Chapter 2 - Determination and respect

Romance: Rehna Nahima Shephard - Garrus Vakarian Vanguard, Colonist, War Hero.

All the characters are owned by bioware and some of the segments of the conversations. I´m just trying my own version of the events!


Rehna walked into the crowded bar, the music rang loud in her ears. She scanned the room to try and find Harkin. Moving through the bar she spotted the usual asari dancers, the drunken ex-soldiers, the people who tried to find comfort with alcohol.

"Hi, there sweetie." He sat in a lonely corner, you could tell he was wasted, "Looking for some fun? Because I gotta say, that soldier get-up looks real good on that body of yours. Why don´t you sit your sweet little ass down beside old Harkin." He patted the empty spot next to him.

"Don´t think so…"

"C'mon! It´ll be fun, I can buy you drinks and you can…make me happy" He winked at her with his drunken eyes.

Rehna grabbed his collar and stared at him with disgust "If you don´t stop with that right now, I´ll smash your face so hard it won´t be recognizable."

"Okay…Calm down lady... What do you want from me?"

"I want you, to tell me, where I can find Garrus Vakarian"

"Mhm…Garrus you say, he was sniffing around Dr. Michel´s office. She runs the Med Clinic on the other side of the wards. Last I heard he was going back there…"

"Good, hope I don´t get to see you again…"

Rehna and her crew left him sitting there pissed and alone, they continued towards the Med Clinic where Garrus was supposed to be.


Garrus sat behind the pillar, waiting for the right moment to strike. He had successfully sneaked into the Med Clinic, where Dr. Michel was being kept hostage by four guys. He listened as the thugs interrogated the terrified Doctor.

"I didn´t tell anyone I swear!"

"That was smart, Doc. Now, if Garrus comes around, stay smart! Keep your mouth shut or we´ll…"

The door whooshed open with a hissing sound, and there she was, Shepard. He could see the three of them arm themselves and aim for the thugs. The leader of the group grabbed Michel and held his gun towards her head.

"Who are you?"

"Let her go!"

He saw his moment to act, he turned around the pillar and shot the guy who held Michel. As soon as the doctor was free, she jumped to cover. Shepard rushed forward and helped eliminate the rest of the scoundrels.

"Are you hurt?"

Shepard helped Michel get to her feet.

"I´m okay, thanks to you…all of you"

"Why were they threatening you? Who do they work for?"

"They work for Fist. They wanted to shut me up, keep me from telling Garrus about the Quarian."

"Go on."

"A few days ago, a Quarian came by my office. She´d been shot, but she wouldn´t tell me who did it. I could tell she was scared, probably on the run. She asked me about the Shadow Broker. Wanted to trade information in exchange for a safe place to hide."

"Where is she now?"

"I put her in contact with Fist. He´s an agent for the Shadow Broker."

"Not any more. Now he works for Saren, and the Shadow Broker isn´t too happy about it" Garrus added

"Fist betrayed the Shadow Broker? That´s stupid, even for him. Saren must have made him quite the offer."

"That Quarian must have something that Saren wants. Something worth crossing the Shadow Broker to get ."

"What else can you tell me about the Quarian?"

"I´m not sure. Like I said, she wanted to trade information for a place to hide. She didn´t... Wait a minute! Geth. Her information had something to do with the geth!"

"She must be able to link Saren to the geth. There´s no way the Council can ignore this!" Garrus exclaimed.

"Time we paid Fist a visit."

With that Shepard turned around and started walking out. Garrus wasn´t sure what to do, he wanted to come with, wanted to nail Saren.

"Wait!"

She turned around and looked at him with a questioning stare. "If you´re going after Saren, I want to come with you" She just stood there, looking at him, deciding what to answer. She moved up to him so that she stood just a foot away, giving him a confident stare.

"Why do you, who´s a turian, a simple C-Sec officer, want to capture Saren?" He felt a bit irritated by her way of describing him, considering what to answer.

"He is a shame to all that we turian stand for, he is dangerous and ruthless."

"What´s your personal gain?"

"There is no personal gain. My job is to capture those who bend the law, those who hurt others." He sighed and took a deep breath. "I hate those who have power and use it to commit crimes. He is a Spectre (on the wiki, they always capitalized this word), someone who can do whatever he pleases. I need to capture him so he don´t get to hurt more people. I need to capture him to open the eyes of those who command this screwed up galaxy..."

"So you, a turian, want to join my mission, me being a human and all"

"I don´t have anything against humans, I´m not as the other turians, trust me …"

"Then I trust that you will listen to my command, that you´ll never disobey my orders. I won´t tolerate insubordination, if you disobey me, I´ll throw you out the goddamn airlock, that clear?" She poked his chest and stared at him with determination.

He looked at her, she looked so strict, so uptight. Her bright red hair tucked into a firm bun at the back of her head. Her green eyes burning with confident. Wondering if he was leading himself into a trap, knowing he was a bad turian, the kind who did not respond well to orders. But this was his only chance, the only chance to nail Saren, and he was gonna nail him hard. He sighed and let out a low growl. "Clear ma´am"

"Welcome to the team!" She said while holding out her hand, he shook it. "Now …I feel like having a nice little chat with Fist, want to tag along?" She gave him a clever smile.

"Sure as hell"

"Good. Kaidan, head back to the Normandy. Ashley, you come with us."

He smiled to himself as he followed her, it didn´t matter if she was human, in this moment she could have been a vorcha, he was just happy he got the chance. He didn´t know if he was gonna be able to follow her lead, but at least he could pretend like he was going to, she wouldn´t notice...


On the way down to Chora's Den they ran into Wrex, a mercenary krogan who was hired to take down Fist. He offered to join the team. Said that she could choose, either he can tag along, or he would consider them as casualties. Shepard gave him an angry stare, tapping her feet in the ground.

"Well, we need to get to Fist, fast."

"I can take you there...fast" She sighed and shook the Krogan's hand, deciding it was better to have him on her side.

"Welcome to the team then …"

She told him the same things she had told Garrus, that he had to follow her orders. After sending Ashley to the Normandy, they continued towards Chora's Den. They fought their way through Fist´s accomplices, who was scattered all over the bar. They reached the small room at the end of the bar, where Fist was located. Shepard interrogated him, forcing him to reveal his plans. It turned out that he had set up a trap for the Quarian. She was supposed to meet the Shadow Broker. Instead, he had set up so that his thugs would kill her and steal the information. And that meeting was soon to be held. Shepard slapped Fist to the ground, threatening him.

"I´ll spare your life, only so that I can come back if this plan fails, GOT IT?"

Fist nodded as he lay shivering on the ground. They turned to leave when Wrex suddenly picked up his shotgun and killed Fist.

"What the hell was that?"

"I had a contract, kill Fist. I never leave an agreement unhandled."

"Fuck this, we don´t have time."

Shepard rushed off with angry steps, the two of them followed. The meeting would be held soon, they had to get there fast to save the Quarian. When they got to the meeting, the Quarian was surrounded by Fist´s thugs. The team sneaked as close as they could and aimed their weapons. Preparing for the right moment to act.

"Did you bring it?" One of the thugs said while touching the Quarian's arm, she shook it off.

"Where´s the Shadow Broker? Where´s Fist?"

"They´ll be here, Where´s the evidence?"

"No way, the deal´s off." The thugs began their attack, the Quarian jumped to safety while throwing a grenade at them. Shepard rushed forward and started shooting the scoundrels. After taking down all the thugs they went over to speak to the Quarian, who looked unharmed.

"Fist set me up! I knew I couldn´t trust him."

"Were you hurt in the fight?"

"I know how to look after myself. Not that i don´t appreciate the help. Who are you?"

"My name is Shepard. I´m looking for evidence to prove Saren´s a traitor."

"Then I have a chance to repay you for saving my life. But not here, we need to go somewhere safe."

The group headed towards the human embassies to speak with Udina and Anderson, to show them the evidence.


"You´re not making my life easy Shepard…Firefights in the wards, an all out assault on Chora's Den, do you know how many…" Udina stopped talking when spotting the Quarian. "Who´s this? A Quarian, what are you up to Shepard?"

"Making your day ambassador. She has information linking Saren to the geth"

"Really, maybe you better start at the beginning, miss? …"

"My name is Tali, Tali´Zorah nar Rayya."

"We don´t se many Quarian here, why did you leave the Flotilla?"

"I was on my pilgrimage, my right of passage into adulthood."

"Tell us what you found."

"During my travels, I began hearing reports on geth. Since they drove my people into exile, the geth have never ventured beyond the Veil. I was curious. I tracked a patrol of geth to an uncharted world, I waited for one to become separated from its unit. Then I disabled it and removed its memory core. I managed to salvage something from its audio banks"

Tali replayed the message she had on her omni-tool and Saren's voice echoed through the office. "Eden Prime was a major victory. The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit."

"That´s Saren's voice! This proves he was involved with the attack." Anderson exclaimed

"Wait, there´s more. Saren wasn´t working alone"

Tali played the rest of the message. "And one step closer to the return of the Reapers" It was a female, with a deep dark voice that spoke.

Shepard winced as the vision from the beacon hit her, the Reapers, the extinction of the Protheans.

"I don´t recognise that voice…The one talking about Reapers. Are they some kind of new alien species?" Udina said.

"According to the memory core, the Reapers were a hyper advanced machine race. That existed 50,000 years ago. The Reapers hunted the Protheans to total extinction and then they vanished. At least that´s what the geth believe." Tali explained.

"Sounds a little farfetched to me" Udina said crossing his arms over his chest.

"The vision on Eden Prime, it's about the Reaper war, I´m sure of it. Saren is bringing back the Reapers, and we have to stop it!"

"We need to tell the Council about this, at least it proves that Saren´s a traitor!"

"Anderson is right, I´ll get us a meeting with the Council."

"What do we do about her?" Wrex said while pointing at Tali.

"My name is Tali!…You saw me in the alley, Commander, you know what I can do. Let me come with you."

"I thought you were on your pilgrimage"

"The pilgrimage proves we are willing to give of ourselves for the greater good. What does it say about me if I turn my back on this? Saren is a danger to the entire galaxy, my pilgrimage can wait."

Shepard stood there, thinking, deciding if she should take Tali with her on the mission. "I need all the help I can get…"

She gave Tali the talk as to what rules to obey on the mission. And then welcomed her to the team.

They would speak to the Council tomorrow, when rested and prepared. They were not gonna make the same mistake they did the last time.


The three of them stood outside the human embassy, on their way to leave for the day.

"Now you have time to prepare, for the mission that is at hand. We are going to be far away from the Citadel most of the time, which means you will live, eat and sleep on the Normandy. If there is anything you have to do before we leave, this is the time. Return to your living areas and gather your things. Meet me outside the Normandy 6:00 sharp. Then you will get the time to get to know the ship. Decide your new living areas and so on. Is that clear?"

"Yes Ma´am" they answered. When they started walking, Shepard stopped Wrex and Garrus.

"I´m not done with the two of you yet! she said." She looked around, making sure they where alone. Whatever Garrus would have expected, it wasn´t this. Her face slightly red with anger, her green lustrous eyes, burning when looking upon them. She took a deep breath.

"This is not YOUR mission, it's not up to you to decide how we do things! I told the both of you that! Said that I won´t tolerate insubordination! I´m the head of this mission and I'm damn well gonna keep it that way! I´m the one who decides who we kill or let live! We DO NOT kill or risk civilian life! There are no cutting corners. We will take the long, hard way around it, if that´s what it takes! If you hurt a civilian, I'll throw you off the mission. If I say we spare the life of a lowlife scumbag, YOU DO SO!" She took a deep breath "This mission, is too important...too important for me to let anything go wrong. I have to trust my team, I have to trust that you´ll obey me! If I doubt your obedience, I'm not only risking my own life, I'm risking the lives of everyone around me. And I won´t let that happen! This was the first mission you had with me, so I´ll let it slip. But if it happens again, YOU ARE OUT! This is your chance to be a part of something really important, saving the galaxy important. Here´s where you take a stand! Either you follow my lead, accepting my rules, my command. Or you turn and leave right away, I don´t care, that´s your loss! But if you decide to stay, if you decide to stand by my side and fight. You know that I will NOT! accept insubordination! IS THAT CLEAR?"

Both of them stunned to silence, watching the person who had scolded them. Wrex chuckled as he was quite impressed with this small human. She almost acted like a krogan, although using words instead of violence. He could appreciate that.

Garrus on the other hand didn´t know what to think, he had thought she was different. Not as irrational as the other humans. It made him quite angry, he looked at her, while she stood there breathing heavily, eyeing them one on one, waiting for them to answer. He could hear her heartbeats, they were calm... He could read her body language. Realising she wasn´t mad, she acted, and was good at it … She had caught his act, knew he hadn´t promised her total obedience. Knew that maybe one day he would choose not to listen to her orders … She wanted loyal teammates, people who would trust her decisions. So she held this speech to stir up emotions in them, making them realise how important it was. You are a very special commander, Shepard. He was impressed. Clever girl he chuckled.

"Yes Ma'am ." They answered at the same time. "Dismissed!" Was all she said before turning around and leaving them.