And now, we have come to the grand conclusion of this story, courtesy of me and Dr. Compass.

I don't own Mass Effect. Bioware does.

Since Jane had the experience she needed, she earned a chance to set off to a few missions of her own. Of course, there were times when she would team up with Saren for their joint missions, but when the missions were those she could accomplish on her own and were within her expertise, she had her own starship and even recruited Kelly, Joker, Garrus, Jack, Wrex and Zaeed with help from her mentor.

With the Alliance resources she had available, she managed to get a bigger, better vessel with a small crew. While Saren was in the middle of his own mission, Jane and her crew began preparing for an expedition to hunt down a trafficking ring in Alliance space. With any luck, Jane could send any resources they would find during the raid to charity. At the end of the day, she wasn't out to get rich, get famous, or a sense of self-righteousness. She knew she was lucky when she left Earth, and wanted to start evening the playing field…or at least get the ball rolling. Whenever someone asked if she could go after willing sex workers, she would dismiss it as voluntary sex work is not a problem to worry about, since they chose this kind of career.

Through there, she and her crew found some common ground, so Joker maneuvered the Archangel out of the docks and it left the Citadel, making its way to the Mass Relay.

"All right, Jane. We'll be at Horizon in a few hours," Jeff hummed as his fingers slid over the ship controls like a pianist would with a keyboard.

Jane nodded at Joker before she peered through the windshield. They watched as bolts of energy reached out from the relay and catapulted them into the distance. A while later, the Archangel emerged from another relay and continued flying through space. Intel suggested any remaining ties to the Alliance had been severed on the colony, yielding complete control to a small trafficking ring. Dozens of possibilities as to how that occurred seemed reasonable in Jane's head, yet she would have to clarify at least one of these reasons. The mission was simple: get in, verify the intel, dismantle the ring if one was present, and see to the contents are handed to proper authorities, whatever form of contraband it may be. Before long, the Archangel arrived at Horizon and began entering its atmosphere.

"All right," Jane announced as she stood to her feet, "we have fifteen minutes before deployment. Garrus, Jack, suit up."

Upon cue, Garrus and Jack began gearing up while Jane inspected her weapons. Once her squad was ready, Garrus met up with Kelly at the bridge. The group had fully suited up and carried their full kit of equipment with them save for Jack, who insisted wearing civies and solely depending on her barriers for protection. Considering how Jack had incredible skills with her biotics and how she got them, Jane understood why Jack would insist on her suggestion. By the time the ship made its landing, Joker tapped on the console and opened the ramp and Kelly gave Garrus a kiss on his mandible.

"You take care, Garrus," she insisted.

"Yeah, thanks," Garrus chuckled before he continued on his way out.

They had landed on the fringe of the colony to maintain some level of stealth going in. Once the coast was clear, Jane, Garrus and Jack ventured forth through the trees. They kept low until they reached a small shipping area, with shuttles having recently landed. They even used the shrubbery to their advantage as it provided them cover in the midst of their stealthy moves. The nearby guards were too distracted with watching the covered women in holo-collars walking out single file to the back of a flat-bed truck. Having confirmed what these criminals were trafficking, Jane knew she would have to form a strategy right off the bat.

"Fast and quiet, Garrus," she ordered, making a gesture to him.

Quickly snapping on a suppressor onto the barrel of his rifle, Garrus quickly picked off the furthest guards in succession while Jane and Jack took care of everyone nearby. With the guards dead, Garrus quickly radioed their ship.

"Archangel, this is Blue Eagle," he said, "we've got multiple civilians down here who need extraction. Relaying coordinates."

{You got it, Blue Eagle,} Joker replied over the com link.

Garrus and Jane continued to chaperone away the women when Jack heard activity sparkle over the fallen guards' radios. Reaching down to pick one up, she listened to the voices chattering away.

{Hardpoint Shadow, this is Overwatch. We've lost contact with Hunter 6. Detach, sweep, and confirm.}

{Copy that.}

She kept silent as she heard the metallic, monotone voices speak. All the while, Jack clenched her fists.

"Jack, what's the matter?" Jane asked, as their shuttle lifted off behind them.

"These guys keep closer-knit security than anticipated," the biotic replied, tossing aside the radio.

Garrus didn't seem fazed.

"I hardly see that as a problem," he commented.

Jane scanned her surroundings, laying her eyes on the trafficked victims for a moment.

"Let's get them to safety and keep moving," Jane advised.

Upon cue, Jack and Garrus assisted Jane in helping the women to their feet. By the time they had placed the women in a safe position for pickup, the local militia was a mere sixty seconds away. Sticking to the side of the road in the bushes, they watched a van with armed personnel drove by. Once the van stopped in its tracks, Alliance soldiers emerged from the van.

"Shit. The hell happened? They better not be enjoying the produce again," one grumbled as he turned the safety off.

One Alliance soldier approached one of the women and placed her arm over his shoulder.

"C'mon, let's get them to safety before they spot us," another huffed.

With that, the Alliance soldiers began escorting the women to safety while Jane, Garrus and Jack kept an eye out for any slavers that might be on patrol. Just seconds after the Alliance soldiers crawled off, a small group of unidentified armed men arrived.

"Were those our guys?" Jack asked.

Jane nodded and began to emerge from the shrubbery. Jack threw a biotic blast at the group to knock them off their feet, and then the trio finished the guards off before they could raise an alarm. Having cleared the area, Jane, Jack and Garrus searched them and their vehicles for any valuables.

"That's everything. Let's keep moving. Look for an administration building, and we'll start on unraveling this branch," Jane ordered, moving back to the road.

Jane, Garrus and Jack ventured along the path between the trees. The farm colony wasn't nearly as active as the likes of Eden Prime and bad one-fifth the population, clearly showing as the fine details didn't have nearly as much polish as was the case with most human colonies out in the Terminus Systems. Based on this, any of the buildings they passed by could be the administration building they were looking for. Quickly checking both ways before crossing the street, they rushed across to enter the building from a back door.

The team continued around the back of the building before looking back to make sure they weren't spotted. Looking to a window not too far up, Jane jumped and grabbed the windowsill and pulled herself up to peek inside. With the coast clear, Jane gestured Garrus and Jack to follow her before she climbed through the window. There were a surprising amount of women in chains about the area with plenty of guards and accountants waiting around to make sure each one stayed in line. Jane suppressed her outrage by clenching her fist. Fortunately, the guards had long since become complacent, and they could slip through unnoticed into the higher levels of the compound. They ventured through the corridor in search of the main office. Jane, Jack, and Garrus formed outside of the door, prepared to breach the room.

"Alright, I'll toss in the flash," Jane instructed, "Garrus, you'll be heading in with me to eliminate any Op4 we find in there. Jack, watch our flank unless we've been compromised."

Garrus and Jack nodded in approval as Jane threw open the door and tossed in the grenade. Hearing the loud thunderous crack seconds later and the panicked yells of those inside, Jane and Garrus charged in and gunned down two men each, leaving the man at the desk alone.

"Wh-What the hell is this?!" the man at the desk exclaimed.

"Judgment's call. Now get off your ass," Jane hissed, yanking the man up by his shirt collar.

"Judgment?!" the man protested, trying to yank himself off the human Spectre's grip, "I'm not doing anything fraudulent!"

"Holding individuals against their will and selling them off as products isn't exactly innocent, either," Garrus grumbled as he shot an approaching guard.

Giving the man fierce eyes, Jane pinned him against the wall with one hand. She slapped on some holocuffs around his wrists.

"Still," she replied, "this is violating plenty of civil rights laws within numerous Alliance territories. This may be deep in the Terminus, but I'm not letting the likes of you drag more people into this."

The man in the business suit glared at Jane. Jack threw a biotic blast out the door, knocking over another squad of slavers like bowling pins as they ran up to investigate the ruckus while Garrus took potshots at the group while they still recovered. With these guards out of the way, Jane began escorting the crook out of the office.

{Hey Jane, I'm seeing multiple hostiles closing in from above. Need support fire?} Jeff asked over coms.

"Negative. We've got more victims down here. Drop another team in the Mako," she answered as Jack guided them out with a biotic barrier.

{Copy that,} Joker nodded over the coms.

Making their way back down the stairs, she kept the syndicate head in front with Jack maintaining the barrier and Garrus blasting away any slavers who came within sight. After a while of meandering through the corridors, they all made it out through the door. The nearby slavers had already set a barricade using their vehicles not too far outside of the compound when the Mako landed on the ground not too far from their position, ramming through a few of the trucks and flattening some of the opposition. This gave Jane and her squad an advantage. As the cannon fired at another approaching truck, Wrex rolled out the back of the vehicle and joined the fight with Garrus, Jane, and Jack under the biotic barrier.

"I see you managed to hold out well," Wrex said.

"Any reason you would've expected otherwise?" Jack quipped, "also, we still have a bunch more people to ship out just inside."

Wrex nodded in acknowledgement before he charged at one of the guards near the door. The Mako proved to be increasingly helpful as more slavers converged on their location. It also became pretty apparent that the slaver group didn't expect any attackers outside of normal infantry, given the incredibly low number of anti-tank infantry and the complete lack of any armor protecting the colony. This was the chance to move to the next objective.

"Archangel, what's it looks like from up there?" Jane asked.

{They're pulling back for now. You've managed to whittle down most of them, but they're quickly regrouping. Orders?} Jeff answered.

"Prep the shuttles," Jane ordered, "Red Oxen is fetching more of the victims. We'll try and fly them out until we can properly secure this colony, and get things back under Alliance control. We've also got a VIP here, used to run the place. We'll be sending him up as well with the first shipment. Throw him in the brig and have a squad keep an eye on him."

{Roger that,} Joker nodded.

Two shuttles returned to the colony, deploying a single squad as Wrex began to escort a dozen women out at a time. Jack followed the Alliance troops closely behind as she put a bag over the head of the businessman and sat him down alongside the others in one of the shuttles.

"This is Zero, the shuttles are away, ETA seven minutes," Jack informed.

It didn't take long for Jane and her team to empty the administration building. A couple other Alliance soldiers exited the Mako once they parked right beside Jane's squad.

"Hold this position until the remaining captives have been extracted. Catch up to us if the colony is still occupied. We'll report and extract once this place is secure."

"Right away, ma'am," one of the Alliance soldiers saluted.

The other slavers hadn't known to start taking hostages and continued to hopelessly hold against a team who was infinitely better trained than they could ever hope to be. Taking point, Jane rolled from cover to cover, hiding behind prefabs to reload, cock grenades, or let her shields recharge. She took narrow moments to peek from cover and take out any unsuspecting slavers. Jack followed closely behind to provide biotic power and Garrus hung back to provide cover through his deadly scope. This gave Alliance reinforcements a chance to continue extracting the captives. They continued to extract additional slaves who were being kept locked up in a few of the prefabs while continuing to cut down on the slaver populace. The few who did surrender were treated as such, forced onto their fronts as Wrex slapped holocuffs onto them.

By the time they extracted the remaining of the captives, they started escorting them towards the shuttles, complete with their mission. Now all that was left was to return to the Citadel. She was tired, and it had been a long, hard fight.

"Joker, get the report in and get us out of here. I've had enough of this colony."

The shuttles took off and hovered along the way to the Archangel. They'd been hunting down the man they just took captive for a few months now. He had ties to some very powerful individuals within his organization, and as such was imperative to her cause. Once the shuttles returned to the Archangel, Jane confirmed with her crew that this man was sitting in the brig, so she stepped over to the bridge to send a report. Composing the message and sending it to both the Council and the Alliance, she headed down to the mess hall to check in with her teammates. On one table, Jane could see Kelly wiping the grime off of Garrus's fringe. Jane couldn't help but smile watching the two develop such a bond. She served herself a meal before she sat down next to Zaeed.

"C'mon, sit still Garrus," Kelly whined.

Garrus wasn't entirely too enthusiastic about interacting with Kelly as such in public.

"C'mon, does it have to be right here?" Garrus sighed.

Kelly nodded eagerly.

"Rotten little bugger looks nice behind bars," Zaeed chuckled, "good thing he's getting what's coming to him."

"Just as much as the others guilty of the same crime," Jane agreed.

Kelly sighed.

"Hard to believe that crew managed to gain so many employees," she replied, "I would've thought we'd be past this stage of history. The more things change, the more they stay the same, huh?"

Jane and Zaeed exchanged glances in between bites.

"Does it matter?" Zaeed shrugged, "assholes are going to assholes, and it's our job to constantly make sure those wankers get what's comin' to 'em."

Along the way, the Archangel arrived at an Alliance station, where Jane handed the confiscated contraband to Alliance authorities and donated most of the credits she and her team looted to an organization dedicated to assisting the impoverished and the homeless. Once she completed this task, the Archangel continued its voyage.

Hours later, the Archangel emerged from the Mass Relay in the Serpent Nebula and made its way to the Citadel. Once it reached the station, it began latching onto the docks with Saren, Nihlus and Ashley anticipating Shepard's arrival. Once the ramp opened up, Jane was the first to emerge from the ship. Her eyes lit up when she caught a glimpse of her mentor.

"Saren!" she gasped to herself.

"Welcome back, Shepard," Saren greeted.

Jane approached Saren and nodded at him before they shook hands.

"How've you been?" Jane asked.

"Busy as usual," Saren vaguely hummed.

"Likewise," Jane nodded.

"Ah! Jane! Nice to see you've returned safely!" Nihlus greeted.

Strangely, the younger turian Spectre lacked any sort of quip to follow with. Jane exchanged glances between Nihlus and Ashley before she took turns shaking their hands.

"So how have you two been doing?" she asked.

Saren let loose a sly grin as he elbowed Nihlus.

"Go on. This still is important for both sides, no?" Saren beckoned.

Nihlus scratched the back of his neck.

"Wweeeelll, you see, Ashley and I have agreed to tie the knot," Nihlus explained, "we're still making arrangements."

By now, Garrus and Wrex escorted their prisoners out of the Archangel and onto the docks.

"Are you going to ask me for advice on wedding dresses?" Jane pondered, "I must warn you, they're not part of my expertise."

"It's sort of a mixed culture thing," Ashley commented, "I mean, I have no issue slapping on a turian dress if it calls for it, however we're just looking for the right mix of one culture and the other."

Moments later, Jack and Kelly emerged from the Archangel and they caught only a snippet of the conversation between Nihlus, Jane and Ashley.

"I mean, you can take the time to deposit your cargo. Besides, we're still stuck on this anyways," Nihlus finished.

"What's the holdup?" Kelly butted in.

"It's…a turian-human wedding…" Ashley started, "we're mostly thinking about cross-culture issues."

The intelligence officer hummed at the prospect.

"Actually," Kelly offered, "I could help with the matter."

"You know a wedding bouquet here at the station?" Jane asked.

"I wasn't talking about the wedding bouquet, that's just a few taps away," Kelly clarified, "I was talking about some wedding ideas."

Nihlus let out an enthusiastic hum.

"Go on," he beckoned.

A couple of hours later, after sending the women to Huerta and the slavers to C-Sec, Kelly was starting by helping Nihlus and Ashley shop for wedding attire.

"The point is to insinuate that both cultures are capable of mingling and that it is acceptable to dwell within the culture of the other species," she explained.

Nihlus had already taken up on the idea and was wearing a tuxedo fitted for his own body.

"Hmmm, I can definitely see the appeal in this suit," Nihlus mused, "even if it's a little tight."

Ashley, meanwhile, browsed through the wedding dresses on display. She found the turian dresses to be much more artistic than the plain white of human design.

"This actually might be an idea to get behind," she chuckled as she picked out one of the various colors.

It bore a deep blue as the primary color with a sand green as a tertiary color. Now she would have to figure out how to customize it to better fit a human. Fifteen minutes later, they were at the cashier register, placing orders for their respective suits designed for their own physiology. Once they made their payment, they all stepped out of the shop. Saren and Jane watched from a distance as Nihlus, Ashley, and Kelly left the store. They felt envious the as the younger turian Spectre and Alliance Soldier continued on with their plans for their happy future together.

"Is it bad when I say I'm glad they're the couple heading this effort?" Saren asked.

Jane shook her head and took Saren's hand into her own.

"We both have a life together as well, remember?" Jane reminded.

"Yeah, but the most we'll get at our rate is awkward glances and possibly a few curses," Saren nodded, "these two are getting the whole spectrum of public attention and possibly media coverage if it gets enough momentum."

Jane nodded as she and Saren strolled through the wards side by side.

"If we do get married," Jane pondered, "are you ok with keeping it simple?"

Saren hesitated.

"That depends. What's your definition of extravagant?"

"I hear extravagant means you put a fortune to your wedding," Jane shrugged, "such as an expensive dress and a fairy tale venue, for example. It's not really my thing, though."

"I agree. If it's just a small outing between either ourselves or a handful of friends, that's good enough," Saren commented.

By the time Nihlus's wedding came to pass a few months later, it was deemed safe for Saren and Jane to open up about their relationship. To their luck, there wasn't much criticism from the public. Humans and turians had finally let loose their past grudges and were more accepting of each other in public. Cases like that between Nihlus and Ashley, Garrus and Kelly or Saren and Jane were still rare, and would be for some time longer. When it all came down to it, it was worth having the most unlikely of strangers of both races to meet to push this progress forward.