Jane kept her foot on the gas pedal as they sped through the conduit and straight into the presidium. Holy shit, it worked she thought to herself right before she landed on two geth and rolled straight into a wall. She opened her eyes as she felt something pulling on her arm and saw Garrus was attempting to get her out of the wreckage. As he was looking her over, she noticed Kaidan had gotten himself out already. She was pondering her conflicted feelings between the two men when she was interrupted by Garrus teasing her about crashing the mako. She retorted by joking about the wall coming out of nowhere and pointed out they were alive and she was the one that took out the geth in their way. She then asked if everyone was alright and after they answered, suggested they get the mission done.
They didn't get far before a horde of husks were dropped before them. Jane muttered that she hated them, pulled out her pistol, and ran towards them shooting. She noticed Kaidan was running too and concluded that Garrus was staying back with his rifle for long range. She shot them down one after another when she saw a bullet go through the one in front of her and heard Garrus celebrating that he won with his eighth kill. Damn, I only got seven she thought as she turned around and saw two more right behind Garrus. She thought he must've been too busy boasting to notice them and her instinct to protect him kicked in as she shot each one through the head once. In order to conceal her concern she pointed out the two put her in the lead and teased him about her win as she blew on the tip of her pistol with a smile. Kaidan interjected that it wasn't the time for that. She thought she heard a hint of jealousy in his voice but she just replied there was nothing wrong with a little competition and added a snark about there not being much of one while still smiling. She noticed Garrus just smiled back instead of defending himself against the lost. She felt herself getting lost in his smile when she was interrupted by Kaidan yelling for them from a distance. She jolted herself from her thoughts and they ran to catch up with Kaidan.
Jane overheard the Avina telling them they needed to evacuate the presidium and approached it.
"Where is everyone?" She asked it.
"There is one life sign approaching the council chambers but C-Sec is unable to respond to the threat with all the geth on the citadel." It informed her.
"That has to be Saren." Garrus said.
"Right." Jane agreed before turning back to the Avina. "Where are the council members?"
"The council were evacuated to the ship Destiny Ascension along with ten thousand citizens as per emergency protocols."
She then asked it about Anderson and Udina but it informed her that it couldn't track the location of individuals. Jane felt her heart sink at the thought of not knowing if Anderson was alive or not. Garrus must've sensed her dismay she thought as she felt something on her shoulder and noticed he put her hand there and tried consoling her that he was sure he was okay since he was a resourceful person. She knew he was a hell of a soldier that taught her almost everything she knew. Still worried, she forced out a smile for Garrus and suggested they get going. Once they finally made it to the elevator, Jane pressed the button to the chambers and they started moving. Not even halfway up, she felt the elevator shake then stop. She looked out the glass window and sighed. It never ends, she thought before telling the guys to suit up because they were going outside while putting on her helmet. Once she saw them put theirs on, she pulled out her pistol. She heard Garrus start to object as she shot the glass. She made a joke about repairs before stepping out and they made their way towards the chambers.
They came across small groups of geth along the way that they dispatched with ease. Well, this is easier than I thought it would be, Jane thought just as she turned a corner and saw a geth turret. She cursed out and rolled to get back behind the wall. After a few moments of silence, she saw Garrus look around the corner and immediately tease her that they were inactive. Her cheeks grew red as she realized how ridiculous she must've looked and argued that she didn't know and remarked that she had been shot at by a lot of turrets recently. Garrus just laughed that he knew that because he was with her those times. She made a Barney joke in attempt to call him a dinosaur but he just looked at her questionably and she realized he had no idea what she was talking about, so she threw her arms up in defeat as she realized the joke was wasted and told them to keep going. As soon as they got halfways through the area, a dropship dropped dozens of geth upon them. Jane swore in frustration then remembered the turrets were inactive and ran towards the console so she could hack them. She realized all the geth going after her were being shot down, she looked back and saw Garrus covering her back as always. She let a smile come to her face as she reached the console thanks to him. She ducked behind it and used her omnitool to hack into it. As the turrets turned on the dropship, she took out her sniper and focused on the ground troops. After a few minutes, she saw the dropship retreat after being heavily damaged and focused on taking out the rest of the geth. Wrex is going to be so pissed I didn't bring him along, she thought as they continued on. They took out a couple krogan in the next area and kept running until they reached the next open area when Jane felt a sharp pain in her left arm. She looked and saw turrets firing on them and ran back for cover. She swore while she held her arm and muttered it was always the same arm while remembering when she got hit by the rachni on that same arm when they took down the Cerberus facilities. Before she had time to react, Garrus had already started to apply medigel to her wound. He must be doing it before I have time to reject his help this time, Jane thought. She remembered him chasing after her the last time, desperately trying to get her wound treated and she felt a little guilty so she muttered out a thanks and turned to look at the open area. She informed Garrus to go help Kaidan and when he started to object, she told him she was fine. She then noticed she had reflexively put her hand on his but quickly pulled away and told him to go before heading out and rolling into different cover. She glanced back to make sure Garrus had done as she said then focused on the turret in front of her. She then used her overload ability to stun it, followed by a couple sniper shots which ended in it exploding. She turned to see that Garrus and Kaidan had already taken care of theirs. She took a moment to catch her breath and gather her thoughts. It was then she decided she was going to talk to Garrus about her conflicted feelings after they took down Saren. With her new resolve, she told them it was time to move on.
Once they reached the chambers, there were quite a few more geth in their way. Jane yelled out that she was sick of all the geth, then she alternated between her overload and shooting them with her pistol in a fit of angry fury. She heard Kaidan and Garrus join in but she didn't bother to count her kills this time. Can I just fucking get to Saren and put an end to this already, she thought to herself after the last geth had fallen. She took a moment to catch her breath and regain her composure before running towards the control console. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Saren at the console, pressing some buttons. He turned around then jumped down towards the pit, then came back into view on his flying platform and threw a grenade towards them. Jane leapt to the side to avoid the blast, then heard Saren speak up while her ears were ringing.
"I was afraid you wouldn't be here in time to witness me help Sovereign take back the Citadel and bring the reapers back." He said, arrogantly.
"Stop this, Saren!" Jane yelled, pointing her pistol at him. "It's not too late. We can still stop this all from happening."
"Heh. I'm completely committed to the reaper cause now. I've been implanted." He said, as he pointed to his head.
"What? Are you crazy or just dumb?" She asked with her mouth wide open.
"Oh. I did listen to your words back on Virmire. Sovereign sensed my hesitation and had me implanted." He replied. "You see the reapers can't be stopped. There is still time to save yourself and join us."
"No. I will die stopping them before I help them destroy all the species in this galaxy! There's still time. Fight your implants! I'm not giving up this fight and you don't need to either." Jane argued.
"If only I had someone like you before I found Sovereign." Saren said with a sigh. "But I'm afraid it's too late." He pointed his pistol at his own head.
"No! Wait!" Jane called out to him and lunged toward him but he had already pulled the trigger. Jane looked just in time to see his body fall in the pit below them. She felt something wet on her face and touched her hand to it, when she looked at her hand she saw blue liquid and realized some of his blood had splattered on her. Dammit, why didn't you let me help you? She thought to herself. After a brief moment, she shook her head and made her way to the console. She pulled out her omnitool and used Vigil's data to regain control of the Citadel. Kaidan told her to open the arms of the citadel when Garrus told her to open a comm channel and see how the fleets were doing. She decided to go with Garrus's idea and as soon as she opened the channel, she heard a mayday.
"This is the Destiny Ascension. We need help! Our shields are failing, our engines are offline, and we have the council aboard." The voice on the comm sounded panicked.
"Hello? Please tell me this is Commander Shepard." Jane recognized Joker's voice on the comm.
"It's me, Joker. Are you okay?" Jane replied to him. She was happy to hear his voice.
"We're all fine here. Thanks to the best pilot in the whole damn galaxy." Joker boasted. "We're here with the Arcturus Fleet and we can save the Ascension if you open the relays."
"We need to save them!" Kaidan cut in.
"Screw that. We should protect our fleets. Besides they wouldn't do anything to help your people, Shepard. They wouldn't even listen to you about the reapers and look where that got us." Garrus interjected.
"This is bigger than just humanity. The reapers are a threat to the whole galaxy." Kaidan argued.
"Exactly my point. We shouldn't waste any resources." Garrus argued back.
"No. We have to show them we're not just worried about ourselves." Jane told Garrus then went back to Joker's comm channel. "Save the Destiny, Joker." She said as she opened the relays for them.
"Aye aye." She heard him reply. After a few moments of silence, he came back on the comm. "Alright, commander, they're in the clear." After hearing the confirmation, Jane opened the arms and heard a familiar voice.
"Alright everyone, focus all fire power on Sovereign." Admiral Hackett announced.
"Go make sure Saren is… dead." Jane reluctantly ordered her squad. She didn't want to take any chances.
After they jumped down, Jane heard a couple shots then heard Kaidan confirm he was down on the comm. Just then, Jane saw red lightning light up the whole area.
"What the fuck? What now?" She said quietly to herself, looking around. She noticed it was focusing in the pit where she had sent Garrus and Kaidan. Just as she went to tell them to get out of there, she heard an explosion and felt the ground under her crumble as she fell. Her whole body ached as she found herself in the pit under some rumble, when she saw Garrus move a large piece off of her and help her up. It was this moment she realized he never hesitated to come to her rescue whether she absolutely needed it or not, and she knew she'd do the absolute same for him. She looked around and saw what used to be Saren's body was now a metal skeleton as it started throwing attacks at them. They ran to cover and she pulled out her sniper to fight back. They all threw their attacks and ammo at it, until it looked like it was finished. Then a surge of power hit it and it's shields were back up. Fuck. Just give me a goddamned break here, would ya? Jane thought as she got ready to keep fighting. She thought if she died here, at least she was with people she cared about and she gave the galaxy a fighting chance. Just then, Garrus used his concussive shots to weaken it's shields and she carefully landed two sniper shots to its skull, resulting in its head exploding. After a moment, they saw the rest of its body turn to dust. Exhausted, Jane took the rest of her energy to climb out of the pit with the others. It's finally over, she thought as she looked out the window in time to see a large piece of metal that looked like part of Sovereign flying towards them. Shit, you gotta be kidding me, she thought.
"RUN!" She hollered to the others as they all ran to avoid the collision. She felt the heat of an explosion on her back and pain all over her body. I never got the chance to tell Garrus that-. Jane's thoughts were interrupted by everything turning black.
