The room was dark only lit by a single light over the worktable where John was at. He didn't know how long he was there for, but he didn't care. His focus was on the arm he was making for the demonic version of Ashley. Ajax was more than happy to give him blueprints for several arm designs. Eager for something to do, he took them and practically locked himself in the workshop of Ajax's Normandy and got to work. The only people who came in were his siblings and Liara, either to drop off food or check how he was doing.

Outside of single word replies, he didn't talk much being so engrossed in the project as he was. He needed the focus; he needed the work to get his mind away from any dangerous possibilities for the future. As he looked to a screen to check something, the door opened. A familiar click-click of heeled shoes met his ears. Given how may times he had heard it, it was hard not to know who it was.

"Hi Liara," he said as he turned back to the robotic limb. "Come to check on me?"

"You know me so well," she smiled before dropping it. "I know you, John. You only lock yourself in a place like this when something's bothering you. You will not admit it but… what's the human saying?" she tapped her chin. "Actions speak louder than words,"

Seeing that he couldn't get out of this, he said as he set his tools to one side and turned to face the blue skinned beauty. "You know me so well, Shadow Broker,"

She smirked at that. "Not yet, but I have been skimming the network to get info," she shrugged. "But… you aren't getting off that easily," her eyes narrowed. "You can't hide forever; you need to focus. We can't have a Shepard vanish from this. I know you are still hurting, but I came back…"

"Don't," John said looking up at her, resisting the urge to let his tears fall. "Please, don't give me false hope," he looked down before looking back at her. "I… I know you are back; I know it's possible that she can come back… but… but there's always the possibility she cannot come back. I don't want to have hope and have it taken from me again,"

Liara pulled up a chair, sat opposite John and clasped his hands in hers. She opened her mouth, looked down before tying again.

"I know how you feel," she gave him a small smile. "I feel that pain, but dismissing it and closing it off will only hurt more," she paused, looking down then back up at him. "You know how I feel about you, that I will always be there for you," she reached out to touch his cheek.

"I know," John nodded.

"Then listen to me, don't bottle up your feelings, don't close yourself away. I am always here to talk," she smiled.

John smiled as well and nodded. "In that case, I think I should tell you what Darkstar and I agreed to,"

Liara frowned but nodded as he explained.

OOOOO

"Move, over there!" Jack yelled as she directed her students towards a side room while Jacob, Shepard and his squad held off a group of Cerberus squads.

The human centrist organisation had come in force to acquire any and all students from Grissom Academy for their war effort. Jack wasn't going to let that happen, not to her students. She had picked up a few stragglers from other classes, which she didn't mind, but what she did mind was the lip that some of the teens gave her.

"We can fight!" Rodriguez yelled.

"No, you can't!" Jack shot as she threw biotic blasts at several of the incoming troopers. "Stay back!"

The brown-haired girl just grunted in annoyance and fell back with her other students. "Shepard, keep them from us!"

"I got you covered, move!" the engineer yelled as he threw up a turret for extra cover. "Jacob support!"

"On it," the former Cerberus agent responded, as he threw out a singularity before moving to follow Jack.

Jack made it into the cafeteria before the door to the corridor behind her closed, trapping Jacob behind in the corridor. She turned to see Jacob slamming on the door as group of Cerberus troopers entered the corridor behind him. He didn't have enough time to react as he was gunned down. Jack backed up, looking at the troopers with hate and tear-filled eyes. They moved to breach the door before something hit the roof of the corridor sucking them out into space along with Jacob's body.

Tears still fell down her cheeks as she looked up at the hole to space. "Damn it, Jacob," she muttered before turning to her students while wiping her eyes. "Follow me," she said as she led them over to one of the doors.

As she approached, it didn't open. One of her students, Smith, reached over to the hologram and waved his hand to try and open it. After a moment of waiting, he tried again before Jack tried herself with the same result of nothing happening. In annoyance she kicked it.

"Check the other doors," she ordered to her students while she tapped her comms. "EDI do you read?"

"I am receiving Jack," the AI responded in her monotone voice.

"Me and my students are stuck in cafeteria…" she glanced at the wall. "Alpha 7. One room from Shepard. Main door won't open, can you check for a way out?"

"I am looking," EDI responded as Jack sighed.

"Also…. tell Shepard…. tell him that Jacob is dead," a knot formed in her throat as she said that, not believing the words she was saying.

The AI was silent for a moment before she responded. "Understood, I'm sorry Jack," Jack nodded as she backed up to lean on the door.

"Teach," a student, Yun, yelled as he came running up. "There's not way out. The doors are locked,"

Jack frowned as she straightened up and opened her mouth when a new voice came in. "Jack, it's Shepard, do you read?"

She quickly tapped her comm. "I read you loud and clear boy scout, what's going on? Me and my students are stuck,"

A pause filled the line making Jack's heart beat rapidly. "J…. Jack I'm sorry… b…but there's no way out for you," his annoyance was clear in his tone. "I can't get to you and there's no way for the Normandy to get to you,"

Her blood began to run cold at that as she looked at the fearful look of her students. They were going to die, and she could do nothing to stop it. Neither could Shepard. The station shook from a kinetic impact shaking some of the students off of their feet. Jack fell on her back, dislodging the comm from her ear. She grunted on impact with the floor before quickly getting up and stabilising herself. Picking up the comm bead, she pressed it.

"Shepard? Shepard do you hear me?" she practically yelled but all she got was static. "DAMN IT JOHN DO YOU HEAR ME?" she yelled but still got nothing.

"Communications are out," one of her students said as he checked his omni-tool. "They must have hit a comm antenna,"

"Where're cut off," Rodriguez muttered. "We're going to…"

Jack stormed up to her and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Don't think like that, do so and it's over," she sighed and let go. "When I went to the collector base with Shepard, we… well some of us knew we wouldn't be coming back. Some of us didn't, but we never let the knowledge of us possibly dying get us down," she looked at the others. "Understand, the moment you give up, is the moment you die,"

The room fell silent as the students seemed to look though her. Jack sighed as she felt that she came off too strong with her words. These were kids, teenagers, people who were training to be soldiers. But they needed experience, they needed to know how to deal with situations like this.

Sighing again she looked to them. "I know it's…."

"Teach…what's that?" Pasley asked pointing to the door they tried to use.

Jack turned to look and frowned. "What the hell?" she muttered as the door began to flicker into different shapes and colours.

"It's like a visual glitch from a game," one of the students muttered as sections of the door flickered.

It lasted for another moment before it seemed to stabilise and formed a door that looked somewhat familiar to Jack. Looking to her students then back at the door, she walked towards it and it opened up much to her surprise. Looking inside her eyes went wide as recognised the place and backed up.

"Teach.. wha…" a bang silenced the student as all of them looked to see a rocket hit the far end of the station.

"Ahhh fuck, EVERYONE IN! NOW!" Jack yelled.

The students didn't hesitate as they moved with only Rodriguez lagging behind. Moving as quickly as she could, Jack's body glowed blue as she used her biotics to pull the girl over to her before the explosions reached them. She caught the student and the two tumbled back into a server room with a grunt as the door closed. After getting their breaths, Jack helped Rodriguez before looking at the rest of the students doing a mental count.

"10, good we're all here," she muttered as she leaned back, cracking her back.

"Where are we?" one of the students asked.

"Purgatory," Jack answered without hesitation, which earned her a few fearful looks. "Not the dead place, the space station. It's the prison station where I was in cryo," they blinked in surprise.

They had heard about her escape and joining Shepard, but one question remained how did they get here? Looking around, Jack noticed a terminal at the far end of the room.

"Oda, you're good with computers, right?" she asked looking to the tech student.

He nodded. "Yeah, I'm taking it up as a minor,"

Jack nodded. "Hack into that terminal, see if we can find the date," that made him blink but nodded as he moved up and began to type.

"What's going on each?" Pasley asked.

"I don't know, all I know is that we travelled several hundred light years and a year in the past," as she said that, the students got wide eyes which she shrugged at. "If you remember my story, then you'd remember that Purgatory was destroyed when I escaped with Shepard. This place shouldn't exist,"

"Then how do you know it's the same place? Or that we travelled though time?" a taller student, Tavis, asked.

Jack indicated to the emblem on the door, it was a round circle with lines going down to represent old jail cells. "That is the emblem of the prison. And the only time it was used was when Purgatory was operating. Removing all other explanations, whatever's left must be the truth. We travelled back in time,"

The student blinked in confusion. "I have never heard that before," he shook his head.

"When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth," Lilly, another tech student, spoke up. "It's from Sherlock Homes,"

Jack nodded. "When I was on the Normandy, I did a lot of reading. Sherlock became one of my favourite novels to read. Being angry all the time…." she sighed as she remembered a chat she had with Miranda after their argument. "… doesn't do anyone any good," a tear fell from her eye which she brushed away quickly. "You don't have to forgive and forget, but you do have to move away from the anger before it destroys you,"

Her students just looked at her with surprise at that. They had known the hard-ass Jack during their lectures and training sessions. While she was rough around the edges in terms of teaching, they thought she was doing a good job in training them. But she always presented a hardened exterior to them, not letting her emotions get the better of her. Now she had let some of that shell crack for all of them to see. Before anyone could Oda called out.

Jack turned and walked over to him. "What do you have?" she asked.

"You were right, we are in the past," he said. "I'm not sure how, but we are in the past,"

Jack nodded. "Got a specific date?"

"Errr yeah…" Oda typed and brought up the date. "March 14th, 2183," his eyes widened at that date. "One day before it's destruction," he muttered.

Jack nodded at that as she looked to the students. "Ok kids get comfortable, we're going to be here for a while,"

OOOOO

Ajax waited in his Normandy's war room for the other to enter. It didn't take long, but he was surprised to see John walking in.

"Ahh the gearhead returns," he bowed earing himself a middle finger.

"Fuck you," John smiled as he found a seat close to the holotable.

The cyborg smiled while the rest of the Normandy crew found their seats. Sitting next to their variants for whatever reason, but Ajax did notice a concerned look from Yasuke to John. But the Samurai turned back to the holotable, eyes focused. Once everyone was in, the door locked and Ajax began the briefing.

"This is Purgatory," he said as a holographic image of the prison station appeared. "A prison station for some of the worst criminals in the galaxy. It is run by this man…" an image of a turrian in Blue Suns armour. "Warden Kuril, former enforcement officer on Palavan. He left and joined up with the Blue Suns to create Purgatory as no government approved of his idea due to cost,"

The images then changed to an image of a file. "Our objective, is to secure Subject Zero more commonly known as 'Jack'. There is very little information about Jack that Cerberus sent us. But it should be a simple in and out,"

John snorted earning himself a slap on the back of the head from Liara. "Ow…Sorry he muttered," giving a death glare at Liara.

"I take it that things go badly?" Yasuke asked.

With an annoyed sigh, John nodded. "Yeah… it doesn't go well. But that's not new and give the situation we are all in, we can probably expect more than one Jack,"

"And another Shepard," Jane muttered.

"Agreed," Ajax nodded. "But since you have experience John, what would you recommend as our approach?"

John rubbed his chin. "Light and fast. We are going to face a lot of problems, but not get overwhelmed. Miranda should also come with us," that got him an odd look from the raven-haired woman. "And I should come to,"

Ajax nodded. "For that 'special ability' of yours?" the engineer answered with a shrug.

They cyborg sighed and nodded as discussion turned to tactics and who would come along. In the end it was agreed that Ajax would lead and take John, Miranda and Mordin with him. Jane, Sakura, Cyrus and Barbossa would act as guards for the Normandy.