AN: This is a series of one-shots set in an AU Mass Effect, where Garrus is the sole survivor of the Akuze massacre.

One of the things that's always bothered me in ME is why Cerberus, a pro-human organization, would set up human soldiers to be attacked by the maws. If they really wanted to test the effect of the venom on living tissue, they could've experimented on other races, like the turians, especially given that Jack Harper aka TIM has a history with them. It'd be much easier to sell the whole "Humanity first" motto when you're not feeding your own species to giant worms.

Either way, it would've been nice to see some kind of resolution for this plotline in ME2 or ME3, especially since it concerns Sole Survivor Shepard directly.

Anyways, thought I'd play around with this idea for a while, see where it goes. Lemme know what you think, people :)

"Stay back! I've got no grief with you! All I want is this bastard!"

Shepard and her companions slowly filed into the room, guns trained on the only two people in the room. One of them was a human, dressed in a standard lab researcher uniform. The other, the one who just spoke, was a turian dressed in a battered looking mercenary uniform, brandishing a gun at the terrified human.

"Please!" the human whimpered. "He's a madman! He's insane! Mr Sidonis, please, you're sick. You need help!"

"Shut up!" the turian bellowed. "You don't get to lie! You don't..."

"Sidonis?"

Shepard glanced sideways to see Garrus slowly step forward. "Lantar...Sidonis?" he asked slowly, as though unable to believe his eyes.

"Who are you?" the turian merc bristled, his gun still trained on the scientist. "How do you know my name?"

"Sidonis, it's me!" Ignoring Ashley's cry of "What the hell, Vakarian?" Garrus stepped forward, lowering his rifle and slowly removing his helmet. "It's me! Garrus!"

"Garrus?" the turian blinked slowly, as if he were in a daze. "Garrus Vakarian? Spirits, Garrus, is that really you?"

"It's me, Sidonis. It really is me!" He glanced furtively at Shepard, silently beseeching her for help. She got the hint and lowered her own weapon, signalling the others to do the same.

"Sidonis...Lantar, what's going on? I saw you go down on Akuze. I saw the Thresher maw pull you under! How did you get here?"

All the fight seemed to go out of Sidonis at these words. His shoulders slumped slightly and his gun wavered.

"It was a trap, Garrus. It was all a trap!" the anguish in his voice was unmistakeable. "These scientists set us up. They wanted to study the Thresher maws, so they led our squad there. They..."

"He's lying!" the scientist shrieked in panic. "He's got no proof!" He turned to Shepard desperately. "Listen, Commander! My name is Dr. Wayne. I swear to you this turian is crazy! He's..."

"Shut up!" Sidonis bellowed. "You're calling me crazy, you scum! I'll..."

"Lantar! Lantar, ignore him! Look at me, please. Talk to me." Garrus stepped forward, his hands held out placatingly. Even though Shepard was no expert in reading turian expressions, she could tell from the twitching of his mandibles that he was barely holding onto his own anger, doing his best to stay calm for the other turian's sake.

Sidonis seemed to cool down slightly. "These bastards set us up, Garrus. See, they were running tests on the maws. They wanted to study the effects of thresher maw venom on turian physiology. So they faked that distress signal and lured us there. They let those things hit us just to watch and study!"

Garrus' entire world seemed to collapse around him. He actually staggered back a couple of steps, as though this information about his past had hit him like a physical blow. Shepard moved forward slightly to support him in case his legs gave out. The rest of the team opted to look at the terrified looking Dr Wayne with a mixture of horror and disgust.

Everyone on the Normandy knew about the incident at Akuze. It was a rather painful subject for the usually wise-cracking turian C-Sec officer.

Six years ago, Garrus' team had responded to a turian distress signal from the mostly deserted human colony of Akuze, on the outskirts of Systems Alliance space. Worried that there might be a remnant of the First Contact War on the colony, and determined not to cause a resurgence of past hostilities with the humans, the Turian Hierarchy sent in a team of twenty Special Forces soldiers to investigate.

When the team arrived at the colony, they only found the mostly intact settlement and no survivors, human or turian. As they camped for the night, they were set upon by thresher maws. They'd also found that their equipment had mysteriously been sabotaged, and very powerful signal jammers were blocking out their own distress calls.

By the time the Hierarchy realized that something was wrong, and requested the Alliance to send in aid, most of the unit had been slaughtered by the maws. When Alliance rescue ships finally arrived at the scene, they found only a single turian officer still alive: Second Lieutenant Garrus Vakarian.

The Akuze massacre became famous for nearly causing a diplomatic incident between the Alliance and the Hierarchy, but the intervention of the Council prevented things from escalating further. It helped that even the Alliance had found Garrus Vakarian's resilience rather admirable, seeing as he'd survived things that would have broken a lesser soldier. The Hierarchy had even gone as far as to offer him a shot at the Spectres.

But Garrus had turned down all offers and all accolades. He'd quit the turian military and moved to the Citadel to follow in his father's footsteps as an officer for Citadel Security. He had practically resigned himself to a life of bureaucracy and red tape, but a chance meeting with Commander Shepard gave him an opportunity to once again fight the good fight, this time against rogue Spectre Saren Arterius.

Watching Garrus learn that the darkest chapter of his life had, in fact, been a part of some sick experiment was incredibly painful to watch.

But Sidonis wasn't done yet.

"I woke up in a holding cell. The scientists were delighted I survived." He glared venomously at Wayne. "Now they had someone to run their tests on."

"They tortured me, Garrus!" the pain in his voice was heart-rending. "Night and day they tortured me. They injected me with thresher maw venom. I kept begging them to stop but they simply laughed at me. The pain was so unbearable!" His sub-vocals trilled with grief and pain.

"I didn't know..." Garrus whispered. "Lantar, I...I swear. If I'd known...I..."

"You can't believe what he says!" Wayne screeched. "He has no proof! I demand a fair trial!"

"Shut up!" Sidonis screamed. "You can't believe what he says! He was there!"

"Sidonis," Shepard said cautiously. "Do you know who these people are? The ones who did this to you?"

Sidonis looked at her cautiously. "They're part of some organization, go by the name 'Cerberus'. They run secret tests like this. They treated me like some kind of lab animal."

He looked at Garrus again. "This man deserves to die, Garrus! For you, for me, for everyone else in the unit!"

Garrus looked at him for a moment before nodding jerkily. "Agreed." He slowly drew his own pistol and pointed it at Wayne.

"Garrus, wait!" Shepard stepped forward. "You mustn't do this!"

Garrus looked at her as though she were insane. "Shepard, you heard what this man did. He's responsible for the deaths of our entire team. He deserves to die!"

"I'm not saying he doesn't!" Shepard said quickly, aware of two incredibly incensed turians. "I'm saying we need evidence..."

"Are you calling me a liar, human?" Sidonis spat at her.

"No, I'm not. Sidonis, I believe you! But he needs to stand trial for his crimes. What will killing him here achieve?"

"You humans have a saying: 'An eye for an eye, a life for a life.'" Sidonis glared at Wayne hatefully. "He owes me eighteen lives! And I plan to collect!"

"Sidonis, wait!" Shepard turned desperately to Garrus. "You have to stop him."

"Why, Shepard?" Garrus snarled at her. "Give me one good reason!"

She grabbed his arm and pulled him closer. "Wayne is merely a pawn. The real culprit over here is these 'Cerberus'; and if Wayne dies here, we'll never be able to bring the people behind Cerberus to justice."

"The Alliance can still investigate," Garrus said stubbornly. "Sidonis' testimony..."

"Means nothing!" Shepard whispered fiercely. "Anyone can see that he's not completely mentally stable. If he kills Wayne, all the Alliance will see is a crazed turian who went on a killing spree. This'll all be swept under the rug and your men will never get the justice they deserve!"

She could see her words beginning to have an effect on Garrus. Being a former detective himself, he knew how these things work. She watched him take a deep breath and turn around to face Sidonis once again.

"Well, Garrus?" he barked impatiently. "Are you with me on this?"

"Shepard's right, Lantar," Garrus said soothingly. "We've got to arrest him. Make him..."

"Screw you, Garrus!" he snarled. "You're supposed to be on my side!"

"I am on your side, Lantar. I want this bastard to die just as much as you do! But not like this! Lantar, you're better than this….."

"Don't tell me who I am, Vakarian!" Sidonis bellowed. "You got away with a few scratches and a scary reputation. The rest of the unit died and I was tortured for years!"

"You can't judge me, Garrus! You don't have the right!"

"Sidonis...Lantar, please," Garrus begged. "If I could have helped you on Akuze, I would have. Spirits, if I'd known you were alive, I wouldn't have let anything stop me from rescuing you."

"All I can do is help you now. Let me, Lantar. Please."

For an entire minute Sidonis just stood there, hateful eyes boring into Wayne's. Finally, he sighed in resignation and let his gun drop to his side.

"Okay. Okay," he muttered, more to himself than to the others. "I'm no murderer. They couldn't make me one." He looked up at Garrus pleadingly. "Just as long as he goes to trial. Maybe the screaming will stop now. I don't know."

He hung his head in sorrow, and Garrus finally moved forward to wrap his arms around the younger turian. "It's alright, Lantar. Those bastards can't hurt you anymore. I won't let them."

Shepard sighed in relief, glad that the situation was resolved without any bloodshed.

Until Wayne opened his stupid mouth, of course.

"Thanks a lot, Commander! I'm glad you were here. This crazy animal would have killed me otherwise!" He shook his head. "Turians I tell you, they're no better than..."

Whatever else he was about to say was lost as, with an enraged snarl, Garrus rushed forward and landed a vicious right hook across his jaw. There was a loud, resounding crack and several white teeth flew out as he slammed into the nearby wall.

"Garrus!" Shepard moved forward. "Control yourself! Please!"

She glanced pointedly Sidonis, staring morosely at the floor. Thankfully, Garrus got the hint as he stepped back to the younger turian's side, breathing deeply in anger.

"He hit me!" Wayne spat fearfully from his position on the floor. His jaw was a mess, his teeth continuing to fly out as he spoke. "Commander, I demand..."

"Shut up!" Shepard barked at him, pulling out her pistol. "One more word out of you, and I swear..."

Thankfully, the stupid bastard got the message and shut up immediately. After ordering Ashley to handcuff him, Shepard hailed the Normandy. "Joker! Tell the fifth fleet we need a ship for pickup."

She sighed as she looked at Garrus, talking softly to a dejected looking Sidonis. She knew they both had wounds which would take a long time to heal. She could only pray that it would happen soon.