Jane sat down across from Anderson at a table in Flux. She was about to go off on him for what happened in the council chambers when he spoke up.

"I can't believe he lowballed you like that. Bastard only cares about raising himself up." He said angrily as he hit his fist on the table.

"You didn't know about it?" She asked surprised. She had thought that he was in on the decision.

"No! I would have never agreed to it and I think he knew that. You're sure about Ilos and the reaper threat?"

"Yes. Not that it matters since no one believes me." She told him while balling her hand into a fist.

"I do. If you say it's real and not something Saren's making it up, I believe you one hundred percent." He told her, reassuringly. She looked up and smiled. She was relieved to hear he believed her.

"Not that it matters now. They grounded my ship and now he's going to win." She replied, dejectedly.

"Like hell he is! I have some ideas on how to get you there." He told her.

"Like what?" She asked, curiously.

"I can go and face the C-sec guards or I can go to Udina's office and take off the docking clamps for you." He told her with a determined look in his eyes.

"That's crazy, Anderson. If they don't kill you, they'll court martial you!" Jane objected. She'd already lost too many people close to her, she didn't want to lose him too.

"Let me worry about that." He tried to reassure her. "You need to stop Saren from wiping out the entire galaxy."

"Okay." She replied reluctantly. "Go to Udina's office. No need to go against C-sec." She knew he was right but she wasn't about to ask him to go against armed guards.

"Alright." Anderson stood up. "Get to the Normandy and have Joker get ready for takeoff. And good luck. If anyone can stop him, it's you." He told her with a smile.

"Thank you." She got up and shook his hand and put on a smile for show for him. "I won't let you down, sir."

She went over and told Kaidan and Garrus they had to get to the Normandy before it took off. Kaidan seemed confused and mentioned they were grounded, she simply replied it wasn't for long with a smirk and they made their way to the docks. Once inside, she told Joker on the comm to prepare a course to Ilos. He started objecting that they were docked while in midsentence let out a curse in surprise and asked how she did that. She coyly told him it was her secret, she thought the less people that knew about what she and Anderson planned the better. He told her they'd be there in a few hours and she went to her room to rest and prepare herself.

A few minutes after sitting on her bed and reading her datapad as Carnifex laid by her feet, she heard a knock at her door. When she opened the door, she saw Kaidan standing there and let him in.

"Kaidan, what's-" She started asking and got interrupted when she felt something soft on her lips. It took her by surprise and after a moment she realized he was kissing her. It started out tender and sweet as she felt his hands on her waist. She then put her hands on the back of his head and started kissing him back. His kisses started getting more aggressive as she felt his hot breath on hers, she could feel his passion and hunger for her in his kisses and she welcomed it with her own passionate breath into his. She then felt his hands wandering all over her backside as he went to pull off her shirt. He then stopped for a moment to take his own off then brought his lips back to hers with even more intensity than before. He then started making his way to the bed with her without taking his lips or hands off of her. As they approached the bed, he pushed her down onto it and got on top of her. He brought his mouth down to the nape of her neck and she let out a small moan as she felt his mouth and his tongue on her neck moving down to her collarbone. She gripped tightly to his back and let her nails dig in ever so slightly as she shivered in pleasure at his touch. She then felt his mouth continue to move down as he grazed her breast with his mouth as he undid her bra and tossed it onto the floor. He then started massaging her other breast with his hand as she let her moans get louder. She then grabbed onto his hair and gently tugged at it as he moved his mouth down her abdomen to her navel while he kept his hand on her breast. He let go as he slowly took off her pants and panties while tenderly nibbling on her thighs. Unable to hold her lust in anymore, she sat up and gently pushed him onto his back. She then removed his pants and underwear before straddling herself onto him. She gave him a few hot, passionate kisses before speaking up.

"What are we doing, Kaidan?" She asked breathless.

"Something I've wanted to do for awhile and I hope you have too." He replied and leaned forward and pulled gently on her hair as he nibbled on her neck. "I care about you, Shepard. Screw the regs."

"I do too." She replied back to him.

After hearing that, he pushed on her hips just enough so he could insert himself inside her and the moment she felt him, she moaned and moved her hips up and down while putting her hands on his chest for leverage as she lost herself in the moment. After awhile she felt his hand move to the back of her neck as he gripped it and rolled her over so he was leaning over her. She then felt him grip both her wrists with his hand and put them over her head and used his other hand to caress her chest. She could feel him thrusting his hips and felt his hot breath on her neck as he continued pleasuring her with his body. She took all of him in as she let herself forget everything she'd been through and let the ecstasy of his passion and lust take her over.

A little while later, Jane was getting dressed and realized they'd have to talk about what happened eventually. She knew they would have to discuss if it was a one time thing or if they were going to continue a relationship. But right now they had to focus on getting to the conduit and stopping Saren. Right after she finished getting dressed, Joker came on the comm announcing they'd arrive at Ilos in just a few minutes. She acknowledged him and told Kaidan to suit up then contacted Garrus and told him the same before heading to the armory herself. As soon as she finished putting her armor on and grabbing her rifle and pistol, Joker came on the comm asking her to come to the cockpit. She told Kaidan and Garrus to wait for her and headed towards Joker. Once she got there, he and Pressly were arguing about landing near Saren's location. They told her there wasn't any safe way to drop them off near him.

"Can you get close enough to drop the Mako?" She asked him.

"Are you crazy?" Pressly interjected. "There isn't enough room for the mako to drop!"

"I can do it, Commander. But it's going to be a tight fit." Joker spoke up.

"Do it. Get me as close to him as you can." She told him.

"Aye, aye." Joker responded as Pressly just shook his head.

Jane went to inform the squad of her plan and told them to get in the mako. Both Kaidan and Garrus seemed a little nervous but followed her orders.

They made the landing just a small distance from Saren, thanks to Joker. Jane knew he could do it. As soon as Saren saw them, he ran into the doors in front of him and they closed. Jane took out the Geth that stayed behind with the mako and took out the few stragglers with her pistol, then made a run for the doors. Frustrated, she told the others he locked them as she hit them with her fist.

They went to go look for another way in and eventually found a security console. They quickly took out the geth in the area and she hacked the console, then a distorted looking hologram came on and spoke a warning about the reaper invasion then went into unintelligible static. Garrus said something about wishing they could understand it and Jane surprisingly asked that he couldn't understand it and asked why she could. He told her maybe the cipher gave her an understanding of prothean language which she thought might have made sense then told them what it said and they decided to move on back to the archives.

Once they arrived, Jane opened the doors and they all hopped in the mako. Driving through the tunnels, Kaidan made a remark about driving through a creepy tunnel with the mako and Garrus stated there was probably a trap there set up by Saren. Just then Jane spotted some geth and quickly took them down with the mako guns.

"About time we get some action." She laughed. Just then Garrus said something about the next time they go on a life or death mission, to make sure he got to shoot more enemies. She questioned him in surprise since he already said he was going back to C-sec after they brought down Saren, just then she spotted some sort of barrier and pushed down on the brakes to avoid a collision. As they got out to inspect the barrier, Garrus mumbled that he knew there'd be a trap but Kaidan remarked that he didn't think it was from Saren or the geth. Jane just pointed out they should take the elevator since it was their only choice and sighed about wishing things would go right at least once in awhile.

They exited into a room when a hologram popped up.

"You are neither Prothean or machine, you are expected." It said to them. Jane looked at it puzzled when Garrus spoke up that it must be a badly damaged VI.

"I don't sense indoctrination on you like the one known as Saren who came by not long ago. There may still be hope." It replied.

Kaidan questioned about being able to understand it and it told them that it had been studying their language to be able to communicate. It told them it's name was Vigil.

"Why did you put a barrier in our way?" Jane asked it.

"We discovered that the cycle has gone on for millions of years and it must be stopped. The reapers created the citadel and it is a massive mass relay and a trap."

"What? The Protheans didn't create it?" Jane asked puzzled.

It told her that they had not and explained that the facility they were in was secret and had no records so the reapers had no knowledge of it. It then explained that power started failing so it had to start shutting down stasis pods starting with non essential members. Jane was appalled and asked how it could murder its own creators. Vigil explained that it was written in its program to do that in case of power failures. It told them some scientists found a way to disrupt signals to the keepers and that's why Sovereign couldn't signal them as before. It then told Jane to download data to regain control of the citadel and told her she needed to get to the main control to activate it. She asked where it was and it told her to follow Saren, that he knew where to find it. It said he had not reached the conduit yet and told her to do what they could not then signed off. Kaidan remarked about how the protheans still got wiped out besides being so advanced and Garrus claimed the same won't happen to them. Jane admired that about him and thought about how he gave her courage before telling them to get back to the mako.

They raced through the tunnels and Jane gunned down geth without even thinking about it, she knew she had to stop Saren. They reached the conduit just in time to see Saren look worried right before stepping through.

"That's right. I'm coming for your lizard ass." Jane said to herself before telling the others to hang on before stepping on the gas. Kaidan tried protesting that they didn't know if it was safe and she explained there was no time without even slowing down. When they were almost there, Garrus started saying he needed to tell her something.

"Tell me if we survive this, Vakarian." She told him as they went through the conduit. It's all or nothing now, she thought.