Something has changed.

As Saren exited the elevator on the main level and turned to walk towards the cockpit, all the eyes of the crew were on him. But they weren't the same resentful or uneasy looks he was used to. They were commending, impressed looks and he even got a couple head nods. They looked at his geth arm, and right into his eyes. It was like they weren't afraid anymore, but rather they respected him. Although he didn't care much about the crew, this change wasn't against his will. And as he walked past them and stepped on the bridge, he saw Garrus standing in the cockpit behind Joker, waiting for him. He looked like he wanted to say something to him, and so Saren went right to him. He stopped in front of him just a step away, looking into his eyes.

Joker turned around in his chair, carefully looking at the two turians.

"I can see you're back in business." Garrus noted on a very professional tone, not removing his gaze from him. Saren nodded in reply:

"I have no interest of wasting time for any longer." His reply was very calculated, resembling Garrus' stern tone. Joker observed them in their strange way, standing like two walls.

A second later Garrus extended his right arm to him:

"Thank you for bringing her back." that was all he said, and all he needed to say. In turian customs this was counted as a massive apology, and Saren's mandibles slightly twiched in a small, sly smile.

He slammed his right hand into Garrus', and they essentially shaked hands. Joker's jaw dropped, he never thought he would see this day.

"So what is the next objective?" Saren proceeded to ask after releasing his hand and turning to the screens.

"We were just discussing that. Shepard just received a call from Admiral Hackett, she should be back soon."

"Already am" came from behind their backs and Jane entered the picture. She looked at Saren and smiled at him. "Got some orders from the Admiral. Our immediate task is to go to the Citadel. We are closer and closer to solving the topic of the Catalyst and the Crucible, and they want the ship to be ready for anything when the time comes. So the Normandy will undergo retrofits."

"What?" Joker turned back again so fast in his chair, he almost forgot about his decease.

"We have no choice unfortunately." Jane shook her head, looking at all of them. None of the men liked it, it was apparent. "I had no say in the matter. So Joker, set a course for the Citadel."

"Aye-aye" he replied sitting back. "ETA 24 hours."

"Perfect." Jane replied and left the cockpit.

The dim light of Saren's bunk enveloped him as he leaned over his desk, buried deep in work. He decided to get some work done before they arrived at the Citadel. He got the portion of the data that Tali got, and merged it with his own to try and squeeze the most information out of it. Kai Leng's omni tool was given to EDI to decode - as she was an expert in Cerberus encryptions and general data protocols which he cared little about.

He wanted to decipher as much of the reaper information as possible - he wanted to know if concentrated dark matter indeed had the effect on reaper eezo cores as they hoped. That coupled with the Catalyst's information could give them the confirmation of data accuracy they needed. If the reaper data pointed to dark matter, and the Catalyst did so too, they could be sure of at least the general idea of this Crucible.

He also looked back at historical data and small caches of evidence that could point them in the right direction. He built a board of data groups and clues, going through everything thousands of times. But somehow it did not match up.

Dark matter fit in the picture nicely apart from the fact that according to Liara there was nothing in the Crucible plans that would be hinting at dark matter being required at any point. So either the dark matter route was a dead end, or the Crucible wasn't the end in itself.

He also noticed that the theme of indoctrination or some type of mind control was all over everything. The reapers used indoctrination, the Cerberus teams were clearly indoctrinated, and it so happened that the two creatures who led Sovereign to the Mu relay back in the day (the Thorian and the rachni queen) both had mind control abilities. And this whole conflict stemmed from a species that had indoctrination as its greatest weapon: the Leviathans.

Crucible. Dark matter. Indoctrination. Leviathans. Where was this going? What was he missing?

It was then that he decided to call it a day as he did not seem to get any further at the moment. He buried his face in his palm and just sit there for a second before deciding to visit Jane. He was in the mood to have some drinks and just let go for a bit after all the drama. He entered the shower and all the time her kiss played in his mind. How she looked at him… her husky voice, her touch on his spine.

Forcing an end to his thoughts he finished with the shower, grabbed some clothes and headed to her cabin. But when he exited the elevator, he stopped in his tracks. Her door just swooshed open as he got in its vicinity, clearly not closed.

"Jane?" he asked, slowly stepping in. Was she downstairs already? He decided to look for her in the observation room - but upon turning around he looked right.

And there was a very surprised, freshly showered, unclothed Jane, just a towel covering her body. He didn't even have time to blink, and she already won. Instead of shouting or running back to the bathroom, she smiled.

And that smile was everything but innocent.

She didn't do anything, just sank into one of her hips, letting the towel naturally move with her curves. As she moved, Saren's eyes followed her hips and his breathing stopped for a second. His mandibles slowly moved in amazement and Jane's smile widened. He was well aware that he was in a trap now, and suddenly he wasn't so sure about who the predator was.

He took a step forward closing the distance between them and looked into her eyes. If she wants to play games, he was not going to stand in her way.

"It's not appropriate for a Commander of a ship to drink with squadmates dressed only in a towel.." he teased, stroking her collarbone with a single talon, causing her to look up at him, revealing her neck.

"I was planning on getting dressed, and then you intruded!" she purred, letting him dig into her hair while she touched his chest, slowly caressing it. She already felt the blood rushing to her face. He looked irresistible to her.

"You were planning on getting dressed? So not anymore?" he asked.

"You wish!" she laughed and pushed him away from herself. She motioned with her head towards the door and commanded "Wait outside!"

Ouch! She was feisty and Saren put his hands up, pretending to give up, a large smile looming on his face. She disappeared into the bathroom and he left the room to wait for her at the elevator. No one ever had the nerves to just outright kick him out. Her flames were burning him and he loved it. All of his predatory instincts were waking up now.

He did not have a lot of time to himself, as Jane didn't keep him waiting for long. After a minute she arrived next to him and pressed the elevator button. She was wearing just fitting jeans and a simple shirt, and she still looked like a goddess to him.

They got into the elevator and went for the crew deck. They went to their favourite place, which was of course the observation room. Drinks and stars, it would be perfect. But as soon as the door swooshed open, it became apparent that they were going to have no privacy.

The room was filled with crew members, sharing drinks and snacks, and Saren's face turned from playful and predatory to outright evil in a second.

"Oiii Saren!" Garrus said as he stood up with a tone that suggested that was not his first drink. He almost spilled the horosk. "Finally someone who can really drink!" Saren walked over to him and accepted the challenge. He poured himself some horosk and sat down with the others. Jane also did the same, and they found themselves sitting across from each other.

Saren was letting himself go and the air just changed around him. It was almost like the others were looking up to him. It seemed saving her from a reaper and losing an arm in the process was what won the crew. They weren't wary around him anymore, and they involved him in the conversations. But out of all of them it was Tali who seemed most comfortable with him. She was inspecting his geth arm, quickly giving him upgrade suggestions. He was looking at Jane the whole time.

She was sitting in front of him, sipping her drink, legs crossed. As he drank the horosk and looked at her his thoughts roamed free, detached from the party. It did not matter how many of them were there, he only saw her eyes, her lips hugging the glass as she drank. Every one of her moves was playing with his mind, inviting him but restricting him. He'd been with many women over the years, but none of them he wanted as bad as he wanted her. Her… she played him. She was playful, silently flirting with him, smiling. But whenever they'd have a moment she'd turn away from him. It was a game very similar to the one they played back in the day in the Pulsar.

It amazed him. She was enjoying every moment of him trying to catch her.

He found a prey enjoying the hunt.

That night when the party finally ended, he entered his shower full of ideas.

Citadel.

When they arrived at the station, the crew disappeared immediately. They went god knows where and Shepard was fine with it. The Normandy was now under retrofits, so everyone had to make do with a forced shore leave. Not like they were against it… but Jane definitely wasn't happy. She was anxious about the data that Saren and EDI were working on, but she eventually realized that she needed to relax. And Anderson's apartment came at the best possible time.

Two days already passed since the retrofits started and since she saw Saren. The turian just disappeared right after they docked and was unreachable. He was planning something, she knew, but she had no idea what it was. But now she was left here, all alone, and suddenly Anderson contacts her and ends up giving her his apartment.

That apartment was crying for a giant party.

"Commander!" Joker screamed as he entered the loft with EDI "This is what I always wanted! You're so kind!"

"The apartment is mine Joker" she said, getting his joke but breaking it down at the same time "Although you're welcome to stay anytime."

"Yeah, if the reapers don't kill us..." he sighed, but quickly got back to cracking jokes as he met the others. They've been going at it for a couple hours now and it started getting more and more serious. Vega and Javik already started losing themselves, while the others still held on. The only one who did not have a single drink was her. She looked at her friends, left the room and went into the bathroom.

She looked in the mirror and made sure everything was in place. She was wearing a bright red, tight dress. She made sure it had no creases around her hips when she heard the doorbell. She smiled into the mirror immediately. There was only one person missing from the party.

She slowly walked out and opened the door. A very elegant, handsome turian stood there, dressed in a simple, expensive black robe, a scarf around his neck. Saren was eyeing her from top to bottom, his pale plates looking almost white against the black of his suit. The blue in his eyes became darker as he inspected her curves, her beautiful tousled red hair and her silverish eyes. He smiled.

"Hey"

"Hey" she replied, motioning for him to come inside. He shook his head without saying anything. "Why?" she asked in a questioning tone, but before she could wait for any sort of answer, he reached his arm out, caught her arm and pulled her out of the apartment.

"I want to show you something." he purred, his face inches away from her.

"Glyph" she purred, not removing her gaze from his "Take care of the party for me while I return."

"Of course." replied the VI and Saren reached his arm up and shut the door. They were now all alone, and he turned around.

"Come." said Saren, completely calm, even though he heard Jane's heartbeat going up with excitement. She was smiling wildly behind his back, playfully looking at him.

"Where are we going?" she asked, inspecting his gorgeous, strong back while following him to the elevator and down to the ground floor.

"Somewhere you've never been before." They just came outside as he said that, a sly smile appearing on his face. He casually motioned at the shuttle standing right there. It was an all black vehicle, not a speck of dirt on it. He opened up the doors and nodded for her to get in. It was apparent the shuttle was his, as there were hardly any models like this available for private renting.

Once in the car, he settled his talons on the wheel and turned to look at her. He was smiling again, his mandibles parting from his face. "You ready?" As she looked into his eyes, he had no idea where they were going, but whatever it was, she was ready for it, or at least she thought. It seemed he had something special prepared for her. "Right."

But what happened she was not prepared for. Saren started the engine, but instead of taking off and taking a completely normal direction, the shuttle turned upright and started flying parallel with the buildings, up towards the sky. Jane's breathing skipped for a second in surprise as the turian stepped on the gas pedal so hard, they were flying up like a rocket.

She immediately started laughing, that made him satisfied. He knew she'd love a crazy drive, considering her driving skills were hellish and dangerous as well. And he was right. He heard her heart going off the charts, and saw the spark in her eyes. It encouraged him to push it even further, and he did. The buildings faded next to them and they could only see the darkness of the sky and the lights of the opposite arm of the Citadel. The pressure became stronger and stronger, shaking the shuttle until it suddenly released and Saren let go of the gas. He pressed a button, then turned the main engine off. He pressed the wheel forward, which resulted in the shuttle turning in its way.

"Look." was all he said, looking out the windshield.

Jane didn't have to look outside to see what was happening.

They were above all of the buildings, not on the Ward anymore, but drifting in the middle of the station in open space. As he turned off the main engine, and moved the wheel they turned in the vacuum looking right towards to heart of the station: the ring of the Presidium and the Citadel Tower.

She looked into the ring, hypnotized by the beauty of it.

"This is the view you see when you invade the Citadel aboard a reaper." he said, looking into the giant ring. She still remembered when she saw Sovereign latch onto the Citadel tower, bringing him along. And what happened that day.

"We're not going to invade today, are we?" she asked, trying some humour.

He silently smiled, moving his hand to the switch. "Correct." He pressed the button and the engine was back up again. He turned the shuttle around and drove it towards the end of the station, but still not going back down to the buildings. She just looked at him as he drove, obviously not back to her apartment. He had a serious face.

She never knew that the past was haunting him still. It seemed he was still feeling the things he felt years ago: the struggling, the loneliness still didn't disappear completely. It was like a deep, hurtful scar, a secret in the darkness.

"We're here" Saren said, closing in on one of the skyscrapers, still deep within the vacuum. They circled the building and he drove the shuttle smoothly into one of the garages at the side of the building. The air shutters closed in and as soon as the atmosphere was balanced out, he nodded to her to exit the shuttle.

"Where are we?" she asked as she circled the vehicle and casually put her arm on his. Saren's mandibles twitched in a mysterious smile. They stepped into an elevator and he pressed the button of the floor above them.

"It's my place."

The elevator doors opened and Jane saw the most beautiful apartment that ever existed. It was giant, with an enormous window covering all of the walls on one side. Guns on the grey, metal walls, and high tech everywhere. She stepped forward and breathed it all in, looking at the view that looked right at the Presidium ring.

"I imagined you'd live in something like this" she smiled, turning back to face him with an approving expression. He stepped closer to her, ignoring what she just said, and stroked her cheeks with a talon. He heard her heart respond to his touch again, and proceeded to curl a strand of her red hair around his finger.

A shiver ran through her at his touch. She let him drive his hand down the length of her neck, only to stroke her hair again, moving it away from her neck, behind her shoulders. She looked at him, his features, and wondered what went on in his mind. She got her answer when their eyes met.

A heavy blue lingered in his eyes, almost black from the sensation, from the force he felt pulling him to her.