men achieved, she takes Kaidan's offered hand, shaking.

"I see you couldn't turn down a longer service here at Grissom," she says as they part and jerks her head to the students above in the overlooking balcony.

Nodding, he follows her eyes and smiles. "I like working with them," he pauses and frowns, "before Cerberus… How did you know to come?"

And there's that suspicion, though a bit lighter on the ire than Williams was. Jane can't help the sigh and Jack rolls her eyes, scowling. "Kaidan, I already had this same talk before. I don't work for Cerberus as shown by me blasting holes through them. We found out the signal saying someone was evacuating you was a fake."

Scoffing, Jack shakes her head. "You're telling me Cerberus pulled tried that Turian signal again?" Jane nods and she barks a laugh. "Good thing you aren't as dumb as everyone makes you out to be, Shepard." She looks to Alenko and adds, "Listen here, you whiney bitch. If you want to sit here and talk about Cerberus and Shepard all damn day, than do it, but me and mine are taking her help because we know she doesn't have anything to do with those assholes anymore."

"You and yours?" Jane raised a brow and looks up at the students, still too far away to hear every word Jack is letting slip. "I see my recommendation when through for you. Kaidan," she turns to him, "You have two choices, stay here or keep quiet about me and Cerberus while we get the hell off this station."

He nods and his lips part to speak when a station wide Cerberus announcement comes over both the intercoms and the students' Tools. It's the best sort of weapon Cerberus has, fear and propaganda, using partial truths imbedded in lies to sway the weak and, Jane isn't ashamed to admit, these teenagers are the weak. It shows in their every words and expression, the hesitance and near acceptance of the lies before being snapped into reality by the only one who seems to have been taking care of them since the attack.

Fighting their way through the station was, at least, eased by the fact that Jack seemed to have found a path almost completely devoid of enemy attention – that only pulled towards them and away from the armed human, Turian, and Krogan when her students would throw out supporting biotics. It seemed that Cerberus, for whatever reason that Jane doesn't want to know, was willing to throw massive amounts of manpower into capturing these kids.

The insinuations of that plus what she had seen on Mars under that Trooper's mask was nothing good, nothing to make her believe the Illusive Fool's claims of being clear of Reaper control, of their Indoctrination. Where he was once so focused on bettering humanity – this place being one of those exact places for that sort of achievement – he is now trying to turn these students into nothing more than fancied up husks.

That sudden change in motives, in one extreme to an entirely different one, is one more reason she has come to fear the tech within her own and her mate's heads, but she couldn't distract herself, not now. Time for questioning her own and his capacity to think without enemy control was a matter to deal with another time when they weren't being shot at. So she focuses on the task at hand, in dropping Cerberus soldiers while they are being bombarded by both gunfire and biotics.

Looking to her mate, she motions the Atlas Mech and sees him nod, sighting the pilot. At that same time, she begins to glow in preparation and targets the Trooper directly beside its leg. When she hears the loud boom of Garrus' widow, she unleashes her energy and flies forward.

Her feet land with a sickening crunch of armor bending to the will of her biotically charged boots, but she doesn't stay still for long, kicking off the twitching and writhing soldier and climbing up to the hatch of the Atlas. She tosses out the headless pilot and replaces him in the seat, smirking.

"Now it's time to play," she says, hearing her Krogan friend chuckle on the comm, and turns the machine on its own, firing missiles directly at the scrambling soldiers. "Alright, Jack, move forward. We will be right on your six."

The three work on clearing out the areas before the students' progress, making their way to the shuttle bay. With a glance ahead of them, Wrex holds up a hand in 'hold', then speaks through the comm. "You better have another Mech lying around. The shuttle are surrounded. At least three Atlases."

"You mean I actually get to pilot one?" Garrus growls with a grin, then narrows his eyes as he looks over the Mech she's in. "I have an idea."

"You want to ride my back?" He actually blinks in surprise, meaning she must have gotten it right, and she chuckles. "You're starting to think too much like me."

"I was actually going to suggest we corner one and I take out the pilot, but we can always try your suicidal technique." Damn, could have sworn we were on the same page.

"Better figure it out, ladies… The students are coming." With that, Wrex begins the fight and doesn't give her any option but to kneel the Mech on one knee and offer an 'arm' up onto its back.

Her mate gives an uneasy hum of concern as she lowers her voice to speak. "I won't let anything happen to you, Garrus."

Chuckling weakly, he climbs up onto the back and holds onto the large tank on the Atlas' back. "That's my line."

Storming, or as best as she can in a however many ton mech, into the room, she sends a missile immediately into one of the other Atlases' hearing the fire of her husband's rifle muffled from the cockpit as he uses the shoulder as a cover to fire. Leave it to him to make a sniper perch out of a moving Atlas.

She makes the machine dance in and out of fire, always keeping her back to the wall and away from enemy fire as they whittle down one of the mechs until it is beyond use. Once it is at that state, she goes still, waiting for the inevitable shot he takes to end the pilot's life. That leaves the foot soldiers and two more, but one is currently occupied by the charging, and laughing, Krogan backed by biotics.

As if he reads her mind, she hears Garrus' voice on the comm ask, "You ready to get me off your back?"

"That could be interpreted so many ways," she answers as she slowly starts to side step around a support structure, trying to line him up with the pilot of the Atlas closing in on their location. "Give me the when."

"Hold," she stops, taking a breath even when her own intake wouldn't actually manage to move the massive mech, and waits for the fire of the rifle that she hears more in her mind than actually through the muffled cockpit. "When."

With that, she moves the Atlas as fast as it will go and remain stable, crushing a few soldiers as she closes in on the free mech. As she slides up against it, she uses her weapon to swipe off the Trooper trying to climb in like a bug and helps block fire as Garrus jumps in, the two of them smirking as the Atlas straightens under his control.

Now that the fun can really begin, Jane takes the ground forces while her mate charges into Wrex's battle, his mech crashing into the other. It's almost like a sparring match to watch between the two as he fights the other pilot to gain control, the Cerberus soldier clearly thrown completely out of his element from the unexpected charge as illustrated with his mech's knee collapses to Garrus' advantage. Her husband slams the clamping limb of his Atlas straight into the cockpit, shattering the window and just yanking the half broken and now bleeding man from the seat, throwing him.

She has to give it to him, that was pretty damn impressive and she never thought about actually fighting while piloting an Atlas, but, like always, he teaches her something new all the time.

The rest, all foot soldiers, seem to mostly lay down once they see two of their own Atlases are now piloted by the enemy and, though it has lost its fun to kill them when they've already given up, they do not take prisoners, do not show mercy. What would mercy be to them, anyways? Are these Cerberus minions anything but tools of the Illusive Man and, above him, the Reapers? Is killing them not the real mercy? Should she really be giving herself headaches over this?

No, I probably shouldn't, she thinks as she helps the students get into their new Cerberus shuttles they'll use to slip out. It's unfortunate, but they have to leave the Atlases behind to climb into the shuttles with the far too little number of surviving students and instructors.

Riding to the Normandy, the alert already sent ahead not to fire upon them, she speaks to the survivors of the war, of where they will come in as the support to those in the front lines. More than the order, she has to lay out before them what they will see, what the destruction back home can be and how, despite its appearance, the Citadel that they are heading to is not the norm for the galaxy. It may be harsh, but she was never one to lie, even less in the time where these false ideals can mean life or death.

She'd rather be seen as the monster that broken their spirits in order to make them stronger, more determined, than the woman who made them believe they were invincible. At least, she thinks, she did manage to keep the worst of the loss of life away from the conversation, kept it more as a loss of home, of possessions. Better to retain a sense of hope that way.

When they arrive on the Normandy, Jack immediately demands to see Jane's 'little shits'. Kaidan, not completely up to vids from Earth since his workload at the Academy was doubled with new students, doesn't even know what the two are talking about and, when told, he seems struck dumb from the news. Jane would have almost been amused if, once again, it hadn't lead back to Cerberus when he questioned her why the organization would have that kind of tech, why she agreed to use it, and why she didn't just admit they were refugees when they clearly were not human. Refusing to get into an argument in front of his students – one of which, she learned, was greatly enamored with her husband thanks to the time he had run on a Cerberus base on Aite – and lower their views of their instructor, Jane just leaves the man with a stern order to never associate her children with Cerberus ever again.

Luckily, she doesn't have to deal with Kaidan Alenko between then and the return to the Citadel thanks to Jack claiming she 'needed to take some time to tend to her own personal matters' and couldn't watch the students the entire trip –which actually boiled down to the few hours she, Jane, and Garrus spent in the Lounge while the tattooed biotic awed at the twins, showing them the kind of tender care Jane had always known the woman possessed.

The rest of her time was spent with her husband, either shadowing him in the Battery as he worked as she and their babies rested in his comforting presence or up in their cabin doing everything from reading reports to trying, embarrassingly enough, to use the contraceptives Mordin offered without getting too frustrated and using more than necessary because half of their attempts ended in destroyed…whatever the hell Turians used as condoms.