chapter 4

This is an outrage! I demand action be taken for this attack!" Jason was doing his best to avoid punching the honorary Ambassador Udnia as he began his infamous rant to the Council over the hologram projector sitting in his office.

"We're sorry Ambassador, but we cannot involve a full scale war in the Traverse without fearing the repercussions from the Terminus System." Jason pretty much zoned out after that as he stood next to the others standing on the far side of the office on the balcony overlooking the Citadel in all of its glory.

Jackson wasn't doing much better, in fact he had fallen asleep standing up while the dark glasses he was wearing hid that little fact from anyone watching him, save for the fact anyone close enough could hear his soft snoring.

Soon enough the great and terrible ranting and raving of an upset politician ended as Udnia turned to face Captain Anderson, going on about bringing an entire crew, skewed facts and such before he nudged Jackson in the ribs once John waved for everyone to follow him out of the office after talking to Anderson.

"Wasn't me," Jackson said as he quickly got his bearings and started walking, "did I miss anything bro?"

Rolling his eyes, Jason gave him a look that clearly said that he was an idiot before they reached the rest of the team formed up in a huddle outside of the office.

"Alenko and Williams will be accompanying us to the Council Chambers in the event the Council asks for firsthand accounts, that and we don't the data to prove you two even exist in the Alliance, that and you will both need some proper equipment and armor," John said as he waved his omni-tool towards them as the signifying beep of transaction was heard, "I've taken the liberty of giving you both enough to buy decent kits and some personal supplies for now, remain available in the event we need you."

"Copy that Bossman," Jackson chirped as he examined his omni-tool and let out a whistle, "though I'd like to point out that we are not a couple charity cases here."

"Good thing I didn't donate to charity then," the smirk was evident even in his voice, "I want the two of you suited up and ready to go by the time we hopefully get done dealing with the Council."

Jason simply nodded as the others marched off towards the Presidium as he turned to Jackson with raised eyebrow, "Lower Markets?"

"Lower Markets." Jackson smiled as they headed out.

Line Break

Turned out it was a much longer walk around the Citadel than the games had ever given it credit for (These boots are not meant for long distance!) and they attracted more than a few odd stares from the people, well aliens, along their route.

"Why are you so slow?" Jason watched as Jackson attempted to yell at the ceiling of the elevator with an exaggerated face before he checked his omni-tool for the map app, not even mentioning the fact he had downloaded every single schematic of the Citadel directly into his memory.

"Yelling at it will not make it faster," Jason sighed as he discovered that Tetris still existed in this universe as he started a game, "I said we should take the stairs."

Jackson whined dramatically, "But there are like a thousand floors between us and the markets, it would take forever."

Rather than answer, Jason continued to tap away at his omni-tool, really getting into his game as the elevator made like six stops, several different humans, asari, turian, volus, that one hanar and even three batarians, who took one long look at Jackson and decided not to say anything, never mind the fact that both of them were sporting casual Alliance garb and a few weapons before they managed to reach their destination.

"Next time we take a rapid transit instead," Jackson declared as they stepped out of the elevator, Jason having to save his game for later as he followed, map in hand, "alright where too?"

This was mostly a show for anyone watching them, with Udnia working hand in hand with Cerberus and being one of the people who had been informed of their history and backgrounds, they knew it wouldn't be long before they had to worry about some particular goons showing up or other species taking an interest in them as well, not to mention that Saren would be placing a kill order out on anyone involved with Eden Prime that could have evidence against him. Not that it wasn't too hard to act like tourists on their first visit (which it kind of was) as they wandered around taking in the sights, chatting up with Avina, getting lost twice, finding about six fast food joints that had human food ("They have cheeseburgers? Alright!") and nine other vendors never shown in any of the games.

They managed to find one vendor that had a suit of armor for Jackson, granted the vendor was Krogan and waited all of three seconds before tossing several hundred pounds of armor over the counter and told them to find someone else who could alter it for him at a very low price.

The shields were decent, maybe an upgrade in the near feature could handle that, but the armor rating was beyond most Alliance Heavy armors, so all they needed was someone with the right equipment to alter a Krogan set of armor for a human.

Turned out that they managed to find one, an older Turian who took one look at Jackson and thanked his spirits that he never fought a human that big all those years ago before setting up the delicate operation of altering the armor. It took just over an hour to alter the armor to where Jackson could wear it, having to make new armor from the elbows up and from the knees down to fit his human limbs, but the effect was well worth it after they wrestled a human grade helmet to fit on the rest of it. Another thing this particular vendor had was Krogan grade weapons, something that surprised Jason as he asked to see what he had on hand, earning an amused chuckle from the vendor as he handed over what amounted to an early model Revenant that had seen far better days.

The amused chuckle turned into a surprised gasp when Jackson easily hefted the weapon one handed and fired off a burst inside the firing range, commenting on how light the recoil felt and that the weapon had terrible accuracy, but it had far better stopping power than anything else, so he paid for it in full. Things got even more hilarious as Jason discovered that the vendor also had several Krogan grade sidearms and a few shotguns, sadly none of them were Claymore 300 models, but the Armageddon Mk VI would do for now as they left the vendor feeling like he had been robbed.

"Now, do we find you a suit of armor yet or go get some upgrades?" Jackson asked after he placed his new rifle on his back, the default color of his armor was dark blue for now as Jason nodded towards a familiar salarian shopkeeper.

"Going to need the armor anyway, might as well started here," Jason smirked as he stepped up to the counter and smiled, "You wouldn't happen to have human armor by chance?"

"Ah, welcome to Morlan's famous shop, if you look here you'll see we have several suits in stock…"

Line Break

"Holy Mother of Christ," Jason turned to see John and Jane Shepard with the rest of the ground team spread out behind him as they took in the sight before them, "what did you guys do? Rob a bank just to pay for some equipment?"

Jason was wearing black Light Hoplite Mk II armor with a full helmet, armed with his new shotgun, a Brawler Mk III pistol, a Avenger Mk II assault rifle and a Mantis Mk I sniper rifle on his back as Jackson stood there in his retrofitted suit of Krogan armor with his Revenant Mk 0, his older assault rifle and shotgun for backup and a Punisher MK II sidearm.

"No sir," Jason answered as he tossed his to-go bag of wrappers into the nearest trashcan as Jackson did the same, "just went a little bargain hunting to save you some money."

"Looks like money well spent," Jane laughed as she snatched his drink and took a sip, "seems we got a job to do, you two up for a little assignment?"

The look they both shared caused some of the onlookers to walk slightly faster as they both turned to give Jane matching grins, "What have we got?"

Line Break

"Go to Chora's Den she said, it'll be fun she said," Jackson sighed as he felt yet another hand cop a feel even through his armor, "Ashley, quit grabbing my ass."

"It isn't me!" Ashley was like fifteen feet behind him as Jane followed in his wake, "If anything everyone in this place seems more interested in you than me, so that is a plus in my book."

"Boss Lady," Jackson whined as they managed to reach a secluded table occupied by one human, "tell the meanie to stop picking on me already."

"If you kids don't stop complaining I'll send you back to the ship," John muttered as he tapped the guy, Harkin, it turned out on the shoulder, "I've got some questions for you buddy."

"Fuck off," Jason rolled his eyes and picked the man up by his throat one handed before giving him a stern look as Harkin cleared his throat and looked back at John, "call off the attack dog already, jeez."

Once Harkin began talking, Jason wandered over to the side of the bar to watch from a secluded corner, giving the dancer next to him a short look before going back to his overwatch position as the others were either crowded around Harkin getting answers or talking to that Turian general about straightening out. The place was seedy, assorted flavors of booze, smoke, drugs and other such trade was being passed around, it was crowded, stuffy and noisy as Hell as he heard another familiar yelp from his twin getting molested again as he headed for the door once the others left as well.

"Never again shall I enter such establishments of squander and refugee to be pawed and defiled as an object of their lust," Jackson pouted as Ashely and Jane shared a brief look before chuckling, "next time can we just run in with guns blazing or something?"

"Doubt it, we need to find this detective that might have a bead on Saren," John paused in his speaking as he narrowed his eyes, "possible contacts front, seven of them, keep your guard up."

Sure enough, a handful of Turain assassins with two Krogan heavy hitters bringing up the rear as they spotted John and Jane and pulled out weapons, so much for an easy stroll.

"Scatter!" The yell came from John as everyone dove for the nearest parts of cover while drawing weapons, Jackson had a shit eating grin on his face as he pulled out his Revenant, both hostile Krogan performing what looked like a confused expression as he yelled, "Say hello to my little friend!"

Gunfire filled the air as Jason simply enshrouded himself with a barrier and charged forward with his shotgun in hand, plowing two of the turians aside as he filled another with two rounds from his double barreled shotgun before charging off in another direction. The crossfire was soon brought to a stalemate once both sides got behind reasonable amounts of cover, up until John de-cloaked ten meters away after his shot took the head off one Krogan as combined biotics from Alenko and Jane slammed the second one into the opposite wall hard enough to break his spine.

With both Krogans gone, the remaining turians were swiftly dealt with as they regrouped near the entrance in order to do a casualty count and come up with a new plan.

"Must've been Saren's boys out to make sure we can't talk," John scowled as he glanced around, "nobody goes anywhere alone from here on out, anyone hit?"

A chorus of negative replies answered him as they quickly looted the still warm corpses for any intel, but finding plenty of credits, weapons and a few armor upgrades not shot to pieces as they moved on to the medical clinic in order to find one Detective Vakarian.

Needless to say, the resulting firefight between five thugs and seven professionals was short and to the point as they managed to watch Garrus pull off a perfect headshot with a pistol and save the good Doctor Michele.

"Spirits," Garrus had a moment of shock as he stared up at Jackson before looking down at Jason, "I didn't know humans got much taller than two meters, this one on the other hand is much smaller."

"Don't let size fool ya, he's the one you have to watch out for," Jackson grinned as he stowed his assault rifle, "biotics and all that."

A round of introductions was concluded, meeting yet another awesome character in the Mass Effect universe was just about as cool as the first, but Jason was more worried about the one they would have to be rescuing soon.

"The Quarian?" Dr. Michele shook her head and took a deep breath to calm down, "She left a few hours ago, heading to Fist in order to get in contact with the ShadowBroker for her own safety."

"Fist isn't working with the ShadowBroker anymore," Jane said as she grabbed a couple units of medi-gel from the dispenser on the wall, "he defected and is now working for Saren."

"Really? That's stupid, even for Fist," she turned back to find Jason less than a foot away and jumped in surprise, "oh you startled me."

"I need a trauma bag, medical equipment for a field medic and as many supplies as I can afford to pay," Jason said as he brought up his omni-tool and looked back at her, "can I get it here?"

"Oh, of course." Dr. Michele lead the way to the storeroom as Jackson let out a chuckle once he noticed that everyone else was on high alert.

"He hates doctors with a passion, but he reads a lot of medical journals and such, so he knows what he is doing," Jackson glanced at Garrus, "don't ask, long story."

Garrus simply closed his mouth as his mandibles twitched and nodded his head as they waited for Jason to return, about ten minutes later he did, with a brand new medic bag attached to his belt as they left the med clinic.

Jason was busy putting things where he could easily find everything and reach it as he paid half an ear to the plan being developed while he handed out spare medi-gel and antibiotics to his twin.

"I'd recommend splitting up to cover more ground faster, but Saren might have more goons to send after us, so we'll stick together in one group, check out C-Sec to see if that Krogan wants to tag along and nail Fist to a wall," the pointed look from his wife made him reconsider his earlier statement, "after we extract the location of the Quarian out of him first, find the Quarian and get the data she has on Saren, any questions?"

"Just one," Jason asked as he stepped forward, "the longer we take to put a team together, the less chance we have to save the Quarian if she is heading too or already at the meeting place with the ShadowBroker, so I volunteer to watch Chora's Den to monitor it for any changes."

Jackson smiled as he reached over and slapped him on the back, "A splendid idea my good fellow, but I like the idea of having a Krogan who can kick some serious ass backing me up as I assault the bad guy's hideout."

"I like it," John said as he turned to face Jason, "stick to the shadows and send any updates that you can, avoid being seen, bug out if things get hairy."

Jason nodded before he turned and melted into the crowd like he'd never been there as Jackson let out an almighty sigh, "Guess I better go make sure he doesn't get in trouble."

"Negative," John said as he watched Jason walk away, "the idea of him tangling with a Krogan that we need on our good side isn't what I had in mind, this way we can have live information being transmitted to us on the condition of Chora's Den."

Garrus chose that moment to pitch in his two cents worth, "Anyone else notice that your medic had more dextro based medical equipment and supplies than levo?"

Eyes turned to Jackson as he found himself on the spot, "Well you see, we've run into quarians before and he has this soft spot for them, mind you he'll probably do something incredibly stupid if he sees the Quarian."

"Not liking that tone Juggernaut," Jane huffed as she continued walking in the direction of C-Sec with the others following behind her, "what are you trying to say?"

"Have you ever noticed how awkward he tends to be?" Jackson was glad that he visor hid the smile covering his face, payback was a bitch as he went off on some fabricated story of woe and anguish as they continued to C-Sec.

Line Break

"Goddamn it," Jason cursed as he wiped his nose, "someone is most definitely talking about me."

Shaking that thought, he turned back to watch the front entrance of the esteemed Chora's Den as he switched between watching the door and his omni-tool, which he was using to attempt a hack into the security mainframe of the club. Because he knew that Fist had a shitload of bodyguards, a couple locked doors and a pair of security turrets that would cause the assaulting team a lot of grief before they were destroyed as he decided to even the odds a bit.

Hacking into the secure files of Fist's computer took him all of two minutes, making copies of everything, leaving the function for locking down doors not available in the next half hour, shorting out the turrets and getting a complete headcount of all the employees working under Fist, namely the "security guards" he had on payroll.

Forty-six humans, ten turians, four asari commandos and three Krogan for now, almost half were inside the bar right now while the other half was on their way to the club with heavier weapons and armor, they'd be arriving in the next twenty minutes.

"Jason, what do you see?" The voice in his headpiece belonged to none other than Jane Shepard as he answered.

"All the patrons were kicked out about five minutes, security team of thirty showed up and appear to be locking the place down tight," he glanced at his omni-tool and smiled, "just got done hacking through seven firewalls into Fist's private office, problem is I don't have a location for the Quarian yet."

"Nice," Jackson could be heard now over the com channel, "where are you anyway?"

A glance over at the shuttle transit terminal revealed a familiar team with a hulking Krogan in red standing there readying weapons, "Fifty meters to your right and twelve meters up behind the second ventilation fan."

"Coming to join the party?" Ashley asked with a bit of smirk in her voice.

"Only about half of Fist's security element is here, the rest will be arriving in fifteen minutes," Jason waited for the cussing he could hear from his hiding spot stop before adding, "thought I'd stay here and provide some support if they showed up before you got to Fist."

"Granted, remain on overwatch for now and make sure no one sneaks up on us," John said as he terminated the signal and stepped closer to Chora's Den with the rest of the team in tow, "Jackson, you wanted to charge in guns blazing right? Get the door."

Line Break

"Well that was interesting," Jackson chuckled as he wiped a piece of the poor bastard's brain off his shoulder pad as he watched Wrex get an ass chewing from both Commanders, "hey bro we got a location on the Quarian, how copy?"

"You've got the rest of the security element showing up now," that brought the argument to a standstill as everyone scrambled for weapons, "should I engage or head for the Quarian?"

"Quarian, we've got the firepower to handle these guys." John answered as they reached the main room of the club and began firing at the approaching thugs.

Wrex simply shrugged off about half a dozen hits before blasting a thug away at point blank range, watching Jackson mow down another three with his larger assault rifle, "How is a squishy like you able to fire that thing? It's rated for Krogan for a damn good reason."

"Oh you know, I'm just lucky." Jackson laughed as he tossed a grenade into another group of thugs, watching as they scattered once the explosion went off.

Line Break

"I spy with my little eye," Jason muttered to himself as he peeked around the corner, "a Krogan, three turians, five humans and four salarians surrounding one Quarian."

It was a bit of a change from only three assassins, but he figured that once the rest of the team showed up, they'd have more than enough firepower to take care of them as he monitored the progress of the team in question, no doubt leaving the shattered remains of Chora's Den behind about now.

"Did you bring it?" He pulled out his shotgun and prepped a sabotage attack on his omni-tool.

"Where's the ShadowBroker? Where's Fist?" He could easily hear the sounds of her modulated voice from where he was hiding.

"They'll be here," Jason had to fight back the growl as he watched the turian reach up and begin patting her down, "where's the evidence?"

SLAP!

"No way, the deal's off." Jason smirked as he watched the turian get put in his place, but that changed into a frown once he watched the Krogan turn around with a massive face splitting grin on his face, a knife longer than his arm appearing from thin air.

The good news was that she managed to throw her proximity mine at the closer targets before diving for cover, it was time to make an entrance.

A biotic Charge brought him right in front of the leering Krogan as he traded smiles before blasting him in the face at point blank range, granted his shields had stopped most of the blast as he advanced closer.

"Pick" Blam! "On" Blam! "Someone" Blam! "Else!" Blam!

With the fifth shot having caused his shotgun to overheat, the now headless corpse falling over backwards, Jason launched three biotic Lifts as a wave of mass accelerator fire from the other end of the hallway poured into the fight before he noticed something.

One of the humans, standing out of sight to everyone else was armed with a rocket launcher and was currently pointing the weapon in his general direction, no at Tali as he spun on heel and charged towards her, executing a perfect tackle over the one piece of cover in the entire hallway as he expanded his biotic barrier to cover not only himself, but her entire body as well.

KA-BOOM!

High pitched ringing in his ears aside, Jason didn't want to move around too much until he heard the last of the gunfire around him finally taper off, recognizing the sounds of armored boots clomping towards him as he pushed himself up to his knees and looked down to see if she was alright.

Oh damn, was his only coherent thought as he took in the sight pinned beneath him, surrounded in the simmering biotic energy of his one of a kind barrier.

She was shorter in real life than he thought, but her suit was much softer, not quite as shiny or reflective in the light as he trailed his eyes from the top of her realak, her visor that framed two silver orbs looking up at him unblinkingly, her voice modulator that was blinking in rhythm with her heavy breathing, the shotgun clutched in her arms across her chest as he gently lifted himself a few inches higher, placing a free hand on the ground next to her head for balance as he looked down into her eyes.

"Are you alright?" Jason was surprised that he managed to keep his voice even as he had suddenly found himself mashed against his biggest Mass Effect crush.

"Yes." The answer was short as he let a sigh of relief and sat up so he was sitting on his haunches holding out a hand to her.

She took it and with a slight tug, Jason found himself face to visor with her as he realized that he was still holding her hand, not that he would ever complain, but he slowly let the barrier fade out of existence, earning a strange squirming from Tali as he immediately started running a medical scan over her in worry. Maybe she had been wounded or something, but the scan came back negative, no suit breeches, infections, exposure or allergic reactions whatsoever as he looked back up at her face. Subtle body language and that cute way her head was tilted slightly to the left told him that she was embarrassed, then he remembered how they entangled on the ground holding hands a moment earlier as he idly wondered why she would still be embarrassed.

"D'awwww," now he realized that he had forgotten the rest of the team standing behind him as he felt his cheeks start to heat up, "its love on the battlefield, love true wove?"

The sappy punch line delivered by his twin made him slowly untangle himself and climb to his feet, helping Tali to hers while replacing his weapons and making a show of running another scan over her before turning around, making sure to be looking down as he did to hide the blush on his face.

"No injuries to report here," he sent a glare lethal enough to make any lesser man push up daisies towards his twin, "you were late."

"No changing the subject little brother," the look he was receiving told him exactly how much grief he was going to catch from this, "unless my eyes deceive me, but you went above and beyond the line of duty to make sure our Quarian friend here went unscathed eh?"

The knowing smirk on Jane Shepard's face told another story as Jason fought the blush coming on, now he wished he had paid extra for the tinted visor feature because unlike Tali, his face could be easily seen as he turned back around to face Tali.

"Ignore him, it's what I do," Jason said as he extended a hand, "Jason Saint, consultant for the Alliance and you are?"

"Tali'Zorah nar Rayya," Tali said as she nervously wrung her fingers together, "thank you for saving my life, even if I have no idea why you did it."

"We're looking for the evidence you had on Saren, anything to do with the attack on Eden Prime, that and these assassins were sent after you." John said as he stepped forward, looking around every which way.

"Fist set me up!" The angry scowled could easily be heard in her voice, "I knew I couldn't trust him!"

"Why would he want you dead Quarian?" The lumbering Krogan in red said as he pushed forward.

"My name is Tali!" Jason arched an eyebrow at that display that usually didn't happen until later as Jane stepped forward with her easy going laid back smile, a natural peacekeeper.

"Now, Tali, do you have any evidence proving Saren is a traitor?" She asked as Wrex backed off for now, largely unimpressed it seemed.

"Yes, but not here, it isn't safe." Tali answered while looking around frantically.

"The Human Embassy would be much safer," Williams pitched in from the back of the group as she smirked at Jason, "getting a little red aren't you?"

Jason arched a brow in her direction, "Our one shot at catching Saren and you would've let it get blown up? Really, what have you done?"

It was childish he knew, but that got her to shut up as everyone piled into the nearest elevator to reach a floor with a rapid transit terminal nearby (not every single elevator had access to the Presidium) so they could leave as Jackson let out an exaggerated sigh.

"So Jason, you never did tell the rest of the gang how you learned a little bit about Quarians..."

It was official, he was going to shoot his own twin. Repeatedly. In the head.