Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Everyone knew the fight was over when Shepard managed to pin Jaren’s arms behind his back. No one ever won a training match against her once they were restrained, and even if they did manage to break out of it, they never lasted very long after.

Sure enough, he was down on the ground with Shepard’s knee on his back in a matter of seconds, and after Sergeant Barras finished his countdown that started as soon as Jaren was immobile, he declared Shepard the winner. She gracefully stood back up, brushing a few stray hairs out of her face while a satisfied smile looked down at the other recruit. Then, she reached out and held her hand, helping him get back to his feet despite the shame carried on his face before he left the training mats to grab his bottle of water.

“Shepard wins… again,” Aneta sighed from where she stood on the edge of the mats, shaking her head. “Are you ever going to let one of us win these matches?”

“Sure,” Shepard said with a grin. “Go ahead and fight each other; I’m sure you can win then.”

Aneta rolled her eyes, but she still let out a soft chuckle before tossing Shepard a water bottle too. She accepted it and immediately twisted the top open, downing half the bottle in one go.

As she began to close it again, Sergeant Barras clapped her shoulder from behind and said, “How about you do take a break, Zarena? A proper one this time, not just for water. No one learns from continuing to get their asses beat, do they? Maybe we need to bump you up to the low-grav sims the N-1’s train in and see if you can still handle those fights.”

Before she could give him an answer, her brow furrowed and her lip curled for a moment as she was going to try and refuse the break, red and white flashing lights high in the ceiling started up, followed seconds later by a blaring alarm that brought all conversations among the recruits to a halt as they looked up and around, unsure of what to do.

“Some kind of drill?” one of them suggested, though their voice was timid and unsure.

“Everyone, get in formation!” Barras barked, looking over them to do a head count as they scrambled to gather together. “I’m contacting the office now to figure out what’s going on, but I want you all ready to move in a moment’s notice.”

“There’s no need,” a new voice said as it cut over the alarm.

Barras turned around and stood at attention, saluting. “Captain Anderson,” he greeted.

“At ease,” he said as he stepped up to the mats, carefully folding his hands behind his back and examining the recruits lined up before him. “Barras, Shepard, come with me. The rest of the recruits, return to your quarters and await further instructions.”

“Are we under attack?”

“Not here,” he assured. “You are not in danger by staying in the base.”

“But we are under attack?” Shepard said, eyebrow raised as she crossed her arms across her chest.

His lips pressed together into a thin line, and for a moment, the only sound in the room was the still blaring alarm. “Come with me,” he said instead of confirming or denying, and turned quickly on his heel to show he was dismissing everyone else.

Shepard hurried to catch up to him, passing Barras along the way who was keeping a respectable distance between them as he followed. “Sir, if we’re under attack, shouldn’t the others have the right to know?”

“The information is on a need to know basis right now, Shepard. Things have just gotten… complicated. It will have to wait until the briefing room.”

“Briefing room?” she repeated, slowing down immediately and almost falling too far behind him to hear his answer.

“Your skill is outmatched in your training group, and I have reassurances from every officer that has covered your training that you’re more than capable of handling yourself. We need every hand we can get right now, so we can’t afford to leave you in training. You’ve just earned yourself your first promotion, Shepard.”

She didn’t even have the words to answer, eyes wide as she continued with the men further into the base. There she was, already getting her first promotion, finally getting the chance to see more of space and what the galaxy had to offer, and she didn’t even have the time to write home about it. Sure, she didn’t mind dealing without all the bells and whistles of a formal ceremony, but this was the last thing she expected when she woke up this morning. Whatever this was, it was clearly serious if they were willing to promote her because of it.

Finally, they reached the comm room where most of the other ranking officers on base were already gathered. The stale scent of sweat was no longer present this far in from the training grounds, and Shepard blinked around in surprise as everyone took a seat around the table in the center fitted with top end holographic technology. Squeezing in between several of the other officers, for once in a long time, Shepard felt… small. She sat up a little straighter, squaring off her shoulders, and continued to scan the faces of those within the room, slowly tuning out the alarms that were now only blaring in the distance.

She blinked back surprise when the hologram flickered to life without warning, but kept her reaction minimal so as to not distract anyone, including herself, from the holographic man now standing up on the table. He was only barely recognizable from all of the Alliance posters asking for people to volunteer, and from many of his public announcements as well. The hologram was none other than Admiral Hackett himself.

As everyone suddenly stood up to salute him, Shepard followed suit, making sure to stand her ground and not let anyone push her over as they did. In fact, the one person who did accidentally hit her in their proximity was the one to bounce away, unable to move her in the slightest.

“At ease,” Hackett said with a wave, and quickly everyone sat back down and looked up at him expectantly. “As some of you may be aware, and as I know others are not, one of our fleets exploring the galaxy and opening up more relays to travel further suddenly sent up a distress signal before going dark. Another fleet was quickly dispatched to provide aid, and along the way, ran into the only surviving ship, crippled but trying to bring back the story of what happened. They bring us… surprising news, but not something we were not expecting eventually as we continued to explore what lay beyond the relays. We are, in fact, not the only intelligent life in the universe.”

He paused for a moment and let his words sink in for everyone, making the room fall completely silent. A pin could drop on the floor and everyone would hear it, bt uno one would even look for the source of the noise as they all processed this sudden news.

“Yes, the fleet had made first contact, and it immediately went wrong. These aliens open fired on the team trying to open the relay, an open act of immediate hostility. As far as we can tell, they didn’t even try to communicate with us beforehand. This is an open faced act of war, and unless they come forward and try to rectify the situation peacefully, we must assume defensive positions on the closest colony. We’re preparing once more to attempt some kind of peaceful contact ourselves, as this may have been the act of a few and they don’t represent their entire race, but we are not very hopeful in this outcome. Your superiors have your assignments, begin preparations and ready yourselves to ship out tomorrow. Hackett out.”

The hologram fizzled, blurring his image before going out entirely. Slowly, everyone began to filter out of the room as those in charge began giving out orders, more and more voices mingling in the air and making the room buzz with the most energy it’s seen all day.

“Shepard.” She immediately hopped up from her seat and stood at attention as soon as she heard her name, looking over to see Anderson looking back at her with a barely concealed smile. “You’re with me, rookie. The Alliance has special plans for you.” He gestured for her to follow him out of the room and she did so without hesitation, glad for the wave of cool air that hit her in the hall now that she wasn’t pressed up against so many bodies. She also hoped she could at least get a shower before they have to leave the base and venture out into Anderson knows where, wanting to wash off the lingering sweat of the day.

“What exactly do you mean when you say the Alliance has something special for me, sir?”

“You’re going to be a part of my ship’s crew for now; at least until this threat is over, or if it goes on for too long, until there’s a reason to reassign you. They want me to keep an eye on you.”

“I don’t need a babysitter,” she huffed.

“I’m sure you’re more than capable on your own,” he agreed. “But that’s not why I’m watching you. I’m supposed to evaluate you, see if I think you have what it takes to earn a special promotion into the N soldier’s ranks. I know Barras was joking when he mentioned it earlier, but my superiors are actually considering it. The work you’ve done in your training is rarely seen, but we need to see you in action before you can earn that promotion.”

“Wow, that…” she blinked and straightened up once more. “It would be an honor if you do choose me, sir.”

This time, he couldn’t help but laugh. “Please, there’s no need to be so formal everywhere, Shepard. Definitely not when we’re not on duty yet. Go ahead and get some rest, gather your things, whatever you want to do. I expect to see you in hangar four by oh eight hundred tomorrow, ready to launch our ship.”

“Oh eight hundred,” she repeated with a nod for confirmation. “Thank you… Anderson. I’ll be there.”

“Don’t be late on your first day,” he advised as he turned around to face her, now stopped at a crossroads in the hall where they were likely to part ways as Shepard headed back to the barracks. “Especially when we need to get you acquainted with the ship.”

She flashed a smile in his direction, a multitude of emotions boiling just under the surface of her skin, from surprise to nervousness to excitement to worry. It was all happening so fast—her promotion, the sudden threat of war, her possible future induction to the N soldier ranks. She’d finally be in space, though, and she’d be able to prove to everyone that she had what it took to do whatever was needed of her—everyone including herself. Then, for a final formality, she saluted him before turning and walking down the empty hallway, preparing a mental checklist to make sure she had everything she needed before they left the base, for who knew if or when they would return.

Chapter Text

It’s quiet in the battery, surprisingly so. Not that Garrus was complaining, of course—it’s why he was there, hidden in the far corner of the room with one of the gun’s consoles open. Here, he could access all of the guns attached to the warship and do what he did best—calibrate them to his heart’s content. It would be hard to find him hiding this far in, so he can have a moment to himself and—

“Garrus! There you are.”

—he didn’t account for someone actively looking for him. Maybe he should try to pick up some cloaking tech next time he had a chance, because hiding right now would be the best thing he could do.

“Everyone is looking for you,” Chellick said, coming to a stop just in front of him, the open holo screen between them.

“I seriously doubt that.”

“Alright, fine, it’s not everyone,” he said, rolling his eyes. “But we’re starting a sparring match soon, and the only people not coming down are the ones too busy with their duties.”

“...I’m too busy with my duties,” he said as he looked up at Chellicck, schooling his face to remain calm and collected in an attempt to look serious, hoping it was convincing enough.

“Bullshit. You’re not even on duty right now.” He eyed the holo screen, scoffing as he figured out what was on it despite looking at it backwards. “Are you really calibrating again? While you’re not even working?”

“You can never be too careful,” he muttered, turning his attention back to the screen and his calculations and hoping just by ignoring him Chellick would go away. Of course, nothing ever went the way he wanted it to.

“Come on.” He hit Garrus’s shoulder in a playful manner, a little harder than he had expected but still nothing he could feel through his armor. “Don’t you want to come relieve some tension? Everyone’s getting antsy wondering what we’re going to find when we get to that alien colony; they can’t sit around and wait anymore.”

“Yeah, and that wonder includes if they have any large warships in the area and how powerful their weapons might be. Even if they’re not as advanced as us, if they can get even a moment of surprise, we could be done for.”

“This all sounds like excuses to me.”

Garrus looked back up at him and leveled his best glare. “You go ahead and work off your steam the way you want to, and I’ll do mine.”

He held his hands up and took a step back. “Okay! No need to get so hostile. What’s got you so worried about the weapons anyway?”

“I’m not worried about them. I’m worried about other things.”

Silence hung like syrup in the air as if Chellick was waiting for him to explain further, but Garrus had no intention of saying another word.He would never voice the real reason he had been trying to avoid everyone since the moment their ship was assigned to find the colony—the fact that he doesn’t understand why they were finding it at all. Sure, trying to open any new relay without permission was forbidden by The Council after the Rachni Wars, but to start an entire war over it, especially without the council’s involvement… it seemed wrong. And he doubted any other turian would understand what he meant by that, or would even somewhat agree with him.

Finally, Chellick sighed. “Fine. Bt if you end up under General Arterius’s command you know your breaks will be—”

“Desolas has his own men to deal with,” Garrus said, waving him off and only half listening, trying anything to get him off of his back. “If anyone does ask, I’m not here, and I’m not coming.”

“Right. I’ll be sure to pass that information along, then.”

He waited until he heard the doors slide open and closed once more before letting out a breath he was holding, rubbing the plates above his eyes as he worried Chellick wouldn’t be the only visitor of the night, even if he didn’t say anything. Maybe he should try to find a different hiding spot.

Garrus knew it wouldn’t be long before they arrived—he knew they wouldn’t be the first, either, as news already spread that some of their fleet was already at the alien colony, certainly drawing the attention of the alien military. No matter what the others were thinking, he was prepared for them to put up a good fight. Even if his whole heart wasn’t in it, he definitely wasn’t going to let the people in his fleet die if he had any say in helping them out, and he wasn’t anybody important to try to ask the Primarch or The Council to give them some better guidance in this situation.

What did end up surprising him, when they arrived, was how quickly half of the ship’s crew were sent down to the planet’s surface, himself included. There would be enough crew to still run the ship up here, especially if there was an attack on the ship or if they needed to provide firing aid to the surface, but Garrus was among the individuals the Captain thought would be ‘better suited to join the fight.’ Garrus would rather stay on the ship in the battery, but unfortunately, he wasn’t important enough to try and argue against his position either. Besides, he knew they were right—no one on this ship could handle a sniper rifle better than he could.

So, he did what any other turian would do. He stood in line at attention as their superiors droned on about what was going on outside of the base they set up on the planet’s surface, and how they were supposed to approach the situation. Apparently, even though the fleet that had arrived before his already established the base with almost no resistance, some of the alien military had fired upon the larger turian ships as a distraction to get some of their smaller ships through to the planet’s surface.

Now that they were dealing with more than just civilians, the situation was a little more complicated. After finding their colony (Garrus doubted they would tell him how if he asked, and he also doubted he really wanted to know the answer) they thought their presence would be threatening enough, but the aliens seemed determined, and the military was already evacuating the civilians, trying to relocate them away from where the fighting would eventually take place. To quote the general, “If it’s a fight they want, it’s a fight they’re going to get.”

That’s why he’s now nestled between two rocks on the top of a hill, his sniper out and searching for the humans they know are nearby. Some of the alien military had led a full frontal assault on their base: a move that seemed dumb even for a species that doesn’t know about the turian’s military strength. Suspecting something was up, he and a small squad were sent away while the rest defended the base, trying to find what the diversion was for.

He slowed his searching down when he thought he spotted movement, returning the sight to the corner of one of the makeshift metal buildings. His suspicion was quickly confirmed: he just managed to catch a face peeking around the corner before it disappeared again.

“Garrus, are you in position?”

“I’ve got eyes on the target,” he answered, shifting slightly to get a better position without moving the scope off of the aliens. “Looks like we were right; they made a diversion to clear out that part of the settlement too scared to leave because of their proximity to us.”

“Don’t engage with them on your own; wait for us to get into position.”

He rolled his eyes. As if he’d do that in the first place. Could he be cocky? Yes. Often. But only if it was on his turf, or at least something he was able to map out beforehand to know where all of the good angles and hiding places were. You don’t become a good sniper and ignore the need for multiple places of cover at any given time on the battlefield.

So, he sat and watched as they tried to sneak around the buildings, unaware they were already being hunted. He waited for the signal—or, if it came first, the fighting to begin, before he himself joined in the fray.

Shouting soon filled the air, and some muttered curses came over the comms—apparently the rookie was spotted before they could get close enough. The air soon filled with the bright colors and loud sounds of gunfire, so he set his sights back to the aliens with renewed vigor. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt an unarmed civilian on purpose, but if he could find one of the soldiers… there. Peeking out from behind a crate, gun in hand… and holding their hand out behind them, as if keeping someone back. They’re not even fully in cover from the rest of his squad let alone from him, so there are probably civilians they’re hiding and protecting behind them.

Weighing his options, Garrus ultimately tilted the rifle to the side a little, finding a smaller crate nearby instead and pulled his trigger. The crate went flying: his warning shot was successful, and he saw several heads pop up for a moment behind the crate as they moved backwards, no doubt startled. However, before he could really feel accomplished in this, the soldier turned around sharply, looking up into the rocks and…

There’s no way.

How could they be staring up his barrel with only one shot? One that wasn’t even aimed at them?

His confusion melted away instantly when they began to fire towards him, scrambling away to hide behind one of the larger rocks before he was shot. The firing stopped as soon as he was out of sight, but he was certain he wouldn’t be able to use it anymore and would need another perch if he was going to continue fighting.

What were they getting themselves into?

Chapter Text

Shepard threw herself down on a bench in a huff, immediately starting to peel her armor off. There was a lot to do—clean the armor to keep it in good condition, clean herself up of the sweat and dirt she had collected, and then, of course, the paperwork. Could never have someone shooting at you without filling out paperwork after, assuming you survived.

“What’s with the rush?” someone said with a chuckle. Shepard turned to see one of her new crewmates, Ashley Williams, occupying one of the other benches in the room to remove her own armor.

“There isn’t one,” she said with a sigh, pausing for a moment to take a deep breath before forcing herself to move slower despite the tension still built up in her muscles.

“Sure… it has nothing to do with the mission then.”

“No.”

“You’re right, it shouldn’t be. Because the mission was a success, right? We rescued all the civilians in enemy territory and no one was critically injured in the process. There was nothing to be mad at, right?”

She turned and squinted at Ashley. “What are you fishing for, Williams?”

“Oh come on, Shepard. I was in training at the same time as you, you know. We might not have been in the same group, but your name was still in a lot of the gossip around base. I know when you fight you fight hard, and I know that you don’t take losing lightly. I’m not going to ask why—I know first hand how much your family or things that have happened in your past can affect you. But I’m almost certain the ambush is getting to you.”

Sighing again, she threw her leg up and over the other side of the bench to turn and face Ashley head on. “We were expecting something. Sure, the others might have taken most of the attention, but everyone knew it was a forced diversion to attack them head-on anyway. If someone wasn’t expecting us to get shot at, that’s their problem. No, I’m more concerned about that sniper.”

“The one you tried to shoot at? You know they were too far away to hit, right?”

“Of course; I’m not dumb. I was just hoping to scare them away. No, I’m just… they took a warning shot. I hid with the civilians near me once we spotted the aliens like everyone else did. But I only hid from the ones we saw. That sniper could have—should have—taken a shot at me. From that angle they had a clear view of me.”

“So… you’re mad that you got out of there unscathed?”

“I’m upset that they didn’t take the clear shot,” she said tersely. “You don’t miss on purpose in a war, Williams. I hate feeling like they’re trying to scare us off and not take us seriously, saying they’re better at everything than we are and trying to win before we’ve even started.”

Ashley hummed, pursing her lips. “My grandfather is stationed here too; probably one of the reasons I was promoted out of training and sent right here. I could run it by him if you’re really that worried and see what he thinks?”

“No, no, don’t bother him,” she answered immediately. “If it’s only one soldier, it might not be a problem. We’ll have to keep an eye on it. It could still be a problem, however, if we keep running into that sniper, but that’s something to sort out later.”

She arched an eyebrow. “Are you sure? You don’t seem to have let it go yet.”

“I’m fine. I’ll mention it in the paperwork and see what the higher ups think, okay? If they think it’s worth looking into, they’ll come to me, and we can figure something out.” Without another word she turned away and back to her pile of armor, showing that the conversation was over. She was thankful that Ashley didn’t say anything else, and they finished their own tasks in silence.

Truthfully, she was more upset about it than she let on. It was a simple mistake she made: just because she was hidden from one enemy didn’t mean she should have thought she was completely in cover. If that was a training example, she would have failed, and the trainers probably would have said she was dead at that moment. And yet, for something real, she wasn’t even shot at.

It was her pride that was hurt, and that was something that was hard to come back from. She was sure that, if she ran across the sniper again, she’d make it a point to be as difficult as possible to try and force their hand.

A wing of the base’s personal quarters was converted into rooms for the civilians as they recovered. It was the safest place for them to rest, and it wasn’t likely they were going to be evacuated from the planet any time soon as their own ships were now at a standstill with the aliens, not shooting at each other as they knew they’d only blow each other up at this point. Instead, they were certainly watching the surface of the planet closely, probably ready to shoot a ship down if there was any sudden or unexpected movement and definitely ready to rain missiles down on them.

Shepard turned in her paperwork and made mention of the warning shot, but she really wasn’t surprised that no one asked her about it. There were enough people there doing the evacuation that they really didn’t need to ask any specific questions about the mission, and the warning shot probably wasn’t novel enough to draw their attention.

Still, she took her job seriously, taking up her assigned regular patrols and keeping a keen eye out when outside the base for the aliens. The last thing she wanted to do was have the aliens think they really were better than them and could get the upper hand in attacking their base outright as well. She did all of this while waiting to be sent back out in the field again, knowing there were regular scouting missions she wasn’t a part of.

Finally, she was told to suit up in the middle of the day, when she was on duty inside the base tasked with one of the most boring jobs imaginable—inventory. She would be glad that anything got her out of combing through boxes and counting their rations, but she was especially excited that it’s finally another proper mission that pulled her away.

The scouting teams had, from afar, encountered an alien scouting team the other day. They’ve been keeping track of them ever since they managed to remain hidden, trying to monitor their sweeps, and they think they have narrowed down the time their path will cross with the best spot for an ambush. So, Anderson wanted Shepard out there on the front of the next group as they prepared an attack.

That’s how she found herself once again trying to hide out in the open, this time taking a cluster of rocks to hide herself. She was acutely aware of all the angles that could still see her, and kept scanning behind them just in case. Though she knew she had to wait for the signal in order to gain the element of surprise, she gripped her gun tightly, finger itching to move onto the trigger.

After what felt like too long sitting in complete silence, waiting among the dirt and dust with tense and cramped muscles, the faint sound of crunching gravel reached their ears. Everyone nearby quietly perked up, careful not to move the gravel and alert them of their presence. Shepard waited with baited breath as the sound got closer… and closer…

She was almost about to ignore the signal and jump out to begin shooting herself as her muscles screamed, sure the aliens were just behind her, but the current Commander finally sent it right before she did. Bullets quickly filled the air as she and her team jumped out of hiding and began to shoot, watching the aliens frantically take cover while pulling out their own weapons. She didn’t miss the one who broke off from the group to take cover on the nearby hill, but she had more pressing matters to worry about as the return fire was quick to follow. Soon, they were all ducking back into their cover to hide from it.

They were now stuck in this ongoing battle, neither side yielding as they all tried to gain the upperhand. Shepard noticed one of the soldiers near her fall, so, glancing up to see if she was clear, she took a risk and rushed out of her cover over into his in the hopes that he was still alive and she could apply some medigel before it was too late.

Of course, nothing was ever that simple. Just before she dropped back to the ground, she was forced down when a large, forceful shot hit her shoulder and compacted the plates together, throwing her into the dust and dirt hard enough to knock the breath from her lungs.

As she gasped for air, her hand instinctively reached up to the spot where her shoulder has definitely already bruised from its current throbbing to see what the damage was. Thankfully, it didn’t pierce through the armor yet, so she wasn’t bleeding. Reaching for her comms, she managed to struggle out a quick, “Sniper!” before forcing herself to crawl back into cover before they could take another shot.

The shoulder on the ground was, unfortunately, dead, so she grit her teeth and sat back up through the pain, applying the medigel on herself instead to ease the pain so she could keep going. As the throbbing began to fade, she turned back around into a crouch and tried to find the angle the sniper had shot her from. Luckily, it wasn’t too hard, for another shot appeared through the cracks in the rocks on the hill above and she ducked in case it was aimed at her.

“Hold the line!” the Commander yelled over the comms, but she gripped her pistol tightly and gritted her teeth. They had no sniper with them—at least no one who was a proper specialist on it. She had a sniper of her own she could switch out to now to try and hit theirs and salvage their attack before they’re all picked off, but…

What’s the use of having a vanguard if you’re not going to push forward?

She hilted her pistol on her hip, making sure it was secure before she reached behind her and drug the shotgun across the ground, priming it so it was ready to be used. With a deep, steadying breath, she closed her eyes and reached deep inside, searching for that feeling she was still getting used to finding, even with her proficiency in it.

Electricity began to flood through her veins and her heart sped up, her hair beginning to float as the static took control of it. The moment she tasted copper she let her eyes open, finding everything covered in a blue haze. She could barely even hear the “Shepard, no!” before she jumped over her cover and charged right into the middle of the aliens, her biotics bristling as she knocked over the closest one and continued running to try and reach the sniper.

“God—dammit! Everyone, cover Shepard!”

She was sure there were bullets flying in her direction, but she ran and shot at anything that got in her way. There was only a limited amount of time she could keep her biotics active, as it was for everyone, and she wasn’t going to waste this chance.

The rocks slid under her shoes and almost caused her to lose balance several times as she ran, but she made it past the bulk of the alien group before the copper taste began to mix with iron and she had to stop channeling her biotics. That didn’t stop her from continuing to run though, hoping to catch up with the sniper before they could get the chance to run and hide again.

It was no surprise the sniper had already moved, as it was surely clear she was after them when she began up the hill, but they weren’t fast enough to hide from her. Just as their gun moved to aim at her in some form of defense, even from this close, she closed the distance and knocked it to the ground before they both went tumbling over each other through the dirt, rocks trying to squeeze their way into her armor and embed themselves in her skin.

Shepard scrambled to stand up first when they finally came to a stop, uneasy, dizzy, and with a few noticeable new throbbing spots on her body, but she was still able to pick up her gun and aim it right for the alien’s head. They froze, all but giving up right then and there.

All it would take was a simple pull of her trigger. There was no mistaking that the shotgun would do its work from this range, getting rid of them in one messy hit. Her finger danced over the trigger, itching to push it down—but as she stared down at the alien, up close and personal with them, she couldn’t find it in herself to do it. After all her training, after spending countless hours honing her skills specifically to fight and protect the people who couldn’t—and something kept her from pulling the trigger.

She thought she saw recognition in their eyes when she couldn’t pull the trigger, realizing they weren’t about to die, but she didn’t want them to get the upper hand and kill her instead now that she had failed. So, she flipped the gun over quickly and brought it down hard with a grunt, basking them across the forehead with the butt of her gun and watching them fall limp onto the ground.

Adrenaline fading, chest heaving, aching, and the taste of blood on her lips, Shepard watched as some of her fellow soldiers began to approach from the bottom of the hill, breaking through the alien ranks. It seemed the fighting was nearing its end while she was busy. Among them stood the Commander, silently fuming.

“Shepard, what the hell did you do?”

Chapter Text

Garrus woke slowly, his head throbbing and throwing spots into his vision before he could even move. For a second, he almost forgot what had happened to land him here.

Almost.

When he remembered coming face to face with the alien that rushed at him, who stood over him with their gun pointed at his head, he had to bite back the urge to groan. He was sure he knew where he was now without even needing to sit up; it’s a good thing, because he didn’t think he could even do that yet.

He decided to figure out what was going on with himself first, knowing he could feel that out without keeping his eyes open. All he had to do was concentrate on himself for a moment. He still had all of his limbs, fingers, and toes. Check. His mandibles and fringe felt fine and all still in one piece. Check. His head was a throbbing mess, the ache sure to stick around for several hours at least, and he thinks his arm was twisted or broken in the fall and subsequent tumble he had on the mountain. Neither were good news, but the second one was definitely worse: if he guessed correctly from the pain he felt just letting it rest there, without medical aid it could heal wrong, or worse, not heal at all.

With a soft sigh, he cracked his eyes open, trying to sort out his surroundings now that he could see a little better. Just as he suspected, this was definitely not the medbay of their base. For some reason, instead of being killed, he was knocked out and captured, brought back to the alien base and, presumably, tossed in a cell, if the large panel of blue translucent energy acting as the room’s last wall was anything to go by. It wasn’t anything unusual, knowing his own people would take prisoners too if given the chance, but… what information could he possibly give them if they can’t even talk?

So, he had no life-threatening injuries but a lot of pain, and he currently didn’t have access to—well, anything. At least he still had his armor and visor, so that—

Wait.

He still had his visor. Any and all possible pretense of still being unconscious was thrown out the window with this sudden realization, knowing he put a lot of credits into this accessory, so its features seemed near limitless. He also knew there was a way to contact someone else through it, if he could just find the right setting—

As his good arm found the side of his visor to fiddle with it, his hopes were soon dashed against the hard metal walls of the cell he’s now trapped in. Whether the aliens actually knew what it was or not, it was clear they made sure to cover all possible bases. He couldn’t get a signal in or out of the room, not even to find his music playlist.

Though he was still laying down, he noticed one of the aliens sitting at a table outside of his cell, looking in through the energy panel at him. Their mouth moved and he could hear noise, but their language wasn’t programmed into the translators yet, so he couldn’t make any sense of it at all. He imagined they said something about how the room had blocked his signals, but imagining was all he could do.

He sat up carefully, trying to avoid jostling his arm, and took notice of the only two objects in the room with him. The not very comfortable slab of metal with a couple of thin pieces of fabric that he’s laying on is, without a doubt, meant to be a bed to sleep on. The other wasn’t immediately recognizable, but he figured it must be some kind of toilet: it’s what they would have in their cells, anyway.

Shifting over and gently moving himself into a sitting position, he looked over through the energy field and at the aliens that were suddenly walking by. They didn’t seem interested in him nor the other one sitting out in the hall in the least, simply passing by. As the movement caught his attention he began to look closer at the one sitting there, beginning to recognize them. Though they had worn a helmet before, he could see through it up close in those last moments when he thought he was going to die. That, combined with the large bandage wrapped around the shoulder he had shot confirmed for him that this was the same one who had knocked him out, though now also with a bandage on their wrist as well.

Rubbing at his forehead to try and ease the throbbing, he remembered the flash of blue darting across the battlefield, something that to him has always signified a dangerous enemy. There was no doubt now that these aliens had biotics, and hopefully, if anyone else survived the battle, they could warn the others so that their approach made them ready for it.

Another noise startled him from his position as he looked up into the hall once more, watching the alien outside the door push the chair back and stand up at attention. When another one came in sight, he wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but knew without a doubt what the tray in their hands was. The energy field dissipated for a moment, long enough for them to lean over and put the tray on the floor inside his cell before they moved back and it reappeared again.

Ignoring whatever it was they were saying that he couldn’t understand, he stood and began to take a closer look at the tray, picking out the few meager components of his supposed meal. The cup held normal water at least, something he could safely consume. But, according to his visor, his earlier worries about his arm were no longer his top concern. It’s almost no surprise that the aliens aren’t dextro since most species aren’t, but since they don’t know about the other races yet, they’d have no way to know there are some species that don’t eat the same food they do.

Swiping the cup and returning back to his bed, he sighed as he sat back down, his hope of escaping or even surviving slowly dwindling into nothing.

Chapter Text

Shepard sighed as she leaned her head in her hand, scrolling aimlessly through the datapad she was supposed to be reading through. How would they know if she actually read it? It wasn’t like she was going to be tested on everything inside it. No, it was readings she was forced to go through after her apparent insubordination. That, combined with her new babysitting duty, meant she was in for long, boring shifts until Anderson returned from his trip to one of the other human bases, meeting in person with those in charge there. She understood it was so that there was less of a chance of their information leaking out if their transmissions were hacked, but it meant she was still currently under command of Commander Asshat.

He had decided that, even though she toko initiative and not only removed the sniper that posed the most danger to them, but she had even managed to knock him out and bring him back as a prisoner to try and get information. Of course, she didn’t go up there intending to get a prisoner, and she also hadn’t thought of the fact that they couldn’t communicate with each other when presenting her idea. But it’s not like they were told to retreat and she decided not to, their orders were to keep fighting. Is that not what she did?

Now, all she could do was sit and keep watch over the prisoner if she didn’t want another mark on her record, with nothing else to do other than see them ignore every single piece of food put in the cell. She was baffled by this, really. Every creature she’s ever run into, or even heard of, has had to eat something to survive. Maybe it’s a difference in metabolism? Maybe it’s some kind of fasting? Maybe they’re a snob and don’t want the meager military rations? Or maybe, they would rather starve than be held as a prisoner. Seems like a rather nasty way to go out.

Shepard groaned and let her head fall forward, landing on the table with a thud. She was going to go insane here, with little contact from anyone else as they hurried by to do whatever they were required to, and with little for her to do as well. Turning her head, she continued to lay on the table as she looked into the cell and muttered, “It might even not be half bad if you could talk. At least then I’d be able to do something.”

Unsurprisingly, there was no response. She thought she heard them talking once or twice on the other side of the energy field, but to her, it was a bunch of unintelligible noise, almost identifiable as a bird’s screeching. Not any bird she knows of, but similar. If she was less stubborn, she’d admit that she really dug a hole for herself here. Not admitting that she couldn’t shoot her gun when up close, face to face, was definitely her problem. It was one thing to shoot the training targets when she got close to them, and she didn’t have any issues shooting the aliens before when they were distanced. Her own adrenaline had led her up that hill, and as it crashed back down to reality, she couldn’t even do her job. She began to wonder if they really should be fighting in the first place.

How would they know what caused all of this, how would they try to resort to peace, if they can’t even talk to each other?

The sound of footsteps echoed through the hall again and she lifted her head back up and began fixing her hair with her fingers. IT wasn’t quite time for the new round of ignored food to be brought in yet, so it could be anyone coming around that corner in front of her. The last thing she wanted right now was for anyone to catch her not doing what she was supposed to be doing.

Crossing a leg over the other and tossing her elbow up on the back of the chair, she picked up the datapad once more and began to pretend like she was deeply invested in it and had been for a while. She was only lucky she realized the words were upside down and righted it before anyone came into view. Casually looking up from it once she spotted movement, all of her pretense went out the window as she suddenly dropped the datapad once more and stood as quickly as she could, standing at attention and bringing her hand up into a salute.

“At ease, Shepard,” Anderson said before he had even fully stopped in front of her, but she didn’t dare sit down while he was still there.

“I’m glad to see you made it back safely, sir,” she began, a smile spreading on her face. This could finally be her chance to escape and get back into more interesting, more necessary jobs around the base. “I hope everything went okay?”

“Everything on my end did, yes,” he said, turning to look inside the cell. “Is it true, what I’ve heard? That you’re the one who knocked the bastard out and brought them back here?”

“Every word,” she confirmed, confidence already beginning to waver.

“So throwing yourself recklessly into the middle of the fight with your biotics was also a choice that you made?”

“Yes, sir.”

He nodded as he looked her over, not much of anything telling on his face besides the slightly pursed lips. “I know that you’ve already been disciplined for this.” He chuckled, shaking his head. “I don’t know that I would like security detail in the prison block either, believe me.”

“So you’ll let me back onto the normal schedule?” she asked hopefully.

“Look, Shepard—when I pulled you out of training, it wasn’t just because you were acing every test they threw at you. It was for your guts. If I had been the one on that field commanding you, hell I probably would have expected you to do that. But you’re still new. You still need to learn that your actions have consequences, though I can see you’re starting to understand.” He gestured to her arm, where a bag of ice wrapped in bandages sat on her shoulder to help calm down the swelling, and another bandage held medigel around her wrist, keeping it in place. “We need you back in fighting shape, Zarena. If we throw you back out there now, you’ll only get yourself hurt worse. So, unfortunately, no. You’ll be watching over your prisoner until you’re cleared by medical. And this time, those are my orders.”

“Yes, sir,” she said glumly.

“No one’s going to let you back out there either until you reaffirm for them that you won’t do anything stupid, so don’t get your hopes up for the front lines again too soon.”

She plopped back into her chair as Anderson continued on down the hall, and pushed the datapad to the side hard enough she winced when it hit the wall with a loud crack. It was just the casing, luckily, but she still tried to press it back together anyway, hoping something would snap back together. The last thing she wanted was a broken datapad coming out of her paycheck.

“I really don’t think that’s going to work,” a voice from behind her said suddenly, causing her to jump and spin around in her chair. She came face to face with another woman, her long dark hair almost perfectly straight and her arms crossed impatiently across her chest. “Shepard, I presume. And I just passed Anderson, has he made your stay here more permanent?”

“Who are you? Why do you care?”

“Miranda Lawson,” she said with pursed lips. “I’m one of the leading scientists at our base here. I need to know if you intend to stay with the prisoner.”

“I have no choice in the matter,” she huffed.

“Right. Well then, since you’ll be spending the most time with them, I need you to take this.” She held out a small device, pausing when Shepard reached out her hand to take it. “And please, try not to break this one.”

She rolled her eyes as she accepted Miranda’s device, rolling it over in her hand as she examined it. It didn’t look like much, really, just a small box with a switch and what looked like a speaker on it. “And this is important because…”

Turns out we were right to block the signals in the cell—that visor over their eye is certainly more than it seems. We’ve got people trying to reverse engineer it from the scans we did, but we also managed to lock onto one of the frequencies that thing is trying to emit, finding what we believed to be the alien radio chatter. From there, we recorded their communications, kept track of their movements, and have been trying to translate them. What progress we’ve made so far is in that box. So, if you can try and talk to them, you can help us continue at a far more exponential speed.”

Shepard was conflicted. On one hand, the translator meant she might actually have a purpose for sitting here other than just to keep an eye on the alien that wasn’t really entertaining to watch. Maybe, if she was lucky, she could even do some interrogating—anything was better than sitting here bored and at wits end, really. On the other hand… “Why should I do it? I’m not a scientist.”

“And I doubt you ever will be. However, our team is already stretched thin as it is, so to sit and try to talk to the alien would be too much time spent away from the projects that need our more immediate attention. Since you’re stuck here, we might as well make your time valuable to someone.”

She hummed thoughtfully as she looked over the cube once more. “And how does it work?”

“Just try to talk, see if you get a response, and the box will do the rest. We’ll start deciphering the sounds with what gets recorded from your device, and maybe we’ll actually get a warning before they decide to attack.”

“Alright.” With a nod, she looked back up to Miranda and winked. “I won’t break it, that’s a promise. If you need anything else from me while I’m stuck doing literally nothing else, just let me know.”

“Just try your best if they don’t cooperate,” Miranda said with a sigh before turning back around and walking quickly from where she came.

Alone once more, Shepard continued to look it over for a moment before decisively flipping the switch on. Holding it in her palm and careful not to block the speaker, she pushed herself out of the chair, walked over to the cell’s energy field, and peered in. Though first contact had already come to pass, this really was the true first contact, as it’s the first time their two species might actually be able to communicate. Knowing the weight of this moment was on her shoulders, she cleared her throat and said, “Uh, hello. My name is Zarena Shepard. Can you understand me?”

Chapter Text

“Uh, hello. My name is Zarena Shepard. Can you understand me?”

Garrus blinked, trying to process what he just heard. He lifted his head from where he was laying on the bed and saw someone in the doorway, just on the other side of the energy field. Zarena Shepard, apparently, if he heard that correctly.

“Uh…” she said, continuing. “What’s your name?”

It was now that he noticed the words came at a delay—it wasn’t until her mouth stopped moving that the words he could understand sounded, a machine-like quality to them as it presumably repeated what she had said. Amazing.

“I’m… just Garrus,” he said back, pitching his voice a little louder than normal to let it carry across the room, wondering what kind of range the device had. Following his words, the same machine voice made sounds he couldn’t understand—but he could tell Shepard did from the way her eyes widened.

“Okay, ‘just Garrus’... I don’t really know what to say, I was just told to test if the translator works.”

He huffed a laugh. “This is one hell of an interrogation, huh?”

“I really should have thought this through more before I turned it on,” she muttered, eyes widening once more when the device still picked up her words and played them back for him. “I mean, uh. I definitely know what I’m doing. The old good cop bad cop. You’d hate to see my partner.”

Pushing off of the bed, Garrus rose to his full height and walked closer to the door as he said, “I don’t know what that means, but considering not many others actually stop to talk to you in the hall, I don’t think you have a partner.”

“You don’t know what that means? Who the hell even are you?”

“A turian,” he said simply, gently crossing his arms and now looking down at Shepard. He had come close so that they could avoid shouting at each other, but without food and with a dull pain still throbbing in his arm, he was beginning to regret that decision. To combat the nausea and dizziness before the floor spun out from under him, he leaned against the wall as casually as he could, counting on it to support his weight.

“Is that what you call yourselves,” she hummed. Well, I suppose as this is the first conversation between our species, it’s only fair I give you the same. We’re humans. Care to willingly give me any more information?”

“Ha. Nice try. I know how to keep quiet.”

“Eh, it was worth a shot.” She kicked at the floor in front of her, almost like she was trying to buff a scratch out of the floor. She looked down as she did, giving him an opportunity to look at her in more depth. The closest he could compare her to was the asari, but even then, it didn’t feel right saying it. While the basic form was similar, whatever it was on top of her head was definitely not something common in any of the species he’s seen across the galaxy. No tentacles, no horns, but a strange circular bump on the back of her head. He recalled that others had come by with different looks; perhaps it was something similar to the turian colony markings?

Still, the silence was becoming a little unnatural. “Did you actually have questions you were going to try to get answers out of me for to make this interesting, or…”

She scoffed as she looked back up, glaring at him when she made eye contact once more. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to bore you when you’re stuck in a windowless cell with literally nothing else to do. I mean, you won’t even eat anything we give you. You’re really doing nothing.”

There was a pause, a sudden silence so intense Garrus could see just from the growing distant look in Shepard’s eyes that she was trying to recall what she had said to see if she thought the conversation would end abruptly there. Then, in a low voice, he said, “Does no one on your home planet have different diets?”

“That depends on how you define ‘different.’ We can generally split everyone and everything up into—” she said a few words that didn’t quite translate properly “—but everyone knows there’s always some person or some animal out there eating something weird. As we started expanding out into the galaxy, we found a whole bunch of new plants and animals and you wouldn’t believe how different their diets were from—”she cut herself off suddenly and blanched, looking away from him awkwardly. “You uh. You would know about different diets in space. You’re clearly more advanced than us, even if it might not be by a lot, but uh. What can I ask the kitchen to make that you’ll actually eat so you don’t starve under my watch?”

“Considering everything you’ve given me, I don’t think your kitchen has anything available for me to eat.”

She frowned, visible lines forming suddenly on her face as the lines above her eyes drew closer together. “I can’t accept that as an answer.”

“You’re going to have to,” he shrugged. “Unless, of course, you’d let me go look.”

“Ha! Nice try. I’m sure someone will be by sooner rather than later to actually interrogate you now that we’ve got a translator that works… well enough. In the meantime, do you have anything that I could get you to eat?”

Ignoring the quiet rumbling in his stomach now that they were on the topic of food, he calmly said, “No. Not here, anyway. We deemed this planet as a bad place to colonize long ago, thanks to there being no source of food we could eat, and poor soil to grow what we could. So, while I… guess I appreciate the effort, I can probably go without food for longer than it seems you can, for how often you keep trying to feed me.”

“Alright, alright, laugh it up now, keep telling me how much better you are,” she said with an eye roll. "Just remember who’s standing where.”

She seemed finished with the conversation there, turning away from the energy field and back towards her seat. Taking the opportunity while her back was turned, he left for the little more comfort the bed could afford, hiding the true state of his neglect from her in the process. Though she seemed nice now, he knew what turian interrogations could be like. It might be better to succumb to these injuries than be interrogated. Either way, he was trapped with little chance of rescue or escape any time soon, so his prospects didn’t look too good.

Chapter Text

For just a moment, Shepard was free. Another soldier temporarily relieved her from her shift to give her the night off so she could eat and get some proper sleep instead of constantly dozing off in front of Garrus’s cell. Well, dozing off, or getting bored enough to try talking to him again, trading banter and insults willingly, taking and giving them like it was natural. She was almost as trapped as he was in all of this.

Which is why she intended to use every minute she had off wisely.

Gripping her tray of bland military food, she scanned the cafeteria in front of her, not searching for an open table, but a specific person. With purpose, she walked over to the near empty table and slid on to the bench across from its lone occupant.

“Oh great, it’s the girl scout,” she uttered as she glanced up from her food.

“It’s nice to meet you too, Jack,” Shepard said cooly.

She looked back up with a raised eyebrow before letting her fork clatter back onto the plate. “Look, I don’t know who sent you over here, but I’m not here to make friends. I am strictly here on parole, doing my ‘community service’ so I can get back out into the galaxy instead of wasting away in a cell.”

“No one sent me; I’m here on my own.”

“Bullshit. I don’t do happy-go-lucky, goody-two-shoes routines. Everyone knows the only reason you’re benched right now is to try and get you to follow the rules and listen to your superiors more. You carried that squad and damn well saved a lot of them from meeting their end right there in the dirt. You’re probably here to try and make them ease up on you.”

“Good thing I haven’t learned anything about listening yet, then,” she said casually before taking a bite of her food.

This draws Jack’s attention, irritation softening to curiosity as she leaned in closer, studying Shepard. “You’re planning something, aren’t you?”

“Our prisoner hasn’t been eating,” she said, picking up a sad, soggy vegetable with her fork and examining it. “He won’t tell me why, but I get the feeling it’s not as simple as being a vegan.”

“Wait, wait, slow down. He won’t tell you? How are you talking to him?”

She lifted her other hand and tossed the communicator onto the table. Jack immediately snatched it up and flipped it over. “Do you know how much you could sell this for right now?”

Shepard immediately snatched it back, earning a glare and a couple of muttered, unintelligible words. “This is Alliance tech, not something that should land on the black market.”

“Then what do you want me for?”

“I can’t just tell the higher ups he eats different food; they’ll say there’s nothing we can do if he doesn’t cooperate and give us that info himself. Then, they’ll also be on alert. So, I want to solve this myself.”

She raised her eyebrows. “You can’t mean you want to sneak out and break into alien territory just for some food.” When she wasn’t corrected, she leaned back and pursed her lips. “What’s in it for me?”

Shepard sighed. “I have a turian pistol.”

“Turian?”

“The aliens.”

“See, now you’re talking, girl scout. How did you get a hold of that?”

“Picked it up from the aftermath of the last fight.”

“And you didn’t turn it in?” She clicked her tongue. “Alright, I’m in. But you’re going to need more than just us two, even on a stealth mission.”

“Leave that to me.”

As darkness fell on this side of the planet, Shepard found herself back in her armor again, only equipped with a shotgun so she could run faster. Lights started flickering on outside within the perimeter of the base. However, where she was hiding, it was still dark. And for good reason.

“And what if you’re caught? I don’t know that I want to get in trouble for your mistakes.”

“We won’t, Kaidan. But, in the event that we do, I won’t mention your involvement at all.”

“I don’t know, Shepard.”

“You can take my lunches for the next week?” she offered. “Two?”

He sighed and looked around the area quickly, eyes darting around to all the possible corners within the fences outside the base. “Fine. It’s just the three of you?”

She nodded, then looked back to see Jack and Ashley nodding at him too. “Just let us leave without an issue, and let us back in when we return.”

“Right. Okay. But if you’re not back before my shift is over, I can’t help you.”

“Thanks Kaidan! You’re the best.”

“Yeah yeah. Don’t mention it.”

He stepped away from the boxes of crates and scanned the area, waving the trio through the open area outside of the base and out an open gate without getting caught.

Step one: check.

Step two: find a place near the turian base for Ashley to keep watch.

This part was easier than they expected, keeping to the shadows as they hurried along in the dark until finding a nice hill close to the turian base. Ashley set up her surveillance equipment as soon as they stopped, and they watched the base to study the turian patrol.

“Thanks again for this, Ash.”

“My pleasure. I’d like to do something to try and step out from under my grandfather’s shadow every once in a while.” She paused for a second and then said, “Five minutes. Should be right in the middle of their loop, so no one will be nearby. Got your cloaks?”

Step three: break in, steal food, get back to base. Flawless.

Of course, even the best laid plans could go to hell in a matter of seconds. And this one… this one was made hastily on the back of a stained napkin in an attempt to not forget it.

With cloaks they ‘borrowed’ from the locker room, Jack and Shepard snuck up to the base until they were just outside of the perimeter’s light, waiting to hear Ashley give them the all clear over their comms. Once the signal was given, they turned on the cloaks and ran over to the wall, charging their biotics and pushing themselves just high enough to clear the wall and land on the other side with a roll to lose their momentum. Then, since the cloak could only run for a limited amount of time before it needed to recharge, they took cover behind the nearest object they could find, this one just so happening to be a currently abandoned large supply truck full of crates.

When the cloak shut off, Jack was right next to Shepard, practically close enough to be touching. “Should we jump in the truck then?” she whispered, looking to Shepard to lead the way.

“Can we both fit, or would it be better if one of us kept watch?”

Jack risked a peek over the edge of the truck, looking down into the piles of boxes, and said, “Here, give me a moment to jump in and move one of these crates and then we’ll be able to search through them while hidden from behind. Cover for me.”

Shepard helped boost Jack into the back of the supply truck so she could get in faster, then crouched back down by the tire and waited for several tense seconds as she continued to scan her surroundings, wondering if the turians would notice them anyway despite how calm and quiet they were trying to be.

The seconds felt like they stretched out into minutes as anxiety began to bubble in her chest before a short, harsh, “Psst!” rang through the air, and Jack’s arm reached over the edge of the truck. Shepard grabbed it and used it to help climb into the truck, tumbling down onto the floor of the bed and feeling some of that tension ease. She didn’t let the moment last long, however, crouching low as she and Jack both began to force open the crates.

This was where they encountered the first problem.

“Uh, Shepard?” Jack hissed, pulling one of the items out of the first crate she forced open. “How are we supposed to tell what their food is if it’s different from ours?”

That was something that Shepard had not thought of beforehand. As she opened her own crate, she could tell that everything was labeled, but it was written in a language she couldn’t understand and had no hope of guessing at.

“… maybe it’s just something that’s obviously not ammo or grenades?”

“Shepard!”

“What? It can’t be that different, look for something that looks like military rations, or literally anything that isn’t metal.”

“At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if they actually ate metal,” she muttered, shifting through the contents of the crate quickly.

Ashley kept them updated from her position outside, letting them know if anyone was nearby, during which they would continue their search as quietly as they could, or even stop moving entirely. As time stretched on and they still weren’t finding anything that seemed like food, Shepard was beginning to grow worried. Everything would fall apart if they didn’t get going soon.

Luck would have it, that’s the moment Jack waved Shepard over and pointed to the latest box she had opened, full of something that looked almost identical to a protein bar. Excited, Shepard raised her hand for a high five, but whether Jack would actually return it or not was something she wouldn’t get to find out.

“Incoming!” Ashley said over the comms, and quickly, they stopped moving as the crunching of gravel met their ears, the turian coming closer than any of the others they had heard before. Surely they hadn’t been found now, just when they found what they were looking for… right?

They held their breath and crossed their fingers, but as they quickly discovered, luck loved to give and take. No, being found might have been easier after they heard a metal click and the truck began to shift as more weight was added to it. Then the click struck again, louder this time, making the entire vehicle shake and some of the boxes rattle. The worst that could happen happened—the engine started with a quiet hum, and they began to move.

“Looks like one of the doors to the base is opening!” Ashley said as Shepard and Jack stared at each other, frozen. “You need to get out of there before they take you inside!”

This was their second problem.

“Grab as many as you can!” Shepard said, taking two handfuls of the food and shoving it into her usual ammo pouch. The longer they waited, the further from the wall they got, and the risker escaping would be. Luckily, she didn’t have to even tell Jack to turn on her cloak. They jumped over the crates and out the back of the truck, dust that was kicked up from the tires clinging to their legs as they sprinted as hard as they could for their exit, charging up their biotics again and jumping over the wall before anyone became wise of the fast moving dirt in the air, or the blue haze just inside the wall. They didn’t stop running when they landed, however, rolling and springing back up into a sprint until their cloaks and their legs gave up on them.

Panting and doubled over, hands on her knees, Jack said, “Hell, Shepard, you certainly know how to get yourself in the most amount of trouble possible, don’t you?”

“It’s only trouble if you get caught,” she said between gulps of air, but a smile still crossed her face despite her strain because the mission seemed to have been a success. “How much did you get?”

Jack opened her bag and pulled out its contents, disappointing Shepard when she found more stolen turian ammunition than food. “What? I have to get that gun working somehow.”

“And with what I managed to get… we can maybe afford to feed him for a week.” She swore under her breath, turning back around to look at the turian base with her hands on her hips. That wasn’t something they could keep doing on a weekly basis, even if they had actually been good at it. The risk of getting caught was too high, and they wouldn’t know where to look for it otherwise if it hadn’t conveniently been there outside in the supply truck.

Problem three.

“Well, let’s go get Ashley and get back to base before Kaidan is relieved for the night,” she said with a frown. “I’ll figure out something.”

“Yeah. Sure. Look at what just happened here. Maybe think a little harder this time before you put yourself in more danger.”

Kaidan was easy enough to find, and though reluctant, he still held up his end of the bargain and let them back onto the base, sneaking them around the rest of the patrols to get back inside. Shepard dumped her armor and other items onto Ashley and Jack, knowing she wasn’t supposed to be spotted in the locker room at all right now, and traded it for all the food they had managed to get. Before she tried to get a few hours of sleep, however, she had an idea.

“Knock knock,” she said as she entered the lab, looking around at the robotic arms moving faster than she could keep up with as they worked together to assemble whatever today’s science project was.

“Shepard,” Miranda intercepted, stopping her only a few feet into the lab. “You’re not supposed to be here. I thought you'd be asleep right now.”

She shrugged. “Call it insomnia, I guess. I just wanted to see how things are going.”

“No you didn’t.”

“No, I didn’t,” she sighed. “Do you have a moment?”

“One.”

“Right…” she tugged one of the turian protein bars out of her pocket and offered it to Miranda. “Can you scan this and see if it’s anything we can replicate?”

She hesitated to take the packaged item, slyly pulling on a glove before accepting it. “What is it?”

“Turian—uh, alien food.”

“Do I even want to know how you got this?” she glanced back at Shepard and, after taking her in, said, “Nevermind, I’ve answered that for myself. I don’t want to know. I’ll take a look at it if I have time. Now please leave before you break something.”

Hands up in surrender, Shepard backed out of the room until the doors closed once more in front of her. Stifling a yawn, she was determined to get in what little sleep she could before returning to her shift in the cell block in a few hours.

Chapter Text

Garrus wasn’t getting much sleep while he was stuck in the cell the humans put him in.

There were several reasons: the bed was like nothing turians ever slept on and was definitely not comfortable, the throbbing in his arm was only growing worse as time went on, and it felt like something constantly loomed over his head like a hammer waiting to strike its mark. Even though they had a mostly reliable translator now, he still hadn’t been interrogated. They were all being too nice, even the people that weren’t Shepard sitting there constantly filling his days with banter. This isn’t anything like what he was used to seeing within his own military.

It meant that every little noise often woke him up, or kept him awake if it was something continuous. It also meant that, when Shepard returned early in what he presumed to be the morning, he was already awake to watch her carry in his tray of food for once, the other human who had been watching him all night manning the energy field’s controls while she left it over near the door and backed out. Then, she relieved the other human and took up her normal position, sitting diagonally in the chair and leaning against the wall instead of the chair’s back as she began to scroll through something sitting on the table.

At first, he was inclined to ignore the food. He wasn’t thirsty at the moment, and didn’t feel like spending the energy he needed to cross the room just to ignore whatever food they had sitting there for him. Something about Shepard returning to her normal position eased some of Garrus’s discomfort, however, and he was just drifting off into some kind of sleep before she interrupted.

“What, are you not hungry today?”

Biting back the growl he now held in his throat as he jerked back awake, he rolled over to look at her and said, “I already told you I can’t eat your food.”

“Shame,” she continued, not even looking up at him as she spoke. “I put a little more effort into this one, just for you. Least you could do is give it a look.”

This time he didn’t hold back, muttering a few swear words to himself so the translator couldn’t pick it up as he pushed himself out of bed at the behest of Shepard. He glared at her as he walked over despite the fact that she still wasn’t looking, and he bent over to pick up the glass of water, almost about to toss the rest of the tray at her, despite knowing it wouldn’t actually reach her and would only make a mess on the floor. Still, when he spotted the familiar silver packaging sitting on the plate, he froze, his mind reworking itself to figure out if what he was seeing really was there.

“How did you get these?”

“That’s classified,” she said, though the tone of voice betrayed the near friendliness she was approaching the topic. “I still don’t know if I believe you when you said you don’t need to eat as frequently as we do, but it’s been days since you last ate anything either way, so I included two of them for you.”

“You have more than this?” he said, looking back up at her.

She nodded. “And, with any luck, our scientists are studying one of them now so maybe we can get more without having to go through the trouble of stealing it.”

A million questions flooded to his mind at that, wondering just what lengths Shepard had gone to in order to find something that he could eat, but he couldn’t bring himself to voice any of them. Not even one slipped down from his brain and onto his tongue. Instead, he slowly lowered himself down and sat on the floor, tearing open the first package and finally beginning to satiate that hunger that’s been gnawing at the edges of his stomach for a while now. About halfway into the first pack, he said, quietly, “Thank you.”

She didn’t respond, but he didn’t expect her to. Their conversation had answered some of his questions already, anyway: whatever she did, she did it on her own, and without the approval of her superiors. To do that for a stranger, let alone a prisoner of war that you had taken and was supposed to be your enemy? He didn’t have the words. He doubts the turians would have done the same if their roles were reversed at the moment. Well, most of them, anyway.

When he did finally look back up at her, having already devoured one of the rations, he was surprised to find her gaze had moved off of what she was doing previously and instead was intensely studying him, seemingly for a while now, too. “Can I help you?”

“Something’s still wrong,” she said simply. “You’re favoring one arm over the other. While not unusual, God knows how many people fight over the whole left handed, right handed, or both thing all the time, this doesn’t feel like you’re just favoring a dominant hand. This feels… like you’re trying to avoid moving the other arm as much as possible. You aren’t even picking your hand up to open your food, you’re taking it over to your hand. Have you managed to injure yourself while I’ve been away?”

“No,” he said, not entirely lying, but not quite sure he wanted to tell her the truth, either. She had done more than enough for him by getting food he could eat, he didn’t need her to do anything else. However, in a renewed effort to conceal the injury, his muscle tensed in the wrong way as he opened the other ration, and the wince was not so easy to hide.

“Oh my God you’ve been injured this whole time?” She didn’t give him time to try and deny it before she was on her feet, looking up and down the hall, and then he watched in surprise when the energy field shut off. “Come here,” she muttered as she crouched directly next to him, pulling something out of her pocket. “You’re lucky I tend to keep these on me even off of the battlefield.”

This close to her, he could see just how soft she looked. Turians were all hard exteriors and angles, she was made of curves and smooth skin. Even her hands were soft, and warm too, as they didn’t hesitate to reach out and gently pull his arm a little closer. Mesmerized and drinking in every little detail he could pick up when there was no barrier and almost no distance between them, he watched as her tongue peeked out of the corner of her mouth as she wrapped a bandage tightly around his arm, the cooling medicine that was hidden inside of it already beginning to seep into his wound and bring him the relief he so desperately needed.

He winced as she dressed his arm as it was suddenly pulled in a new direction, and she muttered, “That ought to teach you to stop being stupid.” He thought it was odd, as usually that phrase was used as a bad thing. He remembered times when his teachers would say something similar to kids who were not paying attention and then humiliated in front of the class, or sparring matches in training and on the ship where a loss of focus would cause pain or even the loss of a fight.

He never thought he’d be able to associate it with something so… comforting.

Before he knew it the moment was over, and Shepard left the cell and closed the energy field again. It hadn’t even occurred to him to try and overpower her and escape while it was open. Even if it did, he’s not sure that he would have tried.

Something stirred in his chest as he watched her sit back down and look him over once more, as if making sure he was really okay now. This something was new, something important.

Something hopeful.

Chapter Text

“Why do you do all this for me?”

The question came out of the blue, almost too low for the translator to pick up. It surprised Shepard, making her pause the game she had managed to download to a datapad and look over at Garrus instead. He was sitting on the floor near the door again, eating the newly synthesized turian food, courtesy of Miranda, after they ran through everything that Shepard stole. “I’m afraid you’ll have to be more specific.”

He snorted. “Really? I thought it would have been obvious.” There was a pause as he looked away, his hand seemingly subconsciously moving to play with the bandages on his arm. “You’ve purposely gone out of the way to find something I can eat, you didn’t hesitate to use up your own supplies to heal me, hell, you’re even willing to talk to me just to help pass the time. Why do you do all of this for me?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” she shrugged, turning in her chair to face him better and then crossing her legs. “What kind of person would I be if I didn’t? You're our prisoner, which means your health is now on us. If you were to die for any reason, that’s on us, and the enemy will only think it proof of any kind of cruelty they think we may hold. So, we try to do whatever we can to keep that from happening. Besides, there are several laws in place to keep war prisoners living as humanely as possible, so, even though you are being held here by us, you’ll be treated as one of us just the same.”

He seemed to poke around in his food for a moment, but Shepard didn’t press him. He had already eaten it before, so it couldn’t be that the synthesized stuff was bad. It was more likely a pause for him to try and think, or a moment to understand just what she had said. “I don’t think the turians have anything like that in place,” he admitted with a half hearted chuckle, refusing to look her in the eye. “I think they’re more used to trying to get the information out of a prisoner as quickly as possible, and then using them even further to get into where they want to go. I don’t think they’d really leave much time for a prisoner to be sitting around, and definitely not for any idle chatter.”

“Well, I guess that’s just another reason to be glad I’m the one that came out of our fight on top,” she said smugly, raising an eyebrow and watching as he finally lifted his gaze, eyes narrowing.

“You just got lucky, Shepard. I could have taken you down any other day.”

“Keep telling yourself that, big guy,” she chuckled, earning a sigh mixed in with a growl. “One day, when this war ends, we should really put that to the test.” She said it with a playful smile, but the smile faltered immediately after the words left her mouth. What was she saying? Somehow, in their mutual imprisonment, Shepard had managed to make a friend, or close enough to one to consider it. The only difference in their imprisonment was that she was still able to walk around freely. No, the difference was that they were enemies. Garrus was locked up, he was their prisoner, and yet…

And yet.

Something had happened while she was here, spending her days outside his cell. Despite hating him after the first mission their paths crossed on the battlefield, she had slowly forgotten about that moment as they spent more time together. They had grown close, and she was beginning to like him. Though physically different in many, many different aspects, he seemed just as human as she was. Just a man trying to get by day after day and live his life.

But this was war, and wars could last years. He could be in there for years. And she wouldn’t be here forever, either. At some point, she’d be relieved permanently, put back out into the field. And by putting her back out in the field, it meant her life was in danger every day. She might not even make it to the end of the war, if she was unlucky. So why did it feel so casual to say something like that, as if she really was setting up a simple meeting with someone she’s known for a while, like she actively wants to spend more time with him?

She’s stirred from this train of thought as the silence following her teasing was broken by the sound of several footsteps coming down the hall. More than one person at once was always a sign that something big was about to happen, so she scrambled out of her chair and stood at attention. As soon as she spotted Anderson coming around the corner, along with a few other officers she didn’t recognize, she brought her hand up to salute them.

However, she couldn’t reign her heartbeat in. At first it was simply because she had been startled, not expecting any kind of visit today, but it continued to thump faster and faster as her previous thoughts came back to mind. Her shoulder and wrist were back to normal by now… could this really be the end of her time here and the chance to get back on the battlefield? Before, she would have longed for it. Now…

Now she wasn’t sure she wanted to leave at all.

Anderson came to a stop on the other side of her desk, saying, “At ease, Shepard.”

Her hand fell and reached to clasp the other one behind her back, fingers beginning to fidget with each other. “Can I help you, sir?”

“You already have,” he said with a grim smile. “We’ve managed to intercept and translate a message sent to another alien base we’re unaware of that talks about holding weapons far bigger than ours. We’re talking near nuclear level here. We need to find those weapons and disable them before the whole planet is put out of commission.”

Shepard spared a glance at Garrus, who was listening to this entire conversation as it was relayed to him through the translator on the table. He looked almost as surprised as she was. “I guess you’re here for interrogation, then?”

“I am.” He turned to look into the cell, meeting Garrus’s gaze from where he sat on the floor. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything, would you?”

Instead of answering, Garrus sat the rest of his meal down and pushed off the floor, rising to his full height and making everyone look up at him instead of down as he crossed his arms.

One of the other officers snickered. “What is it trying to do, intimidate us?”

“His name is Garrus,” Shepard said hotly, “And he can still hear what you’re saying.”

Anderson stopped the argument from escalating further by holding his hand out towards each of them along with a pointed look at Shepard. That didn’t stop her from tightening her hands into fists which trembled with the force it took her to hold them back. “Garrus,” he began again, “what can you tell us about this base?”

“Why should I tell you?” he finally answered. “Do I get anything out of it?”

“We shouldn’t negotiate with—” the other officer began again, but Anderson cut him off with a glare.

“I’ll admit, we can’t offer you much. We definitely can’t offer any kind of freedom either. But, I think we could pull a few strings and get you a couple of items to make the cell more comfortable for your stay here?”

Garrus considered this for a moment, studying everyone’s faces and lingering on Shepard’s as she watched him closely. Finally, while still looking at her, he said, “I know of it, yes, but not exactly where it is. I wasn’t one that needed to know, so I don’t have direct coordinates. I have a good idea of where it is, though, as well as a couple of landmarks I’ve heard others that had traveled to and from there mention. That’s the best I have to offer.”

Anderson seemed to study Garrus for a moment before nodding and turning away. “Alright then, Shepard. Suit up.”

“Sir?”

“It looks like we’re going to have to take the fight to them. And we’re going to need someone to escort the prisoner. Prepare Garrus for transport, and be ready within the hour. We’re not letting this opportunity go to waste.”

Chapter Text

Garrus sat in the Mako quietly, avoiding eye contact with everyone by looking at the ground and trying to count the rivets holding the floor together. With his hands cuffed together and several armed and ready humans around him, he definitely wasn’t going to be able to do anything else.

At least one of the surrounding humans was Shepard, bringing some comfort to him, with her shotgun out but resting on her shoulder as if she doesn’t even want to have it out. He wished they could have been in the Mako alone—at least then, the awkward, tense silence wouldn’t be there, and he might actually speak other than when asked for directions. He knew from a practical standpoint, however, that it would just be a waste of space and equipment when so many other people could fit in here. Especially since they were about to raid a base.

There was just one thing they hadn’t thought of.

The base had completely blocked the signal of his visor, so it had been rendered useless as a communication device. They never did question him on what it was or what it was used for, however, for if they had, they would have known that they should have taken it away. Or maybe they were just in such a rush that they had forgotten what it did. Inside the Mako, there was nothing blocking his signal. In fact, he could hear idle chatter over the last frequency he had been on, signaling that they were getting close.

He could warn the turians of the incoming army if he really tried. It could be as easy as pretending he had an itch, switching on his microphone, and then letting the rest of the ride go as normal: the turians could pick up on what he was saying from there and maybe he could even drop a couple of hints along the way too. He didn’t, though. If someone found out and asked, he really wouldn’t be able to say why. However, he didn’t warn the humans that they could potentially be tracking him now because of the visor, either, so at least he left the playing field a little even. Maybe it saved them from being blown up from an aerial strike, too.

As they grew closer and closer to the hidden turian base, the air in the Mako seemed to shift. Despite not knowing where their trip ended, the humans were growing a little more restless—one tapped his toes against the floor, another kept readjusting the sight of her gun—everyone but Shepard was fidgeting somehow. She seemed to be zoned out, having nothing better to do than lean her shotgun on her shoulder and hold the translator in her other hand. What he wouldn’t give to figure out what was going on in her head to let her do that.

Eventually, the tension got to him as well, slowly clenching and unclenching his fingers to try and mitigate the feeling and help it dissipate. There was only so much he could do while bound, after all.

The first signs that the battle had begun came in the form of a distant explosion. Not close enough to rock the Mako, they only heard it. But everyone froze at once, and Garrus could hear the faint chatter over the human comms as the commands began. He could hear it over his own too: confused turians wondering what was going on, apparently not yet getting the message that they were under attack.

When the Mako finally came to a shuddering halt, everyone stood at attention—even Shepard, who had finally pulled her gun off of her shoulder. The man that approached her must have been her superior as her demeanor didn't change even as he got close and studied her. Then, sharply, "Shepard, you protect the prisoner. Everyone else, boots on the ground, now!"

She muttered a few choice words as they all slunk off of the Mako, even the drivers, and her shoulders slumped even as she turned to face the open door.

He waited a few moments until he was sure they were now well out of range outside and said, "So. Looks like it's just you and me again."

"Yeah. Funny how that keeps happening."

"I guess you made it to the base after all."

She squinted out the door. "Not quite." Then, looking over her shoulder, "Looks like you had more tricks up your sleeve than you let on."

He merely shrugged, crossing his legs and leaning back against the wall. No matter whether the fight was going to be short or long, no matter who was going to win, all he could do right now was wait. Trying to fight past Shepard with his hands still bound was a game he knew he was more than likely going to do, so he might as well get comfortable.

Silence fell over them as Shepard kept a close eye on their surroundings outside, and Garrus quickly learned to tune out both the human and turian chatter. If he couldn't see what happened, he didn't need to hear it.

Shepard, however, seemed to be intently listening to hers. It was as if she could see the battlefield from here, trying to track the enemies and plan her next move.

That's probably why she was ready for the drones that had zeroed in on their location.

He could hardly believe his eyes. One moment the first drone flew down into the doorway seemingly out of nowhere, the next, it was blown to bits with one simple, effective shot. Several more followed, but none of them got as close as the first.

When the last one shattered and the only proof they were even there was the scattered scrap metal and the smoke coming off of Shepard's gun, he was speechless. What's worse is she knew it too, shooting him a smirk and a wink over her shoulder as she hit the gun, shifting the overheating heat sink back into its proper place.

It wasn't long before something else happened—this time it was an explosion close enough to rock the Mako, almost sending Shepard tumbling out the door. She was lucky to catch herself on the doorframe before tumbling into the dirt.

"Shit." She looked around the inside quickly, as if debating something, before turning towards him and saying, "Stay," before running off into the front. And really, what was he going to do while still handcuffed? He'd never make it through enemy lines back to his own people. Still, if he had to stay inside, he wasn't willing to be right in the line of fire should another round of drones attack. He wasn’t willing to trust they’d think he was friendly.

He walked over to the front, finding Shepard frantically digging around in the wires under the steering console.

"Wrong one," he said as she cut through a wire and the whole console above her went dark.

"I thought I told you to stay," she grumbled, quickly connecting the wire back together as the lights flickered back on again.

"I'm still in the Mako, aren't I?" She huffed at him and moved to cut another.

"Not that one either."

She lifted her head and just stared at him for a moment, hands hovering right under the wire.

"If you're so smart then, you come do it."

"Fine. Move out of the way."

He could see her mentally debating for a moment before grumbling and crawling out of the space, stepping to the side so he could fit down in there.

It was a little harder to do with his wrists still bound, but it was a lot faster than Shepard was. The only real issues he had were reaching far enough to pull the right wires together: they almost didn't reach each other, and then double checking his work since he was dealing with alien tech and not his own. But, when the engine hummed to life under his hands, he just couldn't help the smug grin as he crawled back out.

"Yeah yeah, shut up," she muttered as she sat down in the driver's seat. "If I were you, I'd sit down before I wipe that smug look right off of you."

He jumped into the seat next to her, curious for what she had planned, and only needed to wait a little longer to understand as the gun controls came up at her fingertips. A new screen came to view in front of them as the gun turned towards the base and there he could see it: some of the turian’s heavy weaponry, made purposefully for breaking long lines of transport vehicles like this one, or for breaking into bases if they could get them close enough. As soon as the first was lined up in the scope Shepard let loose, immediately shooting a rocket before running the Mako’s heavy machine gun until it overheated. As soon as flames sparked on the first one she moved the gun to the next and let the fire finish the job with a large explosion, effectively and systematically taking them all out, one by one.

She was a little too late to reach the last one, however, and he only just managed to yell, “Take cover!” as she was still moving the gun before the shot hit them, lifting the Mako off of the ground and sending the vehicle rolling. They had found the source of their issues, and opted to take it out in one fell swoop.

Everything became foggy for him after he first hit his head on the ceiling, and the several more times as they continued to roll didn’t help before finally coming to a stop upside down. The groan that left him was involuntary, and in his grogginess, all he could do was lift a hand to his forehead to try to stop the spinning.

Of course, that meant it took him a few seconds to realize he was only able to do that because his restraints had snapped, each still encircling his wrist but broken down the middle so he was free to use his arms again.

Most turians would have taken that opportunity to run. But you can ask anyone who knew him: he wasn’t like most turians.

Shepard was out cold on the console, having escaped the worst of the bouncing by getting trapped in the seat’s armrest. Carefully, he pulled the seat apart and dragged her out of the ruined vehicle, afraid if he took too long he risked the chance that it would explode. She remained unconscious as he pulled her out, however, forcing him to drag her through the dirt until they were an approximate safe distance away from any explosion.

If he knew anything about how to tell a human’s vitals, he would be trying it now to see if she was still alive, and if he knew anything about how to wake her up, he’d be trying that, too. He didn’t even get to attempt anything however, not even what he’d do on a turian, for as he leaned over her, trying to find a seam in her suit to pull her armor off, he heard for the first time in a while the familiar sound of his native language not hindered by an electronic device of some sort. “Garrus?”

He lifted his head and looked over quickly, finding a small squad of turians arriving on scene. Panicked, he scrambled for an excuse to be leaned over her—any excuse—and pulled the one gun he knew she’d hardly ever use off of her back: her sniper. Standing and facing them, walking away from her, he said casually, “Hey, guys. Nice of you to join the party.”

“Nice of us? You’ve been a prisoner for weeks.” With a head nod and a gesture of his gun, he continued, “that one dead?”

“Yes,” he lied, continuing forward and not even looking back. “Had to take the opportunity I was given to get away.”

“Right,” he nodded, and over his comms, said, “Garrus has been recovered. Enemy down. Retreating now, will bring him in for debriefing.” Then, referring to Garrus again, “You know how to use that thing?”

“I imagine it works like any other gun,” he said dryly, looking through the scope just to see what it was like. “Come on, we shouldn’t keep the General waiting.”

With that, he safely led them away from injuring Shepard any further, guilt eating away at his abdomen at his failed rescue and attempt to make them even as he could now only hope another human would find her to get her out of this alive. Whatever he did to pay her back for her hospitality, it would have to come later.

Chapter Text

It was loud in the cafeteria as Shepard grabbed a tray of food. Too loud for her liking. Despite knowing it was a common lunch hour, so of course the cafeteria would be full, it didn’t stop her from finding a secluded corner and an empty table of her own to eat at, hoping to do so quickly and get back to where the sound levels were a little easier to maintain.

Of course, she was just digging in when her table was suddenly swarmed, three familiar figures swooping in and claiming seats at the table as if they were always theirs.

“So,” Ashley drawled, pushing Shepard’s drink away from her own so that they didn’t get their cups confused. “Someone’s finally out of the medbay.”

“Barely,” she grumbled through a mouth full of bread. “Almost didn’t let me leave.”

“Almost forced your way out, you mean,” Jack corrected, pointing an accusing soggy fry in her direction. “I heard that if they hadn’t cleared you this morning, they might have had to find a way to restrain you just to make sure you healed.”

“I also heard they’re not even sure that they should have cleared you,” Kaidan added, the corners of his mouth turned downwards. “That they only cleared you because of how unruly you were, when they really would have preferred to keep you another day or two.”

“Look,” she said with a sigh, shifting in her seat to be able to see all three of them at once, “I’m fine. Really, I am. I’ve already talked to Anderson and he’s put me back into rotation already. I’m on patrol tonight.”

“You’re weren’t fine, Shepard. You’re honestly lucky Anderson is even letting you back on anything after the stunt you pulled.”

“The stunt that saved countless lives!”

“Yeah,” Ashley snorted. “By hotwiring a Mako, using its gun to blow the enemy guns apart, and making yourself a target in the process so that you not only got hit and decommissioned the Mako, but gave yourself a concussion and managed to let the prisoner escape, too. If you were under my grandfather’s command, he would have discharged you for that behavior.”

“Well, it’s a good thing I’m not, then,” she said hotly. “Look, if I hadn’t stepped in, those guns might have blown apart the Mako I was in eventually. I wasn’t just going to sit on the sidelines while everything around me was beginning to fall apart. I’m not going to follow orders to the T if those orders suddenly become impossible to continue. I’m not going to let myself be sidelined for this whole damn conflict.”

“And yet, if you keep disobeying orders, you might be.”

She rolled her eyes and turned back to her food, raking a fork through her potatoes a few times without doing anything else before saying, quietly, “Why are you all even over here anyway?”

“We wanted to make sure you were okay, Shepard,” Kaidan said. “We were concerned.”

“All of you?” she said with a hint of a smile and a raised eyebrow, looking over at Jack and earning a middle finger in response.

“Jack was the one that found you, actually,” Ashley revealed. “Brought you to safety and you were driven back to base immediately.”

“Not that I was looking for you,” she grumbled. “Just stumbled across what seemed like a corpse and wanted to check if it really was one.”

“Thank you,” Shepard said anyway, earning a glare from Jack. “I will fully admit to my actions being reckless, okay? But I won’t apologize for them, and I refuse to believe I did something wrong by choosing that path either.”

Silence settled for a while as everyone finally began to dig into their food, eating what meager portions they had. Shepard, however, couldn’t focus on her meal, her mind still lingering on one crucial detail.

“Is it crazy to say that I miss him?”

“Yes,” Jack said immediately through a mouth of food.

“But—”

“He’s our enemy, Shepard.”

“Yes, I understand that,” she gritted. “I just… we spent so much time together, it was routine to be around him for so long. Then sitting in the med bay with nothing to do for days, and no one to really talk to…”

“I understand that you filled a lot of your time by talking to him about anything you could because you had nothing else to do,” Kaidan said gently, “But you have to remember that he’s not one of us. There’s no reason for him to not shoot you now that he’s back with his people, so you shouldn’t hesitate either if you see him again on the field.”

She nodded briefly, playing along with his words. “I know. It’s just… something I have to get used to.”

“Take your time. No one here’s going to judge you for it.”

The thought still lingered in her mind throughout the day, ebbing and flowing from a minor thought in the back to the only thing on her mind depending on how busy she was where she focused on other things instead. So, of course, she tried to keep herself as occupied as she could.

It was hard to occupy herself when she finally got out of the base and on her patrol though, the light from this system’s Sun quickly fading out of the sky in her first hour and the outside lights flickering on, leaving her to roam around the fence perimeter, keeping watch over the area around them but otherwise left alone with her thoughts.

Sometimes, when you're forced to spend so much time with a person, you start to forget and even overcome your differences. Despite what was said at lunch, she doesn’t believe she’d have the heart to shoot him if it came to it, and she wanted to believe he didn’t, either. If it was a matter of life and death, maybe. But their bond had grown beyond being enemies, and after all the work she put into keeping him alive…

There is a slight chance she's wrong—a slight chance that she read him wrong, or he was manipulating her the whole time… but how would that explain why he never took advantage of any chance he had to escape, especially in the Mako? Why did he hotwire the Mako for her and not sabotage it? More importantly, why did they find her outside of the Mako? She knew for a fact that her last moments of consciousness were still in the front, and there's no way the rolling would have thrown her out the door on its own. Unless she has her own little guardian angel, she's pretty sure it doesn't have wings and is turian-shaped.

As her shift continued on, her thoughts continued to wander, only stopping on occasion when she would pass another guard on patrol and they’d exchange a few pleasantries. The longer the hours droned on, the more she found herself absorbed in her thoughts, almost forgetting by the end that she was still on shift and had a job to do.

Almost.

The movement outside of the fence wasn’t what caught her eye, it was the sound that drew her attention and snapped her out of her thoughts immediately. Pistol at the ready, she turned to look out at the small hills next to the base, not high enough to get over the walls but definitely tall enough to provide some cover if someone or something was out there. Besides, the tell-tale sound of something shifting on the dirt, maybe even falling to the ground, isn’t something she can just imagine.

There’s always the chance it was just an animal scurrying around out there, which is why she didn’t alert anyone else. There’s no point in raising a false alarm; she had to be sure. But, just in case, she readied the call anyway. Just when she thought it might be safe to move on and simply mark the spot as something to keep an eye on, a strange, low screeching noise carried through the fence and a moment later she turned on her heels, finger dancing over the trigger, as a muffled voice from behind her said “Shepard, is that you?”

Inside the base, there was no one in sight. Not even another guard out on patrol, probably currently around the corners of the building or standing over by the gates to make sure nothing tried to break through them. But she knew, without a doubt, that someone had just tried to speak to her. Belatedly, she realized the voice continued to speak behind her even as she spun around. Turning slowly back to the fence, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the little black box, cradling it in the palm of her hand. For a moment, all she did was look at it. Then, tentatively, she asked, “Garrus?”

After it repeated her word in a much louder screech than the first one, she took an involuntary step backwards as she saw his head peek over one of the dirt hills. “Doesn’t that thing have some kind of volume control??”

She glanced around quickly, making sure they were still alone before scrambling to both move closer and also try to turn the volume on the box down. She managed to muffle it some by covering the speaker with her hand. It would have to do. “What the hell are you doing here?”

The rest of his head appeared over the edge of the dirt as he said, “The turians aren’t happy with the attack on their base, especially after the destruction of most of their war machines.”

“Yeah, no shit! That’s what happens in war!”

“Listen,” he hissed, “they don’t trust me right now. Not after I led you to the other base. So I’ve got to be quick. They plan on retaliating soon. When they hit, they’re going to hit hard. You need to be prepared, you need to evacuate your civilians—”

“And why should I trust you?” It wasn't something she meant to say, but she knew it came from a place of truth as she struggled internally with how glad she was to see him again against the thought of what would happen to both of them if they’re caught. And maybe, a little bit of what everyone had said earlier was affecting her thoughts too.

It was clear her words gave him pause. She could see it plain as day on his face. But when he quietly spoke his next words, she knew they were true. “I don’t want to be in this fight. I have to. I just want to do everything I can to try and stop the civilians from getting hurt. I know I’m far from innocent in this situation, but… all I can ask for is the same trust you had in me that you did in the Mako. And if you’re still carrying that translator around, maybe you do.”

“Garrus…” she trailed off, no more words coming to her. Her eyes seemed to carry her message enough, though, for after a brief moment where they only stared at each other, he gave her a simple nod and quickly disappeared back behind the hill.

Before she could try calling out to him again, from behind her she heard someone call out, “Shepard! Is everything okay?”

She gave one last look towards his hiding spot as the sound of boots began approaching her, her hand closing tightly around the box before spinning to face the new arrival. “It’s nothing,” she said flatly, hilting her pistol. “Just an animal. Had to be sure.”

“Yeah, they’re always poking around here looking to see if they can steal any of our food scraps,” the man chuckled. “Alright, well if you’re sure it’s nothing, carry on.”

She nodded and picked her patrol back up, waiting until she was alone again to finally give her cramped fingers the rest they needed after tightly holding the translator for so long. Slipping it back into her pocket, she let a new thought take over the rest of her shift. How would she ever convince someone of an incoming attack without telling them her source?

Chapter Text

“Come on, Garrus. It’s time to go.”

He looked up from the open crate in front of him, the checklist on his datapad only halfway finished, to find Chellick on the other side of it, waiting for him. “Go where?”

“We’re about to raid an alien base,” he said casually, as if that was something they did every day.

“Oh, so one of the higher ups actually trusts me again?”

“Not exactly,” he said while scratching the side of his head. “It’s all hands on deck for this one, they’re only leaving a skeleton crew behind in the base. I barely managed to convince them that your skills would be better suited on the field than stuck in here, regardless of what you did or didn’t do.”

He tilted his head curiously. “Thank you, I think. I guess anything is better than these inventory shifts they keep putting me on.”

“Come on,” he said again, reaching his arm out to help Garrus up from the floor. “I believe in you anyway; I’m sure they gave you no choice in the matter. Shouldn’t punish you for something you couldn’t help.”

Garrus didn’t say anything else on the topic, not wanting to tell the truth. If there was anyone else here that would understand what he felt, it wasn’t Chellick. He would definitely find himself inside one of the turian prison cells permanently if anyone found out he had gone and visited the human base recently, especially if they found out it was to warn them of the coming attack.

He felt only dread from the moment they left the base, all separated out into squadrons but still heading in large numbers for the same target. It was luck that got him out here, really, and he wouldn’t be surprised if they only agreed with Chellick to keep him closely under watch so that if he had turned on them, he couldn’t do anything about it. Maybe luck would be kind enough to let him out of this situation too, whatever way it chose to do that.

Really, anything seemed likely as he was shoved into the middle of the squad as they clambered over the rocks alongside some of the heavy vehicles coming with them. Still, they allowed him to use his non-regulation sniper specially calibrated by himself for the coming fight.

He only hoped that Shepard had heeded his message, that all the effort of sneaking out on his own paid off. He could understand her mistrust, especially after he left her in the dirt. But there had to be something that showed her he was trustworthy, and really he had done the best he could have. They had picked up some movement away from the base earlier; maybe he was lucky enough to help any civilians on base leave for another they know exists somewhere. Now, as the night ended and light began to slowly seep back into the world, it was best not to think about what was coming up, and what he was going to have to do.

Since trust was a thin margin for him right now, he was sure to follow orders as well as he could. He tried to blend in too, not starting any of the banter over the comms but joining in where he could. The best thing he could do right now was zone out and shoot when he was told to.

It seemed likely that this wasn't going to end any time soon, as the humans and their technology surprised them all. If anything, it was only going to escalate more after the coming battle, and he doubted the General would try to negotiate with them even if the humans continue developing their translator tech. That’s a step the turians haven’t even thought of trying. What a way to welcome a new species, huh? Tear them to pieces before they can even be properly integrated into the galactic community. If only the council could see this—

Wait. There’s a thought. Though it wasn’t often spoken of, Garrus knew they were acting on orders that were kept in tight knit groups, close enough that he’s pretty sure no one on the Citadel knows about it. He wouldn’t be surprised if their own council representative didn’t even know. If there was one thing The Council was good for, it was attempting to create peace across the galaxy, especially in Council space. That could be the ticket out of this fight, the thing that stops all this bloodshed and gives the humans a proper chance to join the galaxy.

But he’s just one man, and he’s way down the list of people in line for any important position in the Hierarchy. He’s not important enough to get The Council’s attention. It could work, but how would he do it?

His thoughts on this topic were halted as they grew close to the base, having to quiet down and get ready as they hoped to sneak as close as they could. So that no one near him could see that his nerves were beginning to get the best of him, he clenched his fists to control his tremors. The battle began shortly after as a shock wave rattled the ground beneath them, one of their trucks going up in flames along with those inside of it. They’ve been spotted, and there’s no turning back now.

Orders were shouted throughout their group. People began to take up their positions around the outside of the base’s perimeter, hoping to draw the humans out but prepared to break through it to get to them if necessary. It was easy to fall into a routine, following orders, taking cover, and setting his sniper up. As he raked the scope over the field of soldiers already outside and turned his sights inwards, where he could see over the wall, he knew it would be best to tune it all out.

He did what he and all the other snipers were told and began firing on those still taking cover within the walls of the base, but he only hit about half of his targets, and even those were non-lethal. He didn’t have the heart to put any more effort into it, but it wasn’t like anyone was paying that close attention to his targets. As long as they saw he was shooting, they should be satisfied.

Everything seemed normal until a flash of blue filled his scope and, looking for the source and tracking the large blur to see what it would hit. Belatedly, he remembered that some of the humans had biotics, and he just happened to catch one of them charging into the middle of the fight. That would be someone dangerous, someone his leaders would want him to try and take out as early on as possible.

He shifted and moved to aim at the human better, looking to take a passable shot instead of simply watching. Honestly, they were moving so fast that even when practically on the front of the turian lines, the others wouldn’t say anything if he missed. This was a nearly impossible target for anyone. A twitch of his finger was all he needed to get the gun responding to him, the target understandably not going down as it missed them.

His heart skipped a beat in the next moment as they glanced up at him, a brief moment that could have just been a mistake, a lucky guess. However, any other time he was spotted immediately after shooting, it had been Shepard on the other end. He already knew she had biotics and tended to rush into the front lines, both signs that this might be her. If only he could see under the helmet, he’d know for sure.

Still, the thought that it might be Shepard was enough alone to get him to stop shooting, afraid of harming her. He still owed her his life, after all, and he felt too guilty about leaving her in the dirt after the Mako incident to consider them even. He wasn’t one to shirk away from a debt either, even if it was one of his own making.

That’s probably why he began watching the figure through his scope, losing all pretense of fighting to stay up to date with what was happening. That’s probably why when it was clear the figure was slowly becoming overwhelmed and losing, he had to fight himself to not shoot at his own people—not to kill them, obviously, but maybe damage their equipment to change the playing field a little.

That’s probably why, when the figure finally fell, and the turians moved onto their next target, he switched any and all possible tracking off on his visor, jumped over his cover, and slid down the slope, dust and rocks kicking up under him and providing decent cover as he ran to try and retrieve the figure. He could only hope, after his inability to get involved, that he wasn’t too late.

Chapter Text

Shepard was really getting tired of this.

When she signed up to join the Alliance, she knew there was a chance she would die. There always was a chance, for any soldier, for any station. It was a risk she was willing to take to help out humanity and to get into space. What she was not prepared for, however, was how often she would merely brush death. Falling unconscious and then waking up in a completely different and unknown place was not pleasant, no matter what place she woke up in.

This time seemed worse than the last, too. Instead of the mattress of the hospital bed under her and the bright, blinding lights above her, as her eyes fluttered open she could tell it was very dark, and as her senses returned she could feel stiff muscles and sharp pains all over her body, not only from the last battle but from the hard surface she was currently laying on, too. A musty, earthy, damp smell filled her nose and even made its way into her mouth, giving her an overall unpleasant experience to wake up to.

It took her a while before she could even try to look further into her surroundings than that and figure out where she was. Her memory of the last fight was foggy at best—lots of shooting, lots of explosions, lots of up close, hand to hand combat—but she didn’t know where she could be. If she really had survived the fight, shouldn’t she be back in the medbay again?

When she could finally hold her eyes open, she pushed the pain back into her mind, doing her best to ignore it and instead trying to make her eyes focus on her surroundings. At first, she thought it wasn’t working. It seemed like she couldn’t see anything, no matter how much she tried to focus. Only after that did she realize it’s because there wasn’t really anything to see. She had been looking around the wrong area, looking into the dark depths of the cave and not around at the cragged walls or the high, stalactite ridden ceiling.

Panic shot through her all at once as her mind raced through a million different reasons for waking up here, from just short of being a wild animal’s dinner to something as strange as unlocking teleporting. Adrenaline flooded her body and she sat up quickly—only for the flow of panic to be cut off immediately, the sharp stabbing pain in her abdomen hogging all of her senses as her hand shot to cover the spot and a low hiss escaped her teeth.

She was surprised that her hand came to meet rough fabric wrapped tightly around her torso, and it was then that she realized she wasn’t even in her armor anymore. Before she could wonder any further, a stern hand landed on her shoulder and guided her back down on the ground, saying something she couldn’t quite understand as she laid there, dazed. When the hand moved away a voice on her other side said, “You need to stay down. Even I know you shouldn’t be moving with that kind of an injury.”

Looking around again provided no apparent source of the voice at first. It had sounded so close, surely someone had to be sitting right in front of her, but all she could see were the cave walls and the seemingly endless darkness behind it. It was when she casted her gaze down, however, about to give up, that she was able to pick out the little black box a few feet from her head.

Slowly, she turned herself over, careful not to move too fast or in the wrong way to aggravate her wound. A wave of heat blasted her on the face as she now faced a bright fire, the dancing flames entrancing for a moment as she caught her breath before she looked up at Garrus, currently tinkering with a gun in his hand but clearly keeping a close eye on her at the same time.

It was silent for a moment as they acknowledged each other, only the sound of the popping flames getting between them. Then, questions came rushing through her mind so fast, it was impossible to process them. For it to seemingly only be the two of them alone, in a cave of all places… all she managed to say, all she managed to pick out of her jumbled mess of thoughts, was, “What?”

He chuckled after the translator picked it up for him, not answering right away to reach over her and pull the translator closer. “I get the feeling you have a lot more questions than just that.” Resting the gun down by his side, he leaned back and propped one of his legs up, looking her over one last time before he began his explanation. “I suppose I’m a deserter now, since I ran away from the fight and they couldn’t find my corpse. I’d expect the same thing for you, or at the very least, some kind of missing in action. Truth is, I owe you a debt. You saved my life in that cell by bringing me food and healing my wounds. I wasn’t going to watch you die in that fight.”

She rubbed her palm on her forehead, his answer only bringing up more questions. “Was trying to warn me of the coming battle not enough? Or pulling me out of the Mako?”

“You saved my life, I saved yours. It’s only fair. The Mako doesn’t count, because just pulling you away from the wreck didn’t mean I made sure you were safe.” There was another pause before he added, “I don’t suppose you’re people would be looking for more recruits?”

“Hah. Yeah, no. If we go back there, you’ll find yourself locked in a cell again before you can even say a word. I think the only thing that would keep you from being shot would be walking there with me, and even then…” she trailed off, gently shaking her head. “There’s nothing you could do to convince them or gain their trust.”

“...what about yours?”

“Huh?”

“Have I gained your trust?”

She looked up at him with a raised eyebrow, studying the hard angles of his face and the blue lines etched into his face. Despite the harshness of it all, and the fact that he still looked alien to her, there was a softness in his eyes she was beginning to recognize. “I think you have.”

“Good.” He took the opportunity to rummage through the bag next to him and, in one swift motion, tossed a human food ration down in front of her. “Then don’t ask me where I got this from.”

She chuckled. “It’s only fair.”

After he helped her slowly sit up and reposition herself against the wall, they ate together in silence. Still, her mind swirled with questions she knew she wouldn’t get the answer to—questions about the war, and where everything still stood. Questions about the other turians and how they might react if they were found. Questions about her own people, wondering what they thought happened to her when they couldn’t find her corpse on the field. Questions that she knew Garrus wouldn’t have the answer for. And, if she was right, he was thinking about some of them too.

After they ate, Garrus had Shepard move again, pulling her off of the wall so that he could take off her bandages and replace them. She held his arm tightly to balance herself as he unwound them with his other hand, taking slow and steady breaths to keep herself calm, especially as the wound was bared to the breeze blowing into the cave, which made the skin around her wound crawl and her eyes water.

As he reached for the replacement, it was like Garrus knew something was off, for he struck a conversation up before he could begin again. “I do have to say, your luck seems to be pretty high with the amount of times I’ve seen you injured just in this war.”

“It’s a gift and a curse,” she sighed, helping him out by using her free hand to hold the end of the bandage before he could wrap it into place. “Nothing beats being able to walk away from something daring with far less injuries than you’d expect. But it seemed like I never could stop stubbing my toes on things. I’m like a statistical anomaly—you’ll find me on either extreme of something, but never the middle.”

He laughed, slowly winding the bandage around her and covering the wound with the soothing medicine already woven into the cloth. Once the first layer of bandage had covered the wound, she let out a sigh now that it was protected again, her shoulders relaxing and her head drooping. He seemed to understand what was happening, so gently, he rested her back against the wall before he finished up. As he went to tuck in the end of the bandage he leaned closer and her breath got stuck in her throat, her eyes frozen on his claws as he gently secured the bandages. She met his gaze as he looked up and said, “Alright, that should be…” he trailed off, seemingly unable to finish his sentence.

The roar of her heartbeat drowned out any other sound as blood rushed through her head at their proximity, just inches away from each other. This close, she could see the fine details of his face, each groove of his hard skin, each sharp angle actually tapered and rounded off. It was clear to tell that the markings on his face weren’t natural too as the edges fuzzed out ever so slightly, like a regular tattoo.

Before she knew it he pulled away just a moment later, but a moment that had felt like forever. She let out a ragged breath, struggling to catch it again and get her heart under control. Clearing his throat, he seemed intent to look anywhere but at her as he said, “Should be good now. Uh, yeah. Nice and tight.”

“Yeah. Okay—Thanks.” She let the silence fall between them, grateful for the strong breeze that came roaring swiftly through the cave as it cooled her off but also forced Garrus to turn his attention back to the fire before it blew out. Despite the fact that she still felt tired as she leaned her head back against the wall, despite the fact that her eyes were already drooping, she said, “Why didn’t you take the shot?”

“Hmm?”

“You hit the box next to me. You gave me a warning shot.”

“Oh. That.” He sat back on his haunches, the flickering firelight across his face hiding whatever emotions he had as he thought back. “I never thought there was a good reason to start this war, and we knew there were civilians there. I didn’t want to hurt them.”

She couldn’t help the harsh bark of a laugh at that, though it was quick to die down as pain flooded her abdomen again. “If only I had known that at the time, maybe I wouldn’t have taken out a personal vendetta on you for toying with me.”

There was a trace of a smile on his face as she said that. “What about you?”

“Hm?”

“Why didn’t you take the shot? Before you knocked me out?”

“Right…” she trailed off, letting her eyes slip closed. “I didn’t have the heart. Training teaches you the technical side of things, but it does nothing about the emotional side of it, and how someone looks when they’re in front of you, defenseless. Even if you were the enemy, it didn’t feel right.”

A loud pop from the fire as some of the logs burst apart interrupted their conversation for a moment as it stole their attention. When they returned to it, Garrus said, quietly, “Well, I’m glad we didn’t shoot.”

“Yeah,” she yawned, fading back into sleep. “Me too.”

Chapter Text

Garrus was used to the sight of his visor scattered into pieces across the floor. It wasn’t a unique piece of tech in the least—he had bought it himself a long time ago, an early model that was the coolest tech on the block at the time. Now, instead of wasting the credits to keep up with the latest models, he kept it up to date himself, making sure the programming was the most recent update he could get his hands on. It gave him the opportunity to do some of his own modifications too, something he liked to think gave him an advantage over his other fellow turian snipers.

What he wasn’t used to was trying to integrate different tech into it that wasn’t turian based or otherwise normal to find in the galaxy. This human tech was as alien to him as was the human herself sitting across from him, splitting open another one of her rations.

“Be careful with that,” she said as he pushed the shell of the black box open. “We only have one of them, and if you break it, we’re done for.”

“I know, Shepard,” he said, managing to bite back most of the growl in his throat as he did but still getting a deeper flanging in his voice regardless. “It would help a lot if you could tell me what any of this was.”

She simply shrugged her shoulders and leaned back against the cave wall as she methodically chewed on her food, waiting until she cleared her mouth to say, “I wasn’t the one to put it together, and I don’t know much about how tech works behind the scenes, I just use it. You don’t expect all of the turians to know how to program an entire new language into something, do you?”

He gave a short grunt in response, granting her an answer but not the satisfaction of hearing that she was right. But, it would be a lot easier for both of them if he could duplicate the translator program into his visor, where all his other translating took place. Then, it would be into Shepard’s, the discarded helmet laying a few feet away from him as it currently picked up any radio frequencies from the humans. It was too low for the translator to pick up on anything, but he knew Shepard was listening intently, even if she seemed aloof. Getting the unfamiliar programming into a piece of unfamiliar equipment was bound to be a challenge later, but maybe they could leave the turian comms open on his instead.

She was kind enough to stay quiet for once, letting him focus as he poked around in the translating device again to try and figure it out. Any distractions right now might prove fatal for the device, and that was the last thing they wanted.

The air quickly shifted just as he managed to connect the two together and start copying the code, glancing up to watch Shepard’s shoulders stiffen and her eyes zeroing in on her helmet. He stayed still for a moment, looking at her expectantly, and when the chatter finally ended and they made eye contact, he almost already knew what she was going to say.

“It’s escalating out there,” she said, though that was something they had already picked up on, noting more and more movement in the little bit of scouting they had done from the cave entrance or while looking for any more supplies they could gather. “Our base—the human base you were kept in—has finally been abandoned since the turian occupation after the last battle we were in. They’re pulling all their forces back to regroup and prepare for something even bigger. This stupid fight is going to turn into a full-blown war any day now. I don’t think this was ever how we intended our first contact to go.” She then crossed her arms and huffed, blowing a stray strand of hair out of her face as she looked away.

“Trust me, this isn’t usually how it goes,” he muttered, pulling away from his work for a moment as he waited for the code transfer to complete. “You know, I hear all this talk about how we were welcomed with open arms after helping with the Krogan rebellions, but it seems our general isn’t so keen on doing the same for you.”

“...What?”

“What?” he repeated, tilting his head curiously. He wasn’t sure what she was questioning to even begin to help her explain.

“You mean to say… you’re not the only alien race out there?”

“No,” he said slowly, only just remembering that she wouldn’t know anything about The Council and all of its alien species. “We’re just one of the many races in the galactic community. I, uh, forgot that we’re the only ones you’ve ever met.”

“Then where the hell is everyone else while we’ve been stuck down here fighting each other?”

He shrugged and scratched at the side of his mandible. “We’re kind of the biggest part of The Council’s military, so… I have a feeling no other species would even know what we’re doing here, and the only others passing us by are turians.”

“The Council? Is that your governing group or something? How would you be their military and they wouldn’t know you’re here?”

“It’s… more complicated than that. Yes, The Council governs the galaxy, but not every turian is a part of their military. These specific ships… well, we help keep the peace but we’re on the Turian Hierarchy’s payroll.”

“So if certain people maybe were to try and cover something like this up…”

“There’s a chance it wouldn’t even make it back to The Council, if the right people are kept out of the loop and they don’t get suspicious.”

“Then that’s our answer!” She stood up suddenly, stretching out her arms until there was an audible pop that made Garrus wince. “We just need to contact The Council, and—”

“I’m going to stop you right there,” he interrupted. “I’ve already thought about this; contacting The Council isn’t just a simple call. They don’t hand out that ability to just anyone, and even then, if you don’t have an appointment, there’s a chance they might not even accept your call. They’ve got plenty of secretaries to handle the minor calls, trust me.”

“Then we come up with an excuse we know they can’t ignore,” she said, her brow tightening. “And we find somewhere we can call them. You have to have at least one person able to call them here, right?”

He sighed. “Sure. They’d probably have a way to contact the general. But the only way we’d even have a chance is if we snuck into one of the turian bases.”

“So?”

“So? Are you crazy? Nevermind—please don’t answer that.”

“Only because you said please,” she teased, the corners of her mouth turning upwards. “I think it’s a risk, but it might be a risk worth taking if it means we could end the war before it becomes too much. I don’t know about you, but I know that my people have some scary technology. Like, world-ending, this place won’t be hospitable for decades anymore technology. We have to do something, Garrus, I’m not going to sit here and watch everyone kill each other when we can do something about it.”

He sat back and leaned against his hand to look up at her better, trying to see if he could understand where she was coming from just by studying her. It didn’t work. “Usually, people hope to win a war, bringing an end by overcoming the enemy, not bringing in a third party to stop it. Why are you so adamant that this is the way to end the war?”

“We barely know anything about this galaxy,” Shepard said, kicking away a couple of rocks near her foot. “Not long ago, all we knew was our solar system. Hell, not long ago we could barely travel our own solar system. We had no idea there were other planets out here, much less habitable ones. And now, as this whole war is growing, we risk losing these new planets we’ve discovered, we risk missing out on the entire damn galaxy if things go poorly, and I’m sure if it escalates too far The Council might have some issues when we eventually finally meet them. Besides,” she adds, her tone growing softer. “If you and I can work together, it only proves the point further that this whole war is pointless. Fear, misunderstandings, whatever may be the case that started it, we need to end it. It’s the best thing to do for the humans, for the turians, for the galaxy.”

Garrus sat silently for a moment as they stared at each other, finally interrupted by a beeping noise that signaled the code had finished copying. Shifting once more, but not going back to the translator just yet, he said, “I guess we’re doing this then. I think it goes without saying that the risks here are astronomical, but… hell, I guess rotting in a turian cell is better than watching the planet getting blown up from here. I’m in.”

“Good,” she said with a smile, reluctantly sitting back down across from him as he began to tinker again. “I was probably going to go without you if you didn’t want to come, but having you along will make the plan that much smoother.”

“You’ve already got a plan?”

“Of sorts,” she admitted. “You wouldn’t happen to have anyone on the inside who could help us out, would you?”

He sighed. “Maybe. I’ll—I’ll have to see. Let me see about combining this software with mine and getting it into your helmet—if you’re going after The Council, you’ll need to make sure you can understand them, even if I’ll have to translate your words.”

“Do whatever you can, but make it quick—I don’t want us to wait until it’s too late.”

Chapter Text

“Are you sure you can get us inside?” Shepard whispered into the speaker of her helmet, pressed as tightly as she could against the small outcropping of rocks. She didn’t even dare to look over at where Garrus was further away, trying to scope out the base through his sniper rifle.

“At this point, Shepard, I’m not sure of anything,” came his quick response in her ear, a comforting sound despite his words. “But damn if I’m not going to give it my all. You sure you can’t get anyone else here?”

“I could probably convince someone, but they’re too far away. We don’t have the time to go get any of mine. All we can rely on is your man.”

“Well, we better hope Sidonis can pull through for us, then. Otherwise we’re dead meat.”

“Thanks for the reminder,” she said dryly, clutching her shotgun tighter to her chest.

“Transport trucks are coming in from the south,” he said not long after. “They’re set to come right past us. Remember, it has to be the last truck. Not only is that the one he made sure would be free of turians and have room for us, but we’d be seen by the others.”

“I’m not an idiot, Garrus,” she hissed. “Just put that thing away and hide. I’ll see you inside.”

As soon as they quieted down, Shepard began to pick up on the rumbling engines of the trucks, her ears straining to make sure nothing was about to find her spot. Garrus would jump in first by his hiding spot and, when they got down to her, she’d join him. It was the best way to make sure they both got on without potentially alerting the guard by making the truck move too much at once.

She sucked in and held a shallow breath when she saw lights flash by, cut off by the rocks and keeping her in the shadows. Counting each one, she waited until the last of the light flashed past her and added another second on for good measure before popping out of her spot, quickly darting around the rock and towards the truck and temporarily putting her weapon away. With swift movements, she jumped into the covered but doorless truck, successfully managing to get in without detection but unsuccessfully managing to disperse her momentum, tumbling into the back of the truck with the grace of an animal on a freshly waxed floor.

As soon as she clattered to the ground she froze, afraid that she just gave them away by making too much noise. By sheer dumb luck the truck continued on, the driver unaware. Maybe they just thought it was one of the cases falling over, something that could happen when it wasn’t tightly packed and the terrain was rough. Letting out a shaky breath, she turned her senses to the inside of the truck to take stock of what was going on here, only to realize in her fall, she had taken Garrus down with her. She was now sprawled out on top of him, and he was helpless underneath of her.

“Sorry!” she whispered as the realization hit in, her cheeks growing hot. Just as she began a mad scramble off of him, he grabbed her before she could go.

“Stay still,” Garrus hissed, holding her close. “Heat signature check at the gates. Don’t move and we’ll blend in with the engine.”

Shepard did as she was told, ignoring the continuous rush of blood to her face and the racing of her heart as it thudded against her armor while he held onto her hips and kept her in place. They had a job to do, god damnit, now was not the time to be distracted by something as simple as the proximity caused by a mere accident.

However, she was grateful when Garrus’s grip on her finally went limp, seizing the opportunity to move off of him and put as much distance between the two of them as the space allowed. Crouching down low, she could feel the dirt shaking the truck below her hand, and also knew the moment they had been let inside the base when the movement immediately became smoother.

It wasn’t long before the truck stopped altogether, and when the engine shut off, it seemed eerily quiet as they stayed low and stared at each other. Only daring the slightest of whispers, Shepard said, “And now we wait?”

“And now we wait.”

The waiting was the worst part so far—without a proper way to keep track of time, and without anything else to do, they might have been in there for a few minutes or a few hours. With the way adrenaline continued to flood her system, knowing this was it, no matter whether it was a success or failure, the time seemed to inch along, a lonely little snail unaware of the danger surrounding it.

Finally, a noise outside drew both of their attention to the door, and the top of a head could just barely be seen through the open door as one of the supply cases was pulled away.

“Sidonis,” Garrus said, relieved. Shepard glanced over him quickly, seeing that the markings on his face were designed a lot differently than Garrus’s, even more than just the change from rich blue to bright purple. She filed that away as a question to ask later, assuming they survive.

“Come on,” he whispered, gesturing with his head and looking around quickly. Garrus was the first to hop out, holding out his hand and taking Sidonis’s in thanks. “This place won’t be empty for long, and the loops on those cameras won’t last forever either. Take the east hall and head for the center. I can’t promise there won’t be patrols though, so don’t let your guard down.”

“I can’t thank you enough,” Garrus said as Shepard jumped down behind him.

“You can thank me later,” he said, waving it off. “You’re right; whether the humans deserve this fight or not, we’re doing something wrong by not letting anyone at home know and not following their orders.”

“Are you in the comms channel?” Shepard asked as she looked around, to which Garrus confirmed.

“You will be able to understand him, but he won’t be able to understand you. This translator doesn’t work both ways, it’s just programmed into our devices to translate what we hear. That’s why it’s important we both get in to talk to The Council. You aren’t going to get much done if you’re alone.”

“Right. He said it was this way?”

“Good luck,” Sidonis said as he continued to empty the truck as if nothing had happened, and the pair slipped into a hall off of the main room with the door closing back behind them.

While it would make more sense if Shepard was leading considering she was used to fighting on the front lines more, Garrus was the one who knew his way around the base. Plans for the base were something they could not get their hands on, and even then, they were relying on everything Sidonis had done for them, so there was a specific way they had to move around that they didn’t know before getting in.

Structurally, the base didn’t feel really alien—the temporary structure was largely built like the human one, metal supports and maze-like tunnels and all. Still, they had to be cautious. Every corner, every doorway, they paused for a moment to listen for footsteps, and when there were none, peeked around to be sure they were still alone.

Shepard felt like they were getting close when Garrus began to speed up, still cautious at every turn but not taking as much time to check to see if they were alone. Still, it didn’t feel right. Not once did they have to hide, not once did they see or hear another turian whatsoever nearby. It was almost too easy, considering where they were and what they were doing. Assuming they were close to the communication room didn’t ease her nerves one bit.

It seemed like the perfect setup for an ambush.

The comm line she and Garrus had connected on squeaked suddenly, causing both of them to wince as their pace slowed down for a moment. It was soon evident where the noise came from, as Sidonis came through on the other side, but he wasn’t talking to them. “What? What are those for? Don’t touch me! Leave me alone! What have I done wrong?” It cut out after that, the sound of his receiver falling out and then getting crushed evident and grating to their ears. They only needed to exchange a glance before they were moving faster than before, Shepard feeling the force of her biotics trying to rush to the surface but keeping them at bay and ready to be used at a moment’s notice.

When the alarms pierced the air and bright flashing lights cut through the halls, all it took was a simple, “RUN!” from Garrus before they had abandoned their careful path and rushed forward. Doors began slamming shut behind them, but not as they had been along their travels. No, these were large sheets of steel that looked nearly impenetrable, clearly meant to lock up a room or hall and keep whoever was there trapped.

“We’re almost there!” he said, sprinting as fast as he could. “We just need to beat the doors!”

It seemed impossible, as the doors closing behind them were beginning to catch up. Even the doors off to rooms on the side were already almost closed before they reached them. But Shepard wasn’t one to give up just because the odds were tight. The door behind her closed and nipped at her heels, so in desperation, she let her momentum carry her forward as she dropped down to the ground, watching Garrus fall into a similar position as they slid through the next door, probably the last one they’d make it through.

Somehow, it was the last one they needed.

Garrus was quick to stand up and slam the stock of his gun into the door controls, sparks flying as the screen shattered. “It won’t hold them for long, but hopefully it will buy us enough time. Come on, we don’t have a moment to lose.”

They took to the computers quickly, Shepard preparing the speech Garrus would translate to the Council as he hacked into the controls and sent out an urgent message request he titled the ‘Relay 314 incident.’

Banging on the door behind them signaled other turians had caught up outside and were trying to get the door open. For good measure, and to settle her nerves, Shepard threw her hand out and a stream of blue energy followed it, encircling the shelves near the door before pulling them over with a loud crash. Hopefully, it was another barrier that would provide them with another few seconds they desperately needed.

Soon, they found out Garrus was right. The message request patched them straight through to The Council. Shepard stood there for a moment, stunned, as the familiar hologram of a turian appeared along with two other aliens she didn’t know.

“There was an incident at Relay 314, General?” the turian began, but even the species gap between everyone didn’t hide the obvious surprise and confusion when they realized the two holograms before them were definitely not the turian general.

“Yes, the message remains true no matter who delivers it,” Garrus began, trying to keep them on the line as Shepard recovered and collected her thoughts. With the persistent thuds behind them she knew they had little time and quickly composed herself, letting Garrus translate as she spoke.

“I don’t know you, Council members, and you don’t know me or my species, but we are humans. We hail from a different solar system from the one we are currently in, but upon discovering the relay in our system, have slowly branched out into other galaxies.”

“You made first contact with the turians, then,” the one with the tentacles on her head said. “Are you here to say this happened recently? Why can't the general give us this information?”

“If you call recently several weeks ago, maybe. We were traveling the galaxy, looking to unlock whatever relays we could to see what's out there, when we ran into a turian ship who tried to stop us from activating the relay in question. Instead of explaining why they stopped us from doing so, they shot at us, and have since begun a battle between the humans and the turians. Recent events show it might turn into more than a simple conflict and delve into an all out war as neither side intends to give up or give in, and neither side has communicated the issue with each other, either.”

“That’s ridiculous,” the turian said. “If there was a war, we would have heard about it.”

“Not necessarily,” Garrus chimed in. “We’re right on the border of council space; the fighting might have continued for months without anyone noticing if there were no patrols in the area. You can ask the General: he’s the one keeping us here.”

He seemed to consider this for a moment before turning to the side and barking to someone out of sight, “Get me a line to the Primarch. Now!”

“Thank you for bringing this to our attention,” the third Council member said. “Despite Council rules, they should have never been upheld to a new species unless some kind of communication was attempted. We’ll work quickly to resolve this. Let me apologize to you, human, and your species, on behalf of The Council.”

“I appreciate that, but I’m no one important. I’m just a soldier trying to do the right thing.”

“Very well. We’ll have to get in contact with your leaders soon so you can learn the laws of the galactic society you have just entered to avoid having another conflict such as this one.”

Just like that, the holograms cut off, the call ended. Though it was a rather lackluster ending, at least it seemed they had managed to find success even amidst the chaos currently in the base.

Speaking of, the turians finally burst through the door not long after the call ended, shards of metal flying in all directions. After taking cover to be sure they were safe, Garrus and Shepard surrendered themselves now that their goal was achieved and were quickly apprehended, forced to their knees and cuffed. A familiar bright purple stood out in the sea of swarming turians, walking free and standing in front of the crowd as the tumultuous energy in the room came to a halt.

“Sorry, Garrus,” Sidonis said as he stood in front of them, unable to get the other to look him in the eye while he didn’t wear a matching set of handcuffs. “They cornered me. Already knew I had hacked into the cameras, apparently, and were just waiting to see what would happen. I had no choice, but I managed to convince them not to kill both of you immediately.”

“You had a choice,” he muttered. “You just chose the easy one.”

“I saved your lives!”

“You almost ruined our only chance at ending this war!” he growled, voice dripping with venom. “I thought you were on my side. If I had to die for this to happen, I would have done so gladly.”

“The damage is already done,” Shepard said, glad she was still at least able to wear her helmet and pick up the conversation from Garrus’s visor.“They can’t keep us for long, not if The Council keeps their promise.”

Garrus looked over at her, weariness prevalent as his eyelids drooped and his mandibles sagged. “We can only hope. I’ll see you on the other side, Shepard.”

Chapter Text

Garrus had never been to The Council chambers before as he was never anyone important; he only knew where they were on the Presidium. And yet, here he was, the smell of his armor polish still stinging his nose as he strode into the chambers and was ushered forward to stand in front of The Council themselves. He could feel the eyes on him as he walked down the long walkway and tried to ignore them, but it was hard once he caught a glimpse of what may have been his father up in the balcony. When he finally reached the end of the platform, those few seconds it took to walk it seeming to stretch on for hours, he carefully folded his hands behind his back to keep them from shaking so that he could keep his composure.

“Garrus Vakarian,” Councilor Tevos began, her voice silencing the idle chatter in the chamber and drawing everyone's attention to him. He fought down the urge to fidget. “Thank you for coming. As I’m sure most of our visitors here know, a few months ago you played an essential role in preserving peace within our galaxy. Through your actions, we were able to find out that the turians who initially open fired on the humans never gave them a chance to learn the rules we have in place for the galaxy, and even continued the fight into a full scale war right under our noses. Of course, you were not alone in this endeavor. You had the help of…” she trailed off as she gestured behind him, causing him to immediately turn and look over his shoulder.

“Commander Zarena Shepard, ma’am,” she said with a grin. She was walking towards him to join him on the platform, and when they made eye contact, the wink she gave sent shivers down his spine. He visibly brightened at the sight of her, however, and as he made room for her at the edge of the railing with him, he felt some of his nerves finally relax knowing not only was he no longer alone, but it was Shepard by his side.

“Commander Shepard,” Sparatus continued once she was in position, picking the ceremony back up. “On behalf of myself, my fellow councilors, and the Primarch himself, we bring our deepest, most sincere apologies. Both sides suffered heavy losses in this pointless endeavor, and we only hope it will not cause a permanent rift between our two races as we help you and your race rebuild Shanxi and integrate into our galactic society.”

“On behalf of the Alliance and our government, I accept your apology,” she said, though she arched an eyebrow. “Unfortunately, I don’t think that will stop a few stragglers from both sides that remain hostile, as first impressions are hard to shake.”

Garrus covered his chuckle with a brief cough, turning away to take a breath and compose himself before looking back up at The Council and refusing to meet Shepard’s eye again, fearing that if she had that look in her eye he wouldn’t be able to hold it in.

“Yes, that will be… an unfortunate cause of this problem. However, I am sure you have already been informed of our plans to attempt to rectify this situation. We intend to begin these as soon as possible.”

She gave a stiff nod in confirmation as Garrus looked over, curious. He hadn’t heard anything himself, as he wasn’t a human, so he wondered what the councilor was talking about. Maybe if he had a chance after, he would ask her about it.

The rest of the ceremony went well, even if Garrus was only half paying attention. He didn’t really care about all the long winded political speeches going on as the council attempted to repair and actually begin their relationship with the humans, especially when he had something else to focus on. Specifically, the gentle scrape of his armor against Shepard’s whenever she shifted in place, clearly just as impatient as he was in the moment but struggling more to hide it.

When it was finally over and The Council filtered out, Shepard’s attention was immediately grabbed by some other humans, a few of whom he recognized from his time in their prison. As she was pulled off to the side to talk with them, he gave a warm, wistful look her way before taking the first step back out of The Council chambers, sure whatever they wanted her for was going to be important and something he didn’t need to know about anyway.

He stepped into the elevator, alone, and pushed the button to take him on the long descent back down to the Presidium, turning back towards the doors and ready to occupy his time by listening to what was probably going to be a news broadcast about the ceremony he had just been in to celebrate Shepard and himself in their peace efforts.

Right before the doors shut a hand was jammed between them, surprising him as he blinked at the five fingers that practically pried the doors back open. There in the doorway, grinning, was Shepard, her chest heaving. “Going down?”

He chuckled as she stepped in. “Did you run all the way over here just to make a joke?”

“I simply seized the opportunity to make one, Garrus, but that was not the point of my running.” She took one last deep breath so she could speak better before adding, “I came because I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see you again.”

“That’s definitely not something I mind,” he said with a grin as the doors slid completely shut this time, letting them be alone as it shuddered to life. “So… it’s Commander Shepard now, is it?”

She grinned. “As it turns out, even if your war hero may not have listened to the rules entirely, you can’t just ignore the actions that led to the end of the war. Pretty sure it’s an honorary title to appease the masses, but I hope to live up to it. That, and I’ve started some more training, trying to work my way up a special branch in the military.”

“Impressive. Now tell me, does that rank come with a gun that can actually shoot, too?”

“Oh, shut up. Just because our tech hadn’t gotten to your level yet doesn’t mean it was perfectly capable of shooting if it had been in the hands of someone else.” She let that sit for a moment before continuing, “So what’s next for you? Shipping back out?”

“No, definitely not. I think I’ve had more than enough of my share on a turian warship, and I’ve done my time now too. You might have been transferred over to the humans once The Council got involved and put an end to things, but I was left in that cell for a while longer before The Council got involved there too. The turians didn’t take the forced surrender very well, even if both sides had to do it, and blamed me. No, I’m going to take a page out of my dad’s book instead; I’m already signed up to join Citadel Security.”

“So you’re staying here?” she said with an arched eyebrow.

“Yep. They’re always looking for people to join C-Sec, with how big this place is. And if I can make even one change, help take down one person acting out of line like our General was back on Shanxi, it will be worth it. Any special new assignments sending you out into the depths of space now that you’ve unlocked the galaxy, Commander?”

“Actually, yeah.” He tried not to let his disappointment show, but he had hoped to get to spend more time with her now that they were free. A small, tender smile blossomed across her face as she spoke. “New assignment’s got me way out in space, farther than I ever would have imagined going.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. There’s all sorts of crazy things to explore there too, and new people to meet. It seems too good to be true.”

“Sounds… amazing.”

“You know, I think it is.” There’s this cute guy who I think I’ll see around a lot too, real heroic type if you ask me. I might ask him out for drinks, if he’s interested.”

He forced a smile to seem like he was happy for her, mandibles spreading outward. It wasn’t so hard to do because some part of him really was happy, but there was still another that ached to stay close to her. “I don’t think anyone would be able to resist your charm.” Eager to change the subject, he asked, “Headed off to the new job then? Maybe I could walk you to the docks?”

“You can walk me to my new job, sure. But I think it’s still on the Presidium.”

“Still on the—wait, do you mean you’re working here?”

“I’m currently the public face of the humans; they aren’t letting me go that easily. So, for now, I’m one of a few humans that will be sticking around here for a while as representatives. Of course, Anderson will call me back out to his command if they need me, but I’ll just come right back here after that mission.”

A smile, real this time, crept back onto his face despite himself. “Well, if you ever need anything, I won’t be too hard to contact.”

She bit her lip, a curious movement that Garrus couldn’t replicate himself but had been assured the first time he witnessed it that it caused no harm. Apparently, it was often done in moments of nervousness, or sometimes deep thought. Finally, she said, “Know of any good bars around?”

“Right, to invite that friend of yours. Sure, if you’ve got some time, I could point you to a few that aren’t seedy.”

“Why don’t you come along with me?”

He blinked a few times, trying to process her words. “Yeah, uh. I guess I can show them to you personally, might help you understand more of why I recommend them—”

“You are so thick,” she muttered, interrupting him as she turned towards him, stood on her toes, and planted her lips right on his cheek. He froze in place, eyes wide as his heart raced and his stomach flipped on itself several times. “I’m trying to ask you out, stupid.”

“You meant me??” he said, taking a step away and falling onto the wall of the elevator behind him. “Shepard I’m… I’m no hero. You’re the real hero here, I simply… couldn’t help but repay your kindness.”

“The Council seems to think otherwise,” she said, gesturing to the top of the elevator back up at their chambers. Her voice then lowered as she took a step closer, slowly creeping in on his space. “Besides; you’re my hero. Wouldn’t have made it through the war without you. I owe you my life, even if you think we’re even.”

Flustered, almost certain there was blue creeping up his neck, he cleared his throat and said, “How about I just owe you a drink?”

She laughed, a bright, beautiful thing he marveled at as she stepped back out of his space. “Sure.” There was another brief pause in their conversation, and now, Garrus could finally see the Presidium rising up below them. “So what do you think? Do I stand a chance with this guy?”

“I suppose,” he hummed, a satisfied smirk on his face when she playfully gasped. “I don’t think it will be too hard; I think you’ve already captured his heart.”

“He better know that this time, I’ll be careful not to let him escape,” she teased as the elevator came to a halt. Her smile vanished as the doors slid open, and she looked back at him.

“Are you sure about this?” he asked softly, quiet fear creeping into his voice.

“I’ve never been more sure in my life.” She offered her hand out to him as she held the doors open, a silent invitation to prove she intended every word, and a chance for him to confirm or deny whether he was willing to let this happen, too. Wordlessly he reached out and took it, lacing his three fingers between her five, and they took the first steps out of the elevator together, a promising new view before them.