Despite the excitement and morale of the crew being raised to new heights having gone toe to toe with the Collectors on their home turf and escaping unscathed, the tempo of the mission simmered back into monotony. Shepard ranged between spots on the galaxy, investigating anomalies and thwarting plots of the mercenary guilds. If there was more to that, Jax didn't know, she never called for him to arm up for missions so the entirety of his time was spent at Garrus' side in the medbay or keeping his duties fulfilled in Garrus' place, although his calibrations were nowhere near the detail and precision that Garrus could achieve. It was another four standard solar cycles before Garrus woke up and from the moment he awoke, Jax knew his old mentor was not the same person he had been before. Garrus had awoken suddenly, gasping for air and resisting the effects of the sedatives, brain activity spiking off the charts. It had been violent, thrashing for air and space, completely unlike the precise, analytical mind Jax knew. He'd been unable to calm him with Chakwas' help, in the end he had been forced to call Shepard for aid, only her presence, her voice, her touch managed to crack through the shell of paranoia and fear, the pair had seemingly both walked through death for each other now. Garrus had been calmed, clutching at Shepard's arm, it was the first time Jax had ever seen fear in Garrus' eyes. Chakwas administered a sedative and put Garrus back under again, reducing him back to the motionless, trapped victim he had been before. It felt wrong to Jax, so wrong that Garrus was this way, it seemed like nothing in the world made sense, Garrus was always this stalwart, unshakeable rebel with a chip on his shoulder. Seeing him as so much less than that, the world didn't seem real. If one had thought that Shepard and Jax united in such concern and grief for their friend would have done some measure of good for their relationship however, they would be sorely wrong. They were very rarely ever in the same room apart from the medbay, and even Jax refused to acknowledge her presence in any other capacity other than specialist to captain. After testing the connection of the first explosive from engineering to the CIC, Jax began to plant more all around the ship. He had to be subtle about it, Jack had made sure her quarters were hidden from EDI's sensors for her privacy but there were eyes and ears everywhere else. The explosives were only designed to disable, not destroy; Jax hardly expected he'd ever have more than a moment of peace if he completely destroyed such a large investment from Cerberus but he also needed a hell of a distraction and to ensure he'd be able to get away if the time called for it. If there was a fight brewing, Jax wanted to have five aces in the hole, planting explosives at the important junctures of every place he might ever be forced to engage in a firefight was one of the first lessons Sensat had ever taught him about combat scenarios. Use your skills to your advantage, the battlefield is as much your weapon as your pistol. They brought Garrus back up the next day, much more slowly, and with Shepard there. This time he was coherent, his taloned fingers gently resting around Shepard's. Shepard had barely been able to remain composed herself, she hadn't been able to sleep the night after seeing Garrus in his state of terror the day before. It had to have been the state he was in when he shielded her from the blast before, taking the blast for her mistake. She had replayed the events of Rannoch in her mind over and over again, cursing herself angrily. If she'd only made sure the Geth troopers diverting to Reegar had all been put down, they'd never have snuck up on her. They shouldn't have been able to sneak up on her anyway, she was supposed to be the galaxy's greatest soldier for god's sake, and instead one of her most treasured companions had thrown himself in front of a blast meant for her.

"Shepard" Garrus managed to croak, her hand softly gripped in his.

Shepard flinched back into reality. "Garrus," she managed, hurriedly brushing away the tears from her eyes she didn't even realise had been forming. "I thought I ordered you 'no heroics.'"

Garrus managed a chuckle that came out as a more laboured breath. Under the thick shape of turians' ballistic armour, it was impossible to truly appreciate the slender frames of their bodies, the sharp, precise angles of their plates but now, Garrus seemed so awfully fragile, the thought ate away at her. "You know me Shep; following orders was never my forte."

Shepard lifted his hand to her, pressing it as hard against her lips as she could without fear that she would break him, it was everything she could do not to embrace him completely. "I guess you were right" she told him softly, "you really are a terrible turian."

This time Garrus' laugh was more convincing. "Oh" he moaned, "you're going to kill me twice saying things like that."

"Consider it payback for that concussive round you hit me with when I came to pull your ass out of the fire" she told him back.

"How did we even get out of there?" Garrus asked. "The colossus…"

"It was him" Shepard said, looking to Jax. "He saved us."

Garrus strained to see him standing removed to give them the privacy of any sweet nothings. "Jax," he croaked.

Jax nodded, trying to hold back the tidal wave of emotions welling within him. "Hey Garrus" he managed. "You had us worried for a second there."

Garrus managed a smile. "I took on every merc Omega had to offer and all I lost was half my face, the Geth need far more than a platoon to keep me buried."

Jax shook his head. "I'm sure we can find the challenge that will best suit your abilities. Just… don't die in the meantime, no one gets to kill you without my consent."

"Thanks Jax" Garrus managed. "I… I think I'd like to talk about what happened properly between us, just…" His head fell back as he exhaled a large breath, his eyelids wavering in exhaustion. "Not now."

"Garrus?" Shepard asked, feeling the strength fade out of the grip in her hand.

"Life signs holding steady, he's all right" Chakwas reported, looking at her data pad. "It's just fatigue from his body healing, all he needs now is rest. I'd say a considerable amount but he's keeping well far better than I would've predicted already."

"Thank you" Shepard said, placing Garrus' hand gently back on the table to rest. She held back from letting go for a few moments before meeting Jax's gaze, steeled again. Shepard sighed as she looked back to Garrus, knowing there were no real words she could say to balm her decision to Jax, only time would tell if her authority over him was sufficient to keep him in line. Garrus' recovery would keep him stable and with his help, she would be able to keep him in line. Between Shepard's stress, Garrus' health and Jax's anger, all of them were an entire fucked up step-family on edge, wearing thin.

"There's Batarian veterans from Elysium who probably dislike your name as much he seems to do yours" Chakwas noted as the doors closed shut behind Jax.

"Hell of a shiny medal they gave me for shutting that attack down" Shepard mused, "what I wouldn't do to give it back for all the trouble it's caused me since."

"If you hadn't earned yourself the Star of Terra that day, I doubt we'd even be here and we'd have all been destroyed by Sovereign long ago" Chakwas replied.

Shepard snorted. "Complete galactic annihilation or a lifetime of labour and suffering? Hell of a pick, now I know what the Ken and Gabby feel like managing the systems with the threat of the core venting into engineering."

Chakwas gestured with a smile. "We can't all be threatened with bullets, we have to invent our own threats to keep our lives as exciting as yours."

"I think I'd still find it hard not to consider a swap appealing," Shepard replied wearily, "although it's been good to give the crew a bit more down time with all the mass relay jumps we've been racking up."

"Aiding in the favours of a diverse crew leads to a lot of diverse locations" Chakwas agreed. "Where are we going next?"

"Finally going to help out Zaeed finish his contract on Zorya" Shepard replied. "There's still Samara and Jack's favours to round out before we go after the Reaper IFF. In terms of the matters less pressing, there's whatever scheme Liara is up to, running down that mech virus and we need to investigate that project of Cerberus' that's gone offline, 'Overlord' or something rather. Enjoy the small vacations of flight time, we're going to be at this for a while yet."

Jax wasn't ready to head back to the main battery just yet, truth be told it had been giving him cabin fever to be cooped up so long. Instead he strayed left, exploring one of the better rooms he had seen on the ship; the port-side Observation Deck. Opening it up, the first view that greeted him made him partially lose his breath. They had been making fairly regular mass effect and FTL jumps since he had come aboard but never had he possessed a proper view of it like this. Streaks of blue hurtled past, streaks of light stretched like thread creating a hazed labyrinth of glowing light that blazed ferociously, yet completely silent. The spectacle lit the room up in a soft blue glow, the brightness rippling and creating patterns on the walls like incandescent water. Jax let the door close behind him as his eyes fell upon the personal effects of whoever clearly inhabited the room. A bust, a rose and a few paintings filled one corner of the room. Jax examined the bust briefly, he didn't recognise the person it was meant to be, but there was also another treasure. "Actual paper books?" He asked to no one in particular. He looked around briefly before picking up what seemed to be the least delicate of them, running his finger down the spine. He didn't recognise the story but then again most of his childhood reading had been Batarian legends filled with blood and supremacy, the children's literature section was hardly bustling on Omega and the extranet was hardly a place to go looking for family friendly material. Jax opened the book and allowed his fingers to glide over the page, the subtle changes in texture where the ink had been stamped into the page. Jax could feel the grain in the paper, wavering in subtle grooves and valleys.

"You like that one?" A voice asked from over his shoulder.

Jax whirled around, he hadn't heard anything and as he looked around, he couldn't see the source of the voice either.

"Boo" the same voice whispered from behind him again, the other side from where it had come originally. It had a gleeful tone to it, clearly they were playing with him, a game.

"Very funny" Jax commented drily, "now are you going to de-cloak or do I need to light this whole room up with an overload charge to meet you?"

A hooded figure clad in black shimmered into view. Her figure was lithe, her choice of attire close fitting besides the hood, playful eyes glittering from within the darkness of her cowl. "Kasumi Goto, at your service" she curtsied. Just the sound of her voice made Jax fight back a small smile, she clearly existed outside of the tension that was running rife around the ship.

Jax realised he had been standing silent for an awkward moment too long. "Jax Weaver, at yours" he returned. He gestured to the book as he slid it back onto the shelf. "I take it this is your collection?"

Kasumi nodded, again so gleefully. "Don't laugh, I like those books. There's something different about holding real paper in your hands, the musk of the pages, a warmness you just can't ever replicate, especially in holo-books."

Jax nodded. "I've never actually seen a paper book before, it's weird to think this was how everyone used to read centuries ago."

"My stories are much older than a century" Kasumi chided him, "I don't really like modern stories, I need my world to be an escape. I like the classics; romance novels, drama novels, anything where the main character's troubles are more along the lines of which gown to wear. Jane Austen, William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, humans can sometimes rival the Asari for creativity."

"We have better priorities too" Jax noted, seeing the bar built into the opposite wall.

"Mix blue with red and make the whole world sway around you" Kasumi told him.

"That a common vice of yours?" Jax asked.

"No" Kasumi replied with a smile, "my vices are much more… transcendental" she finished, a flashing glow in her eyes that was just too bright to be from natural light.

"Implants?" Jax asked.

Kasumi nodded. "Helps with infiltrating electronics and security systems. I'm the thief."

"Demolitions" Jax replied. "We pulled a heist once, back on Omega. Busted an Eclipse vault and used it to fund our operations for a few months."

"Who made the vault?" Kasumi asked.

"Ariake Technologies" Jax replied.

"Very nice" Kasumi complimented, "their VI systems are a tough nut to crack."

"Which is why we didn't hack our way in" Jax told her. "Simple G4 mainliner, back-wound, quick fuse, drag under twenty feet, blew clean through the teeth and door swung wide open."

"You played it close" Kasumi admired, "most people wouldn't stick that close to the door, means you have to be tight with your precision."

"Means we can get in quick and out quicker, precision was everything working under Archangel, uh, Garrus"

Jax stumbled.

Kasumi's smile never dimmed, the only one who could seemingly be more altruistically happy was Kelly. "What was he like?" She asked, "back then?"

Jax considered his answer. "Louder. He spoke more. He joined us for dinner at Sensat's once. I don't think he'd do that now. He smiled more, but I suppose there was more to smile about back then."

"Have you seen him when Shep comes around?" Kasumi asked. "I think there's still many more smiles in him."

Jax was forced to concede that, despite his current ongoing distaste for his commander. "I suppose so. What about you? Surely not everyone's lives can be so melodramatic."

Kasumi's eyes flashed again. "I have everything I need. Shep's a hard-ass sure, but she always comes through. I'll admit some of us earlier than others."

Jax had helped himself to a drink. "And what if she didn't?"

"Didn't what?" Kasumi asked, "come through?" When Jax nodded she looked a touch considerate as she sat down with her book. "I'm not often wrong about people. I came here on condition that she would help me out, I'm not like most that had the baggage find them first. And you need Shepard more than most, it's a two-way street."

"And we're fighting over a bulldozer" Jax muttered, taking a swallow. He stopped and took a long exhale. "I've been running through this shit over and over in my head and I'm getting sick of not getting anywhere with it. Thinking about something is supposed to help you get through it, not tangle it in even greater knots."

"Try ditch thinking?" Kasumi suggested. "The smart option very often isn't the option you want the most. Keeping these memories risks starting a war" she told Jax, a holographic interface flashing in front of her eyes. "But I wouldn't trade it for anything, and it makes me happier than anything."

"Act…" Jax mused, turning back to his glass. He finished it with a swallow. "That might be…" he trailed off, looking around. Kasumi had vanished, the only sign she had ever existed at all the advice added to the already overflowing storm of his mind.

Shepard sighed as she ran a hand through her hair, looking at the red blip on the galaxy map. "Well how long will it be before this skirmish in the Omega Nebula ends?" She asked Miranda.

"Unclear" Miranda replied. "The Omega Nebula is full of criminals, mercenary bands and is a general alien refuge. There's little out that way in terms of human interests and thus, Cerberus doesn't have much influence there."

"So we can't do anything to ensure it ends any faster or any less bloodier?" Shepard asked.

Miranda shook her head. "Not without sending a strong diplomatic message on behalf of all humanity which may carry untold consequences."

"We'll have to enter that system eventually" Shepard told her executive officer. "Sooner or later we'll have the Collector IFF and make for the Omega-4 Relay."

"I recommend we use the stealth systems for when we do" Miranda replied. "Until then, there's little more we can do. With governorship of Omega contested, we can't even secure guaranteed safe passage."

"Well, with Zaeed's contract on Zorya fulfilled, we need to secure that to track down Morinth" Shepard mused, "with the outflow of refugees from the conflict, each day that goes past makes it more likely that she'll disappear again." Shepard considered her options. "Would it possible to contact both parties, arrange safe passage? We don't want to be caught in the middle of a war."

"Reports indicate the Patriarch has gone underground" Miranda replied. "We don't even know if he's even still on the station or retreated to the surrounding space in the system. He must be at that close to be using the digital weapon Aria told us about."

"The Queencode" Shepard murmured to herself, "the virtual keys to the queendom."

"The incumbent issue also being Jax" Miranda stated. "This war poses a threat to his family, both from the Patriarch's acts of terrorism and Aria's retaliation from being denied his aid. Can we trust him?"

"We need to find out" Shepard agreed, "if I can't, then there's no point having him on this ship."

"A test then" Miranda stated. She brought up a galaxy map model from the conference table and zoomed it in on a planet near the edge of dark space. "Pragia. Jack claims it has an abandoned Cerberus facility where she was raised and that she wants to destroy it with some sort of ordinance."

"I believe her words were 'deploy a big fucking bomb'" EDI supplied helpfully.

"Thank you EDI" Shepard said, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I suppose it makes for an easy diversion and application of Jax's skills. Let's chart a course."

"And after that?"

"We'll see."

"Thank you for this" Jax muttered as he fell into step besides Jack.

"It's not personal" Jack replied, "I want this place to be a crater you can see from orbit and you're the guy who can best make that happen. I'm not looking for tactical viability, carefully placed demolition charges like Illium, I'm wanting the biggest thing you've got." The pair reached the cargo bay.

"Fortunately" Jax said as he looked through his corner of demolition supplies, "I've got just the ticket. The Normandy as a stealth frigate does have bombing run capabilities but ordinarily you wouldn't find any such device until such time as you made the run, the Cerberus doesn't believe in full armament unless a ship is being deployed for a combat mission, helps maintain a low profile and makes it safer to track down any ships gone rogue. However, Shepard has given me a lot of free time lately by confining me to the ship and I get bored easily." He opened a secure storage locker and pulled out a device. It was an octangular prism in shape and about the size of a chest. "I've been wondering what would be a good excuse to deploy this."

Shepard entered at that moment and stiffened. "That looks like one of the demotion charges I deactivated on Eden Prime, Saren had ordered the Geth to destroy the entire colony with them."

"Geth are efficient" Jax replied, "their charges would have been meant to destroy the colony and not a hundred yards more. Inefficient use of both demolition resources and scorched earth. Me on the other hand," he said, patting the bomb, "I don't care much for that, this is as big and as violent a charge as you could pack into something this size."

"You don't say" Shepard noted as she watched two crewman struggle to lift it as they loaded it aboard the shuttle.

"Careful with that!" Jax yelled as one of them put it down a bit roughly, making the crewman flinch away from the bomb so violently he fell over. His face softened as he laughed, "it's powerless at the moment, perfectly safe" he told the frightened crewman, pulling him up, the power cells still in his belt. "I'm sorry," he chuckled to Shepard, "I just wanted to see what he'd do."

"Let's not make jokes about incinerating my crew" Shepard replied as she pinched the bridge of her nose. Jax had a tenacity for creating headaches for her it seemed.

Jack had already taken her seat in the shuttle, Shepard narrowed her eyes as Jack began to fidget with her hands, she was anxious about returning to the place that had made her the unrelenting weapon she was.

"We're heading out" she ordered as the nonessential crew left the cargo bay for venting. Jax joined her on the shuttle and they slipped out quietly, the only light the blue lighting as they approached the dark side of Pragia, lit up by lightning strikes in the thick clouds below. It was quiet, the only noise the humming of the engines, Jax was acutely aware of his each exhale. He was trying to avoid Shepard's gaze but it was hard when he was sat across from her, Jack beside the Commander.

"I forgot how much I hate this place" Jack suddenly blurted, providing a welcome relief from the atmosphere of almost crushing pressure. "See the landing pad?" She asked, "Has to be on the roof, otherwise the vegetation would overgrow it in a few hours."

A few hours? Jax exclaimed mentally, from seeing nature overtaking the ugliness of pollution on the seemingly idyllic Aeia so gently with vines and moss over ten years, Pragia seemed almost violent, forceful, domineering by comparison. There's a reason they chose this place he thought darkly.

"Assholes" he heard Jack finish her sentence, perfectly verbalising his own thoughts. "It was a mistake coming back here Shepard."

Jax looked up at that, there was something in the tone of her voice that didn't quite fit. Not fear, but almost insecurity. There were skeletons here that Jack had buried long ago, bones that needed incineration to properly close a door on.

"Get a hold of yourself" Shepard said, appealing to the strength in her, "we're going in."

"I'm fine" Jack said, not fooling any of the three in the shuttle. "Let's get on the ground."

The shuttle touched down gently, the repulsers lightly scorching away the few spots of moss that had sprung up on the landing pad. The tapping on the roof was now a pounding as the storm lashed against the stagnant shuttle, lightning flashes lighting up the polarised windows. The door lifted up and away to reveal the base, the roof accumulating a thick pool of water. Jax took an uncertain step out, following the others' lead. The rain was cold against his skin, and in the swirling rain it stung on his face from seemingly every direction. His hair was instantly dripping, clinging to his face. Jax felt the weight of the water running down his fingers, accumulating themselves into drops, their own weight tearing themselves away. Every world was a totally new experience, for what seemed to be the millionth time Jax wondered how he could have ever been content in his own dank, dark corner of the galaxy with so much to offer.

Jack seemingly was of less of a mood to take in the experience. "Let's just get in there and plant the bomb" she told him, "I want to watch this place burn."

The bomb was heavy, too much for Jax to shoulder alone so Jack carried it with her biotics as they entered the base. The first room was seemingly some sort of storage facility, filled with old boxes and crates. "I never saw this room" Jack said idly, "I think they brought kids in these containers. They were messed up and starving, but alive… usually."

Jax approached a container that was open, series of lines ran down each panel. Jax realised, his stomach turning cold, the lines were fingernail gouges. Someone had been trapped like an animal in that box, clawing to get out, desperate for freedom, for release. Judging by this place, they hadn't found it. Each room after that was another disturbing step through Jack's life, from the fighting arena that conditioned her bloodthirstiness, the massive child morgue, or the partial logs detailing the abuses, each detail twisted Jax's stomach a degree further. It almost seemed like a relief when they stumbled upon a Blood Pack cell, killing mercs was a definite return to normalcy.

"So strange to be back here" Jack said, her voice again blurring between the girl she had been, and the Subject she had been made to be. "I'm pissed off… shit, it's complicated, let's go plant that bomb."

Those were words Jax knew how to deal with. The next came from the Krogan merc commander across the room. "Why are you here?" Shepard asked.

"First we're gonna kill you," the Krogan replied, "then we'll see."

A lot of gunfire and a floor awash with Krogan and Vorcha blood later, things didn't work out so well for him.

"Only room left is my cell" Jack reported to Shepard, "whoever Aresh is, he's in there. I want to plant the bomb there anyway. Might as well do it on his corpse." Jax steeled himself for whoever was running the show as they entered Jack's cell, her childhood, her harbour from the torture, it was strangely humbling that she'd brought him here.

"We know you're here" Shepard called, "come out."

Jax expected a badass to answer the call, but instead came a guy who looked like a junker. Jax had seen more reputable looking people searching for salvage in Harrot's scrap.

"Who are you?" Jack demanded.

"My name is Aresh" the man said to her simply, "and you're breaking into my home. I know you Subject Zero." He took a step forward and she pointed her pistol at him, as did Jax. "All these years, I thought I was the only survivor."

Shepard began to question Aresh and each answer showed off another piece of who he was. Trapped, tied to only one spot in the galaxy, no matter how nightmarish it was or could become, he'd never be able to leave it. Jax thought of Omega, of the team, the raid on the base that had taken barely a minute to wipe out nearly everyone he'd loved. This was what his future was if he couldn't move pas that, couldn't come to terms with Garrus, find a way to not use it as a reason to hold everyone away. Aresh was a dark, ugly mirror, no matter how many times you smashed it the reflection looking back would always be the same.

A surge of biotic energy drew Jax back into the moment as Jack brought Aresh to his knees, her carnifex pointed squarely at the back of his head. "Jack, he's trapped in his past" Shepard implored, "you need to move on from yours."

"He wants to restart this place!" Jack protested, "he needs to die."

"He's never going to restart this facility" Shepard told her. "Your past doesn't have to control you."

"This isn't about my past controlling me" Jack replied angrily, "this is about making sure it doesn't become someone else's future and the only way to be certain of that is to put a bullet in his head."

"No Jack" Jax said softly, "that stops him, but it doesn't stop the next guy, or the guy after that."

"Then I'll kill them too" Jack growled.

"The only way to make sure of that is to bring him around to your side" Jax told her. "He's lost, trapped even, you don't need to blow up the maze when you can show him the way out of it."

Jack looked at him in near disgust, she had definitely expected Shepard to not be comfortable with this, but now Jax? "Fuck" she cursed, lowering her gun. "Get out of here, go!" She yelled after Aresh, who didn't need to be told twice.

"You did the right thing Jack" Shepard said.

"Maybe" Jack said, her eyes wandering over the room. "This place was my childhood" she said, the memories clouding her eyes. She wandered around the room, reliving her past with Shepard as Jax prepped the bomb. As she told Shepard how she thought the larger room was the rest of the world, Jax couldn't help but think. Everyone had their own corner of the world. In this room alone, you had an orphan from Earth, a girl raised in a single room and a boy who'd been raised in the same section of the same space station his entire life. Everyone had their own corner, but that didn't hold you back from exploring the rest of space, you just to find, or make, the opportunities to take.

"Enough wallowing" Jack said, approaching Jax. "Let's blow this place to hell."

Jax stood and handed her the remote detonator. "Trigger this on the shuttle, should be a hell of a spot of light in all this darkness." As they left the facility, Jax mentioned to Shepard. "I know we let Aresh go, but that bomb is go to turn the forest into straight ash for miles in every direction. How is he getting out of here?"

"He has his own ship" Shepard replied.

"What makes you so sure?" Jax asked.

"Because there's no way the Blood Pack would come out this far into the ass end of the Far Rim without a way home" Shepard replied.

"I see your point."

A minute later, they were back in the shuttle, lifting off. Jack was already fidgeting with the detonator, opening and closing the safety cap. The atmosphere was palpable, every fibre in Jack's body screamed at her to push that button, to wipe her past off the map once and for all. Jax could feel his own heartbeat, that bomb was like nothing he'd ever built before, he could only guess at its destructive potential and hope that he'd learnt well from Sensat's anarchist cookbook. Jack's thumb paused a beat, her digit hovering over the trigger. She looked Shepard in the eye with steel in her gaze and pressed down on the button.

"Uh oh" Jax said, watching her decision.

"'Uh oh'?" Shepard repeated, turning to him. "Why 'uh oh'?"

"We're still very much in what I think the blast radius is going to be" Jax said. "The pilot needs to speed up right now."

Shepard didn't respond but rather hammered her fist against the door the shuttle cockpit, hoping the message would convey.

There was a massive boom but it didn't subside, but the rumble began to escalate, growing louder. Shepard had been in enough explosions to know that wasn't good. The blast began to gain on them as the shuttle's engines began to whine, pushing their limits. The shockwave suddenly hit, skewing the shuttle's trajectory and sending the occupants scrambling for balance. Shepard shot her head up, alert as she braced herself back in her seat. She looked at Jax who nodded slowly, they had escaped.

The tension was suddenly cut into by Jack's laughter. "Shit Jax" she said with a smile, "you're a real treat, giving that to me. That was a proper fucking firecracker, I owe you one."

"Plenty more where that came from" Jax replied with a wink and a wicked grin.

Shepard watched him quietly, she didn't say anything but Jax had been cool under pressure, and more importantly, incredibly capable and effective. Maybe she did need to give him another chance, it demanded more thought on the issue.

When they got back to the Normandy, the pair left Jack in engineering and proceeded to the Crew Deck. Shepard went right out of the elevator into Miranda's office, Jax left into the medbay to check on Garrus.

"Shepard" Miranda greeted perfunctorily, "what can I do for you?"

"Move Jax back into active duty rosters" Shepard told her, "he proved himself a valuable part of my team today, he deserves more respect than what I've given him."

"Are you reconsidering joining the civil war on Omega for him?" Miranda asked.

"Maybe" Shepard admitted, "if he keeps his nose clean, I'll consider doing anything for a member of my crew who proves themselves loyal."

"Jax" Garrus rasped, sitting up. Doctor Chakwas saw the visitor and kindly excused herself for a cup of tea, granting them privacy. "I heard you went ground side with Shepard, how was it?"

Jax shook his head. "I did everything right Garrus, I fought well, kept my mouth shut, everything went off without a single hitch and Shepard didn't even say a damn word to me, watched me like a hawk the whole time, it was like she was waiting for me to screw up."

"I'm sorry kid" Garrus said. "Not just for this, but everything. All this excitement has me wanting to have things set right between us, the risk only gets higher from here."

"I want that too" Jax said, nodding. "I can't forget everything that's happened. It's a weight, like it holds me down, it's harder to even think knowing and seeing everything from that time, but I can't let it hold back. I still need to put it behind us, especially with the current shit going on."

"What are you talking about?" Garrus asked.

As Jax explained the situation back on Omega, how Aria had called in her favour for Jax to help her and Shepard had denied her, Garrus' eyes grew darker and darker. "We need to get you home" he eventually said after Jax had finished speaking. "If you don't go to Aria soon, eventually she'll come after you, and we both know how un-pretty that can be."

"But Shepard won't approve the mission and until Jack's mission which directly called for my expertise," Jax explained, "I'm stuck on ship maintenance duty, calibrating your gun. I've got no options, what would a Turian rebel do?"

"There's only one thing we can do" Garrus said, darkening even further. He looked behind Jax out onto the main floor of the crew deck, making sure no one was watching. "Mutiny."