I'm back readers, sorry I've been gone for so long, but I'm a college student and I needed to focus on my exams. Not to mention the person who I had editing my work stopped doing so. Anyway hope you enjoy the chapter.

Prologue Part two: Earth

Mindoir

Forest area

Jane POV

I'm not sure when I had woken up but everything felt sore, I was hungry from over using biotics and there was something heavy lying on me. I once again activated my biotics feeling the pain in my arms dull slightly as I slowly push myself up. In doing so whatever had been on me had fallen off. I turned around to see what it was only to find that it was James. I had gasped as I noticed most of his back was burned from the explosion, and he had shrapnel sticking out of his body in several places. With one large piece extremely close to his spine. I scrambled closer hoping that the medi-gel that he always told me to have stored in my omni tool would work on the wound before I noticed that the silvery substance that had attached to him earlier seemed to be slowly healing him.

I could see it slowly glide across the burn marks restoring them to his tanned skin before some of it tried to remove the pieces of shrapnel lodged in his body. Realizing that whatever James had made was healing him, I pulled out the biggest piece of shrapnel in his back and watched as the wound slowly stitch close as I did so. Ignoring the weird sight I began pulling out the rest of the shrapnel littering his body watching each slowly close as I did so.

As soon as his back had healed I flipped him over to check for any wounds on his chest seeing none, I checked his vitals (Something I should have done first), and seeing that he was alive and relatively fine I sighed in relief. Before remembering that substance again and promising myself that the moment this idiot woke up I'm going to find out what the hell he did to his body.

I got up ignoring the pain in my muscles and grabbed James walking away from the battlefield. Even though I wanted to go back and see if there were any signs of where they took our parents I knew I couldn't, no I wouldn't leave James like this. I slowly dragged him out of the forest, my body protesting as I did so, but I stopped when I heard the sound of a shuttle flying overhead. I tensed myself and looked up to seen an alliance shuttle, my body relaxing at the sight before darkness began creeping into my vision. I forced myself forward fighting it as best I could as I dragged James with me, but I eventually gave in when I saw the shuttle land near us and alliance troops take James from me. After that I saw the ground quickly approaching me before I felt my body being grabbed, and I blacked out.

SSV Einstein

Med Bay

James POV

I wonder how many times this is going to happen. Hoping that I didn't die and was once again reborn I open my eyes only to see an unfamiliar ceiling slightly confused about where I am and hoping I wasn't captured by Batarians I first brought my hand to my neck to make sure there was no slave collar attached. Finding no collar, I began looking around the room I was in I noticed that Jane was in the bed across from me. I pulled myself up to check on her before I was pushed back down onto the bed. I looked up to see Doctor Chakwas, slightly surprised I realized that I was likely on an Alliance cruiser in the medical bay. I relaxed slightly at the realization before turning back to where Jane laid.

"There is no need to worry about her young man, she was simply tired from overuse of her biotics. Though how she was able to use them without an amp is beyond me." As she said so I looked up sharply at her and she sighed. "No need to look at me like that young man I realized that she had been hiding the fact that she was hiding her biotics so I didn't put it in her file, but you know that once this is over it won't take very long for the alliance to figure it out and recruit her. Including if she is powerful enough to use her biotics without an amp."

I sighed at that I knew that Jane would eventually join the alliance, but I wanted her to join of her own free will, not because she would be a great asset.

"You however young man are a bit of a conundrum, you seem to have a healing factor nearly on par with a Krogan. Your back is covered in freshly healed skin, and from burns, and with how fast they seemed to have healed I would have almost assumed you have medi-gel for blood." I laughed nervously as I tried to avoid looking at the woman. While trying to come up with some explanation that didn't involve telling them about the abilities of the suit. Instead of coming up with an actual excuse I told her something I know I would be smacking myself over for years.

"Well I've always been like this as far as I can remember." I laugh a bit hoping that she would buy. Though I could tell by the look she gave me she definitely didn't. However, it seemed like she had accepted the explanation most likely deeming the fact that whatever it was, wasn't killing me and seemed to have saved my life. That thought was proven correct moments later when she spoke up.

"I know you're lying to me." I flinched at that. "I know that isn't true because I did a scan of your DNA for anything that could give me an answer to your strange regeneration. Whatever it is seems to be a recent change, but seeing as it isn't killing you I'll let you keep your own secrets." Chakwas told me with a smile. I would have said something, but Jane decided to wake up at that moment.

I heard her moan slightly whether from pain, soreness, or for any other reason I was not sure. I forced myself up again, and watched as the doctor began to go over her. Running her omni-tool over her body as she scrutinized the data. She then gave a nod whether it was to myself, Jane, or she was simply nodding to herself I couldn't tell.

"Well I can tell you that you that you're doing fine compared to earlier. When you had arrived here your biotics had nearly begun eating at your muscles and organs. So you're definitely doing much better."

Both Jane and I began freaking out when we heard that for two different reasons. One, she had figured out that Jane was a biotic. Though I should have expected that, and the second reason was that Jane had nearly killed herself using her biotics so much. I would have said something, and it seemed like Jane also wanted to say something. However, Chakwas cut us both off.

"Before the both of you start of freak out over the fact that I know. I won't be saying anything about Ms. Shepard being a biotic. For now, anyway. Ms. Shepard is still only sixteen, and the earliest one can join the alliance is seventeen though the rules can be ignored when the higher ups catch a special one. Which is why I won't say anything for as long as I possibly can, however you should be prepared just in case they do force you to join. As for you Mr. Racer I will not say anything about your strange regeneration." At the mention of that I caught Jane's glare and promptly gulped in slight fear. "I can't really say anything because it doesn't seem to be biological in nature, and based on your reactions earlier I guess you would be able to turn it off. So, if I did say anything and you did turn it off I would only look like a fool."

I chuckled a bit at that, while I wouldn't deactivate the suit, I knew if I needed to I would do so without a second thought to hide its secrets. I saw Chakwas smile a bit before she continued.

"Now from the way Ms. Shepherd was looking at you earlier I should leave you two to talk. I need to tell the captain that the two of you are now awake." Chakwas nodded to both of us before walking out of the med bay.

I turned back to Jane and noticed that she had already jumped off of her bed and was stalking towards me with a dark smile on her face. I paled before scrambling off of my bed to escape. I didn't know what she was angry about but I really didn't want to find out. I finally got off the bed before Jane grabbed my shoulder and roughly pulling me towards her. What followed was a beat down, I knew from past experience it was better to simply let her to let her anger out. It didn't hurt that much anyway.

After about five minutes or so, I wasn't too sure of how long she was attacking me for I noticed she had finally stopped instead she pulled me into a hug. I could feel her tears stain my shirt as she sobbed against my chest. She held me tightly almost as if I would disappear if she let go. In turn I pulled her further into the hug, and in doing so I felt her begin to cry harder.

I held her until I noticed her sobs had finally subsided, before I pulled her from my chest. Her face was was a mess, but I ignored that and instead decided to listen after she finally decided to speak.

"Why..." she asked in in a pained voice.

"Why did they have to die... both of our fathers are dead, our mother's are being tortured and forced to do God knows what. Our friends are either dead or in slavery as well. And I nearly lost you too." Jane yelled out as tears continued to flow from her eyes.

Wait what. Did she just say I nearly died. I began thinking back to what happened in the forest and remembered the idiotic Batarian that decided it was a smart idea to use a rocket launcher at close range. I guessed that the shrapnel and the flames was what nearly killed me, and it would explain why doctor Chakwas wondered how I healed so quickly.

Ignoring that for now I had noticed that while lost in my thoughts Jane had stopped crying I could tell she had forced herself to do so as she tried to look angrily at me. I had to quickly hide my amusement as she looked more like she was pouting. She spoke up when she noticed she had my attention.

"Another thing, I'm not complaining about it but what the hell did you do to yourself this time?" She forced out trying her best to ask angrily.

I stared at her in confusion, something she seemed to notice as she continued.

"I'm talking about that suit that you made and put on yesterday."

I blinked once, then blinked again as I realized what she meant. Though I wanted to know why she wanted to know about it. "Why do you want to know?" I asked her seriously.

"I'm trying to figure out if that thing might kill you or something. I mean it acted on its own, and it could come to life and try to take you over." Jane answered seriously, I could hear the concern in her voice as she spoke.

"I can tell you that that won't happen, I built the suit with limited intelligence it's main directive is to keep me alive as best as possible, and once I finish my other project it will only act on its directions." I answered her as seriously as to aleve any concerns that she had about the suit. Though I knew I shouldn't really talk about it out loud since I knew someone was likely listening in on our conversation.

She looked at me seriously before nodding realizing that, that was all she would probably get out of me. Instead she decided to rest her head against my chest and simply hold me.

We stood like that for maybe ten minutes when doctor Chakwas decided to come back into the med bay. With her was David Anderson, my eyes went a bit wide after I saw him but kept myself composed. He looked at our position as as I was trying to wake up Jane who had decided to fall asleep after our talk.

After waking her up Anderson began to speak.

"Now that you two are awake let's hear your story."

Four months later

November 14th 2170 Earth

Alliance Military Academy

Four months have past since the attack though it felt like an entirely different lifetime. After our talk with Anderson, he had told told us told us that we were wards of the state until we turned eighteen. Something that I had expected seeing that we were officially orphans. He had then told us that we would be under his care until then, as he did not want to send us off to an orphanage at our ages. He instead sent us to a military academy. Not a very good second option, but it was good for my own long-term plans.

The academy had a history of having ninety percent of the students join the military the other ten percent typically got jobs related to the military in some form. I can't wait to destroy that statistic when I do neither.

Daily life here was a bit harsh though apparently the training they give the students here was the same that they gave to people who joined the alliance through recruitment centers. The difference was that while basic usually lasted ten to thirteen weeks the school lasted much longer, even after a year most students were typically good enough to make lieutenant after having a few weeks of experience.

If I were to combine that with the training I received from my parents growing up, I knew I wouldn't need any training once I left earth.

Outside of school was a bit of a problem I had to find somewhere relatively safe that I could begin rebuilding my work, as most of it had exploded in the attack. I also had to make a ship that could get me off planet and carry all my designs. I knew I couldn't make anything that would last without proper materials but it was the safest way to carry it all without having anyone ask questions as to what I was carrying with me.

I was able to find a to find an abandoned warehouse that most people seemed to avoid. I never found out why as there was nothing inside that was dangerous, but I didn't want to test my luck and set up as fast as fast possible. Jane of course had helped me set up, and with her prior experience helping me we got everything up rather quickly.

Jane herself was another problem, she had become cold ever since coming here while she had never acted that way around me, I had seen how she had treated the others at the school. She always treated them horribly or outright ignoring them. Whenever she would do so I would end up apologizing in her stead. I had also noticed that she would do double the workouts assigned, an example of this was her doing an extra 10 or so laps even after she had finished the workout. Sometimes even doing more until she had collapsed. Leaving me to take care of her.

I had tried talking to her about it but she always managed to change the subject. Which led us to today. She had decided to ask me something that confused me slightly.

"Have you finished that ship of yours yet." Jane asked me seriously as I worked on the algorithms for Lara.

"Yeah I did why do you ask?" I answered her slightly confused at the random question. She never seemed interested in the ship before, in fact ever since we had arrived on earth she hardly ever displayed any of the curiosity for my work that she did before.

"Good, can she fly." She asked as she stared at the ship. Truthfully I wasn't confident the ship was ready to fly yet, including since I wasn't working on it seriously as I still had another two years before we could leave this place.

"I'm not very confident she could even break the atmosphere, she was made with mostly spare parts. I still want to do more test before I'm confident about using the ship." I told her as I turned to her trying to figure out exactly why she wanted to know. I noticed she smiled a little before turning back towards me, her smile gone replaced by a resolute look.

"The moment you're done with the ship we're leaving this place." Jane finally said to me. I stared at her in shock though I felt that this was coming with the way she had been acting, but I hadn't put it all together. In fact even though she was my best friend I sometimes forgot that she wasn't just a video game character, that she wasn't going to follow some predetermined path. However, I still needed her reasons though I had a good idea of what she wanted.

"And what were you planning to do when we left? Do you have some kind of plan?" I asked her seriously to see how seriously she was taking this whether she seriously wanted go off doing God knows what.

"I don't have a concrete plan, at the moment, but there was no way I was going to sit here for two years while both of our mothers are going through God knows what with those damn Batarians." Jane answered as I sighed at her response, it was something that was eating at me as well. I really didn't think I could focus on the reapers until I knew they were both safe, something that I guess was affecting Jane as well.

"... The ship won't be ready to go until June of next year, and I was already planning to go after our parents once we graduated. I am, ready all your doing is telling me to accelerate my plans a bit." I struggled to say, I didn't know if my actions in allowing her to come so easily just doomed the galaxy to destruction, but at this point I felt it didn't really matter, I wasn't planning on following the canon story, even if it would make my life a bit easier. I guess we would have to hunt down the reapers in my own ship instead of the Normandy. As I was lost in my thoughts I almost missed Jane's wide smile after I had caved and allowed her to come with me so easily, what I did miss instead sent me tumbling to the ground as she jumped at me to pull me into a hug. A hug which was biotic powered, I could literally feel my bones begin to crack as I lost my breath.

"Jane air!" I squeaked out as she released me and began apologizing. Something told me that this may become a habit whenever she got too happy. I hoped not though I felt like all my bones were nearly crushed from that one hug.

"Sorry, I mean I just thought you weren't going to agree, or try to tell me that I should wait until we turn eighteen. This was just so unexpected." Jane said as she continued to hug me, though not as roughly as before. As she did so I sighed to myself wondering when this decision would come to bite me in the ass. I just hope it wasn't soon.

Seven Months Later

April 11th 2171

Abandoned Warehouse

Seven months after our talk Jane had begun to open up once more. While she hadn't interacted much with the students at the school, from what she told me she didn't see a point in doing so since we were leaving soon. She had started acting more like her old self. Something that I was thankful for.

Today we were celebrating Jane's birthday, I knew from past experience that Jane hated getting jewelry as I had tried that once about three years ago, she took it but had complained though she still wears the necklace. I wasn't really sure why and I never thought to find out, but since then I had always stuck to more practical gift that I thought she would enjoy.

For her birthday this year I had built her an omni-tool on par with the Savant X model which would be available in about ten years. While she wasn't very interested in the tech side of things I had recently noticed that since our talk she had taken an interest, likely so she would have any advantage as we got into any fights after we leave. I already showed her how to work most of the tech abilities available so she would be able to use them with a bit of practice.

She seemed to enjoy the gift since I was currently being choked to death by her biotically powered hug.

"Jane air." I finally managed to choke out. She separated from me quickly apologizing as she did so before giving me a quick kiss on the cheek. Going off to mess with her new omni-tool. I chuckled a bit as my face flushed slightly before going back to my own work. I would've started working, but Jane had interrupted me.

"James we need to go." She yelled out as she looked at the time. I looked at her strangely wondering why we needed to leave, and she gave me my answer seconds later.

"Did you forget that the school was doing inspections today, they need everyone in the dorms. If we're not there well you remember the punishment they gave you the last time." Jane said to me as she began to pack up her stuff.

"I didn't think the punishment was all that bad." I shrugged in response to her concern. "Besides I thought you enjoyed it." I noticed she seemed to smile in remembrance before looking away with a blush on her face. I could still remember being forced to run the entire campus buck naked. I didn't mind much as I didn't really care about nudity, it was just the looks I received for about a month after that. The girls constantly staring and blushing, and the guys giving me dark looks.

"I admit that I did, I just didn't like that half the girls in the school staring at you like a piece of meat." Jane said angrily before she got up grabbing her bags before turning back to me. I chuckled at that remembering how she nearly lashed out against most of the girls, she instead gave her patented Shepard glare™ and most of them backed off.

"Come on, we need to go." She yelled at me.

"I'll be along in a few minutes I just need to put away these." I told her as she nodded reluctantly and began running ahead.

As she ran ahead I began putting away most of the work I had in the warehouse just in case someone had gotten past the security I set up whenever I left. When I noticed that the alert I set up for anyone who approached the warehouse that I hadn't registered before had somehow gotten past my security. Slightly perturbed I quickly pulled out my gun before diving behind some cover near the security monitors to see who it was who could have broken in.

"No need to panic young man the security you have outside is probably enough to keep out a Salarian STG team for at least half an hour. Long enough to take them out before they could even get past the first one." The mysterious man said as I stayed behind cover while grabbing a device I had made a few years ago that would throw my voice out so that people wouldn't be able to guess where I'm hiding. It worked well against my parents as well as Jane's so I was hoping it would work against this guy. Quickly attaching it to my mouth I spoke hoping and praying that it would work..

"If that's true it makes me wonder how you got past it so easily, it took you about thirty seconds to get through half of my security as if you were a ghost." I spoke my voice being thrown from the device though it didn't seem to affect the man very much as I could see from my view of the security cameras that he didn't seem to care. At least from what I could tell from his body language.

"As fun as this is I don't want to stand here all day comparing dick sizes, so I'll just give you a quick explanation of what brought me to your lovely residence today." He said as he cleared his throat as if he was going to make a great speech. I could hear the smugness in his voice as held this over me. "You see alliance command believes that you have gone too far in interfering with their plans for Shepard. Our original plan was to simply eliminate you, hide the evidence and convince Shepard that finding her mother would be easier after joining the alliance. However, you derailed those plans as we have come to see that you might actually be an asset to us. Half of your inventions in the right hands could have take down a small army in a matter of minutes." I cut him off right there as he still hadn't answered how he got in.

"You still haven't answered my question." I stated slightly frustrated though I hadn't let it show in my voice. As I said this his smile almost seemed to grow

"Hmm, I haven't well you see we had originally placed some bugs on you after your time in the med bay on the SSV Einstein. However, we weren't expecting you to get rid of those so quickly." I snorted quietly as I remembered those they weren't even that hard to get rid of. "What you failed to look for was the bugs that we had left inside of Shepard's omni-tool." Hearing that I wanted to start slamming my head into the wall over that simple mistake. I then saw him walk over to where Jane left her old omni-tool. "From that we were able to develop a program that would allow your system to recognize anyone using the code as a recognized user." Damn now I was going to have to redo my entire security system.

"Now that you know lets go back to our little talk. You see once we saw you as an asset we knew we couldn't alienate you, but at the same time we wouldn't let you and Shepard go through with your plan to leave. Which brings me here, right now Shepard is being told that she has 24 hours to pack up as she will be 'convinced' to join the alliance a little earlier than usual. As she is a ward of the state, we would only need her permission for her to join. My part in this was to tell you that should she not be ready to leave after the next 24 hours well I'll save that little surprise for later. Let's just say that you'll be putting many people's lives in danger." He seemed to laugh a bit to himself.

"You're willing to risk the lives of others just for two people, and you're not really selling yourself if you want me to be willing to work with you." I answered angered at the the fact that they seemed to be threatening others just to get Jane to join.

"Well you're right about that, but I'm sure you'll understand once this is all over." He said as he turned around and began leaving. "I suppose I'll be seeing you Racer." He said as he left the warehouse. The moment I confirmed that he was gone I set my security system to manual so that one would need a combination of a retinal, DNA, and voice recognition to open. I knew it wasn't perfect, but it would ignore the usual system that they had gotten past. Once the place was secure I ran out the warehouse running as fast as possible to the campus.

It took me two minutes of running to arrive at the campus and another minute to make it to the girls dorms. As I ran inside I saw two alliance marines leave Jane's room one of the larger men had a blackening eye, and the other a slight limp. They were followed by an older man who seemed based on all the metal on his chest, to be a General. The General seemed to be holding his stomach, and he also walked with a limp. I slowed myself down before watching as the the group of three walked out the door of the dorm, before I ran into Jane's room.

I found Jane who had teared apart most of her room in anger, or maybe it happened in whatever fight the three men got in with her. I slowly approached her before calling out her name to see if I could get her out of her rage. It seemed to quickly get her attention as she snapped her head towards me, as I watched her calm down at the sight of me though she still seemed rather tense. I approached her quietly instead of speaking I simply pulled her into a hug, something she didn't fight. We simply stood there before she decided to speak up.

"Why did this have to happen?" She asked. I could tell it was mostly rhetorical, though I found myself answering anyway.

"I'm not really sure myself, the only reason I could think of is because they want you for your biotic talent." That was not completely true the alliance may not know about the reapers, however they I know they likely saw Jane as someone they could mold to become a spectre candidate. Though she didn't know we were both already partially in the spotlight as we were the only survivors of Mindoir. There was also the fact that Jane's family were rather famous as career soldiers. Her father retiring because of an injury he received against pirates, and her mother retiring after getting pregnant. They were both expected to become spectres candidates had they stayed on. She nodded in my chest at that before looking up at me her prior anger finally faded a bit more.

"What about our plan to find our parents, I still don't want to leave them in the hands of those Batarians." She said with a small amount of anger in her voice.

"I'll deal with that, instead they want you to be a damn soldier, then be the best soldier they've ever seen." I told her as she snorted at me, before she smiled.

"Yeah I'll do that." She said quietly before pushing me down onto her bed. I looked at her slightly confused at the sudden move I was about to speak up but she cut me off. "I want you to stay here tonight." She said as I blinked in surprise.

"Do you want to do…" I implied before she shook her head.

"No, not under these circumstances, besides we've always been skirting around our relationship since the accident, and I'm in no mood to deal with that kind of drama." She stated. I chuckled lightly at that, throughout the years since the accident on the ship we had realized we liked each other, but we had never said anything out loud. The first mention on how we felt about each other was actually just now which made me laugh a bit harder. "I just need you here with me tonight, before I go off to play soldier girl."

I nodded before taking off my shirt and pants, and hopping under the sheets watching as Jane stripped into her underwear and joining me moments later. I turned off the lights as we fell asleep in each others arms.

Next Day

1500 hours

Alliance Military Academy

Girls Dorm

After our night together Jane had quickly packed up her things and had prepared to leave. I helped her pack her things while at the same time going over each of her things for any bugs that might have been planted on her things. After destroying two one suspiciously found in her underwear drawer. I had given her a communications device I had been making just in case we had ever become separated and either normal comms were down or were too dangerous to use. She accepted it and commented that she would call me as much as she could before walking off to the shuttle which had been waiting at the front of the dorm for her. Before she entered she ran back and gave me a kiss before running back to the shuttle. Leaving me standing there slightly in shock.

As I watched the shuttle fly away I quickly recovered before I noticed a man in alliance regs approach me. Standing next to me watching the shuttle fly off. He then turned to me and decided to speak. "I see you didn't try to stop her from leaving." The man said as I tensed realizing this was the same man from yesterday.

"What would you have done if we had decided to leave and ignored your warning." I asked inclining my head towards him. He seemed to smile at that and continued to stare at the shuttle which was already out of sight range.

"Well you would have realized that we had sabotaged your ship, and you would have been forced to land where we wanted you. From there we would simply convince Shepherd to join with a bit more force. After all I doubt she would want to see the man she loves die." I clicked my teeth at that, I probably could have taken down the man alone yesterday I had the home field advantage then, however he would have likely had an entire squad waiting for us had we even thought about leaving the planet.

"Now here is the part where you'll be willing to work with us. We have a few leads that we have been investigating on where your parents are currently being held we will give you the information as well as assistance should our lead prove to be good under two conditions." I turned to the man and nodded too worked up knowing if I opened my mouth I might say something I might regret.

"First condition you must stay on earth until you turn eightteen. I'm sure you can figure out why." I nodded, they likely wanted the ability to control me as I was still a minor, the moment I went off planet I could simply hide from them until I turned legal. "Condition two is not really a condition, but you must be willing to sell some of your designs to the alliance." I turned to the man confused at that condition, the only thing I could work out from that is so they knew they would be getting the things I made regardless of how I felt about them at the moment. "We want you on our side Mr. Racer, alienating you was not our intention however in this case we felt it was necessary to secure a major asset." I nodded and then spoke up.

"What about that threat yesterday, the one where you threatened to kill others." His smile faltered slightly when I mentioned that, and he turned to me.

"That Mr. Racer was to make sure we had gotten your attention and secured your cooperation. We had no intention of killing anyone to do so." In other words their fail safe to make sure I listened to them. Great now I truly felt like I was played, though I was a little confused as to how they went about it, it still worked.

"Alright you have my cooperation." I gritted out. I noticed tension leaving his shoulders that I never noticed until now as he turned away from me.

"Thank you, Mr Racer we'll be in touch." The man said as he walked away from me. It was then that I realized I never got the bastards name.