Joker set the approach vector, still trying to raise the Tower on the com, asking for permission to dock. There was no answer. Jo stood next to him with a sinking feeling in her guts. She had a suspicion that this birthday would be a hell of a day. When Joker finally got Thane on an emergency channel, Jo had full confirmation: the shit had officially hit the fan.

"Are you safe?" She asked her friend, more worried about him at the moment than anyone else.

"No," he said with his characteristic bluntness. "I had to evade commandos at the hospital. Now I'm in a Presidium storefront."

"Have you heard anything about Alenko?"

"He said he had to protect the Council."

"He accepted the Spectre position, then?" Jo almost involuntarily grabbed Joker's shoulder and squished none too gently. He didn't say anything about the pain.

"Yes," Thane confirmed her worst fear. Alenko, the most unfit person to be a Spectre, was guarding the Council?

Something was missing, though. Usually when she arrived somewhere to fix things, they had already gone completely FUBAR. So far she wouldn't say FUBAR about this situation, which meant that more bad news was waiting for her along the way. Nothing was ever easy.

Joker dropped them off in a shuttle and Garrus grumbled when Jo left him in charge of the ship. She took Javik and Vega with her. They reached C-Sec and met up with Bailey, who told them about Councillor Valern's warning about betrayal from inside. Whatever information the man had on Udina, Jo needed him alive. But when she and her team got to the Executor's office, she found the Executor and two salarian bodyguards dead.

"If you don't see the Councillor's body, don't count him out yet," Bailey advised. Jo looked through a window to a larger office and found Valern hiding, but unharmed. Just as she was about to exhale the tension, a shadow dropped from the upper level.

Jo's brain short-circuited:

Dossier: Name: Kai Leng. Designation: N7, full Combat Specialisation. Status: dishonourably discharged in 2176 (personal note: same year he'd received his N7 status) for a first degree murder and sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment, escaped, current whereabouts and allegiances unknown. Correction: Affiliation with Cerberus confirmed. Sentence: extermination on sight.

Jo's brain rattled off the intel that had been etched into it from the day she joined ICT. Accidentally, or maybe not so much, she had been invited into the program in the very same year of Kai Leng's success and fall from grace. It was extremely rare that the IC Academy dishonourably discharged one of their own. It was even rarer for an agent to receive a death sentence of the EOS kind. Even rarer was the fact that it was an N7, one of the most accomplished agents the Academy produced. As far as she knew there had been only four cases like Kai Leng in the entire history of ICT.

Her body reacted to the conditioning without any delay. She shot out the window and jumped through, spooking Leng into hiding behind the Councillor. The guy was good. Jo wouldn't miss a shot at this distance, even if she had to singe Valern's hood to do it, but the Councillor's shields and cloaking device would most likely change the bullet's trajectory and make it miss her target. Leng knew it.

"Three on one, pal," Jo said when James and Javik joined her. "It's over."

"No, now it's fun," the man said, preparing a biotic attack.

Suddenly Jo was ripped out of her training-induced trance: Thane appeared behind Leng and engaged him in a battle that allowed her team to secure the Councillor. Jo halted her execution plans for Leng and stopped to watch the two men. She'd trained with Thane for months, but hell, even she wasn't that good. Kai Leng had more implants in his body than organic material, and combined with his N7 level of Combat training he was scarily good. Thane was his even match. She could barely even see them until it was too late. Leng paused and pulled his bloody sword out of Thane's chest.

Fuck! Now he had her personal death sentence, not just the one from ICT.

Like the coward that he was, Leng ran, leaving Thane in a bloody heap on the floor. Jo rushed to her friend, but Thane sent her after Leng, telling her he still had some time left. She knew it didn't look good, not with a chest wound like this. It broke Jo's heart to leave him and run after his murderer, but Thane wouldn't have it any other way.

Leng jumped on a car to escape her. Neat trick. The guy's body and mind had a level of agility that Jo never bothered to obtain. She had taken the obligatory combative courses in the academy, focusing on leadership after that. Whatever she'd lacked in physical training she tried to get through extensive training with each of her new companions along the way. Leng was a whole different level of warrior. His sole focus, passion and talent was physical combat. Jumping cars, doing a triple-flip salto from a rooftop, bending his body twice around that fucking sword of his - physically Leng was a little bit out of Jo's league.

However, the man had been tossed out of the family for a reason. His heart was rotten and his mental state unstable. Jo had no doubt that he would lose eventually just because she was better at everything else than him.

With a heavy heart she left Thane to be taken care of by C-Sec officers and jumped into the nearest car to go after Udina and the other Councillors. Leng was probably going the same way, trying to finish what he'd started with Valern. Bailey quickly sent her the location she needed and Jo set course, when a heavy shadow suddenly landed right in front of her.

Jumping on top of a moving car! Jo couldn't help but be almost impressed with the agile and resilient fucker. But that didn't last long.

"I've had it with this boshtet!" She roared and opened the car door. If she needed to start jumping moving vehicles to get this guy, she would learn to do that, no problem.

"What the fuck is she doing, Vega?!" Joker shouted in their coms when Jo leaned out of the car, dangling half a kilometre above ground, as she shot a full clip at Leng. The car tilted while no one was steering it, until Vega scurried into the driver's seat she'd vacated.

"Talk to you later," he growled at Joker, as he grabbed the controls and tried his best to keep the car even and Jo from falling. Jo paid none of them any attention. Her eyes were locked on Leng's black figure, his soulless eyes behind the implants, the ease with which he balanced on the car roof, and his sword that he rammed into the engine. Fucking Cerberus gave him such strong shields that none of her bullets came even close to him. Fuck!

Leng jumped into another car, while her own caught fire and the engine failed. It keeled over so much that suddenly Jo was hanging over the abyss by her fingertips. The strain was difficult to handle, the turbulence was throwing her around like a rag doll, but she could see from a glimpse at Vega that the young man was doing his absolutely fucking best to keep her alive.

She held on for dear life as Javik growled from the back seat, Joker yelled something in their coms and Vega gritted his teeth, steering the burning car to the nearest flat surface. He couldn't prevent a crash, not with the engine falling apart mid-air, but at least he gave her a chance to hit the ground running. Story of her life.

The three of them barely cleared the debris before the car finally exploded.

"Johanna Victoria Shepard, answer me right this moment!" Joker sounded really panicked and really pissed in the com.

"Yes, dear," she groaned, collecting her battered body from the ground.

"What the fuck are you doing?!"

"Whatever I have to."

"Are you fucking insane?!" He almost shrieked.

"Why, yes. Don't tell me you just found that out," she tried for a joke, but it was clear that this stunt had rattled him worse than any other dangerous situation he'd seen her in.

"You... I..." Her man lost speech for good. She couldn't blame him - he was only worried about her, as was his right to be. "You will not die on me on your own fucking birthday!"

"I'll do my best," she said. On the one hand his outburst was highly unprofessional. On the other hand Jo had been waiting her whole life to have someone who would care if she lived or died. She wouldn't change that for the world.

They moved towards the location Bailey gave them and promptly ran into Cerberus troops slaughtering civilians. Jo worked her way past most of them when suddenly a sick feeling in the back of her neck made her stop in her tracks.

"Eesh!" She yipped with little dignity when a small figure jumped from the nearby corner and swiped at her with a sword. The little warning of her battle instincts saved her life by less than an inch.

Javik opened fire while Jo was still getting back her footing, but the little person in Cerberus uniform was almost too quick and agile to hit. It took the three of them several minutes and a few close calls to put the attacker down. Even Leng wasn't that good. Jo needed to look into this type of Cerberus training because this one person could have easily dispatched of all three of them if they got a real jump on them. Jo couldn't even tell if it was a man or a woman, but knowing how much Reaper tech Cerberus put into their soldiers, it probably didn't really matter.

When they were done, Jo collected the sword from the dead body. The weapon caught her interest because it had sliced through her shields, barriers and armour as if they weren't even there. Whatever technology it was, it could be the only thing that would get to Kai Leng through his impressive shields. Even if Jo had to un-dust her rusty skills with a Chokutō. Leng's blade and the weapon she was holding now were quite similar to the old weapon she'd trained with a decade ago.

Kai Leng would take her through her paces, Jo realised, when she found herself riding at crazy speed on the roof of an elevator, chasing after him and the Council. He was good, worth every credit the Alliance had put into his training, worth even his N7 designation. Too bad he was rotten to the core, they could have made a great team working together.

Jo was relieved beyond belief when they caught up with the Council before Leng found them, but then she suddenly stood in front of Alenko.

And he pointed a gun at her.

"Shepard is blocking our exit!" Udina screeched. "She's working with Cerberus!"

"Everyone, calm down," Kaidan sounded conflicted and confused. Then his glance slid to her hip: "Shepard, I've seen Cerberus ninjas use these weapons," he pointed at her new souvenir. "This looks bad and you know it."

"I picked it up from a fucking ninja's body to study its technology because the fucker almost sliced me in half with it through my shields, if you must know," Jo said, more for the Councillors' benefit than Alenko's. Her focus was on Udina.

"Come on, Shepard. Gun drawn on a Councillor? Kinda looks really bad." The tone of Kaidan's voice told Jo that he'd already condemned her and wasn't going to listen to reason easily.

"I don't have time for you," she snarled at Alenko and addressed the other Councillors. "Udina is behind this attack, Councillor Valern confirmed it and called me to the Citadel to go over the intel, but it was too late when I got here."

"Please, you have no proof. You never do," Udina said. Jo lowered her gun.

"See how he isn't outraged by my accusations?" She asked the asari and the turian, pointing at Udina. "He didn't even say he's innocent. Just that there is no proof. Valern has proof and I just saved him from a Cerberus assassin who was coming after you through that elevator shaft. They'll kill you all if you open that door."

"We've mistrusted Shepard before," the asari said, surprising the fuck out of Jo. "It did not help us."

"We don't have time to debate this. I'm overriding the lock," Udina hurried to the nearest console. Alenko still pointed his gun at Jo and she'd finally had enough.

"Kaidan, do you realise that by the power of my unbending will I am more than able to talk you into submission at any point, right?"

He blinked in confusion, assessing their respective training and accomplishments. She'd talked Saren into suicide once.

"Yeees," he drawled.

"Then you also realise that I'm not going to bother with that simply because you're not worth my effort, right?"

"Uhm... yes?" He frowned but Jo already threw up her arm. While she was talking, she'd replaced the clip in her pistol with armour piercing rounds. She shot twice and both bullets penetrated his armour, shattering his right shoulder joint.

Her former junior officer collapsed on the floor, hugging his useless arm. At least he had the decency not to whine.

Udina ran for the console. The asari Councillor tried to stop him. He shoved her hard. Jo pulled the trigger once and Udina died with a bullet in his heart. Suddenly it was over.

Jo had one last scare when someone forced the elevator door open from the inside and she put herself between the intruders and the Council, but it turned out to be Bailey.

"Sorry, Councillor, I'll say it plain," Bailey informed the Council members. "Shepard just saved the lot of you."

"Then you have saved my life twice now, Shepard," the turian said. "I owe you a personal debt and one on behalf of Palaven."

"You don't owe me anything, Councillor," Jo put away her weapons. "Just please do one thing for me. Revoke Alenko's Spectre status? He'd been put in this position specifically by Udina to make this coup possible, even though I personally believe he's too naive and near-sighted to actually be privy to Udina's plans."

Everyone present looked down where Alenko nursed his shattered arm. The newly arrived C-Sec officers were helping him up but even the severe injury seemed like nothing compared to the bruising his ego just took. Jo couldn't care less.

"You've warned us before about the Major but we didn't listen," the asari said, nodding. "We'll do as you ask."

"Thank you, Councillor," Jo inclined her head in respect. "I always have nothing but your and the galaxy's best interest at heart."

"I'm starting to see that," the turian sounded like he was finally getting some respect for her. After all these years.

It took them a little while to secure all three living Councillors, put protection detail on them, clear the most dangerous hot spots still under Cerberus siege and to re-establish communications with C-Sec forces and medical staff before Jo finally reconvened with Bailey in his office.

"Your Cerberus pal is made of smoke and mirrors," he informed her. "Couldn't find him."

"Now that I know he's in the picture, I'll find him," Jo informed him right back.

"We can't even get an ID on him. He released a VI into the system that erased footage of him wherever he went."

"Oh, I have an ID on him," Jo said grimly, tapping her temple. Bailey paled a little bit. A whole conversation passed between them in one glance. He realised that Jo had a connection to the man and that he had a death sentence hanging over him issued by people far more dangerous and important than him. Bailey let it go at this and changed the topic. He told her that Thane was in for surgery at Huerta and that Valern considered him a personal hero now.

"By the way," the elderly man finally relaxed in his chair and grinned cheekily. "Never pegged you for a match maker."

"Huh? There is a match in the making?" Jo had no idea what he was talking about.

"Thane's son, Kolyat. Two days ago the girl you sent to me from Omega arrived here and I tasked him with helping her acclimatise."

"The two of them?!" Jo almost swallowed her tongue in surprise.

"Yeah, she batted her eyelashes at him once and he was a goner, poor kid."

"Interesting," Jo smiled. Yes, she was a hopeless romantic somewhere deep down. She'd once talked an asari on Ilium into accepting her krogan boyfriend and his horrible poetry. However, Alice and Kolyat had not been an intention.

"Go and see Thane," Bailey advised. "He doesn't have much time."

Jo walked into the hospital on stiff legs. It was one thing thinking of Thane's disease as the cause for his rapidly approaching death, but it was different knowing that if he wasn't already dead, he would be within a day. The sword stab he took was serious.

Kolyat was in the room with Thane when Jo found the resolve to enter. The young man looked composed and resigned, but Jo knew he was taking it all to heart.

"I came to donate blood and... well..." Kolyat turned to see his father on the bed. "He asked me to take off his oxygen mask so he could be comfortable. I don't think it will be very long." His voice hitched.

"Your father is a hero, Kolyat. If a person's brightness is measured by all the people who care about him on his death bed, then you should know that I'm not the only one whose life he's touched for the better. I have a ship full of people and a lot more spread out across the galaxy who know him, love him and pray for him. He will be sorely missed. You're not alone. Not now and not ever, you need to remember that if you ever want or need anything. You have more family than your father."

"Thank you, Commander," the young man nodded solemnly and put a hand on Thane's shoulder. The elder drell woke from a fitful slumber, acknowledging Jo's presence.

"I'm afraid I won't be joining you again, siha," he coughed.

"You will always be with me in my heart, Thane," Jo gently touched his arm. "But you've done more than enough, you've earned the right to rest."

"That assassin should be embarrassed. A terminally ill drell managed to stop him from reaching his target."

Jo chuckled through tears that started to choke her:

"I don't think it reflects poorly on him, I rather believe it shows how unbelievably good you are, my friend. Even terminally sick, you managed to stop a dishonourably discharged N7 agent with a bucket full of Reaper tech enhancing his abilities. You never lost your edge."

"There's something I must do before it gets worse, I..." He started coughing heavily. Jo didn't wipe away the tear that escaped her eye, wishing desperately that there was something she could do to help.

"Kalahira, mistress of inscrutable depths, I ask forgiveness. Kalahira, whose waves wear down stone and sand..."

Jo felt the deepest sorrow she'd ever felt clutch her throat at her friend's words. When he erupted in more coughing, Kolyat took over:

"Kalahira, wash the sins from this one and set him on the distant shore of the infinite spirit."

"Kolyat, you speak as priests do. You've been spending time with them..."

Kolyat nodded and pulled an ancient looking book out of his pocket.

"I brought a prayer book," he said to Jo. "Commander, would you care to join me?"

"Yes," Jo could barely speak, knowing somehow that she was about to say the last words for her friend's soul before his departure to the world beyond.

"Kalahira," Kolyat read. "This one's heart is pure, but beset by wickedness and contention."

"Guide this one to where the traveller never tires," Jo read along. "The lover never leaves, the hungry never starve. Guide this one, Kalahira, and she will be a companion to you as she was to me."

As she finished the prayer, Thane turned to look out of the window. Jo noticed that it was actually a beautiful view of the Presidium. There were definitely worse things to look at before you die.

Right before her eyes her treasured friend took his last breath and released his hold on his suffering body along with the air. Jo and Kolyat stood in silence for a long minute, sharing the sorrow.

"Kolyat," Jo spoke up when she realised something was nagging at her. "Why did the last verse say 'she'?"

"The prayer was not for him, Commander," the young man sounded just like he felt. "He has already asked forgiveness for the lives he has taken. His wish was for you."

The air stopped in Jo's lungs at his words.

"Goodbye, Thane," she whispered, reached out and closed his eyelids. "Meet you across the sea."

With that she turned and left the room, but she couldn't go very far. Once she stepped out and the door closed, she collapsed on the floor, leaned her back against the door and broke down in tears.

For the first time in her life she wept like a girl, with waterworks, wails, shaking body and cramps. The pain at the loss of her friend tore at her, but more than that she had been ripped in half by Kolyat's revelation.

Jo couldn't tell how long she'd been bawling her eyes out. The hospital staff wisely left her alone and she didn't pay anyone any attention. She had a world of pain to deal with.

Only at some point a tiny hand touched her shoulder and a small person sat down on the floor next to her.

"Commander Shepard," a familiar voice said.

"Alice," Jo acknowledged the newest addition to her collection of children, but didn't stop weeping. There was no shame in her tears.

"He's gone, then," the girl said with sadness in her voice. For another while the two of them sat together, alone in their world despite all the people crowding the hospital.

"How are you doing, Alice?" Jo finally asked when the worst of the tears passed and she could speak.

"Better."

"Settling in okay?"

"Yes. Commander Bailey found me a place to stay and a job on the side. The room has a window." For someone from Omega the window was noteworthy. "Except there is no safe place in the galaxy right now. I arrived two days ago and barely purchased a toothbrush when another Cerberus invasion happened. Kolyat grabbed me before work and brought me here this morning before the worst of the attack happened. I met his father then, and Mr Krios told us to hide here, so we did, until he was brought back in. You knew him?"

"Yes, he was one of my best friends."

"I liked him. I also found out who you are."

"Hm?"

"Back on Omega I had no idea who you were. Where I was we didn't see any transmissions from Aria, didn't see the showdown, I didn't even know that Cerberus was gone until you walked me to the docks. To me you were like this beautiful warrior angel who came to avenge all the wrongs that had been done to me, but I had no idea who you really were. Kolyat told me. Showed me some vids about you."

"And who am I to you now, Alice?"

"Seeing you cry like this puts everything into a perspective, Commander," Alice sighed. At that moment the door opened again, almost making Jo fall back flat on her back. Kolyat stepped out but halted when he saw them sitting there. With a sigh he joined them.

"I didn't know you would take it so hard, Commander," he said, pointing at her red, wet face.

"I've lived a life of violence, Kolyat," Jo said. Sitting here between these two kids was different than anything she'd ever known in life. "Violence has been done to me and by me and the only way for me to get through it is the sheer force of defiance. People have cursed me and blessed me many times over, but no one has ever prayed for my soul. You don't know how it rips my heart apart to know that your father spent his last moments worrying about me and not himself. It's a gift I can never repay, and it's more powerful than any blessing, heavier than any burden. If he was worrying about me on his death bed, then maybe I need to start worrying about my soul, too? Did he see something in me that I so defiantly refuse to? I never in my life thought of asking forgiveness for anything I've done. I'm self-righteous and tough. Why did he think it was so important to beg for forgiveness on my behalf that he spent his last breath doing it? Am I such a bad person and just can't see it?"

"No, you're a good person," Alice protested and wrapped an arm around Jo. Kolyat reached and patted her arm:

"The prayer is specifically for a person with a pure heart, Commander, or haven't you listened? If a person's brightness is measured by all the people she has touched for the better, you need to consider yourself the brightest star on the firmament because someone in your life has been willing to spend his last breath praying for your peace," he said. The young man sounded wise beyond his twenty years. "His gift was not a testimonial to the darkness in your soul that needs forgiveness. It was his way of cherishing the brightness of the light you carry and bring into people's lives. He prayed that you keep it despite the wickedness surrounding you."

"You're good," Jo chuckled, finally wiping tears and snot away with her sleeve. "Really good. Would probably make a fine priest one day."

Kolyat shrugged. For a while they sat in silence.

"It's my birthday," Jo suddenly remembered. "The crew has spent the last two weeks planning a party in case we're out in space, but it's supposed to be at the Purgatory since we're already here. But now... How can I possibly..."

"You should," Kolyat said firmly. "He would want you to celebrate your life and pay respect to the life he's led, not to his death."

"You think?"

"I know."

"Wanna come by, the two of you?"

"Neither of us is of age to enter Purgatory, Commander," Kolyat chuckled.

"You can do better: you have connections. I can get you in and you can see for yourself how many people know... knew and loved your father."

"I believe you, Commander, but... maybe next year."

"As you wish. Do you need any help here, arranging for whatever needs to be done?"

"No. My father has taken care of everything months ago. The priests are already waiting to perform the ceremony."

"Should I be there?"

"Every soul embarks on this journey alone. I said my goodbyes already, the rest is taken care of."

"All right, then," Jo nodded and stood up. "Don't be strangers, the two of you," she said with a smile when the kids subconsciously moved towards each other and Kolyat's arm went around Alice's shoulders.

"I will be praying for you, Commander," the young man said and Alice nodded:

"So will I."

Jo felt another fit of waterworks coming, so she nodded and left the hospital.