Jane hummed tunelessly to herself as she tapped the appropriate key settings for standby testing phase, before stopping when she caught her reflection staring back at her. Then just like in the Drift she felt her mind pull her along for the ride.

She'd been born to a pair of Jaeger pilots shortly after Humanity pushed the dreaded Precursors out of their hellhole in the Pacific and ended their staging grounds for Kaiju breaches permanently. Humanity celebrated for a whole year both the destruction of the Anteverse and the constructive future they as Humans could now look forward to.

All that changed the day Jane turned 7 years old.

What was initially passed off as comets by deep space sound posts, were actually in fact alien ships of varying make and design. Naturally after the K-War, humans were a tad more weary when it came to other beings.

The first ship landed in Sydney. Almost within shouting or shooting distance of the PPDC Global Headquarters. The new General Secretary of the Pan Pacific Defense Corps had the new Marshal mobilize Jaeger crews on standby in the Shatterdome, and at least one submerged underwater and ready to act if need be. Calm as could be he walked out with a small ring of soldiers surrounding him.

When they came out of the ship it was to be expected that they were hesitant, they met Secretary Lambert's entourage man to alien. A pair looked like dinosaurs or lizards, while the third had the beautiful figure of a woman, except she had blue skin and a sort of tentacle head.

It took several stumbling attempts, but with help from the lizard-like one, later learned to be a Salarian, they were talking with one another fluently, and the tale they told was one of world shattering news.

When Humanity pushed the Precursors out, they had no idea they were actually creating a vacuum to spread their war to other worlds. The Asari home world fell first, followed by the Turians, and Salarian in quick succession 19 months later, when their Home worlds became ash, the colonies fell, just as swiftly.

According to them, they were the leading races, and once they caved the other worlds didn't even stand a chance. Countless other species were now nothing but memories and data entries. The remaining three races had gathered all they could, moving those too ill or old onto a grand space station called the Citadel, and ferried their people to a weak signal from this seemingly untouched Eden.

After much talk, an agreement was reached. Humanity would help them and in exchange they would give them access to their technology. The three leaders looked skeptical, until Secretary Lambert ordered the Jaeger on standby to surface.

He had then turned to their stunned faces and said the words which would later define all of humanity; "We know how to rise to the challenge."

Jane was 7 years old when the Visitors came. Now here she was 20 years later, about to become very close to one.

'Second pilot inbound to bridge.'

The A.I. chirped, as Jane looked at her reflection one last time. She was good looking in her opinion, and she wasn't being vain about it either; her dark skin reflected her proud Indian heritage, while her olive green-blue eyes could be just as warm as they could be cold. She was small, but curvy and filled out in all the right places as her proud grandmother used to say, while the only thing off that could be said of Jane Shepard was that she always kept her raven hair cut to an almost skin level, and that it was bleached.

She huffed as she fitted on her helmet and let the left hemisphere Cradle lock and sync to her suit, as she made some last minute tweaks to her suit.

'Second pilot on the bridge.'

Jane turned and almost craned her neck up to meet the reptilian eyes of her partner; freshly minted Ranger and survivor of his home world's destruction: Garrus Vakarian.

"You ready to step inside my head big guy?"

He turned and gave her a look.

"What?"

She snorted and adjusted her helmet absently.

"Idiom."

She said shortly. She watched as he did the same, and their comm clicked on.

"Pilots, this is Senior Ranger Namani, stand by for drop."

Jane sighed and leaned back, glancing over at Garrus and snickering softly as he seemed to be bracing. They dropped and she had to laugh as he tried to can his yell. How they got discovered as Drift Compatible was a hilarious story.

Before being tapped to be a Ranger, Jane had been 'the' Kwoon instructor in her early twenties. Top in class and promoted to an officer position, responsible for the newer instructors. Under her tutelage, the Rangers became better than they had been in their heyday. Then her Shatterdome began to receive the first non-human Cadets and that's when she first met Garrus Vakarian.

She had been doing her daily meditation when she heard her new class come in. She smirked at hearing a very audible curse. Jane had herself balanced on her hands, arms fully extended and the rest of her body horizontally level and off the ground as she had the combat drones spinning around her. When one came close to her, she snapped up, and using her staff knocked them offline. She turned and slammed the end down into the mat with a resounding 'thump' as she faced them.

The drones retreated to their slots in the wall as she stepped forward to inspect her students. A mix of Asari and Turian males and females, no Salarians. Not that she expected any, they filled the PPDC in other functions, they couldn't handle Ranger trainings, still that cut down on recruits. Expectantly the Turians snapped to attention as did a few of the Asari as she approached.

"Who's first?"

Surprisingly, one stepped forward, much to the shock of the students, and the female beside him. She caught the color of their marks, siblings? Mates maybe?

"Cadet Vakarian, I'll go first."

Jane just raised an eyebrow, and swiftly brought up her stick between his legs, followed by a loud wheezing gasp as he fell down. She bent to help him up, which he took.

'Second mistake big guy.'

She yanked back with her left and slammed her right open palm to his jaw.

"First rule of combat."

She said as she bent down and the rest of the class looked on in sympathy.

"Your enemy isn't going to tell you when they strike, and they won't fight fair."

The kick of her legs out from under her and the roll Vakarian pulled was impressive. She'd given him an opening and he hadn't disappointed her. Now she had a fight.

She took the energy from her fall and pushed herself up into a spinning fly kick. He barely had time to set his stance. A drawback, but even fine steel was once raw ore. She spun her staff before slapping it to the ready behind her arm. He seemed to hesitate.

"Well c'mon then Cadet. Impress me."

His response, had her arch a brow at him again.

"Am I the only one finding this unfair that you have the staff and I don't."

She gave him the faintest trace of a smile as she spoke evenly.

"Are you or are you not a Ranger Cadet?"

He seemed taken aback, and watched her as she circled him. His stance never relaxing. She glowered at him briefly expecting him to have a snappy retort. Evidently his train of thought was still boarding the station. Time to expedite this.

"I SAID; ARE YOU OR ARE YOU NOT A RANGER CADET?"

He snapped to immediately.

"I AM A RANGER CADET MA'AM."

She stopped in front of him.

"Then grow another pair and wise up. What are you going to do when your Jaeger fails, and all you have are your fists? I certainly hope you're not going to ask a Kaiju to dance with your stiff legs."

Several students fought and lost the battle to keep their composure. She immediately leveled a mad eye stare at the lot and they shut up. She breathed evenly as she walked around them.

"I don't care who you are, I don't care what you think you know, I don't care who you lost, because all that matters now to me the most is making sure what I teach to you sticks, and keeps you alive!"

The room went icy quiet.

"Do you understand?"

Her response was loud and prompt.

"MA'AM, YES MA'AM."

She turned to Vakarian, he seemed to have a stare fixed on her she couldn't place. She recognized it from Shrinks. The last thing she wanted was him nosing where she didn't want him to. She brought the end of her staff within an inch of his face, which seemed to shock him out of his stupor. He looked back at her, and she was surprised to feel her heart tremble. She hated this feeling, being vulnerable. She was the rock for everyone, how would they see it if they knew her?

"Back to the line Cadet."

He nodded at her whispered order and retreated.

It went on like this, the class would muster promptly at 0500, she'd have them changed out and on the line by 0515, then she'd have a volunteer replay the moves from the last lesson and they'd review that until 0600. Jane then had them break for water, and report back after the allotted minute was up, then they'd roll into their next lesson until 0700, after which they were dismissed and she began to do the unsavory task of paperwork.

Of course this tended to make her late to her own quarters at night, so she'd cut through the enlisted barracks and catch the occasional whisper when they thought the halls were empty at night as she easily passed by their barracks.

"Psychotic bitch."

"What is it the Human's say? 'Hard-Ass.'"

"This is a nightmare. A freakin' nightmare. Wake me up, Mama, please!"

"What?"

"Classical movie Blue Girl. Look it up."

Same as any other group she ever had.

"What's her story?"

That made her pause. Garrus?

"Who's?"

"Hers, who else?"

There was a solid beat of silence.

"Why in the name o-"

The door opened loudly, all the Cadets turned and froze, before snapping to attention.

There was Instructor Shepard in all her fury.

"Well?"

Jane's question was answered with silence.

"That's what I thought."

She turned to Garrus, and gestured for him to follow. She started heading to the Jaeger bays, she didn't have long to wait until she heard his footsteps behind her. They soon walked out onto one of the gantry ways. They stood there watching the night crews working away on the Jaegers. To this day Jane didn't understand what happened between them when they saw the skeletal superstructure of Normandy Blue, but she knew one thing that settled between them, a sort of silent agreement.

'You want to know me? Be a Jaeger Pilot.'

From then on it became routine for them to watch Normandy built, and she also took note that he was volunteering more often than not, and was quickly establishing himself as the leader of the class.

Soon she found herself along with Vakarian applying for Jaeger Pilot positions. With her record, and Garrus's scores it didn't take long for them to hear they'd been tapped.

Which brought them to now as the conn-pod completed its locking procedure. Jane breathed deeply as she waited.

"You ok?"

She looked at Garrus, and gave a steady stare as she whispered the softest reply.

"Guess we'll see in a minute."

Comms clicked on again.

"Rangers, this is Marshal Jake Pentecost, standby for neural handshake."

Jane closed her eyes and exhaled out her mouth as the Drift opened up before her like an endless horizon. Then images became clear. A father teaching his son to shoot, that son playing with a tiny girl, a Kaiju roaring as it made landfall, and crushed the child's dwelling, and his mother, next it was the father again in a sick bed, while his son and daughter held either hand, then the memories had her in them, before they became hers.

All alone, no parents, no family, just the Shatterdome and a broken heart to keep her company as her parents marched on. Her breath hitched as they flew by a memory she held of Samantha, but Garrus helped her hold on to the present and the Drift swept her former fiancé away, leaving her more alone. Yet, as her face faded away into the infinite, she felt oddly free.

Then in a snap they both were awake, and more alive than ever before. They turned to each other.

'Left hemisphere, calibrating.'

The A.I. announced in its dull tone.

'Right hemisphere, calibrating.'

Jane raised the Jaeger's right arm and slammed it into the open palm of Garrus's left.

'Pilots ready to connect.'

Jane and Garrus raised their arms and pumped them forward, synchronizing their motions, and binding them closer together within the Drift.

'Two Pilots engaged in Neural Bridge. Ready to activate the Jaeger in 3...2... Launch.'

Jane breathed as she felt the memories threaten to swell over her. She jolted as she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"No Shepard-"

In spite of everything, she smiled.

"Without Vakarian."

The Drift drew them in until neither knew where one ended and the other began. They made to move and began to head out of the bay into the sunlight. Jane didn't know what the future held for her in life, but she learned one thing today. She had Garrus beside her. What did life have in store for them? She couldn't say, neither could he, but just like before there was that unspoken agreement. To quote Secretary Lambert; They now knew how to rise to the occasion.

Normandy Blue hit the waters as it took the first mixed pair of Rangers forward.