A/N: Greetings, beloved readers! Once again back with a long overdue update (boy, it was a long one). Many thanks to Blausen for your review last chapter and to all those who have favorited, followed or stopped by to check this story out. Hope you all enjoy this new chapter and see you all in 2014!

-12-

The entrance to the Silver Coast Casino was buzzing with energy, hopping with activity. People were lined up with almost military-like precision to watch the high and mighty stroll into the casino for this benefit. Apparently an armed raid that had occurred before not even a stone throw away did not deter people from showing up to gawk behind velvet roping.

The apartment was so close to the casino that they decided it wasn't worth riding in a skycar just on the off chance an assassin was lying in wait for them along the strip. So long as they didn't linger and stayed vigilant, Garrus figured they'd be fine.

He ignored the gape he was receiving from the human male closest to him, though Garrus could feel his incredulous eyes practically locked onto him as Garrus proffered his arm to the human beside him. He wasn't blind. He had noticed the human's eyes on Jane, unable to help ogling her and the skintight dress adorning her. Garrus wasn't so insecure he felt the need to physically attack the man, but he did puff his chest out, catching the human's eyes with his, making it clear that Jane was spoken for. While he couldn't blame the guy for looking (she certainly did know how to get Garrus's mandible on the floor), it didn't mean he had to like it.

His attention turned back to Jane, who looped her arm through his without a second thought. Her reaction to Anderson and Miranda's warning had been just as expected, as if nothing (besides the whole attempt on her life thing) was out of the ordinary. Flattered at how highly Anderson regarded her, squeezing his forearm as way of thanks for bringing it to her, her skepticism mixed with caution just in case at Miranda's suspicions about Brooks. It had all seemed normal. But instead of the relief he thought he'd feel, all it left him with was confusion, but he knew (with much reluctance), he couldn't deal with it now. They had a panic room of a two-bit crooked arms-dealer to break into.

Garrus tilted his head back to the crowd of onlookers, growing more amused by the awestruck looks some had on their faces. He indulged in the moment, waving his hand at them in greeting. Whether the looks were him or for Jane or both, he couldn't say, but they had seemingly achieved celebrity status. All they needed was some groupies screaming and chanting their names wherever they went to take it to the next level. Then he seriously imagined what it would be like for multiple Conrad Verners following them around and shuddered at the thought. Though to be fair to Verner, he had gone up in Garrus's estimation from obsessed to passionate fan after what he did for Jane down in the Wards. He was willing to ignore the fact there was a Jane Shepard shrine (with candles) somewhere in Verner's house,

He heard Brooks whisper something to Jane, but couldn't make it out over the energetic techno music being pumped from the entrance's speakers. He did hear Jane's reply, to just smile and wave at the crowd.

The techno beat faded away as they went through the entrance, replaced by a more soothing, relaxed melody from a musical instrument of some kind. A piano, maybe; he was never good with remembering what human instruments sounded like. They stopped at the foot of the stairs, Brooks planning to go on ahead.

"Ok. I'll get to the ventilation shaft." She paused with a steadying breath. "Wish me luck."

Garrus watched Brooks wander up the stairs while they hung back for Jane to consult with Liara on their next move, thinking back to Miranda's warning. Brooks had looked like someone fighting the urge to vomit and turn into a quivering pile of jelly on the floor at the thought of going through all this. Far from someone with a nefarious plan to work her way into Jane's good graces only to stab her in the back.

"The best actors make it nearly impossible to tell…"

Like with Jane, the only thing they could do at this point was stay vigilant, as well as avoid being on the receiving end if things actually blew up in their faces.

"Liara, you have any input?" Jane asked, finally getting in touch with her.

"I'm here. EDI and I will keep in contact in case we're needed. Khan has a lot of surveillance set up. I'd mingle with the guests if you want to look normal."

Garrus turned back to the stairs, offering his arm for a second time, feeling like one of the human men from the old vids who escorted his lady to the ball. "Time to meet the riff-raff, then, Jane?"

She took his arm again. "Guess so, Garrus."

Their steps matched the others' purely by coincidence as they made their way up the stairs. When they reached the top, he could have sworn his visor was picking up a shimmering object right in front of him, but the ceiling light shining down on them hit him at just the right angle, momentarily blinding him. When his vision cleared and he was able to look back at that spot, the shimmer was gone. Probably just a trick of the light. He had to remember to check out his visor when they got back, in case it was on the fritz again.

"We should canvas the area, see how many guards we're dealing with," Jane murmured beside him.

"Agreed." Garrus's eyes landed on the bar area to the left. "We'd have a pretty good vantage point from over there and we could chat it up with the bartender. I'd say that counts as blending in." And if his days at C-Sec had taught him anything, it was bartenders tended to be valuable sources of information, so long as they were willing to play ball.

Jane folded her arms over her chest, getting the look on her face Garrus had termed the "pondering on the best course of action" look. But it did not escape his notice it was without a crucial feature: chewing her lip, her trademark.

"Of this open area, but not the entire casino. If we talk to him, we can't see past the bar. Or past that wall over there." She made a subtle gesture over in the direction of the quasar machines, its backing indeed blocking their view.

A fair point, but he agreed with Liara. Blending in was paramount at the moment. "If Khan's in lockdown, his guards will be on the lookout for anyone out of place. We may attract their attention if we're wandering around too much."

Something flickered in Jane's eyes, but like that shimmer earlier, it was gone before he could pick out what it was. "Not if we're meeting up with a friend and you volunteered to get drinks while I looked for him."

As always, she could improvise a plan out of thin air. And he was sure the same guard passed them twice since they had been up there, casting glances their way when he thought they wouldn't notice.

"Alright." He ran the backs of his talons from shoulder to elbow in plain view of the guard, make it clear to him they were just out looking for a good time. Like they would have been doing for real if more people hadn't decided to pick that day to be out for Jane's blood. "Meet at the bar?"

"Unless Brooks calls us upstairs before then." Another squeeze of the arm, a growing favorite in her repertoire of affectionate gestures. "I won't be long."

Garrus sauntered over to the bar while Jane went in the opposite direction. While it shouldn't have been nagging at him, so small a detail, the lack of lip biting would not leave his mind. Was this the point he had come to? Just because she didn't bite her lip one time meant he needed to add it to his "behavioral changes" list, that it was happening again? Count it as proof of a downward spiral and give him all the reason in the world to confront her?

But his days at C-Sec had also taught him the little things were just as important as the big, filled in the blanks, completed the picture.

And Tali and Miranda agreed something didn't seem right from what he told them. Why did he still feel the need to question it?

Damn it all, this was starting to give him a headache. Maybe a drink wasn't a bad idea.

The bartender just finished pouring for an asari, wasting no time in indulging in her drink. The bartender was running a rag over the bar-top, wiping away the remnants left by prior patrons.

He paused at Garrus's approach, shooting him a welcoming smile. "What'll have? All drinks are complementary tonight."

"Turian Spirit. And nothing too crazy for my girlfriend; she wants to be able to walk in a straight line. Something a little on the sweet side would be good," he said, letting the bartender throw out a choice on Jane's drink.

"Thessian Temple coming up." He couldn't remember if Jane had ever tried it, but it was a one of those sweeter alcohols she typically liked and a pretty mild drink if Garrus recalled. Most asari ones were except asari gelatin shots. Those had a kick like a shotgun's.

"So what's popular tonight?" Garrus asked.

"Well, some adventurous souls are trying to the mindfish. It's what hanar like to do instead of alcohol," the bartender said through the pouring of drinks into small tumbler glasses. "It's this fish with hallucinogenic skin oil. Gets hanar buzzed right up. But that has nothing on the burukh, this krogan drink you set on fire, put out, then drink from the scalding-hot cup. Or there's a Weeping Heart. That's a martini with drell-skin venom. The venom's pretty mild, though. Oh, wait, almost forgot—a volus bina. The alcohol puts you on the floor, and the ammonia lets you clean up the mess you made, if you live. There you go."

Garrus took his drink the bartender pushed out in front of him with a murmured thanks, swirling it around a bit. "Quite busy here tonight."

"No more than usual, actually. You wouldn't know there's a war on."

Garrus took a swig of his drink, the kick hitting him in the aftertaste, just the way he liked it. "You got family out there? Friends?"

The bartender was back to scrubbing the counter. "Just a younger brother, but he works on the Citadel, in the Wards. We, ah…" He had slowed his cleaning pace down until it crawled to a halt. "Don't really talk." He resumed his previous speed, shaking off the undesirable emotions. "What about you?"

"Some here. My dad and sister were on Palaven, but they made it off," Garrus said, not wanting to go into the specifics. It never escaped him that they had been damn lucky. "And my girlfriend and I serve on the same ship."

"That's good. Many who come here say the opposite." The bartender emitted a humorless bark for a laugh. "Guess that's why they come here. You wouldn't know it looking at this bunch, but ever since the Cerberus attack, morale and spirits are dropping. Think people are just waiting for it to happen again."

Garrus studied the area around him, pretending that this was the first time he had noticed the guards. "Seems like this place is secure enough."

"Mr. Khan spares no expense on security."

Garrus decided to continue playing dumb, see what the bartender would confess of his own admission with other patrons and guards in ear-shot. "Is he the owner?"

"Has been for the past year, don't know what happened to the previous owner." The bartender lowered his voice. "Mr. Khan is a very private man, stays either in his office or down in the casino vault. No one really sees him. He was supposed to come out tonight, but that changed last minute."

Any hope of Garrus getting any more info out of him ended when one of Khan's guards approached the bartender. His lips had immediately pursed shut once he spotted the guard, as if he knew even talking about Khan would land him in very hot water and probably out of a job.

"I've made it to the upstairs grate," Brooks's voice crackled through his radio. "Meet me up here when you're both ready." His cue to exit.

Garrus collected the drinks and made his way upstairs, unable to help feeling a tad bitter with each step as he got closer to the dance floor. Had it really been too much to ask for even one carefree night? Didn't Jane deserve that much?

Jane was coming up from the stairs from the other side as he was coming up the ones on his. Brooks was standing by the grate, still trying to seem calm and collected, but shifting anxiously from right to left foot. She stilled when she saw Garrus and Jane approach.

"Okay, right. Just like we thought. There's an alarm on the grate."

"We'll have to bypass it," Jane said.

"Dr. T'Soni gave me this to pass to you. It's a resonance emitter lens," Brooks explained as she passed it to Jane. "It should let you see security grids and wiring."

Jane put in the lens, her eyes transforming from that sapphire hue he could lose himself in if he allowed himself the time to an unflattering pale yellowish glow. "You might raise a few eyebrows with your eyes that yellow, Jane."

"I'll keep my eyes to the floor and take them off once I'm done following the wiring." Her unnaturally colored eyes flicked over to Garrus. "Able to get anything out of the bartender?"

"Nothing really useful to us, except this." He extended the hand with Jane's drink, which she accepted. "He did mention something about Khan having a vault. I don't know if it's something we need to worry about."

"Only if he's not in the safe room. Odds are he won't leave it until the heat dies down."

"What about the guards? Did you get a sense of how many there are wandering around?" Garrus asked.

"About three where the panic room is and probably the entrance to the vault too. Then about three to four guards on each side."

So nothing they couldn't handle in case things got out of hand, but best not to take chances or too many innocents would get caught in-between.

Jane leaned over at the stairs; no one was still around. "We'd better move before someone comes up. We'll follow the wiring, splice it and disable the alarm for you to climb through."

"Yeah…" Brooks trailed off with another nervous exhale. "Fingers crossed."

Jane then did what she did best through her finely tuned skills of motivation.

"You'll do fine, Brooks. Remember we'll back you up if something happens," she said with an encouraging pat to the side of her shoulder.

"Thanks, Commander." Another breath, this one less shaky than the other. "I can do this, I can do this," she muttered to herself as they walked away, on the hunt.

"I'm seeing some blue wiring on the floor, Liara. Is that what I should be looking for?" Jane asked as they began their stroll.

"Yes. Follow that; it should lead you to an alarm panel," Liara came on through the comm channel. "And in case it needs to be said, don't try to bypass a camera while you're being watched. I'm sending a hack to your omni-tool now to help with that. It will fool the camera, but it'll self-delete after a few seconds."

They swiftly located the first panel on the wall by the stairs Jane had come up. Though the asari bartender across the way had a clear view of them, she was preoccupied with satisfying the demands of her patrons. With a quick wave of her omni-tool here, a quick wave there, the first alarm panel was deactivated.

"Brooks, the splice is in."

"Good…I've got the grate open and…in we go," Brooks said through the creaking background noise. "Act casual. This could take awhile."

"Back to mingling, then?" Not that Jane had really done any yet.

Jane removed the emitter lens, her eyes flipping back to their usual color. "Yeah."

Drinks in hand, they found their way to the edge of the dance floor. Garrus took a longer guzzle of his, the glass now half of the way empty (benefit of small tumblers). He leaned over to see the floor below them, impressed by the almost panoramic view of the casino's main level. It would have made a decent sniper perch if they had done it the way Javik suggested before they left. No time or room for subtlety with him. Brute force through hostage taking, threats and guns blazing was more his style.

Jane was apparently on the same wavelength as him.

"Nice view of the perimeter," she remarked from beside him while taking a sip from her own drink and keeping her eyes pinpointed on a guard below.

Garrus was prevented from replying by the arrival of a man at the counter-top to Garrus's right, partaking in a cylinder-shaped container typical of ryncol beverages. He glimpsed over at Garrus, acknowledging him with a polite greeting. Clearly not one of the star-struck fans he had seen outside, but not a xenophobe either. Somewhere in the middle.

"Look at them all down there," the man remarked to no one in particular. "Twenty years ago, you'd have never seen a shindig like this. Humans and turians together like it's nothing. Council species all concerned about the fate of batarians…everybody trying to have sex with the asari."

Garrus's head spun towards the man at that. "That's not new."

"Just seeing if you weren't too inebriated." The man hadn't cracked a smile, but his droll tone told a different tale.

"So…all these species in one room?" Garrus vaguely wondered if he'd have to take back the xenophobe description either, though he hadn't sounded bitter or resentful of the fact.

"Yes. Nobody's afraid of each other anymore. If we win this thing, the galaxy's going to be a pretty great place."

Now that was a statement he could get behind. "We'll drink to that."

"Speaking of which, I see you went for a Turian Spirit. I'm fond of them myself, but I needed something a little stronger tonight."

Inspecting the man more closely, Garrus could see the lines of tension carved into his face, most noticeably around his eyes.

"You're not enjoying the party, I take it?"

"Young people party. I drink." Though he looked like he needed more than one to make him forget whatever was causing him such stress. "Tonight it's ryncol on the rocks."

"That stuff can put you down for the count," Garrus said. One or two nights stumbling back from Chora's Den had driven that lesson home.

"I just lost a staggering amount of credits. This puts things in perspective." He lifted up the drink with a wry smile, edges as taunt as the lines on his face.

"You need a few credits for a ride home or anything?" Jane interjected for the first time in the conversation, ever the voice of compassion and empathy.

"Oh no, it's not like that. You know about those helium-3 facilities that are getting wiped out?"

"We've flown by a few," Garrus said.

"Well, to put in layman's terms, most of those facilities were mine." He took a moment to pause to finish the last bit of ryncol between talking. "Forgive me, I don't think I introduced myself. Jonah Ashland of Eldfell-Ashland Energy."

They both offered their names in return. "Pretty fancy night out for someone worried about his financial future," Garrus observed.

"It was my daughter Aish's idea. She's got a good heart, though she's going through a little…self-absorbed stage."

"You make it sound like she's trouble," Jane said.

"My love for her is unlimited. She just gives me a lot of opportunities to prove it. But I'm pretty sure she can change. You don't bet against something like that. Not even here."

Ashland then quietly excused himself, his need for another ryncol on the rocks outweighing his desire to make conversation.

"Commander!"

"What?" Jane muttered as discretely as she could with the dancers beside them, though they seemed lost in the hypnotic powers of the techno beat.

"There's a guard right below me," Brooks breathed in a nervous whisper.

Jane was already heading for the stairs, Garrus following close behind. "Don't panic. I'll get his attention."

It didn't take long to spot the guard in question, conveniently placed right by the foot of the stairs. Garrus hung back while Jane did her thing.

"Excuse me. I think I saw someone doing drugs in the ladies' room."

The guard had appeared somewhat bored up until the point Jane mentioned there was a red sand tripper in the bathroom they needed to throw out and/or arrest. Hopefully they wouldn't pin it on the first woman unlucky enough to be in the restroom when they stormed in. "I see. Were you able to identify the substance used?"

"Red sand."

It was only when he turned his head back to the middle of the room that his visor picked it up. A shimmer, same as before, but clearer.

Emitting heat levels only capable from another living being.

He did his best not to appear alarmed at the figure, keeping his visor trained on him or her this time and trying to make them out through their tactical cloak. The figure paused in their languid movements, their head seemingly turned in his direction, as if they noticed him staring. But a group of people then passed hurriedly by him, brushing into him. That was enough to make him lose the target again.

Hearing his name called brought his attention back to Jane and the guard, who had disappeared, on the hunt for the non-existent red sand user.

"I saw something. Someone." He looked back at the place he had last seen the person. "Using a tactical cloak."

Jane looked at the same spot Garrus was, even though the person was long gone. "You're sure?"

"Positive. I saw them earlier, but I couldn't be certain. Thought it was an issue with my visor. Question is if they're on a side, whose are they on?" He didn't know which option was worse: one of Khan's security or one of his business client's mercenaries he had just cut all ties with.

Jane tapped the edge of her glass against her lips before taking another sip. Garrus noticed she had made much less progress on hers than him with his. She seemed to be nursing it, but chugging Thessian Temples down was never a smart idea. "Either way we can't confront them with causing a major scene. We just have to get to Khan first. And keep an eye out for our invisible friend. Brooks, you're going to have to double time it. We may have a problem."

"Like we're compromised kind of a problem?" Brooks's apprehensive reply came through.

"Possibly. Someone else may be after him."

"Un-Understood, Commander," she replied through a hitch of breath. "I'll do what I can. And hope they don't come after me too," she finished.

"We'll do what we can, Brooks." She took another swig, smacking her lips at the finish. "EDI, any chance you can track someone with a tactical cloak, see if they get close to the panic room?"

"There are too many heat signatures throughout the complex. I am unable to pinpoint one individually or discern their identity."

Jane frowned, but thanked EDI anyway. "Guess we better get back to blending in."

It took more effort than before, now having to worry whether some assassin would beat them to the punch or do them harm on top of Khan's guards getting suspicious, but they made do. Garrus led Jane over to the varren racing table, the only outlet for gambling junkies on this side of the casino. A man hung by the varren racing table, watching the results feverishly, yelling excitedly when the varren named Tiger Bite pulled ahead.

"Feeling lucky tonight?" Garrus asked as they waited for the current race to finish.

Jane shook her head. "I'll sit this one out, big guy, but you can."

He had no idea on the stats of the varren, who had the best record. He went by who had the best name. While Grow a Quad was a contender, in light of that boasting contest with James, Tastes Like Chicken had to have his vote.

"Surprised I actually got a pay-out. Remind me to tell James I owe him one," he said after the race's finish as they headed for a vacant table with two chairs, consumed drinks scattered across the surface.

She nodded as they sat down, but didn't say anything about the connection to James, puzzlement appearing on why this was necessary to tell James about for one brief second before fading away. She shouldn't have been confused; she had walked into the mess hall at the beginning of their conversation.

Another memory that should have been there, but was as if it never happened.

He watched her partake in her drink, a part of him again wondering whether he was expecting too much out of her. She had a lot on her mind lately; a passing conversation a few weeks ago she hadn't even been a part of should have been the last thing her memory needed to retain.

But she would have, his inner voice reasoned. Because she cared about people, cared about her crew, her friends, him. She took the time to remember those little things. Likes, dislikes, emotions, moments. That had been the case from the first time he met her. She chewed him out over almost hitting Dr. Michel (a criticism he deserved looking back on it) because she cared about her safety, a woman she had never seen before in her life. That was just her way.

"Commander, I've got a pressure pad and an obstruction detector ahead. I can't disable them from here."

"Ok. EDI, I need a tech solution. Brooks, stay put. We'll find some junctions and take down the sensors."

Garrus finally finished his Spirit, placing the empty glass with all the others while Jane did the same with hers, putting the resonance emitter lens back on when Liara rang in, instructing her to follow the red wiring this time. The first junction was over by the wall, camera pinpointed right on it and in plain view of the guard by the varren racing tables.

"I'll just be here, trying not to cough," Brooks whispered.

Jane could take care of the camera with the hack Liara sent to her, but that still left the guard. Time for Garrus to play his part.

"I'll get his attention. Just say when." He strategically placed himself near the guard, only springing into action upon Jane's signal.

"Can you tell me where your bartender hides the hard stuff? Like, say, turian horosk?"

The guard looked at him as if he had completely lost any ounce of sanity. Apparently the potency of turian horosk was common knowledge among other species too. "I'm sorry, sir, but we aim to entertain our guests, not put them in a coma."

By the time the guard turned away from him, Jane had disabled the camera and junction, informing Brooks of her success. Now they just had to find the other one.

Garrus allowed Jane to lead the way, seeing as how she was the only one who could pick out the wiring. She directed them to the other end of the casino where the roulette wheels were spinning wildly and the quasar machines were bleeping happily (or unhappily depending on the results). This junction had no cameras watching it, but an extra guard. Only made sense. The cheating potential was higher with roulette.

"But you can do something about that, right, Commander? Because my legs may be sort of starting to fall asleep a little…"

This one would be trickier. He'd either have to wait until one guard was heading in the other direction while distracting the second one. Or try and distract them both.

Fortunately, the one wandering guard was facing the opposite direction. If he distracted the other one now, Jane may have a chance.

He could have gone for something reasonable, like spotting a man with a card fabricator or lamenting on how the quasar machines were calibrated so he never got a pay-out, but shock value seemed to work last time, so he went for the wildest lie he could come up with at such short notice.

"Hi there, umm…back when I worked at C-Sec, I could have sworn there was a volus brothel upstairs."

The guard's expression like Garrus had grown another head was almost picture-worthy. Understandably, the guard really didn't have much of a comeback, but the precious seconds of bewilderment were enough for Jane to use to her advantage. By the time the guard and Garrus parted, Jane had positioned herself by a young woman who was exchanging words with the croupier, probably so the other guard (now facing their direction) wouldn't think anything of her.

"I love roulette. Every minute is more exciting than the next." The woman's voice almost had an airy quality to it, like she wasn't completely with it.

"Isn't there a flaw in that statement?" Jane asked. She had also found the time to take off the lens.

"Oh, are you like one of those detail people?" she asked flipping her short black hair with a free hand. "Come on. Even diamonds have flaws, but that doesn't make them less valuable."

"Miss Ashland, may I ask exactly where you were educated?" Ashland…so this was the daughter Jonah Ashland made sound like a major headache?

"Oh, online," she replied eagerly, oblivious to the implication behind the shroud of politeness. For however caring she was, Jane was never one to suffer willful ignorance. "You can take these courses, and it teaches you responsibility, because you do the grading."

Garrus guessed the irony was completely lost on Aish Ashland.

Jane excused herself when she spotted him in earshot, in time for Brooks to check in again, ready to hit the lock at the storage room grate. Only to meet with a complication, in the form of an infrared laser hooked to a silent alarm.

"Shepard, I'll call the responding guard to say it was a false alarm, but you must stop him before he reaches Brooks."

"He must be on the other side. I'll be back." Jane hurried in the direction of the varren racing and bar, leaving Garrus to wait for her return and go back to blending in.

"I heard your advice is so good it is psychic. So what's going to happen to me in the next few minutes?" He heard the thinly veiled lewd inquiry coming nearby from his right.

Not missing a beat, the serene reply with a forceful undercurrent came. "Disappointment."

He recognized that voice, almost three years now since he heard it, since he came to her in the weeks following the destruction of the Normandy and Jane's death, desperately seeking answers to questions he struggled with since he had heard the news.

The rejected man turned away from the table, allowing him a space, shoulders hunched and head hung as he walked away in defeat.

"Consort. It's been awhile," Garrus greeted.

Sha'ira turned her calm gaze onto him, recognition flaring in her eyes. Garrus swore she was wearing the same outfit he had seen her in three years ago. Was this all her wardrobe consisted of?

"My idea of a long time is different than yours, Garrus Vakarian." She didn't sound all that enthusiastic about seeing him, but anything had to be better than advances on her in front of bar patrons.

"I thought I heard you had left the Citadel."

"I did leave. Some so-called "journalists" made up stories about me. Because of their venom, I retired to a little colony in the Silean Nebula." Though she sounded far from bitter about the outcome.

"Why come back?"

"Because I knew people here, and they needed comforting. And because one does not flee the heart of the galaxy in desperate times. Not because of some scoundrel with a video camera." She then looked at him expectantly. "Did you come over seeking my counsel again?"

He remembered those dark days. Disgusted at how everyone betrayed Jane's memory and her warnings, the growing red-tape on assignments (making no secret of dissatisfaction to his superiors), guilt at having left the Normandy and not been there for his then-friend.

When he had gone to Sha'ira, she told him his life now lacked meaningful purpose. Through Jane, he had been shown how to make a difference and he now lost the woman who had unintentionally become his mentor, who had believed in him and his abilities, who listened to his concerns with open ears even when she disagreed with him. Perhaps living up to Jane's example, he would find the direction so eluding him.

A week later, he resigned from C-Sec (though a mutual arrangement on both his and Pallin's parts), packed up his things and boarded the next shuttle headed for Omega.

The time for her guidance had long passed for him. Current situation, the war with the Reapers and his position as Reaper Advisor aside, he was as content as it was possible to be. His family was safe and he was back on the Normandy, fighting the good fight by his friends' and the love of his life's side. There was no place he'd rather be.

"Not this time, Consort."

Sha'ira lips formed into a soft smile. "I am glad to hear that. I trust that has much to do with the Commander's miraculous return."

She motioned with her head to the roulette tables. Garrus spun around, spotting Jane heading his way, only to have Aish Ashland approach her and rope her into what Garrus could only assume was another inane conversation.

"Best to go to her. That young woman can talk one's ear off given the chance."

Garrus didn't ask how Sha'ira knew her. It was a trivial question he didn't have time to hear the answer for. "Take care, Consort."

"You too, Garrus Vakarian." Her smile began to weaken, losing strength as the seconds ticked by. "Watch out for Commander Shepard. There is a negative energy around her not existent three years ago."

His mandibles flickered in surprise at the comment. Sha'ira had noticed something was wrong? Jane hadn't even talked to her, had she? Did she have insight that Garrus was clearly lacking? "What do you mean?"

"I am not all-knowing. Though I can see far into another's spirit, it is only when they let me. But I can feel another's aura. There is a wall surrounding her, guarding thoughts she chooses to keep hidden. I am sorry," she said when Garrus opened his mouth to prod more. "But that's all I am able to say."

His stomach churned with unease at Sha'ira's words as he walked over to Jane. His spiritual beliefs were never strong, usually preferring to deal in the physical, what he could see in front of him, but this wasn't just any old soothsayer. This had been her life's work for a thousand or so years.

He came in on Aish's side of the conversation. "…I gotta take care of it since the one on Earth got all Reaperified."

"Instead of remodeling, maybe you could invite a few refugees to come stay," Jane suggested, though he could tell by the twitch of her eyebrow she was getting irritated with Aish.

"Oh, I'm totally on that. But finding the right one is hard, you know? So many of them don't have agents."

For a second time, Jane allowed Garrus to pull her away, wishing the young woman a hurried goodnight.

"Do I even want to know?"

"Apparently I'm a B-lister who knows something about whether houses with retractable roofs are in." She was making no effort to conceal her annoyance now. He didn't blame her one iota. He would have needed to be pretty intoxicated to handle it. Listening to her talk, it made it seem like she had never known true suffering, didn't fully understand the damage the Reapers could cause. He almost envied her that luxury. If she had lost someone, lost everything that meant something to her in this war or even before it, maybe she would have better understood, had compassion for all those refugees who had nowhere else to go. Then again, maybe not.

"So did you stop the guard?" Garrus asked, directing the conversation away from Aish Ashland.

Jane's blue eyes narrowed at the question. "He was already receiving a call about it being a false alarm by the time I got to him. And EDI didn't send it..."

"Our mystery person," Garrus finished for her. He hadn't seen the figure again since he told Jane about them. Probably not a good sign.

Jane nodded in agreement. "We got to get in there now. Brooks, you clear yet?"

"I think so, Commander; you just need to get to me. I'm on the other side of the security gate."

"Right. Have you bypassed the camera back there?"

"Well, I got my side. Yours is still on, though. And I think the junction to the security gate is on your side too. Also...all the guards seem to have cleared out, don't know if that's a good or bad thing."

Nine times out of ten, usually a bad thing. "Didn't you say there were three guards there when you first went by there?" Garrus asked.

"Someone's cleaning house." The determined expression on Jane's face grew. "I'll be damned if someone gets to him first. Brooks, you haven't seen anyone else besides the guards?"

"No, Commander. I haven't seen anything."

They double-timed it to the area where the entrances to the panic room and vault were. Garrus could make out Brooks hiding in the shadows, waiting for Jane to disable the necessary cameras and junction. Brooks had been right; there were no guards to be seen in the area, only a bare-faced turian right outside of the entrance, lazily leaning against the wall, seemingly uninterested in their presence so close to Khan's personal space.

"We gotta act fast." Jane hurriedly went to the camera by the vault door to place the hack, then over to the second on the other end. She was only an arm's reach away from the junction to the security gate when he heard a scruffy voice near the entrance state he was returning to his post now.

By the tensing of her back, he knew Jane had heard the guard's approach too. He was about to tell Jane to get to the couches, pretend they were having an engaging conversation about the creative names the owners of the varren racers gave them. But before he could move, he felt an insistent tug on the collar of his shirt, forcing him forward, plates pressed against Jane's lips.

Not the route he would have gone, but he wasn't going to complain.

Once he got his bearings, his hands found themselves on her hips, pulling her flush against him. Just because this was a ruse didn't meant he couldn't appreciate it, this intimate connection with Jane he could never get enough of.

The moment wasn't ruined by the guard's awkward throat clearing in the background or breaking away from her to catch a breath.

It was because the longer the kiss went on, the more he felt like he was kissing an inanimate object, almost like a statue. For however brief its length and the circumstances surrounding it, he had enjoyed it.

She had not.

Though she had initiated it, there was no willingness on her part to kiss him back. Even when they did this for the first time before the Omega 4 Relay, this kissing, it didn't feel like this. For both of them, there was hesitancy (also unfamiliarity with the act with him), but also eagerness, desire for the other hovering just below the surface. This…there was no feeling behind it, the kiss or the look on her face when they broke away. There was nothing, that blankness again like so many times before, as if none of it meant anything. And now that he was closer to her, to her hair and her skin, her usual scent of what she called a mix of berry shampoo and vanilla moisturizer (with an added mix of sweat and metal after a day of combat) was missing, no other recognizable scent palpable.

What the hell was going on?

"Uh…apologies, ma'am, sir. I need to get back to my post."

"We're sorry, we didn't mean to put on a show for anyone," Jane said breathlessly, eyes shifting away in faux embarrassment. "We just haven't been alone for quite some time. Guess it got the better of us, right, honey?"

Garrus forced the same chagrined expression onto his face as Jane's. "Right…sweetie."

The guard abruptly glanced over to his left, noticing the shut-off camera, then the one by the vault door. "Again? Damn things keep on switching off." He shot the two a careful look, probably wondering if they had been the ones messing with the cameras, but then he shook his head, grunting something about not getting paid enough for this job.

The guard barely had time to get cozy at his spot when two other guards rushed in. "Just got contacted by Burkes. Someone tripped the motion sensors in the vault," the leader spoke. "He ordered us to go down there and check it out. Just a small group, so's not to alarm the guests."

The vault? Was it the unknown figure? Was that what they had been after this entire time? Did they have no interest in Khan beyond his casino's goods?

Once the guards rushed away through the vault door, Garrus and Jane waited a moment, made sure no one was coming as back-up.

"Stay by the entrance while I do this so you can distract any more guards. We may not have another chance."

He did as Jane asked, not trusting himself to speak, for he might blurt out it, his unease and confusion over the kiss they just shared.

The turian who had been there before was still there, still eying him with disinterest. Garrus remembered back to his boyhood days, what was always said about bare-faced turians, the stigma attached to them. Clanless, treacherous, not to be trusted, without honor. A completely black and white picture presented for children, yet many adults held as truth to this day. Even Garrus couldn't deny it wasn't entirely without merit. Saren had been a prime example of bare-faced deceit.

"Having a fun evening?" the turian asked when he noticed Garrus staring him down.

"You're not mingling and you're not betting," Garrus observed. "What's your game?"

"The name's Rolan Quarn. The game is hearts and minds. Most people in this casino are here for a good cause. Others are just here to be seen. Phonies, if you will. They have money they won't miss. Others, who are not myself, need it. So the honorable thing to do is to part them from this money."

"So you're a con man."

"Con men leave their marks angry." His smooth words perfectly matched the tone of his dual-flang. "Con artists leave them smiling."

He heard Jane let out a muttered curse. "You doing ok back there, Jane?"

"Fine. Just taking longer to shut down than before. The guard must have done something to the panels."

Quarn still stood there, completely unfazed by the actions being performed before his very eyes. It was really beginning to get under Garrus's skin. "I'm debating whether I should report you to security," he said just to sound intimidating, though it was the last thing he wanted, to draw such notice.

"Oh, I like a good debate," Quarn sneered.

"Would you be so smug if I got you thrown out of here?"

"Possibly. I'd like to see you explain my wicked motives, right after you explain why you have a radio in your ear. And why you are breaking into Elijah Khan's safe room."

Touché. "Well, since I don't see you turning us in either, safe to say you're no friend of Khan's."

"Khan doesn't have friends. Anyone who says otherwise is deluding themselves."

"Please hurry, Commander!"

"It's ok, Brooks. No one's coming yet, just one more," Jane quietly assured.

Garrus did a careful pass-over to make sure that was still true. "So is Khan part of your game tonight?" Garrus continued once completed.

"No, I simply shear—no, what do humans call it? I fleece his guests."

"Then there's no harm in telling us what his weaknesses are."

"I've studied him. He's ruthless and rich, but not very bright. Temperamental. Doesn't deal well with the unexpected. He's also used to letting other people handle things he doesn't understand. Like his security."

"That's quite an assessment. Do we owe you anything?"

"No. We do what we do because there are wrongs that need righting. The wrongs I address are simply pettier than yours."

"Got it! Let's go, Garrus!"

Quarn sent a nod his way as farewell. "Best of luck to you. You'll need it."

Garrus hurried after Jane and Brooks, the last one in before the door closed behind them. Getting back out if guards returned to their post would be difficult, but too late to worry about that now. They had to be more concerned with Khan calling for back-up from a panic button hidden under his desk.

"Khan, I'm not here to threaten you. We need to talk."

Their entrance into Khan's inner sanctum did not cause a reaction. In fact, his movement had not changed since their arrival and his head appeared abnormally tilted forward.

Garrus took the initiative, going up to Khan and chancing he wasn't faking it and would shoot him once in range. That idea died as quick a death as Khan's, who had a nice clean hole in the middle of his forehead. Guess they didn't need to worry about him calling security, afterall.

"What the hell?" Brooks cried.

"And here I had this bad cop routine all planned," Garrus said, crossing his arms, trying to recapture his ability to come up with sarcastic one-liners in the face of any situation.

Brooks stepped up to Khan's terminal, quickly scanning through it. "There's a deletion order on the terminal. Everything's been wiped." She stepped away to allow Jane to take a look. "I don't know if it was him, or the killer, or-when I tripped that alarm, did I screw this up? What are you looking for?"

"Mistakes." A side panel popped up beside the flashing error symbol on the screen. "Thought so. Whoever it was had to do this fast. They wiped the terminal, but not the comm."

"So we can take the comm back to the safe house to scan it or maybe there's still something on the data drives we can use..." Brooks pondered.

"With EDI, anything's possible."

Brooks strode over to Khan, taking in the sight of his dead body. "Wonder who did this to him, if it was that invisible person you saw?"

"The best actors make it nearly impossible to tell…"

As Jane answered the tactical cloaked figure was probably more interested in Khan's vault, Garrus noticed a tear at the bottom of Brooks's dress that had not been there last he saw her.

"When did that happen?" he asked, pointing at her dress. The question came out more sharply than Garrus planned, but Miranda's words were still rattling around in his mind.

Brooks's gaze fell on the rip in question. "Must have been somewhere in the ventilation shaft. I do remember the dress getting caught on something. It was pretty dark in there."

"Or maybe it got caught on Khan's chair after you killed him."

All three heads turned in the direction of the back corner and bodiless voice that came from that direction. Visor pinned on the area, Garrus picked up the cloaked figure he had seen before, who chose to deactivate it, revealing a familiar figure with a distinctive black hood cloaking her face.

"Kasumi?"

"Wait, you know her?" Brooks exclaimed, moving away from Khan and towards Kasumi to get a better look.

"I'm an old friend of theirs," Kasumi replied, still sounding cold towards Brooks. "A thief out on a routine heist who got roped into a murder scene caused by you."

In retrospect, he should have realized it. Stealing was her life and Kasumi practically lived in a tactical cloak.

"I…I don't know what you're talking about," Brooks defended, visibly flustered at being accused of murder.

"I saw you enter the casino with Shep and Garrus, tapped into your comm and knew you were going through the vents to get to Khan," Kasumi explained, stepping further out of the corner, illuminating the part of her face not in shadow from her hood. "But then I saw you come here before they arrived. One of the guards let you through, almost like he knew you. I followed you in just in time to see you shoot Khan in the head, so he wouldn't rat you out. I knew you'd try to kill them as soon as you led them here. I wasn't about to stand by and let that happen."

For a moment, there was absolute silence, nothing but the crackling of the artificial fireplace. Then in a lower, intimidating voice different from the skittish one they had heard all along, Brooks said with crackling bitterness, "My plan was perfect."

With lightning speed, she activated her omni-tool and disappeared under the guise of her own tactical cloak, sprinting out the door before anyone could stop her.

"Damn it!" Jane moved to go after her, but Garrus caught her by the arm before she could get far.

"Let her go, Jane. We go after her now, we might cause unwanted attention."

She tugged at her arm, trying to get him to let go. "She's not the only one with a cloak, Garrus."

"He's right, Shep. And you don't know where she might lead you. You could be running right into a trap."

"Just like the one at the sushi place," Garrus pointed out.

Jane stopped resisting at that, sighing in frustration. "Okay, fine, you both made your point. Let's just get these data drives back to the apartment for EDI to scan."

"You coming too, Kasumi, or staying here?" Garrus asked while Jane began the process of extracting the drives.

Kasumi shook her head. "My team can handle what's left." She let out a dry chuckle. "And here I thought this would be an easy job."

He told Kasumi it seemed nothing could ever be easy.

Jane was almost done retrieving the data drives when Garrus heard a ping on his omni-tool. A message from Miranda, consisting of only three words:

B. Traitor. Cerberus.

That would have been helpful to know for certain ten minutes ago.

So it was done.

She had not been expecting Goto's appearance, her robbery of Khan's vault on the same night, same time, but it achieved the same goal. Khan would not be telling any tales about their little collaboration. Brooks was now the bad guy, free to return to the Archives and check on progress, set the trap for Shepard's team for her to lead them to.

Now she had to continue keeping suspicion off herself until then.

Despite her reaction to Brooks's supposed betrayal, that may be easier said than done with what happened.

She had thought she had cast suspicion on herself when allowing her irritation towards that Ashland girl to show through. She imagined Shepard would have been patient with her, despite the girl's mindless chatter. She would have been attentive and interested in everyone in that blasted bar. They all sickened her. This mingling of species, this laughter, losing yourself in vices to forget the realities of the galaxy and the war raging on. How could any of the humans be happy when their homeworld was in flames?

No, her biggest mistake of the night (and it irked her to admit she made mistakes; a good leader never questioned her decisions) was that kiss. She thought the guard would buy the ploy more than if they had been talking. If they had appeared to be two lovers wrapped up into another. It had the desired effect on the guard, but the turian…he knew. He knew she despised the kiss, wanted nothing more to wash her mouth out, rub her lips with the back of her hand until she scrubbed them away.

She knew he'd demand answers about it when he got the chance. About the kiss, about her behavior. She would not crack under his questioning, no matter what he threw at her. No matter how many of Shepard's crew he told.

She would see this plan through. To the very end.