Greetings All. I hope you're having a great weekend, where ever you are in it. There will probably only be a few more chapters in this story. It's not near as long as my other tale. Yes, I will be bringing resolution to a number of things. Not going to tell you what - so there. (Don't mind me, just being silly again.) So enjoy and take care. Thank you, as always, for the favs, the follows, the reviews and the comments.

A Road Map and a Flashlight

Shepard

They wasted no time in getting around the bend in the duct and further on in the system. Fortunately there was another junction not far away that was letting in light from what she thought was an overhead ventilation shaft. Unfortunately it was too small and inaccessible to climb up. She brought them to a halt and indicating for him to sit, got out her penknife.

Scrappy looked at her uncertainly when she did that.

"Relax, I'm just going to try to cut this tape off your talons."

With a faint exhale of air over his pointed teeth, he settled back against the duct wall, allowing her to pick up his hand.

Despite it's sharpness, the duct tape was tough and sticky, and she had to be careful not to cut him. She got one talon free and dropped the pieces on the ground. Curious he picked it up with his other hand. After a minute of squeezing it between his fingers, he tried to drop it only to discover duct tape's ability to stick to any thing, including Turians, whether you wanted it to or not.

There was an annoyed clic from him as he shook his hand trying to get it loose. Shepard had to stop cutting because he was moving too much and she finally took pity on him and pulled the stuff free.

He huffed in irritation as she rubbed it off on a nearby pipe then gave a short sharp trill.

"Yeah, it's tenacious." She told him, smothering a laugh. "That's why it's used for everything." She got another huff and had to bite her lip at his obvious annoyance. "During the first manned space flights duct tape was always sent along."

He tilted his head in question.

"In case something needed to be repaired and, though this wasn't made as public, as something to restrain someone should they get violent or out of control."

He thought that over for a second and then nodded. She'd finished with one hand and putting it down gently, motioned for his other one. She noticed that he seemed to be leery of letting her touch his hands, and she wasn't sure what that was all about, and couldn't ask him.

As she worked on his other hand, she heard another exasperated huff out of him. She looked up to find him trying to rub the sticky residue of the tape off of his talon by rubbing them together.

"Yes, another of the joys of duct tape." She told him when he looked up at her. He let out another huff and she smiled.

"Try rubbing it in some of the dust." She told him. "At the least it will coat the sticky."

He nodded and gave it a try. It wasn't a complete success from what she could tell but it was obviously better.

In a couple of more moments she was done. She wadded up the cut pieces of tape and rubbed them off onto a piece of debris.

"That better?" She noticed that he was flexing his hands, moving them in what she thought might be some sort of defense pattern. Not for long though; one hard stretch and he hissed, his hands freezing. Obviously something was bruised or possibly broken.

"Easy Scrappy, don't hurt yourself." She told him.

He let out a faint whine, his shoulders slumped, and his head dropped. She didn't have to be Turian to recognize distress. She was sure the kid was upset and feeling guilty that he wasn't stronger, that he'd been kidnapped and beaten.

"Hey, everybody has bad days." She said. "Probably even Council Spectres."

Looking up, he let out a snort at that.

"You can't tell me that things don't go wrong for Turians like they do for humans." She exclaimed. "Clothes are dirty, coffee's too hot, food's too cold, your shoes pinch; and my favorite, idiots to deal with."

For a second he stared at her and then he let out a huffing laugh at that and she joined him.

"Everybody has idiots to deal with." She chuckled. "Stupid is universal." He nodded emphatically at that one, and then abruptly he sat upright and looked around, letting out a faint whine.

"The Turian?" Shepard dropped her voice to a whisper and he gave a sharp nod and another whine.

"Okay, let's get out of here. Just watch where you put your hands." With that she got down on her hands and knees, ignoring the soreness and pains in both, and started crawling again.

In short order she began to smell shuttle fuel and the odors of cargo, machine oil, and sweaty beings. She also started to hear what sounded like a cargo area and distantly the occasional clanking and hissing of a shuttle dock. Given the openness of the duct she knew the dock wasn't on this level. No open duct would be allowed near a shuttle bay, and she hadn't seen any blast doors along the way.

Finally ahead of them she could see light and shadows just around a slight bend. She stopped and Scrappy almost plowed into her backside.

He scrambled back with a startled clic.

"It's okay. I stopped." She told him. He tilted his head in question.

"I'm going to go ahead and scout it out." She explained. "You stay here just in case something goes wrong."

She wasn't a Turian expert but anyone could have recognized the mulish look on his face and a deep hum in his sub harmonics. He pointed to her, then himself; and then towards the opening.

"I know you're brave; but you're also hurt and I can move easier and faster than you at the moment." She said, wondering if she was going to have to fight him on this.

For a moment it looked like she was going to have to then he rocked to one side to ease his knees? and let out a sharp hiss, obviously hurting something.

"Besides," Shepard made no obvious mention of his pain. "..this way you can watch my six."

He almost looked like he was going to protest again; but then he nodded, with what sounded like a sigh.

"Thanks Scrappy." She cautiously patted his shoulder, which earned her an odd look, but he didn't do anything.

Carefully she eased around the corner – trying not to sound like a herd of stampeding elephants. The opening, more in shadow than in light, was clear, no duct cover – not even a grating on it. Getting down on her stomach, not a pleasant feeling, she slithered or tried to, to the opening and carefully peered out.

In the dimness she could see boxes and crates stacked all around, up to the struts that supported the ceiling in some places. From their looks they'd been there awhile and she didn't recognize any of the logos or writing on them. She looked left and right, all around, and then because, as one of her teachers pointed out, people never did it, she looked up. Nothing, no Blue Suns, no Batarian, no giant Turian.

With a faint sigh she sat up and let herself down from the duct, which about three feet above the floor. She found herself in a dim, dusty cleared area with a couple of passageways through the boxes and crates.

She was about to move towards a passageway that seemed to lead off towards a wall where she thought she caught the glow of an exit sign when she heard a faint creak.

With no conscious thought she threw herself sideways as she recognized the sound of armor moving. Something large and armor bearing hit the crate she'd been in front of.

She heard someone swearing and the flanging tones told her it was a Turian. Shit, shit, shit. She had to keep out of his grasp and lead him away from Scrappy. Didn't matter if it was Godzilla Turian or a merc, neither would be good.

Then she heard a sound that chilled her – that of a pistol being armed.

"I'd advise you stop, human." The voice was deep, but didn't sound like either Godzilla or Blue Suns. It almost sounded familiar to her. "I can see you."

Damn Turians and their eyesight.

She was about to reply when she caught a hint of movement out of the corner or her eye and a silver rocket seemed to launch itself from the duct to slam into the back of her adversary. Knocking him to the ground and, wonder of wonders, sending his pistol flying.

She wasted no time in scrambling after the gun and once getting it, turning it on the thrashing mass of two Turians.

"Get off me you idiot." Came the hiss from the older Turian and he tossed what had to be Scrappy to the side. The younger Turian slammed into a nearby crate and went still.

"Your turn to freeze, asshole." She snapped as she went to Scrappy's side.

"Alliance?" Now the older one was startled.

"What's it to you?" She was worried, Scrappy was awfully still.

There was a pause and then his omni-tool lit up – turning their little area almost as bright as a normal room.

The Turian started to get up.

"I said don't move." She snarled at him.

He froze as she pointed the pistol at him. Smart enough to aim for the largest mass of his body, less chance of missing.

Then she got a good look at him. It was the surly bar tender from the DMZ; she'd recognize those bare arms anywhere.

"Who are you working for? Blue Suns?"

He snorted at that, a more human gesture than she was expecting. Meanwhile Scrappy was finally, thankfully, regaining consciousness; but from the faint whines she was picking up; getting thrown across the room wasn't helping.

"What's wrong with him?" The older Turian was now eyeing Scrappy.

"Nothing. It hurts getting thrown into a crate."

"That's more pain than just getting tossed. He's hurt bad." The Turian was looking at her coldly.

"Damn, damn, damn." She swore out loud but didn't take her eyes off the bar tender.

"And where did you find him? Six humans left the bar – there was no Turian." He paused to study the kid. "No young Turian."

"What's it to you?" She helped Scrappy to sit up; but he just wrapped his arms around his chest – obviously in pain.

"I was down here looking for you." The Turian carefully leaned back against a crate.

"Why, so you can sell me to the highest bidder?" She snapped, now very nervous.

"Hardly. Trying to get you and your idiotic friends back to the Alliance before there was a incident." He went to reach for his omni-tool and she brought the gun up, hitting the activation button to remind him she was armed. Wisely he froze.

"I just want to activate a file on my omni – no weapons, ask your friend." He remained still.

"Hey Scrappy, he telling the truth?"

Scrappy brought his head up and after peering blurrily at the man, nodded. Then he dropped his head and went back to cradling his chest, beginning to whine ever so slightly. Whatever he was saying the older man was now looking at him with some concern.

He quickly activated his omni-tool and a picture, his picture, popped up, dressed in blue and black armor that looked familiar somehow.

"Teskal Neest, C-Sec."

At the mention of C-Sec, Scrappy looked up and let out a whine and a clic.

"C-Sec." She didn't lower the pistol. "This isn't the Citadel. Why would you be here?"

"No, but a lot of illegal things have been making their way to and from the Citadel from here, and C-Sec wants it stopped." Teskal turned his attention to Scrappy.

"Your friend is in bad shape." He told her. "I can't understand him very well; but he's saying something about a kidnapping."

"Yeah, found him on a lower level being beat up by some giant ass of a Turian." She explained and knelt down by Scrappy.

Unconsciously he leaned into her and she put her free arm around his shoulders. "Easy, it's okay."

She looked up at Teskal again. "He'd been kidnapped from the Citadel and brought here."

"Kidnapped!" Teskal abruptly started typing into his omni-tool, completely ignoring her. After a minute she caught a glimpse of what looked like a picture of Scrappy, but she couldn't read anything because it was all in Turian.

"Spirits." Completely ignoring her and the gun he knelt besides Scrappy. "Are you Castis's son?"

Scrappy nodded, leaning harder into Shepard's shoulder and beginning to shake.

"You know him?" She was becoming deeply concerned for the kid, and less worried about Teskal.

"Yes, his father is a detective in C-Sec. A good one." Teskal explained. "But we need to get him to a medic, he's hurt bad."

"Well tossing him into a crate didn't help." She told him as she disarmed the pistol and started to help Scrappy up. She wasn't quite ready to hand it back to him.

"I wasn't expecting to get blind sided." Teskal protested.

Despite Shepard's caution, Scrappy was panting hard when she finally got him upright. He wavered and she kept her arm around him to stabilize him.

Teskal looked questioningly at her. "Why are you concerned for him, he's Turian."?

"He's a kid, for the love of heaven." She snapped back. "And he's hurt, why shouldn't I be concerned. Is there someplace safe to take him."?

Teskal thought for a minute. "Yeah, there's a Turian military vessel nearby, they'll have the care he needs." He looked at her and Scrappy. "I'm going to have to carry him because he can't walk."

Glancing down at Scrappy, she had to agree. Kid was barely conscious.

"How do we get there?" She asked. "I've still got a merc possibly looking for me and there's a giant bastard of a Turian trying to find him."

"Station Security already knows about the mercs, I suspect they've left, but a Giant Turian! Did you get a name?" Teskal had stepped up to Scrappy.

"Yeah, Gorin..no, Gojin." She told him as he started to pick Scrappy up. The kid let out several whines and hisses; but Teskal, from what she could see was being as gentle as it was possible to be.

"It's okay, kid. We're getting you some help, okay." Shepard told him, gently patting his shoulder again. She noticed his mandibles lifted up a bit – a smile she thought she remembered.

"Can you use that thing?" Teskal indicated the pistol with a jerk of his head.

"Yes."

"Can you kill?" That was a whole 'nuther question, as her father would have said.

"I'm in the military, aren't I?"

"One doesn't necessarily mean the other, and you're human." Teskal shot back as he began to move through the crates, being very careful of Scrappy. The kid was barely conscious now, if at all.

"I can kill." She told him flatly. "I learned early."

Teskal just nodded as they moved out.