Author Notes:

This contains Mature content because of swears. If your looking for pronz that's what LiveJournal is for.

This is a Mass Effect fan fiction Centered around Shepard and Garrus. (F!Shepard/Garrus pairing) The first half of every chapter will be from my Shepard's point of view, the second half will be from Garrus's Point of view... It will contain:

Comedy
Drama
Fluff
Romance
Angst

I may make sexually explicit parts but they will be separate.

Also at the beginning of each chapter there will be brief flashbacks from Shepard's past.

I intend to take this story all the way to the ending of the Arrival DLC and then wait for 3 to come out to finish it.

I'm not good with titles so I'm naming chapters after songs on my playlist because I'm lame like that.

Mass Effect and all it's sequels, characters and content (c) Bioware and EA

If you see any errors tell me.

Chapter I: Bad Company

"Annie can you cut the peppers for me?"

Her mother offers her a kitchen knife.

"Fine… but only because I don't have too much homework tonight" She grumbles, taking the knife and waving it.

She moves to the kitchen counter and grabs a pepper, slicing it awkwardly.

"Annie that's not how you hold the knife when you cut." Her mother scoffs. "Press the tip of the knife down first."

"Why does it matter? It's all going to the same place!" She protests. "You should be happy I'm helping at al-"

"Shh!" Her mother interrupts, frozen in place, listening.

She hears it too. Alarms in town, wailing an emergency call to all the members of the colony. They steadily get louder and louder.

"What the hell is that for?" She grunts, looking out the window. She gazes in the direction of the town and her breath leaves her chest as plumes of black smoke begin rising in the distance. Something explodes… then something else…

"Annie get in your closet in your room and lock the door…" Her mother orders. Her voice is low and quivering.

"But Mom!"

"Do what I say Anna Rose!"

"Allison is still playing outside!"

"Your Dad and I will take care of it! Go hide! Lock your closet door and do not open it for ANYBODY!"

"Mom-"

"NOW ANNA!"

She runs into her room and dives into her closet, the door slides shut behind her. She still has the kitchen knife in her hand.

"This mission just got a lot more complicated."

Complicated? Complicated? If that wasn't the understatement of the century… Shepard thought to herself as she ducked behind a large slab of unearthed stone, waiting for her assault rifle to cool.

Complicated is a way of explaining a difficult relationship to your dimwitted mother. Complicated is coming home to find your cat spread all your data pads from work all over the apartment and shat on a few of them. Complicated is the amount of firing algorithms in-

"Shepard!"

At the desperate cry of Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko, Shepard snapped out of thinking up creative metaphors to illustrate how horribly uninformed the Captain, and the rest of crew of the SSV Normandy really was.

No… no, no. This mission is way beyond fucking complicated. First the Geth, then…

She eyed the monstrosity lumbering towards her. A creature, once human, covered from head to foot in wires and tubes glowing with blue lights. What skin was left showing was a sickly grey, a clear indication that these things were merely reanimated corpses. It was closing in on her. They clearly lacked the intelligence to carry weapons or even take cover. All they were able to do, it seemed, was run clumsily up to their targets and smack them with unnatural force, while emitting bizarre electrical charges. Those smacks hurt.

Shepard's rifle was cool again and she pulled the trigger, aiming for the creature's legs. Bullets didn't seem to hurt them but they couldn't hurt her if they couldn't move. Her technique worked better than she had imagined it would. Once filled with numerous assault rifle slugs, the leg did not become crippled so much as explode into chunks of blue-grey meat. The creature toppled over helplessly and, with a low groan, it fell still. If only every enemy was that easy to subdue…

"Shoot them in the legs!" Shepard barked to her two teammates who were being backed into a corner by three more moaning, gurgling husks.

Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams responded first, removing both the legs from the husk in front of her with a single shotgun blast. Kaiden, on the other hand, used a biotic push attack that sent the other two hurtling backwards. He then picked the legs off quickly with his pistol. He holstered it, panting, and wiped his forehead. Shepard shot the last husk lumbering towards her and walked over to rejoin her teammates.

"Well now we know what those spikes are for: Turning our own dead against us..." Kaiden said grimly, approaching a three-legged stand with a retracted spike from which the husks had been released.

"It must take a few hours for the spikes to turn people into husks." Ashley added, examining the device as well.

"…So hours after the attack is finished, the rescue crews get a pleasant welcome from these walking wired corpses that used to be the very people they came here to save…" Shepard mused, looking around the ruined camp. Eden Prime was a beautiful planet but this colony had been torn to shreds; first by excavation, and then by the Geth. The sudden quiet, however, was making her feel uneasy.

As if slaughtering everyone in the colony wasn't enough they have to add one final "fuck you!" to the rescue crews in the form of electrified retard happy-slaps.

"I think we're the rescue crew, Commander." Kaiden stated. He was clearly nervous about speaking out to her, avoiding eye-contact.

"Then I guess we'll have to kill all these things before the clean-up crew arrives, won't we?" Shepard quipped, sarcastically.

Her eyes caught Kaiden and Ashley exchanging looks, probably off-put by the Commander's tasteless remarks. She chose to ignore them.

They made their way around the camp quickly, digging through rubble to retrieve useful information, weapons and/or parts to upgrade the weapons they already had. The trio managed to locate two surviving scientists hiding in a locked shed. After questioning the woman scientist (The male scientist apparently having a mental breakdown of some sort, causing him to be unresponsive to questioning and spouting babble about the end of humanity and so on) Shepard and her team walked up the hill exiting the camp.

The path from the camp was a narrowly-dug passage up the hill and according to the radio reports from Nihlus, who had run ahead of them; the spaceport (where the ancient Prothean relic Shepard and her crew were tasked to retrieve In the first place had been moved; According to the lady scientist) was just beyond the crest.

Actually I haven't heard any updates from our Turian comrade in a while… He is a Spectre; the best of the best, the right hand of the galactic Council! Surely he isn't in any real danger right? He could take on the Geth by himself, he knew he could or he wouldn't have gone ahead alone. …Come to think of it… how the hell is he supposed to evaluate me if he isn't even going to stay back and see me in action? Seriously! This mission isn't really going as planned but he should at least have the bird-brains to-

The eerie silence was suddenly broken by the crack of a single gunshot being fired in the distance. Shepard's heart stopped.

…That can't be good….

"Look! Off in the distance!" Kaiden shouted as they reached the top of the hill.

Shepard saw what Kaiden was referring to. It was kind of hard to miss. At first she thought it was closer than he said but as she eyed it more carefully her jaw dropped. It was in the distance, but it was so enormous it was extremely clear to the naked eye.

Holy fucknuts… !

"It's a ship!" Ashley exclaimed in awe. "Look at the size of it!"

A deafening roar suddenly assailed their ears as the massive ship's engines flared to life. It began to rise into the air and the engines began emitting noises that were alien to any engine noises Shepard had heard before. It made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. The screeching roar that followed made her feel like she had just swallowed a massive chunk of ice.

The ship itself was built something like an insect; it even had numerous leg-like appendages that seemed completely unnecessary for a spacecraft. It was so massive that, ironically, it made the Normandy look like an insect in comparison. It was built with such detail and every inch of it was pure black steel. Such articulate construction in such a massive scale must have taken decades to build… centuries even… she had never seen anything like it before.

As it disappeared into the sky Shepard had almost completely forgotten where she was and what she was doing. That ship gave her a bad feeling… a very bad feeling. It took the sound of a slug whizzing by her ear to snap her back to reality. It was fired by a Geth at the base of the hill before her. A group of the mysterious cyborgs had taken notice of Shepard, Ashley and Kaiden and opened fire while Shepard was busy staring at the ship taking off. The Geth were a race of machines that had apparently been living beyond the Perseus Vale for centuries and had never even been seen beyond it for three hundred years. They fit the description of Geth that Shepard had read in data files years ago and due to the repression of sentient AI by galactic law there was no other explanation for what these things could be.

It could also explain why I have never seen that ship before…

Shepard dove for cover and readied her sniper rifle. She crouched and peered over the rock she had taken refuge behind, perching the rifle on top of it. She fired a few shots and the group of Geth fell one by one, each taking a bullet in the head. Meanwhile more husks had started approaching them from another set of giant spikes at the entrance of the spaceport ahead. Shepard let Ashley and Kaiden take care of them while she finished off the remaining Geth in the vicinity. When the shooting ceased they walked down the hill, finding another group of survivors hiding in a nearby shed on the way.

These people were just farmers. They gave interesting information about the attack and the mysterious giant ship. Apparently it had emitted a jamming signal upon its descent onto the planet. That explained the distress call cutting off in the middle of recording. Shepard, Captain Anderson and Nihlus had viewed it back on the Normandy.

One of the last things I saw in the distress call was the legs of that massive ship! It gave me the creeps even then.

They walked into the space port, Kaiden ahead of them slightly but he stopped dead in his tracks when he reached a body lying on the floor.

"Commander… It's Nihlus…"

Shepard's heart fell. She had hoped the corpse they had seen from afar was just another civilian casualty, but up close his armor and shape made him unmistakable. The Turian Spectre had been killed, his blue blood was spilled on the floor beneath him. His head was turned to the side, most likely because his fringe wouldn't allow it to land on the floor facing up. Due to this position Shepard could clearly see the single bullet hole in the back of his head.

"A Turian? You know him?" Ashley asked. The level of curiosity in her voice was almost outweighed by disgust. Shepard nodded, not bothering to look at Ashley's expression.

Great… I finally find a competent Soldier here and she's a goddamn Xenophobe…

She instantly made herself feel bad. When they landed on this colony it didn't take five minutes before one of her men, Corporal Richard Jenkins, was shot and killed by recon drones. Thinking of him as incompetent wasn't fair. It was her fault for sending him into their line of fire. She and Kaiden picked up Ashley a few minutes later, helping her take out some Geth that were chasing her. She was a good soldier but clearly she was uncomfortable with aliens.

Shepard knelt down and placed her hand on Nihlus's head. His eyes were still wide open, his brow-plates elevated in surprise. Obviously the shot had taken him off-guard.

"This shot was at a close range…" Shepard murmured, examining the wound on the back of his head. There were burn marks on it that suggested the bullet was still hot when it pierced his skin "No way he let a Geth come this close…"

She sighed stood up. She liked Nihlus. She had never really seen or talked to Turians much. She was slightly intimidated by their tall, slender and bony forms and natural armor-like carapaces that covered their faces and probably many places on their bodies too. The parts that were not armored reminded Shepard of Lizard skin. In fact, the way Turian heads and necks were shaped reminded Shepard of Velociraptors. Their large, sharp teeth added to that effect (and their intimidation of her). Their talon-like fingers and other features (such as their fringes) also suggested avian ancestry although they didn't possess any feathers to show for it.

Someone had once told her that the metallic exoskeletons were an evolutionary result of their home planet, Palaven, being naturally exposed to more solar radiation than planets like Earth. This, however, did not make them invulnerable. Their carapaces were softer than they appeared and were more like thick skin than actual metal. They even had nerves in them, she heard. Not much, but still able to feel; like teeth.

Nihlus was the first Turian she had ever even held a conversation with. He had a dark carapace and his face was painted with patterns in white, an indication of the colony he was raised in. He also had vibrant, piercing green eyes that put Shepard's own pair of emeralds to shame. She caught herself staring at those eyes a lot when he wasn't paying attention.

I didn't think that shade of green could even be considered a natural occurrence.

He was polite… and seemed to think that, despite being an extremely unlucky woman , Shepard had the skills and know-how to become a Spectre like him. Humans and Turians had a bit of a past too so the fact that one would want a human in the Spectres was a great show of character. A lot of Turians were still spiteful to humans for the First Contact War. Nihlus, however, was planning on even mentoring her once he got a feel for how she worked in combat situations. He, however, underestimated just how unlucky of a person Shepard really was.

Now my chance at being at Spectre has been completely tossed out the window…

"Damn it… The Council is not going to be happy about this…"

"He's a Spectre" Said Kaiden, filling Ashley in on the details "He was with us on the Norm-"

"Something's moving! Over behind those crates!" Ashley said hurriedly, interrupting Kaiden.

Shepard quickly pulled her pistol and pointed it in the direction Ashley was referring to. A man jumped up from behind the crates with his hands in the air.

"Wait! Don't- Don't shoot! I'm one of you! I'm human!"

"Sneaking up on us like that nearly got you killed!" Shepard snapped. She lowered her weapon and approached the man. He was clearly a dock worker and looked rather traumatized.

"I-I'm sorry… I was hiding… from those creatures…" The man said nervously, looking around to see if they were really alone. "My name is Powell… I saw what happened to that Turian… the other one shot him…"

Shepard calmed a bit but was still intent on getting information.

"I need to know the details Powell…" She said in a softer, but still assertive, tone.

"The other one got here first… he was waiting when your friend showed up… He called him Saren. I think they knew each other." Powell stared at the floor as he spoke, clearly still in a bit of shock. "Your friend seemed to relax. He let his guard down, and Saren killed him... Shot him right in the back…I'm just lucky he didn't see me behind these crates…"

Shepard sighed and massaged her forehead.

Yep… This was definitely way beyond complicated…

Twelve hours? Twelve freaking hours? That's all the time I have to come up with evidence against Saren? Not just a Spectre but the council's pet Spectre! There is no way I'm getting my claws on any good information in just twelve hours!

Garrus Vakarian was utterly flabbergasted. His superiors had come to him with this high profile case, one that had the words "promotion" written all over it… Of course he agreed. Maybe THIS promotion would finally let him cut through all the damn regulations and paperwork…

…But then they come out and say he has literally half a day to find something incriminating on a Spectre… a SPECTRE! Someone whose records are sealed and whose very trips to the damn washroom are classified! This was all a ploy; a political stunt that he knew was expected to fail. The council asked C-Sec to look into it because they wanted it to look like they gave a shit about the massacre at Eden Prime. In reality, though, if they really thought Saren needed to be investigated they would have another Spectre do it; someone who could actually access information on him.

Garrus wanted to do this though. He did not like Saren. Saren was supposed to be an example to their people, a hero to Turians, someone they should look up to. Instead he was openly abusive of his power and not at all discreet about his unnatural hatred for humans. Yes, there was tension between the two races since the First Contact War but Saren was one of those veterans that could not let go of the past, and thus ensuring absolutely zero progress for the future.

Garrus thought the problems between humans and Turians were almost laughable. The two races were stubborn, hot-headed and combative. They had more in common than they realized and friendliness towards the humans often rewarded Garrus with friendliness in return. He even heard about both races getting together to build a state-of-the art stealth combat spaceship: The SSV Normandy. If there was any proof that Humans and Turians could achieve great things if they worked together, that ship was it.

Ironically it was that very ship that had come up in the file in his case against Saren. The Normandy was heading to Eden Prime to make a covert pickup of a Prothean Beacon. Though the ship had a human crew they were accompanied by another Turian Spectre called Nihlus. He was there to both make sure the beacon was securely extracted and to observe Commander Shepard, a possible candidate to become the first human Spectre. They ended up stumbling into the middle of a Geth attack on the colony. The ship's captain: David Anderson ordered Commander Shepard to take a ground team around the colony and look for the beacon. Nihlus joined them but went ahead on his own, feeding Shepard information as he went along.

Unfortunately the shit hit the fan not long after they went groundside. Nihlus ended up dead, the beacon was destroyed, one of Shepard's men was killed and she was claiming from the testimony of a survivor in the spaceport that the entire thing was caused by Saren. He was working with the Geth to attack human colonies and ultimately rid the galaxy of them… or at least that's what the human embassy was now claiming.

To Garrus, the dockworker's testimony seemed good enough. He was an eyewitness to Saren murdering Nihlus in cold blood. But for some reason the council didn't think that was substantial evidence. Now Garrus was supposed to dig up something better than an eyewitness? He had no doubt that Shepard was correct. Not only did the Alliance Marine have a spotless record in terms of integrity and honesty, but this also seemed very much like something Saren would actually do.

Garrus had seen Saren face-to-face several times in his years working for C-Sec… and each time he seemed to have done more and more cybernetic augmentation to himself. He was the youngest Turian to be made a Spectre why the hell would he need augmentations? It seemed like he was obsessed with making himself more and more powerful, to the point where even his own eyes were no longer Turian. His most recent personnel file photo gave Garrus the creeps. Half of his body was now in the form of some kind of cybernetics… and Garrus swore that is left arm was not even a Turian arm anymore… it looked more like a… Geth arm. (He based this on some old photos and renditions he had pulled up when looking up the Geth for this case) Of course that wouldn't be sufficient proof… Garrus would have to bring in the Geth that had its arm missing and make it testify that it gave its arm to Saren to make a legitimate case…

Nope…not happening.

Saren had even augmented his jaw and mandibles with metal fittings… What the hell was he trying to prove with that? It was as if he was giving up his Turian heritage that he had so much pride in and was literally turning himself into a machine… and that made Garrus uneasy.

He had always been told that barefaced Turians were never trustworthy. That was not a prejudice within his people it was a cold-hard fact. Face markings showed other Turians who you were, and where you came from. Turians with no markings had something to hide, something big. Of course, Garrus had always tried to give barefaces the benefit of the doubt like every other person he investigated in his job but more often than not they were guilty. Garrus had even thought that Saren could be an example that not all barefaces were bad… but when this kind of accusation pops up about him out of the blue… it means something… and it would be a lie if Garrus said he was surprised to hear it.

Garrus leaned back in his desk chair and picked up the data pad containing Commander Shepard's personnel file and her report of what happened on Eden Prime, looking it over again. He found her file picture amusing. She was clearly a rare breed of human… although from what he had seen humans tended to be very unique. To him, no two humans looked even remotely the same, but they did have similarities like skin tone and hair and eye color. Her skin was very pale and it was adorned with numerous tiny brown dots… he had never met a human with such light skin… he had seen the dots before but not often… She had a scar down her cheek and one on her mouth cutting through her naturally dark pink lips. Her hair was short and red… a vibrant red, almost orange. It was also very unkempt and stuck out all over the place. When he was little he remembered thinking that humans wore dead animals on their heads… her hair reminded him of why he thought that… Her eyes were green and large… in the picture they looked almost like they were bugging out of her head, he could see white all around her pupils… not many humans could open their eyes that wide. He believed humans called those "crazy-eyes." He chuckled out loud thinking about that.

While scanning her file he noted that under next of kin there was a N/A, meaning not applicable or not available… she had NO family? She also was the sole survivor of a thresher maw attack on Akuze that killed 49 other marines in her unit…

Wow… No wonder Nihlus wanted to make her a Spectre… I don't think I know anyone who survived a thresher maw attack on foot, let alone multiple thresher maws at once… not to mention the fact that the rest of the unit didn't survive…

That wasn't luck; there is no amount of luck in the world that helps someone to survive that kind of an attack… Shepard must have been extremely skilled at survival in a horrible deadly combat situation, against an enemy that dangerous. Not only were thresher maws enormous worm-like insects, they had thick carapaces that were nearly impossible to penetrate with standard grade bullets… They were also mindless, killing machines, they didn't care if they got hurt or died, which made them very VERY dangerous. Even their acid spit was corrosive enough to melt a Turians face off… Garrus shuddered even thinking about it.

Threshers could survive with even very little atmosphere, in fact… they fed on solar radiation so the less atmosphere, the better. They reproduced with spores that carry across the galaxy and can survive in space as well as atmospheric re-entry. They burrowed underground most of their lives but if they felt threatened in any way… like if something happened to approach their nest… they would rip whatever it was to pieces.

They also were very sensitive to sound waves that carried better through the ground… they would be able to hear a human walking fifty feet above them. Their one weakness was that they could not burrow through solid rock. They would have to go around a massive slab of bedrock in order to reach the other side… although, since they could move underground at such high speeds, that hardly mattered. They also avoided forests. Despite having immense strength, they could get caught and tangled in large tree roots and die of starvation; another reason why they weren't normally found on planets with thick atmospheres.

Garrus sat up and looked at the pile of data files and papers on his desk

Great… I complain about not having enough time to even complete this case and then I just sit here for ten minutes thinking about thresher maws… If my father were in here he would smack me for being such a lazy moron.

There was no way he was getting anywhere in this case… He looked at the clock. He had to meet Commander Shepard and Captain Anderson along with Executor Pallin (the head of C-Sec) and present his findings in a half hour… he had nothing. He needed more time… He decided that he would run up to the council chambers early and ask Pallin for more time to find something.

Fat chance…

Pallin was also not a fan of humans either… He would just want the whole case closed and forgotten so the humans would shut up. But Garrus couldn't accomplish anything here… if he asked at least he could say he tried…

Ugh… I hate saying that… No one who has ever made any kind of a difference in history has ever said: "At least I tried."

He jumped up and quickly scanned the data from all the files onto his Omni-tool. Then he charged out of his office and out into the wards, heading straight for the presidium and the citadel tower. He was going to finish this case one way or another…