AN: Here is chapter 5. I am glad you guys liked that Sparatus reveal. And I am really happy that you enjoy this story. Thanks for all the regular reviewers and I hope even more people will start reviewing. Every opinion helps and constructive criticism is always welcome!

TheRangerBoy: That was part of the idea, though I plan for even more uses than just that.

Guest-Questioner: That one exactly.

Spiritstrike: Told you it was going to be a surprise :P And I always kind of understood where Sparatus was coming from, though his and the rest of the Council's dismissal of the Reapers was utterly ridiculous.

ArchAngerl319: Reach and flexibility is a classic, no doubt.

Getting to know my family was something I never really expected to happen when I was more or less thrown into this world. But things never happen the way you expect or even want them to happen. First, I found out my uncle was actually the Turian Citadel Councilor, Tetis Sparatus. Then I got to know my mother, who wept as all the grief and pain of having thought her eldest daughter dead for the past eight years were gone after she saw me for the first time since my disappearance again. Then I got to know my little sister, a wild little thing just at the brink of becoming a grown female at thirteen years, but still looking like a young with her long limbs and lanky figure.

It was overwhelming and tiring but so, so satisfying. I felt so much lighter, like a huge weight I never realized I was carrying was suddenly just lifted off me. Maybe this was what I really needed; people to actually care about and me accepting my Turian self fully with all it had to offer- family and the strings and ties they came with included.

It felt so good; I felt so good, I couldn't help but be all wide mandibles in a happy smile when I paid all those credits to the cashier for the extravagant ingredients for Turian food, receiving a smile from the cashier in return, before I made my way back to the Normandy.

Once back on board I was greeted by a none too happy Miranda Lawson. "We have been waiting for over an hour for you to return. Everyone was already done with their business and we could be on our way long ago-"

"Stop your yapping already." I snapped at her, shouldering my way past the human biotic. "It was very personal business I had to tend to and Shepard was aware."

"As long as you work for us-"

"Stop right there." I growled, turning around again to face the Cerberus Operative. "I do not work for Cerberus. Cerberus pays me to work with and for Shepard. You and your people are inconvenient tag-alongs as far as I am concerned. Got it? Now leave me alone before you completely ruin my good mood."

I left Miranda to stew in her hurt pride as I took the elevator upstairs and entered the mess hall upon arrival, opening the large freezing box and, aside from four boxes, emptied my entire purchase in it, making sure to mark them as Turian food before doing so.

I ignored the curious looks I received from several of the Cerberus staff and grunts on deck as I looked at the human cooking utensils and felt lost, but this time I didn't pity myself for lost knowledge. I was Turian and I simply didn't know.

Turning towards the mess sergeant, I spoke to him for the first time. "Excuse me, but what do humans use from all these things to cook their meat?"

"Sure thing." He rummaged through the drawers for a bit before pulling out a larger and deeper of the metal things and handed it to me. "This one should do."

I examined it and nodded in approval. The rest of the cooking worked similar enough that I only needed help in activating the human designed stove they had on the Normandy.

"How do you cook if you don't mind me asking?"

I glanced at the mess sergeant and decided, since he was civil enough I could provide the same courtesy. "Since we cook most of our food whole-" I held up a pitka, the lizard's from back in the day, "we use large bowls that can provide a lot of heat in a really short time so it can cook the blood and innards of the animal and not just the skin and meat. For additional flavor, which rarely is necessary, we use various herbs and vegetables and cook them with the animals." I explained while waiting for the animal the water to start cooking. It really took longer than Turian cooking bowls, which were made of a mix of natural minerals, which were obtained from caves on Palaven that had incredibly hot and constantly cooking water in it as the minerals kept the heat in and provided additional heat as they heated up too, and artificial metals.

"So you eating these things whole…with all the blood and guts?" One soldier asked, looking less than thrilled at the idea.

"We do. Our body has evolved to be able to digest bones and blood, raw meat too. We don't even need to cook; it simply tastes better that way." My mandibles widened in a slight smirk. "Our talons and teeth aren't just for show, you know? We were apex predators a long time ago, when our ancestors were still less than self aware. Our eating habits haven't changed that much."

The water finally started to cook and I dropped one of the lizards into the human cooking bowl followed by a couple vegetables and herbs I found went very nicely with it when I was experimenting a bit and went on to the side dishes, which were just a few sweet fruits to balance out the taste of the pitka.

When I was satisfied with the color of the cooked lizard I fished it out with a human utensil, which proved to really be tricky, and threw the second one in.

As if he smelled it from the deck below, the elevator arrived at the crew deck and I heard a muttered "no way". Soon enough, I could smell Garrus' presence and turned around to greet him.

"Garrus, is something the matter?" I asked at his hungry and greedy look eyeing my cooking.

"Am I wrong when I assume that you are not going to eat both?"

I laughed lightly at his begging tone before waving him over and handing him his plate. "You aren't wrong. I simply believed that it would be in everyone's best interest if the only two Turians on the team did not starve to death because all they had to eat were those disgusting…glob things."

We both sat down on a table next to the Cerberus soldiers eating their own food and I chuckled at Garrus' moans when he bit into his lizard. "Spirits, I haven't eaten this well in a long time."

"You are quite welcome, Archangel." I chuckled before biting a leg off.

Soon enough Shepard arrived and sat down on our table and once she saw what we were eating, she shivered slightly. "I don't think I'll ever get used to what you guys consider good eating."

"And here I was about to offer you a chaloxii, Commander."

"Do I even want to know?" "You have chaloxii?!"

I chuckled to myself as I swallowed the tail of my lizard, before popping a fruit in my mouth. "What brings you here, Commander?"

"Right, yeah, I actually did have a reason. I wanted to ask how everything went with your uncle?"

I couldn't help the still unbelieving laugh that escaped me at that question. "Turns out my uncle is…Councilor Sparatus."

Garrus actually choked on a foot and I leaned over to pat him heavily on his back until he managed to get the small limb down.

Shepard just stared at me for a few moments, before she asked. "Come again?"

"It's crazy isn't it?" I mumbled but couldn't help the warm feeling in my stomach at the thought of my family; my uncle, my mother and especially my little sister who had just captured me immediately.

"Great…that guy hates me anyways…"

I chuckled at that. "He actually doesn't."

"What do you mean?" The Commander narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"I talked to him about it. What?" I asked as Shepard leaned backwards, arms crossed over her chest, eyes still narrowed. "Everyone knew that he had some sort of problem with you, it's not like it was a heavily guarded secret. Anyways, I asked and he said that his biggest problem was that, despite what humanity offered the Citadel upon their arrival being impressive, your people were incredibly greedy. That, while being ambitious was not a bad trait, humanity was very stupid about it, antagonizing lots of races in their quest to rise to the top. That's why he was particularly tough on you, as you became humanity's mascot, so to speak."

"While I can understand where he is coming from, I still don't like it. It also doesn't explain his dismissive nature against anything Reaper-related."

"No one said you'd have to and that is just him being stubborn. I for one believe you; it's one of the reasons I joined you in this anyways. Oh and he also said that he actively despises this Udina male."

Shepard actually laughed at that. "Everyone does. And thanks, it really means a lot."

Nodding, before popping another sweet fruit in my mouth, I spoke again. "I also spoke to my mother and I seem to have a little sister. They were all…happy to see me."

"That's good to hear." Shepard patted me on a hand before getting up from the table. "I'll head up for my quarters if anyone needs me. And Tulana…treasure what you found today." She said with a smile before walking to the elevator, leaving me with a small frown on my face.

"She…grew up orphaned in the streets of some major earth city. Bad crowd, bad decisions. She got her shit together, joined the Alliance, found a family in her squad only to either see them eaten alive by Tresher Maws or see them melt right in front of her because of Tresher Maw acid."

"Spirits…" Shepard just had to have to most tragic backstory.

"I try to be there for her as much as I can, especially now. I can imagine how lonely she feels, surrounded by those responsible for Akuze…"

"You are a good friend, Garrus."

"I know."

He ducked from the fruit I threw at him.

I was sitting on my bed and my talon was hovering over the call button but I finally gathered my courage and pressed it. After a few moments of no one answering I was quick to give up but was stopped when a youngling's face appeared on screen.

"Hey kid." I grinned, not able to help myself when I saw her. For whatever reason, Sitana just captured my heart immediately and I wanted to protect her with all I had.

"Lana!" She seemed happy to see me which made me happy. "Father, Mother! Tulana called!"

I heard a lot of shuffling and movement when there soon were three heads squeezed on the screen and this just looked so dorky, I loved it.

"It really is you, Tulana…"

For the first time I saw my father and I could see from where Sitana had her dark grey hide, blue eyes and her mandibles. She looked a lot like our father whereas I was the picture perfect replica of our mother.

"It's…good to see you, father." I didn't really know what else to say as the tall and strong looking male just looked close to breaking down, his mate rubbing his back with a fond smile while his youngest clutched onto his hand.

"You have no idea just how much we miss you, child. We were…we were giving up and discussing burial ceremonies…"

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. None of this is your fault. Whatever happened, whatever caused us such sorrow, we are only happy to see you alive. Nothing else matters."

"Are you alright?" Mother finally asked.

"Did you already have a dangerous mission? Can you tell me about it?" Sitana was jumping up and down in excitement as father was placing a hand on her head to stop her, but he smiled all the same.

"I'm good, mother, don't worry. The food they had for Turians was horrible so I cooked myself and Garrus some pitka with guxili. Now we are on our way for another recruit."

"Who is Garrus?" Father asked and there was just a hint of a low grown audible and I had a feeling he was thinking about his fully grown female daughter in the presence of a virile male and it was sweet.

"He is the only other Turian here. Garrus Vakarian, former C-Sec officer. Uncle Tetis knows him."

"Hm."

"Don't worry, father. I am not going to mate with him anytime soon."

Sitana was openly laughing at that and mother couldn't help the giggles at the uncomfortable look on father's face.

"I wish I could be there with all of you." I finally stated and I honestly felt that way. "But duty comes first."

"It does." Father nodded somberly. "And I am proud of you, more than you can imagine. But be careful. We only have gotten you back, we wouldn't be able to live with losing you again."

Mother just whimpered at that thought and held on to her mate.

"I will, don't worry. And Sitana…if you ever want to just chat, call me anytime. If I don't pick up, I'll just call you back. I'd…really love to get to know my little sister." I told her shyly and felt like I was the little sister.

"I'd love that! Can I use the code on the console?"

"Yes, use that."

"Now you can tell me all about your missions and gunfights!"

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.

We arrived at the Purgatory to buy Jack out of her cryo prison. Shepard left Jacob and Zaeed back on the ship and Mordin was busy in his lab anyways, so it was just me, Garrus and Miranda who accompanied her.

I didn't even bother commenting on Miranda's attire. If her barriers failed at some point, which they certainly would, she'd probably bleed to her senses after receiving a shot to the gut.

We entered the prison and were greeted by some guard wanting to release us of our weapons, which we obviously didn't want to do, causing a couple tense moments between us and the Blue Suns.

Kuril then appeared dramatically and I couldn't help the low purr in my throat at that impressive fringe of his. Add to that the bad male thing he had going and I couldn't help but feel highly attracted to him. Shame that we had to kill him.

Garrus suddenly looked left and right before his look settled on me and I kept my eyes firmly on Kuril, ignoring the ex C-Sec until he spoke up. "Seriously?" He muttered, sounding utterly incredulous.

"I can't help it! Just look at his fringe!" I hissed at him, annoyed that my body betrayed my arousal, even as it was just barely enough that Garrus could only smell it because he was right next to me.

At that comment, Garrus paid more attention to Kuril and then just grunted dismissively. "Mine is longer."

I held back my chuckle, which only got harder when I remembered that my suit cam was running and my uncle would see this, as a Guard led us around the prison and past a prisoner who got beaten up. "In there." He pointed to a room before leaving us alone.

We walked there and I stopped. "This doesn't feel right." I muttered, as I already knew that it didn't feel right because it wasn't right.

Garrus nodded, agreeing with me. "I know…"

"Isn't this Jack supposed to be a highly unstable? Why lead us to some random cell with-"

"Commander Shepard," Kuril's voice came through the speakers. "I strongly urge you to enter the room you were shown and the cell in the back. Unfortunately for you, you are so much more worth to me as a prisoner than you are as a customer. Now please, do as you are told or it will have to become ugly; something neither you or I want."

"Sorry, buddy." Shepard answered, her pistol in her hand. "I hate to disappoint, but that not gonna happen."

Barely a couple moments later we were attacked by several of the Blue Sun mercs, but they were nothing more than cannon fodder as there attack was highly uncoordinated. We walked for a bit without being attacked until we reached a room with a huge cryo cell in the middle of it.

"Now that looks like something where you put away a highly unstable biotic." I quipped before working on the console after killing the guy standing guard there.

A few moments later Jack was released and with a mighty yell after waking up she biotically catapulted her out of her prison and destroyed two YMIR-Mechs like they were nothing.

"That's…Jack?" Shepard asked weakly before jumping down and following the trail of destruction. Miranda and I quickly followed, the former with her biotics floating her down and I with my back-thrusters slowing down my fall. I looked up at Garrus who carefully climbed down behind us before landing on his powerful legs. "Not fair at all…" He muttered grumpily while I just laughed before we followed the two humans.

We soon reached a large hall were an all out battle between guards and prisoners was going on and it was hard to pass by without getting in crossfire, which was dangerous even with active barriers and shields.

"Shepard, can you lift me up there?" I asked the Commander, who nodded and floated me up with her biotics onto high ledge where I crouched down and made use of what little room I had as I holstered my pistol and took my sniper rifle. The trio below saw my plan and I soon started taking down the prisoners first, as they were the easiest targets while Garrus overloaded the shields of any Sun grunts he could, giving Shepard and Miranda the opportunity to effectively use their biotics on them.

We proceeded quickly this way and soon enough we were halfway through our opponents here when I spotted a missile from an YMIR-Mech rushing towards me, yelping as I quickly jumped down, my thrusters once more cushioning my fall. I rolled out of the way of the hail of projectiles the Mech rained upon me and ducked behind a cover, out of breath. My team quickly caught onto my troubles and Garrus quickly disabled the Mechs shields as Miranda and Shepard both crushed it with warps.

I nodded my thanks at them and we continued out of the hall, continuing to follow the destruction Jack had left in her wake.

We dashed through another hallway and into another hall, were we quickly ducked out of the way of missiles fired from more Mechs at our direction. This time there were no prisoners to deal with, only a few Suns and their Mechs. It was hard to use a rifle when you had to duck immediately as soon as you peaked your head over the cover.

After a few times the Mechs didn't have any missiles left however, giving us the opportunity to deal some damage of our own. I quickly blew the head of one of the Suns off and Garrus did the same with the other.

"My aim was better. Right between the eyes." I joked with him.

Garrus grunted at that. "No one said I actually aimed between the eyes. I wanted to shoot through an eye, so that's what I did."

He had a point but I wouldn't admit that.

After the Suns were taken out the rest got fairly easy. Disable the Mechs shields and warp them to death.

Kuril himself was not that big of a deal. He wasn't really a great shot with his rifle and was way too cocky for a common gang member, even if he was tasked with handling the prison. The Mechs were what kept everyone in line, not his presence or talent with guns and rifles.

It was kind of disappointing.

"Not so impressive after all, was he?" Garrus smirked at me.

"I have no idea what you are talking about."

"You two talk way too much in gunfights!" Miranda growled at us, clutching a bleeding arm.

There was the I-told-you-so-moment I was waiting for. "If you had proper armor then you wouldn't bleed. Don't let your anger at yourself out on us." So satisfying.

Miranda just glared at me, but it didn't really feel intimidating when humans did it, not even when they were biotics.

Soon enough we reached an angrily pacing Jack who stopped in her tracks and activated her biotics as soon as she spotted us. Shepard held up her hands, indicating that was unarmed, though her biotics were still a weapon; not that Jack knew.

"I am no a Cerberus member. I don't like them anymore than you do but I agreed to work with them for a common goal: protecting human colonies and finding out why the Collectors abduct them down to the last human living there. We need the best for that and you are one of the best. If you agree I will provide you with anything I dug up on Cerberus and whatever else you want on them." Shepard finished and ignored Miranda's glare.

"You sound like a pussy but you make good points. Still, why should I trust you?"

"Because we have the only way out of a soon-to-be-exploding station floating in the middle of space." I answered in the most deadpan way I could muster.

"Hah. There's someone who knows how to sell shit choices. Fine. I'm in. But I want everything on Cerberus and I mean everything."

"Then everything is what you will get." Shepard held out a hand which Jack reluctantly shook.

After the successful recruitment of Jack we quickly made our way back to our ship. On the way, I asked a question which had been bugging me since the conversation between Shepard and Jack.

"Jack, you said Shepard sounded like a 'pussy'. It didn't translate and I looked it up but all I found was that it was another word for some earth pet animal. Why did you say that Shepard sounded like a 'cat'?"

Jack just laughed at me, confusing me even more.

After cleaning my weapons and sending the mission reports and records to my uncle in secret, I finally went to shower.

My toiletries in my small bag, I entered the showers and quickly entered a stall. It simply felt absolutely amazing to wash off the grime of a hard battle and the hot water on my hide was just so soothing.

To be honest, it was one of my absolutely favorite things to do. Top three probably.

I stepped under the steaming water and sighed in contentment. Just standing there with closed eyes and the hot water running down my hide, I almost didn't hear the clicking of talons on the floor and my mandibles flared in a grin.

Maybe…

I turned around and saw Garrus staring at my body and I simply presented myself at him. "Like what you see?" I looked down and, as he was already naked, saw something start to peek out from its protection, which pleased me immensely. "I believe you do."

Needing no further encouragement, I simply turned around, bent over and braced myself against the shower wall, presenting myself to the male.

He, of course, didn't say no and just went to work, his talons digging into my hips and his shaft pulsating against my arousal.

"I wanted to do this for a while now." He admitted and I was actually surprised.

Gasping as he entered me with a thrust and started to pound into me, taking my breath away, I barely managed to voice my question. "You-ah!-did?"

He just grunted and kept pumping away, my moans growing louder. Suddenly pulling out, he grasped me and turned me around, moving his hands under my thighs and pulling me up.

I wasted no time wrapping myself around him, legs around his hips and arms around his neck. He quickly found my wet core again and started to pump into me, his member finding all the right spots and I quickly began to see stars.

"You are strong and have gorgeous hips." My mandibles fluttered at the compliments and I gasped in surprise when he grasped my legs and hooked them over his shoulders, really bending me but the penetration was absolutely amazing this way. "And you are flexible."

I actually laughed at that and moaned even more. Spirits, yes, he did have reach as he reached placed even I didn't know I had.

I came, hard, on him and he rode me through it with every thrust, amplifying the pleasure I was feeling and I couldn't tell how soon the second one rushed through me but it was the moment I felt him release himself inside of me.

We slid down and I rolled off him, laughing half deliriously. "Spirits, I think I can't feel my legs."

"Yeah, I hear that a lot from females."

I slapped him, hard. This male was way too cocky for his own good.