chapter 3

What do you want, turian?"

Garrus blinked in surprise. For a moment, he was taken aback by the sheer hostility in the voice of his old friend.

Then he recalled that in this timeline, they hadn't even met yet.

"Urdnot Wrex, I presume?" he drawled. "I'm Garrus Vakarian, C-Sec Detective. I was told you've been threatening to kill Fist?"

"What's it you?" said the krogan, taking a menacing step towards him.

To his credit, Garrus did not budge. "Fist has some information I'm in desperate need of. But as long as you're on the Citadel, he's not going to take a single step out of Chora's Den."

He stepped forward, careful to not break eye-contact. "You help me get what I want, I'll make sure C-Sec won't give you any trouble once you've. . . dealt with him."

Wrex eyed him warily, probably looking for signs of deception. "Why should I help you, turian?"

Garrus smiled at him coldly. "I believe your people have a saying: seek the enemy of your enemy, and you will find a friend. So, you in?"

Wrex stared at him for a few moments and then cracked his knuckles menacingly. "Let's go. I hate to keep Fist waiting."

Dispatching the guards at Chora's den was laughably easy.

Perhaps it was because Garrus and Wrex had the element of surprise, perhaps it was because nobody expected a turian and a krogan to walk into a bar and start shooting at something other than each other. . . .

Or perhaps it was because they were simply that good.

At any rate, the unusual duo soon found themselves standing over the cowering form of Fist, who seemed to be trying hard not to pass out in their presence.

On the way in Garrus had run into three guards who, in the previous timeline, had been unfortunate enough to threaten Dr Michel in the presence of Commander Shepard.

He smiled fondly as he put a bullet in each of their heads, remembering how Shepard had berated him over endangering Michel's life while taking down these very fools.

Spirits, she was so amazing back then. . . .

He was snapped out of his fond reverie as a nasty smell reached his nose.

Fist had soiled himself.

He sighed internally. Really, this guy's supposed to be a crime boss?

And what kind of a name was "Fist", anyway?

Archangel, now that's a name. . . .

He snapped back to reality as Wrex cleared his throat and glared pointedly at the cowering human.

"Fist," Garrus drawled. "My sources tell me a quarian approached you to set up a meeting with the Shadow Broker. Tell me where she is."

"She's not here. I don't know where she is. That's the truth!"

"I see," Garrus said coldly. He turned to the hulking krogan beside him. "All yours, Wrex."

"Wait! Wait!" Fist screamed as Wrex advanced on him. "I don't know where the quarian is, but I know where you can find her."

"I told her I'd set up a meeting with the Broker. Here in the wards. Back alley by the markets. You should hurry. Saren's men will be waiting for her."

Garrus simply turned on his heel and walked away. Behind him he heard the loud report of a shotgun, and looked back to see Wrex standing over Fist's corpse.

"The Shadow Broker paid me to kill him. I don't leave jobs half done." He glared defiantly at Garrus, as though daring him to say something.

Garrus simply shrugged. "We've got a quarian to save and more bad guys to kill. You coming?"

Wrex simply stared at him.

As Garrus walked away he heard the krogan follow him, muttering under his breath, "You're one crazy turian, you know that?"

Garrus merely grinned. Oh trust me Wrex, you have no idea!

He spotted her standing near the back alley, obviously waiting impatiently for her contacts to arrive. His heart jumped at the sight of her.

"Tali Zorah nar Rayya?"

She looked at him suspiciously, taking in the large krogan looming behind him.

"Yes?"

He let her voice wash over him for a second. She was here, really here! One of his closest friends, someone who he practically thought of as his sister. . .

. . . someone he had failed terribly.

Spirits Tali. . . .

"I'm Garrus Vakarian, C-Sec detective," he said, silently thankful that she wasn't as familiar with reading turian facial expressions as she would go on to be. "This is Wrex," he gestured to the krogan behind him. "Dr Michel mentioned you had information on the geth."

She relaxed slightly at the mention of Michel's name. "Yes. . ." she said hesitantly. "I was going to sell this to the Shadow Broker. . . ."

Wrex harrumphed. "The Shadow Broker never deals with anyone face-to-face. I've worked for him before, and even I was hired by an agent."

"Fist set you up," Garrus said bluntly. "He doesn't work for the Broker anymore. It was Saren's men who were going to meet you here."

"That bosh'tet! I knew I couldn't trust him!" an obviously distraught Tali exclaimed.

"Don't worry about Fist. He got what was coming to him." Garrus assured her with a grin.

"Then I guess there are two things I need to thank you for. Regarding the data. . . ."

"You can come with us to the human embassy. You'll be safe there. They'll probably want to see the data for themselves, anyway," Garrus suggested.

"Great idea. You lead, I'll follow."

The unusual trio left the back alley, only Wrex complaining about missing a possible firefight.

As they approached the human embassy, Garrus could hear Anderson, Udina and Shepard having a discussion. Anderson seemed to be in a frenzy of some sort and Shepard was attempting to calm him down.

The three of them stopped talking and turned around to look at Garrus' group warily.

Garrus supposed he couldn't blame them for looking so suspicious. It's not every day one saw a krogan, a turian and a quarian walk into a human embassy.

Heh. Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke. . . .

"Can I help you Detective?" Udina drawled, peering at their group suspiciously.

"Ambassador," Garrus said, nodding briefly. He snapped off a salute at Anderson and Shepard, who looked surprised. "I'm Garrus Vakarian, officer in charge of the C-Sec investigation into Saren."

"You found something?" Shepard was the first one to recover. Garrus grinned at her.

"As a matter of fact, I have." He gestured to the quarian behind him. "This is Tali Zorah nar Rayya. She's got something you all need to hear."

He then stood back as Udina addressed Tali directly. He half-listened to Tali talking about her Pilgrimage and recovering the geth memory core. He stole the occasional glace at Shepard, whose attention was focused entirely on the audio recording of Saren talking about the Conduit.

He was close enough to smell her scent. Spirits, how he missed that smell. . . .

He recovered just in time to hear Tali telling the others about the legend of the Reapers.

"We must present these findings to the Council right away," Udina declared.

"What about the quarian?" Ashley muttered.

"My name is Tali," the quarian in question said, glaring at the gunnery chief.

"Commander Shepard, please let me come with you. I'm more than capable of taking care of myself."

"I don't know, Tali," Shepard seemed hesitant. "Things could get ugly out there."

Crap. . . . Garrus thought. Shepard hadn't seen Tali in action this time round; no wonder she was hesitant to bring her aboard.

Time for a little improvisation. . .

"I think you should consider her offer, Commander," Garrus said, interjecting himself smoothly into the conversation. "You'll be going up against Saren and an army of unknowns. Tali's the closest thing to a geth expert you've got right now."

Shepard seemed to consider this carefully. "You're right," she nodded. "I'll take all the help I can get." She smiled at the young quarian, "Welcome aboard, Tali."

As Tali thanked the Commander, Udina and Anderson moved off to alert the council, leaving the mismatched group alone to prepare.

"Good job, detective," the Commander praised. "You really helped us out over there."

"Just doing my job, Commander," Garrus replied modestly.

All right, here goes nothing. . . .

"Commander, if I may. . ." he hesitated.

"Speak your mind, detective."

"This is your show, Commander. But I want to bring down Saren as much as you do. I'd appreciate it if you let me come with you."

"You're a turian. Why do you want to take him down?" Williams piped up from behind Shepard.

Williams. . . so predictable.

The Commander shot her a stern glare, one that promised a dressing-down in the near future, before turning to look at Garrus somewhat apologetically.

Garrus steeled himself. He'd been practicing this speech for a while now.

"Saren is a traitor to the Council and a disgrace to my people! But it's more than just that," he paused. "What he did on Eden Prime is unforgivable. All those innocent lives lost. . . it's something he has to answer for."

"Human lives," Alenko spoke up, as if stating some indisputable fact.

"Innocent lives," Garrus repeated firmly. "The fact that they were human changes nothing, not in my book at least."

He saw the glint of approval in Shepard's eyes and instinctively knew what her next words were going to be.

"Welcome to the team, Garrus," she said, holding out her hand.

He shook her hand firmly, relishing the feel of her small hand against his. "Thank you, Shepard."

"What about your friend there?" Shepard asked, gesturing towards a bored-looking Wrex.

Garrus chuckled. "We're not a package, exactly. You're going to have to ask him yourself; if you ask me though, he won't say no to a good fight."

Shepard merely grinned.