Jane
She woke in the middle of the night to an empty room and a general feeling of malaise, alerting her that something was … off.
Muffled voices emanated from the door. Human. Emotional. Jim. She slipped from the covers and padded toward the sound.
"You can't ask me that Anderson. You can't ask me to bring the sister I just got back through the Omega-4 Relay."
"From everything I've heard about her, she can handle it."
"You yourself said no ship has ever passed through and returned. That's as high risk as it gets." There was a sound of protest from the old man, followed by Jim's continued ranting. "Uh huh. Jane doesn't have genetic mods. Lower lung capacity. Slower running. And you haven't seen how tiny she is."
"She survived on Tuchanka! With krogan!"
"Wrex wouldn't have let her die."
"You talk to Vakarian?"
Jim's response was low, she didn't catch it.
"Leave her on the ship then! I'm just saying, if something makes it passed your line, she's far from helpless. You don't know what I've been dealing with on the Citadel."
"No damn way!" Jim's voice climbed, he was yelling. "I watched a video of this… this piece of shit Sargent drag the body of a dead child out in front of her, and say, 'this is what the resistance does. This is why you must fight these rebels.' Jane was ten. We're talking about someone who was manipulated into fighting, carved up like a Christmas turkey, and forced to butcher humans until she became so frightened of herself that she rejected her own humanity. And that was before she was sold to a brothel. I don't know, and I don't care what her abilities are, I will not perpetuate what she's been through."
"And I don't have time!"
"She has a friend, a woman who helped her before, I'm sure she'd look in on her. And Jane will probably spend a lot of time at Huerta. Garrus's surgery is in a couple days."
"Have her stay with the woman then."
"You told me yourself that the Citadel is crawling with indoctrinated agents."
"Crawling's an exaggeration."
"Either way, they're after both of us. Your place has security."
"All I can offer is to send a few guards to this woman's place. You want her safe? Keep her away from me."
Jim's response was muffled, as if he stepped further from the door. She pressed her ear to the cool metal. Fairs fair, he was spying on her after all. Still, she couldn't catch what he said, only the old man's voice came through. "And you're taking Vega."
"That walking disciplinary issue?" Jim's voice raised another octave.
"May he give you half the shit you gave me."
"I wasn't that bad!"
"No, you were worse."
Heavy footfalls. The ding of the elevator. The second she heard the door close, she turned to EDI and asked what the Omega-4 Relay was.
"A mass effect relay located in the Omega Nebula." The voice chimed.
"What's so special about it? And why is Jim going there?"
"Those are mission parameters I am under orders not to discuss."
"I thought you were supposed to help me." She placed the desk chair on top of the mattress, braced against the ceiling to steady it, then began fiddling with the grating on the air vent.
The voice answered, "I don't see how that helps you," right as she managed to unscrew the first bolt. Her fingers stung with the effort, she clenched the knuckle between her teeth for a moment, then hoisted herself into the duct.
It wasn't hard to find the meeting. All she had to do was crawl toward the commotion, everyone was gathered - the crew and the squad – in the com room. The table had been moved and the chairs encircled the speaker at the center, some weird alien she had never seen before, not that that meant much – after all she just encountered two new species yesterday. He had four eyes though, and definitely wasn't batarian.
He spoke about his species's annihilation with an eclectic, clipped drawl. How they built a magnificent space station – their greatest achievement – in an effort to hide, yet were discovered and suffered a fate worse than destruction. His people were indoctrinated, forced to do the Reaper's bidding. Their own young were horrifically altered, transformed into seeker swarms capable of immobilizing entire populations in minutes. Planet by planet, this force harvested his kind. Some were mutated into soldiers, others were melted into paste and funneled into Reaper embryos. "It's how they reproduce," the creature said calmly, paying no mind to the horror crashing through the crew. "And it's what they're doing with the humans. They're being harvested ahead of time."
To her, it just sounded like sophisticated chipping. Nothing worse than what she'd already seen. But many of the crew fidgeted, trembled, several cried out in despair. Throaty, human sounds.
Jim's voice boomed with command, they fell silent, and he gave them a way out. Said the mission was volunteer only. Over half the crew left, one sobbed and ran. How pathetic they were, weakly unraveling in a breeze.
When her gaze turned to Garrus, she warmed. There he was, the steel predator, his rigid lines unyielding. He spoke evenly without so much as a quiver, his only thought to his men, and a debt he owed Vortash. "I have some unfinished business, but after that, I'm with you regardless." Although, she found no comfort in the thought of him running into the unknown with ten ghosts at his heel.
Tali volunteered as well, and her heart sank at the sight. The quarian was young, naive, not to mention clumsy. If anyone should stay behind, it was her.
A human with dark hair and piercing blue eyes didn't hesitate when she dedicated herself to the mission either.
The rest all had contingencies – money, a gray box, their own unfinished business. They spoke for awhile about their plans, technical things she didn't understand like kinetic shielding and ablative armor for the Normandy. Eventually all but Garrus, Jim, and the tattooed merc left. And the ghosts returned.
The air grew tense, a foreboding darkness choked out the atmosphere. How strange that she didn't have the same inkling earlier, when that alien spoke of extinction and a war to end all wars.
"I found him." Garrus's subvocals cut through the tension. "I found that piece of shit."
"Sidonis?" Jim asked.
A rasping breath. "Yeah."
She pressed her face against the vent. From this angle, all she could see was his fringe, the tension in his shoulders as he clenched his fists. "He's hiding out on the Citadel. Harkin's running a fake biometric business under the moniker Fade. I'm sure he's the one who helped Sidonis disappear."
"Harkin? Guess he finally went completely bad."
"I should just shoot him on principle. But I need him alive."
"You've got surgery in, what, two days? And you're hooked up to a monitor right now."
With a stab of guilt, she realized she forgot to meet up with him last night after his appointment.
"And the second I'm able to walk, I'm heading to Chora's Den and… persuading Harkin into reappearing Sidonis." He nodded towards Zaeed. "That's also why you're here. He hired the Blue Suns as protection. I want to know how much of a problem that's going to be."
The merc grunted, "sure," with his feet stretched out before him, arms crossed, as he leaned back in the chair.
Jim's voice dropped. "Still planning on killing Sidonis when you find him?"
"Yeah. It'll be quick and painless unlike everyone he betrayed."
"There's a fine line between justice and brutality. And it's not like you to blur the difference."
Garrus lunged forward in his seat, teeth flashing under the fluorescent light. "You of all people defending this guy? You're the one who taught me killing was the answer!"
"Comparing Sidonis to that lunatic Hart is like comparing apples and oranges."
"Yeah. That didn't translate."
"It means the situations couldn't be more different. Hart was a menace to society. You're talking about killing some poor schmuck the gangs probably picked up off the street, and tortured into obedience. C'mon, you know how they work."
"He had weeks Shepard! Weeks! He could've come to us, told us what happened, confessed about being Tarak's source. My men? They would've protected him regardless. That's what he took from the world." His one working mandible was clenched to his face, vibrating with tension. "Ten good men dead because of him! Why should he go on living while they lie in unmarked graves?" His words slowed to a deliberate, deadly pace. "This piece of shit, without a word of warning, cleared out his accounts and ran. He prepared. My men will be avenged, if it's the last thing I do."
Things were quiet for a moment, until Jim sighed, "alright, I can tell you've dug in your heels."
"Thank you Shepard I appreciate you taking the time to help me. I should be out of the hospital in a week, tops, then we find this bastard."
Garrus abruptly stood, left. She spotted a black box clipped to his hip, the bulge under his shirt, a halter monitor if she wasn't mistaken. The door hissed shut. His boots clomped all the way to the elevator.
"You really gonna let him kill the guy?" Zaeed interrupted the silence.
"Yes. I may not agree, but Garrus and I have a relationship built on respect and boundaries. I've said my piece, what he does with it is up to him."
"And here I thought you got a hard-on at the mere thought of gettin' between a man and his target. Where were my respect and boundaries when I had a man in need of dyin'?"
"Uh huh. You lied to me Zaeed. You never mentioned Santiago until we're knee deep in the shit. Had I known he was the goal, we would've approached from the North, not the South, and he'd be eating dirt right now."
Jane's interest dwindled with Garrus's retreat, so she crawled back to the cabin, carefully hoisting herself through the ducts to the top level, mindful of every sound. The last thing thing she wanted was to be discovered. Jim was intent on keeping her in the dark, and this might be her only way to stay in the know.
Jim returned an hour later and explained that she'd be staying on the Citadel for the time being. She didn't argue. After all, Garrus would be there and he needed her. But, one way or another, she was going on Jim's mission, he just didn't know it yet.
Following Evening
Nalah was thrilled to see her. They were on the stoop less than a second, before the door swung open and she threw her arms around her. Jane did her best to return it, causing the woman to sob into her shoulder. Her hair was straight and frizzy, no longer neatly done up the way she remembered. When she broke from the hug, her fingers trailed down her arms, clasped her hands.
"Let me look at you," she said with a laugh. "My, you look so healthy, I guess the krogan were good for you."
She lead them – Jane, Jim, and Tali – down a narrow hallway with white, empty walls into the bulk of the apartment. To the left was a modest living area, piled high with boxes. Jane noted paneling leaning against the wall and marked with ink, things like Emmet age 11 and Dot age 9 traveled up the wood. Bits of plaster stuck to the back, as if it'd been ripped right off the wall. To the right, was a kitchen in a state of disarray. Dirty dishes covered every inch of the counters, giving off a dilapidated, musty vibe.
"Pardon the mess… I.. didn't have time to-"
"It's fine Nalah." Jane squeezed her hand.
"There's only one bedroom, but the sofa pulls out."
"I've been on a dirt floor the past year or so. I'm sure it's wonderful."
Nalah's eyes darted behind her. Immediately, Jane knew who she was hoping to see. "I'm sorry… Garrus isn't here. I'll be visiting him at Huerta tomorrow, before his surgery, maybe…"
"No. He's… it's… he's not ready, and I'd rather he go into surgery with a clear head."
A stillness settled over them, Tali interrupted before it became awkward, greeting Nalah warmly. The older woman remembered her and returned the kindness with a hug. When Jim's turn rolled around, however, things were a bit stiff. Jane had the distinct feeling Nalah didn't like him much, despite the gushing introduction she gave.
But Tali was intent on helping her unpack, and she was quickly ushered into the living room while the awkward sounds of Nalah and Jim faded into the background. "Would you like anything? I have…. water… oh and some tea. I'll put a kettle on."
"Thank you ma'am. Anything's fine, I'm not picky."
Jane had all of three things to unpack, her egg, a ratty undersuit, and a nathak skull. Urz was staying at a lavish kennel a few blocks away, as varren were heavily restricted on the Citadel. So they finished within minutes.
"What are you planning to do with your hair?" Tali interrupted randomly.
"My… hair? You mean the mats? Cut it probably."
"No!" She gasped. "I looked up some videos, and I think I can untangle it."
Jane's eyebrows climbed infinitesimally.
"It's so beautiful! You can't cut it! You have no idea how much I wish I had tendrils, that's… like quarian hair I suppose. Let me live vicariously through you! Please?"
"Knock yourself out," she shrugged and followed Tali to the bathroom. The girl unloaded an entire case of hair products and a metal comb. "You… uh… came planned I take it?"
"Miranda helped me pick the stuff out. Oh! You need a something to sit on!"
She raced out, returned with a kitchen chair, and had her plop down in front of the mirror. Unpracticed fingers grabbed at the first mat, dug the comb into the bottom, while making rough jerking motions downward.
Pain wasn't exactly unpleasant for her, so Jane watched with a placid amusement, stifling giggles as Tali cursed, apologized, and sprayed heaps of slick detangler on her frayed ends.
John
The second Jane and Tali left, John could tell something was about to happen. He felt as though he were in an interrogation room. Nalah was pouring them some tea, yet despite the hospitality, the tension was palpable. When she settled across from him at the kitchen table, a cold smile rose on her lips. "I've been meaning to talk with you."
"Of course." He cleared his throat. "I just want to say how grateful I am for what you did – nursing Jane back to health, looking out for her."
"Mm," she sipped her tea, "and now you're back… and with Cerberus."
Oh shit. "Right, about that, they're funding my mission due to… well, the Alliance is still getting back on its feet after the battle for the Citadel." He rambled, thrown off kilter by her stare. "I'm not really with them, well I am but I'm not…"
The porcelain cup clattered as she roughly dropped it to the plate. "I made some calls and, as it turns out, using spectre authority to supersede civil matters isn't allowed. I'm back on as executor of Jane's account, and no, the bank won't make that mistake again. I made sure of it."
"Uh…"
"I don't know you."
"I'm her brother." He said stupidly.
"Who just walked back into her life, completely out of the blue. Jane was found two years ago. And you were nowhere to be seen." Her eyes narrowed to slits. "So you and I are going to have a conversation. And then I'll decide what your involvement with my daughter is going to be."
That similar protectiveness he had witnessed in Tali and Garrus reared its head, only with ten times the potency, of course that was the issue. He chuckled warmly, and treated her as if she were family, sharing everything – spare the Reapers and his new, prothean counterpart – in an effort to put her at ease. From Mindoir, to his joining the Alliance, his hopeless search for Jane, even the attack over Alchera, how he was comatose for two years, to waking up in Cerberus, to the fact that Anderson was the one directing this mission regardless of the funding, and that it was critical to the survival of human colonies. He shared it all, disarming her entirely.
Tali
Tali pressed gently on the back of Jane's head, giving her better access to a particularly stubborn mat. The comb caught, she sprayed more product on it and tugged again and again in short, choppy movements, Shepard's words from the previous night cascading through her mind.
She found him in gallery, one arm leaning against the glass, his forehead resting on it, the other hand clasped something at his hip. He gazed absently at the docking bay as if it were the vast expanse of space.
"Shepard?" Her voice was tentative.
Silence.
"I know when something's…"
"I can't leave," he cut her off. "Cerberus… I can't leave." Immediately, she recognized the data-pad he waved in the air as the one she nabbed from the Minute Man Station. "What's on this? It's disgusting. Unforgivable. You know Cerberus has videos of Jane? From when she was a child. They documented what the squints did to her. Hell, they have their own Datmar. People like that need to be turned into a crater, and yet, here I am about to foster an alliance between them and Anderson." Air hissed between his teeth as he sucked in a breath. "They stood by and watched as my nine year old sister was tortured. They learned from it. That's who I'm in bed with."
Tali took a step forward. "Leave."
A bitter laugh. "Can't."
"You said that, and I still say fuck those bosh'tets and leave."
Silence.
"Shepard, what's going on?"
His jaw flinched, and the rigid outline of someone clenching their teeth emerged. There was a coldness, an anger, there that she hadn't seen since their hunt for Saren.
"I think we both can agree… we passed the line between subordinate and commander a long time ago. You can talk to me like a friend, not someone who's morale you need to uplift. I won't break."
He ran a hand over his face. Grimaced. "Our plan… just got a whole lot more desperate."
Tali, tugged, yanked, and unleashed a library of quarian curses. Trying just as hard to untangle John's words – the revelation of how powerful the Reapers were, their role in galactic evolution – as the enmeshed strands before her. We'll be like children, throwing rocks at gods.
She grabbed the scissors, some particularly nasty knots had to be cut and trimmed, albeit carefully, she wanted to preserve as much hair as possible.
It took two hours, but she got it done. Jane was thrilled with the results, even if they were semi-hidden, clumped together under layers of petroleum jelly and hair product.
While Jane hopped in the shower, Tali cleaned up the mess they made and brought her a change of clothes – baggy Alliance fatigues – the only thing she owned that came close to fitting. She was doing her best to treat Jane as a sister, as John was about to be thrust, front and center, into a war against the Reapers, and he remained convinced that Jane was in some sort of peril, if not physically, then from unseen mental scars.
I may not be able to do much, she thought to herself, but I can try to give him some peace of mind.
They returned to the kitchen to find John and Nalah talking in hushed tones, with Nalah's delicate hand covering the commander's. The chatter halted with their presence. Her ears didn't catch what they were saying, before the intrusion, but her translator read out suggested that the topic at hand was Mindoir and Jane.
Immediately, Jane busied herself with cleaning the kitchen, ignoring Nalah's embarrassed protests, while John put in an order for something called "Chinese food."
"Hon, can we get you something?" Nalah tapped her elbow.
"Oh, I'm fine. I have nutrient paste."
"That's a bit unfair."
Tali waved a hand in a placating motion. "Better safe than sorry."
She tried to join the siblings' cleaning efforts, but the trio would have none of it. So she wound up at the kitchen table chatting with Nalah until the food arrived.
It was one of the most memorable evenings of her life. She spent most of it watching John and Jane, so carefree, laughing, even a little good-natured teasing blossomed between them. All four of them sprawled out on the living room floor, with the humans tasting the various dishes, sharing food. "Oh the egg rolls are amazing, you've gotta try them."
Jane, true to her ravenous nature, devoured everything that found its way onto her plate. Apparently take out wasn't a thing on Omega, and whatever this was was the best invention ever. So much better than roasted nathak, she exclaimed. Shepard laughed at her stomach's capacity, asked where she put it all.
When would they have another opportunity like this? Tomorrow morning, Shepard would be shipping out, building a team to head through the Omega-4 relay – his most dangerous undertaking yet.
She wanted to capture the atmosphere in the apartment, the love, and seal it in a glass jar, preserving it forever.
A/N: There is a photo realistic portrait of Jane posted on AO3. It's Chapter 131 there. Enjoy. :)
