"Move!" Karin Chakwas exclaimed, "get out of the bloody way!"

The nameless Cerberus soldier jumped aside at her outburst as she, Shepard and Grunt pushed hurriedly at the stretcher through the deck. Mordin had already configured the surgery for Garrus' injuries but there was much to be done yet. Shepard could barely control her breathing as she and Grunt transferred Garrus from the gurney, his head slightly shook limply from the movement, totally unresponsive.

"Excellent" Mordin thanked them, "now for investigative surgery, will need you to leave."

Shepard didn't budge. "I'm not going anywhere until I know Garrus is okay."

"Doctor Solus is right" Chakwas said, "you stay any longer and you'll contaminate the medbay."

Shepard left the medbay with a grimaced expression but promptly nonetheless. She made her way around to look in through the window as Mordin began efficiently deconstructing Garrus's armour.

"How is he?" A voice asked flatly at Shepard's side. Shepard almost jumped, focusing on Garrus she hadn't heard anyone come up beside her. It was Jax, his voice had been hollow, shaking slightly under the weight of the emotion he had been keeping back.

"I don't know" Shepard replied, the tone of her own voice surprising her at how similar it was to Jax's. "The colossus' blast was tailored towards shields, anything synthetic. Saving Garrus, he took a lot of fire from a Blue Suns captain named Tarak, we were forced to implant cybernetics in order to keep him in his own fighting state, if the blast disabled them, it's up to luck the extent of damage."

Jax exhaled. "Tarak, can't even remember how long we hunted that son of a bitch. How much damage are we talking?"

Shepard shrugged. "Cybernetics supporting his brain function? Could be any number of symptoms, all of them bad. We're considering memory loss, personality shifts, retardation, paralysis, and that's all just operating on the assumption he wakes up. Could just as easily be comatose indefinitely." Shepard was simply listing off facts, keeping her basic field medical experience at the forefront of her mind to stop herself from buckling. It wasn't working however, and each word expelled crashed back upon her like waves of pained realisation. "It all depends on the level of damage to the cybernetics, and how long Garrus's brain goes without the critical functions for. Right now all we can do is hope."

Jax nodded impassively. Over the table, Mordin leaned in closely as one of the robotic surgical arms lowered towards the top of Garrus' head.

"How long will he be in there?" Jax asked.

"I don't know" Shepard managed, dropping her head in a futile gesture to escape the facts. "I don't know anything all right Jax? I am not the be-all end-all figure of invincibility; I know sometimes it's hard to believe but so much of the time I have absolutely no idea what I'm supposed to do. I only know what I can do, and I know what I can do because I've had to do it. I have to stop the collectors from harvesting humans because God knows why, but I can't do this alone. I need you all to have my back."

"I will" Jax promised. "Aria sent me a message" he added in a lower voice. "She's calling in her favour I owe her for finding Sidonis."

Shepard dropped her head. "Jesus does this mess ever end?" She muttered to herself. "Even in death he's still a thorn in my side." She raised her voice to reply. "What does she want?"

Jax shook his head. "Unknown. I've been given a frequency to contact, thought you'd want to be in for it, Aria respects you."

Shepard nodded. "Line up that communication EDI, it's been a while since I've had the pleasure of Omega's pirate queen."

"Belay that EDI," Joker's voice ordered in Shepard's ear. "Change of plans Commander, urgent message coming in from the Illusive Man, patching him through to the comm room."

"Looks like you're about to learn a bit more about you can do" Jax noted.

Shepard nodded, it was just another one of those days. Shit never came in evenly spaced periods, some days were as clear and idle as a third class private's shore leave and other days, life just decided to heap it all on with no end in sight. This day seemed part of the latter. "I'm on my way" she mumbled.

"I'll come with" Jax supplied.

Shepard took another look at Garrus, unconscious on the table. Under the anaesthesia, he looked so relaxed, so peaceful, the ever present wrinkles around his eye squinting through his scope weren't there in his slack expression. Everything about it screamed how wrong it was. Chakwas supervised as Mordin, taking the lead as the more specialised in alien biology, bent over to examine his work. The fingers of his white surgical gauntlets were stained blue with turian blood. Shepard couldn't watch but couldn't tear her eyes away. Chakwas noticed Shepard still at the window and waved her omnitool, tinting the windows of the medbay to black.

Shepard lost her breath as Garrus faded from view, replaced with only her battle-worn reflection. She realised she might've just seen the end of her last chance to ever Garrus alive again. She couldn't afford to think like that, after the Alliance, the friends she had fought side by side with for so long had failed her, Garrus had been by her side unwaveringly. The Collectors seemed so much a larger threat without him.

Shepard turned for the elevator, ignoring Jax's questioning look to find out what the Illusive Man had for her.

"Shepard, we caught a break. I intercepted a distress call from a turian patrol. They stumbled onto a Collector ship beyond the Korlus system. The turians were wiped out but not before they crippled the Collector vessel. I need you to board that ship and get some hard data on the Collectors. Find us a way to get to their home world."

Shepard narrowed her eyes. "Are you sure this information is good?"

The Illusive Man's artificial eyes glowed inhumanly. "Information is my weapon Shepard, it's good."

"How did the turians manage it?" Shepard asked.

"Reports indicate the hull is intact but systems seem to offline."

"Is it the same ship from Horizon?"

"Unknown."

"I read the algorithm EDI supplied to the GARDIAN turrets back when you faced them on Horizon" Jax supplied. "Cerberus' mandate is to capture alien technology, not destroy and EDI is Cerberus tech. GARDIAN is a laser-based system, near one hundred percent accurate. The targeting algorithm EDI wrote meant the turrets were aiming at points meant to cause the ship to lose power, to only disable it. If it is the same ship, the beating it took from the turrets while you fought the praetorian would go a long way towards explaining the state of it now."

"Regardless," the Illusive Man interjected, "we can't let an opportunity like this slip by."

"I have a man down" Shepard replied, "I'm not sure we can handle a high-risk mission right now."

"Specialist Vakarian, I already know" the Illusive Man's eyes glinted. "Miranda's reports filled me in. I'm sorry to learn of his condition, but this is why you recruited a team of this size Shepard, we both know losses will be inevitable."

"Don't downplay the value of him to my squad" Shepard warned. "I don't see us taking the fight to the collectors without him as a spearhead."

"We can debate the semantics of his personal and pragmatic value another time" the Illusive Man admonished, "but you have my coordinates and if you have any intention of making the sacrifice of Horizon's colonists worth anything, you will follow them." He ended the transmission without another word.

Shepard exhaled. "Joker, let's go further into the lion's den."

"Roger that" Joker radioed back and Shepard felt the subtle shift as the engines kicked in, leaving the Geth behind.

"My turn" Jax said, stepping up to the console. He opened his omnitool and keyed in the frequency from the message. Aria's silhouette shimmered into view, her expression angry. "Aria" Jax greeted curtly.

"Jax" Aria returned. "Thank you for getting back so promptly, it's good to see some people know where their loyalties lie."

"You sound more pissed than usual" Jax noted, "I take it that's what this call is about?"

Aria nodded. "Believe me, this is far from a pleasure call. I need anyone with a capability to murder for me right now and you are but a line in a long list of favours I'm calling in."

"Sounds serious" Jax remarked.

Aria nodded. "My place as Omega's ruler is under threat, I haven't had a challenger like this since my ascension."

Shepard's eyes narrowed, at a time where so many matters were becoming urgent, this was sounding like nothing more than an unnecessary distraction; Aria had a virtual army on her payroll, this hardly seemed like something that need bother her mission. "And why exactly should this matter to my crew?"

Aria's eyes grew hard as she fixated on Shepard. "How about because this entire shitshow is entirely of your doing?"

"Come again?" Shepard asked, surprised.

"It's the Patriarch" Aria told her. "Ever since your little stunt acting as his kraant, he's become emboldened. Rumours of him still wielding power spread and my enemies flocked to him. As my power grows, so does the list of people who would see it taken from me and that's become a long fucking list. I didn't realise the threat until Patriarch made his move yesterday, killing a group of my men and fleeing the station on one of my ships."

"What about that makes him such a threat?" Shepard asked.

"Because he took the Queencode with him."

Jax took a sharp breath. "The Queencode? That's actually real?"

"It is" Aria confirmed.

Shepard was confused. "What exactly this 'Queencode'?"

"The Queencode is a digital skeleton key of sorts" Jax explained. "It offers complete and total control to anything with Aria's fingerprints on it."

"And since there's no part of Omega I don't have my fingers in…" Aria trailed off.

"He essentially has taken total control of that station." Shepard finished. "Again, I fail to see how Omega's political affairs are part of my business" she continued, "I have a great advantage in not taking sides."

"One and again, this mess is entirely your doing Shepard" Aria hissed, "you made my greatest enemy a symbol of untold strength. Two, Patriarch knows he doesn't have the manpower to defeat me in a conventional fight, so he's being clever about it."

"What has he done?" Jax asked.

"He's making me look weak" Aria explained. "He broadcasts mocking messages over my channels to anyone who will listen and kills randomly. He shut off the life support to section seven yesterday, we've no idea where to start counting the dead."

"How many people were in section seven?" Shepard asked.

"The entirety of Omega is divided into a number of sections" Jax told her, "from engineering to the residential districts to Afterlife. Any of the residential sections can hold hundreds of thousands, millions maybe if you include the squatters and derelicts."

"That many?" Shepard asked, shocked.

"Omega prides itself on being able to pack a lot of scum into very little squalor" Aria replied. "The more havoc Patriarch causes, the weaker he makes me look and the less power I will have. Patriarch is relying on the people to rise up against me and descend into anarchy. Seven was a commercial section, one of my busiest ports. Lot of eezo and weapons go through there which Patriarch helped himself to. If he decides to hit a residential district next and put the squeeze on, well the bloodshed if I don't regain control quickly is going to be inconceivable."

Shepard thought briefly. "I'm sorry Aria, but my answer is no. Neither I nor my crew can help you."

"What?" Jax demanded, turning around.

"I have the collectors to worry about and I can't risk being dragged into a war of attrition when I need unfettered access to the Omega Four Relay" Shepard replied. "I'm sorry Aria but this isn't mine and I have more people to worry about. It's a very potential reality that after my next mission, we'll be making the run through and we don't know what we'll face on the other side. I won't make a promise I don't know if I can keep."

"With all due respect Shepard, I sent the message to Jax" Aria replied, "and if he wants the continued protection of his family, he will help me."

"Shepard I just can't say 'no' to this." Jax agreed. "You agreed to keep them safe."

"And through me, Cerberus is paying your family's protection fees" Shepard returned. "I'm sorry Jax but the Collectors are out there now and we need to strike. As for after, the Sahrabarik System holds the Omega 4 Relay, I can't risk being drawn into a war where my presence there may be compromised. Both Patriarch and Aria could make my life there a living hell. I'm not making this decision lightly, but it is an easy one."

"You'll regret this Shepard" Aria swore, seething.

Jax's own anger was barely being held in check. "Shepard, I would urge you to reconsider."

"I've made my decision" Shepard denied. "End communication." EDI complied and Aria's furious image disappeared.

"Send me then" Jax implored. "Make a shuttle drop and I'll call you when I'm ready to re-join the mission."

"The Normandy has one shuttle and we use it for every planet drop" Shepard rebuffed, growing impatient. "I will not hold up my mission for you for what could go on for a very long time and frankly with Garrus down, I need you to take his position in the gun battery, keep it to his standards."

Jax couldn't believe it. "But…"

"That's an order!" Shepard exclaimed, breaking her facade of calm. "Man your post Specialist Weaver and if and when I need you for missions, I expect you to be there 100%, do I make myself clear?"

Jax's expression hardened. He could feel the temptation to tell Shepard to go to Hell but now wasn't the time. The tension in his fist loosened. "Crystal" he replied evenly, leaving the room.

Shepard sighed as she watched Jax leave. The door closed and she rubbed her temples. Her job was an immense juggling act trying to keep everything afloat and all of them were knives. She knew she had done the right thing by the mission in refusing Jax and keeping the Omega Nebula as neutral space but at the same time, Aria was vengeful. If she won her battle then her first action would be to seek blood from everyone who she perceived as betraying her, a list that would include Jax and the person who kept him from joining the fight. For fuck's sake she cursed softly, then instructed EDI to relay commands for Samara and Miranda to arm up for the collector's ship.

A floor below, Jax made his way through the mess hall. He stopped as he saw the blacked out windows of the medbay, leaving him with no Garrus and only his lost solitary reflection to go on.

"If I may" a raspy voice began, "you seem lost."

Jax turned around to see Thane, having emerged from the drier environment of life support to obtain a rations pack. "I know where I'm headed."

"Not geographically" Thane said. "Spiritually."

"I don't hold faith in any gods" Jax replied.

"One does not need to believe in the gods" Thane rasped, "nor be their most devout servant to lose their guidance. Belief is not consequential to follow the path they have set out for us."

"Spare me the sermon" Jax said, disinterested. "If your god were so interested in my following a path to goodness and grace, why is Garrus in there on a table like a fucking slab of meat?" He finished the sentence more savagely than he'd meant to.

Thane was unperturbed. "Kalahera, lord of hunters, give us prey to chase, but also give us predators to make greater demands of us. We cannot truly appreciate the preciousness of something until we have the threat of losing it."

"So you're saying Garrus is on the brink of death to teach me a lesson?" Jax asked, unimpressed. "Is this supposed to make me feel better?"

"You misunderstand" Thane said. "You expect my answers of the gods to be of redemption, that under their influence, life will only comprise of all good things. That is not life. My gods control all aspects of life and while I cannot speak for them, they do not exist to keep us safe. The hunt will sometimes leave us empty-handed, the wait will sometimes leave us alone and the hungry will sometimes starve."

"So your gods have control of everything and still allow that misery, doesn't that make them miserly pricks?" Jax asked sarcastically.

Thane blinked with his rear eyelids. "Think of every pain in your life; the first time you touched a hot pan, the first time falling off a scooter or the anguish of a loved one leaving your life. Were not all of these the catalyst for a means of improving your life? A parent wishes to see their child ascend to greatness, to follow a good path, they should not wrap the galaxy in safety netting and keep their child blind. The gods to me are no different. I may not understand them, I may even question the course they have set me on but never do I question whether or not there is a purpose behind it all. There are reasons for everything; why we were called to battle, why the events that test us occur, even for this conversation. It is up to us to find those reasons."

"And what if I don't find a reason?" Jax asked, looking back to the black screen where Garrus lay beyond.

Thane was silent for a moment. "Then it is your responsibility to make one. Justify what you are and what you've done by committing deeds that matter."

Jax's fist trembled. "And I suppose there's no better justification for all the bad shit than making sure the collectors end up as nothing more than a bad memory?"

"I do not have a planet anymore to value the way you do Omega" Thane told him. "But even if Kalahira offered to restore Rakhana from the distant shores in exchange for the souls the collectors seek, even then I would know what choice was right."

"But would you make it?" Jax insisted, turning to look at Thane. "I know what is right, but I also know what I want."

"Then you know the point of your conflict" Thane told him, stepping closer. "The question is not of what you should do but what kind of person do you want to be? Your answer will show you your path forward, I have aligned my path with Shepard's. I hope they do not conflict when you find the answer you seek."

"So do I" Jax replied, his back turned down the hall.

Thane blinked as he watched Jax leave before retreating back himself, he needed to account for Garrus' health in his prayers.

Joker felt a tightening in his stomach as the collector ship grew larger and larger in front of him. Even though the scans EDI was running were telling him the ship was powerless, even its image cast a shadow of dread over him. A ship just like this one had blasted his ship, his first proper solo helm command to smithereens, and Shepard had died in the process. Saving me he thought, his focus lost for the moment. He wrenched himself out of his guilt and back into the chair, he was the best pilot the fleet had ever lost for a reason, he had to be there one hundred percent. He heard the padding of Shepard's armoured footsteps approaching up the walkway behind him. Joker steeled himself, forcing a breath inwards before locking down the emotion in his features as Shepard approached, he had to be the dauntless helmsman Shepard needed him to be. "We have a visual on the collector ship commander" he reported, turning briefly in his seat to face her. The N7 on her chest shone out proudly against the grey armour, her link back to the Alliance. The breathing mask was securely in place on her helmet held against her hip for the moment.

"Very low emissions" EDI added, "passive infrared temperatures suggest most systems are offline. Thrusters are cold."

As she spoke, Joker continued his approach, the collector ship's size ever expanding. One by one, the stars behind it were blotted out by its looming mass. Joker checked his scanners and his eyes widened at the distance that still lay between the two ships. "That thing's massive" he breathed, his eyes locating a wreck of a familiar design. "How the hell did the turians manage to take it out?"

Shepard could offer no answer as she also took in the massive structure as Joker brought the Normandy alongside and slowed it to a stop. The collector ship continued rolling on its listless idle in space, Joker keeping his distance. EDI refreshed her scans, informing them of the lack of any notable structural damage. A gnaw of doubt pulled at Joker but as he located an access route into the ship, he knew Shepard was beyond his capability to aid. "Rendezvous in 30 seconds Commander, good luck" he wished. Shepard touched his shoulder reassuringly, as if sensing his unease, then left Joker alone with the chirps and whistles of his sensors. He touched a command to lower the cargo bay doors for Shepard's shuttle and watched as the shuttle disappeared into the belly of the beast. The entire scene was… ominous. Nothing seemed right about this. Joker brought up the scans of the turian frigate and the collector vessel. The space around them was too clean, Joker had seen hundreds of dogfights, the space was always littered with wreckage and debris but this seemed almost organised, they had a completely unhindered approach on the way in. Something was just off about all of this. EDI was still busy scanning the ship, matching it to that of the vessel from Horizon. Joker looked again at the turian vessel, examining the blast marks that had simply cut through the hull like butter, exactly like the Normandy. "EDI…" Joker started, "do you have access to classified Alliance data files?"

"I have a block that prevents me from revealing the scope of my access" EDI told him perfunctorily. "Do you have a specific query in mind?"

"Yeah" Joker mused, "very specific. Run an analysis on the electromagnetic profile of the ship."

"What do you wish to cross reference it against?" EDI asked.

"The collector ship that destroyed the original Normandy" Joker said. "I've seen this ship, I know I have. It's been in my dreams the last two years." Joker dipped his gaze as he said it, but also realised he had said 'the original' when referring to the SR1, not 'the real Normandy' as he had so often called it, often to just spite EDI.

"Scanning" EDI replied, sweeping the ship. In moments like these, even Joker was forced to concede her handiness.

The results came up on the screen, 100 percent match. "Son of a bitch" Joker murmured, running a hand over his beard. "Put me in touch with Shepard now, we need to give her a heads up, something's not right about this. Get a message to Jax down in the battery, tell him to keep the guns warm in case we need them."

"Operative Weaver is no longer in the main battery" EDI replied.

"What?" Joker asked. "Well where the hell is he?"

The elevator door hissed open and Jack stepped out to the familiar sight of the cargo bay. She stretched her arms and felt both of shoulders click, waves of biotic energy rippled beneath the surface of the sea of ink on her skin. It was a satisfying feeling, the power to rip anything apart at her fingertips, satisfying to know she'd never be that scared little girl again, Jennifer. She was Jack now, and Jack was powerful, unstoppable even. She had just been up to the crew quarters to take a piss and now was descending into the red of the sundeck when she saw a shadow cross in front of her. She tensed only to find Jax leaving, stopping abruptly as they met eyes. "Hey" he quickly managed.

Jack's expression instantly shifted into suspicion. "Mind telling me what you were doing?" She asked.

Jax pointed over his shoulder. "Joker's put me on manning the main guns while Garrus is out of action" he replied flawlessly. Too flawlessly. "I'm just checking on the power subsystems before I let that thing come anywhere close to firing."

"Right" Jack said, not believing his bullshit for a second, no matter how close they were after their bonding trip on Illium. "Well next time you want in my space, you ask. I don't spend enough on underpants to have fuckers like you come and rifle through my laundry."

"Funny" Jax replied, in flirtatious bravado that was clearly feigned for anyone who knew him below the surface, he was not even close to this charismatic. "You never struck me as the type to wear any at all."

That earned a laugh at least from Jack. "Message still stands," she warned, "let me look for you next time."

Jax mock saluted her on his way out. Jack shrugged to herself, whatever shit he was getting into wasn't shit she had to worry herself with. She just managed to get comfortable on the cot when the Normandy shunted hard to the right. Joker was clearly needing to get them the hell out of Collector-occupied space and with Jax barely reaching the elevator by now, the thanix cannon was definitely being unused this time around. Jax managed to order the elevator to take him back to his post but not before an alert popped on his omnitool. Explosive armed. Jax looked up to see his reflection in the chrome surface of the doors. He knew exactly what kind of person he was going to be.