Garrus looked over the men and women placed under his command, there were more than he'd thought there'd be. Proof that they were taking him seriously. He kept his face carefully blank as he surveyed them, each one handpicked to his specifications. There was almost a full company here, 200 soldiers of varying types with support crew, field medics and special weapons groups. He'd even gotten the biotics he'd requested, rare for his people, distrusted by most, but invaluable to his enterprise. In his mind, he was already placing them into squads, deadly effective little squads of different sizes, each tailored to handle anything the Reapers might throw at them. He made his way to a podium, obviously placed there so he could make the obligatory speech, standard mission objectives, sacrifice for the success of their endeavor, and so forth.

They waited in tense silence for him to speak and he surprised them by lowering his carefully built stoic mask and flashing them a wicked grin, showing them how very pleased he was with every single one of them, how spirits-damned dangerous they were going to be, crowing, "Oh, they are in so much trouble."

Even the most disciplined soldier gaped at this blatant breach of protocol and while they were unbalanced, he struck. Garrus commanded their gaze with a sweeping gesture of his hand, "I am Garrus Vakarian, your C.O. for this op. And for the remainder of this war, because we are at war, ladies and gentlemen. Even now, a force beyond our imagination is mobilizing a strike against every conscious soul in this galaxy. They seek no less than the complete and utter annihilation of everything and everyone we know and hold dear. There will not a single building or settlement be left standing if they are allowed to succeed."

Now they waited with bated breath, he could feel them imagine how very daunting the task was that was put to them. And he paused, jumping down from his elevated dais to walk among them, symbolically making himself one of them. He was one of them, part of them and he was making them part of him, meeting every pair of eyes that had the quad to meet his icy gleeful glare and willing with his soul for the flame of righteous anger to blossom in their depths and was heartily gratified to see the fire catch like a conflagration, "I know. In. My. Soul. That every single soldier here has been tempered in the forge of battle, has been ready to die for the cause, but I ask you, I demand an answer from all of you-"

His growled words plucked on every nerve there, he knew he had them, they were a single beast made of different bodies, silently howling for him to continue. They stood on the razor's edge, almost leaning toward him as his voice rolled over them in an all consuming shout, "Are you willing to KILL for the cause?!"

Every throat opened in a shout that rang through the parade grounds of this military installation. Garrus felt bathed in the cacophony and waited patiently for it to die down. The soldiers themselves looked almost surprised at their own fervor, but every face was lit with the savage joy that he knew was also on his face. He held his hands up and every soldier snapped back to attention, "I don't want you to die for the cause, because dying means no more killing, I want you to make the Reapers regret ever coming here, to our galaxy, plundering our worlds. I want them to pay dearly for every gain, every concession and you deadly bastards are going to do it. Oh, yes you will. I will show you the way."

They believed and their belief filled him with an almost unholy joy. He broke them into teams, small ones, big ones, started them on unconventional drills he'd thought up that would keep them fluid in their group dynamic, slotting people in and out easily. The ones with command potential he singled out for personal training. He dismissed them to the barracks at sundown, drained but filled with hope.

His father, who'd been watching the proceedings silently, slapped him on the shoulder, his voice almost quiet with awe, "Spirits, son, what has that commander of yours been teaching you?"

"The way, dad, the way." It was cryptic, he knew, but there was so much truth in that simple statement that it resonated across from his eyes to his father's. "Did you see them? This is gonna be brilliant, to quote a friend of mine."

"Your commander?" That was said with an amused chuckle and Garrus returned it, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it.

Between puffs he said, "No. Someone else, someone who had even worse scars than me."

His father made a dubious rumble, then said hesitantly, "I took a look at your personnel requests. Can I be so bold as to ask why you wanted soldiers with disciplinary reprimands for insubordination on their records?"

"I need curious soldiers. I dropped the ones that had serious issues, I kept the ones who ask questions. Flexible minds, that's what I need. This won't work if I have to break bad habits and get them to form new strange ones. Ones counter to everything they've been taught since they were recruited." Garrus sighed in satisfaction, looking up at the appearing stars, "The way forward is not to abandon tradition, but also not be bound to it like a millstone around our necks. I see turian culture as a living, breathing creature trying to carry sandbags to shore through stormy waters muddied with conflict."

His father pondered the unexpected poetry of this statement, "What if the bags are not full of sand, but full of food and the creature would not survive the shore long without it?"

Garrus smiled at the imagery they were creating, "This one creature can only eat so much food and should not feel obligated to carry more than it can ever eat, deserves to not be weighed to the bottom of the ocean to die from simple over encumbrance. Exactly who are we carrying the extra food around for? Everyone else has their own traditions, they don't need ours."

The older turian said with surprise, "It sounds like you want to do more than defeat the Reapers. It sounds like you want to change the whole turian race."

He clapped his father on the shoulder affectionately, saying flippantly, "One thing at a time, dad. I'm only one turian."

It was the evening after next that he got an unexpected visitor. He was weeding the flowerbeds when a polite cough interrupted his concentration. He swung around to see a familiar short figure, looking around his little patch of greenery with stunned delight. "Thane! What are you doing here?"

He embraced the man in a hug, arms enfolding him completely. His mandible stretched in a wild grin and he thrust the smaller man out to arm's length, looking at him warmly. The smile on Thane's face was open, and he rasped, "Garrus, it is good to see you. This is...unexpected."

The drell gestured at their surroundings, provoking a laugh from Garrus who retorted, "You showing up at my house is unexpected. How'd you find me? And why didn't you call if you were coming? I could have come to get you from the spaceport."

"I didn't want to inconvenience you. Liara told me about some of the things you've accomplished here on Palaven and I came to help for as long as I can, in an advisory capacity possibly." Thane broke into a series of coughs, rattling ones that set Garrus' teeth on edge. He took closer stock of the drell. His posture was unbowed, his eyes were still clear, but his once brilliant green scales seemed a little dimmer. Otherwise, he was still the compact killing machine that he always was, still moved like, what did Kasumi call it? Dangerous silk. Yeah, that. Thane's tone turned teasing as he said, "I didn't expect you to have time to do landscaping. Seems oddly incongruous with what I know of your nature."

"Well, I am a big ball of contradictions. My mother...used to do this, before she took ill. She passed on recently, I do it to...honor her memory." He tried not to look at the spot on the bridge where she'd finally passed away, but it magnetized his gaze and he watched Thane walk to the bridge and stand in the center of it. His memory kept wanting to superimpose that last image of his father and mother over the bright day.

Thane ran his hands over the rail, "Did you build this? It is artfully done. The energies of this place flow."

Garrus snorted, "You make it sound like a temple."

"It is a...shrine. May I stay here with you, Garrus? I'd like to meditate in this place for a time."

"Feel free, my friend. I'll just let dad and Solana know you'll be staying with us." He sent a message by omnitool and got back to weeding, his mind only partially on the task. His teams were deployed to hot zones for live combat training and he was due to meet them in the next solar day or so. From all the reports he'd been receiving, the teams were doing great, as effective as he could ever dream. This garden had become a sort of meeting place for he and his lieutenants, where they hashed out new strategies and talked philosophy, he was molding them to be greater, someday to be greater than him, which is any teacher's fondest wish. He hummed as he worked, the press of worldly concerns abating for a few minutes as he just enjoyed the moment. A thought struck him then and he turned to Thane, "Did you ever get to see your desert?"

The assassin looked up from where he was studying the roses and jasmine which had run amok in the lee of the house. "Yes. Jack and I found an arid world and we stayed there for a fortnight."

Garrus shifted uncomfortably, not wanting to approach the subject, but his concern and curiosity got the better of him, "Where is Jack? Did something happen-?"

"She is fine. Happy in the place she has found for herself." Thane looked a little wistful, "We were too different for it to work, but I think I gave her peace for a time. Her heart is fuller, more complete. Which is more than I could have hoped."

His tone said the subject was over so Garrus let it go. Didn't ask if Thane was alright. Didn't ask if Jack had brought him peace. He didn't seem broken by it, so it must have been a mutual understanding. Still, Garrus made a hopeful humming noise in his throat, "That's good. That little spitfire could use a run of good luck for once."

Thane laughed, "Indeed. Are these roses?"

Garrus felt a flush of embarrassment under his plates as he ducked his head. He could smell them from here, "Yeah, and jasmine. I really need to control their spread. I think the radiation is making them grow faster, if such a thing is possible."

"It is. I'm surprised you were able to find them here on Palaven." His back was turned to Garrus, but the turian just knew that the drell was grinning, laughing at him, "The scent...so hard to place, but it reminds me of something...someo-"

"Alright alright, I get it, laugh at the fool turian and get it over with." He stood and walked into the house, calling back over his shoulder, "We're going to have to go into town if you want food, only got dextro-friendly here."

Thane followed him, bemusedly looking around. Garrus showed to one of the guest suites, one with a private bathroom and the drell placed his small bag on the bed. "This is rather more...opulent than I'd expected from such a spartan society."

"This land has been in my family for generations, since the unification wars. One of my forebears asked for this instead of a promotion, much to the shock of his peers at the time. A turian commander giving up his commission? For shame. It's ours in perpetuity, unto the end of the world, which might be sooner than we thought." He smiled to rid the words of their chill and led the drell to the garage, where a spare car waited.

They drove over the wilderness and Thane seemed content to sit in silence, watching the wild lands roll out beneath them. Garrus slowed the vehicle to cruising speeds and hit a button, causing the roof of the car to slide backwards into a hidden compartment. Garrus laughed at the expression on the drell's face and turned his head into the wind. It buffeted them pleasantly as they zoomed over the landscape. Thane laughed wryly and said, "I believe the humans call this a convertible."

"Huh, that's what we call it, too. Strange." Garrus relaxed, the ride was soothing, "Do you think you can train people in hand to hand for me?"

"Indubitably, but you can train them yourself, no? You have the skill." Thane turned an amused black eye to him, lips pursed slightly.

"Oh c'mon, Thane, don't make me say it." Garrus rolled his eyes, but grinned at the smaller man.

"Say what, Officer Vakarian?"

"Hey, I got a whole company of men under my command. That makes me a frigging Captain."

"My apologies, Captain Vakarian. What do I want you to say?" There was a hook on the end of that line and Garrus huffed in mock exasperation.

"Fine, fine have it your way. You're better than me, okay? You can kick my ass from here to Cipritine if you wanted." Garrus grinned to hear the drell laugh, his voice full and hearty, not a hint of the wheeze he'd heard earlier. That was incredibly reassuring. "Now, will you take mercy on this clumsy turian and do it?"

"Of course, I came to help. You need only ask."

"You mean I need only grovel. You're a sadist, Thane. A slick, looks too good in leather, son of a bitch assassin."

"Don't forget 'better than you at hand to hand'."

Garrus groaned and shook his fist in good humored anger, "You might be more trouble than you're worth, Krios."

"Won't be the first time I've heard that. Now, tell me what you've done so far, the reports say you've done wonders." Thane sat back and listened to Garrus as he outlined the plan, what's been already deployed and what was still in the works. And he was very gratified to see the drell looking increasingly impressed, "Truly, you have come into your own, Vakarian."

"Captain Vakarian."

"Excuse me, Captain Vakarian. Shepard would be most glad to hear how well you're preparing the turians against the Reaper invasion." Garrus tried to hide his pang of longing, but he could see from Thane's expression that he hadn't succeeded. The drell lapsed into silence for a long time, then said quietly, "I've been to see her."

"I thought she couldn't have visitors." The assassin snorted as if to say, like they could stop me. Garrus winked at him conspiritorially, "Of course you've been to see her, was the ductwork too small for a turian in armor? Do we need to take a field trip?"

"It was far more difficult than most of my contracts. I made sure no one saw me get in or out though. Liara had good intel on the layout of the brig she's being kept in." Thane smiled, a small smile of prideful accomplishment, "It's good to know that the Alliance is taking her security so seriously. I think I'm the only assassin that could have made it in and out. It was exceedingly...challenging."

Garrus grew impatient as time wore on, finally bursting out, "Okay, enough with the backpatting, how is she?"

"She's good, they're taking good care of her, she even gets to spend some time outside, under full guard and shields of course. Healthy, strong, patient."

That was more than Garrus could say for himself, he fretted himself to pieces some nights for want of her company. His heart kept telling him he had a bondmate out there somewhere and it was wrong to be parted from her for so long, he cleared his throat and said haltingly, "Did she say anything about..."

He drifted off and Thane patted his arm comfortingly, "She didn't, but I think that was more because she was worried about being overheard and it compromising your safety out here."

Garrus stifled the disappointment. Leave it to Shepard to still be looking out for him while she was in the brig, still a word, a sentence would have been nice, would have reassured him to no end. "Heard from the others?"

"Liara is busy being the Shadow Broker, Miranda and Jacob have fallen off the grid, Jack is okay, doing something I really shouldn't talk about, something worthy. Tali is with the flotilla, Legion is with the geth, Zaeed went back to mercenary work, though I have caught him on occasion doing good works for little to no pay," Thane paused, coughing lightly into his palm, "Kasumi is no doubt stealing something valuable as we speak, Liara said she was on Kahje not too long ago. Grunt is with Urdnot, apparently being groomed for leadership by your old friend Wrex, no less, Mordin was on Omega at his clinic last I heard and Samara, well, she is hopping from world to world righting wrongs according to her Code."

"Spending a lot of time with Liara, are we?" The turian wiggled his browplates suggestively, drawing a laugh from the drell.

"I..don't take contracts any more, but I have quite a few credits saved so I run information for her from time to time. And I'm helping Feron." Garrus had almost forgotten about the blue drell who'd saved Liara's life once and paid for it with his freedom. For two long years, he'd been tortured by the former Shadow Broker. That had to leave scars, visible and not so visible. "He grew up in the Compact, like me. I am hoping to mend him, for her sake. Though it may be a lost cause, Feron slides into memories too easily, a side effect of his prolonged torture."

That was sad news. And brought to mind another touchy subject, "How's your son?"

There was a ghost of a smile around Thane's lips and he shrugged elegantly, "As good as can be hoped. He's thinking about joining C-Sec, officially. Says the girls all like the uniform. I visit as often as I dare, I don't want to overstay my welcome."

The pain in the man's voice tugged at Garrus' heart, which understood only too well how it hurt to be estranged, son from father, "Keep the faith. He'll come around."

The drell shot him a grateful look and his neck frills flushed slightly with emotion. The grocery shopping went well and Garrus was confident that they were well stocked for however long Thane wanted to stay.