Jane opened her eyes just in time to see Garrus leaving her room. She thought she heard him tell someone to meet him in the Mess Hall. I hope he's not angry that I didn't wake him up last night, Jane thought before getting dressed. She decided to grab some coffee and discuss the next mission with Miranda. She saw Joker and Garrus talking in the mess hall and greeted them both as she walked by but Garrus reacted a little strange. I wonder what they're talking about, Jane thought to herself as she entered Miranda's office.

She and Miranda discussed how to go about recruiting the scientist when rumor on Omega was he was in the middle of a quarantine zone.

"I'll figure a way out to get to him." Jane told her.

"But we don't know why they're in quarantine. Rumor is there's some kind of plague going on. We should learn more about it." Miranda told her.

"Eh. I'll manage. We need that scientist if we want to figure out a way to get around those bug things." Jane told her. She wasn't a big fan of Miranda's but she knew Miranda was in charge right after her and she had to admit she was smart. I really miss Liara right now, she thought.

"Shepard, you should be more careful. We just brought you back with science, we didn't make you indestructible. I'm still not happy about how you went about that krogan business. He could've killed you." Miranda scolded her.

"I had it handled. But I bet you really wish you could've inserted that control chip now, huh?" Jane said to her, annoyed. Miranda just sat there, glaring at her. Jane decided she was done there, stood up, then left her office. She saw Garrus sitting by himself when she got out and it looked like he was deep in thought. She leaned on his shoulder and told him it was time to go get the scientist. He looked a little surprise at her sudden appearance but immediately told her he was coming. They walked to the armory together to suit up. The walk there was unusually quiet and it worried Jane. She decided instead of worrying, she should just talk to Garrus about it.

"Hey, about last-" She started but got interrupted when Grunt came running up to them.

"Shepard, are we going or not? Are all humans this slow?" He asked her.

"Yeah, we're going now." Jane chuckled at Grunt. I guess this talk will just have to wait, Jane thought to herself.

Jane made her way to the cockpit after making sure Mordin was settled in his lab.

"I screwed up." She blurted out as soon as she saw Joker.

"What?" Joker turned around in his chair.

"We almost lost Garrus and Grunt because I wasn't thinking.." She confessed to him. I can't believe I almost got them killed, she told herself.

"The-the plague? Didn't that salarian doctor have a cure?" Joker asked her.

"Yes. They're fine now but I didn't know he would going in."

"Well, what did they say about it?" Joker asked.

"I don't know. They haven't said anything but you and Garrus seem close so I just.. I figured you could help." She told him. "I don't want to drive Garrus away again."

"You've got to be shitting me. You didn't drive him away before, he just- he had things he needed to work through. I can't tell you what but trust me, it wasn't you. You're the reason he's here now. If you're really worried about it, you should go talk to him." Joker sounded exasperated.

"But-" Jane started before Joker put his hand in front of her.

"Go. Talk. To. Garrus." Joker said loud and slow to her.

"I'm not a child, y'know." Jane put her hands on her hips.

"Good. Then you can go have an adult conversation with Garrus about this." Joker smirked at her then turned his chair back around.

"You're impossible! I am your commanding officer. You're being pretty cocky." She told him.

"You know you love me. Now, go talk to him." He replied to her with a wave of his hand, without turning around.

"I'm going, ya ass." Jane muttered before walking away. I wonder what things he was talking about, Jane pondered to herself as she made her way to the Main Battery.

"Garrus.." Jane spoke up when she got to the Main Battery and saw him working on the guns.

He greeted her back and seemed a little awkward. Shit, he's probably mad about the mission going wrong. Jane told herself. She immediately apologized about putting him and Grunt through unnecessary danger but he told her it was okay because they got the cure. When she continued to express concern about her not thinking clearly, he told her he agreed to go with and said he promised to not leave again. What? When did he say that? She questioned herself, trying to recollect when he said that. He told her to nevermind that and told her that if she would've waited, that the doctor's assistant probably would've been killed. She knew he was right and agreed about that, but she said it was still reckless and stared at the ground, feeling guilty. He consoled her that he and Grunt were okay and reminded her that they cured the plague together. She was just about to agree with him when Joker interrupted them to tell her the Illusive Man wanted to speak to her. Impeccable timing as always, Joker. She thought to herself annoyed. She annoyingly mentioned that the Illusive Man was just who she didn't want to see and said goodbye to Garrus.

"It seems whenever I want to talk to Garrus today, something keeps interrupting us." Jane complained to herself as she made her way to the conference room to speak with the Illusive Man.

He told Jane that a colony called Horizon just went silent and he figured if it wasn't already under attack, that it soon would be. He then asked if Mordin had developed the countermeasure for the swarm yet, and Jane informed him that he hadn't. He noted that he hoped Mordin worked well under pressure then informed her that her former squadmate, Kaidan Alenko, was stationed on Horizon. Fuck, I haven't told him I'm alive or that I'm working to try and help the colonies. Jane silently panicked to herself. She asked him why Kaidan was there since she last heard he was still with the Alliance. He said officially it was an outreach program but he suspected they were up to something. Jane tried to ask him to notify them so they could send reinforcements but he told her he wouldn't until she investigated and didn't want them getting in the way. Of course, you don't because I'm sure you're up to something. Jane silently told herself. She still didn't trust him at all. She told him that she didn't think it was a coincidence that the collectors chose a colony that had a former member of her crew on it, and the Illusive Man reminded her that it shouldn't be a surprise since they were interested in her and probably working with the reapers. He told her that they might be going after Kaidan to get to her. She told him to give her the coordinates and decided to leave immediately. She informed Joker to tell Garrus and Grunt to get ready and meet her at the shuttle. Dammit. I haven't talked to Kaidan so this is going to be awkward. I care about him but things are complicated right now. Still, I can't let anything happen to him. It wasn't hard with Garrus, even though I didn't initially know I was going to run into him. Still, everything just came so easy once I saw him. Jane thought to herself, trying to figure out what she was going to say to Kaidan when she saw him, she had been so busy worrying about Garrus that she forgot about her situation with Kaidan.

On the shuttle, Jane briefed Garrus and Grunt about her discussion with the Illusive Man but left out the part about Kaidan. She wanted to be sure he was there before mentioning him.

Once they arrived at the colony, Garrus mentioned that they must've already been hit because it looked abandoned. She cursed in frustration and told them to look for clues. They soon ran into collectors that they had to fight and Grunt mentioned she wasn't joking about worthy enemies with a chuckle. Jane silently smiled to herself, glad that it seemed Grunt would stay with them. There are always people trying to kill me, she thought. They ran into some husks which Jane mentioned her distaste for them and Garrus mentioned that the collectors must be working for the reapers. Perfect. Just what we needed, Jane thought. They went further in and found a dead husk laying on the ground. Grunt asked if it was a colonist and Garrus told him that they used spikes to create them so they must've brought them with.

"These are more advanced than the ones I fought on Eden Prime. I wonder if they're using the colonists for some kind of experiments?" Jane spoke up. She balled up her fists as she remembered the Cerberus cells that experimented on her Alliance team years ago. "Let's go. They're not getting anymore fucking victims."

After another fight with the collectors, Jane picked up a strange looking gun.

"Looks like some kind of particle beam." Garrus told her.

"Sweet! It's mine now." Jane said happily, then strapped it onto her back.

They then found a couple of colonists that seemed to be frozen. Garrus mentioned it must be some kind of stasis. Right beyond them, Jane hacked a garage door when they ran into a colonist that seemed fine but angry. He tried accusing Jane of leading the collectors to him. She told him they were banging on the door, so they already knew he was there. He told them he came to fix a grid that their defense towers wiped out when the attack happened and blamed it on the Alliance and a commander Alenko. Dammit, he IS here then. Jane thought to herself, trying to steel her nerves for whatever would come next. She asked if he meant Kaidan Alenko and he confirmed it was him and said he was helping with the towers. She thought she saw Garrus get a disturbed look on his face but wasn't sure why. She told the man that the collectors were attacking remote colonies and the Alliance was trying to help when he tried blaming them again. She got the location of the tower and told him to lock the door when they leave before heading out.

EDI informed Jane that it would take a few minutes to calibrate the tower defense to hit the collector ship and that they had enemies closing in when they got to the tower. Jane informed the others to get ready and they all ran to cover. A few moments later, Jane yelled to Garrus that she had six and asked his number. He tried acting surprised about them keeping count, she just mentioned they always did. She knew he was keeping count as it was their thing. She asked about betting on drinks, he agreed and told her he had seven. Ha, I better step up my game, she told herself as she put a bullet through a collector's head.

"What do I get if I win?" Grunt spoke up.

"Well, what do you want?" Jane asked him.

"More enemies to kill!" He yelled back at her.

"Ha, deal!" She agreed. He reminded her a lot of Wrex. Damn, I miss him.

After they had all the collectors down, a construct that looked to have several husks fused into it came flying towards them.

"What the fuck? I hate husks enough already." She said to herself, then pulled out the particle beam she picked up. "Okay baby, show momma what you can do!" She aimed it at the construct and pulled the trigger to see the beam whittle down it's barrier until it exploded. She let out a victorious yell and said it had to count for at least eight with all the husks it had. She heard Garrus laugh and Grunt compliment her skill while saying her last name.

"Shepard? I know that name." The man said as he came into view.

She was about to explain to him who she was when she heard a voice.

"She's commander Jane Shepard. Captain of the Normandy, first human spectre, and the Hero of the Citadel." Kaidan said as he came into their view. Jane froze up as soon as she saw him. She didn't know what to say. "Delan, you're in the presence of a legend.. and a ghost." He continued. Delan spoke out his distaste that Kaidan survived when the others didn't. Jane tried to apologize and explain that there was nothing they could do, but he said he was done with the Alliance and walked away. Kaidan then came up and hugged Jane and she nervously hugged him back, but she could sense something was wrong as soon as he pulled away.

"You look angry." She told him.

"I thought you were dead for the past two years! I thought I meant something to you. I- I loved you! Why didn't you tell me you were alive?! How could you do that?" He yelled at her.

"It's not that simple. I was in a coma on a Cerberus operating table and just got revived recently. Then I got-"

"Cerberus?! You're with them, after everything we saw and what they did to you? Garrus, you're with them too?" He yelled at her and Garrus as soon as he saw him.

"Kaidan. I'm sorry but don't be angry with Garrus. He's just doing what I'm asking him to. We're just trying to-" Jane started before Kaidan interrupted her again.

"I can't believe the reports were true. I was hoping the rumors of you being alive were true but I never imagined you'd be with Cerberus. You're working for the enemy!" He continued yelling.

"No. They're not this time. I'm sorry for not contacting you, but we're trying to help the colonies. Were you sent here to investigate me?" She tried her best to calm him down.

"I'm here because the Alliance suspected Cerberus were behind the attacks. I can't believe you. I can't believe you betrayed everything we believed in. You betrayed the Alliance and me.."

"No. Please Kaidan, you know me. You know I'd never betray the Alliance." Jane tried pleading with him. She couldn't believe he thought she was betraying them. It made her want to cry but she steeled herself.

"Kaidan. You're too focused on Cerberus to see the real threat here. It's not us." Garrus chimed in. It seemed he was trying to defend Jane.

"You're letting your history cloud your judgement about Cerberus and me. You know me, Kaidan. We-" Jane tried talking to him.

"No. Not anymore. The Jane I knew would never help Cerberus. You're blind from them saving you. They've turned you into someone different, and a traitor." He told her, then looked at Grunt. "I see you found a replacement for Wrex, too. Good for you."

Jane couldn't speak after that. She stared at the ground and wondered how Kaidan could think all these things about her. All of a sudden, she saw Garrus run in front of her and confront Kaidan. He asked Kaidan to listen to reason and stop accusing her of being a traitor. She was glad Garrus was sticking up for her but hoped it wouldn't turn into a fight. Kaidan scoffed at him and called him her loyal dog. That's not fair, she thought. Garrus told him that he was being a loyal friend and was with her because she was doing the right thing. She smiled at his words but that smile disappeared when Kaidan asked where he was when she was in the hospital and when the Normandy got destroyed. She was about to tell Kaidan to knock it off when Garrus said that was a mistake and he owned up to it. He mentioned he was there now and he wasn't berating her for doing what she believed in. Kaidan accused him of not being there to be just her friend. She was confused about what he was getting at but Kaidan then told Garrus to go ahead and said he was done with her. He called her a dirty traitor and said she was better off before Cerberus got ahold of her. She didn't have time to worry about what he said because she saw Garrus get ready to hit him. She ran between them and yelled at them to knock it off. She told Kaidan to stop taking his anger out on Garrus and told Garrus to forget whatever his issue with Kaidan was, that they had more important things to deal with. Garrus calmed down when he looked at Jane, and Kaidan just said he had to report in and said farewell to her. She said goodbye to him with a sigh and radioed Joker to pick them up. She said she was sick of the colony and led her team to the pick up point.

Back in the conference room, the Illusive Man congratulated Jane on her team stopping the collectors from destroying the whole colony. Jane confronted him about leaking information about her working with Cerberus to the Alliance. He told her that he lured the collectors because he wasn't willing to wait for them to strike a random colony. He pointed out the fact that the collectors were the ones that attacked her ship two years ago and went after one of her old crew members was proof that they were interested in humans and her, in particular. He then told her that he would find a way to the Omega 4 Relay and gave her some more dossiers, telling her she should keep building her team before disconnecting their call.

"You've got to be kidding me." Jane grumbled as she left the room.