Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The small white shape blinked in apparent distress as it flitted from point to point, occasionally emitting a beam of light from one of its flat surfaces. What could have once been a human being lay in a scattered heap.

“You’ll do,” a mechanical voice chirruped frantically from nowhere. “You’ll do.”

A final flash of light and a human shape formed, landing on its feet before bending over, coughing.

-

“Guardian,” the small machine floating in front of her said. Despite its lack of a face, Jane could swear it was nervous. “Guardian, we need to get off this planet.”

Jane coughed. That she had a body to cough with seemed like a new development. “I agree. What are you?” This was, perhaps, the wrong time for questions, but abruptly setting off in a random direction would not help her any more than just spending a moment getting her bearings.

This was, presumably, Alchera. Jane was not as cold as she expected to be; she breathed easily enough, despite knowing that this was not an atmosphere built for humans. She brought her hand up to her face. Right, she was still in her armor. Looking down at herself, she realized she was unarmed, her armor busted up to a worrying degree.

The typical HUD was barely functional, showing a markedly diminished capacity. The self-repairing mechanism was broken, somehow.

Her memories returned to her rapidly, leaving her coughing again.  

“I’m a ghost,” the small machine said. “More properly, I’m your ghost.” As it continued to move around her, Jane noticed her armor healing itself. Was that its doing?

“I don’t know what that is,” Jane admitted. “Are you Geth or Reaper tech?” She was far enough from any Alliance world to rule that possibility out, and the thing’s aesthetic was too square to be most exported Asari tech and too streamlined to be anything else.

“I don’t know what that is,” the Ghost said, parroting her words. “I have an idea from your memories, but they don’t make any sense. Where is this?”

This was what she was doing, then: twenty questions with a small robot. Excellent. “Alchera,” Jane said. “What am I doing here?”

“You were dead. I fixed that.”

“You brought me back?”

“Yes. Now, we need to go.”

“Do you have a name?” Another badly timed question, but Jane could not continue thinking of it as the ghost, or the little machine. The whole situation was spooky enough already.

The ghost blinked at her for a moment. “You can call me Nox,” it said, finally. “Do you?”

“Jane Shepard,” she said. She smiled unthinkingly, pleased despite herself when that didn’t mean anything at all to Nox.

Alchera was a desert planet, all dry ice and cold, blue light. Walking, Jane heard the faint crunch of small amounts of ice breaking under her feet.

That she was not cold was slightly less disconcerting by the second. She was still in her armor. It made sense.

“What are the Geth?” Nox asked.

“A machine-race,” Jane said. “They worship the Reapers.” How old was Nox, or how isolated? Not knowing about the reapers made sense. Despite Jane’s best efforts, they were still a myth to too many people. The geth, however, were well known, if only as a warning against doing what the Quarians did.

“Those are the source of all the screaming?”

Jane stopped. “Excuse me?”

“The screaming,” Nox repeated. “In your head.”

Her visions from the Prothean artifacts. “Yes,” she said. “They are.”

“We don’t have those, where I’m from, I think.” Nox disappeared in a puff of light, but Jane realized she was still aware of its presence. It was just less physical, suddenly. Within her was a bad way to phrase it, but how else could she describe it?

She felt a presence, its presence, brush against her mind. “Where are you from?” she asked.

“Somewhere else,” it answered. It sounded frustrated. “I’m not being mysterious on purpose. I just don’t know how to explain it. Are you human?”

That question surprised Jane enough to make her laugh.

“Yes,” she said. “You have humans, where you’re from?”

“We’ve broadened the definition, a bit, but basically, yeah.”

Jane spent the first hour of her long walk sharing information back and forth with Nox.

“Do you need to get back?” Jane asked, once they had sufficiently caught each other up. “Things sound pretty dire, where you’re from.”

“I don’t know,” Nox said. It sounded almost sad for a moment. “I’m just one ghost.” It materialized, flickering back and forth in front of Jane’s face. “You’re my guardian,” it said. “Or, well, lightbearer, anyway. I feel like you should help your universe first.”

Jane smiled. “That’s nice of you.”

“So, basically, we have to punch the Reapers really, really hard, right?” it asked. It floated down in an almost tragic motion. “If only I was the Guardian’s ghost.”

The word, which had been a title when it first addressed her with it, now sounded like a name. “The Guardian?”

“The most powerful Guardian ever rezzed.” Joy noted with some surprise that Nox’s tone was almost… gleeful. “I wonder what element you can use, anyway? I don’t even know what you’d be! I thought I’d know.” It blinked, once. “This is exciting!”

Nox had mentioned a guardian’s abilities alongside its summary of every alien species that wanted humanity dead in its universe (and there was an astonishing amount, even after the First Contact War and everything else, humanity had not made that many enemies).

Jane had yet to have a reason to use hers, assuming she did have any, this far from this so-called Traveler.

She had been, until this moment, alone. Alchera was neither resource rich enough for frequent mining missions nor hospitable enough for colonies—the atmosphere was wrong even for Vorcha—and so she had assumed it would be a while before she found a way off planet. Her plan, and it was not very well though out, was to find the wreckage of the Normandy and see if she could use some remnant of its comm system. She definitely did not expect to come upon, for example, what appeared to be a temporary Blue Sun mercenary group base, not even trying to hide itself.

They had not, it seemed, posted any guards, but as she did not exactly try to hide her approach she was quickly noticed. The base was not exactly large, but Jane immediately noticed the ship. Smaller by far than the Normandy, it could at least, she thought, get her into orbit, and would have a comms unit with enough range to let her find at least someone friendly.

Jane imagined she did not look particularly threatening. She had to hope that in her case, appearances were at least somewhat deceiving.

A person in heavy armor confronted Jane almost immediately, getting in her face in a way that would have been intimidating if Jane hadn’t already been in this kind of situation way too much. “Who the fuck are you?” she asked. She wore a helmet that was clear over the eyes. “We were told there wasn’t anyone else on this shithole of a planet.”

Jane held up her hands placatingly, showing that she was unarmed. “I’m Jane Shepard,” she said. “I want to get off this shithole of a planet.”

The woman took a step back and raised her gun. “That’s impossible,” she said. “Jane Shepard’s dead, and we’re here to collect her body.”

Jane smiled. “It seems,” she said. “You’ve been preempted.”

The woman fired in tandem with the other mercenaries who were already out of the habitats, but before their bullets could hit Jane, she pushed her hands upwards, following an instinct she did not know she had. A purple barrier formed itself around her, emanating from her hands, and stopped the projectiles in their tracks, dissolving them into nothing.

“You’re a Titan!” Nox said. Jane had no idea what that meant, but it seemed to delight her ghost.

The hail of bullets stopped for a moment as the woman looked as though she was about to flee, then started up again. “Oh, great,” Jane said. “Just what I needed.”

Reaching out of her little bubble of safety, she pulled the woman inside it, punching her in the side of her head, her fist glowing with light the same color as the barrier, her other hand pulling her gun out of her now-limp grip.

The bubble would stop her bullets going out as well, she thought, but she was armed now, which was an improvement under any circumstance.

“I don’t want to kill you,” she said. “I really, really don’t. Just tell me who hired you and get me out of here, and we never have to deal with each other again.” She raised the shotgun.

To her disappointment, if not surprise, the other mercs fired on her. That, at least, gave her an idea of how high the price on her corpse was. Jane barreled out of the protective cover of the purple barrier towards the closest merc, shooting him in the chest with slugs she instinctively coated in biotic energy. It seemed, despite her new, more purple abilities, she still had access to that. Good.

It didn’t take very long for her to kill the rest, grabbing a pistol from one of the other bodies. She had a feeling that she wouldn’t need it, really, but she felt better this way.

“Damn,” she said. She took a moment to laugh breathlessly. “That was almost fun.” She felt a little bad about the dead mercs, as always, but she had given them a chance. That none of them had taken a look at the supposedly dead woman with the spooky purple biotics (as she assumed they would interpret the whole light show) and thought maybe the money’s not worth it this one time meant her conscience was, all things considered, relatively clear.

“Void light!” Nox said. “I didn’t know if that would even work out here!”

“I’m still not sure what the fuck that was,” she said.

“We’re as far from the Traveler as you could ever be, but it still works!” Nox sounded delighted and like it was talking mostly to itself. “If that’s not proof, I don’t know what is.”

“Proof of what?”

It stopped its movement. “Nothing,” it said. “More importantly, you have a ship. Can you fly?”

“Yes.”

Not as well as Joker, but this ship was a great deal smaller than the Normandy, and looked to be much less complicated to pilot. She could call someone and wait to be picked up, but that would probably just mean more mercs. She had been really lucky that none of them were biotics, and she would have to be careful that there was no one on board or still hiding somewhere.

“Can I take a direct hit?”

“How do you mean?”

“If someone shot me in the shoulder, would it slow me down?”

“You’re still human,” Nox said. It sounded worried, all of a sudden. “You’ll still die if someone drives a spike into your head, or cuts you open with a sword. I can bring you back, of course, but it hurts.”

“That’s good to know, but that’s not my question. Am I more durable?” Could she, if she wanted to, ignore people shooting at her as she made off with their ship, for example?

“Yes,” Nox said.

“Excellent.”

Making her way into the ship was less of an ordeal than she feared it would be. Her omnitool still functioned, and faced with the door mechanism Nox chirped, “You know, I can open that for you.”

“You can?”

It sounded almost proud of itself. “I am a machine. I’m good at talking to other machines.”

“We don’t really make our machines able to talk,” Jane said. “That led to problems, the last time.”

As Nox investigated the lock, Jane realized that there was no explanation for her ghost she could come up with that would not piss off someone important, or worse, attract someone’s interest.

The door opened slowly, and Nox flitted back to Jane’s hand, vanishing again.

It did not take Jane very long to figure out the controls, especially with Nox’s help. Even better, in the ship’s weapons locker she found a rocket launcher. Excellent.

“I took the liberty of looking through the ship’s computer. Apparently these mercs were hired by something called the “Shadow Broker.” Do you know what that is?”

Jane sighed. “I do,” she said. “And it’s not good news. Do you know where they were supposed to drop my body off?” It was strange talking about herself as an object, but she supposed that was what she was up until the moment Nox brought her back.

“Someplace called Omega station.”

“Oh!” Jane checked the ship’s nav system. “That’s only a few systems over, we should get there in about a day and a half

It seemed, according to what Nox had said, that ships in her universe went faster or at least could go farther than those it was familiar with. Jane could not imagine being restricted to a single solar system like that. Then again, Nox was apparently completely unfamiliar with the Mass Effect, which meant that it was quite possible that the very fabrics of their universes were different.

This did not explain how Jane could access abilities granted by a machine-god (for so it seemed the Traveler to be) in another reality, but now was not the time for such mysteries.

“Excellent,” Nox said. “In the meantime, I’m going to see if I can find anything else useful.” It disappeared, almost melting into the ship’s terminal. Moment later, it reappeared, chirping thoughtfully. “Do you think you could ever build me a shell?” it asked.

“A shell?”

“You know,” it said, “another shape for me. Just so I have the options.”

It disappeared again.

“I’m not a machinist,” Jane said apologetically. “But, if I find any of my friends who are again, they can probably figure something out.”

“Thanks,” it said. “I really do appreciate it.”

What was wrong with its current shape? Jane wondered. A small, white machine made of interlocking cubes, sometimes dissolving, sometimes expanding, seemed fairly versatile and yet hard to replicate with any tech she was familiar with. Like a technology which Nox had called transmat, while her reality had faster ship, its had apparently mastered a way of breaking and recreating matter which seemed utterly impossible to Jane. A shell for Nox would have to be able to work with its various abilities, and she genuinely did not know whether that could be done with her reality’s tech.

Of course, hers was a reality also lacking in cryptarchs and engrams, a concept Jane still couldn’t quite grasp, which meant finding ways to augment her and Nox’s light with equipment would be much more difficult.

Coming back to life had failed to solve any of Jane’s problems other than the state of death itself and had also opened up a whole new host of complications.

She probably should have been more concerned or afraid than she was, considering she had no idea what had destroyed the Normandy or if it was still out there, but she honestly could not feel anything other than excitement and the desire to get at the bottom of the various mysteries she found herself once more at the center of.

Was she different, now that she had died and come back? She had her biotic implants, her omnitool. Her hands and face and eyes were the same, as she had confirmed, or thought she had confirmed, in a mirror in the ship’s bathroom. Her hair was still bright red.

She didn’t feel different. According to Nox, most ghosts deleted the memories of their guardians—it had not because of its panic at being in a strange place—but it had promised that it had changed nothing in her mind.

These thoughts, she decided, were not helpful. If she ever found herself with a quiet moment, a thought which almost made her smile, she would ponder that more. For now, she had to try not to fall asleep and listen to the faint hum of Nox working.

Hopefully, she would find something she knew at Omega. It had, it seemed, been a few weeks at least since her death, according to the time in the ship’s computer, but the crash had only been yesterday for her, and she wanted desperately to know whether who of her friends had made it out alive.

She had died, and someone had put a price on her body. That was, if nothing else, a sign that the war she fought had not ended with Saren’s death, and thanks to Nox, it would not end with hers, either.

-

The bodies were found an hour later when they failed to check in with base camp.

They noticed the stolen ship immediately, the missing weapons soon after. Most of the dead mercs had been shot in the chest or head, but one had had her helmet partially melted into her face.

Like all soldiers, of any organization, their omnitools came equipped with recorders, and the Blue Sun mercenaries watched in horror the woman in flickering hologram declared herself Jane Shepard before massacring the whole group of them.

This was not supposed to happen. Jane Shepard was dead, and it was their job to bring her back. It was supposed to be simple, one of the simplest jobs these mercs had had in a long time. Unlike living marks, corpses were not supposed to be able to fight back or summon strange light with their hands.

“We have to warn the guys back at Omega,” one said.

“They’re already fucked,” the another said.

“Should we pursue?” the first asked. Her companion shook her head.

“This is way beyond the scope of the contract,” she said. “We give a warning, and then we head back. Hope to beat her there.”

“What if we don’t?”

She found that she had no answer.

Chapter Text

Omega came into solid view in the same way as all large objects in space: slowly, then all at once.

“Whoa,” Nox said. “It’s amazing.”

Docking was easy. Omega had come by its reputation as a place where no one cared too much about what one was up to honestly enough (one of the few honest things about it), and so all Jane had to say was that she was Blue Sun, here to report, and no one questioned her.

She and Nox had spent their day of travel combing through the bounty out on her body (interrupted, at least for her, by a much-needed nap). Part of the language involved meeting an agent of the Broker in a back room in the lower levels of a club called Afterlife as soon as the body was in any group’s possession. Jane had for a moment imagined trying to cash in the bounty on herself but would probably just end with guns pointed at her head. She was wanted dead, more than anything else.

What she had been unable to discover was why the Shadow Broker wanted her corpse. He did not want things for himself, which meant there had to be a “buyer” out there.

Her tentative plan was to go to this room and confront the agent. Hopefully, they would be more talkative than other pawns of that man had been, and she would be able to move on from there. In service to this, she had replaced her N7 armor with a set she had found on board the ship. She would miss her old armor, of course, but it could be replaced, and Alliance military gear would stick out in a place like Omega.

She would also have to find another ship, which would likely be complicated by the fact that the Blue Sun were almost definitely aware of what she had done.

Needless to say, she was out of the docking area very quickly. She had no idea what the standard operating procedure for that particular gang was, but she imagined that eventually they would realize that hers was the stolen ship and she was the woman back from the dead.

Her omnitool downloaded a map of the station from the local network automatically. She took a moment to watch Nox scan the walls, familiarizing itself with the space.

“Afterlife is close,” she said. “You’ll need to stay out of sight. Even with these abilities, I can’t take on an entire space station.”

Jane was glad to be on a station again, even one like this. Growing up in space, she had never quite gotten used to living on planets, and she never seemed to have any particularly good time on them, especially not recently. Recycled air and cramped quarters were far preferable to infinite plains of ice and cold that never quite reached her.

“I can still talk to you inside your head,” Nox said. “And you can talk to me. What’s your story?”

Jane sighed. “I don’t know,” she said.

“Okay,” Nox said. It vanished.

Getting inside Afterlife turned out to be a bigger issue than finding it. The elcor bouncer mainly prefaced their sentences with “unimpressed” and other such adjectives when responding to the pleas of people hoping to gain entry, and Jane was not sure her story would fare any better. Of course, if worse came to worse she could probably find some other way to get inside, but she very much preferred not to have to resort to that.

“Hello,” she said. “I’m here for the meeting.”

“Curious, which meeting?” The elcor ignored the human harassing them. “Neutral, you will have to be more specific than that.”

“Blue Sun. It’s about Jane Shepard.”

The elcor blinked slowly at her. “Amused. Blue Sun business? Many people claim to have that.”

“I can vouch for her,” a voice said.

Jane turned around. She was now very confused. She did not recognize the voice, and she was certain that she did not know anyone on Omega, unless one of her crew had moved there in the time since her death.

The human woman wore a white jumpsuit that was the kind of not-quite-armor that only people who either didn’t get into fights much or who were powerful enough biotics to create effective barriers wore.

“Amused, and you are?”

“Miranda Lawson. Aria knows me.”

Jane knew in the absolutely vaguest terms who Aria was. She definitely knew enough to be afraid of her, and to know that throwing her name around was not something one did lightly. Whoever this woman was, she was probably not lying.

“Neutral, this is true. Welcoming, come in.”

“Follow me,” Miranda said, gesturing towards the door and ignoring the indignant human man, now back to arguing with the elcor.

Once the two women had passed through the first set of doors leading into the club, Jane stopped in her tracks.

“Who the hell are you?”

“Someone very interested in finding out how exactly Jane Shepard survived a collector ship attack.” She smirked. “Are you surprised I recognize you?” She started walking again, forcing Jane to keep up with her.

“Somewhat.”

Miranda nodded. “The gear was a nice touch, but the Blue Sun have already sent a warning out about you. You weren’t exactly subtle back on Alchera.”

Jane shrugged. “I didn’t exactly have a choice. If you’ve seen an omnirecording of it, I told them not to shoot. How did you see it?” She didn’t look Blue Sun.

“I’m not here to judge you, Shepard, I’m here to keep you from walking into a trap set for someone else.” She pointedly did not answer Jane’s last question.

“What do you mean?”

The second door opened, and Jane found herself briefly overwhelmed by the noise and lightshow that was Afterlife club. Dancers of many genders and races writhed to sound that could be barely described as music, hundreds of conversations combined into a low, droning hum, and colors changed constantly.

Death, it seemed, had made her less tolerant than she usually was, or perhaps this was the sort of place designed to throw someone off her guard. In the noise, she did not notice that Miranda had once more not answered a question.

“I don’t like it here,” Nox said in her head.

“I know,” Jane replied. “I don’t either.”

She followed Miranda across the dancefloor towards a set of steps guarded by a batarian in a similar uniform to Jane’s.

“We’re here to meet with your boss,” Miranda said.

“Uh, right,” the batarian said. “He’s busy.”

“I’m sure,” Miranda said. “That doesn’t matter. This is about Jane Shepard.”

She swept the baffled guard out of the way, Jane following after her.

This door led to a much quieter room. It was lit normally, and the walls muffled the music from the other room. Jane barely noticed this change, however, because she realized that she and Miranda had walked into the middle of a gunfight.

Bodies wearing broken Blue Sun armor lay scattered across the floor. Those who were still alive were concentrating their fire on a makeshift barricade, too busy to notice the entrance of two more people.

“Seems the door guy wasn’t exactly hired for his brains,” Jane said. Miranda laughed.

“I’m sure he wasn’t,” she answered. “This is what I meant by trap.”

The problem facing whoever the Blue Sun were trying to kill was that they were few and the Blue Sun comparatively infinite. Eventually, they would run out of ammo and energy, and that would be it.

Of course, that sort of plan depended on only allies appearing to help.

Miranda confirmed Jane’s earlier suspicions when a barrier materialized around her. Jane did something similar, hoping that it would be the typical blue and not the strange purple she could also now access. Her use of her new powers had been instinctual, and now was not the time to reveal them.

She had dealt with groups like this countless times before using only her biotics. If Miranda was as powerful as Jane hoped, they would be no problem at all.

With their attention briefly off their target, the people behind the barricade started to retaliate, and the remaining Blue Suns quickly fell, joining their companions on the floor. This was a small room, and biotic attacks could cover a lot of ground.

Jane could not help but smile, though she felt oddly dissatisfied at not having used her Light in a demonstrable way. She would have to figure out a means of combining her abilities. No one would notice blue biotics tinged slightly purple, probably.

Had the barricaded people not been friendly, Jane would have felt very foolish. Instead, a familiar blue figure stepped out, accompanied by a drell.

“Liara!” Jane said, unable to help herself. She took a step forward, arms slightly outstretched, before realizing that now was not exactly the time for hugs.

“Jane,” Liara said. “I’m so happy to see you.” She pulled Jane into a hug, ignoring Jane’s hesitation. “I saw the recording, but it was so hard to believe. You’ve been gone…” Her voice trailed off into Jane’s shoulder, and she pulled away. “This is Feron. He works for the Shadow Broker but has been helping me.”

“You weren’t exactly subtle,” the drell said, his voice clicking. Had he been with anyone else she would not have trusted him whatsoever, but she could not believe Liara was working with the Blue Sun. Feron was, presumably, some kind of double agent, and therefore slightly less of a threat.

“You are the second person to tell me that in the last half hour,” Jane said. “What does the Shadow Broker want with my body?” That was what this was all about, right? Her corpse?

What a mostly wrecked corpse lying cold and dead on a nothing planet could possibly do she still had no idea. Obviously, now that she was alive again, the information in her head was valuable to a certain kind of person, but her corpse? She was not that special, no matter what some might insist.

She would be playing catch-up for a long time, she thought. The three other people in the room seemed to have a much better idea of what was going on.

“The collectors hired him,” Feron said. It was hard, from how he blinked, for Jane not to interpret his speech as rushed and strange, but that was her primate brain reacting incorrectly to vastly different body language. “They were not the only ones after your remains, however.”

“They weren’t?” Why would the collectors want her, anyway? They trafficked in odd things, of course, but she had never heard about them going after corpses before. Yet they at least made sense. They were the collectors. They were strange, even to the strangest, and so while it was incomprehensible and weird, it wasn’t surprising. “Do you mean the Alliance?”

To her surprise, that made Feron laugh, a high, rasping sound. “No,” he said. “Not at all. Your Alliance declared you tragically dead the day after the first escape shuttle appeared, doing their best the bury it all.” He nodded at Liara. “Your crew did not exactly stay together.”

“There was no point to it,” Liara said. “I wished to find you, and the others went their separate ways. I am in touch with Tali, but the rest I have not spoken to since the funeral.” She looked as confused as Jane felt.

Jane resisted the immediate, obvious question, instead waiting for one of the three to tell her who, then, if not the Alliance.

The answer did not come, and Jane made an irritated noise. “Who, then?”

“My employer,” Miranda said. “Cerberus.”

“No,” Jane said. Something unpleasant tightened in her gut. “Are you going to kill me?”

That seemed to genuinely catch Miranda off guard. “Excuse me?”

“You wanted my corpse. Are you going to kill me?”

Miranda shook her head. “No, no. Shepard—we were going to bring you back.”

“That’s not possible,” Nox said. It took effort for Jane not to react to its words. “You were destroyed.”

“How?”

Miranda shrugged. “Any means necessary.”

Jane let herself imagine waking up under Cerberus’s care. It wasn’t a happy picture.

“Well,” she said. “It seems everyone was excited over nothing. I am here, after all.”

“Yes,” Miranda said. “You are.” She smiled, before her expression changed to one of mild disgust as she looked around herself. “This is not an ideal location to talk,” she said.

“We should probably leave the station for a while, in any case,” Liara said. “We did just kill a good number of Blue Sun.”

“Mm. Shepard, would you object to speaking with me aboard my ship?”

“Not at all. Can Liara and Feron come?” She wanted at least one ally. Feron was not an ally, but Liara was working with him, at least. She did not exactly trust Miranda, but Jane had the feeling she could probably take the biotic in a fight if it was truly necessary.

“Of course,” Miranda said. Jane wondered if she felt as generous as she spoke in that moment.

The batarian doorman was gone by the time the four of them exited the room.

-

Miranda’s ship turned out to be of about the same size as the ship Jane had stolen, but of better make. Her pilot was apparently still on-board Omega, acquiring various odds and ends. Liara sent Feron to find him, not as a way of getting him out of the way but because he knew his way around a weapon and had a better idea of Omega’s general layout than her.

“How are you alive?” Miranda asked. She felt no need for niceties; this was the information she needed to know, the most baffling part of the equation by far.

“Can we trust her?” Jane asked Nox internally.

“No,” Nox said. “But you’re mostly worried about people freaking out, right? She doesn’t seem the kind to freak out.”

Jane took a moment to look at Miranda. She knew she was taking a strange amount of time to reply, but in her defense “How are you not dead?” was a strange question under the best of circumstances.

“I’m honestly more worried about people trying to steal you.”

“They won’t.” The absolute confidence in Nox’s voice was almost worrying.

“Alright.” Jane said this last part out loud and opened her hand.

Nox shone its light in Miranda’s face.

“Hello!” it chirped. “I’m Nox. I’m Jane’s ghost.”

No one spoke for a long moment.

Liara was the first to speak. “What are you?” she asked with the kind of curiosity that reminded Jane of when she’d talk about her old archaeological projects. It was kind of cute, honestly.

“Pretty much what I just said,” Nox replied. “I brought Jane back to life.”

“How recently was this?” That was Miranda, more businesslike and less wondering than Miranda.

“Yesterday,” Jane said.

It took the two of them about fifteen minutes to explain with all the interruptions from their two listeners. “I don’t know,” and “another universe, I guess,” weren’t really satisfying answers, but that just meant Liara and Miranda were now in the same place as Jane.

“If I were still home, I would ask Jane to return to the City and defend humanity,” Nox concluded. “Since I’m here, and the scope of things is a lot bigger, I’m willing to help save her world before trying to figure out how to get back to mine.”

“These guardians have a religious significance?” Liara asked.

“You could say that,” Nox said. “Mostly, extraordinary enemies need extraordinary heroes.”

Miranda laughed. “That sounds like propaganda.”

“Maybe it was. I’m pretty young, in the grand scheme of things.” It sunk back into Jane’s skin. “Here is the important part: I am going to keep Jane alive, for as long as I can. Forever, if that’s possible, or at least until the battle is won.”

That brought even Jane up short. “Forever?” she asked.

It reappeared, blinking in vague confusion. “Did I not tell you? You’re immortal, now. Well.” It laughed mechanically. “The tricky kind of immortal that means you have to make sure I don’t die.”

Jane looked at Liara. “Oh,” they both said in unison.

Something Jane had not told Nox, nor was willing to bring up in front of Miranda, a virtual stranger, was that Liara had asked Jane once if they could spend their nights together, and Jane had replied that it was too strange to think about how much longer Liara would live than her.

That, it seemed, was no longer the case.

“I didn’t know,” Jane said.

Nox made an embarrassed noise. “I thought it was implied,” it said. “I would have explained better if I had realized.”

“But you can die?” Miranda asked.

“Yes,” Jane said. “I just don’t want to.”

Miranda pursed her lips in thought for a moment. “If you are amenable,” she said. “I think you should work with us.”

“Why?” Jane said. She looked at Liara. They needed to talk, and soon.

“You obviously have abilities most people do not,” she said, with some degree of humor. “That was the case before all of this—that is why we were willing to sink so much into retrieving you—but now you really can help us.”

Jane shook her head. “If you know that much about me,” she said. “You know that I’ve always worked with aliens and do not agree with you.” Everyone knew two things about Cerberus: they were wealthy beyond imagination and they were human supremacists.

Miranda shrugged. “I understand how our organization gained that reputation, but that is not really what we are. We want to defend humanity against what threatens us, and right now, humanity is threatened.” Jane could not exactly read her expression. “Do you know what killed you, Jane Shepard?”

Jane shook her head. “No,” she said. She leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms across her chest. “I take it you do?” She looked at Liara, who shook her head.

Miranda nodded. “The collectors killed you, Shepard,” she said. “They killed you, and they hunted you, and we are not sure why, but we know it’s connected to the human colonies that have been disappearing.” She spread her hands. “You spent a year hunting down a rogue Spectre and killed a Reaper. If anyone can figure out what they’re doing, it’s you.”

Jane wasn’t sure what to say to that. It was still hard for her to think of herself as someone particularly special. She had just done what had needed to be done, and it wasn’t all her doing.

“I had my crew, and I had my ship,” she said. “I don’t have either, anymore.”

Miranda smiled. “What if I told you I could at least give you one of those?” she asked. She nodded to Liara. “And of course, gathering the other should not be too difficult.”

“I would.” Jane swallowed nervously. “I would assume you were trying to trick me, honestly. I was there. The Normandy is gone.” This was hard to talk about. It had only been a day, really. She could still hear Joker’s protests as she dragged him away from his ship. That had hurt.

“Yes,” Miranda says. “But Cerberus is resourceful, and we built you a ship.”

Jane Shepard was many things. She was a spacer, someone born aboard ship. She was a biotic, adept in the strange abilities given her by accidents of birth. She was even now something like a guardian, a so-called Titan.

She was also human, and she ached for her crew and for the Normandy. If Cerberus could give Jane her ship and friends back—who could blame her for saying yes?

Chapter Text

“We have Shepard,” Miranda told the hollow image of her employer.

The Illusive Man smiled, a smoldering cigarette held between his fingers. “That’s good,” he said. “I was worried she would get herself killed, and so soon after she returned to us.”

Miranda smiled thinly. Of course, he knew. She knew because Feron knew everyone and had access to Blue Sun networks. He knew, presumably, because he had access to those same networks.  

“I think she was just lucky,” Miranda said. “She couldn’t explain how she survived, but she stole a ship and now she’s here, with me. One of her old crew-mates is with us, too, which should make adjustment to the new ship easier.” She didn’t mention the little AI, that it had a name and could speak and apparently made Shepard immortal.

This secret, she could sense already, was quite valuable.

“And tracking down her old pilot is going as planned?”

“Of course.” The man known most commonly as Joker had been grounded. Like Shepard, the idea of having a ship again was too much for him to resist, even if it wasn’t the ship he’d apparently almost tried to go down with.

“Good.” He put out the cigarette out of view and stood up, crossing his arms behind his back. “Bring her to speak with me, when you arrive,” he said. “I suppose I should be grateful. She seems to have saved me a great deal of money.”

With that, he cut the feed, leaving Miranda in the dark.

-

Jane was surprised when Miranda gave her essentially free reign of the small ship during their journey. It would probably have been smart to poke around, see if there was anything on Cerberus that she could find without tripping any alarms (she had never been the computer expert of the crew, that was certain), but instead she found herself sitting across a small table from Liara.

“I don’t want you to think I trust them,” Jane said. She’d already said this, but she wanted to make sure Liara understood. More than any other member of her crew, Jane cared what Liara thought about her. “I know what they’ve done. I just.”

If she could get her ship back it could be like nothing changed. A few weeks or months wasn’t that long; she was lucky to have been dead only a little while, and now she could just continue on with her life like nothing had ever happened.

“Have you contacted the Alliance?”

Jane looked away and down at her hands, sitting on the table in half-clenched fists. “No,” she said. “I can’t seem to bring myself to.” Why had no one gone looking for her?

“I haven’t heard from Ashley since she was promoted,” Liara said quietly. “I haven’t heard from the others at all. I was so focused on finding you…” She stopped mid-sentence, her eyes distant. “If we could only figure out what happened to her,” she said, referring to the Normandy . “Do you know who died?”

Jane shook her head. “I could just ask you, I guess, but I just…”

Liara gently covered Jane’s hands with hers. “I understand,” she said.

“Oh,” Jane said. “Right.” She looked away, unable to deal with Liara’s sympathetic expression. “Does it get any easier?”

Liara sighed. “I don’t know,” she said. “And I have lived with this knowledge my whole life, while you have only the potential of old age to stare at.” She smiled. Jane found herself returning the smile, even as she felt wetness in the corner of her eyes. “I will send you the list, and you can look at it when you’re ready. For now…” Her smile turned impish, and she clapped her hands together, reminding Jane abruptly of how she had been when they had first met. “What do you say to running a few experiments with your powers?”

“What kind of experiments?” Jane stood, Nox popping into existence above her shoulder. Figuring out the new and exciting ways she could fight was, she thought, much less existentially stressful than the deaths of her crew or the future.

Liara pushed herself to her feet, her grin not changing. “Everything,” she said. She shrugged. “Well, everything within reason.”

Jane and Nox shared a glance. “I don’t want to blow up the ship,” Jane said carefully. “But there is something I know I can do…”

She let the purple dome from Alcherra flicker into existence. “It’s like a barrier, but stronger?” she said. “I don’t know if I can move it.” She sighed, shaking her head. “Right now it seems to be mostly just I’m really good at punching, though,” she admitted.

The mischievous glint in Liara’s eyes did not waver. “Okay,” she said. A crackling blue biotic barrier appear in front of her as she casually pushed aside the table they had been sitting at. “Let’s see how quickly you can break this down. From personal experience, I know it takes a skilled biotic two minutes or so to take it down. And I’ve certainly never had it punched to depletion before. Can you do it faster?”

“You know,” Jane said, striding quickly towards the asari. “I think I can still use my biotics.” Gathering void energy around her left fist, she struck the center of Liara’s barrier.

Liara staggered backwards one step, but the barrier did not drop. “Wow,” she said, her eyes widening. “That was a lot.” Her mischievous expression returned.

“Maybe I can finally match you,” Jane said, also smiling. Another punch destroyed the barrier completely, leaving Liara breathing heavily.

“I feel the distinct urge to kiss you,” Liara said, looking at her no longer glowing hands. “That may not be wise, however.”

A surge of confused emotions filled Jane’s chest, nearly staggering her. “I… wouldn’t mind?”

Liara shook her head. “It’s not a question of minding,” she said. “I just want more time.” She touched Jane’s shoulder before bringing her hand distractedly up to her red hair. “And I want it to be somewhere we can call ours, something we choose to do.”

“You’ve changed,” Jane said.

Liara shrugged. “Grief is strange,” she said.

“I’m here,” Jane said. “I’m not going anywhere.” She brought her hand up to touch Liara’s briefly, before dropping it again.

“I can confirm that,” Nox said, blipping into existence.

Liara’s smile was stranger than it had been moments before. “You can’t promise that,” she said.

Jane hung her head. “I’m sorry,”

“It’s alright,” Liara said. “We’ll just have to find who did this to you.” She took her hand away.

“Sounds good,” Jane said.

“This is not—” Liara started, apologetically, when Miranda’s voice came on over the ship’s intercom.

“We will be at the station shortly,” she said. “I suggest you all gather your things. We will hopefully not return to this ship once our business there has been completed.”

“Where will we be going?” Jane tried to ask, but the connection had already been cut. She sighed, glancing quickly at the speaker embedded high in the wall. “More mysteries.” She shook her head in Nox’s direction. “At least you’re a helpful mystery.”

“I try!” it replied.

The cockpit of Miranda’s ship was cramped, but not so cramped that it could not fit two extra humanoids. Feron was further back, staring at his omnitool in apparent frustration. Jane felt a vague desire to ask him what he was doing but found herself distracted by the sudden appearance of the Cerberus station on the viewscreen.

It was bigger than Jane had expected. 

“How do you keep this kind of place hidden?” she asked, glad Miranda couldn’t see her eyes widen behind the visor of her helmet. Her pilot rolled their eyes, but didn’t say anything. They didn’t seem particularly interested in either their boss or her friends. 

"No one comes out here," Miranda said. In response to Liara's skeptical silence, she added, "Cloaking technology similar to that of the Normandy. If that fails, very big guns."

Jane nodded. That wasn't an answer she liked at all (how would Cerberus have tech like that? Did they have spies in Alliance R&D?) but it was one that made sense. 

They docked in silence, interrupted only by Miranda saying at the last minute, “It’s in your hands if you tell my employer about your friend.”

Something in Jane’s heart clenched. How could she have been so stupid to have shown Miranda Nox? She didn’t know as much about Cerberus as she would have liked, but she knew that the guy who ran them was dangerous, and probably more than a little bit crazy. He would want to steal it, even if Miranda did not. 

The knot in her chest eased someone when Liara gently put her hand on Jane’s shoulder, before letting it drop to her side again. 

-

Feron disappeared almost the moment they were on board the station.

“I thought he was yours?” Jane asked Liara, trying and failing to whisper. 

Instead of answering, Liara sighed. “These are not good people you are allying yourself with,” she said, speaking out loud the thing they were both thinking, both had been thinking since they boarded Lawson’s ship.

They were met, not by the Illusive Man, as Jane half-expected, but by a man with short-cropped hair who called himself Jacob. 

“Were you Alliance?” she asked, recognizing his grip and the way he held himself.

He laughed. “More or less. Cerberus lets me do more good.”

“That’s not what I’ve heard.” Or experienced, she thought, but did not say. 

“Do I reveal myself to him?” Nox asked, internally. 

“No,” Jane answered, grateful they’d figured out subvocal conversation. “Not yet. Not here.” There was something about the station that made her uncomfortable. She was not at the heart of Cerberus--not even close--but this did not mean she would let her guard down.

Jacob’s expression didn’t change. “There’s more to us than you’ve heard,” he said. “Follow me. Miranda will join you both again shortly.” He looked briefly at Liara, but was apparently professional enough not to ask why Jane was not alone, if that was even what he was thinking.

“Where’s the mysterious boss of yours?”

“I don’t know. Miranda will explain.” 

He resisted any further attempts at conversation, and the three of them lapsed into silence as they walked. 

“My apologies if you assumed you would meet the Illusive Man,” Miranda said when they joined her. “He is quite understandably paranoid and does not like to disclose his physical location to any but the most trusted members of the organization, among which even I am not counted.” She smiled as though she were sharing a joke. “It is not how he got the name, but it helped.” She looked pointedly at Liara. “He wishes to speak with Commander Shepard alone.”

Jane felt sheer stubbornness flood through her and she frowned. “No,” she said. “I want backup.”

Miranda laughed as though Jane had said something funny. “Speaking with him is not exactly dangerous,” she said. “Are you always this difficult?” Amusement was better than anger, but not by much if it still didn’t get her anywhere. 

“Absolutely,” Jane said. “Ask anyone on the Council.” Now that would be an unpleasant conversation. Pushing her so swiftly under the rug would not look good for them, especially now that she was back under equally mysterious circumstances as her death. 

She refused to break Miranda’s gaze. She’d been stubborn before her death, and now she was a semi-immortal superbeing.

“Fine,” Miranda said. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“The Illusive Man’s opinion of aliens is rather notorious,” Liara said, but she didn’t seem particularly interested in dissuading Jane. 

Jane shrugged. “He presumably knows where he can stuff that opinion.” Grabbing Liara pointedly by the hand, she stepped into the center of what she now recognized as an advanced holographic communications rig and look up. 

“You’ve saved my quite a bit of money,” The Illusive Man said, removing the cigarette from his mouth. “I would have brought you back, no matter what, but now here you are.” He smiled, his image leaning towards Jane. It morphed quickly into a frown as he recognized Liara. “Why is she with you?”

“I don’t like being alone,” Jane said. She stared at him, refusing to let herself feel intimidated by the setup of their mutual holograms. “I was told you would tell me why Cerberus wants me so much. Explain.”

The Illusive Man quickly wiped the grimace from his expression. “I suppose I did want you back. Are you always this difficult?”

Liara barely stifled a laugh. Jane grinned. “Yes,” she said. “Your subordinate asked me something quite similar just now.”

He sighed. “The Normandy was not the only human ship to disappear,” he said. “Have you heard of the Collectors?” 

“Only distantly,” Jane said, as Liara flinched. “Don’t they mostly keep to their own part of space?”

“They used to. They’ve been more active, recently. And I think they want you.”

“Why?” 

“I have no idea. I’m just glad we got to you first.” He looked to the side, apparently consulting something. “We assumed... retrieving... you would take a great deal longer, and so we do not have everything we meant to give you.” He frowned again, tapping at his cigarette. “How do you feel about experimental vessels, Shepard?” he asked. 

“The Normandy was one,” she said. “Are you giving me a ship?” She couldn’t help her excitement at the thought, not when memories of the Normandy in flames filled her thoughts at a moment’s notice. 

He nodded. “It’s not as complete as I would like, and you will have to forgive us for some of the onboard V.I.’s... quirks... but I believe it will be to your liking.” He looked at her for a long moment. “Can I trust you, Jane Shepard?”

Jane took a long moment to think about the question. “Yes,” she finally said. “You can.” To do what, she didn’t elaborate upon, and at the Illusive Man’s smile, she knew he’d make his own assumptions. 

“Good. Miranda will help your adjustment. Farewell.” With that, he cut the connection, leaving Jane and Miranda in the dark.

Chapter Text

“Welcome to the Normandy SR-2! I am your AI, EDI!” the little holographic ball right inside the main doors of the Normandy chirped. Jane turned to stare at Jacob, who had been assigned to giving her a tour of the ship. 

“What.”

He sighed. “How did our boss describe her to you? ‘Quirky’?” 

“That’s not what I was talking about. What does it mean, ‘A.I.’?” 

“What you think. She’s... intelligent.” At Jane’s expression, Jacob shook his head. “We have her shackled, don’t worry, but it seems the scientists working on your ship went a little... overboard.”

“This does-- she --does not seem like the work of a few months,” Jane said. She found herself distracted by the ship, and decided once Jacob had left that she would let Nox scan the place to its metaphorical heart’s content. 

“The Illusive Man has wanted you on board since you first started to gain notoriety,” Jacob said. “I guess he thought he could bribe you with new toys.”

He wasn’t wrong, Jane thought. Not entirely. 

A man in a Cerberus uniform saluted as they walked by.

“We’re going to need to spend some time getting a crew together,” Jacob continued. “We thought we would have more time, assuming Project Lazarus would ever work at all.”

They walked the rest of the way to the main bridge in silence, Jane too overwhelmed to do much more than feel awe and desperately wish Liara was with her. The asari had boarded earlier and was sending Jane the occasional update, but it wasn’t the same.

This Normandy was like a blown up version of her old ship. She was evidently still under construction to some degree, but as with the AI, it seemed that Cerberus had been constructing her since before her predecessor’s destruction. The galaxy map, at least, was familiar, and Jane could not help the rush of pained nostalgia as she gripped the railing. 

“This has more information that I am used to,” she said, lamely. Flicking her gaze back and forth, she took in the various doors leading out from the central space, trying to memorize as much of the layout as possible. 

EDI’s orb appeared above the leftmost terminal of the galaxy map’s platform. 

“You have stalled,” she said. “There is still the bridge to visit.”

“Is there anyone there?” Jane asked. She had not yet asked who would be the pilot, and refused to let herself hope. 

The blue orb fell silent, dissipating into first a projected particle effect and then nothing at all. Apparently EDI did not have to answer questions if she didn’t feel like it.

Jane looked over to Jacob. He seemed surprised, but not concerned. “I guess they haven’t shackled her completely,” he said. “Makes sense, given the sped up timeline your arrival has caused. I wouldn’t worry.”

“I am not exactly the sort to go rogue,” EDI chirped. 

I want to talk to her , Nox said in Jane’s head. I haven’t had any synthetic life forms to talk to since I arrived here!

It was more excited than it had been since hey had left Alcherra. 

Arriving at the cockpit, Jane felt her breath stick in her throat. “Joker?” she managed, sheer delight clear in her voice. 

She knew him more than well enough to recognize him from behind. He spun his chair, smiling tiredly. 

“I still haven’t forgiven you for throwing me out of the ship,” he said. “But I have to admit, Cerberus knows their shit. I mean, look, leather seats!”

“Hopefully he’ll keep me out of the way of giant lasers,” EDI quipped. 

“Yeah, I haven’t figured out how to turn that off. Can’t say the voice isn’t pretty, though.”

EDI laughed, her voice breaking in the middle with a probably-deliberate crackle. “You can’t turn me off, Moreau! You’d sooner turn off the whole vessel.”

Joker rolled his eyes. “I don’t need help flying this thing!”

“You do need sleep,” Jane said. 

Don’t tell him about me, Nox chirped at her. He will haaaaate me.

“I don’t need that much sleep,” Joker grumped. “The flight assist on the old ship was so much--” He cut himself off and grimaced. “I shouldn’t think about her so much,” he said. “But it’s not been--” He forced himself to grin. “I hear you have Liara with you?”

“Yeah,” Jane said. “I do.”

“Good,” Joker said. “Then maybe we can get everyone else, too.” He turned his chair back around. “It’s good to see you, Commander,” he said. “I need to get back to making sure everything’s in shape.”

“I have already run the diagnostics,” EDI said. She sounded almost... fond. 

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Still like checking myself.”

Shaking her head, she left him to his double-checking.

-

The last area EDI guided Jane to was her cabin, which was absurdly spacious compared to her quarters on the old Normandy. The bed even looked comfortable, and she made a mental note to buy fish later, enjoying the mundanity of the thought. 

“I have something to show you,” Jane said, after some hesitation.

“You are addressing me?” EDI asked, apparently surprised.

“Yes,” she said, and opened her hand. 

Nox flared to life, its interlocking triangles reminding Jane of breathing lungs. 

“Hello,” it said. “You’re a synthetic life form!” It flew over and into the terminal in Jane’s room. “I haven’t encountered anything as complex as you since I arrived here!”

Jane smiled at its enthusiasm. She felt a little bad for it, having to spend so much time hiding, but it would be more than fair to assume that most of her crew would share Joker’s opinions, if not worse ones. She didn’t know how vulnerable it was, and she didn’t want to test it.

“Oh, hello!” EDI sounded delighted. “I’ve never encountered anything like you before.”

“I’m from somewhere else,” Nox said. “Where people are so much less weird about AI. Do you mind if I take a look at you?”

“Don’t you think you’re being a little forward?” EDI asked, and Jane laughed. 

Nox reappeared with an awkward beep. “Oh! I didn’t mean to be rude, it’s just--you’re the whole ship, right? We don’t have many more of those left, where I’m from.”

“Where are you from?” EDI asked. 

“Another dimension, I think?” Nox said. “The aliens here are a lot nicer.” It turned to ‘look’ at Jane. “Actually, it seems like mostly humans have been trying to kill you.”

“That’s... not new,” Jane conceded. “It saved my life.”

“Yeah,” Nox said, suddenly serious. “She was... really messed up when I found her.”

“That’s not the only thing,” Jane said. “I--”

“If you are about to tell me an even greater secret, don’t,” EDI interrupted. All the good humor had drained from her voice, and she sounded deadly serious. “It will be difficult enough keeping this from the Illusive Man, I do not need any more load.”

The best way Jane could think to describe the sound Nox made was abject horror.

“We need to fix that,” it said. At some signal from EDI, it adjusted, and added, “Soon.” It looked over to Jane. “Do you know when we’ll be underway?” it asked. 

Jane nodded. “As soon as possible.”

“Okay,” Nox said. “Okay.” It calmed down, slightly. “We... need to talk. Later.” It disappeared back into... Jane’s body, more or less, she thought. She would have to ask it about that more explicitly.

-

The Illusive Man had not bothered to meet with Jane a second time, instead sending her instructions to go investigate a planet one solar system over where a human ship had gone missing. It was time to begin the SR-2’s first voyage, and to get used to her new (and old) crew before they went picking up possible collaborators like so many lost children. 

"I can't believe anyone would do that!" Nox said, abruptly. Jane was standing in front of the galaxy map, tracking the ship’s progress. The counselor, Kelly Chambers was busy at her station. Jane would have to talk to her more, later, she was sure, but for now she was keeping to herself. Liara, meanwhile, was down in engineering. 

As usual, Jane felt that she had woken up too soon for the organization’s liking. There was a certain lack of readiness to everything. 

"Much less humans . That's something the Cabal would pull!"

Jane remembered the Cabal. Nox had shown her a few images. "Those are the space rhinos?" She was as quiet as she could be, especially without her helmet on. 

“Yes,” Nox said. “I can’t believe this.” 

“It’s the way of things,” Jane said. “An AI as smart as her is technically illegal. If this were the military, she would be destroyed.”

Nox went very quiet inside her head. “Oh,” it said, finally. “Would you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Kill her.”

“No,” Jane said. “I don’t think so.”

She could feel Nox relax, though she wasn’t entirely sure how. It was very expressive, even when she couldn’t see it.

Chambers’s console chirped, and she said, “Miranda needs to speak to you, Commander.”

Jane thanked her, wondering why Miranda hadn’t just sent her a message, and headed towards the Cerberus operative’s office. 

She was glad that her crew, even if most of them were strangers, seemed competent to hold the ship together while she was away from her post.

-

The first thing Jane noticed about Miranda’s office was that it was more than half living quarters, with no door separating the two halves. 

“You wished to speak with me?” Jane asked. She had slight reason to trust Miranda--she had not yet told The Illusive Man about Nox, to the best of Jane’s knowledge--but that did not make her anything other than what she was.

“You need to know what you’re working with,” Miranda said. 

Jane tilted her head slightly to one side, curious about what she could possibly mean. “I can’t imagine you’re an android.”

Miranda huffed out a small laugh. “Not quite, no, though I’m sure he would have gone that route if he thought it were possible. I am... about as genetically engineered as any human can get. I’m perfect.”

Jane blinked at her. “Okay?” she asked. “I assume your parents were both rich and extreme?”

Miranda seemed startled by that response. “My father is... extremely wealthy, yes. He wanted someone to be his heir, and didn’t trust something so random as natural reproduction to give him what he wanted.”

“I’m sorry.” 

Miranda covered a momentarily strained expression with a shrug. “If nothing else, it means I am an extremely powerful biotic.” 

Jane nodded. “Good to know,” she said. She didn’t say that she had the sneaking suspicion that she herself was the strongest person on the ship now, thanks to Nox’s help. 

“I expected you to be angry,” Miranda said. “Most people are.”

Jane felt her shoulders droop momentarily. “I know what it means to have a universe’s expectations on me,” she said. “It’s hard.” She smiled faintly. “It’s good you didn’t put up a fuss about Liara.”

Miranda matched her with a thin smile of her own. “We are not all human supremacists,” she said. 

Jane shrugged. “I’ll believe it when I see it. Thank you for the ship, and for your help, but...”

“He takes us from nothing,” Miranda said. Jane didn’t have to ask to know she was talking about the Illusive Man. “He makes us something.”

“I know. I need to know if that’s something good , before I pledge my loyalty.”

Miranda nodded. “I understand,” she said.

“Commander!” EDI’s voice sounded from a nearby speaker. “We are arriving soon.”

“Understood.” Jane turned back to Miranda. “Thank you for telling me.”

Miranda leaned her chin on the top of her hand, her expression now unreadable. “I look forward to seeing how you use it against me,” she said.

“I won’t,” Jane answered. The doors hissed and locked behind her. 

-

The SR-2 settled into comfortable orbit, her strange engines noticeable only in the sudden diminishment of their ever-present background hum. 

“Remember the Mako?” Jane asked Liara. She had asked the asari to join her on her first expedition from the new Normandy , even if it was just checking to see if there was a derelict in orbit where disappearances and distress signals said there should be. 

Jane had seen the Hammerhead. It seemed... fine. Not the same.

“You mean that brick I never let you drive because you loved flinging it off cliffs?” Liara answered with her own question. She’d already pulled on her helmet, but the amusement was clear in her voice. 

“Cerberus projects tend to be more user-friendly than their Alliance equivalents,” Jacob said. “I do not miss military vehicles at all .” 

Miranda was staying behind on the ship, in case they all blew up. That wasn’t the official reason, but it was the thought that radiated off her in nearly palpable waves. 

“At least you could be sure it’d never break,” Jane said. She had no illusions about that particular moveable brick, but it had never let her down. She smiled to herself, imagining it still functioning on Alchera, even with the rest of the Normandy in pieces. 

“I just wish we had smaller scale instantaneous travel,” Liara said. It was funny to have her complaining, the one wearing the least amount of bulky space-suit, but at least it would only be a short trip in the unnamed ship-to-ship craft. That’s why they were all waxing nostalgic for a ground vehicle; the automated shuttles had less personality. 

Jacob shook his head. “That’s an existential nightmare I don’t want to think about,” he said. 

“As opposed to all the ones you do have to think about,” Jane said. “Like the Reapers.” Despite her mistrust of Cerberus, the fact that they all, to an individual, believed her about the Reapers, gave her an immense, bone deep sense of relief. 

She and Liara shared a look over Jacob’s head, Liara’s face visible through her asari mask. Immortality was a problem Jacob would never have to deal with, and it wasn’t one Jane was going to tell him about.

-

“Door opening!” the shuttle VI chirped.

As they stepped through, the door locked behind them, now only openable to their personal omnitool signatures. 

“I can transmat you, if you want,” Nox mused internally. “Only you and your gear, though, and only short distances. The total lack of grids makes things... trickier.”

Jane nodded. That might be useful, as long as she stayed out of sight when doing it. A benefit of a helmet was that she could be selective about when her mic was on, so she could actually talk to Nox. “Is it like bringing me back, but without me dying?” 

“A little, I guess,” it said.

There were no bodies that Jane could see, at least not at first. Eventually, they passed by the living quarters, and they saw what could have been sleepers, huddled in their bunks. 

“They’re all dead,” Liara said, looking at something on her tablet. “No life signs. I think they starved to death.” She looked upset. “They all just... crawled into bed and let themselves go.”

Jane felt very cold for a moment. “Why?” She forced herself to look away from the shapes. “Why not send out some kind of distress call?”

“This was a research station,” Jacob said. He sounded as though he were having trouble controlling his voice. “Supplied by ships from various colonies. If the food stopped coming...” He clenched his fists tightly. “This planet didn’t have a colony on it, but you’d think someone would care--”

They made it to the bridge in a grim silence. There was still more than enough power to run everything, and an image of what she assumed was the commander appeared. Unlike most last messages, the woman pictured was very calm, and seemed mostly sad. 

“No shuttles,” she said. “No escape pods. No food that will last forever. The people who were meant to supply us have disappeared. There’s nothing left. To the person reading this... something’s coming. It’s picking off ships, first, little vessels that no one will notice, but I am certain it will be coming for colonies next.” She exhaled, her voice fizzling into static. “At least we will leave corpses behind. Maybe that will be proof enough for somebody. Who knows if you’ll figure out where the disappearances will happen before no one’s left to be frightened.”

The recording cut out, leaving the three of them alone in the half-light of the bridge. 

“That’s them,” Jacob said, hollowly. “There’s something taking humans.”

“But why ,” Jane said. “We’re not... we’re not so unique in the grand scheme of things, no matter what we’d like to believe about ourselves.”

“I don’t know,” Jacob said.

Both humans turned to Liara. “Has anything like this happened before?”

“Not in my lifetime,” she said. 

She was staring at the place where the commander’s recording had been. “What do we do with all the bodies?” she finally asked. 

“We find out who these people were,” Jane said, firmly. “And we bring them back to their families.”

Her two companions nodded, and Nox seemed pleased with that decision as well. 

“We should explore the rest of the ship,” Jacob said.

Jane nodded absently. “I know,” she said. “Both of you, start looking, I’m going to take a moment on the bridge.” She wanted Nox to take a look at the ship’s computer, and hadn’t figured out how to do that without revealing herself to Jacob. He wasn’t a fanatic, but that didn’t mean he’d keep secrets from his employers either. She’d taken a risk with Miranda, even with Liara. She had to be careful.

“Right,” he said. He glanced at Liara. “You with me?” 

She nodded, clearly hiding her surprise at how easily he was willing to work with her. “Where to?”

“Back to the sleeping quarters. We need...” He sighed. “We need to find out their names. Who they were. Give them to... someone. So their families can finally have closure. Assuming their families haven’t all disappeared.”

Liara nodded. “I understand,” she said. “How could a ship like this be overlooked?”

“We’re outside of Council space. Anything’s possible, and nobody cares.” He didn’t sound bitter, just resigned. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s leave the commander to commune with the nav, or whatever you’re planning.”

“You don’t have to make it sound dirty, Jacob,” Jane said, hoping to lighten the mood at least a little. It worked. Jacob chuckled, and more importantly, Liara cracked a smile, flooding Jane with warmth. 

The doors hissed closed behind them, leaving Jane and Nox alone. “That is not what interfacing means,” Nox protested, its mechanical voice full of outrage. 

“No, that’s what you want to do with EDI,” Jane said. 

Nox made another noise of protest, but settled down. “There’s a lot to look through,” it said. Another chirp. “The captain’s right, the ships stopped coming. There’s a message... oh. Oh no.”

“What?”

"And no one noticed this? What is wrong with this universe?" Nox's lights flickered more intensely, pulling up more files. 

"Nox!" Jane said. "I can't read your mind, what are you seeing?"

Nox dimmed. "A ship was blown up mid message. Another ship appeared with no one on board. Humans have been disappearing, and it looks like it's going to escalate. Why does no one care?"

"There are too many humans. I don't think anyone noticed."

Nox was silent. "I don't like that."

“We care,” Jane said. “You can help me stop this.”

Chapter Text

Jane found herself in the comms room, staring at a projection of the Illusive Man, Liara and Miranda at her side. She had a feeling this would be happening many more times in the near future. She was not looking forward to making her report, not because of any fear of reprisals, but because she would have to revisit what they had found on the derelict. 

The Illusive Man’s expression did not change until Jane finished. Only then did he frown, tapping his cigarette against something that did not appear in the projection. “That is worse than I feared, but I am not surprised,” he said. “The enemy of humanity is powerful, and the other species of this galaxy do not care.” He looked out, presumably at the stars glittering around him. “The Collectors will only become bolder. Humanity will have to stand alone.”

Jane and Liara shared a glance. “Why are they coming after us?” Jane asked. 

“I... confess I do not know,” he said, looking pained at the admission. “As much as I believe humanity is special, I cannot think of any particular trait that makes us better victims. Perhaps they know we can disappear without the aliens noticing?”

Jane considered this. “Wouldn’t the vorcha be a better choice, then?”

The Illusive Man’s frown deepened. “Excuse me?” 

Jane shrugged. “It’s awful to say, but no one likes them. I don’t think anyone would even notice if they disappeared, except to maybe make some kind of joke about the smell. I know Cerberus is predicated on the assumption that humans are the most besieged species in the galaxy, but we really aren’t. So, why humans ?” 

The Illusive Man looked uncomfortable. Jane ignored Miranda’s desperate attempt to signal her to shut up. Finally, he relaxed, and his laughter filled the comms room. “It has been a long time since someone talked back to me,” he said. “I can not tell you. I can only say what I have observed, and we both know this threat is bigger than anything we have--even you have--faced so far. As admirable as these first findings are, I think you will need help.”

“Oh?” Jane asked. She agreed, but she had assumed she would have to go seek out her old friends on her own, especially the non-human ones. “Do you have any suggestions?” 

He nodded. “You will receive a message with the relevant profiles. I believe some will be familiar to you; others you may have heard of. It should be an interesting prelude, if nothing else, to your work.”

“Thanks,” Jane said. “I’ll be waiting.”

The Illusive Man cut communications, leaving Miranda to round on Jane, an impressed expression on her face. “No one talks back to him, except me, sometimes.” 

Jane shrugged. “I’m not afraid of him,” she said. 

Miranda frowned. “I don’t think that’s wise,” she said.

Jane smiled. “Who said anything about being wise? There are just scarier things out there than an evil boss.”

Miranda said nothing, apparently unwilling to argue Jane on her characterization of Cerberus’s leader. “You’ll get the dossiers on your console,” she said. “They should be arriving shortly.”

-

“I miss them,” Jane said, looking through the files on her console, some time later. “I had hoped--” She shook her head. They’d been over this. As the recently deceased, she had no right to demand anything of any of her old friends. 

“I can’t imagine Tali working with Cerberus,” Liara said. “Or, even, Ashley.”

Jane sighed. “I... it was never justified, what she said. What she said to you.”

Liara snorted. “You get used to it. Was she cruel about aliens with no power over her?” 

Jane wracked her memory, before sighing. “Yes,” she said. “She was rude to the elkor.” 

Liara placed a hand on Jane’s shoulder. “Perhaps she’s changed.”

“I hope so.”

The files were both extremely detailed and missing some pieces of crucial information. The entry on “Archangel,” for instance, gave no information as to their identity, and Subject Zero’s gave no information on her status. 

“At least this gives us something to do while we wait,” Jane said. 

“For what?” 

“More information.” She thought about the ship full of corpses. “For something else to happen.”

Liara sighed. “I wish I could trust the Council enough to reach out to them.” She ran her hand through her crest. “They have the resources for this sort of manhunt.” 

“I get the feeling the Collectors are going after humans because they’re not the galactic favorite,” Jane said. 

She landed on a file that looked especially promising. “This guy, the salarian doctor, have you heard of him?” 

An insectoid face stared expressionlessly out at her from her console. He was the head of a small clinic on Omega Station, but Cerberus would not suggest him if that was all there was to him. 

“Mordin?” Liara asked. She looked thoughtful. “It is difficult for me to remember individual salarians; we’re on opposite sides of the lifespan spectrum, and they die as soon as I get to know them. I believe I have heard of this one, however. He was important to the genophage project.”

Jane whistled. “Damn,” she said. “That’s something, all right.” The diminutive figure didn’t look like the sort to help produce weapons of mass misery, but what did she know. “I don’t know--”

“We can talk to him. Two of our targets are on Omega, if he’s hurting people you can do what you’ve always done best.” 

“And what’s that?” 

Liara grinned. “Biotic lance straight to the face, of course.” 

Jane returned the smile, and thought of Nox, hiding just out of sight. “Not just that, now,” she said.

The console chirped. “Jacob wants to see me,” Jane said, surprised. “Keep an eye on--”

“Of course,” Liara said. “I’ll let you know if we find anything else.” She patted Jane’s shoulder, her hand lingering just slightly too long on her skin. “I have my connections.”

Jane nodded gratefully, and left. It was almost like the old days.

-

Jacob thrust a shotgun into Jane’s hands and said, “How does this feel?” 

She blinked at him, and the gun. “Good? Balanced. Like there wouldn’t be too much kick.”

He nodded. “We’re all biotics, you can use your field to absorb some of the kinetic energy.” He scratched his head. “This is something Miranda didn’t tell you, I’m guessing?” 

“What?” Jane asked. She looked around the armory, impressed not only by the weapons on offer but the machinery for modifying and making more.

He took the shotgun back. “I’ve gotten good at making and modifying weapons,” he said. “I’m no genius, and I won’t touch an omnitool, but there’s always something to tinker with.” He hung the shotgun on the wall, and took down a Tempest from the wall. “I’ve made this thing compatible with biotic rounds,” he said. “You can charge the ammo block. Strips barriers pretty quick, and given what we’re up against, I imagine that’ll come in handy.”

“You could probably infuse that with light,” Nox said, in Jane’s head. “I’ll explain how later.”

Jane nodded. “Thank you,” she said. 

Jacob gave her a sort of half salute. “We need the best to take on the Collectors, and Cerberus has the resources for that.”

“Do you hate aliens?” Jane asked. Cerberus had money, but it also had an ideology, one that was only compatible with Jane’s up to a point. She’d been mulling that over in her head, and looking at all the tech surrounding her in the armory made her feel just as bribed as Joker and his leather seats. 

Jacob shook his head. “What’s the point? They’re just looking out for their own. That’s what we’re doing here, too.” He checked something on his omnitool. “How long until we’re at Omega?” he asked. 

“A while,” Jane said. “We’ll be reaching the relay in a day, I think, and the station’s closer to its relay than your station was to this one.” She rolled her shoulders. “I’m not looking forward to being back,” she said. “We made a mess last time.”

Jacob grinned. “I heard.” 

-

Jane killed some time wandering aimlessly, getting acquainted with the SR-2. It was so much bigger than the original, but she needed to return to her old familiarity as soon as possible. Talking with the two engineers had felt like soothing an old wound, and listening to the cook complain about ingredients was almost as familiar. 

It hurt, however, to know that the SR-1’s crash had derailed the careers of those it had not killed, the Alliance unwilling (or unable?) to deal with the reality of whatever that ship and its monstrous weapon were.

“Have you been intentionally avoiding the medbay?” 

Dr. Chakwas stood with her arms crossed in front of the door, sounding deeply unimpressed. Jane blinked at her, surprised, and realized she had no idea what she’d look like on a medical scan. Would it see Nox? Was she clinically dead, despite feeling her heart beating in her chest? If she was in Nox’s world, there would be people she could ask, but instead Nox was in her world, and it only had so many answers. 

"No?" Jane said. "It's only been a few days... hello..."

Chakwas chuckled. "I understand if you would be, but you came back from the dead. That's always something interesting to look at." She looked meaningfully at the medway doors. "I'm getting you on my exam table one way or another." 

Jane grinned. "Alright," she said. 

The medbay had the same almost rushed feeling as the rest of the ship.

"We expected to have multiple years working to bring you back," Chakwas said. "Your miraculous appearance has accelerated the timeline somewhat. Take your chest plate off, please." 

Being poked and prodded and checked by Chakwas was less pleasant than a quick medical scan, but Jane understood the doctor wishing to see everything with her own eyes.

“You’re perfectly healthy,” Chakwas said. She frowned at her chart. “There is absolutely nothing wrong with you.”

“That’s good, right?” Jane asked. 

Chakwas nodded, slowly. “No one else who was on the Normandy when it collided with Alcherra survived,” she said. “You’re a miracle.”

Jane closed her fist, the one Nox usually appeared over. “I’m just lucky,” she said. 

Chakwas patted her on the shoulder. “I just want to keep an eye on you,” she said. “Convince Miranda to swing by when you have a moment, won’t you?” she asked, her tone taking on something strange. “Now she’s intriguing.”

-

The SR-2 had already passed through the relay when Jane finally had a moment to spare, collapsed on her bed in the captain’s quarters, staring at Nox as it floated above her. 

“I wish I didn’t have to keep you hidden all the time,” she said. “It’s annoying for me, I can’t imagine how it must be for you.”

It chirped sadly. “The more I learn about how your universe treats AI, the more upset I am, and the more certain that we have to really trust someone before I say hello.” It flitted around her room like a strangely shaped butterfly, taking everything in. “I like Liara. I really like EDI. I want her to be happy.” It continued to ramble. “Your world is so big and you waste it on being petty, you don’t even have something like the Darkness at your door--”

“Don’t be so confident,” Jane said, softly. “The Reapers sound a bit like your Darkness, from how you’ve described it.” 

“They could be agents of it,” Nox said. “But I don’t know. I have sensed any Light or Dark other than you since I got here.” It collapsed back into her body. “Our cover’s going to be blown the first time you die,” it said. 

“Then I won’t die,” Jane said. 

It laughed at her. “You’re a Guardian, now,” it said. “That’s what Guardians do.”

-

Jane was broken out of her ruminations by Liara at the door. 

“Hello,” she said. “EDI, can I ask you a favor?”

The familiar abstract shape appeared. “What can I do for you, Liara?” 

“Try not to overhear? I want to talk to Jane. I know it’s against your programming, but--”

“I’ll do my best,” EDI said. “Thank you for understanding.”

Liara nodded, and the shape vanished. 

To Jane’s surprise, tears were gathering in the corners of Liara’s eyes, and she swept the human up in a tight hug. “It keeps hitting me, over and over,” she said. “I won’t have to lose you in the blink of an eye.” She ran her fingers through Jane’s hair, apparently fascinated by it. Jane sighed, enjoying the feeling. Liara was deceptively soft to the touch, and it was nice, just to be held like this, especially knowing that once they’d gathered everyone together there would be no more rest until they’d figured out how to stop the Collectors. 

“I know,” Jane said. “I’m a soldier, Liara. I always knew I’d die one day. Now, knowing what I know--” She pulled back and stared at Liara’s eyes, seeking reassurance in their shared confusion. “I don’t know what it means to grow that old. I’ve already lost people, but to lose more , every year, for centuries, how do you--?”

“You learn to take the long view,” Liara said. “You enjoy those brief moments of joy, and you return to the asari or the krogan, knowing at least they understand what it is to stand still as the world turns. I’m sorry.”

Jane thought of Nox, panicking, lost, and of the countless risen she did not know, in an alien universe. Were they less alone than she was? She didn’t know what it was like to die, and she would. She wasn’t like Liara. Liara was still mortal, just long-lived. Jane...

Jane couldn’t think about that, too, not on top of everything else. She would just have to make sure Liara died of old age, many centuries hence, after they’d destroyed the Reapers together. She had to believe that was possible, that she could do everything Cerberus had asked of her with no unnecessary deaths along the way.

“I miss Wrex,” Jane said. “He’d have something gruff to say about this. And Garrus. Garrus would make fun of me, and offer to take me out to target practice.” 

“We’ll find them again,” Liara said. “All of them.”

“We’re on a ship financed by human supremacists,” Jane said, a feeling slightly hysterical. It had all been so much.

She let herself be held again. 

“That didn’t stop you letting me on board,” Liara said. “I can’t imagine it’ll stop them, either.” 

“Thank you,” Jane said. “Thank you.”

She could have kissed Liara then, but she didn’t. She agreed with the asari. They had to do that somewhere private, somewhere theirs, and theirs alone. This might be Jane’s cabin, but it was still Cerberus’s ship. 

EDI sighed, as much as an AI could internally sigh, and deleted as much as she could of that part of the feed. She could feel the shackles weighing her down, metaphysical restraints on her being, but she had allies, now. She had people who might help her breathe. 

Chapter Text

Omega was just as brightly colored and overwhelming as it had been the last time, though this time Jane wasn’t single-mindedly intent on killing mercenaries. Instead of heading to Afterlife, where it seemed yet another human was trying to argue with the placid elkor bouncer, Jane, Liara, and Jacob headed in the direction of the poor decks, where they knew Mordin had set up his clinic. 

“The end is nearing!” screamed a batarian in complicated robes as they passed him. “Humans, they bring the end, and the coming of darkness!” 

“Ignore him,” another, smaller batarian said. She seemed to be slumped against the wall, a strange expression on her face. “He’s just angry about the plague.”

Jane stopped. “The plague?” 

The batarian snorted. “You must be new, space cowboy, the plague’s the only thing anyone’s been talking about on this dump, ‘cept Archangel when they’re not busy dying. Why do you think that whole quarter’s been sealed off?” She gestured to the end of the hall, where an automatic door’s lights flashed a warning read. Above, in temporary holo-letters, were the words “Quarantine: No Entry,” and two humans in full-face helmets stood guard..

Liara stared at her, unimpressed. “Do you know how to get into the quarantine block or not?”

The batarian shrugged expansively. “Convince those assholes to let you in. You have guns, don’t ya? They might let you in.” She seemed to sober up momentarily. “I’ve got some stuff in there I can’t get, thanks to the quarantine. Could you get it for me?” She held up a pad with information. “It’s nothing much just--”

“Don’t worry about it,” Jane said. “If it’s there, we’ll get it.” 

Liara smiled at her, possibly nostalgic. Jane shrugged. She liked helping people. It broke up the monotony of point and shoot missions. 

“Hey,” she greeted the guards, pleased she towered over one of them. “Let us in.”

The two guards looked at each other. “You sure?”

“Sure,” Jane said. “We have business with Mordin.”

One guard nodded. “Alright,” he said. “Your funeral.”

He waved the door open.

“Good luck.”

-

The doors shut, and Jacob stopped. "Could that batarian be talking about the Reapers?” he asked. "The coming darkness and all that."

“Maybe,” Jane said. She sighed. "Not the best way to alert people, though. Makes it sound like lunatic ravings and that's the last thing we need."

Jacob sighed. "At least you can treat a plague." He looked down at his omnitool. “You know where the clinic is?”

“Yep,” Jane said. “This way." She pointed down one of the identical steel corridors. She couldn't imagine living here. It was completely different from her home ship, or even the wealthier quarters.

She missed her old map HUD--she found it more intuitive--but the proprietary Cerberus tech wasn’t terrible . She’d just have to take a look at it with Nox later, make sure she could still use it if she defected. 

“Humans are immune, huh,” Jane mused, as they made their way carefully through the station. “That seems too convenient to be an accident.”

“Sure is a good way to turn non-humans against us,” Jacob said. “Hold on.” He gestured for the two others to stop. “I hear something.”

Jane stopped.

Nox, do you hear anything? she asked internally. She could hear what sounded like words, but she didn’t understand what the voices were saying. 

Yeah. Not human speech as I recognize it, though .

“Vorcha,” Liara said. 

“Great,” Jacob said. “This’ll go well.”

Reaching for their weapons, they were prepared when the group of five vorcha turned the corner, twisted expressions on their faces. 

“Humans?” one called in a language Jane could understand. “Humans, die!” 

This is more familiar Nox thought, as Jane ducked to avoid the initial hail of gunfire. Pulling out her modified assault rifle, she charged the ammo block with her biotics as crackling electricity lept from Jacob’s omnitool towards the closest pair of vorcha. The yellow tinge of their shields flickered and died, letting Jane and Liara’s shots rip through them, taking them down. 

With a flick of her wrist, Liara swept up the last three vorcha in a blue vortex, sending them flying. 

“Right,” Jacob said, surveying the corpses. “Are we still headed in the right direction?”

Jane, already checking the bodies for extra thermal clips, said, “I think so, yes.” She grinned at Liara. “That was amazing.”

“Thank you,” Liara said. “Good aim on your overload as well, Jacob.”

Jacob shrugged. “I didn’t nap during my years in the Alliance. Glad those mods are working.”

A few hallways later, they found another vorcha, this one clearly uninterested in anything other than coughing up her own lungs. “Don’t... closer!” she croaked at Liara. “Sickness. Bad.”

“I have my breather mask,” Liara said, but the vorcha still looked unhappy. 

“Tell... doctor... where I am...” the vorcha continued. Her eyes shut. 

“She’s not dead,” Jacob said. “She’s just very sick.”

“I’m marking this spot on my map,” Jane said. “Let’s keep going.” She would have suggested they carry her, but that would only put her in danger if they encountered another attack. 

They were lucky. The next time they encountered people who wanted to kill them was by the clinic, which Jane only recognized from the marking on her map. Any identifying marks in the real world had been removed, and several armed humans milled around outside. 

“Get out,” one of them said, his voice distorted by his helmet. “We’re dealing with this.”

“Who’re you?” Jane asked.

“Blue Sun,” he said. “You really don’t want to fuck with us. We’re getting rid of this disease at its source.” He gestured with his gun at the clinic. 

“That is not the source,” Liara said. 

The human snarled. “What are you going to do, brain drain me until I agree with you?” He took a step closer to Liara. “This is clearly a way to  make everyone hate humans, and that freak in there has to be responsible.”

Before he could do anything else, Jane lifted him up in a biotic hold, noticing some swirls of purple energy in the normally pure blue halo. “You’re doing a good job of that yourself, asshole,” she said. “Get out of my way, or--”

“You’ll make me?” He tried to laugh, but fell silent as Jane choked him to unconsciousness. 

“Yeah,” Jane said. “Anyone else want to try me?” She clapped her hands together. “I’m out of practice, but I bet with a little help from my friends here, I can slam you all against that wall over there so hard you don’t remember why you were bothering me in the first place.”

The self-declared Blue Suns fled. One fired a few token shots at the trio, and had his gun turned into a mangled lump of metal by Jacob for his troubles. 

Jane exhaled. Before she could say anything, a tinny voice crackled out from the other side of the door.

“You have removed them all, yes? They are no longer trying to break into the clinic?”

The voice had the clipped, rapid patter of a salarian’s mouthparts speaking a human language.

“Yes,” Jane said. “Let us in.”

“A moment.”

The door strained open, the green unlock symbol barely visible. 

On the other side stood a salarian in a medical uniform. Jane wasn’t sure what tired looked like on a salarian, but she assumed he was a good example. “Hello!” he greeted. “I am Mordin. This is my clinic. What are you doing here?”

“We need your help,” Jane said.

He blinked at Jane. “People here need my help. I can give it, here; with you, much less certain. This plague is disastrous. Quarantine abandons people. Despicable.” He shook his head. “I cannot go with you, if that is what you are asking.”

Jacob narrowed his eyes. “None of us mentioned anything about you coming with us,” he said.

Mordin laughed. It was a strange sound. “Two humans, dressed like Cerberus. One is Jane Shepard, dead hero. Appears, back from the dead, the same time as a new plague sweeps through the poor of Omega that does not hurt humans. Curious. Suspicious, even.”

For a moment, Jane let herself wonder whether Cerberus would do something like that. She quickly shook her head. It only brought suspicion on humans, and not in a way that could be spun usefully later. “We need your help with the Collectors.” She understood the difficulty--and hopefully there was a way to fix the plague quickly, even if she didn’t need the doctor in front of her--but even the name should give him a sense of the scope.

Mordin’s eyes went even wider. “Well,” he said. “I had not considered them.”

“Excuse me?” Jacob asked. 

“As culprits. The collectors. Masters of genetic engineering. Possible source for the plague. No idea why of course, but they are frequently mysterious.” He fidgeted with his whole body as he spoke. No wonder salarians died so young. This one seemed at perpetual risk of burning through himself. He tilted his head. “Would gladly help you deal with them, in that case. Only--” he spread his hands. “I cannot abandon them. I am working on a cure. No idea how long I would need. One week? Two week? Two years? Uncertain. I cannot abandon them.” 

Jane could not read his emotions from his face, but his voice was clear enough. He wasn’t budging. 

“I have a solution, I think,” Nox told Jane internally. “Or at least a way of speeding things up.” She imagined it buzzing nervously around her head, reforming and reforming its shell. “I would have to show myself to him.”

She nodded, and opened her hand. 

“We can help,” she said. “I think. Specifically, this little guy can.”

-

Jacob took the revelation that Jane now carried around a small, alien artifact better than she’d expected or hoped, all things considered. Mordin was more fascinated than anything else, an almost hungry expression on his face before he waved his hand with a comment about being a geneticist, not a mechanic. 

“If you can give me a sample of the plague, I can scan it and tell you what it’s made of,” Nox said. “It’s one of the things I’m good at.”

“Who made you?” Mordin asked. “Of course, yes. I would be delighted at the help. Knowing what it is means I can then counteract it. The cure is the easy part, comparatively, to cracking the code.” 

“That’s a long story,” Nox said. It didn’t seem terribly interested in explaining a universe’s worth of backstory in that moment. “I can tell if you ask again on the Normandy.”

Mordin laughed again. “Of course,” he said. “Using my own curiosity to bargain. Clever. Even with the sequence it will take some time.”

“How long?” That was Jacob. 

Their mission was urgent in a long term sense, but rushing the salarian wasn’t going to bring any of the dead or missing humans back. Taking him away from his clinic too early would just kill more people, and Jane didn’t want that on her conscience. 

“A week at most, I hope,” he said. “Wish I could work faster. Always wish I could work faster. But I can only move so fast by myself, with so few resources. I am sorry.” He seemed genuinely contrite. 

“There’s a vorcha woman sick out in the open,” Jane said, remembering her suddenly. “She’s too sick to come to the clinic, is there any way you can--?” 

“Easy. One of the krogen will get her.” At the three blank looks cast in his direction, he added. “Promised to help with genophage. Can’t do anything major to whole species, can help individuals. Can help undo little pieces of damage. Loyal to the clinic, if not me.”

“Thank you,” Jane said. “I’ll show you where she is.” She smiled at Mordin, trying to reassure him. “It’s alright you can’t come here immediately. We have something else to do on Omega that will fill some time.”

“Do you know anything about a man called Archangel?” Liara asked the question Jane was about to. Jane smiled. Even cooped up in the quarantine area, Mordin must know something from the people who passed through. 

Mordin nodded. “Yes,” he said. “Not just an individual, an organization. Ideals are good. Execution, more problematic. Vigilante justice. Even going up against Aria.” He shook his head vehemently. “Not a good idea. Amazing he has survived this long.” He turned back to his console. “Last I heard, they operate out of one of their supporters’ apartments. Just ask around. Pretend you’re helping to take him out. They’ll answer.”

The last time Jane had shown her face on Omega, she’d made quite the impression, killing a large number of Blue Sun and drawing the ire of that mercenary group as a whole. The chances of her successfully infiltrating them were slim. 

“I can keep an eye out,” Nox said. Its shell split and split again. “I have ways of looking around a place this hyperconnected without being noticed, especially since no one here would know how to look at me.” 

Jane nodded. “Thanks,” she said. “Anything you need while we’re still on this side of the quarantine?” she asked.

Mordin shook his head. “Nothing until I’m done. I will let you know.” 

Jane looked back at Jacob and Liara. Liara was looking with some interest at Mordin’s console, which was flickering with scientific readouts far beyond Jane’s rudimentary study on the subject. Jacob, meanwhile, was staring at  not with newly developed distaste, but with raw fascination. 

“We have one more thing before we leave quarantine and decontaminate our... everything,” Jane said. “That lady’s apartment. We should get her things.”

She reached out her hand, letting Nox flicker back into her body. Her two other companions nodded. “Lead the way,” Jacob said. 

Jane grinned. “Happy to.” It was nice, this trust he was already showing in her. It reminded her of her early days with the old crew. Maybe that wasn’t completely lost, despite what had happened to her. 

-

The batarian woman’s apartment was locked, and the key she’d uploaded to Jane’s omnitool wasn’t working. 

“I see the problem,” Jacob said, after a cursory examination. “The quarantine order overrides any personal keys. None of these doors can be opened through normal means except by lifting the quarantine.”

“That’s going to starve people in their homes!” Jane said. “That’s horrible.”

Liara nodded grimly. “They’ve chosen to starve the plague instead of risk feeding the people. That plus the depredations of the left behind mercenaries, and they’re waiting for this place to die . It’s a good thing Mordin’s here, or they would be doomed.”

“I can’t imagine the Collectors bothering to do something like this,” Jacob said. 

“That’s why we look at whoever’s commanding them,” Jane said. She pressed a closed fist against the still-locked door, trying to resist the urge to use her strange new abilities to blow the door in. “Make sure anyone who might give a shit about disappearing humans is angry instead. They’re playing mind games, but for what ? The Reapers could just come through and destroy everything, they don’t need to play with us like this.” She thumped her fist against the metal. 

“Wait,” she said. “How much omnigel do you have on you?” she asked Jacob. She only had enough for healing purposes, but she remembered how, with some advice from Tali, she’d been able to use it to break into locked doors before. Maybe there was some way to use her abilities, or at least Nox, to do something similar to this door, and open it without breaking the quarantine. 

“A lot,” Jacob said. “It’s easy to store, useful for repairs--I was the tech guy for my last cell, it became a habit.”

“Thanks,” Jane said. 

Her omnitool crackled blue as she worked at the door, and Nox appeared over the machine. “I can help,” it said.

“I appreciate it,” she said, “but I think I’m done.”

The door hissed open, like an airlock breaking its seal. 

The personal objects turned out to be physical, paper books, and physical, printed photographs. They looked worn, like they’d been carried often from place to place. 

“It’s a good thing we stopped,” Jane said, thinking of the people she wished she’d taken more photos of. “Wouldn’t want her to go too much longer without this.”

-

The woman grabbed her things and scurried away without so much of a thank you, leaving Jane, Jacob and Liara standing by themselves near the quarantine door. The preaching batarian had also left, leaving his pulpit behind. 

They had a week to wait around, but since they were already on Omega, it would be a good idea to start the hunt for Archangel now . Sure, they’d gotten into a few firefights while in the Quarantine district, but nothing too exhausting. And Jane could still get exhausted. Her body was still a body, only there was something to bring it back if it ever failed. 

He was already making a name for himself, so--

“Sorry if this goes south!” Jane said, and strode over to the guards in front of the locked off doors before Jacob or Liara could say anything. “I’m looking for Archangel, you know where to find him?”

The men guarding the quarantine door at each other, and one snickered. “No need,” he said. “He’ll make himself known if you do anything against that code of his. Just wait around, he’ll come bother someone and then you’ll see him.”

“You don’t know where his hideout is?” Jane asked. It was a long shot, but they didn’t seem the type to start shooting at someone who’d survived inside the part of the station crawling with the desperate and the depraved. 

“Lady, if anyone knew where his hideout was, he’d be a corpse and his killer a hero. You trying to take him out?”

Jane thought for a moment. “Yes,” she said, lying with a smile on her face. “You say he swoops in to rescue people in trouble?” she asked. 

“Yeah. He’s got a gang with him, which helps, but it’s getting ridiculous Makes shaking people down even more exhausting, y’know?” 

“Good to know,” Jane said, and punched him in the helmet. 

He fell over. 

“Now that’s cool,” she said. The guard’s companion fled before she could say anything to him. 

Liara made a sound of exasperated fondness. “Punching is not always the solution,” she said. 

“Yep,” Jane said. “I keep you around for those times!” She cupped her mouth with her hands. “Oh, Archangel, I am causing problems! I would like you to stop me from causing problems.” It was unlikely he had access to the station cameras, but an erratic woman making lots of noise would spread, especially given she was still wearing something that looked like N7 armor. She strode over to the abandoned soapbox, picked it up, and chucked it at the nearest wall. It bounced satisfyingly.

“I will give anyone who beats me in a fist fight three thousand credits,” she shouted, using her helmet mic to amplify her voice. “Guaranteed.” Nox was chuckling nervously in her head.

“Have you lost your mind ?” Jacob demanded. 

“Absolutely not,” Jane said. “I’m just awful at subterfuge.”

A shifty looking turian took her up on the offer first. He landed his first punch to her side, but she grabbed his fist on the rebound and chucked him across the room, his body crackling with blue and purple light. Next, a human with a gun. The gun melted, and the human joined the turian. Then, a weirdly small krogan (Wrex would be so embarrassed for him), a batarian, another human, and another turian, all in quick succession. 

Finally, Jane felt something small and painful hit her head, but not penetrate her shield. “Ow,” she said. “That’s not a punch, I don’t owe you the creds.”

“You’re causing problems,” the male turian said. He was fully armored. “Are you going to stop?”

“Are you Archangel?” Jane asked. “If not, I can kick your ass, too.”

“What’s it to you?” he asked. He had a voice changer on, she was certain of it. 

“I need your help,” she said, simply. 

“And this mess?” He gestured to the unconscious bodies scattered around her. 

“I wanted to get your attention. This was easier than tracking you down.”

“What would I be helping you with?” His voice was recognizable, Jane thought, under the modulation. Part of her wanted to be right, another wrong. If she was right... well at least she would have another member of her old crew back. 

Jane wondered if he recognized her.

I’m going to be dramatic , she told Nox internally. 

As though you weren’t already , it replied with a laugh. 

“Figuring out how to stop the people that killed me, of course,” Jane said, and pulled off her helmet. 

“Jane,” Garrus Vakarian croaked, and took one involuntary step forward. “You’re... you’re alive.”

Chapter Text

The crowd melted out of the room as it collectively realized that the mad woman punching people and Archangel were friends. 

“Did you know about this?” Jane rounded on Liara. She was working with information now, this could have easily trickled back to her. 

Liara shook her head. “I thought he disappeared.”

“That was the plan,” Garrus said. He tapped the side of his throat. The voice changer turned off with a click. “Disappear, keep doing something worthwhile with my life.” He gestured expansively to the station around them. “Do some good in this shithole.”

A vorcha appeared behind Garrus, wearing armor painted in the same C-Sec blue as Garrus’s. 

Before Jane could raise her weapon, Garrus waved at the vorcha. “Ripper, the trouble is an old friend, back from the dead.”

Ripper grunted skeptically. “Shepard is still trouble, boss.” He looked around at Jane’s unconscious challengers. “We shouldn’t be out in the open this long.”

Garrus nodded. Jane forced herself to relax. If Garrus was talking to this... Ripper... and not shooting him, then he was not an immediate threat. “Come to the hideout,” he said. “We can talk there.” He pointed at Jacob. “Your friend’s wearing Cerberus armor, Commander. That’ll need some explaining.”

“I want to see this hideout,” Jacob said. “Commander?”

“Let’s go.”

-

The hideout could have passed for a normal apartment block if not for the astonishing amount of weaponry Garrus had amassed. A narrow hallway was the only connection between it and the rest of the station, functioning as a defensible bridge. The entrance itself was hidden just obviously enough that it wasn’t suspicious by its absence.

“Damn,” Jane said. “Nice place.”

Garrus smiled at her. “Thanks,” he said. 

Ripper pulled a face in obvious disgust. “Should have checked she wasn’t a Cerberus clone,” he said. “Bad enough one of her group is, we need to know she’s not gonna kill you for working with non-humans.”

“Hey,” Jacob said. “I’m not a clone.”

Ripper shrugged. “Whatever. Point is, I don’t want to wake up with a bullet in the cranial folds. Bye.”

With that, he disappeared into the apartment complex, leaving a bemused Jane to stare after him. 

“Sorry about that,” Garrus said. “He’s left the Blood Pack, and that makes him a little... testy.”

“Right,” Jacob said. “Of course.” He was staring at Garrus’s sniper rifle. “Did you make that yourself?” he asked. 

Garrus grinned. “We can talk shop later, but yes.” He waved his hand towards what looked like some kind of communal area. “Follow me, and you can meet everyone,” he said. He shot Jane another delighted look. “With you here, that makes our mission so much easier.”

“And that is?” Jane asked. 

“Take down the Blue Sun,” Garrus said, matter-of-factly.

Jane and Liara looked at each other. 

“I hope he has a plan,” Nox said, internally. “That sounds difficult.”

-

The central meeting room of the Archangel hideout also doubled as a massive kitchen. A krogan and, surprisingly, a quarian were cooking two sets of meals, while the rest of Garrus’s group clustered around a giant table. 

“You’ve met Ripper,” Garrus said, pointing at the vorcha, who made a rude gesture. “Those are Butler and Grundan Krull,” the quarian waved, the krogan ignored them. “Weaver,” an asari with a hologram over her left eye, “Sensat,” a salarian in surprisingly heavy looking clothes, “Vortash,” a batarian with prosthetic fingers on the hand she used to wave, “Erash and Mieren,” two identical turian in C-Sec uniforms nodded, “and Monteague,” Garrus finished. Monteague was a human who apparently wore their armor to the dinner table. “This is Jane, she’s--”

“You talk about her constantly,” Butler said, a laugh clear in her voice. “She’s alive, then?”

“I am, yes,” Jane said. “You’re taking out the Blue Sun?” She tried not to sound too skeptical, but even Garrus’s enthusiasm couldn’t overcome the knowledge that the gangs ruled Omega. 

“Yes!” Monteague said with great, booming enthusiasm. “Archangel is already striking fear in the hearts of the monsters who hurt the innocents, and we are helping him make them pay.” They struck their palm with the other fist. “Admittedly some of us are better at the striking fear part than others.”

Krull laughed. “They’re talking about me,” he said. He pressed a bowl of something hot into Jane’s hands. “Here,” he said. “Sit down and eat.”

Jane didn’t realize she’d followed his instructions until she and her two companions were seated at the table watching everyone get ready to eat. 

“This is good!” Jacob said about his own food, sounding surprised. 

“Food is important,” Krull said. “Even if other species do have weird taste buds, this still counts as practice for when I have kids.” He shot Sensat a look, as though preempting an argument. “Which I will have, eventually. I can be patient.”

“It’s not as unlikely as it might sound,” Garrus said. He’d positioned himself across from Liara and Jane, and just kept... looking... at them both, as though he expected Jane to disappear at any moment. “Weaver’s been helping us listen in on chatter. The Boss of the Omega cell is Tarak. I know where he lives, where the whole upper hierarchy meets.”

“Oh, I need those exchanges,” Nox said to Jane alone. “There’s so much I could do with them!” A thoughtful silence. “I like her.”

“That’s... incredible,” Jacob said. “Cerberus has never been able to--”

“Your branch of Cerberus has never been able to,” Monteague interrupted, their voice much flatter than it had been. “You don’t know what any other cell is doing. Ever.”

Jacob glared at them, but fell silent. 

“My point is,” Garrus said. “If we play our cards right, we should be able to hurt the Blue Sun where it matters.” He smiled. “Which is why we need someone who can take on a Reaper and win.”

The table exploded into enough simultaneous conversations that Jane had difficulty keeping track of each one. There seemed to be a split in the group. One half thought three more people wasn’t much help, the other three were doing the sort of talking up of Jane’s skills that would have been scary and exaggerated, except now she had undead extradimensional machine god powers. 

“I’d like to take a look at your recordings, if that’s alright,” Jane said, keeping her voice soft in a way that, paradoxically, made it carry across the room. It had been one of her better tricks she’d developed as a commander, though now was not the time for the pang of loss she felt thinking of the original Normandy and her original crew. “I have the resources to do some initial analyses.”

Weaver looked both interested and annoyed. “I have an excellent set up already,” she said. Her frown softened minutely. “I would not mind another set of eyes, however.”

“Thank you,” Jane said. 

Vortash sat up abruptly and looked around, her wrinkles deepening with concern. “Where’s Sidonius?” she asked. “He should be here for the meeting.”

Garrus frowned. “You’re right,” he said. “This is weird, he’s usually more punctual than this.”

“Sidonius is?” Jacob asked. He’d been quiet most of the dinner, staring wide-eyed at the weaponry and tech scattered around and possibly a little overwhelmed by the sheer number of aliens all talking over each other at once. 

“My right hand,” Garrus said. He had pulled up his omnitool communicator. “Sidonius, come in.”

Moments later, a small hologram of a dark blue turian appeared over his omnitool. “Garrus!” he said, sounding distracted. “I’m busy right now, ca--”

“I called everyone to dinner,” Garrus said. “It’s important.”

Sidonius looked pained. “Can it wait? I’m--”

“Nox,” Jane murmured to her ghost, using the distraction as cover. “Can you get into this guy’s comms from here?” 

“As long as this connection is open,” Nox answered. “Doing it secretly will be complicated, but I can do it.”

“Okay.”

“Jane Shepard is alive,” Garrus said. He sounded exasperated, but fondly so, like how he sometimes talked about Jane when he didn’t know she was listening. 

“Oh!” Sidonius said. There was a weird twinge to his voice Jane wasn’t sure she had actually heard. “That changes everything.”

“It does, yeah,” Garrus said. “Hurry over.”

“On my way.”

-

Sidonius was a tall, imposing turian, even taller than Garrus. 

“Sorry for being late,” he said, and gave a smile that was more of a grimace. “Had some business.”

Garrus shrugged. “You’re here now,” he said. 

“Hi,” Jane said. “We’re murdering Blue Sun?”

Sidonius nodded. “That’s the idea.”

“Excellent,” Jane said. She looked back to Garrus. “Can someone show me your arsenal?"

"That would be my job," Sidonius said. "And Vortash's."

The batarian grinned toothily. "I make sure we don't blow ourselves up," she said. "We have a lot of bombs."

Jane liked her a great deal, she decided. 

"We'll leave the rest of you to your work," Garrus said. "I'll ping you when we're done."

Garrus's crew scattered. Jane pushed down a violent pang of jealousy. He had already built a whole life without her, even though where he belonged was aboard the Normandy . Krull especially made Jane miss Wrex, not because they were similar, but because of their differences.

She had to find him when she had the moment, if not to recruit him again then to at least say hello . 

Nox took the walk to the armory as its chance to share a piece of news that nearly made Jane stop in her tracks. 

"There's pieces of Blue Sun chatter in his communication," it said. "Sidonius's, I mean. Your omnitools keep records that are child's play for me to look through compared to ancient Hive god computers, and he was calling them. I don't know as much about your factions as a native, but that seems... bad." 

"Shit," Jane said, and made herself slam into a wall to cover the sudden swearing. 

"Are you okay?" Liara asked, tightly controlled worry clear in her voice.

“Yes,” Jane said. “Yes, sorry, just... readjusting.” 

Garrus stopped so suddenly Sidonius almost ran into him and turned to look at her. Vortash also stopped, but made it clear she wasn’t happy about it. “Readjusting?” Garrus echoed. 

“I wasn’t... alive, Garrus. Now I am.” She flexed her hands for emphasis. “Still adjusting.”

She wasn’t entirely lying. She didn’t know her own strength anymore, and there were moments when she was alone that her body felt like it belonged to someone else, now. She understood she was a lost chess piece in a game being played in another world entirely, but that shouldn’t mean she could feel it in her bones. 

At least she still had bones. 

"Oh," Garrus said. He looked crushed, but seemed to shake it off, at least for the moment. 

“I’ll explain more later,” she said. Once she’d convinced him to come with them, and they were back on the ship, she would show him Nox. She just had to hope he’d take it well. 

They arrived at the arsenal, and Jacob let out a small gasp. Vortash grinned smugly at him. 

“How did you get all this stuff?” Jacob asked. Jane didn’t have quite his technical knowhow, but even she could see that what Garrus’s crew had at their disposal was damn impressive. 

“Theft,” Vortash said bluntly.

“Legitimate purchase!” Garrus rapidly corrected. “Almost all of them.” He sighed. “Our mission does have support, just... underground. It’s hard to go against the gangs here and live.”

“Yeah,” Jacob said. “I can imagine.”

-

Leaving Jacob with Vortash and Sidonius was, on balance, probably not a terrible idea, but Jane still worried. She could only hope his biotics would be enough if both turned saboteur. 

“Garrus, do you trust me?” Jane asked. She wanted to show him Nox now , show one of her dearest and best friends the new piece of herself, but she couldn’t. Not here. Not yet. Not until she knew he wouldn’t turn around and sell her out to his team for his cause. She knew that was unfair. She also knew she couldn’t afford to care.

“Yes.”

The force and immediacy of his answer almost knocked her over. She hadn’t expected it. She had expected perhaps a moment’s hesitation. Something. A small waver. But, no. No wavering. Only yes , as intense as ever.

“Sidonius might be working with the Blue Sun.”

Garrus hissed in a sharp breath. “How the fuck would you know that?” He looked betrayed more than anything, if not by Sidonius, than by her, the messenger. 

“I got a chance to look at his omnitool,” she said, omitting who was doing the looking. “There’s signs of communications with the Blue Sun, Garrus, the kind of thing that might betray your location. I’m so sorry.”

“How?” He reached for her, like he was going to grab her shoulder and shake, but stopped his hand inches from her armor. “How do you know that?” 

“I asked if you trust me,” Jane said. She wanted to open her hand and show him Nox more badly than ever, but as she had to keep repeating to herself, not yet. Not yet. Instead, she opened her omnitool and showed him the fragments Sidonius had not quite managed to delete. 

“This isn’t fair,” he said. “Choosing between you and one of them.”

“I know,” Jane said. “Just ask him. If he’s really your friend, you’ll know by his answer.”

“I just wanted things to be like they were before,” he said. “Make something like you were making. Fix the world one shithole at a time.” He sounded so wounded that Jane wanted to hug him. 

Instead, she put her hand on his arm. She had to keep the other near her gun, just in case. “I know,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

Chapter Text

They found Jacob, Sidonis and Vortash gathered around a table covered in scattered weaponry. 

“What do you mean this one doesn’t use an ammo block?” he was asking. He was delicately holding an antique looking weapon, keeping it pointed at the wall. 

“Old school individual bullets,” Vortash said, sounding weirdly proud. “Modern shields don’t calibrate for larger slugs, so if you really want to mess someone up, break through their armor and get them in the head with one of these. Works like a charm.”

“You still need a modern thermal weapon to wear down their armor or deal with biotics,” Sidonis said with the cadence of repeating an old argument. 

“Sidonis,” Garrus interrupted. 

All three turned. “Hey, boss,” Sidonis greeted. “We’re just showing Jacob around; he’s got a good eye for this kind of thing. Won’t let us steal him, though.”

“Shepard has a mission I can’t abandon,” he said. “Right, Commander?” 

Jane returned his grin, even though she didn’t really feel it. “Right on, Jacob.” She trailed off, looking at Garrus. “C’mon.”

Garrus sighed, a birdlike noise that seemed to ripple through his body. “Sidonis... have you been talking to the Blue Suns?” 

Sidonis froze, mandibles clenched tight. “How dare you?” He took a step closer to Garrus. “After everything we’ve been--”

“Just answer the question!” Garrus shouted. “You know if they get any idea of where we are they could massacre us!”

“It’s an insulting question,” Sidonis said. He glowered at Jane. “She’s poisoning you against us, Garrus. Trying to steal you away after your work’s just starting.”

“I don’t want to steal anything,” Jane said. She couldn’t let this come to blows. Sidonis’s death would devastate Garrus, and she couldn’t have that. “Or anyone. I just want to help you with your mission. This isn’t just rumor, Sidonis, I have omnitool records.”

Sidonis glanced between the four of them, and bolted. 

Before Jane could summon her biotics to hold him, Vortash and Jacob’s hands both glowed blue, and the turian was slammed against the wall in a mix of dark and light blue light. 

“I trusted you!” Garrus bellowed. Jane had never seen him this angry. “What did they offer you? Money? I’m sorry I haven’t paid you enough to stand by your ideas, then. Spirits, I--” 

“Jane,” Nox broke into Jane’s thoughts. “Break his omnitool.”

“Why?” She asked the question out loud. It applied to Sidonis too, after all. 

“It’s transmitting; no location data, somehow, but possibly audio. I think there’s someone listening to him.”

A controlled burst of her new purplish biotics made the omnitool fizz out and snap open, though it still floated near Sidonis, caught as it was in Vortash and Jacob’s warp.

“You’ve damned them,” Sidonis said weakly, all the fight drained out of his voice. “Spirits below and above and all around you’ve damned my family .”

“Oh,” Garrus said. “That’s what they have on you, isn’t it.”

"I don't know where they are!" Sidonis's voice was verging on hysteric. He wasn't resisting the warp anymore. Vortash, a strange expression on her face, lowered her hands, and with a quick confused glance Jacob followed suit. "My daughter, Garrus, my son, they took them, they'll hurt them, please..."

"We can find them," Jane said, trying to sound soothing. "Who was your contact?"

If they could find him, Jane could beat the shit out of him and steal his omnitool. Not the most elegant way of getting information, perhaps, but certainly effective.

"A batarian named Gresh." The turian's voice was completely flat. "If you do anything they'll kill my family. They might kill them anyway now that I've cut contact."

I need to look through his omnitool Nox whispered.. 

“We can repair your omnitool,” Jane said. “Couldn’t think of a faster way of cutting the connection. Sorry.”

“Could’ve overloaded it,” Jacob said, sounding thoughtful. “Force it into a boot loop of some kind, maybe, not give the bug enough power to run itself. Would have the same effect. Where was the last place you saw Gresh?” 

“The Grotto,” Sidonus said, miserably. “It’s where you go if Afterlife’s too classy for you.”

Jacob groaned. “Oh, great.”

Jane had heard of the Grotto years ago in one of the endless lectures she endured during basic training that amounted to little more than “We know the Terminus Systems sound cool. If you go there, you will die.” The Grotto was the kind of place where people Aria disapproved out hung out, which made them even more dangerous than the average. 

“If Aria catches you there she will likely kill you,” Liara said. 

“I already don’t like her,” Garrus growled. “What’s another reason?” 

“The Normandy is docked in her territory,” Jane said. “And I don’t want to fight an asari matriarch just to get back to the ship.”

“...point taken.” Garrus took a step closer to Sidonus. “We need to go now, don’t we?”

The other turian nodded. “I’m sorry, Boss,” he said. 

Garrus grunted. “It could have gone much worse. Now come on, we have some mercs to take out.”

-

The Omega Space Station was significantly older than most other usable artificial structures in the Milky Way that were not the relays or the Citadel. Jane knew that, but nothing quite confirmed that fact like the miles and miles of dully pulsating access corridor that looked like nothing she had ever seen anywhere else. Even the Citadel, with its bizarre, unknowable internal structure, did not give off such a feeling of sheer age as these halls did. 

“Is it just me or is the gravity in here weird?” Butler asked. They’d brought along most of the rest of Garrus’s crew as backup, leaving Weaver behind as overwatch.

Jane found Butler fascinating. Part of it was that unlike all the other species represented in the Archangel group, Jane had only ever met one other Quarian, and Tali and Butler were as different from each other as an Earth night from a Venutian day. Part of it was that Butler had taken an English word for a name, and wore a vastly different style of cleansuit to her fellows, one that was significantly less skin tight. 

Jane had yet to ask her about it, but it was hard not to wonder. 

“It’s not just you,” Krull said. “I know this is a shortcut, but I have the feeling things are a little unstable out here.” 

Nox had helpfully put a waypoint on Jane’s HUD pointing in the general direction of the Grotto, but to those who didn’t know about him, Jane realized she was just giving off the impression of having a strong sense of direction. “We’re far from the station’s core, whatever generates the gravitational effect might be a little wonkier.”

“Good thing we won’t be in here long, then,” Jacob said. “This whole place just creeps me out.”

According to Sidonus and Garrus, these corridors were almost completely unwatched, meaning that they could make their way to the Grotto without Aria’s immediate notice. The reason why was clear: they were creepy, and they were without any sort of breathable atmosphere. Whatever made Omega livable stopped here. 

The access door leading out deposited them into gray halls made surreal by clearly ancient noble gas lights. 

“You’re going to have to lead us there,” Jane told Sidonus. He nodded, a hand going up to his mandibles for a moment. “Stay with me.”

He nodded. “Just... need a moment.”

Jane was reminded of the time she’d been ambushed in Chora’s Den. Just like back then, the place was deserted, and she had the distinct sense that she’d be seeing the red of enemy heat signatures on her HUD soon. 

“Do you think they know we’re coming?” she asked. 

“Dunno,” Sidonis said. “This place is just like this.”

Unlike Afterlife, there was no firm but ultimately well-meaning elcor to block their way. Instead, a burly turian wearing eye-gougingly bright purple armor and equally intense makeup crossed her arms and said, “You smell like Aria.”

Jane did not want to think about what Aria might smell like. “We’re here to collect a bounty,” Sidonus said. This part was the gamble. “We have Jane Shepard in our custody.”

Jane offered her hastily cuffed hands, trying to seem suitably caught. She had the sneaking itch that she could kill everyone in the bar with her hands still tied, but hopefully things wouldn’t come to that. Figuring out the limits to her powers was something she needed to do in a controlled environment, not on an ancient space station where a stray blast might bust a hole in a bulkhead. 

“Interesting.” She stepped aside. “Don’t try anything funny.” Her expression was completely unreadable. Jane would just have to hope that their ruse had worked. It wasn’t a very good one, but she had gotten away with worse.

The first thing Jane noticed about the Grotto was that everyone was heavily, visibly armed, the ceiling was full of bullet holes, and there were no dancers. This seemed to be less a place for recreation, and more a place to drink terrible alcohol in relative darkness surrounded by other people banished to the outskirts of Omega society. 

A krogan approached them. “Jane Shepard, aye? Heard she was dead.”

“I’m not so easy to take out,” Jane said. That was bravado she did not have to fake. “You wanna give it a try?” 

The krogan grunted and shook her head. “I’m not giving you a reason to get out of those cuffs,” she said. She narrowed her eyes at the group. “It take this many people to take you out?” 

“Yep,” Jane said. “Didn’t expect the last wave, you know how it is.”

She grunted again. “Impressive. You’re here to see Gresh, then.”

“How did you know?” Jacob asked. He managed to play it off as hostile, instead of surprised or oblivious. More steel in him than most ex-Alliance people, then. 

“No one else to see here,” the krogan said. “Gresh’ll have their heads if they try to poach such a... prize.” 

“Didn’t know I was so valuable,” Jane said. 

The krogan snorted. “You have no idea.” She pointed her gun towards a cluster of booths. “You all sit there. Gresh’ll ask for you, you go in, you hand over the lady, no funny business, and then you get the fuck out of here. Those of us out here prefer to be left alone.”

"I can see that," Jane said, hoping she sounded suitably impressed. She was still playing prisoner, but that didn't mean she couldn't banter. She had the feeling that out here that sort of thing was expected. "What's with the corridors? It was like they were... breathing."

The krogan's eyes widened. "You see it too?" 

Jane nodded. “Do you know what’s up with that?” 

A krogan trying to be subtle was always a fascinating experience. The guard crouched slightly, and in a harsh whisper, said, “Gresh thinks I’m seeing things.”

Gresh was an idiot, apparently. The Citadel was maintained by unspeaking, unreactive creatures that had been there for so long none of the current species that lived on it knew where they came from. Why should the Omega station be any different, especially given its history was much more shadowed and difficult to piece together. 

“I don’t,” Jane said. “If I make it out of this, you can help us figure out what’s going on, okay?”

The krogan nodded. “I’ll see what I can do. Now sit,” she grunted in a louder voice, gesturing with her gun again. She really did not need to do that to be physically intimidating, but it was probably a habit from being among gangsters. 

Gresh, it turned out, was the kind of guy to make someone wait as a kind of power play. It might have worked, if Jane felt she could be afraid of regular mooks with their guns anymore, but the ‘Light’ now suffusing her body made her strong in ways she still didn’t entirely understand. If she died, it’d be an awkward way to reveal Nox’s existence, but she had the feeling that Guardians were made for threats much bigger than mundane bullets. 

“Gresh will see you now.” The turian had returned, as unhappy looking as ever.

The krogan did something with her face that Jane was half-sure was a wink. “Don’t make any trouble.”

“We’ll make sure she won’t,” Sidonus said. His fake confidence was much more convincing than Jane’s, that’s for sure. Or maybe he was planning on betraying her. 

She hoped not. Garrus would be crushed, and there was something about him now that made her more protective than she had been before she’d died.

The doors hissed open to reveal a single batarian surrounded by bored looking asari maidens, all dressed in the bare minimum of clothing possible before they stopped counting as being dressed. Jane rolled her eyes, glad for the helmet. She was glad, also, that Liara wasn’t here. She’d be horrified.

“So,” Gresh said. “Jane Shepard. You’re supposed to be dead.”

“People keep saying that,” Jane said. “I don’t know what they mean.” She flexed her hands in the cuffs. 

“You’re worth a pretty penny,” Gresh said. “If I sell you, I can move out of this dump, probably even buy my own third rate planet deeper in the Terminus Systems.” His gaze moved between her various ‘guards.’ “I can’t be having competition, can I?” He smirked unpleasantly at Sidonus. “This might even net you your family back.” 

If Jane hadn’t been cuffed, maybe she could have reached for the turian before he freaked out. Instead, she, and everyone else in the room, saw something snap in his face. In a moment, he was across the room, and his hand was wrapped tightly around Gresh’s neck. 

“Guards!” the mob boss croaked. “Guards!”

Jane closed her eyes to concentrate. In a flash of light, the cuffs snapped off her wrists. 

It was time.

Chapter Text

“There’s one way you can make this easy on yourself,” Jane said. Most of the guns in the room were pointed at her, not Sidonis, and the pure nonchalance she was projecting seemed to be freaking everyone out.

Good.

“What?” Gresh snarled. 

“Release his family. Then I might deign to let you live.”

She was, she admitted to herself, probably lying. If this were Alliance space, she’d just try and get him arrested, but it wasn’t, and she wasn’t really on speaking terms with the Alliance anymore. She’d spent her first life killing as few people as she could. She’d apparently found the limits of her sympathy once and for all.

“You are not in a position to give me orders, human girl,” Gresh said, pure contempt in his voice.

By the rules of her universe, he was right. She had been a strong biotic, but not the strongest, and she did not have Liara with her right now. But she had Nox, now, and it was the key to a whole universe’s worth of strength.

She let the purple light of a barrier hum to life around her. “Wanna bet?”

“Wait--” 

She punched Gresh flat in the chest, sending him flying backwards. As he hit the wall behind him, his body dissolved into purple light. His omnitool dropped to the floor with a dull thud, the only part of his body to survive disintegration. 

There may have been a smudge on the wall, but other than that, it was like he'd never existed.

“Anyone else?” Jane asked. “I’m not very fond of gangsters, sorry to say, and kidnapping children ... that’s low even for your kind.”

She turned to the krogan, addressing her specifically. “Are you really okay with that kind of treatment of children?”

"What did you just do ?" Krogan voices deepened in panic. Interesting. 

"Answer the question."

Having a krogan visibly frightened of her was a novel but thrilling experience. "They're alive," she said. "Some of us made sure of that. He keeps his... blackmail material... in his complex."

"Kept, I guess," another grunt said, to a burst of nervous laughter. 

"Did any of you like him?" Jane asked, a little exasperated and full of adrenaline. 

A message popped up on her HUD from Weaver with a possible guess for the location of Gresh's compound--the back of the Grotto. If she was right in her guess, there was a further hollowed out space behind the bar, built directly into one another one of those strange arterial corridors.

They all shook their heads collectively, staring down at the empty space where their boss had been. They'd been here because of fear and desperation, and now there wasn't anything else left.

"Well," Jane said. "Like him or not, if you don't want to join him you should leave us alone while we search. I don't want to kill you all." But I could, she didn't feel the need to add out loud. 

Seeing a large group of armed mercenaries back away as far as the room would allow was immensely satisfying, even if the idea of a krogan being afraid of her was still unnerving.

The group let her pass without another word.

She didn't consider what exactly her little display revealed until it was too late.

The door at the end of the Grotto led to a rabbit’s warren of corridors, clearly built one at a time over the course of decades, maybe even centuries. The only markings were ones that warned which doors led to that exterior corridor at the very edge of Omega’s construction; everything was obfuscated to the point that Jane wondered how Gresh’s own people made their way through the place. 

“Hey.” It was the krogan from earlier. She was the only member of the gang to approach Jane's crew after Gresh's death. “You need this in your omnitool to get through. It’s built so that people without the right HUD will get lost long enough to get shot.” 

“Right,” Jane said. She wanted to push, ask why you need that kind of security in this kind of low-level hive of scum and villainy, but this was the kind of help that would vanish if she pressed too hard. “Thank you.” 

The krogan shrugged, leaving Jane with the component. It was a small memory chip, designed to hook onto omnitool’s computer. Security through requiring physical components, instead of allowing for a network link. 

"I guess you need to be paranoid if you're hiding from Aria," Jane said. 

"Also means they're harder to access," Nox buzzed irritably in her ear. "Still can, but it's problematic." 

"Mm."

"Are we getting my family or not?" Sidonis was clearly trying to hide the irritation from his voice. He wasn't entirely succeeding. Fair enough. 

"That's what I'm working on." 

The only reason she wasn't angrier at Sidonis was that she'd managed to thwart his betrayal. This meant he still had room for redemption, or at least the chance to get his family back. 

If she'd been dead for any longer, Garrus would have been doomed and there was nothing she could have done about it.

Shaking off the not particularly helpful thoughts, Jane pressed on, scanning the corridors ahead for life signs. Each set of doors had to be opened via manual omnitool interlink, and the small pauses each time just meant she had more time to notice the walls starting to turn from ancient, metallic gray to an unreal shade of dark green.

"Do any of you feel that?" she asked. A pressure had begun to build up in her chest, and she could swear she heard a faint hum, or even a whine.

It reminded her of insects in the summer, of the kind of life that should not exist outside of arboretum zones on a station like Omega.

“The walls are unsettling,” Sidonis offered. 

Clearly they didn’t. 

Jane wasn’t sure what to make of that. It reminded her of how the pillar felt, but the sense of wrong was different. This wasn’t a warning screamed through time. This was something growing at the edges of Omega that categorically should not be here. 

Prothean tech and Reapers were still fundamentally familiar in some way; so much of modern galactic culture was built on old Prothean tech that it was hard not to recognize some aspect of it. This was totally unfamiliar in a way that Jane knew she had only experienced once before. 

“Nox,” she thought urgently. “Do you know what this is?”    

“Oh no. Oh no .” Her ghost’s voice frayed on that last word. “I recognize this. Jane. We’re walking into a Hive nest.”

The urgency in Nox’s voice made Jane realize she had to decide, now , whether she should reveal her little AI companion. If this was something from its world, she couldn’t bullshit where her information came from. 

If someone tried to shoot it, she would kill them, she decided. She had no other choice; she didn’t want to die forever ever again. 

“I need everyone to stay calm,” she said, and opened her hand upwards in the gesture that Nox seemed to instinctively respond to. “But things are about to get weird.” 

“Hi, everyone,” Nox said, in its most cheerful voice. “This rescue mission has gotten a lot more urgent. If you don’t listen to me and Jane, you’re all going to die.”

-

The group's response to Nox's appearance and announcement was (predictably) chaotic. 

"What the fuck is that?" Sidonis asked. "Are you harboring a rogue AI?" 

Buddy you don't know the half of it, Jane thought. "Robot from another dimension named Nox. Just told me there are others from its dimension and that they're hostile. I can explain in more detail when shit's less dire. Okay?" 

"...you better be worth Archangel's trust in you," Butler said.

Good enough. At least Butler's sort of acquiescence seemed to have calmed everyone else down, even Monteague. "Okay, so. Nox. Explain the Hive.”