Garrus had just finished getting dressed and made his way to the meeting room when he was told to go make sure the Normandy's guns were working right. We should be fine but a little more calibrating never hurt anyone, he thought as he made his way to the Main Battery. He had just finished checking them over when he felt the ship shaking.
"Garrus. We have a visitor in Engineering. Meet me and Grunt there." Jane told him over the comm.
"Of course. I'll be right there." He replied with a smile. He was still ecstatic from his time with Jane.
When he got there, he saw a machine with an eye that had a particle beam shooting at Jane.
"Damn!" He yelled as he took cover and started shooting it with his assault rifle.
"We need to use heavy weapons on it!" Grunt yelled from across the room.
"You are a heavy weapon!" Jane yelled back at him as she took out her Black Widow Sniper and shot at it. She got it right in the center of its eye, causing it to retreat. Joker informed them he had to take the ship through a debris field to try and lose the others. A moment later, the whole ship started to shake which made them all clinging to the nearest structure. Grunt grabbed onto a nearby container and Garrus felt Jane cling on to him. He held her, feeling joy even in the midst of their battle. I'm never letting her go again, he said to himself.
"Thank you. Sorry about that." Jane said as she blushed.
"Always happy to catch you." Garrus smiled at her which made her smile back.
"Hey lovebirds. It's back!" They heard Grunt say as they saw the Oculus return. Shit, Garrus thought as he readied himself for another battle and shot it a few more times. Before they could do anything else, Grunt ran and headbutted it which caused sparks to start emanating from it. Garrus and Jane exchanged a quick glance before rushing at Grunt and pushing him behind a crate with them. Half a second later, the Oculus had exploded.
"That's my boy, Grunt!" Jane said as she gave him a high five.
"Heh heh. You said I was a heavy weapon." He chuckled back at her.
Joker then told them they better get back to him because they were about to clear the debris field. They did as they were asked and got to the cock pit just as they cleared the field. Just then, they a weapon powering up in the distance and Joker said that was the same type of thing that destroyed the first Normandy. Joker then started maneuvering to avoid the particle beams.
"Show them what we got now." Jane said to Joker.
"Aye aye, Commander." Joker told her as he started firing their upgraded guns at it. He hit it once which they noticed had done some damage, swerved to avoid another beam, then gave it another hit causing it to get destroyed. The blast ended up hitting the Normandy and EDI informed them to get ready for a crash landing.
"Shit shit shit." Garrus heard Joker panic as he pressed buttons on the console. The ship started shaking violently as they skidded on the ground that was previously below them. Garrus grabbed Jane in an attempt to shield her from any harm. After the ship stopped moving, Garrus got up from the ground where he had landed while still holding onto Jane. He helped her up and she gave him a smile, then she asked if everyone was okay. Joker groaned and said something about hurting his ribs, then EDI informed them there were no casualties. Joker informed her that the ship was stuck where they were and he and EDI could try to repair it. Jane mentioned they all knew it was possibly a one-way trip. She then called for everyone to meet in the meeting room to go through a plan to destroy the base.
After everyone had arrived in the meeting room, Jane gave a quick speech about them doing all they could to destroy the base. They went over the schematics of the base and decided to have two different teams to take the two paths to the central area of the base and to have a tech specialist to go through the ventilation shafts to unlock the doors that were locked for them. Jane decided to have Tali take the shafts and told Miranda to lead the second team while Jane would lead her team with Garrus and Grunt before they headed out.
They moved through the base and took out Collectors on their way. Jane quickly ran through and used the consoles along the way to keep the vents cool enough for Tali to get through. Once they had gotten through the doors in the central chamber and locked them behind them, they noticed the same strange pods they saw on the Collector ship but these ones had humans inside them still. Garrus saw Jane peer into one that had what looked like one of the missing colonists in it. All of a sudden, the woman woke up and started screaming and it looks as if she was disintegrating into some kind of liquid.
"Fuck! They're still alive! Get them the hell out now!" He heard Jane yell as she frantically tried to get the woman out, but unfortunately, she was too late. They all started banging their guns on the rest of the pods, trying to get them open. Luckily, they were able to save the crew of the Normandy. Garrus saw Jane grab Doctor Chakwas and ask if she was okay. After they checked on all the crew members, Jane radioed Joker to see if he could pick them up. He said he could from their starting point. Garrus could see that Jane knew they couldn't make it on their own and had Mordin escort them back. They were also informed that there were seeker swarms ahead in their way, Jane made the choice to have Jack guide them through with a biotic shield around them so they could unlock the door for the others. She had Jacob lead a distraction team for them.
They had made it through the seeker swarm, barely, before Jack got exhausted. After they opened the door for the distraction team, Jane radioed Joker to make sure the crew made it back to the ship and he confirmed they did. EDI told them that there were platforms that could take them to the main control console to destroy the base and that they had hostiles on the other side of their room that would get through at any time.
"Garrus, Thane. You two are with me and the rest of you need to hold off the Collectors as long as possible. I won't make this long. We need to destroy this base no matter what. It's been an honor to serve with all of you and if we make it out of this, drinks are on me." Jane addressed everyone before he and Thane went forward with her to the main chamber.
They fought their way through Collectors on the platforms until they reached the console. There, they saw a giant metal machine that took the form of a human skeleton. EDI informed Jane that hundreds of thousands of humans had been liquified to make it and it was incomplete and would need a lot more humans for it. Jane called it an abomination before shooting it down. They watched it fall, then Jane started to open the console getting ready to set the base to blow. EDI informed them she had the Illusive Man wishing to speak to Jane. Thane pulled up the hologram on his omni-tool and the Illusive Man started telling Jane that they should keep the base and just eradicate the Collectors. The Illusive Man began arguing with her that they could use the base for research on the Reapers and that he wanted to save humanity by any means necessary and brought up the fact that he had brought Jane back to work for him. She told him that the base was an abomination and that she wouldn't let fear compromise who she was before Thane hung up for her. Garrus just smiled and handed her the charge to set the base to blow up. That's my Jane. That's the woman I fell for, Garrus thought to himself. Jane set the charge and told them they had ten minutes to get out of the base. Just then, they felt the platforms shake and the Human Reaper had risen up behind them. He heard Jane swear out and told them to stay by her and aim for the eyes. They soon took it out again but this time it landed partially on the platform which caused them to start falling. Garrus felt the floor give under him and he started falling towards the edge and he couldn't see the bottom of the chamber. He heard Jane yell out his name and saw her sliding behind him with her hand outstretched towards him. He reached his out to her and she caught him at the edge of the platform and pulled him up. He was just about to take a breath when he felt them start falling the other way. Right when they stopped falling and landed safely, Garrus saw various metal parts falling towards them. He momentarily lost consciousness and woke up to Jane and Thane pulling a metal beam off of him. He got to his feet right before they saw a Seeker Swarm heading for them. Jane radioed to ask if Joker had the ship running and if the other team had made it. He confirmed both and they ran towards the location of the ship. As they were running from the Seeker Swarm and dodging Collector bullets, they saw the Normandy arrive before them with Joker holding an assault rifle to provide cover fire. Garrus and Thane arrived on the Normandy first but then the platform they had ran across had fallen and Jane made a long jump in an attempt to make it. Shit, she's not gonna make it. Garrus panicked as Jane had just barely grabbed the ledge of the doorway. Garrus quickly grabbed her arms and pulled her up to safety then hugged her tightly. They then raced to escape the explosion and once they were safe, Jane left to go speak with the Illusive Man. Garrus could only guess what she said to him because she told them they were no longer working with Cerberus when she returned.
A few days later, Garrus was thinking about Liara becoming the new Shadow Broker. I didn't even know there were any Yahgs in space, let alone that one would be the Shadow Broker. He was happy to find out that Liara had found Jane's dog tags and given them to her. He still remembered how hard she had taken it when they weren't at the crash site of the original Normandy. Garrus was trying to keep himself busy since finding out Jane was on a top-secret mission by herself for Admiral Hackett. He was getting more worried since he realized she had been gone for a while. Joker came on the intercom and informed him that they had to race to Batarian space to rescue her. Garrus asked him what she was doing there and Joker told him that he didn't know any more than he did. What the hell kind of mission did Hackett send her on? Garrus wondered to himself as they made their way to Jane. They had gotten to her just in time before the Mass Relay blew up. Garrus wondered how a Mass Relay could just suddenly blow up and realized someone must have done it on purpose. Garrus rushed to grab Jane who had been injured and took her to the Med Bay. He tried asking her what happened but she told him she couldn't tell him. Garrus was about to start arguing with her when Admiral Hackett showed up and told him that he had to talk to Jane alone. Garrus complied as he knew Hackett was high up on the Alliance food chain.
Hackett and Jane had been talking alone for a while when Hackett finally exited and made his way to leave the Normandy. Garrus ran into the room to see if Jane was okay. She seemed fine physically but looked like an emotional wreck.
"Jane, are you okay?" Garrus asked her.
"Joker. Set a course for the Citadel." Jane said into her comm before looking up at Garrus. He didn't like the look on her face. "I'm sorry, Garrus."
"What? Why?" Garrus asked her, confused.
"You and the others are getting off on the Citadel." Jane said with tears in her eyes.
"But you are too, right?" Garrus asked, worried.
"No. Me, Joker, and a skeleton crew are taking the Normandy to Earth."
"I'll go with you." Garrus said as he sat down and tried to hold her hand.
"No! I have to go turn myself in." She told him as she took her hand away.
"For working with Cerberus? But the council knew about that." Garrus asked. He was hurt and this didn't seem like something Jane would do.
"No. Because I blew up that Mass Relay and destroyed the Batarian Home world and everyone that lived on it!" Jane yelled through tears as she stood up. "I didn't want to but these crazy fucking scientists had gotten indoctrinated from a Reaper artifact and were opening a doorway through the Relay for the Reapers to come through. I tried to warn the Batarians but the message wouldn't go through. I did this alone and I'm not letting any of you get in trouble or detained for it."
"I don't care. I'll go with you." Garrus tried pleading with her as he got up to hug her.
"No. I won't let you go through that. Go to Palaven. Warn them about the Reapers. They're still coming. I only delayed them. Please, Garrus." She pleaded through tears while tightly hugging him back.
"But-okay. But promise me that I'll see you again." Garrus said as he gently patted her back.
"I promise I'll do everything I can to see you again." She said as she gave him a quick kiss. "I'm sorry but I have to go tell everyone else. Just remember, no matter what, I really do care about you and I'll be thinking of you." She said as she left the room.
"Me too. I love you." Garrus said quietly but no one was there to hear him.
