May 12th 2184 CE 18:23

Garrus quickly put his detective skills to work. This girl was clever, that much was certain. She wouldn't just pick a random location and flee. And if her leg was a bad as the doc implied, she'd probably look for a place to lay low. After thirty minutes of searching, a stack of crates leading up to some long forgotten construction on the catwalks caught his eye. He ordered the rest of his team to continue search efforts on the ground before scaling the freight.

It wasn't long before he came across a small figure huddled in the corner. His scanner identified her almost instantly. 'MATCH. Close Relative of Commander Shepard' blinked across the HUD.

He radioed the rest of the team to call off the hunt. "Found her. Gozu District West Side by the burned down pizzeria on the catwalks. Everyone stay back for now. I don't want to spook her."

"Doesn't have translator Archangel." Mordin's voice crackled over the com.

"Crap. Do we even know what she speaks?"

"Should be able to understand her. Have sub-dermal implant yes? But she will not comprehend you."

"See, now, this is why you creep everyone out doc. How do you even know..."

Yet, before Garrus could finish, Jane was on her feet, pointing a sub-machine gun directly at him. She was dressed in a matching pair of navy-blue sweats. From beneath the hood, two large almond-shaped eyes with a familiar hint of green glared at him. Her breathing was even, controlled, despite the presence of a perceived threat.

"Gonna have to go guys." He chuckled. "Looks like she stole one of your mech's guns doc."

Carefully, he drew his hands up, and cleared his throat in an effort to muster as gentle a voice as such a long, chaotic day would allow. "Hey there, I uhh… I'm here to help you." Hopefully the message of 'I come in peace translated.'

However, she simply continued scowling at him, her fragile, thin arm trembled in an effort to hold up the gun. What did Shepard do when Talitha was threatening to start a shootout? Cautiously approached while talking in a calming matter. Would that even work if she didn't understand a word he was saying?

He slowly put one foot in front of the other exaggerating the movement as much as possible. "Right. So, I'm hoping you'll come with me." However, the motion didn't earn him any points. She raised the pistol to his head and narrowed her eyes. He quickly backed off and she relaxed the weapon.

Ending this standoff could be simple. Leaping forward and snatching a gun from untrained hands would be child's play. However, it'd also terrify her. And the sight of the small human desperately struggling to maintain balance softened him. She had her left arm looped around the scaffolding, using it to steady herself as the right hand kept him at gun point. Those angry, green eyes never drifting from his position.

"Nalah, could you come up here? I have an idea. Krul, you're a part of this too."

"How so? Doubt she wants to see another batarian right now. And we may not speak the same dialect. There are three major languages spoken on Kar'Shan. No idea which region she's from."

"You'll be staying down there, out of sight. I'm going to keep my com open however. If we can get her to talk, could you identify the language? Assuming it's batarian?"

"I see where this is going. You want me to send a dialect-specific translator program to your omni-tools. Alright. Switching off my translator."

As Garrus suspected, the moment Nalah arrived, Jane's eyes went wide with curiosity. Here, standing beside him, was a well-kept, free human woman. He could only imagine how long it'd been since she'd seen something like that. Her eyes flicked over Nalah's gray, flowing hair as she stared open-mouthed at the woman's neatly pressed nurses' uniform. Garrus silently thanked the spirits, he didn't even believe in, that at least one of them didn't look like they had just stepped out of a meat grinder. He nudged Nalah in encouragement and she immediately took the cue.

Placing both hands in front of her, Nalah stepped forward. "Hi there." Jane kept the pistol aimed at him. "We're here to help. Maybe you want to put that down." Seeing the lack of understanding in Jane's eyes, she exchanged a worried look with Garrus. "I don't think we're making any progress."

"Try dropping her name. We just need a few words, a sentence, and Krul can send us that program."

Nalah obliged, taking another modest step forward. "Jane."

Now that grabbed her attention. Jane's arm shook so violently, the gun nearly clattered to the ground. And Garrus was able to spot, much to his relief, that the safety was still on. She must not have much experience with firearms, which was surprising. The girl certainly knew how to take aim. "How… how do you know that name?" Her voice was so soft, so different from her brother's.

"Sweetie, we're just trying…."

"Don't understand you." Jane was gripping the gun with renewed purpose, glaring directly at Garrus. It was enough to make him wonder just how much of the fight she had witnessed back on the Ubralle.

Krul's voice jolted him from his thoughts. "Interesting. She's speaking Rishini. It's an old dialect. Must be from the Totin region. Sending it to your omni-tools now. And Castor?"

"Received and installing. What's up?"

"Do you still need me? I'm wiped."

"You're all off duty. Nalah and I can take it from here."

He excitedly lifted the omni-tool in front of him. Finally, they were about to make some progress. "Hey there. Can you understand me?" By the way Jane stiffened, he guessed the answer was yes. "We're just trying to help you. That attack on your ship wasn't an attack, it was a rescue."

Jane snorted derisively, the former softness in her tone had fled. "Liar." Well, that wasn't a great sign. "Explain how you know that name."

"Sweetie, there will be time enough for all that." Nalah interjected. "Look, I'm a nurse and that leg of yours is pretty busted up. The longer you wait to splint it, the worse it's going to be. Why don't you let us help?"

Keeping the pistol trained on Garrus, Jane nodded towards him "Says the group who drugged me. Like hell I'm going to auction. Why don't you just leave me the fuck alone? You have the others. Ain't that enough creds for you greedy bastards?"

Crap.

"Sorry about that. We uhh… we were just trying to get you out of the duct." Garrus quickly apologized.

"Not buying it. Seriously, GO."

"Sweetheart, do we look like slavers to you? I'm human, same as you. Do you really think I'll drag you to the slave pens?" Nalah piped in.

"Knew an asari bitch that tagged and collared her own. I don't give a flying fuck that you're human."

Double crap.

Not knowing what else to do, Garrus hastily spoke up. "I served with your brother." He didn't want to tell her about Shepard like this, but if there was an alternate way to convince her to stand down, he couldn't see it.

"Only brother I ever had is dead. Has been for a long time."

"No. He made it off of Mindoir."

Upon hearing the colony's name, her eyes snapped up and met his gaze for the first time. "No way. I saw him die. Those batarians beat him to death. He.. he wasn't moving..."

Garrus took a step forward with every carefully crafted sentence. "He survived. And he never stopped looking for you." She was breathing faster now, absorbing his words. "He told me about you. Said you loved animals. How you always wanted a dog but your mom wouldn't let you have one. That was until you found a mutt in an irrigation ditch and nursed it back to health. Spirits even after all those years, he was still puzzled how such a small girl hid an enormous dog under her bed."

"Wilkie." She whispered, lost in another world. "The same way I harvested carrots… carried him home with the blue the… my…. biotics."

"Yeah big black, mangy thing by his description. I don't know what 'mangy' means but it seemed to leave a distaste in his mouth." He was mere inches from her now.

Trembling from head to toe, Jane slid to the floor, the gun forgotten by her side. "Jimmy's... Jimmy's alive?" She looked up at him, eyes wide, bright, and full of hope.

Garrus knelt down so they were eye-level, knowing he was about to crush that unbridled optimism as quickly as it had blossomed. "I'm sorry Jane. He passed a few months ago. Finding you, well, it's been a personal mission of mine. He was a good friend and I want to see his sister safe."

The girl made a broken sound and clenched her fists, staring bleakly at the floor. "But it's over? It's… it's really over?"

"It's over. You're free. I promise."

She sobbed into her hands, whether from relief or grief Garrus hadn't the faintest clue. Nalah scurried to her side and gingerly enveloped the small figure in a blanket, whispering into her ear. Jane had completely let her guard down, allowing the older woman to embrace her. For awhile, the two sat in silence with Nalah holding onto the young ex-slave, gently rocking them from side to side.

After confiscating the gun, Garrus withdrew. He busied himself arranging his climbing gear to accommodate a small human with a broken leg. While they could follow the crates down, something told him it'd be a painful journey for the girl. Plus, Jane seemed nervous around him. And Nalah instinctually knew how to handle the situation, she was a mother afterall. He quickly shook the thought from his mind. At the very least, this would give them a bit of time without a giant turian towering overhead.

He steadied the rope, and called back to them. "Whenever you ladies are ready, I can lower you from here. It should be easier for her leg this way."

Nalah descended first. But not before assuring Jane she'd be waiting for her right beneath her feet. As Garrus gradually lowered Nalah, he could feel Jane struggling to remain upright beside him. "You can grab onto my arm for support." He felt her hesitate for a moment, then the gentle pressure of two small hands against his armor.

Her voice, barely a whisper beside him. "Thanks."

"Your brother always had my back Jane. I'll do the same for you. You can count on it."


Notes: So I was rummaging around my collection of documents and stumbled on this fic's original title. I scrapped it when I remembered that Javick's DLC is named From Ashes. Now, however, I simply don't care. It fits better than the other titles.