Jane was sitting on her bed, hugging her knees, when she heard a knock on her door.

"Jane, could you let me in?" She heard the voice of Garrus pleading through the door. After a few minutes, she could hear him telling her he just wanted to talk and asking her to open the door. The sadness in his voice caused her to hug her knees even tighter as she let out a quiet sob to herself. It's not fair! I did everything I could. I rescued that crazy bitch like Hackett asked me to. I only crashed the station into the relay to stop the reapers from invading the galaxy. I tried to warn them but that damn Kenson wouldn't let me. And what do I have to show for it? 300,000 dead colonists? The reapers are still coming because I only delayed them. The Batarians now have a target on my back so I have to turn myself in to Alliance Command on Earth just so I don't get hunted down. And I have to say goodbye to Garrus again. I finally got to tell him that I liked him and found out he felt the same way. We were finally together. I have never felt so at home with someone before, not since Mindoir and now I have to fucking leave him?! It's not fair. None of this is fair! She thought to herself as she tried to stifle her sobs.
"Ah, fuck it!" She said aloud as she ran to open her door. If she was going to go through Hell, she wanted the person she loved most with her. Once she had opened her door, she noticed he wasn't there anymore. All she saw was the empty space before the elevator that led to the other levels of the ship. "I guess I waited too long, again. It's all for the best I suppose." She said to herself as she dragged herself back towards her bed and collapsed on it facedown and drowned herself in her tears.

Jane jolted awake. She was in a different bed, in a different room.

"Right, I'm on Earth." She spoke aloud. "Why does that moment need to keep haunting my dreams?" She stood up and looked out the nearby window. She could see a small boy with short brown hair who looked to be about 8 years old wearing a white zip-up jacket and black cargo pants playing with a toy spaceship in the courtyard below. She picked up the padd sitting on the nearby end table and looked through it. How many of my old crew have tried to contact me? How many times has Garrus tried? I hope he understands Alliance Command has me under no contact except for supervised communication with them. She pondered to herself as she studied the empty mail folder.
"Commander." She heard the voice of James Vega from behind her. She turned around to see a tall, muscular man of Hispanic descent; he had the average marine crewcut and was wearing a tight white Alliance t-shirt and the basic black cargo uniform pants.

"You're not supposed to call me that anymore, James. I'm relieved from duty, remember?" She smirked at him.

"Nah. You'll always be Commander Shepard to me. The committee wants to see you right now." He informed her.

"This ought to be good." She said as she dropped her padd on the nearby table and followed him out into the hallway. "Any idea what it's about?"

"No clue. They just sent me to get you." He told her as they walked.

"Anderson!" Jane remarked when she saw a middle-aged, African American man ahead of them.

"Shepard. Looking good if only a little softer in the middle." He teased her as they walked towards him. She put her hand over her stomach. She's been trying to keep up with her work out routine but wondered if civilian life had made her go soft. "How's civilian life for you?"

"Soft beds. Warm food. Could be worse, I suppose." She joked with him. "What's going on?" She asked him as they made their way towards the Defense Committee chambers.

"Committee has gotten word that Hackett has mobilized the fleets. There's something big coming our way." Anderson told her.

"Reapers?" Jane asked as she stopped dead in her tracks.

"Not sure." Anderson replied as he turned to look at her.

"It has to be. We're not ready. Dammit, we should've prepared more." Jane said in an angry tone, remembering how no one in command except for Anderson and Hackett had believed her about the incoming reaper threat. "What good is the committee going to be? They're only good at talking people to death and not being able to agree with each other on anything." Jane added, annoyed.

"They want to talk to you. They're simply scared. They've never faced anything like this, no one has except for you. You've seen them, what they can do to us, even blew one up after talking to it." He told her as they continued.

"Is that why they grounded me and took my credentials?" She asked him.

"Dammit, you know why. You blew up a system that held a Batarian colony." Anderson chastised her.

"Only to stop the reapers from coming months ago!" Jane defended herself. She still was not over what had happened that day.

"I know. I believe you. That's the reason you weren't court martialed. That and because I vouched for you. I trust you." He told her. They entered the next room when a young woman had informed them that the committee was ready for them. Jane had turned around to shake James's hand and she heard a familiar voice call out her name.

"Kaidan?!" She called back in surprise when she saw the young man that belonged to the voice. She recognized the young man with dark short hair and light brown eyes. Although she hadn't seen or spoken to him since their fight on Horizon.

"Major Alenko. How's it looking?" Anderson asked him.

"Major?" she asked with curiosity.

"You haven't heard?" Anderson questioned her.

"No. They haven't exactly kept me up on details here." She replied.

"I'm sorry, didn't mean to keep you out of the loop." Kaidan told her. "You look good though, Shepard. It's nice to see you again." He added, awkwardly.

"Yeah. You too." Jane replied while rubbing the back of her neck. She wasn't quite certain how to act towards him anymore.

They had finally reached the Council Chambers where two men and a woman sat behind a long podium in front of them. Jane asked them what was going on and they asked if she could tell them. She told them they already knew and that it was the reapers. They all looked frightened and asked if they could stop them. She told them it wasn't about stopping them anymore, but about surviving. She then added they needed to do whatever it took to take them down. A man's voice rang out that they had an incoming visual from UK Headquarters and turned the large screen on for them to see. They saw a soldier incoherently talking on the screen when a reaper showed up behind him causing destruction. The screen switched to news stations from various locations all showing reapers destroying buildings in the background.

"What do we do?" The male council member in the middle asked her.

"Fight or die." She told them bluntly.

"We need to get to the Normandy." Anderson told her. Just then they heard a loud BRRRRR and looked towards the window in time to see a reaper release a red laser towards them, resulting in an explosion causing the window to break and the podium flying towards them. Jane ducked in time to avoid getting hit by it. When she stood up to look around, she heard the sound again and felt pressure from a second blast as she got thrown into a nearby bench. She regained consciousness as she faintly heard Anderson calling out her name. He helped her up and handed her a pistol. She could hear him trying to raise the Normandy on his comm, then heard him contact Kaidan and tell him he needed to contact the Normandy. They jumped out the nearby broken window and started running across the balconies as they headed towards the spaceport.

"Dammit. Why didn't we have any warning?" She heard Anderson curse.

"We tried but no one listened." Jane said. She looked around and saw dozens of alliance cruisers trying to fend off Oculi. The destruction was more than she had seen before.

"How are we supposed to stop this? The longer it goes on, the more people die." Anderson

"That's war for you. It's tough knowing no matter what you do, people will die." Jane said solemnly.

"We need to get to the Citadel and talk to the council." Anderson told her as they continued.

"But the fight's here, sir!" Jane tried arguing.

"Like you said, none of us will win this on our own. We need to get the Citadel to get the council to help." He told her sternly.

"Yeah, because they've been so helpful before." Jane muttered under her breath remembering how they ignored her warnings over the past 3 years.

"Admiral, I ran into James and we're making our way to the Norm-. Where are – Anderson?" They heard Kaidan cutting in and out on the comms.

"Come in, Major. We're on our way." Anderson tried contacting Kaidan back. "Dammit. I can't get through to them. We need to find a radio."

"Yes- ah shit!" Jane was agreeing with Anderson when she spotted several grey-skinned zombie-like humanoids with blue synthetic tubes fused into their bodies climbing the nearby building; she recognized them as husks, former humans turned by reaper technology. She and Anderson started shooting them down.

"I hate these things." She said as they shot the last one down. "Shit, I'm out of ammo!"

"Same here. Hopefully we'll find some soon. I doubt we've seen the last of those things." Anderson spoke up as he held out a hand to help her up a ledge. Jane spotted a double electronic door and went to open it, when another husk had clawed at her from the opening.

"Seriously?!" She exclaimed as she activated her orange omni-tool blade and stabbed it. Unfortunately, the door had malfunctioned, so she pried it open enough for Anderson to get through and was about to go herself when she heard a clanging noise followed by the sound of a scared gasp coming from a nearby vent. She went to check it out and when she peered into the vent, she saw the same boy she had noticed playing in the courtyard earlier that day.

"Everyone's getting killed!" He frighteningly cried out. At that moment, she heard an explosion from far away and looked behind her to see another cruiser get shot down by an oculus.

"Come with me. It's not safe here." She said to him while holding out her hand, trying to sound reassuring.

"You can't help me." He replied. That's when she heard Anderson call out her name causing her to look in his direction, when she looked back the boy was gone. Dammit, I hope he finds somewhere safe to hide, she thought to herself before heading back to Anderson.

"There's ammo on the table over there. Grab it and let's go." He told her, pointing to a nearby table when she entered the room. She did as he said and they went through a nearby broken window, which led them to the spaceport. They saw some marines near a fallen ship and lifted a part that had fallen on one of the men's leg. Anderson asked if they had a radio and he said there was one near a crashed gunship, but it was crawling with enemies. Jane and Anderson cleared out the area and made their way to the gunship. She picked up an assault rifle nearby while Anderson contacted the Normandy on the radio near them. They heard Kaidan ask for the location, so Anderson told him they were near a crashed gunship, and he was setting up a beacon. All that was returned was unintelligible garble through the radio.

"Here's hoping that worked because we have company!" Jane announced as they saw a pod drop and the area was swarmed with Cannibals, organic-synthetic beings that looked like large Batarians. She and Anderson ducked behind nearby ship debris for cover and started shooting at them. Once they thought they got them all, more dropped down. "Shit, I'm out of ammo for this one! What is taking them so long?" She cursed as she hit a cannibal with a damaging tech shock giving her time to holster her assault rifle and grab her pistol. She took a few shots at the cannibal closest to her when she saw a small blast take out the group.

"Pretty sure that wasn't me." Jane said as she curiously eyed her gun.

"Cavalry's here to save the day, as usual." She heard Joker's voice on her comm. She looked up to see a sleek, long white and black stealth frigate ship. She recognized it as the Normandy SR-2, her ship in the past.

"I see the first thing Alliance did was a paint job." She chuckled as she noticed they had replaced the Cerberus orange paint with Alliance blue. The ship made it as close as it could to them and opened the cargo bay doors for entrance. Jane ran to jump onto the open door when Kaidan grabbed her hand to help her steady herself.

"Thank, Kaidan." she said, breathlessly. "Come on, Anderson!" She shouted as she turned around to look at him.

"I'm not coming with. These men need someone to help them here." Anderson said to her as he stood stoically on the ledge she had just jumped from.

"The hell? No, we're in this fight together!" She yelled back at him, as she made a stance to jump back towards him. Kaidan gently grabbed her arm to hold her back. "Kaidan, let go of me! I'm not leaving without Ander-"

"I need you to go to the Citadel and get help. We need the other species and their fleets if we're going to stand the slightest chance to defeat the Reapers." Anderson spoke up.

"Yeah, because they listened to me every time before?" Jane raised her eyebrow.

"Make them listen. None of us are winning this alone. That's an order." he said sternly.

"I'm a civilian now. I don't take orders from you anymore, remember?" Jane retorted. Anderson simply tossed something small and metallic towards her, when she caught it, she realized it was her dog tags.

"Congrats, you're reinstated, Commander." He said with a smile.

"I'll be back for you, and I'll bring every fleet I can." She promised him, accepting defeat. "Good luck, sir."

"You too, now go!" He said as he ran to help some nearby marines. Jane took another look towards the city under siege and saw shuttles loading civilians for evacuation. She saw the same young boy from the courtyard and vents climb aboard one of the shuttles right before it started lifting off. She let out a sigh of relief which was interrupted when she noticed a nearby reaper power up its laser which then destroyed the shuttle, she had just witnessed the boy board. She closed her eyes tight and turned her head slightly, mourning the lives lost before walking further into the cargo bay. Once inside, the Normandy took off leaving Earth's atmosphere. James came up to Jane and asked where they were going, and Jane told him what they were ordered to do. He tried protesting saying they needed to stay where the fight was, and started demanding they go back and drop him off.

"You think I don't want to stay?! You think I'm okay with leaving Anderson and everyone else to fight by themselves?! We're going to get help, so we actually stand a goddamned chance to save Earth! If you don't like it, you can find your own way back once we reach the Citadel!" She yelled at him. Before he could say anything back, Joker came on the comm saying they had a transmission from Admiral Hackett. Jane looked at the vidcom screen and saw an older man who had silver hair and a beard donning a deep scar vertically down his right cheek. He started telling her he needed her to go to a Prothean archive building on Mars. The transmission kept cutting in and out, but she made out something about a weapon to stop the weapons and thought she heard him say T'Soni which was her friend, Liara's last name. She acknowledged, hoping he heard her, then told Joker to set a course for the Mars Archives and told the others to suit up as they made their way there.

It wasn't long before they reached Mars and Jane, Kaidan, and James took a blue, black and white Alliance Kodiak shuttle to the surface. James piloted it while Jane and Kaidan sat on opposite benches in the back. Jane was wearing her old black N7 armor which she had changed from the red stripes to blue back when she was brought back to life by Cerberus. She had done it because the blue had reminded her of Garrus's face paint, she also had added some red to it while she was under house arrest on Earth. She remembered how thankful she was when Anderson had gotten her access to her armor so she wouldn't had been as bored. She was holding her Kuwashii Visor in her hands, she remembered when she found it on Omega, it had reminded her of Garrus's own visor. She also admired it's design, it easily fit on the right side of her face with the lens over her right eye, being helpful for sighting enemies from a distance and the built-in comm microphone making keeping communication easy to uphold. She let out a small smile as she thought about Garrus. I hope he was able to convince someone about the reapers and they were able to prepare the turians against the reapers more than we were able to, she thought as she felt her expression darken at the thought that he might not be alright. She looked out the shuttle window remembering how bad Earth had been hit and all the people that died that she wasn't able to help.

"That's uh, a nice looking visor." Her thoughts were interrupted when Kaidan spoke to her.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I got it on Omega awhile back." She replied to him. Maybe it was too quiet for him and he's trying to break the silence, Jane thought.

"Looks almost similar to the one Garrus had on Horizon, except I think his was an older model from a different producer." Kaidan continued with a raised brow.

"Yeah. I'm not sure about his but this one helps calculate headshots." She answered. She wasn't sure she was ready to discuss Garrus with Kaidan yet considering their history and she didn't even know where she stood with Garrus since she forced their split after the Relay incident.

"Was that when you were working with Cerberus?" He questioned her with an accusing tone.

"Kaidan, look I only-" Jane started before James interrupted them that they had arrived about five kilometers from the Archive facility. "That storm doesn't look pleasant." Jane pointed towards a large wall of dust clouds along the red Mars horizon. It spanned across the surface as far as she could see and looks to be several miles tall.

"We have about thirty minutes or less before it hits here, after that it'll be nearly impossible to contact the Normandy." James told her.

"Right. Let's go." She said as she grabbed her large Black Widow sniper rifle and used its scope to peer towards the facility. "Looks pretty empty down there except for a few vehicles. Wait, is that the Cerberus logo on one of the trucks?"

"Why would they be here?" Kaidan asked.

"Beats me. Maybe they heard about the weapon as well." Jane replied as they headed towards the Archives building.

"What? You don't know?" Kaidan asked her.

"Didn't you tell them to go to hell?" James asked.

"I did. Also stole their ship, resources, and a few crew members." Jane chuckled. As they got closer, they heard some voices so they hid behind some rocks so they could see what was going on. They saw a Cerberus agent hold a pistol to an Alliance marine's forehead and pull the trigger. "Damn, we gotta deal with these fuckers too?" She muttered as she aimed her sniper scope at the back of his head and pulled the trigger. James and Kaidan helped her dispatch the remaining Cerberus troops, and they entered the facility. They activated the building's airlock and removed their helmets when Kaidan spoke up.

"What is going on? Why the hell is Cerberus here, Jane?" He confronted her.

"Fuck, Kaidan, seriously? I already told you I'm not with them. Do you seriously think I would help them assassinate fellow marines or anyone for that fact?!" she answered angrily. "You should know my beliefs and what I stand for, more than anyone."

"I thought I did, but I'm not sure anymore. I mean, they did rebuild you. Who knows what else they did?" He answered her.

"They brought me back, yes, but I'm still me. The me I've always been." Jane replied.

"I'm sorry. It's just hard. I loved you and maybe I still-" Kaidan started before they heard James clear his throat and look around awkwardly.

"Right. This is probably a conversation best saved for later and-" Jane was interrupted by banging noises from the air ducts above them. They all looked in the direction of the sounds when they saw the duct cover get thrown a short distance and saw a blue Asari wearing a white overcoat armor jump down followed by two Cerberus agents. Jane realized it was Liara T'Soni, one of her friends that helped take down Saren and also the one that found her body and gave her over to Cerberus so they could bring her back, she was also the new Shadow Broker thanks to Jane. She saw Liara throw a Singularity, a small sphere of dark energy that lifts others and leaves them floating helplessly around the center, at the agents before shooting them with her pistol.

"Liara!" Jane exclaimed happily, walking up to hug her. "Seems you've gotten the hang of fighting now."

"Yeah, being friends with you it's necessary for survival." Liara smiled as she hugged her back.

"Ouch. Well, you're probably not wrong. So, what's this about a weapon against the Reapers you found?" Jane asked as she playfully touched the short tentacle like appendages that all Asari had on their heads.

"Okay. I know I've told you not to do that before. Goddess, you're almost as bad as Joker. And it's not a weapon, well, not yet. They're blueprints for a weapon that the Protheans were close to finishing, but they ran out of time." Liara answered as she lightly swatted Jane's hand from her head. "Unfortunately, Cerberus agents are already on their way there."

"Well, let's go. I'd love to see the Illusive Man's face when I take another device right out from under him." Jane smirked. "James, head back to the shuttle in case we don't beat them, I want you covering the exits."

"But, Commander, I wanted to kick some Cerberus ass with you." He protested.

"Now, Lieutenant." She ordered him as she pressed the elevator buttons for him. "Here, take this. It's better than what you're currently using. Took it off a merc on Omega awhile back." Jane said to Liara as she tossed her a red submachine gun that had a fist going through a skull painted on the side. It was the symbol of the Bloodpack Gang, which consisted of Krogan and Vorcha.

"Thanks." Liara told her as she added her Warp ammo ability to the new gun. "We need to get to the tramway to get to the Archives. It's this way, follow me." Jane and Kaidan then followed her farther into the facility. Further in, they found a security office with dead Alliance marines on the chairs.

"Fucking Cerberus." Jane cursed as she moved one of the bodies out of the chair. "Can you check the vids to see what happened here?" She asked Liara.

"Let's see." Liara replied as she put in her codes and viewed the last recorded video. They saw a young woman with cropped black hair wearing a skintight white jumpsuit with dark blue sleeves, shoot the security camera after killing the marines on the video.

"Who was that woman? That outfit looks familiar." Jane turned to Liara.

"That's Doctor Eva. She just transferred here about a week ago. I had no idea she was with Cerberus though. I should've caught that." Liara remarked.

"That's it! That uniform is almost identical to what Miranda wore while she was employed with Cerberus!" Jane exclaimed, while snapping her fingers. "And Liara, you had more important things to worry about. We'll get her for what she did."

"I suppose you're right, but I could've prevented this if I would've caught on." Liara replied. "Dammit, the tram heading to the Archives is locked down. The controls are on a separate system, and I can't hack into it from here."

"Well, maybe we could use a helmet radio from one of these dead Cerberus guys and convince them we're one of them and have them bring the tram to us." Kaidan spoke up.

"Good idea, Kaidan. Let's go find one." Jane said.

"He's become quite capable." Liara quietly said to Jane.

"Yeah, he has." She replied with a smile. "But so have you, Liara. I'm proud of you." Jane patted Liara on the back.

"Ha. I'm not a child, Jane." Liara retorted as Jane joined Kaidan in the search to find a radio helmet.

"By Asari standards, you are." Jane called back with a smirk.

"I found one!" Kaidan called out to them. "Now let's grab this helmet and- what the hell?" When he removed the helmet, the man's face barely looked human. It had the same glowing blue eyes and wires as husks.

"What is it? Ah, shit! He's not quite a husk but Cerberus did something to him." Jane said as she studied his features.

"How can they do this? Did they do that to you?" Kaidan asked Jane.

"Really, Kaidan? Do I have glowing eyes and grey skin? Am I growling with unintelligible groans? All they did was-" Jane was starting to explain the process which she was brought back with.

"Never mind. I wouldn't understand it anyways." He interrupted her. Seriously, this is getting old, Jane thought as she picked up the comm radio from the agent's helmet and contacted the other team pretending to be one of them and said they had eliminated the targets and needed a tram sent their way. They took out the agents that came over on the tram and headed towards the Archives. Once they reached their destination, Liara went up to the console to download the data. Then, Jane saw a hologram of an older man with short silvery-grey hair and steely blue eyes that almost looked cybernetic, wearing an expensive black suit and smoking a cigarette.

"Oh great. Of course, it's you." Jane said with her arms crossed.

"Shepard." He casually said to her.

"The Illusive Man?!" Liara exclaimed when she turned around and saw the hologram projection.

"The Protheans left all of this here for us to discover and the Alliance wasted it. They've known about the Archives for thirty years and didn't know the answer to the reapers was right within their reach for all that time." He said to them, taking a drag from his cigarette.

"For fuck's sake, I don't have time for this. What do you want?" Jane asked him in a hostile tone. She didn't trust him when she was collaborating with him, much less now after seeing the devastation he had released on the station.

"What I've always wanted. To improve humanity and the data the Protheans left us can give us the answers to solving the reaper threat." He replied.

"You call turning people into monsters improving them? I saw your abominations!" Jane angrily called out to him.

"You see monsters, but I merely improved them. You're shortsighted and only want to destroy the reapers, where I want to use the data to control them. Use them to our advantage. Humanity would come out on top, for once." He told her.

"Control them?! Earth is under attack and humans are dying, and you're going on about trying to control the reapers? Yeah, you're really helping humanity." Jane scoffed.

"You're missing the big picture here. I realized that after you destroyed the Collector Base." The Illusive Man said as he put out his cigarette.

"Yeah, because I didn't trust you with that kind of information. I wonder why?" She raised her eyebrow at him.

"The data would be wasted on you. You can't stop the Reapers, even with this information." He told her.

"You brought me back because you knew I could stop them. Because I won't stop until they're destroyed." She confronted him.

"The odds are against you, and I don't want them destroyed. I want to harness their power to revolutionize humanity." He informed her while he lit another cigarette.

"I will destroy them and you, if you stand against me!" Jane threatened him.

"I brought you back for a single purpose and you succeeded in that, despite the end results. Your time is over in this fight. Do not interfere, I won't warn you again, Shepard."

"Go to Hell! Seriously I swear I will-" Jane yelled at him when Liara interrupted her, and the hologram disappeared.

"The data is gone!" She exclaimed.

"What?! How is he doing it?" Jane questioned her.

"I don't know but it's local." Liara told her. That's when they heard Kaidan call out to someone to step away from a console and turned around in time to see Dr. Eva from the earlier security footage kick him in gut and start running.

"She has the data!" He groaned as he stood up.

"Catch her!" Jane yelled as they started chasing her. She led them back through the facility until they reached a shuttle landing area. Eva jumped into a Cerberus shuttle that had just arrived and they were taking off.

"Shit! Damn it all!" Jane cursed out, distraught over losing their only lead to stop the reapers. Just then, she saw their Alliance shuttle crash into the Cerberus shuttle and the explosion of the impact sent them all flying back. "Kaidan! Are you okay?" She stood up and ran over to help him up.

"I'm fine." He told her. She then went to go see if James had survived his crash into the other shuttle. She had just got him out and saw Kaidan was helping Liara when a charred, metallic version of Dr. Eva headed towards Liara and Kaidan.

"Shit! She's a goddamn robot?!" Jane yelled out as she ran towards them. Kaidan had pushed Liara out of the way and reached for his pistol when Eva grabbed him by the face and lifted him up.

"Let him go!" Jane called out, pointing her pistol at Eva. She couldn't get a shot because Eva was using Kaidan as a shield. Eva took a moment then turned and started thrusting Kaidan's body into the nearby shuttle multiple times, with inhuman strength.

"Kaidan, no!" Jane said as she shot Eva's head which caused Eva to throw Kaidan, then turned and start running towards her. Jane let out three more shots at her head until she finally went down.

"There's the Normandy!" James called out and Jane saw the Normandy approaching them.

"Grab that thing and bring it with us!" Jane ordered him as she pointed towards the deactivated Eva, and she ran over to Kaidan.

"Kaidan?! Can you hear me? Oh my God!" Jane panicked as she saw Kaidan was not moving. His face was covered in dark bruises. "Hang on, we're getting you out of here!" Jane then lifted him up and hoisted him over both her shoulders as she held his arms and legs and rushed over to the Normandy. She and Liara ran to the Med Bay and Jane set Kaidan down gently on the table while Liara frantically looked for medical supplies. Jane just stood still staring at Kaidan's injured body.

"Jane, we need to get him real medical help!" Liara said as she looked over Kaidan the best she could. "Jane! We have to get him to the Citadel! Now!" Jane snapped out of her frozen state and told Joker to head to the Citadel at once. Joker told her that Admiral Hackett was on the vidcom for her, so she went and told him what happened on Mars and that Liara and EDI, the ship's AI, were looking over the data that the robot had on her. He repeated to her the same thing Anderson had said and told her to get the Council to agree to help. She then went back to the Med Bay to check on Kaidan and sat with him until they reached the Citadel. A medical team showed up with a gurney and rushed Kaidan to the Huerta Memorial hospital. Jane was then greeted by Commander Bailey from C-Sec, although last time she had seen him he was still Captain Bailey. He told her someone would escort her to meet with the Council from Councilor Udina's office, but she had time to visit the hospital if she liked, which she chose to do. I can't believe they replaced Anderson with that bastard, Udina, although I'm sure it's my fault. Anderson did keep me out of Alliance jail by vouching for me. I wonder if he gave up his position for me? God, I hope not, Jane thought to herself as she approached the hospital entrance. She then saw an older woman with cropped grey hair wearing a doctor uniform and recognized it was Doctor Chakwas, who had been the Normandy's doctor and the best medical officer Jane had ever met. She asked her how she was doing and invited her to come back to the Normandy with her, which she readily agreed to do, much to Jane's joy. She then ran into Doctor Michel, a young doctor with a French accent. She was the doctor Jane had rescued from thugs back when she was hunting down evidence to revoke Saren's Spectre status and was the reason she met Garrus. God, I miss him. I really hope he's survived this long with the reaper invasion underway, Jane thought. She then asked her how Kaidan was doing, and Michel informed her that he had massive cranial injuries, but they had brought the swelling down, and he was stable but still unconscious. Jane decided to go see him anyways and headed to his hospital room. When she walked in, she saw Kaidan's bruised body lying in the hospital bed, motionless. She wouldn't had been able to tell he was alive if it wasn't for the beeping machines showing his heart rate. She sat down beside him and put her head in her hands.

"I'm sorry, Kaidan. I should've made sure that bitch was dead. I don't know if you can hear me, but you can't yell at me either so here goes. You better not give up. The Alliance needs you, I need you. You're a hell of a soldier and we need you in this. So, you better fight this, so we can fight the reapers together. Please, get better." Jane stood up and gave him a kiss on the forehead. She may not have loved him like she loved Garrus, but she still cared deeply for him.

Why the Hell am I even a Spectre? Why did those assholes even give humans a slot on the Council if they're never going to listen or even help?! Jane waited angrily in Udina's office after her less than successful meeting with the Council. Udina came in cursing the other Council members but before Jane could say anything, a dark colored Turian with white marks across his face came into the office, he was the turian councilor, Sparatus. He told her that Palaven was currently under siege and their Primarch had called a summit for the races, but he was currently missing. Jane yelled at him that she warned him about the reaper threat, and he waved her off as being manipulated. He calmly told her that there'd be time to place blame later but that if she retrieved the Primarch she'd have a better chance of getting the help she needed for Earth and informed her the Primarch had been moved to a base on Menae, Palaven's largest moon. He then told her that they had decided to uphold her Spectre status and she'd have access to the resources that came with it before leaving.

"Well, that's super helpful." Jane said sarcastically before heading back to the Normandy.

Jane found herself in the same dark forest she had dreamed of before when she saw Ashley after her death and her parents when she had died herself. She looked around, confused, and heard laughter in the distance. She turned towards the sound and saw the same boy she had met on Earth before his death. She ran towards him, but it felt like she was moving in slow motion. When she finally reached him, he just stared at her and burst into flames before disappearing. Jane just stood there with her hand still outstretched towards where the boy had just been, with a distraught look on her face. I really can't save anyone, can I? She thought to herself before being jolted back to her bed in her cabin on the Normandy.

"Dammit." Jane cursed to herself while she sat up and hugged her knees. She was interrupted when she heard the ping of someone outside her door, in her groggy stupor she ran to the door thinking it would be Garrus. She opened it to see Liara standing outside her door and she started talking to Jane about the plans for the Prothean device.

"Right, he's not here with us." Jane whispered to herself while she sat on her bed and started petting her varren, Carnifex, who was asleep.

"Something wrong?" Liara asked her.

"I didn't really sleep very well." Jane confessed to her.

"Is it because of Kaidan?" She asked.

"Yeah, well, kind of. People tend to get hurt around me, or worse. Feels like I can't really save anyone." Jane told her. Liara then sat on the bed next to her and gently put her hand on Jane's shoulder. It looked like she was about to speak when Joker came on the comm saying they were approaching Palaven. "Got it. Tell James to meet me and Liara in the Shuttle Bay." Jane told Joker, then she and Liara headed there. A short while later, they were on the shuttle heading towards Menae when Liara looked on the screen inside to see Palaven, which normally had a greenish tint to it, covered with large spots of orange showing cities under fire.

"Oh no, Palaven!" She cried out.

"We have an old friend there." Jane told James. She couldn't bring herself to look at the destruction. She couldn't bear the thought of knowing Garrus was down there. They were greeted in the landing zone by husks, which they took out as quickly as they could and reached the main barricade where they met General Corinthus.

"Commander Shepard, I heard rumors of you arriving but didn't believe it." He said as he shook her hand. I know I'm pretty popular being the first human Spectre, but I didn't expect turians all the way from Palaven to recognize me on sight, Jane thought to herself as she shook his hand back.

"We need to find Primarch Fedorian. Can you tell me his location?" Jane asked Corinthus.

"Unfortunately, his shuttle was shot down about half an hour ago." He informed her.

"Well, shit. That complicates things for me." Jane said. I just can't catch a damn break lately, can I? She thought to herself.

"The turian hierarchy have a clear line of succession, don't they?" Liara questioned him.

"Normally, yes. But with this war, we can't be sure which of the successors are still alive. Turian Command would know who it is, but we can't raise them because the Comm Tower got damaged. My men are being overwhelmed by husks and can't get to it." He told them.

"We'll go help them and get that tower fixed for you. I need that Primarch." Jane told him before she, Liara, and James headed towards the tower. They took out the husks and checked on the soldiers there. Jane had Liara fix the tower and headed back to General Corinthus to find out if he got ahold of someone about the Primarch. He told her that he was still trying to get in contact with them.

"I don't care who it is. I need someone, anyone, for the Primarch." Jane told him.

"We'll get you who you need, Shepard." She heard a familiar voice. She couldn't believe her ears, but she turned around and saw Garrus Vakarian, the turian she loved, walking up to her. She said his name with joy and feeling relief, rather informally, but she didn't care about that, she was just happy he was alive and okay. He shook her hand as he greeted her, which made her a little nervous that he had moved on from her, but then she noticed he had stealthily placed his other hand on hers and realized he was just acting professional in front of his fellow soldiers and she smiled at him. She caught herself staring at his face noting his piercing blue eyes, the same ones she had found herself getting lost in many times before; the blue paint that he wore across his cheeks and nose, the same paint that was the inspiration for her to add blue to her N7 armor so she'd always have him with her no matter how far apart they were. She took a moment to admire his visor that went over his left eye, she had teased him about using a visor to help line up sights on enemies even though she had got one herself; she then studied the deep scar that ran down the right side of his face and remembered how scared she was when he took a small rocket from a gunship to the face and thought she had lost him forever. His scar made her smile now, he was a survivor like her. She then looked at how his mandibles slightly lifted when he was smiling, she had felt herself melt every time he had smiled at her, and it still made her weak in the knees. She was brought back to reality when she heard Corinthus acknowledge Garrus with a salute. It was then she realized most of the turian soldiers held Garrus in high regard. Just how high up the military chain of command is Garrus now? Jane thought to herself as she heard Garrus tell the general to be at ease, then he turned to her and told her he was glad she made it off of Earth. She felt her face darken as she remembered the state Earth was in when she had left.

"Garrus, this is James Vega. He was on Earth with me and he's a fine marine. And James, this is Garrus Vakarian, he helped me take down Saren and the Collector Base. He's a hell of a soldier and one of the best I've ever worked with." Jane said, as she introduced the two men to each other.

"Shepard, please, you're going to make me blush." Garrus said as he went to shake James's hand.

"Not yet, Vakarian. That comes later." Jane said in a teasing tone. She ignored the odd look James gave her while Garrus chuckled then nervously cleared his throat before he greeted Liara.

"I've got news, Commander. I've just been informed that General Adrien Victus is next in line for the Primarch, but they're not sure of his exact location." Corinthus said to them.

"Victus, I know him. I was with him this morning. He is held in high regard with his men, not so much with the hierarchy though." Garrus told her. Jane questioned him why that was, and he told her Victus had a habit of playing hard and fast with the rules and said he reminded him of a certain Spectre he knew. Jane tried defending herself off by saying it was only a few times when she needed to. She noticed Garrus chuckle and realized he was teasing her, which caused her to slightly blush. Liara explained she had heard about him and mentioned that he had waited out turian separatists and salarian spies and struck both when they had worn each other down and suffered no casualties himself because of it.

"Commander, we have a problem up here!" Joker contacted Jane on her comm.

"This better be an emergency, Joker. I'm a little busy right now." Jane replied to him.

"It's the Normandy! Something's going on. Light's are flickering, and systems keep shutting down and starting back up. I don't know what it is!" He told her, which caused Jane to worry.

"Should I go check it out?" Liara asked her.

"Yeah, go. We need the Normandy in working condition." Jane told her before Liara headed back to the ship. Just then, James shouted they had a Harvester incoming. Jane ducked when she heard the whirring sound of it flying past them overhead. She told James they better go take care of what it dropped off and asked Garrus if he was coming and smiled when he replied he was right behind her. Just like old times, she thought to herself as they made their way to the nearby airfield.

Jane had just finished taking out the husks on the airfield with a mounted turret when they saw a very large Krogan/turian reaper hybrid coming towards them. Jane cursed and asked what it was, and Garrus told her they were calling them Brutes. She saw it ram into the wall they were standing on and felt herself get thrown over onto the ground below. She felt pain shoot into her left shoulder that she had landed on. For fuck's sake, it's always this arm, she thought as she held her throbbing shoulder. She heard Garrus curse out as he and James jumped down after her and realized the Brute was charging right towards her. She dodged out of the way and ran to get some distance between it and her before throwing a sticky grenade on it. She noticed Garrus then threw a concussive shot to stun it while James hit it with a carnage projectile which caused her grenade to explode, and they got hit with flying guts. Lovely, Jane thought as she wiped the entrails off her left shoulder. She thanked the boys for their help and then Corinthus came of the comm saying he still couldn't reach Victus.

"Then we'll go on foot. Can you show us where you last saw him, Garrus?" Jane asked as she held her shoulder she had landed on.

"Yes, it's this way. But first…" Garrus replied as he applied medigel on her injured shoulder. "Okay, now we can go."

"Always the worrier, Garrus. But thank you." Jane smiled at him.

"Well, you have a habit of getting yourself injured." He smiled back at her before leading them towards Victus's last known location. He stopped after a few kilometers and pointed at a big orange spot on Palaven and said that's where his family home was. Jane told him she was sorry, she knew exactly what he was feeling after the destruction on Earth. He thanked her and continued leading them. They finally reached the barricade Victus was at and saw it was under attack by Marauders and started shooting them down. Once the area was clear, Jane approached the turian Garrus had pointed out as Victus.

"General Victus? I'm Commander Jane Shepard." She greeted him with a handshake.

"Ah yes, Commander Shepard. I can't wait to find out why you're here." He replied as if he was familiar with her. Seriously, even he seems to know about me? I know being the first human Spectre was an achievement, but I didn't think so many turians would pay attention, Jane thought to herself.

"Congrats, you're the new Primarch. I need you to come with me to the summit with the other leaders and get help for Earth." She told him.

"I'm the Primarch? Really? I'm not really a politics kind of turian, I can't leave my men here." He told her, hesitant.

"Look. I'm not a politician either. We need people with experience in war to defeat the reapers. That's how we save Palaven and Earth." She tried convincing him, hoping it would work.

"I suppose you're right. Alright, just let me go talk to my men and then I'll come with you." He told her as he walked over to a group of turians. Garrus then spoke up about the destruction and questioned how he was going to give his expertise on how to stop it, he then asked her if she thought she could defeat the reapers and win the war. She told him she wasn't sure, but she was going to do her best. That seemed to be enough for him and he told her he was with her. She tried to mask her excitement about him coming with her and welcomed him aboard once again while shaking his hand. She wanted to hug him more than anything, but decided it wasn't the time or place to do that.

"I'm ready, Commander. But I have a condition. I can't spare my fleets while Palaven is burning. We need to take the pressure off of it before I send my men to Earth." He told her.

"That's quite the request, Primarch. I'm not sure how we can do that." Jane told him.

"We need the krogan. It's about time we make amends with them, we need their strength in this fight." He said.

"The krogan?" Jane said in shock, trying to process his request. She wasn't sure even she could get them to help the turians after they had deployed the Genophage. The Genophage was a biological weapon the salarians had created and had the turians deploy on the krogan homeworld, Tuchanka, during the Krogan Rebellion. It severely reduced their fertility, causing thousands of their young to be stillborn.

"Well, your summit just got interesting." Garrus remarked.

"We'll see if we can get them to agree, sir. Now let's get going." Jane said as she led them towards the Normandy, wondering how she was going to pull this off.