"IF I sabotage the cure" Jane's voice rang through the comm room, her expression was dark and violent, and the dalatrass was watching her every move.
"Think about it Commander, the choice is yours." she said, trying to persuade her.
"The choice is mine" she replied "So now you can get the hell out of my operation!"
And with that, Jane aggressively disconnected the call.
"Twat" she murmured under her nose and turned to leave the comm room. She had just enough time to put her armor on, and go for the shuttle, but Wrex suddenly blocked her way.
"Shepard, if you bring that bastard with you-" panted the krogan, visibly angry and obviously talking about Saren. A scolding look appeared on Jane's face.
"Wrex, we already talked about this" and they did indeed. It was hard enough to convince Wrex that bringing Saren along wasn't a complete and utter suicide, and now he was at it again as it seemed. "I need to see him in action, otherwise we'll never get to the bottom of this."
"He cannot be trusted" he mumbled, stepping close to the commander "He's going to ruin everything. And when that happens, I'll crush you."
"We'll cure the genophage, you have my word." she looked deep into his eyes to make her point "And I always keep my word."
Saren was right when he mentioned last night that this would be too easy. A reaper was standing between them and the shroud, so they had a diversion plan in place now, with some turian air force. Shepard and the ground team arrived on Tuchanka, and Eve had quickly managed to cool down the argument between Wreav and Wrex so they could get on their way with the convoy to reach the shroud in time.
Wrex did not even look at Saren the whole time, trying to ignore him as best as he could, and Jane saw that. She wasn't even sure Wrex was going to come around, but he did - his planet and people was a lot more important to him than some old enemy.
And Saren knew nothing about this - he was aware that Wrex was also one of Jane's old crew, but never really cared much to look into detail about him. He figured it was a mistake he made back then; considering that this warlord was now uniting the krogan…
They sat in the vehicle, chatting away, laughing about the poor dalatrass who tried to bribe Jane and ended up helping them by revealing that the Shroud had to be fixed before distributing the cure.
Shepard just sat down next to Saren, finishing her chat with Eve.
"It's ironic." Saren started quietly, gazing at the empty seats in front of him. Shepard looked at him in a strange way, and he looked back at her.
"What's ironic?" she asked, mimicking his quiet voice.
"I have found a cure for the genophage, to use the krogan to help the reapers." his voice was husky and dark, and he did not remove his gaze from Jane. "And now you're curing the genophage, to use the krogan against the reapers."
For a second, Jane didn't know what to say.
Saren's eyes were the usual cold blue, but there was an unknown emotion to them that she experienced for the first time here. His voice was cruel, but not towards her.. Towards himself?
"Would you" she started, whispering, making sure Wrex and Eve didn't hear them "cure the genophage in my place?"
"Yes" he said without hesitation, but the emotion was gone from his eyes now. His cold logic had returned. "The krogan will be excellent additions to the war effort. You can find salarian support and intel on every corner of the Citadel, but krogan.. are hard to get. You would be a fool not to ignore the dalatrass and not use her information to your advantage."
"Thanks!" she chirped, unexpectedly so for Saren, but before any of them could speak more, the convoy suddenly stopped.
"Hey, why are we stopping?" Wrex jumped up.
"Hold on!" Shepard said, exiting the rover and motioning for the ground team to follow. So Garrus and Saren jumped down too, and began to look around.
There wasn't much to look at here, other than the Shroud tower in the distance and the giant destroyer-class reaper in front of it. The Shroud was emanating a poisonous, green fume into the air - most likely directly harmful for Eve.
"Mordin, Wrex, stay with Eve" she said into her comms "It's quite ugly here..." she looked at the tower again, just for a second, a sick feeling in her stomach. But as it came, it went, and she turned to look at what had stopped them.
It was a giant crack in the road, destroyed by whatever and who knows when. The surface of Tuchanka was all rubble, so this wasn't a surprise. She cursed under her nose and turned around.
"Artimec, This is Shepard. Hold off your attack, we-"
[Negative, the reaper knows we're here] came through the comms, and at that moment the squadron appeared above their faces, going right for the reaper. The situation just got a lot busier: the squadron started circling around the reaper, and soon noises of battle could be heard.
"Damn" she hissed, and ordered the scout to move ahead, despite the roughness of the road.
"Shepard!" Garrus warned, and she turned to look. One fighter was already shot by the reaper, and it flew right above their head, dangerously close. As it crashed behind them, the road shook and sent everyone standing to the ground. The rovers fired up their engines to try and leave this place right away.
"Jane, we have to get out of here!" Saren shouted, but as soon as he tried to stand up, he noticed another ship in the air.
One of the fighters that were onto the reaper now trying to keep it busy in the distance, had flown right into the laser. The ship's rear end immediately blew up, sending the wreck towards the convoy still standing on the highway.
The ship crashed exactly into the middle of them, sending three of the rovers in the air. Shepard hit the ground again as thick smoke covered them. The way was blocked for the rest of them now.
"Go, go go!" she shouted into the comms to Wrex, creeping away from the way of the convoy. Two rovers fired their way through the crack in the road, and left them there. As they made their way on the high road, out of the hot zone, Jane stood up and turned around to look for the others.
"Down!" came a loud shout from Saren, and the turian threw himself on her. Another fighter sore through the air above them, crashing into the road, causing a second explosion that covered them in more dust and debris. They lay flat on the ground and Jane started to have enough about not being able to stand up without the goddamn road blowing up.
[Commander, we have to abort!] came from the comms, as Shepard lifted her face, looking right into Saren's eyes.
[Aye, we have to find another way. Try and save your men instead!] she agreed, and as she finished speaking, Saren stood and helped her up by her arm.
"Ok" she sighed, looking past Saren, searching for Garrus with her eyes "Let's find another way.."
"Commander, there is a tunnel here" Garrus was standing at the edge of the road, looking at a small opening in the wall, leading to some underground tunnel. They made their way in there, while Shepard got in touch with Wrex to discuss the next steps. They had to meet up.
"We're in some kind of a tunnel" she explained, as she jumped over the ledge and into the darkness.
[That's the city of the ancients] Eve's voice rang through her omnitool [These tunnels are trailblazers.]
"Great… we'll try to find a way through, meet you up there."
The flashlights turned on and as they made their way into the tunnels, the noises of the surface faded away. The tunnels were undisturbed, black and cold. They could hear each others steps: the strong, calculated moves of Garrus, the slow, heavy steps of Saren and the light, speedier ones of Shepard.
Saren's ears were sharp and he could hear every move in the tunnels. He was listening to his surroundings, trying to focus on the silence, to make sure that if anything happens, he would hear it. But besides the low, slow rumbling of the earth above and beneath them, he could only hear light tapping on the ground, which was Jane.
She moved swiftly, but slowly, not wanting to disturb the peace of the tunnels, considering the carvings of a giant thresher maw that filled the place, probably not by accident. But the more he wanted to concentrate on the tunnels, the more rhythmic her sounds seemed to become. Her steps faded away now, and a low, quiet beat started to take its place. As his eyes got used to the place, her silhouette became more visible, and the beat became faster and faster.
It was her heartbeat.
The ground suddenly shook above them, and he heard her heart throb a little in her chest. He never listened to a human's heartbeat before as there was no need, and didn't want to listen to it now either, but his ears just wouldn't focus.
They found more carvings, statues of krogan and even rachni. The rumbling of the ground became louder by the minute, and they were informed that Kalros "the mother of all thresher maws" lives here… that was when they finally found the light, and set their eyes on Hope, the only ancient city on Tuchanka that still resembled proper civilization.
Garrus was walking behind them, his eyes not leaving Saren for even a second. He trusted Jane, but he was also her best friend, and had to protect her. So far, it seemed like Saren wasn't planning anything: he was acting like any other turian or squadmate would do in these situations, but was awfully quiet. He wasn't sure if that was because he hated following orders but decided not to vocalize them, or was just simply concentrating on the objective.
Who knew…
But with Jane being amazed by the ruins, Saren trying not to focus on Jane, and Garrus spending every second trying to figure out Saren, the sudden thunderous sound that came from the sky surprised them all. A reaper outpost appeared in front of them, mostly ravagers and swarmers.
And Shepard did not waste a single second. She opened up her arms, and a biotic aura appeared around her. All it took was one step forward.
She jumped so fast, the others could barely move their head to look. She was in the middle of the enemy in the beat of a heart, and submerged into the one thing she was best at: war. Her biotics flared, and she punched one of the creatures right in the face with such a force, that she almost fell over herself. The monster practically flew away, and as another one of them attacked her, she raised her gun and shot it right in the face. As others came closer she raised her hand free of her gun, and with a single wave of force she wiped away most of them.
She turned her head to look behind her back, but to her surprise Saren was right there, next to her. He was squeezing the life out of a husk that was almost on her back: saving her life probably. He broke the husk's neck and threw it away like a doll.
The fire in his eyes was maddening. His mandibles twitched in a playful way and Jane knew that the moment has come for them to dance once again.
Garrus was standing behind covers, anxiously staring into his scope, shooting the targets that were left free by his commander and Saren. It wasn't the first and last time Shepard jumped in like this: it was one of her favourite moves to deliver - to just jump into the face of the enemy and harass them until they fall out of their formation and are easily defeated. His role in these times was to cover Shepard: to make sure no one grabs on her or puts her down from the back. But when Saren joined the commander his blood started to boil. What a pain in the ass...
But Saren did not leave from her side. He made every second worthwhile for Shepard as he worked in her favor: he did not have any biotic abilities - like most turians - but what he was good at was strength. He would crash into the creatures and just throw them in Shepard's way, and she would swarm them with her biotics. He'd break their arms and necks, shooting them in half, only to be swept away by Jane's pure wrath.
It took them bare minutes to finish the squad off, and now they were standing alone amidst a pile of corpses.
"Whoah" she panted as she removed her helmet to let her hair fly everywhere "I see you weren't lying when you said you liked direct combat!"
Saren hesitated to answer for a fraction of a second, but her eyes encouraged him, teasing him almost.
"But you forgot to tell me you're a destroyer.." he growled, his mandibles twitching again.
He could tell she liked the snarky comeback.
After that they went through Hope like a dreadnought through an antique shop, wrecking the place behind them, and they could not stop for a second. With Garrus behind their backs, covering their tracks, they could let loose.
Jane was not holding herself back, she didn't need to. Saren was moving in a way that made everything easy for her, almost like he could tell her next moves. He threw and pushed the monsters in a way that they always got swept away by her biotics, and she saw that it wasn't even a stretch for him. He looked more alive than she ever saw him before. He looked free, and careless, getting back his own strength. The exercise moved all of his muscles, stretching the sore joints, rushing the blood in his body. He became faster and stronger with every minute, his steps got heavier, his strikes bigger, his eyes more alive.
And that moved her too.
The ticking of the cybernetics in her had faded somehow, and she felt really in control of her body now. She felt a heat, a strange drive that urged her to move faster and better, to hit every target and to crush every creature. Her biotics became stronger by the minute, and she was soon effortlessly throwing the monsters to their fate.
Before they knew it, they were on the bridge, looking over the trucks.
"There, we need to move right away!" shouted Garrus, pointing into the sand, towards the two trucks. The ground started shaking and as they made their way to the vehicle, giant spikes rose from the ground just near them: Kalros was closing in.
[Shit, Shepard, get over here!] shouted Wrex, frustrated, eyeing the thresher maw.
Shepard was the first to arrive, but she stopped at the wheels: waiting for the others. Garrus came right after her and jumped into the vehicle. Saren was just behind him, but the thresher maw was getting closer and closer, knocking up the ground in front of them. A tremor came and Saren stopped for a second as he almost fell, along with Shepard. He was only a meter away, so Jane reached out and grabbed his arm. As she pulled him, they fell flat into the rover, Kalros rushing away only meters away from them.
"Go, Wrex, go!" she screamed, and they drove away.
They stopped at the Shroud, and after a quick assessment of their new plan, the ground team started to head in the direction of the facility.
"I have to say this plan is quite intriguing.." commented Saren, still pumped from the fighting session at Hope. The plan was simple to think of, but harder to carry out: The Shroud was built into an arena that had two of the biggest maw hammers on the planet. Sounding these hammers would summon Kalros to the reaper at once: distracting it long enough for the ground team and Mordin to reach the facility and release the cure.
They had to fight through a couple monsters, but nothing they couldn't handle. But when they saw the reaper… it had paralyzed them all.
"Holy shit" Shepard sighed, as she looked at the reaper that was guarding the tower. It was a giant monster, destroyer-class, standing on its four legs, firm, like an ancient statue. When she stepped out of her cover to reach the bridge they were standing on, its core had turned to Jane.
And it looked right into her eyes. She froze for a second, swallowing down her nerves, as she realized that this will be the first time they'll go against a reaper face to face. The first time for Saren, on foot. She looked behind her. Saren was also looking at the reaper, his eyes fixated on it.
He did not move, not an inch. He moved his gaze slowly to look at Jane, and as their eyes met, he felt her heart throb again. The reaper made both of them sick to the stomach.
"Shepard!" Garrus screamed, and Saren had to move in a fraction of a second.
The machine raised its plates, and as Shepard was stuck in her thoughts, it had fired. She was pushed by Saren to the side, so the laser hit the bridge, ripping it to pieces.
Both of them and even Garrus fell down on the collapsing bridge. Rubble was everywhere, and they were on the ground, trying to stand up. They had no time at all, the reaper started firing at them again, forcing them to break up and duck behind covers on the two sides of the bridge leading to the tower. Shepard pushed her back to one of the monuments there, removing her broken shoulder plate.
Saren could smell her blood immediately, and for some reason he wanted to go to her, but he could not risk it.
"Can't you just take control over it like you did with the derelict reaper?" came the question from Garrus who was right behind Saren. The reapers hellish voice tore through the air, disturbing then conversation.
"No" he growled "That reaper was practically dead, it had the tech but no mind." he explained "This one certainly doesn't lack anything… I can't hack it."
"Well then, guess we have to do this the old fashioned way!" he smiled, and jumped out of the cover, running right through the bridge to hide behind another statue.
Shepad and Saren also decided to go, and jumped from their cover to make a run for it. The reaper was standing at the same spot, it did not move ahead. They were so close they could see the cracks on its plates, and feel the heat coming from its targeting core.
"Are you shitting me?!" came a scream from Shepard from behind, who - to Saren's surprise - had the time to look up at the reaper while running from cover to cover; her eyes staring right into the face of the beast, not caring about the rubble falling everywhere and scratching her face, nor the laser burning her eyes. "What a giant freaking bug!" she screamed again, her tone was almost amused, but angry at the same time.
It was clear to Saren now that Jane loved to fight, but despised the reapers.
And spirits, did she hate them with a passion. She wanted to tear the reaper down to the core and spit on it, make it go away. But for that she had to run, and she did. They were almost at the hammers, but the reaper was not done shooting at them. That's when the turian wing arrived again: distracting the reaper, so they could make their move into the arena.
As they ran, they passed the reaper's legs, and were now under it. The sheer size of that thing was horrifying to look at. The sound it emanated was ripping through their ears.. And it had two brutes under its feet.
"Mordin, status report!" Jane shouted into her comms, her voice a bit shaky, trying to round the monster that was charging at her. She tried shooting it but it had lots of armor, and barely felt the gunshots.
[Vitals steady, but weak. Cure is almost ready.]
Garrus jumped on the back of the brute, cracking its armor and shooting it from behind, that allowed Saren and Shepard to focus on the other one. They only had a moment to react as it was already charging on them. Shepard jumped away from it, and fired a few shots into his back. Saren did the same, but also grabbed a grenade, motioning at Shepard to run.
"Go, activate the hammer!" he commanded, a tone in his voice that meant, that this was not to be refused. Jane understood and turned her back to them and charged for the hammer on the right. The turian fighters just scored a hit: setting the reaper back, forcing it to adjust.
A giant claw crashed into the ground, almost crushing Jane as she went. Her body was thrown back by the impact and she fell to the ground. Her heart rate was all over the place at this point, blood rushed in her brain. She just barely reached the hammer and pushed her hand on the activation console as the whole site trembled again from the weight of the fight. The turian ships were crashing all around and she knew they didn't have much time.
She headed back to where she came from: the battlefield of brutes and turians, which had the other hammer on the opposite site. She saw Garrus and Saren fighting the monsters. Garrus just finished his, but Saren still fought the creature. Jane decided this was the perfect time to sneak away next to them - and by sneaking she meant running - while they were distracted. What she didn't count upon was the brute that had Saren entertained would notice her in its peripheral.
"Jane!" a growl escaped from Saren's throat that sounded more like a cry: a warning. An unheeded warning.
As she passed them, the brute reached out his arm and grabbed her. It lifted her in the air by her core, and slammed her to the ground.
The cry that Saren heard coming out of her mouth was shocking and he was almost sure the beast broke her in half.
He moved faster that he had ever done before. Without thinking he ripped off his gloves and jumped on its back, and with one swift move, he pulled the head of the beast back, and moved to slit its throat with his claws. But it had long arms, and reached behind its back. It grabbed Saren too, and like a ragdoll it threw him to the ground as well.
Right on top of the commander.
"Fucking hell..!" she screamed from behind him.
"Jane?" he jerked his neck to look behind him on the ground where the commander was, and found her already standing up, pouting at how could he fall on top of her. She was still alive? How was she so strong? He was baffled, to say the least.
But the brute was coming again. It charged at them and lifted its arms to slam them right on top of them. Within a blink of an eye, Saren climbed on his knees and blocked the strike with his forearm. Shepard's eyes widened in shock, the sheer force of the turian shook her to the very core. It was beautiful, but she had to move. She turned around, and with one biotic charge, she made her way to the other hammer. She activated it, and a quake ran through the ground.
And Kalros appeared.
Shepard stormed back to the team while the reaper's shadow disappeared from above them, replaced by Kalros' silhouette. The fight of the two creatures tore the ground apart, and they did not have a chance to look.
"Go back to the truck!" she commanded, but as she did the ground split underneath them. Garrus fell behind, but Saren threw himself on her, pushing her out of the way.
They ended up on the wrong side.
"I told you to go back!" she scolded, but he was not taking her command. Why would he?
"Not now!" he spat, and grabbed her, removing her from the spot she landed at, saving her life once again as rocks crushed to the ground at that spot.
They stood up and started running like hell to the tower. The arena was crumbling around them, and spikes of concrete broke up, hitting them everywhere as they tried to evade the falling rubble. They finally stepped on the bridge when it split right in half as the maw slammed the reaper to the ground, its laser burning the ground.
He jumped over to the other side and she followed. He made sure to catch her by her waist.
And with that, Kalros wiggled its tail, crushing half of the arena and a giant krogan statue above their heads. As the adrenaline in their blood spiked to its climax, they pushed away from each other and the statue collapsed to the ground between them. The spectres fell to the side.
Kalros wrapped the reaper in its tail, and dragged it under the ground.
And they watched from front row seats.
Shepard sat up.
She rose with a fire in her body, her heart pounding from excitement. She looked over the giant, broken krogan statue that fell between them, but she could not see Saren. She moved to jump over it to check him, but he suddenly raised his head up.
His pale plates were covered in dust and sand, but his eyes were as bright as ever, looking straight at her. She could see his chest rise and fall, his pupils darken. He was amused.
She couldn't help a smile, and not any kind of smile.
Her whole face lit up, and as her mouth curved, her sparkling eyes narrowed. She was covered in sand, and her fiery hair fell over her armor like true chaos.
"Was that direct enough for you?" she asked, jokingly, almost laughing. "That was awesome!" She was almost broken in half and killed just minutes ago, but she was smiling, like it was all just entertainment for her.
She was fucking crazy for sure.
But she was also eerily beautiful.
"Had better before, but it was okay.." he said, a huge amount of playful sarcasm in his voice. It was a hell of a ride.
"Eat shit" she said, now laughing.
He chuckled, as means of teasing her. His mandibles pulled apart, and a strange, comforting sound escaped his chest. It was the first time she had seen his face like this, so free, so… genuine.
And they somehow just connected. They both felt it. Suddenly, they just started getting each other naturally. They did not seem so different now, on the contrary - it seemed like them being enemies and not understanding each other was the stupidest thing that could ever go down. It could happen that they were more similar than they thought.
He had to have a sparring session with her.