"Please, please quiet down! This is a place of neutrality not of persecution!"

"Monsters!"

"Murderers!"

"You're people seem angry, don't they Jarvas?"

"Not angry I assure you. They're just…nervous."

"The two often follow each other, it seems."

"Ha, here in the senate I often find the ones who shout loudest are the ones with nothing to say." Garrus smirked at Jarvas, a slight man with a shaved head and right now, a very nervous demeanour. "So often I see that in the Ascendancy as well."

"It must be the altitude," Jarvas said, his hands making small worried motions to his guards to prepare for danger. "They often think they are above the troubles of those below them." Garrus nodded. "I think it's time we brought them down to earth." Reaching behind him, he pulled out a small, concealed blaster and pointed it at Jarvas. The guards, completely taken by surprise at the act, were easily disabled by Garrus's protection. "If any of you makes one more sound, he dies!" The members of the senate choked on their own surprise. Around the room they sat, watching the Turian as he held the future of the Republic at his mercy. "We arrived today in the hopes of forgetting the past. But it seems the Republic is set in its ways. Your arrogance and paranoia is the same as it was five hundred years ago when you hunted down my ancestors for the crimes you perceived they had done. You do not seem to understand how this offer of peace has only two sides. You can either accept our offer of alliance, in which case you will be forgiven for what you did to us. Or you can refuse it, and we will count the blood contract unfulfilled, and you will be annihilated. Choose carefully men of the Republic, because this offer is none negotiable, and it's better than you deserve." As he spoke, his blaster never wavering, he scanned the rows of the men who would soon choose the fate of his own race as much as theirs. "Do you have a reply? Or are you just as stubborn as you were when you refused our surrender?" He spat. Moment's grinded past in agony, as the members remained silent. Jarvas, whose own eyes had never left the blaster, said: "It won't work like this, Garrus. If you take us by force, how would it be any different than before?"

"Because this time they choose. Do they want force? Or will they try peace? This time they will have no one to blame but themselves." Jarvas finally looked around at the senators; it was not hard to see where their minds were leading. "Can I speak to them?"

"Do what you wish, they're your people."

"What about the weapon?"

"It's not loaded." Jarvas's eyes opened wide, as did his mouth.

"You came here to hold the senate hostage with an unloaded gun?" he whispered, spit flying from between his now clenched teeth. "The ones behind me are loaded," Garrus said, indicating with a tip of his head the guards, who had taken up position around the booth, covering the attack angles. "Why?"

"Politicians have always liked a message they can understand, so I give them the plainest one of all. Do what is right, or prepare to die. Now I think they have understood the message. It's your turn to hold the senate's attention, Chancellor."

"Then please stand aside whilst I address my people." Garrus slid the weapon back into its holster, at the same time he turned and bowed his head down to Jarvas's ear. After a moment, he stood up straight and moved behind him to stand between his guards. Pondering the Turian's advice, Jarvas walked to the front of the hovering platform and stood in the glare of the senators, who were now warily looking around for some trick or possibly an attack. "Senators I implore you to listen to me now." At the sound of his voice, which now carried no trace of the fear he had felt before, the movement stopped and all at once the focus was his to command. "We have arrived at a difficult junction in the future of our Republic. Our once powerful city now lies in smouldering wreckage that will take years to rebuild. Your people are frightened, for they have found themselves in a future where the evil escape and the good are destroyed. This is a future that is now more clouded in danger than ever before. But in those clouds we still find support. This man here," he waves his hand towards Garrus, who is silently watching the masses of people as they are led through the hoops, "has said he can promise us peace. A rare offer. For in this galaxy, whatever peace we have found has always been shattered by the greed of others. That is why I propose that we set aside our greed. The greed that hungers to sate its bloodlust, despite the danger such an action would put on our people, who we are supposed to shield and protect. If we can do that, perhaps we can save our future from the dangers that will be set upon us if we act rashly." The amassed senators, who were once so complacent, are now leaning forward in their chairs, straining to catch every word and every movement of the man, as he leads them out of the shell of apathy they had maintained for so long. Garrus has ceased sweeping the crowd with his eyes and has locked them squarely on the back of Jarvas's head. "Now is the time for altruism, now is the time for friendship, now is the time to forgive and forget. Bring together the military might of the Turians and combine it with our own, and the future will be secured. Do what is right and you will have saved us all." No applause followed after the speech, no sounds were made. The members sat there, cold complexions on all their faces as they stared at Jarvas. "It was a good speech, Jarvas," Garrus said, "But I think the people will need just a little bit more." He strode past the guards and gently pushed Jarvas down into a seat, where he collapsed, with sweat beading on every crevice of his face. "Listen to me Republic. I have no more threats that I want to make on your government or its leader. Now I only wish to leave and wait for your response. I hope that you will choose to accept our friendship. And if not…I'm sorry for what both sides will be forced to do." Jarvas wrenched himself out of the chair and threw himself at Garrus. "Give them something more! Something they can use! Don't let our worlds end like this!"

Garrus was surprised, "There is nothing more to say. Either you accept or we die."

Jarvas slid off Garrus and again collapsed into his seat. With closed eyes and a grim face he said: "Then I think the next time we see each other will be at the end of a barrel."

As his mind slipped into sleep, and his strength drained from his body, he heard only one last thing before the senators shouting drowned out his consciousness. "Only this time," Garrus sighed, "it will be loaded." With that he slipped out of the present and shivered as he saw the future.

I hope you enjoy this chapter of what is, I hope, going to be a long and successful story. As always, I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it. And please leave a review if you can.