Sorry for the double notification, Fanfiction seemed to mess up on uploading this chapter

A/N: Thanks for the favourites, follows and reviews. I've been trying to hit that 5000 word mark for the chapters but not this time, only 400 words off which is actually quite good for me, it is always interesting to read people's reviews to see what they think of a chapter and what they assume will come next. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Thanks to my mate Bromine for Beta Reading through last chapter and this chapter.

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Vanguard and Protector

Chapter 2: Jane and Henry

"You know...I'm pretty sure I told you not to hang out with these sort of people." Henry said, dabbing a cloth on the left side of Jane's head. He looked towards it and grimaced at the blood, he wasn't too good with blood and while this wasn't bad, it wasn't a pretty sight to look at.

Jane narrowed her eyes towards Henry, spitting down to the ground of the pavement in the alleyway. "Oh right, I should totally listen to my brother who has the social skills of an elcor." The sarcasm coming from her voice was quite thick, she winced once more as Henry dabbed the cloth onto the wound below her eye.

"Golly, you've learnt sarcasm. Congrats." Henry chuckled, a small smile on his face but didn't push any further, it had been obvious that she had cried but Jane was strong, not weak. The situation did look quite grim, especially since they were in the same class together.

From what Henry knew, Jane had a falling out with her "friend's group." and took quite a beating. Thankfully, he managed to look out for her and took her to a safe place, an alleyway. He was quite lucky to find her, the pricks had cornered her in a secluded area near the school and done quite a number. It was like six on one? He didn't know.

Both him and Jane were twelve years old now, nothing had particularly happened through the years. Henry had focused on learning Prothean Archaeology and had hit the surface on reading about weapon technology and testing. His parents did try to take him to a counselor or someone of the sorts about him staying alone, though he refused the right to talk to one. He said it before and he'll say it again, he ain't interested in befriending kids. Though, he couldn't exactly befriend any adults, the only person that he did really talk to was Joshua.

Josh got promoted to Sergeant after saving the ambassador he worked for from an attack. He was on tour from the Arcturus Station to the Citadel but they had somehow taken the wrong relay and got led into a trap. It caused a whole load of news and there was a purge throughout the ranks of the official security. Henry was sure that the ambassador was thinking of getting his own private security detail.

What if that ambassador was Udina? Damn it.

Josh, himself, has been doing quite well for his life. He had actually grown out his black hair and slicks it back. Only the sides of his head are shaved. He has continued to keep his routine of being fit and Henry was fairly sure he worked extra hard ever since he became Sergeant. Henry did joke around at times, especially calling him 'Sergeant Kelt!'

"Alright, let's get back home yeah?" Henry said, helping lift Jane up to her feet. He knew that she wasn't injured too badly but he wanted to make sure she got support. He wondered how this would affect her mentally, most definitely trust issues but what else?

"Yeah…" Jane muttered, reluctantly accepting the help given by Henry. They both slowly headed back to the apartment, avoiding the main street and after five minutes, they eventually got back. They took the elevator up to the fifth floor and entered the apartment.

"We're back." Henry said. He knew that their parents weren't in, his mother was still at the training bay like always while his father was stationed at a different place which was 'classified'. He had been away for six months now and since both Henry and Jane were older, Hannah could take care of them.

As they headed into the apartment, Josh looked towards them with his friendly smile and non-caring attitude. That completely changed when he saw the sight of Jane. He narrowed his eyes and immediately spoke up in a commanding voice.

"What happened?"

Henry looked towards Jane, her eyes were both looking between him, Josh and then the floor. It seemed like she wasn't going to speak up. Though Henry had read a sense of plead behind them, yeah, they weren't going to do this the easy way, the kid mentality. He eventually spoke up.

"Just a stray attack." Henry started, Jane immediately looked up at Henry, shock but also a sense of being thankful. "A stray dog, somehow left on a station, attacked her. Jane was lucky to get out with some scratches."

Josh looked disbelieving, he didn't say anything but gave in with a nod. "Well, I'll make sure to tell Arcturus Station security about this stray dog problem. You kids make sure you don't go running around and chasing it down. Now, Jane, get over here and I'll apply some medi-gel to you."

Henry let Jane head over towards Josh, he seemed to enable his omni-tool and scan over Jane. He seemed to apply the medi-gel over the wounds that Jane had received and left the bruises alone. It did make sense for Josh to have a medi-gel, they were usually used by the military and medics but rarely by any civilian sectors. It was lucky that they had a bodyguard who had all this gear.

Henry took his leave and headed into his room. Both his room and Jane's room got separated by a wall now. Their parents managed to convince the landowner of the apartment to make sure it was separated. It did make the room smaller but Henry thought it was well needed. Besides, he could actually customise his room. The walls were painted light blue, he had an N7 Marine poster behind his bed and a desk next to the side.

He laid down on his bed and took out his Omni-Tool, scanning through the inter- sorry, the extranet. He had actually bookmarked some interesting websites, he had the Systems Alliance Research website bookmarked, alongside with the Salarian and Asari ones.

They were thinking of creating a vessel focusing on the research cooperation between species, studying prothean technology, creation of new technology both military and civilian alike. Some companies are backing the project, such as Armax Arsenal and Hahne-Kedar

I wonder if the Asari will share their more "advanced" technology from the beacon on Thessia….no. They wouldn't do that. They are too greedy for a neutral state. Though, I wonder if I could introduce new ways for the weapons. Beam based weaponry could seriously help out but it would need to be produced at the right time to avoid criminal elements from getting their hands on it. I know we use heat-based weaponry but I'm sure that will change shortly after the first game.

Henry stopped his thought process for a moment. He knew that he wanted to go into that area of expertises but what about his family? Jane? They were all Alliance, Alliance Military. It is all they know for their life. His parents may be accepting, disappointed but accepting. His sister however? She's been really pro-alliance since she was born. She believes that both she and Henry will join up to the Alliance Military.

I haven't told anyone yet, besides I have a few more years - no need to tell them now. Best to keep them happy, and I'm sure Jane will be understanding when I'll tell her.

Henry looked towards the door as he heard two knocks, he called for the person to enter as he closed down his Omni-Tool. He saw Jane walk into the room, most of her cuts healed up by the Medi-Gel, only bruises were left.

"Seems like that Medi-Gel helped you quite a bit, I'm still amazed at how fast and efficient it works." Henry said, giving Jane a surprised look. To Henry, this would seem amazing considering how twenty-first century medicine was all that he knew of. To any-one else, they wouldn't bat an eye to it.

"Only you would be amazed." Jane lighty commented, though it didn't have any hostility behind it. "Thanks by the way. For not telling Josh, why though?"

"Who said I didn't tell Josh? I told the truth, you got attacked by a dog but it ran away- Ow!" Henry rubbed his right arm after Jane punched him, she also gave him a stern gaze. "Technically, they are dogs. In all honesty, try not to cause a big deal about this. Those kids do have the 'we have the power' parents and are spoiled brats."

Henry saw Jane nod as she accepted his explanation. She seemed to think more for the moment, opening her mouth and then closing it. Henry waited patiently for Jane to speak and knowing Jane, she wasn't afraid to speak her mind whenever it had no filter. Was he giving his sister too little credit? Nah.

"I have a plan." Jane finally said, looking Henry in the eyes. "And I need you to help me with it."

Henry looked amused, but didn't comment to allow for Jane to say what her plan is.

"I'm going to show those dogs what happens when they mess with a Shepard." She said venomously. "If you give me time, I can set up a plan, show it to you and then we strike."

Henry's amused face suddenly vanished. He was not expecting this, even from Jane, his sister of all people. There was no way he was going to go along with any plan she said or even help her make one. He gave a cold gaze to Jane, a frown on his face.

"You are joking. Firstly, me and you are only two people, I'm fairly sure we can't take a whole group of other kids." He stressed the kids, he wasn't too fond of fighting people mentally younger than him. "Secondly, revenge won't do nothing. We ain't gonna kill them - don't give me that look- and we've both watched those old movies about how revenge isn't the correct way or something along those lines."

"I can argue against those." Jane responded. Her voice was calculating, careful and understanding. What was she playing at? "We've been trained by our parents. You know, those combat lessons that you keep on arguing that you don't want to do. We can easily take them on, mom even says that I do a great job in close combat. To your other point, I'm not naive. Even if you think I am, this is more or less payback and to tell them to stay away. It isn't revenge. I don't care if you are gonna come with me or not, I'm going either way and I'm going either way and I'm pretty sure you don't want me to end up like this again."

Ah, I hadn't thought about that...hey! She is trying to make me sympathetic to her cause, but she does have a good point.

"And what if I tell Josh or our parents? You know they won't stand up to this." Henry asked.

It seems like Jane didn't think of it, and it showed when she winced and went quiet. She let out a small whisper. "Please Henry. At least just this once and I won't bother you about anything again."

"I…" He stopped. What was Henry supposed to do? Fuck. He hated these sort of decisions, especially since the logical decision is to not help Jane out and tell their parents, but the gut feeling is saying to help her out.

Henry made his decision. 'I hope I don't regret this.'

"I'll help you out. Just this once." Henry finally said. "Then you'll make sure you won't do any of this shi- uh...ahem, stuff, again. I don't want to pull you out of any bad situation that you find yourself in and I don't want to help create more bad situations. I'm going just to make sure you don't do anything rash and you come back in one piece. Not in pieces."

Jane beamed at the response, her anxious face turning to one of happiness. It'd be cute if it was any different sort of situation. "Alright! Okay! I'll make the plan and when it is ready to be executed, I'll come and get you." She gave another smile and practically ran out the room.

Did I do the right thing? Henry thought to himself as he stared at the door. Yes. Yes, I did. Whatever the outcome is, I don't want Jane to come out scarred by this. Ugh...sometimes I wished I wasn't her brother. Besides, when did she start to trust me with all these "major" decisions of hers? It ain't like I did anything to do so.

Another knock was heard on the door. Henry snapped his eyes to the door once more. Guess there is no peace for him to think or even try to have some free time.

"Come in." Henry said. He excepted Jane to head back in with her brilliant plan of her revenge but instead came in Josh. Josh still had his calm demeanor on, but Henry was fairly sure he wasn't here just to ask about school, talk about he needed friends or anything about freetime.

"Hey Henry." Josh started, taking out the seat from Henry's desk and sitting down onto it. He props forward, clasping his hands together. "I saw Jane exit from your room and seemed quite happy about something. I know you are on good terms with each other but...y'know, those injuries didn't look like they came from a stray dog. There are too many bruises on her and some of them looked like punch marks and even then, two or three of those injuries seemed to be as if she was hit by something more than a fist. If you get my meaning."

Henry found himself scowling, he knew Jane had gotten into a fight but that sounded more like a damn beating. He didn't like the fact that Jane had held back if they had used any weapons, but it is possible that she didn't want to think about it. What a mess. His bad mood turned into a worse one.

"I'm no doctor Josh. I don't know why you are telling me this." Henry responded, shrugging his shoulders.

"I said this before, but you are more mature than most." Josh said. "You always seem to keep an eye out for Jane and your family. Even as a kid, you seemed to know what to do, what an adult would do. And I'm guessing you said something to Jane to make her go from in a shit- sorry- state into a less of a shit -again I'm sorry- state."

"I said I'll take her out to her favourite ice cream place." Henry lied, trying to not break his non-caring tone. "There is nothing more to say."

"She doesn't like ice cream. I thought you already knew this." Josh replied.

"She doesn't!?" Henry yelled out in genuine surprise.

"How do you not know this!? This has been known to me atleast for like five years! If I didn't know any better, I'd say she'd despises ice cre-" He stopped for a moment. "You are distracting me aren't you. Damn it Henry."

Actually Henry wasn't meaning to distract Josh. He genuinely did not know that Jane didn't like ice cream. Maybe that is why she was always in a sour mood. Oh, he was certainly going to force Jane to eat some ice cream as a favour for helping her out.

"Oh yeah. Totally. Sorry about that." Henry said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "I mean, I don't know what happened. It is best to try to pry answers from her but I don't think she is really ready to talk about what happened. It is still fresh in her mind."

Josh let out a sigh. "Yeah. I know." He stood up from the chair. "Thanks for talking to me Henry. Your mum should be back soon, and I've gotta tell her about what happened."

Josh gave a nod and left the room, Henry waved him goodbye. However, Henry did hear some muttering from Josh as he left the room, something about it not being a fun talk. He just chuckled at the line. Well, he is sure that in two days or so, Jane will come up with a plan.

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"You know...I wasn't expecting you to push me out of bed at one o'clock in the MORNING to go along with your stupid plan." Henry muttered angrily. Oh, he was annoyed to hell. He was expecting Jane to come up with the plan over a course of two days and it being during daylight.

'But no…'

Jane had snuck into his room, somehow bypassing the lock on the door to his room. She had ripped the covers off from him and seriously was urging him to get up. Henry had barely any time to get his clothes on or even get a bearing on what was happening before Jane had shoved her plan into his face.

The plan was quite a simple one. Jane, during her time with her "friends", had brought this stash of stink bombs, not dangerous and only used for pranks. She had taken some of them back home and stashed it in her room somewhere, she never got to use it. Henry wasn't sure she wanted to either, considering how she told him that all of the others had used theirs up already.

Anyways, apparently Jane had overheard from one of them that they were meeting up in a secluded area in the maintenance area of the station. Jane never got involved too much with all the stuff but she knew about them doing some shady business, and Henry was glad but also annoyed at himself for not being concerned about his sister.

Both him and Jane were currently crawling through the ventilation shafts heading to the area. She had decided to take this route for multiple reasons. They would be found out easily if they took a direct route to the area and that would start a fight, and the area they were heading to, had catwalks stationed above it for maintenance workers.

Henry had questioned Jane on how she knew all this and she gave the simple answer of "I've been here before.", which just gave Henry more questions on how long she was doing all of this stuff for and how he never noticed. Not that he voiced it to Jane.

Henry started to hate crawling through vents, and he thought his parent's training regime was brutal. Jane was up ahead, easily crawling through and waiting for Henry when she got too far ahead. She definitely was enjoying his pain.

"You say 'you know' a lot. Did you know that?" Jane had jokingly said. She gave Henry a smirk while he gave a glare to her.

"Because; most of the stuff you do is stupid and I'm normally correctly. Always correct." Henry remarked back. He caught up to Jane but titled his head when she didn't move ahead. He was about to speak up when Jane quickly shushed him. His eyes moved downwards towards one of the vent's grates.

They were above the area that Jane had mentioned in her plan. She grabbed onto the grate and pulled it up. It seemed that it was already unscrewed and Jane quickly jumped down onto the catwalks. Henry reluctantly followed her.

They crouched at the catwalks, looking down at the area. Yup, the kids that Jane used to hang out with were there. Atleast, most of them were. There were some other older kids that he didn't know about but seemed to be at least four to five years older. Who'd thought in a political and military headquarters that there would be gangs?

Jane was rummaging around in her bag, taking out the stink bombs while Henry looked down at the group. He wasn't interested in what they were saying but looking at how many numbers there were. Around eight to nine of them, three older ones and the rest were the same age as Henry and Jane. He was about to turn to Jane until he had heard Jane's name come from the group.

"You kept talkin' about this kid in ya group: Jane? Yea, aren't you gonna bring her here?" One of the older kids spoke up.

"Her? Oh, we had...a falling out." One of the smaller kids that Henry did recognise spoke up, he didn't know his name however.

"Falling out? She deserved what we did to her." Another replied, in a more hostile tone.

"We could've left her alone."

"She'd woulda snitched! Besides, you know she had looked at some of our omni-tools and disapproved of what we are doing." The hostile tone replied.

Henry looked towards Jane as the group kept bickering about what happened earlier. She'd looked livid, especially given that her breath was increasing and she had curled up her fists. Henry had placed a hand onto her shoulder, giving a sympathetic look.

"Jane. Come on. Calm down." Henry said. "I've got something to add to your plan. I'll take out my omni-tool and start recording what they are saying. Then we can give it to our parents, and don't disagree with me on this. I normally don't care what other people do, but this is a different case. I'll record this, you'll stink bomb them and we get the hell out of here."

Jane nodded, giving a small smile to Henry. He took out his omni-tool and started to record the conversation. It was around three minutes or so when they stopped speaking about it, and they started to talk about other stuff. Henry stopped the recording and gave a thumbs up to Jane. She unclipped two of the stink bombs and threw it down towards the group.

They exploded and the stench immediately rose up and hit both of their noses. There were several sounds of disgust and some swearing that rose from the group. Henry felt a hand pull him to the left and started to pull him along the door in a hurried manner.

"Jane! Why aren't we going to the vents?" Henry asked as she pulled him along, and they both started to run. Henry followed Jane as it seemed she knew where to go.

"The vents will be too long!" She replied as they ran down the catwalks, he heard some movement from down below but thought nothing about it.

"That makes no sense!" Henry shouted angrily. "Jane! God damn it." He growled slightly as she ignored him in place of running even more faster. She took a sudden left and Henry almost tripped as she did so.

They both managed to get down from the catwalks after a series of turns and going down some stairs near an alleyway. As they got into the alleyway, it seemed for a moment that they were clear.

Geez. I'm not doing this again. I'm gonna sit down and just read a damn book. Screw phy- KNIFE!

It seemed like two of the gang rounded the corner and the one guy with a weapon had decided that Henry was the best choice to attack. Henry barely managed to avoid the knife as the kid slashed towards his face, the weapon in his right hand. He heard a scuffle to the left of him, indicating that Jane was in a battle with the other kid.

Holy hell! Oh fu- The kid sloppily followed up with an upper slash towards Henry again, he managed to dodge it by pushing his head back as the knife hit into the wall. Henry didn't waste time, he went for a right hook towards the kid's jaw.

The kid got hit and stumbled back, Henry spared a look towards Jane and she was doing quite well. She had taken their parent's training to heart, and was using moves that he had seen his parents drill into her. At least she has got that in the bag. Thank god for their parents being Alliance soldiers.

Henry turned back towards the kid that was fighting him. He saw the knife coming towards him but he was too late, he got too distracted and when he attempted to dodge, the knife sliced through his shirt and caused a cut on his left arm.

Henry seethed in pain, he took in a sharp inhale as he felt the pain set in. His eyes snapped to the knife as the kid, with an almost disgustingly satisfied face, went in with both hands to stab Henry.

Henry grabbed onto both of his arms and they were locked in a war of strength. Henry gritted his teeth as he used all of his strength to keep the other kid at bay. 'Come on…!' The knife seemed to slowly come down towards Henry and his eyes slowly widened with fear.

For a moment, he felt time slow down as he saw out of the corner of his eye, Jane rushing towards him and then delivering a punch to the kid's face. The kid was swung back to the wall and he fell onto the ground. His grip on the knife released and Henry was also free from the strength struggle.

Henry moved away, placing his hands onto his knees and taking deep breaths. That was a rush that he wished he would have never experienced. Even in his old life, he did not come across any of these situations. He always kept to himself.

Damn. I gotta thank Jane, call this even and then give that damn recording to mum. He looked up towards Jane. She was standing above the kid who had the knife and she seemed to be holding something. It was the knife and it seemed like she was going to use it.

Henry rushed towards Jane, ignoring the spike of pain coming from his arm. He forgot about that as well. He grabbed onto Jane's arm and held her back.

"What the hell are you doing!?" Henry yelled angrily, his voice being heard through the whole street.

"What? Henry! He hurt you! They hurt me! Why do you care? I - We need to give them a taste of their own medicine." Jane argued, giving Henry a glare.

"Because you'll get done with assault." Henry snarled. "Hell, all of this could land us in trouble. I don't want to see you be under heavier pressure than you are. Come on. Just think for a moment Jane, you are angry, I get that but you've gotta move past that, we already have what we want and you got your damn revenge with the stink bombs."

Jane glared, but didn't say a word but after a moment, she threw the knife to the ground. "Fine! Fine…" She huffed, pushing past Henry. "Let's get out of here."

"Gladly." Henry walked alongside with Jane, holding on his left arm and keeping pressure on the wound. He lets out another sharp exhale. Damn, it hurt but he will survive. Both him and Jane continued to walk back home, Jane seemingly cooling down from all the drama and Henry keeping his hand on the cut.

They both entered the apartment after twenty minutes of getting back. That's odd. The living room light was on. As Jane and Henry entered into it. They saw both their parents and Josh standing there. Their mother looked angry, their father looked concerned and Josh looked serious.

There was silence in the room as both groups looked at each other, both their parents' eyes focusing on Jane and then towards Henry, or rather, Henry's bleeding arm. Josh just looked disappointed but Henry had a sneaky assumption that he knew something was going to go down.

"Uh...welcome home dad?"

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A/N: As always, follows, favourites and reviews are most appreciated and I'm interested on what you guys think of this chapter.