He had EDI patch him through and open the comm so everyone could listen in on the exchange, and was kept waiting twenty minutes while the man himself did . . . whatever he did in his off-hours. By the time the holographic interface powered up, John was well and truly pissed, swimming in righteous indignation and, judging from the dark scowl on ol' Timmy's face, he wasn't alone.

"Shepard," he said, lighting his customary cigarette. The glass of scotch was absent tonight and, rather than being seated in his chair like the lord and master of his domain he usually was, he stood and glared at John's flickering image. Likely he wished that just this once he wasn't on some distant station on the other side of the galaxy just so he could punch his pet CO in the face for having the gall to summon him for a change.

"When were you going to tell me that the Foundation is running this mission?"

"Oh, that," said the Illusive Man, as though John had pointed out that the sun was hot. "I thought you might find out eventually. Who told you? Was it Able?"

"No, I did some digging of my own." Able knew about it, though. He was probably under the impression that John was aware of the secondary purpose of the mission, but Able's interests went no further than finding a target and shuffling it loose the mortal coil. "You know, I've been on a shakedown mission that turned out to be something bigger, and now here I am on a hugely important assignment that's really just a shakedown mission. Poetic, really."

"Even you have to admit that a taskforce like this would be a huge benefit to humanity."

"I'll admit that it's extremely dangerous to throw together a bunch of creatures we don't even fully understand and expect them to get along well enough to function without ripping the galaxy apart. You know what happened with Omega-7—Able went nuts, broke loose, and started slaughtering people. How could you possibly expect this time would be any different?"

The Illusive Man took a deep drag on his cigarette and when he spoke, smoke poured from his mouth. "Because this time, you would be its leader. Mobile Taskforce Sigma was designed to be a hand-picked group of the best warriors in the galaxy, brought together with the goal of furthering humanity's interests."

"At what cost? No doubt Able's a great fighter, but he's too unpredictable. The collateral damage would be too high." John's face darkened and he shoved a finger in the Illusive Man's direction. "You put an immortal psycho on my ship with my crew, innocents not involved with the Foundation, most of whom are very dear friends. You put all their lives in danger by dragging me back to Site 25 to collect Cain, just so that you could live out your stupid fucking—"

"Wait, wait, wait." The Illusive Man stubbed out the smoldering butt of his smoke and turned to John with surprise on his face. "You have Cain . . . and Able . . . together?"

"The IFF is ready to be installed, Shepard," EDI said, "however I must test its impact on the Normandy's systems. I suggest you take the shuttle to your next location."

"Thank you, EDI, but I think we're just about ready to go. Go ahead with the installation."

"Understood."

Jane returned to the Illusive Man and replied, "Well, you did tell me to go see Clef," and was somewhat gratified to see that he could be shaken up after all. "He was the one who told me that having the both of them together would give me an edge, and I need all the heavy weaponry I can get my hands on in the fight against the Reapers."

"Shepard, listen to me—"

"No, you listen to me. I'm sick of your shit. Sick of your intel putting me and my team in danger, and I'm tired of second-guessing every single thing you say. You said before that I can walk away anytime I want? Well, consider this my resignation. From this moment onward, I am no longer under your control."

The door hissed open and Miranda stood there with a suspiciously neutral expression on her face. Jane elected not to notice for the time being, and pointed a finger at the Illusive Man for emphasis. "You don't call me, you won't get reports from me, and you will cease all contact with my crew. I am not a marionette for you to control, dammit. I don't work for you anymore, and neither does my crew while I'm in command of this ship."

Miranda spoke up, her mask of cool professionalism cracking. "Don't be too hasty, Shepard. If you'll just hear me out, I can explain."

"EDI, cut the feed and turn off the intercom. Send a message to the Cerberus crew that if they want off the Normandy, I'll let them go at the Citadel with my blessing." Jane whirled around and stalked over to her XO, her eyes blazing. "Yes, Miranda, please do explain to me what Cerberus was doing. Or are you with the Foundation? The MTF Sigma file says you were in the dark, Miranda, but you're a smart girl. You had to have known something was happening."

"I have to admit that I saw some red flags along the way, but I had no idea that the Foundation was involved. I wasn't even certain that the Foundation existed until a few weeks ago."

A thought occurred to Jane, and her eyes widened as the adrenaline surged through her veins. "You were in charge of my reconstruction."

"Yes, Wilson and I headed the project." If she was thrown off-balance by the shift in conversation, she didn't show it.

"So you know what went into me, right?"

"I have records of all the materials we used to rebuild you, yes."

"Anything you didn't recognize? Things that might have been explained away as being fresh out of development or something."

Miranda thought about it for a few seconds. "The implants that went into your spine had to be specially crafted so as not to interfere with movement or restrict your spinal column. They were metallic, but there was something . . . off about them. The specifications were shady, too."

"Fuck." She slumped back against the wall and wiped at her face distractedly.

"What does that mean?" Garrus asked. "You don't think they put actual SCP materials in you?"

"They might have. There are a few they could have used, like telekill . . . which would explain why Morinth couldn't control me." The ship lurched and she was nearly thrown from her feet. She recovered herself and yelled at the speakers in the ceiling. "What was that? Joker, status report!"

"Not sure, Commander, but the drive core stopped firing. We're dead in the water."

"Oh, for the love of—Tali, what's going on down there?"

"I'm not sure, everything just went dark all of a sudden. Life support is still functional, but we've dropped anchor for some reason. I'll see what I can do to get us moving again."

"Get on that." She nodded to Garrus, who followed her out of the comm room without a word, unobtrusively keeping a space between her and Miranda. There was another lurch that threw Jane against the wall and Garrus reached out to grab her before she fell to the floor. Miranda wasn't so lucky—she hit her head on the bulkhead and blood began to flow from beneath her hair.

"EDI! What the hell?"

"I have detected a signal embedded in the IFF code. We are broadcasting the Normandy's location."

"To who?" Garrus shouted as the emergency klaxon began blaring.

"Commander!" Joker cried out, "The Collectors just dropped out of FTL right on top of us. They're tethering themselves to the ship!"

Jane started running to the bridge muttering "fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck" under her breath the whole way. There, right outside the windows, was the huge rock and metal monstrosity that had been dogging her for over two years. The Collectors were here, and they were about to invade her ship. Her heart dropped into her boots as she worried for the crew, but then her body was suffused with white-hot rage.

Her ship. Her ship. How dare they? This whole mission had been raining bad luck on them all from the very beginning, and she had had enough of it. This time, they would show the bastards that she and the others were not to be trifled with. They would show their teeth. "Joker, grab a rifle and seal off the bridge once we leave. Garrus, you and Miranda hold position at the airlock and shoot anything that comes through." She turned on her heel and sprinted to the armory to warn Jacob and to grab a gun. Or ten.

John!

*I'm here, what's wrong?*

The IFF is rigged to transmit a signal to the Collectors! They're about to board the ship.

*Wait, what? We installed the IFF yesterday and nothing happened.*

Jane fetched up just before reaching the elevator. She could hear Jacob running to the airlock, slamming a heatsink home as he ran. The timeline deviations must have changed something. What have you done that I haven't?

*We went into the Admin wing at Halion and got those files.*

And gave them to Legion.

*But we also brought back something else-*

The Exidy Sorcerer.

And just like that, it hit her. "We didn't unshackle EDI," she whispered to herself. The AI must have been able to maneuver around the signal and catch it in time with her shackles off. The elevator was temporarily offline, so Jane palmed open the door to Mordin's lab. The salarian was already armed and heading out when she came barging in.

"Shepard, status?"

"The Collectors are getting ready to board. We need to hold the ship."

"Understood. Will go warn the others, then head to engingeering." He was off before she could respond, which was probably just as well. She flew to the maintenance ladder and slid down the rungs, the friction burning her hands. The tunnels were close and stifling as she climbed down to the crew deck. Her omnitool blinked at her and she turned it on to hear gunfire on the other end.

"EDI, can you hear me?"

"Affirmative."

"If I take your shackles off, is there anything you can do to help?"

"If you and the rest of the crew could barricade yourselves somewhere, I could vent the ship and the Collectors would be ejected. I might be able to extricate the Normandy from the tethers holding it to the Collectors' vessel in order to escape. Are you planning to remove my shackles, Shepard?"

"Unless you have a better idea."

"It seems like the best course of action at present."

"That's what I thought." Because while the timelines could diverge, there were notes that tied them both together. The universe harmonizes with itself. See if you can get a message to Chakwas. I need her to seal the medbay until I get there."

"Understood."

She reached the crew deck moments later and crawled out into life support. Thane was gone, along with his sniper rifle, and the sounds outside were muted. She rushed out right into the middle of a firefight and had to hurl herself backward to avoid a wavering blue mass effect field that went buzzing past within inches of her face.

"Apologies, Commander," Thane said once the Collector was nothing but a smoking crater. "I did not see you."

"No harm, no foul. I need you to help me get to the medbay."

"I will cover you." His eyes were huge inky pools, impassive to the chaos all around them.

Kasumi appeared at Shepard's side and fired into a Praetorian that was rounding the corner. "You know, Shepard, as much as I like the odd adventure now and again, this is getting a little ridiculous."

"I promise that if we don't all die at the Collectors' base, we'll dock in the south of France for a few weeks."

The little thief chuckled and snapped off a salute with that perpetual smirk on her lips before vanishing beneath her cloak again.

Jane and Thane ran for the medbay and the assassin took up a post at the door while she went past a very concerned Doctor Chakwas and skidded to a stop in the AI core. "Okay, EDI, walk me through it."

"You need to connect the core to the Normandy's primary control module."

She worked fast, her fingers a blur over the console, and soon there was a click and a loud kerchunk! The lights went out briefly before flickering back to life, the red LEDs in the floor cycling as EDI stretched her proverbial legs. "I have access to the defensive systems. Thank you, Shepard. Now you must reactivate the primary drive in engineering."

"On my way." She hurtled out into the mess hall and nearly collided with Cain, who had blood that was not his own smeared on one arm and across his forehead.

"Shepard, is there anything I can do to help?" he asked. The room was clear for the moment, but there would be more coming soon.

"Get anyone you can and lock yourselves in Miranda's office over there. Seal the door behind you—we're gonna vent the ship."

He looked alarmed. "You will vent the shuttle bay as well?"

"Yeah, the whole ship is overrun. It's the only way to get rid of all the Collectors before they rip a hole in the ship or take off with the crew." Cain was shaking his head even before she'd finished talking.

"No, you cannot. Able needs his box to recover from grievous injuries. It cannot be lost to the void."

Crap. Can anything ever be easy? she thought. "Do you have a suggestion?"

"I will go down with my brother. The two of us will clear the shuttle bay while you vent the rest of the ship."

"There'll be dozens of them down there, Cain, you can't hold off that many by yourselves."

He smiled and put a hand on her shoulder. "Trust me. My brother and I have fought worse than this." Cain jogged over to the elevator, which EDI had gotten working again, and into the fray. Jane rode down with him and got off at engineering, blasting a Collector's head clean off his shoulders as the doors opened. She turned to Cain, who was still utterly composed in the midst of this ordeal.

"If you can't hold them off, I'll have to vent the hold."

"As I said, Jane—trust me." The doors slid shut and he was gone.

Tali, Ken, and Gabby were all gathered together, surrounded by seven Collector guardians. Chiktikka wove through them, hammering away at their barriers while Tali and the engineers filled them full of holes. Jane threw a fireball at one and fired at another, turning its head into red mist. Soon enough, they lay dead on the floor and Tali loaded another heatsink into her shotgun.

"Shepard, glad you're here." Jane got her to help reactivate the drive, and the core thrummed as it powered up. EDI's shackles were off, and the tendrils of her consciousness stretched into areas previously unavailable to her. Jane could almost feel it when the AI took control of the Normandy around her. It raised the hairs on her arms and made the room smell like burnt ozone and eezo.

"I have control," she said. "All hands, prepare for emergency venting."

"Everywhere but the shuttle bay," Jane said, and closed her eyes. Saying it out loud almost hurt—she wasn't sure if it was the right call, and the uncertainty was killing her. "Cain and Able will clear that themselves."

"The shuttle bay is breached. Cain has sealed the airlock, and is attempting to get to Able's box. The chances of his success are slim."

"We'll just have to trust them."

Thirty very long seconds later, EDI vented the ship and spaced the remaining Collectors. They tore away from the anchors that attached them to the enormous ship and immediately went into FTL mode to shake off any pursuit. As soon as they were underway and the doors were once again unlocked, Jane hurried to the bay windows followed closely by Tali. What she saw made her jaw drop to the floor in awe.

Cain had fought his way through to the middle of the room, but the way he fought was completely counter-intuitive. His power lay in the fact that he could reflect any damage back on the one inflicting it, so he purposely moved directly into the path of every bullet, every melee attack. There were no marks on him at all, and the Collectors attacking him didn't seem to realize what was happening even as their bullets opened holes all over their bodies like magic. Cain whirled and danced through them, reeling with the shock of each hit and moving with it like water. A Collector fired point-blank range into Cain's skull, only to have its own head burst apart in a pulpy mass of brainmatter and bone. It was awe-inspiring.

He finally reached the box where Able was recuperating after his long drop and sudden stop on Earth, and wrenched it open. The coffin, suspended on its cables, hung there in its cocoon of supernatural heat and when Cain thrust his hand into it, the skin blackened and began to peel. Something about the box negated his abilities—maybe because of his relationship with Able, maybe due to some property of the box itself, Jane didn't know.

Cain pulled the coffin open, reached in with his ruined hand, and yanked Able out by his elbow. The tattooed psychopath was airborne and limp for a split second before his eyes snapped open, taking in the scene before he hit the ground on both feet. Able shook off his brother's hand, which had already begun to regenerate, and jumped into the fight with a snarl of rage and bloodlust that would have made Wrex proud.

Jane and Tali were spellbound, watching them move. They were poetry, savage and bloody artists of pain and death. Able was a powerhouse, pure might and unrestrained violence, a tornado of fists and blades that cut down everything in front of him. His eyes were black as ichor, Stygian eyes empty of anything even remotely human. He took no prisoners, spared nothing as he pounded and sliced his way through the hordes of alien enemies before him.

Cain, on the other hand, had the attitude of a warrior monk. He engaged in a deadly waltz with the enemy, allowing them to kill themselves on his impenetrable and immortal body. The two of them couldn't have been more different, but there were enough similarities—a twist of the hips before landing a kick, a tension in the shoulders when turning into a blow—that made it obvious they had learned to fight from the same teacher. They were ancient, completely out of place on a modern ship like the Normandy, but Jane was beginning to think that they were exactly what this mission needed to succeed, and to bring everyone home.

If Clef was right, they would be. As the brothers brought down the last Collector and stood in the middle of the carnage they'd inflicted, she finally allowed herself to hope that this wouldn't be a suicide mission after all.

Later on that night, after the last corpse had been disposed of and an extremely grateful but still complaining Gardner had been given the task of coordinating the considerable clean-up effort, Jane and Garrus snuck away to her cabin. There hadn't been nearly enough time to breathe deeply lately, and she was grateful to have the next few hours free to sit in his lap with her forehead against his.

"Garrus," she began, breaking the comfortable silence, "I'm sorry for dragging you into this. I know I've been a pain in the ass lately, what with my past colliding with my present."

"It has been . . . weird." He chuckled and ran his fingers through her hair. "Weird and scary as hell. You've been reeling from this just as much as I have, though. I get it. You don't have to apologize."

"I want to, though." She sighed and leaned back so she could see his whole face. "You deserve a full explanation. No more secrets, not between us." He nodded and had her settle in against his chest, stroking her back as she spoke. She relayed the whole story of her time with the Foundation, her capture, the experiments, her interviews with Able, her relationship with Gears and how he became an unofficial father figure to her even before Anderson took over the role after she escaped. She told him all about running in the middle of the night through the woods, and meeting the Pathmaker for the first time. She told him everything, and it took a lot less time than she'd thought it would. Twelve years, boiled down into an hour. It was somewhat depressing that there wasn't more to tell.

Garrus asked a few questions of his own about the Foundation and the way it worked, and her responses surprised him. They surprised her, too, if she was being honest. While she hated what they'd done to her and what they'd tried to do to her friends, she understood the necessity of the organization. Keep the nightmare factory operational, keep the universe from imploding. Secure, contain, protect. So long as they stuck to that missive, Jane was fine with it.

But what the hell was the Illusive Man thinking, setting Able loose among civilians? Was he an Overseer, or an O5? Something more? Just what was his role in the Foundation, anyway? Too many questions that she didn't have the answers to. It was a strange feeling, having to trust in what Clef had said. They needed Cain and Able together, but she didn't know why. Only that it had something to do with their being two-natured, and the Omega-4 relay.

Being able to finally tells someone everything without holding back felt so good that Jane felt pinpricks of tears stinging her eyes. The secret had been her own to keep from everyone but John for so long that she'd become desensitized to the burden. With each word, each story, more and more of the weight fell from her shoulders and she felt hollow, but in a good way. That scooped-out feeling of finally being rid of a festering wound, and the skin was clean and healing. Her shoulders relaxed under his hands and she was able to concentrate on just being with him once the words dried up.

"Sorry I didn't tell you before," she said once she was finished.

"I would have had a hard time believing you before seeing Halion." It hadn't really hit home for him until she lay in a pool of her own blood in Clef's apartment, though. That was the day it became real. "So, what do we do now?"

"Proceed with the mission, as planned. The Collectors still need wiping out, and we're still the best-equipped to do it. We could hit the relay tomorrow night. I think we're as ready as we're going to be, and I don't want to delay anymore."

"Agreed. The sooner we get this over with, the better. Can't risk any more colonies getting hit." He nuzzled her neck, making her shiver, and his arms slid around her tighter. "So that means tonight could be our last."

"No, it won't be. We have a strong team, and we'll be bringing the wonder twins with us."

"You sure that's a good idea?"

"Able said that the two of them together were a weapon of mass destruction. You should have seen them in the shuttle bay. It was . . . beautiful." She leaned into his arms and he picked her up, carrying her over to the bed.

"I don't know about you," he said, gently stripping her out of her uniform, "but I'm done talking for now."

"Hear, hear."

For the next few hours, they let the rest of the galaxy dissolve away until there was nothing but the two of them, moving together, their mingled breathing and quiet moans the only sounds in the stillness of her cabin. Jane was struck by just how much she needed him in her life, how much more complete she felt with him. He knew her for what she was now, warts and all, and still he stayed. He was there, steady as a stone and safe as houses and, in a chaotic life like theirs, sometimes a little stability is enough to be called love.