The shuttle down to Aeia was awkward at best and dam right hostile at its worst. Garrus had been shooting daggers at Kai Leng the entire time, openly looking like he was planning how he was going to kill the man. Kai Leng alternated between glowering back at him and saying suggestive things to Shepard which were ignored but still clearly irked Garrus. Zaeed watched in amusement at his friends discomfort, though he hated Kai Leng Zaeed was almost as bad as Kasumi or Traynor for a good drama. He would listen or say a few choice things to stir the pot while puffing away on his cigarette, much to Liara's annoyance. Other than being annoyed at Zaeed smoking beside her Liara looked on in curiosity, seeming to be studying the behaviour between Kai, Garrus and Shepard with apt interest then typing something down on her omni-tool. Shepard was sat pressed against the furthest corner of the shuttle, giving herself a wide birth from everyone and was quiet keeping her eyes closed, if you hadn't known better you would have thought she was asleep, but Kaidan did know better.
Groaning quietly to himself he tried to prepare for what was going to be one of the most stressful and un-enjoyable missions in his life. Rubbing his temples he felt the beginnings of a very bad headache coming along, cursing quietly under his breath and actually missing the old days back on the SSV Normandy. It had felt like they were against the impossible back then against Saren but now they had actually conquered the impossible, it made those days pale in comparison. He remembered with fondness the Commander he knew back then, Jane had been strict and to the point with a no nonsense attitude that she still possessed now. However she also had an ease about her, joy in her smiles and happiness behind her eyes which now seemed to be consumed with a haunted trouble looked. Kaidan found he couldn't exactly blame her, she'd had the galaxy on her shoulders and probably thought she would finish it by going out in a blaze of glory, but yet again she'd been dragged back to the world of the living and seemed to have lost a little bit more of herself, except this time her memories were what was taken from her. Back in the day on the SSV Normandy he would have been the one to comfort her, he would have encouraged her to console in him and let her poor her heart out, letting go of the Commander to show him the woman within. He head lost the right by being so dam near-sighted and now it fell to Garrus, who if Kaidan was being honest was a better match for Jane than himself. They were both stubborn and if anyone was able to match Shepards wrath it would be Garrus, he knew now that Garrus must be beyond heartbroken at this cruel twist in fate that the woman he loved was returned to him but with no recollection of their love. Inwardly wincing in sorrow he didn't know how Garrus was remaining so calm despite of all the new revelations, Shepards return, the marriage between her and Kai Leng, his new apparent fatherhood, the loss of her memories.
Yep Kaidan didn't envy the man and as he looked back up at him he understood more the look of death he was sending Kai Lengs way, hell if Garrus needed a hand Kaidan would volunteer. His dark musings were brought to an end when the shuttle rocked and settled on the ground, door opening upwards let in a blinding light and he grimaced as his eyes adjusted. When they all exited the shuttle Jane placed her hands on her hips and surveyed the area before turning towards Kai,
"Lead the way." She said simply and motioned with her hand for him to take point. He smiled coyly at her and bowed his head,
"Off course my dear" he purred and Kaidan could help but snicker as Garrus shoved the back of his head making him stumble a few steps before regaining his balance. The assassin shot a dark look his way before turning back to shepard and flashing an annoyed look at her amused face.
Despite the lack of life signs nearby they all had their weapons ready, if they learned anything from Cerberus it was always to expect the unexpected. They made it to where the small wooden cabins had been but didn't pause there as Kai Leng led them through the rotting bodies as they tried to ignore the smell of decomposing corpses that had been left in the heat for a few days. Coming back into the jungle he walked them for another half hour or so before pausing at a rock face, Kaidan watched as Jane raised a questioning eyebrow.
"I'm not sensing anything beyond this other than rock." Liara informed them all, causing all eyes to turn distrusting toward the assassin. He snorted and pushed away some roots and vines before sliding a section of the rock to the side and a bio metric scanner appeared.
"Your ignorance seriously leaves me wondering how you all survived the Reaper war," he drawled in contempt "What we lacked on resources for the main site where Shepard and I stayed, we made up for in the technology we stole from the Illusive man just before his demise." He said in way of explanation for why there scanners weren't picking up on the hidden base.
After scanning his hand the rock parted with a loud grating sound and a clinical looking corridor appeared out of no where leading to a lift. The hall was blindingly white and the smell coming from it was of a strong disinfectant, it seemed so out of place coming from the environment they just had. Kai Leng lead them into the lift where Kaidan noticed there was only one button, which surprised him as he just assumed because it was Cerberus it would mean overly large pointless base. Smirking at the ridiculous thought he looked on in wonder as the lift doors parted and Leng led them into a large room but not really any bigger than the mess hall back on the Normandy, three rooms lead off it, which leng quickly explained one was his office, one was a surgery and the other was a cell, Shepards cell.
Suddenly the atmosphere got a whole lot more serious as Leng lead Shepard over to one of the computers in the centre of the room.
"You can gather the reports off this computer and the others can watch the progress videos." Kai Leng said coldly his body going tense as he looked towards his office, "Shepard, you can watch it all in the privacy of my office If you'd rather not have the others seeing it…they contain some, unpleasant moments." Kai Lengs voice sounded unsure and Kaidan frowned in response at that. The rest of the party watched on in mixed emotions awaiting Shepards decision, Kaidan himself not knowing if he wanted to view the videos or not.
Jane heaved in a steady breath and nodded her head, "If they're going to understand what's going on we all need full transparency." She reasoned and holstered her shotgun on her back before gesturing Kai Leng to open up the terminal and begin the videos.
He did as she asked though a little reluctantly and soon enough a larger image appeared on the glass screen above the computer. It showed Kai Leng with his ocular enhancements on still as he seated himself behind a desk almost robotically and stared without motion into the camera,
"Project Jane Day 1, officially the project has begun. We recovered Janes body two days ago and immediately went to work on repairing what damage we could, Doctor Simon Ettlemen has reassured me that he wont need to remove any of her limbs, though the previous enhancements Miranda lawson had in Janes system are all but non existent now. We deduced this is a result of whatever Jane did on the crucible as Reaper tech was used heavily in Janes previous reconstruction-"
"Pause it!" Jane yelled and Kai did as she asked looking back at her with trepidation which was a strange look on the man, "Fucking what?! Reaper Tech? what even is that? I thought the Reapers were robots or something?" She asked. The rest of the team had tensed at the new information and didn't know really what to make of it but none of them felt good about it.
"If I'm going to have to keep pausing to tell you things you won't know because you don't have your memories then this is going to take a while." Leng breathed out in exasperation and Jane sent him a scowl before nodding for him to continue.
"and a mixture of the fail-safe using what was left of the cybernetics power to keep her key organs functioning till she could be retrieved. We'll have to rely heavily on new cybernetics incorporating a bone weave and a skin weave as currently seventy five percent of her skin is either charred or peeling off her muscles…" Kai Leng on the screen paused for a moment as his jaw clenched and he looked down at his hands as he clasped them together on the desk in front of him "I'm not going to lie, seeing Jane like that wasn't easy…I think I preferred it when she was trying to kill me." He said with a snort. "but back to it. Ettlemen is also confident we'll be able to successfully repair the brain damage she suffered when she was sixteen and hopefully her memories of our days together will follow. But for that to be even worth the while we'll have to remove her memories from her Alliance days and beyond. I know its drastic and risky but it'll be better in the long run, to be honest who would want to remember the life she's lead. I would have been able to have kept her safe, and now I've been given the chance to do that and I'm sure in the years to come we'll do marvellous work together."
Shepard moved forward and paused the video again before swiftly spinning around and right hooking Kai leng and flooring him. "You sick! Fucked up son of a bitch! Who gave you the right to play God?!" She screamed. Kaidan was too morbidly fascinated in the footage to have noticed Shepard was trembling with rage, now he looked at her he wondered for a moment if she was going to kill Leng.
Leng coughed on his hands and knees clearly taken by surprise at Shepards punch, he spat and blood hit the hospital white tile beneath him. He chuckled and looked up at her as his tongue darted out to taste the blood on his cut lip, "Not playing God, just trying to correct a mistake that should have never happened." He stated and went to stand albeit wobblily on his feet, "Shall we finish?" he asked and Jane snarled at him which Leng took as a yes hitting the play button.
"Project Jane Day 14. Janes under gone multiple surgeries and will probably have a few more to go before we're fully out of the woods. Her wounds are as follows, broken and shattered both femurs, her tibia and fibula on both legs broken, left leg had the fibula removed and she's been given a replacement fibula. Her forearm was snapped and had pushed through the skin, both wrists broken surprising no fingers broken. Skull cracked at the base and above left eye socket, reconstruction needed. Her eyes have suffered some form of burns and the retinas are destroyed so those are needing to be replaced. Internally she had multiple ruptures and was bleeding severely on the inside, her stomach had ruptured and spilt acids over her intestines fusing them together…" Kai finished reading from the list before looking back up to the camera, "If Miranda Lawson hadn't installed the fail-safe I have no doubt in my mind Jane would have died within minutes, if not seconds of whatever happened after she activated the crucible. Remarkably Ettlemen says some of the injuries were incurred a while prior to the others, meaning Jane completed her mission despite having been in agony. Admirable. The Illusive man never really stood a chance."
"Jane," Garrus breathed and placed and hand on her trembling shoulders. Kaidan felt his stomach churning at hearing the list and felt close to throwing up, the pain she would have been in and yet she still did it, she still saved the whole galaxy and Kaidan couldn't stop the flash of adoration that flickered in his chest, a small candal still burning for her.
"I'm fine, lets-just, lets just finish this up and be done." She said without emotion which chilled Kaidan to the bone. Kai Leng nodded before pressing another button on the screen and going to footage of a room with a medical bed, monitors and Jane lying motionlessly in the bed. The top left of the screen read "Project Jane day 26"
The monitors on the screen started beeping suddenly and Jane woke up with a blood curling scream, she began to writhe around on the bed in pain before convulsing, foam pouring out from her mouth. A doctor with short brown locks ran in and administered something which stilled Jane and shortly after Kai Leng came into shot,
"What was that?!" Leng roared as he let the doctor flutter around Shepard, "Ettlemen!" he yelled again finally gaining the other mans attention.
"Her brain isn't responding to the blocker I placed to stop her memories. We're going to have to find another way till her body is back up to condition. Doing this now risks her life and we've worked too hard keeping her alive for that to happen." Ettlemen argued as he started prepping for surgery rapidly,
"Have you got another plan on how we're going to block them?" Kai insisted, a medical assistant darted in with scrubs to help wheel Jane out,
"I have an idea in the pipeline yes but for now we really need to get her into surgery." He said hurriedly.
The footage changed and now Jane was standing and pacing back and forth in the same room. Top left corner read "Project Jane Day 72." Kai Lend walked into the room and Shepard froze on the screen before turning to him,
"I'm going to kill you for this, when I am able I will kill you, slowly and watch you scream." Jane seethed as Leng stood calmly in front of her "where are my crew! Where are they all! God help you Leng if you've harmed them!" She screamed and then her body started to convulse again. When she collapsed to the floor Leng moved over her form and injected something blue into her neck. He stroked her hair fondly despite her previous words then scooped her up and laid her into the bed, pulling back the sheet and pulling it over her.
"It'll all be over with soon Jane, then you won't remember all the pain." He breathed before laying a kiss on her forehead.
Kaidan sent an uncomfortable gaze to Leng who just stood to the side watching unfazed, the atmosphere in the room was growing with every second a recording played.
"Project Jane, Day 112…Jane is 16 weeks pregnant. The DNA results show It contains Turian DNA." Kai paused on the footage, his ocular enhancements were now removed and he seemed to have bruising around his eyes and temples, he breathed in deeply before looking back to the camera "Ironically that's how this started with her being assaulted by a Turian all those years ago, and now she's pregnant with one. Decisions to terminate the child is being considered, however Doctor Ettlemen is adamant we keep it for scientific value…I'm not convinced. Oh and Ettlemen also removed my ocular implants, not going to remember me with them on are you Jane."
All heads turned to glare heatedly with hatred at the man in the room and he shrugged unbothered, "I'm finding it really, really hard not to shoot you right now." Garrus muttered darkly and Jane nodded with him in agreement. Leng ignored them and played the next clip,
"Project Jane Day 265. Jane's due date is drawing near, the memory blocking drug is taking effect though I do wonder sometimes its reliability. This morning she looked a bit dazed and insisted on going for a walk by herself. I've sent one of my men to accompany her all the same, as a precaution. Other than that the surgery to repair her brain damage 250 days ago appears to have been successful, she remembers who I am and are time together but doesn't remember anything past the attack. I asked Doctor Ettlemen how the memory blocking drug managed to allow some select memories through but halted others. The best explanation he could give was when Jane underwent surgery he sent electromagnetic pulses along the damaged brain tissue and left markers that the drug knows to avoid…Like blocks in a road, it can't go through them so theses memories stay in tact.-" Kai leng's omni-tool pinged and his posture went tense. "Well it would seem my suspicions on the drug blockers reliability were correct. Adams the man I sent with Jane has been found with his throat slit…" he sucked in a breath and pinched the bridge of his nose before chuckling with genuine humour. "Almost 38 weeks pregnant and you managed to take down one of my men…you never stop impressing me Jane."
"And then you walked 5 miles and brought yourself into early labour." Leng had the stupidity of admonishing Shepard even though his lip was now slightly puffy from her punch earlier. Kaidan felt his trigger finger itching and wanted nothing more than to shoot the man, these videos if anything made Kai Leng look more and more unstable after each one. The man seemed to have an obsession with maintaining his past relationship with Shepard even though they had drifted down completely opposite paths.
"Shut up and play the next clip." Shepard said softly her voice trembling every so slightly, Garrus still a solid presence at her side.
The next clip showed Doctor Ettlemen and Kai Leng frowned at the image before intrigue came over his face,
"Project Jane, its been one year since we started this project and we became a splinter group, away from Cerberus and the Illusive man's unrealistic goals. I followed Kai Leng into this willingly my previous experience on Project Lazarus helped especially as Miranda Lawson planted the critical failure chip I gave her. The silly bitch seriously thinks no one will cross her, she truly did live in the Illusive mans shadow. This Project showed such promise and it only got better when we found out Jane was pregnant with a hybrid. However my research has slowed, now Jane remembers him and nothing else he's content to play happy families with the woman. He forgets we originally went in this with the aim of replicating Shepard, she is everything that is great about humanity save her sickening outlook on equality for all…I've been made away that the Normanday SR-2 are due to arrive above Aeia's orbit in the next hour or so. I can't think of a more convenient situation occurring ever again, I'm going to restart Project Jane, I created her last clone for parts only…this time I'll create an army. If you see this Leng I'm sorry but you let your emotions get in the way, maybe I'll clone one just for myself and see what all the fuss is about." Ettlemen sent a wink towards the screen before cutting it of.
"Fuck!" Kaidan mumbled as the screen went black and everyone just stared for a moment in disbelief. He remembered vividly how difficult it had been to take down Shepards clone in the past and this guy was planning on creating an army that would bend to his will, that was too scary to think about.
The sound of glass smashing startled him and he was shocked to see Kai Leng had thrown a chair and biotically pushed it into the surgical room, shattering the window into millions of pieces. "How dare he! The arrogant little bastard I'll gut him! How could he betray me like this!" Leng seethed his biotics tingling over his flesh as he began to pace. Jane stormed forward to him and he looked up immediately trying to calm himself at the look of fury on her face,
"How could he betray you like this!?" she hissed "What about you betraying me like this!" she shouted her voice booming with the aura of commander Shepard, demanding respect be given.
Her words confused Kaidan but she began to elaborate, "We grew up together! We had nothing but each other! And instead of trying to speak to me or make everything alright you turned into a miserable petty bastard who blamed every alien for his failings." She yelled in his face and Kaidan was surprised to see Leng allowing it. "You turned into my enemy when you could have been by me this whole time. You did this to yourself. And instead of making your bed and lying in it you decided to drag me into your mess with you." Jane stopped to get air and threw her hands into her hair, tugging it in frustration. "I have sacrificed my life to end the Reapers, metaphorically speaking and physically. I didn't get to just die because your fucked up organisation didn't believe in letting the dead rest! I was brought back to life to fight the Collectors which I did without a complaint and I was lucky enough to find happiness in all that darkness and fall in love with my best friend! And despite all the odds I managed to do it!" Shepard paused again and took a shuddering breath her words becoming quiet now. "my memories are coming back to me, slowly but surely your drug is waring off. But one of the first things I remember isn't the pain, or the fear at impossible odds." She looked back at Kaidan, Liara and stopped on Garrus with a smile, small tears falling down her cheeks. "it was of the people I loved."
Kaidan looked over her shoulder at Leng to find his face was ashen and almost felt floored at the look on the deadly assassins face. Shepard began to walk away when he grabbed her wrist and his brows furrowed in doubt,
"I did all this because I love you, I didn't want you to remember the pain of the last 16 year-" He started but Jane twisted her wrist out of his hand and shoved him away from her with a wordless cry. She kept shoving him releasing her anger, sorrow and hurt into each action before finally he stumbled to the floor looking up at her. Her face contorted with heartbreak as she jabbed a finger down at him,
"You don't know what love is Kai, what you have for me is an obsession." She snarled her words seeming to have the effect of a knife as Kai's breath hitched. She began to walk away but he called after her,
"Let me make it right, let me come with you!" he shouted. She paused and from his view point Kaidan could see her tear stained face looked to be mulling over the idea. Garrus grabbed her elbow and leant down into her ear,
"Jane let me put a bullet in him now, save us all the trouble later." Garrus whispered and even though Kaidan was inclined to agree with the man it was a very black or white view on things. Jane looked up at him and clearly disapproved of the idea as she shook him off her arm and turned her head in Kai Lengs direction, not making contact as she called over to him.
"You'll have a curfew and at night you'll be locked into your quarters. Should anyone on the ship have any reason to doubt you are being anything less than one hundred percent honest towards our crew then I give them permission to shoot you first and ask questions later…so best give them no reason to ask any questions later." She informed him, her voice so powerful compared to the unsure look on her features. Kai Leng quickly nodded his acceptance of her rules and stood swiftly a few meters behind them.
When they were finally at the shuttle after Liara had gathered what intel she could from the base, Kaidan watch Shepard pull Garrus to the side and cup his scarred mandiable.
"You have to ask question first then shoot later…otherwise the moment we step foot back on the Normandy they'll be a smoking hole in the back of his head." She breathed and chuckled softly when he didn't try to deny she was right. Both men watched her board the shuttle and sit opposite Kai Leng,
"I loath that man." Garrus growled his body rumbling next to kaidan who nodded emphatically,
"Me too man, me too."