"Well, things got a little rough there." Garrus said to Jane as they sat in the Mess Hall eating dinner, after returning from Wrex's mission where they had run into Grunt.
"I'll tell you something. That Grunt is a tough son of a bitch, even for a krogan." James spoke up.
"Yeah. I'm just glad he's okay. I know it's silly, but I feel responsible for him." Jane said as she stirred around the food on her plate.
"It's not surprising. You basically raised him. Our little tank baby is all grown up now." Garrus told her.
"You raised a krogan?!" James asked, visibly shocked.
"Well, kind of. He was a tank grown krogan. His creator, Okeer, was trying to breed the 'perfect' krogan. He gave his life to ensure Grunt survived. I'm just the one that released him from the tank and taught him what I could. He eventually started having issues and Wrex helped us out, since we were friends. That's how he became part of clan Urdnot." Jane told him.
"You're full of surprises, Lola. I would've never guessed you raised a krogan." James told her.
"Yeah, she is. Speaking of, are we sure it was a good idea to spare the rachni queen again?" Garrus asked her.
"Again? That's not the first time you came across the queen?!" James asked.
"It's a long story. It wasn't her fault. You saw how they had her trapped there. She technically did disappear like she promised to, and she agreed to help against the Reapers, we need all the help we can get." Jane told them.
"I trust you, Jane. I just hope this doesn't bite us in the ass later." Garrus told her.
"So, I hear our little tank baby is all grown and killing Reapers." Joker spoke up as he sat down to join them. "Crazy how he went from threatening you to almost sacrificing himself for you."
"He what?" James asked.
"Yeah, he shoved her up against a wall and threatened to kill her if she didn't give him a good reason not to." Joker told him.
"What reason did you give him?" James asked Jane.
"I told him I had worthy enemies to kill and didn't take kindly to threats, while I had a gun to his gut." Jane laughed.
"Goddamn, that's badass." James laughed.
"That's our girl." Garrus smiled.
"Don't you mean your girl?" Joker raised his brow.
"Joker, what-" Garrus was about to try to deflect Joker's comment when he was interrupted.
"Alright, I've had it with this!" Jane shouted out. "Garrus, those vids he gave you weren't 'instructional'. They were human porn!"
"Porn? What?" James asked, visibly confused. "Why would you give a turian human po- oh!" James started as realization showed on his face.
"Seriously?! You wanna say that a little louder, guys?!" Joker spoke up, looking embarrassed.
"I knew what they were." Garrus chuckled.
"What?" Jane and Joker said at the same time.
"Yeah, it was pretty obvious. But you both were really weird about it, so I just went along with what Joker called them." Garrus continued.
"I- Are all turians this casual about it?" Joker asked him.
"No. I mean we don't just slip them into casual conversations, but you both always squirmed at the thought of it, I couldn't help myself. It was fun." Garrus chuckled, while James burst out laughing.
"What- Ugh! You can forget about recreating any of that anytime soon!" Jane covered her face, while she was visibly blushing.
"Wait, what?" Jame said as he looked between Jane and Garrus.
"I-I gotta go do pilot things." Joker stammered out as he got up and left.
"Wait, let me get this straight. You and Scars?" James asked her while pointing at both of them.
"James." Jane said in a quiet, threatening voice.
"Got it, I'm going." He said as he got up to leave. He looked back and gave Garrus a thumbs up with a smile on his face as he walked away.
Jane had angrily walked into her cabin with Garrus following her after they left the Mess Hall.
"I cannot believe you did that!" Jane yelled as she went to feed her fish.
"I'm sorry, but I couldn't help myself." Garrus laughed.
"It's not funny! And you said it in front of James and Joker!" Jane sat down on her couch and started petting Carn, who was asleep.
"To be fair, you were the one that brought it up." Garrus told her, as he sat down next to her.
"I was trying to embarrass Joker. How does he know about us, anyways?" She asked him.
"Well, I was nervous when we first decided to try things out, and he knew I had feelings for you already, so I asked for some advice." Garrus told her. "I only watched them until I was sure I had picked up on normal human intimacy interactions."
"You asked Joker for intimacy advice?" Jane chuckled.
"Well, yeah. He's a good friend and my choices were limited." Garrus told her, as he grabbed her face. "Come here." He said as he pulled her face towards him and rested his forehead against hers.
"I'm mad at you." She told him while she stayed with her forehead against his.
"I know. I'm just going to have to make it up to you. How long do you think you can stay mad at me?" He asked her as he leaned in and gave her a soft kiss on the lips.
"Mmm. Not long, apparently." She smiled as she kissed him back. "We better go to bed, though."
"Oh?" Garrus asked in a curious tone.
"Not for that! We're going to Tuchanka to cure the genophage. Mordin has it all ready and figured out we should use some shroud that was built to repair the air on Tuchanka. He thinks it should reach most of Tuchanka quickly that way." Jane told him as she got up and started changing for bed.
"You do realize you undressing right in front of me while telling me we'll possibly going to shoot Reapers is doing all kinds of things to me, right?" Garrus asked her with a suggestive tone.
"Good. That's your punishment." Jane smiled as she got into bed.
"Fair enough. I still get to sleep with a beautiful woman, either way." Garrus chuckled as he joined her in bed.
"You're not sweet talking yourself out of this." Jane told him as she gave him a kiss and cuddled up next to him.
"Wouldn't dream of it." Garrus smiled as he put his arm around her.
The next day they were in the shuttle with Javik, Wrex, Eve, and Mordin approaching Tuchanka. Wrex told them he had ordered the clans to gather at their sacred grounds, the Hollows, and they would take an armored convoy to go up against the Reaper that had been spotted on Tuchanka. Jane looked like she was troubled, and Eve asked her what was on her mind, she had started to tell them something, then she was interrupted by a krogan named Wreav telling Wrex that the Reapers were already at the Hollows. They landed and took out the Reaper forces that were there. The other krogan seemed to get angry when they saw Mordin was there. Jane asked the one krogan who had stepped up who he was. He told her he was Wrex's brother, Wreav, and he remembered what it meant to be a true krogan.
"Oh, not this true krogan shit again. I've never met a truer krogan than Wrex! He is doing what he needs to in order to cure your people and this salarian is making that possible, so if you have a problem with-" Jane started raising her voice when Wrex stepped up and headbutted Wreav and told him the salarian was with him. Wreav growled at him and pulled his shotgun out at the same time as Wrex. That's when Eve spoke up and told them they could fight each other and go after revenge or fight the Reapers to make a better future for their children and asked who was with her. Jane stepped up and said she was, as did Wrex. The other krogan seemed to back down and they all made their way to the armored vehicles and headed towards the shroud. Eve asked Jane what she was going to say back in the shuttle, Jane told her that the Dalatrass had contacted her and asked her to sabotage the cure. She then played a recording where the Dalatrass had explained the shroud had been sabotaged to ensure what they were trying to do couldn't happen. That's sneaky and conniving, even for a salarian. Wrex was visibly angry and Mordin said he was familiar with STG work and could fix it. Eve then thanked Jane and told her she helped prevent another genocide against the krogan. They then felt the vehicle come to an abrupt stop, and Jane told Wrex and Mordin to stay with Eve while they went to find out what was going on.
"What's the hold up?" Jane asked a krogan that was in front of the trucks.
"Road is gone, we can't get through." The krogan told her.
"Of course it is." Jane sighed. "Artimec, we've been delayed, postpone the airstrike!" Jane tried to reach the turian pilots on her comm.
"Too late, Commander. The Reaper knows we're here!" They heard the pilot on the comm as they flew over them towards the Reaper that was near the shroud.
"Dammit. I don't care how, find a way to get through! We need to get to that shroud!" Jane started yelling at the krogan.
"We have incoming!" Garrus yelled as he grabbed Jane and ducked behind one of the trucks as a turian ship had lost control and crashed where they had been.
"What's going on?" Garrus heard Wrex on the comm.
"Go, get Eve out of here now! We'll find another way there." Jane told Wrex. He complied and they saw the trucks go over the rubble that the crash had put in the space where the missing road had been.
"There's a tunnel this way." Garrus told her and they went into the tunnels, which turned out to be some kind of catacomb.
"Did you feel that?" Garrus asked as he felt the ground tremble.
"The violent shaking beneath our feet? Yeah, pretty sure I felt that." Jane laughed at him.
"Just making sure. What do you think it was?" Garrus asked her.
"Sounds like Kalros. Mother of thresher maws." Wrex told them on the intercom.
"Mother of what? That would've been nice to know about before we went underground, Wrex!" Jane told Wrex in an angry tone.
"Didn't know you were going underground, but it's a good reason to get your asses back up here." Wrex laughed.
"Oh, you think?" Jane told him. "Aw, shit!" She called out as she stopped abruptly. Garrus looked down and saw a modified rachni with guns fused to its organic body and the enormous egg sack bulging from its underbelly.
"What's wrong, Shepard?!" Garrus heard Wrex ask.
"Dead ravager, nothing serious." Garrus told him, as he shot the bulging sack and stepped on the miniature spider-like rachni that emerged.
"Now we really need to get out of here!" Jane said in a disgusted tone.
"Really? Of all the things you've seen, some little bugs get to you?" Garrus teased her.
"They're creepy and hard to shoot!" Jane defended herself. Garrus heard Wrex laugh over the comm which made him chuckle as Jane rushed ahead. They went on and made their way through until they saw sunlight and exited the ancient caverns.
"Uh, guys?" Garrus heard Jane speak out as he felt another tremble under his feet. He looked up to see the top part of what looked like a gigantic thresher maw, a subterranean creature that resembled an enormous worm, burrowing past them.
"I'm guessing that's Kalros! She's got to be at least ten times the size of a normal thresher!" Garrus called out.
"She's headed right for you Wrex!" Jane told him.
"Yeah, I know. I'm going to try to shake her off. Just come meet up with us. We have an idea about her." Wrex told her.
"What? Oh shit, hang on. We got husks ahead!" Jane told him as she took out her pistol and started shooting. "What were you saying?"
"Not now, Wrex. The Commander is busy." They heard Eve tell him.
"Alright. Just get to the trucks and we'll tell you." Wrex told her.
After some fighting, they made their way to Wrex's truck, and he told them there was an arena with the largest maw hammers right by the shroud and Eve thought they could ring them to call Kalros to occupy the Reaper. Jane said they had done crazier things, and they set out to go for the hammers. As they reached the arena, they saw the actual Reaper in their way, along with several husks, marauders, and brutes.
"Well, this complicates things!" Jane said, as she stared at the Reaper, which Garrus guessed was approximately 160 meters tall. They then heard ships fly above them towards the Reaper and one of the pilots said they'd draw its attention for them. Jane acknowledged him and started dodging fire from the ground Reaper forces and avoided getting flattened by the Reaper's legs which were all over the place. She made it through to the first hammer and brought it down, then headed for the second one.
"What's taking so long for the second hammer, Shepard?" Wrex asked on the comm.
"Wrex, in case you missed it, there's a damn giant Reaper in the way!" Jane shouted as she dodged getting stepped on.
"No need to rub it in, you get all the fun!" Wrex laughed.
"You've got to be kidding me!" Jane scoffed as she reached and brought down the second hammer. "Happy?"
"Seems to be working, Kalros is heading in your direction." Wrex told her.
"How long until- Holy shit!" Jane was interrupted as they saw Kalros emerge out of the ground and wrap herself around the Reaper, causing it to fall over. "Okay, you two get back to the truck with Wrex." Jane said as she turned to Javik and Garrus.
"I'm not leaving you behind." Garrus told her.
"I'll be fine. I'm just going to help Mordin make sure the cure is employed. I'll be right behind you guys." Jane told him as she walked over to him and put her forehead against his. "I need you to make sure nothing happens to Wrex and Eve."
"I-okay. But I'm coming back if you don't return within ten minutes." He told her.
"Deal. Now go." Jane told him as she turned and ran towards the shroud.
Garrus and Javik made it to Wrex, and they saw golden particles floating down on Tuchanka.
"Is this-?" Garrus started.
"The cure. They actually did it." Wrex smiled. They then saw Jane walking towards them, looking upset.
"Where's the salarian?" Wrex asked her.
"He stayed behind to fix the sabotage." Jane told him before she looked back as they saw the top of the shroud explode.
"Jane." Garrus said as he walked towards her.
"Shepard, you've been a friend to the krogan, and like a sister to me." Wrex went up and hugged her as he pushed Garrus out of the way. "I'll make sure the krogan know exactly what happened here."
"Ahem." Garrus cleared his throat.
"Right. Guess you'll be a brother in law if Shepard doesn't wise up." Wrex chuckled at him.
"Uh huh." Garrus replied to him.
"Now, we've got some work to do. We have to make sure the other clans know revenge is not the answer and I'll make sure to have the strongest head to Palaven. You just let me know when you're ready to take back Earth, you'll have our support." Wrex told her.
"Thanks, Wrex and Eve." Jane told them.
"Bakara." Eve told her. "You have the support of Urdnot Wrex and Bakara." She smiled at Jane. Jane smiled back at her before they headed back to the Normandy.
"Well, at least the Primarch is keeping his word." Jane said as she and Garrus were sitting on her couch after they had returned from Tuchanka.
"I told you he would." Garrus said as he looked up from his padd.
"Yeah, you did. What are you doing anyways?" She asked him.
"Managing turian support for the construction of the Crucible, like Victus told me to." Garrus told her. "You must be exhausted, losing Mordin was tough. You should get some sleep."
"I'll sleep when this is over." Jane sighed.
"We both know you need sleep to think straight. Besides, they know where you're at. They'll come if anything happens. Now, come on, I'll join you." Garrus said as he took her hand and led her to the bed.
A few hours later, Garrus was jolted awake when he heard Jane yell out. He looked up to see her sitting , hugging her knees. Damn, I knew losing Mordin would be tough. She must've had another one of her nightmares. Garrus sat up and wrapped his arms around Jane, who was quiet.