Author's note: Basically English is not my native tongue, and I grew up with Chinese-cultural upbringing. Please forgive me for any typo or grammar errors. For further updates regarding my Mass Effect AU, please refer to my bio on the profile page.

PS: Chapter updated on October 15th, 2017 rewriting to add in more details regarding the original characters.

FYI: The name of Garrus' father was now officially known as Castis Vakarian as per launching of Mass Effect: Andromeda. Previously before, the name of Garrus' father was unknown, hence many fanfictions had different names created. I was told that those who play beta versions as the testers had known about the name, but officially then, there were no solid proofs until the finalised of Mass Effect: Andromeda.

Original characters in this chapter: Pearl, Meng, Bemis, Galus Kandros and Niria Maxilinus.

A disclaimer: All Mass Effect characters belong to Bioware. Only the original characters belong to me. The story is purely fictional. Any resemblance to actual individuals or events is coincidental.


Mass effect: One soul divided

by beautyding

Chapter 7: Freelance private investigators

Meantime, somewhere General Adrien Victus was heading towards one of the underground wards in search for the other Turian squads, together with General Corinthus who wore white colony markings, Commander Jacobus who served under Saren and General Septimus Oraka who wore white colony markings. They were approaching a research lab at one of the lower sections when they noticed the rest of the Turian Squads were dead. All thirty of them, including his own Commander. All had been shot dead in the back of the head. And while they were still shocked at what they had seen, Commander Vyrnnus who used to be serving under Desolas Arterius, attacked them suddenly with the help from Tonn Actus, a Turian pirate, and his gang.

"Great Spirits of Palaven! This is a trap!"

Commander Jacobus swore while aiming and shooting the Turian pirates with his assault rifle while he searches for a safe spot to take cover.

"Vyrnnus lead us into a trap!"

Jacobus continue while Adrien aimed his own assault rifle at the nearest Turian pirate and pulled the trigger while he jumped over a crate to take cover. The shot pierced through the shield of the said pirate taking half of the health of the pirate as well. With another shot from General Septimus Oraka at the same time, the Turian pirate was soon dead.

General Corinthus was aiming his own shot at those who were getting nearer to them but his ammunition was running low. He turned towards five Turian corpses nearest behind him and gave a prayer to the Great Spirits of Palaven before salvaging the ammunition from those who had died. One of the dead Turian among the five corpses was Primarch Fedorian. This was bad news to the Turian Hierarchy. With the Primarch being dead, they need to make sure Saren is still alive. If not, then they will make sure Adrien survive.

"Great Spirits of Palaven! Fedorian is dead..."

Corinthus quickly passed the ammunition among himself, Adrien, Jacobus and Septimus before taking the point to take out more Turian pirates. They were too close in combat with the sniper rifle or grenades and the Turian pirates were attacking while Vyrnnus was throwing wraps at them weakening their barriers.

"Our barriers are down by seventy per cent!"

Oraka grunted while still aiming targets with his assault rifle.

"Ammunition almost running dried and targets are too near to use grenade or sniper rifle..."

Corinthus was tired and almost draining himself by now since before this, he had not slept for two days on the previous mission. He almost shut his eyes when Adrien nudged him to keep him awake.

"Hang on there buddy!"

"I'm trying Adrien..."

Corinthus shook his head hard to keep himself wide awake before resuming his aims and shoot at the Turian pirates.

"We need to get Vyrnnus down first and fast!"

Jacobus said while aiming his assault rifle before shooting at Tonn Actus. But the shots were swayed by the biotics cast from Vyrnnus.

"Dammit... that bastard traitor!"

Adrien was frustrated too as well and before he could say something, a drone flew above the Turian pirates and Commander Vyrnnus casting out two beams. One beam was targeting at the stranded Turians to project a black shade wall around them, while the second was casting a flash bang type of beam aiming down on the Turian pirates and Vyrnnus. Immediately all Turian pirates and Vyrnnus were blinded in an instant crouching on their knees with their hands covering their eyes. Each groaning in unison.

"Great Spirits of Palaven! My eyes!"

Adrien, Corinthus, Jacobus, and Septimus were confused at what had happened since they were still surrounded by the black shade wall. Moments later, they heard three sets of footsteps approaching towards them.

"I'm going to remove the beam but I needed all of you to hold down your weapons.."

A voice that sounded like a human male called out to them.

"You sound like a human? How could we trust you?"

Adrien responded with doubts.

"You can trust him General Adrien Victus."

A voice, someone who was familiar to Adrien, spoke this time.

"Illo Nazario?"

Adrien Victus asked.

"Yes sir..It is I, Illo Nazario..."

Illo Nazario responded.

"Alright, gentlemen... hold down your weapons..."

Adrien said while holding down his weapon.

The rest of the Turians mirrored the action of Adrien before Adrien further continued.

"All weapons down..."

"Alright, shutting down beam in 5...4...3...2...1..."

A Human female voice spoke this time while counting down the shutting process.

Once the black shade wall was down, they saw Illo Nazario standing with an arm sling bandage in front of them. A human female and a human male were standing around the Turian pirates and Vyrnnus who were still blinded crouching on the floor.

Adrien tried to stand up but was stumbling with efforts since he was too fatigued by now. Both the humans noticed and started searching through the Turian pirates while Illo Nazario held the weapon aiming at the head of Vyrnnus who was trying to fight off the Human male.

"Don't even think about it bastard!"

Which Vyrnnus froze instantly when he felt something cold was rubbing against his temple.

"Thought I was dead eh?"

Illo Nazario rumbled with disgust.

"Trying to kill me because I knew you and Desolas Arterius were working with the Batarians!"

Illo Nazario continued to rumble his words and pressed his weapon hard against the head of Vyrnnus further.

"What?"

Adrien could not believe what he had heard.

"Nazario, do you have proof?"

Before anything was being said, one of the humans, the female, held a datapad in the air, while the male held packs of dextro-amino acid energy bars in his arms.

"Here is your proof General."

The Human female said while passing the datapad to Adrien and helped the Human male to distribute the dextro-amino acid energy bars to Corinthus, Jacobus, and Septimus, who tore the packs eagerly and gulped the entire content empty.

Adrien accesses the datapad which the Human female had passed to him and was almost in a fit of anger while listening to the voice messages. The Human female stood calmly beside Adrien, holding up the dextro-amino acid energy bars while waiting for Adrien to compose himself.

"Thanks, human. Never had I thought Desolas Arterius would do this..."

Adrien sighed while passing the datapad to the Human female and took the dextro-amino acid energy bars from her at the same time. He then gulped the bars before continuing his speech.

"It would be best if you could make a copy of this evidences for yourself."

The Human female smiled and shook her head instead.

"I had already done that."

She further took out some more datapads from her sling bag and handled them to Adrien.

"General, I believed these should help clear something up as well. I and my partner are private investigators solemnly working freelance at our own costs. My name is Pearl and my partner name is Meng. These datapads contained more dealings between the Turian Pirates, Desolas Arterius and his Commander Vyrnnus, and Jath'Amon the Batarian ambassador.'"

Adrien nodded at Pearl before reaching out to take the datapads. He briefly read a few of them and smiled.

"Yes, this should clear thing up and we could stop this war once we have gotten a new Primarch. By the way, I am General Adrien Victus. We could use your help to locate our next Primarch in line. His name is Saren Arterius."

Pearl nodded her head before responding again.

"Yes, I and my partner would like to help."

"I don't want to be the next Primarch!"

The voice of a Turian male startled them suddenly from behind.

They turned around and saw Saren Arterius approaching with Captain Vidinos, Solana Vakarian, Tarquin Victus and a group of humans toward their location.


After Jane and her team had found Saren Arterius, Captain Vidinos, and Solana Vakarian, they waited for an hour before the two Turian males were ready to meet up with Nihlus and his team. They were passing through a long hallway before hearing gunshot sounds echoing at the other end. Fearing something had happened to Nihlus and his team, they ran with great speed hoping to reach the other end fast. But before they could reach fast enough, halfway while still running, they heard voices of groaning pains echoed now. Each calling out repeating with "Great Spirits of Palaven! My eyes...My eyes!"

All of them looked at each other not knowing what had happened. There was a sudden fear that ran through Jane and Ashley at the same moment. Immediately, both women moved their feet as fast as they could.

"Dammit!"

Jane mused in thoughts hoping it wasn't Garrus, Nihlus, her friends and the rest of the Turians she knew gotten hurt. She then took a glance toward at Ashley whom body language was showing she was as worried as her best friend. They ran towards the long hallway and finally reached just in time to watch a Human female shutting down a kind of beam. Both Ashley and Jane were amazed at first as the face feature of the Human female resembled an older version of Amy Wong; sister of Emily who had died on Mindoir.

Proceeding cautiously towards the location, they overheard the voice messages and the conversations between the Human female and Adrien. In which Saren was dumbfounded, after knowing his brother was working with the Batarians. The voice messages also included full details that his brother had purposely ordered the fleets to shoot at the Humans, not because the Humans had bleached the Citadel Council laws. He did it to cover up the crimes committed by the Batarian Slavery Rings at the Solar System.

"I had overheard that voice messages, and you thought it would be alright?"

Saren looked into the eyes of Adrien while he spoke.

"You stopped him. That is good enough, Saren."

Adrien assured Saren with a nod of his head.

"No! I had stopped him because he disobeyed a direct order from Fedorian! "

Saren growled low with disgust.

"Anyway, I was always wanting a chance to kill him..."

He continued while Pearl flickered at that and sighed.

"Really? Killing your own brother?"

"What do you care, Human?"

Saren narrowed his eyes at Pearl while Pearl mirrored the same as what Saren did but she did not say even a word. Instead, she just threw something which Saren caught it in his hand automatically. He froze when he saw a locket which he thought he had lost. The locket was very ancient and very skillfully crafted. Once opened, the mechanism randomly showing pictures of two small children playing. The children looked happy together. Until it shown pictures now of two teenagers sparring or pictures of two adults happily drinking in pubs.

"Great Spirits of Palaven! How...did you get this?"

Saren stared in astonishment.

"Found it on one of the Batarians whom I and my partner had captured. Groto Ib-ba was his name. He and another by the name of Ka'hairal Balak was trying to catch us...but we caught them by surprise..."

Pearl chuckled with smugness at her accomplishment while accessing her drone to show up a holographic video.

Before Saren could say anything, Jane opened her mouth and gasped in excitement.

"Is that a DJI Mavic Pro 2017 version? "

Pearl smirked and nodded her head while Jane continued to speak.

"You did some awesome tech upgrades to it. Are you a tech too?"

Meng chuckled instead and replied.

"Yeah, she used to be the best! Until we get this new job as freelance private investigators."

Pearl just shook her head and folded her arms over her chest.

"Am still the best of course... we don't earn enough to help cover our own expenses. Modifying anything we could salvage help to cut down expenses."

Jane just rested her chin on one of her gloved hand and pondered in thoughts before addressing Pearl.

"Well, the Mindoir don't have technicians or engineers. Most kinds of stuff were done by me, so would you come to help us? I can pay you for your services."

Pearl looked at Jane before looking at Meng.

"Can he come along as well? He used to be a gunnery officer. We are not just partner but married to each other too."

Jane nodded her head eagerly.

"Sure, he can join us too. I can pay him as well according to his works."

Meng smiled and handled some datapads to Jane.

"I think you might need this too.."

Pearl moved closer as well and gave Jane something that looked like a decoder.

"And you need this to translate it."

"Is this a decoder? "

Jane responded in surprise.

"Nope. I believe it is a translator for the text version. Found it on a Batarian outpost. Once I have gotten around it, with a few adjustments. You can translate any foreign languages into the standard version of your preferred languages now."

Pearl responded with a smugness look.

"Impressive!"

Adrien proclaimed.

"You could sell that and be rich..."

He further chuckled.

"Yeah, sell it and be lazy and grow fat..."

Meng deadpanned while this caused everyone to laugh.

After that Saren cleared his throat and addressed everyone with seriousness in tone.

"Let's get back into the current situation shall we?"

Everyone nodded their heads before dealing with the blinded Turian Pirates and Commander Vyrnnus. Tarquin moved himself to help Adrien his father, while Jane and Pearl started searching around their surroundings before finding something that looks like a prison cell. All Turian pirates, the two Batarians, Groto Ib-ba and Ka'hairal Balak, and Commander Vyrnnus were soon escorted inside the cell. Once both Jane and Pearl managed to come up with a security coding that consisted mainly of Morse code, anyone will need to have the special equipment to listen and hacked the door open.

"That should do it while you guys get your reinforcements to transfer them to be prosecuted."

Pearl smiled while pocketing a modified Stethoscope into her sling bag.

Adrien and the rest of the Turians just tilted their heads at the strange device. In which Ashley explained that the device was used for auscultation, or listening to the internal sounds of an animal or human body, mostly used by the physician who treated people or veterinary physician who treated animals. In certain cases, it could be used to check leaks on pipes. Pearl further explained that since not earning much, she will salvage anything she found and modified them into good uses, such as in this case.

Meanwhile, at the Factory District of the underground wards, Nihlus was seated at one of the crates waiting for Jane and her group to arrive when Garrus and Lantar were approaching toward him. So far they had not encountered any hostiles at this section of the wards and Bemis and his team of Batarians had decided to further go into the lower levels and scouted the areas, while Emily, Jacob, Zaeed, Jack, James, Decian, Nyreen, Galus, and Niria grouped together to search for the missing Turians Children. All of them had given Nihlus some status reports at the certain point of times, letting him knew what they had done or where they had covered so far.

Garrus was looking around at the crates in front of him while Lantar was scanning the whole area with his Omni-tool. So far beside them, there weren't any readings of other life forms being detected. Nihlus was busy accessing his Omni-tool when he saw Emily and the rest of those with her approaching. Each of them just shook their heads in a gesture to show they had not found anything. Bemis and his team also alerted Nihlus that all levels were scouted and they had found a hidden passage at one of the levels. Nihlus then asked Bemis to stand guard and sent one of his teammates back to meet with them while they waited for Jane and her group to join up.


Jane and the rest of her group were moving along a hallway that led them into another section of the underground wards. They were moving toward a building when something inside the sling bag of Pearl started to beep non-stop. This caused everyone to halt while Meng and Pearl exchanged a glance at one another before Pearl took out a small black box from her sling bag.

The black box was beeping constantly before Pearl accessed it to bring up a small interface panel. Once the panel was completely in view, a type of radar scanning was flashing two sets of green pulses, pointing toward a pile of dead Turians. Without words spoken Pearl and Meng ran at high speed toward the direction, while everyone followed them closely behind.

Once they had reached the location indicated on the radar, Pearl and Meng immediately worked together and started to lift off the first corpse on top of the pile of dead Turians. Jane and Ashley mirrored the same action without words and lifted the second corpse and brought it to lay on the floor beside the first corpse where Pearl and Meng had laid it. Saren and Adrien moved closer to lift off the third corpse, while the rest joined in. Soon all corpses were laid out side by side.

Pearl hovered her black box over each corpse until she finally found what she was looking for. A dead Turian female who was impregnated. Solana gasped in shock when she realized what was going on.

"Great Spirits of Palaven! Her babies are still alive inside her womb!"

Pearl nodded at Solana while holding up the black box and read it.

"The green pulses reading are getting weaker. Is there any chances of saving the babies?"

Solana nodded her head while speaking.

"The hospital, we need to get there fast. I could operate and transport the babies inside the incubators... and prays to the Great Spirits of Palaven hopefully that the babies would live..."

"But the incubators were all damaged..."

Ashley interrupted suddenly remembering what she had seen in the hospital wards.

Pearl narrowed her eyes at the information and looked at Jane after she had pondered in thoughts.

"Perhaps the two of us can get them fixed?"

Jane was unsure about that but she composed herself and nodded at Pearl.

"Sure but I need someone to drive the sky van for us to transport the dead woman to the hospital."

To everyone surprise, Saren stepped forward to volunteer himself. "

"I could do that. Just gave me the hospital location coordinates."

In which Jane immediately thanked Saren while accessed her Omni-tool and scanned it over the Omni-tool of Saren.

Once they were ready, Jane ordered Ashley to lead the rest to meet up with Nihlus and his group, while herself, Pearl, Meng, Saren, and Solana were heading toward the hospital wards with the body of the impregnated dead Turian female.

While still heading to the hospital, Jane had already informed Karin ahead of time. By the time the sky van was approaching and ready to land, Karin and her medical team had everything prepared. The body of the impregnated dead Turian female was rushed immediately to the operating room together with Karin and Solana, while Saren, Jane, Pearl, and Meng rushed to the room where the incubators were located at.

Most of the incubators were badly damaged probably during the attacks. Pearl and Meng immediately started to tear out parts of each incubator that was still good. Jane mirrored their actions while Saren was tilting his head in confusion until he saw Pearl and Jane began to combine the good parts together and created two oddly shaped mechanism while Meng was handling more parts he could found to the two females. Deciding to help as well, Saren searched through the other incubators and salvaged any parts he found useful and passed them to Meng first who sorted the parts before handling to the two females. While Solana and Karin were working side by side trying to stabilize the babies still inside the womb of their dead mother before the incubators were ready.

Once Jane and Pearl had managed to get the incubators ready, they headed immediately toward the operating room and delivered the incubators just in time before Solana and Karin decided to start the operation when the stability of the babies was falling. The rest then decided to wait patiently outside the operating room while Saren was being treated by a Human male nurse of his injuries which he had totally forgotten about. There was also something else which Saren was hoping to confirm as he focused his eyes at the doors of the operating room. A particular scent which he needs to confirm.


By the time Jane and her group had reached the hospital, Ashley had already led the rest to join up with Nihlus and his group. They gave each other on the reports of what was done and what had been happening. And deciding to go ahead first, they reached the hidden passage at one of the levels, led by one of the teammates of Bemis.

Garrus accessed his Omni-tool to scan the hidden passage just in case if there were any traps. His Omni-tool showed a reading of certain traps were installed. He hacked and disabled the traps before leading everyone to further explore down the hidden passage.

Bemis and his team were the first to descend further down the hidden passage until they reached a ramp that crossed over between two platforms. Emily, Lantar, Galus, and Nyreen were following behind Bemis and his team, while Ashley, Nihlus, Niria, and Adrien were scanning the surroundings for any life forms. Decian, Corinthus, Jacobus and Septimus were behind watching the six of those in front of them, while Garrus, Vidinos, Jack, Tarquin, Zaeed, James, Jacob, and Girard were still at the entrance of the hidden passage.

Once everyone who was down the passage had crossed over the ramp, those at the entrance of the hidden passage then slowly followed the same path down, until they were now standing in the main hall of another section that looked like a cargo bay.

At the far end, two females were guarding a door that led to another passage. One of the females, a Batarian, stirred when she saw Bemis and his team approach. When she realized that they were not those under her slaver master, she started to point her shotgun at the direction where Bemis and his team were standing.

"Stop right there! Or else I will shot you with my shotgun!"

The Batarian female shouted while she threatens to shoot.

"Jella..."

Bemis suddenly called out at the Batarian woman when he recognized who she is.

"Bemis?"

Jella lowered her shotgun when she realized the one standing among the Batarians was Bemis her brother.

"Oh thanks to the gods, you are alive.."

Both of them ran toward each other into a hug before Jella motioned the other female, a Human, over to them.

"Talitha?"

A voice startled them before the Human female had the chance to move towards Jella.

"Emily?"

The other Human female replied.

"Talitha..."

Emily ran toward Talitha and hugged her but Talitha just pushed Emily away and pointed a pistol at her own head instead.

"Talitha... no..."

Emily pleaded while Talitha just shook her head at Emily and kept the pistol still pointed at her own head.

"You are not real...you are not real...you are not real..."

Talitha chanted while fallen into a daze, with the pistol still pointed to her own head.

"Oh no... "

Jella gasped and faced Emily.

"The mind control device is acting up again. Seem to be a side effect for the human."

"Crap!"

Garrus swore while holding up his sniper rifle and aimed at Talitha.

Ashley saw that and immediately stood between Talitha and Garrus.

"No Garrus..."

But Nihlus just pulled up Ashley into his armoured arms and swinging her away while Garrus took the chance and pulled the trigger.

Within the second, something that looked like a dart hit into the neck of Talitha and her body fallen numb while dropping the pistol. Emily and Lantar quickly ran toward and held up Talitha together, while Ashley was shocked and speechless looking dumbfounded at Nihlus.

"Dammit! You two are really gonna to be the death of me!"

Ashley finally gained her voice and started pounding her fists on the armoured chest of Nihlus repeatedly while the young Turian Spectre was trying to soothe the small Human in pink armour with a low purring.

Adrien, Vidinos, Corinthus, Jacobus, and Septimus were eyeing at the two suspiciously while Nihlus was trying to calm down Ashley.

Zaeed, Jacob, James, and Girard were looking stunned and amused at the two as well.

Jack who noticed then distracted the rest by shouting nonsense at Tarquin who tilted his head in a confusing manner.

"Huh? What the heck was that for, Jack?"

In return, Jack just eyed at him toward those who were watching Ashley and Nihlus. Tarquin immediately caught the hint and played along.

"What the heck is your problem, human?"

Jack almost snickered while feigning ignorance.

"Me? What the heck is your fucking problem, Turian?"

This caught everyone attention while the two were just bickering at each other. Ashley and Nihlus then realized what was going on and quickly composed themselves. While Garrus came between Jack and Tarquin and stares at them.

"Crap! What is wrong with the both of you?"

Tarquin was about to respond when he felt his fringe was being pulled sharply. To everyone surprise, Adrien had moved up closer to the three pulling at one of the fringes of his son and dragged it sideways while apologizing to Jack.

"Miss, I am greatly sorry for the attitude and behaviour of my son..."

This caused both Jack and Garrus to froze with the mouth of Jack widely opened while Adrien continued on.

"I can assure you. I will take matters of him into my own hands.."

Jack was dumbfounded and wanting to say something, while Garrus was wanting to pacify Adrien as well when suddenly, Adrien just dragged Tarquin closer and chuckled in a low whisper just enough for Garrus and Jack to hear as well.

"You really need to brush up on your acting skills son."

This almost caused Garrus and Jack to snicker out loud when they realized that Adrien was joining in their act.

"Hey Tarquin, your dad is much cooler than you.."

Jack winked playfully while Garrus just nudged playfully at one of the armoured arms of Tarquin.

"Not...fair..."

Tarquin deadpanned while trying to hold himself up.

"And that...really hurt, dad..."

"Don't be a crybaby kid..."

Adrien cooed while pushing Tarquin head down in an apologizing manner.

"Now apologize to the young lady...Lieutenant!"

Tarquin quickly feigned and acted along.

"Yes, sir! Miss... I am...truly sorry for misbehaving...please pardon me for my behaviour..."

Jack snickered while trying to compose herself with a seriousness in tone.

"Well, you are forgiven then, on behalf of the General."

"Shall we get the Children now?"

Garrus chuckled while the rest were nodding their heads.

With the help from Jella, they managed to gather the children and escorted them using the sky vans.


Six hours had passed by when the rising sun begins to brighten up the sky. Solana and Karin had managed to transport the babies into the incubators respectively and keeping them under close monitoring. Both women decided to take the turn to rest and by the time the babies were three hours through the incubation, Garrus and the rest of his group had escorted all the Turians Children into a nursery, nearer to the hospital wards where they were kept safe and sound.

Talitha and Jella were under sedation while the medical team worked together to remove the controlling devices from their temple respectively. And by the night of the second day, most slaves were free from the control devices and helped to transport the dead colonists into the casket pods. While Anto Korragan and Bray managed to contact governor Grothan Pazness and reported to him about the deal that Hannah Shepard had offered to them to resist against their current corrupted Batarian Hegemony.

The newly formed Batarians then formed an ally with Admiral Hannah Shepard and with the help from Pearl, they transferred all Turian pirates, the two Batarians, Groto Ib-ba and Ka'hairal Balak, and Commander Vyrnnus, to the hospital wards and kept them all under sedation.

By the third day, most of the ground teams were taking care of the children. Where some were telling stories, or playing together, or feeding the younger children who can't feed themselves yet. Lantar and Solana were monitoring the wellness of the Turians Children, while Karin was monitoring the twins. All the older Turian males were busy teaching the younger Turian males and the Humans males as well, on how to clean up those younger Turians boys who can't bathe themselves yet, while Nyreen and Niria were teaching Jella and all the Humans females, how to clean up all the younger Turians Children.

Pearl and Meng had already met the Admiral and the rest of the crews except Alenko, on board the Mindoir while they passed by the main lobby of the nursery. Ashley and Emily were telling the story about the "Little Red Riding Hood", where James was casting as the "Big Bad Wolf", Zaeed as the "Hunter", Jane and Garrus as the "Parents", Jacob as the "Sickly Grandmother" and Jack as the "Little Red Riding Hood".

All Turians children laughed when Jack kicked the ass of James while Ashley rebuked Jack that she wasn't supposed to do that. Zaeed was eagerly hunting James before the "Big Bad Wolf" had eaten the "Sickly Grandmother". Whereas Jacob was feeling completely ignored, while Garrus was constantly asking Ashley when will it be his time to say his line. And Jane constantly dragging Garrus away when he cut in at the wrong time.

In the end, Ashley and Emily gave up while Pearl and Meng offered their bits of help with just telling the story by words to the children. Emily was astonished at first when she saw Pearl, as Pearl resembled a deceased aunt of her. Pearl also resembled an older version of Amy, who was the youngest sister of Emily. By the time Pearl and Meng had to begin with the story, all Turians Children, including the Turians adults were attentively listening in awe.

Every Turians, both adults, and children were amazed at how Pearl and Meng could change their voices as the story goes on. Pearl making a youthful cherry voice while speaking as the "Little Red Riding Hood" or a low and slow monotone voice while speaking as the " Sickly Grandmother", or a slow but firm voice while speaking as the "mother". Meng on the other hands did three different voices as well. A husky voice while speaking as the "Big Bad Wolf", a grumpy voice while speaking as the "hunter" and a merry voice while speaking as the "father".

When the storytelling came to the ending, everyone applauded while Pearl and Meng bowed their heads. Even Turians like Vidinos and Saren were applauding the Humans which they don't really show any interests even among their own Turians community.


After the storytelling, they played a Chinese children game known as "the eagle catches the chickens". In this game, one will act as the eagle, one as the mother hen and the rest will be the little chicks. During the game, the mother hen will spread out the hands guarding, while the chicks formed a straight line behind. The eagle will then try to catch as many chicks as possible.

Since there were many Turians children, Jane decided to break them into groups with fifty Turians children in each group. A home base was set up for the Eagles where the captured chicks will be sent there. Karin was assigned to that base while she monitored the twins where the older Turians and those who were injured just joined there to relax. Somehow Saren decided to sit around the base nearest to the twins with Zaeed and Jacob while watching the rest played. Solana and Nyreen had prepared snacks and drinks for the Turians, whereas Pearl and Meng had prepared some for the Humans.

Most of the females played as the mother hen while the males played as the Eagles. Pearl was the mother hen for the first group where Meng was the eagle. Both of them started off wrestling against one another with their hands while the Turians children were yelling and screaming playfully behind. Pearl then tried pushing Meng away or Meng tried pulling Pearl away.

Whenever the mother hen lost the guardian position, once the eagle touched the chick, the chick was considered as being captured. The chicks on the other hands must always stay in the straight line each holding onto the shoulders in front of them, where the first was holding onto the waists or grabbing the shirt of the mother hen.

In the end, Meng broke through the grips of Pearl and ran off with two chicks in his arms, after which the first group took a moment to rest and regroup while the eagle return.

The second group was the funniest because Jack was shielding her fifty chicks with her biotics while Tarquin was trying his luck but caught none instead.

The third group was completely in chaos since Garrus simply just lifted Jane up with one of his armoured arms while grabbing four chicks in his other armoured one. This caused the rest of the Turians Children in that group to either dispersed or clenching onto both armoured feet of Garrus in an attempt to save Jane. Everyone was laughing while some of those not playing decided to help gathered those Turians kids who had been running wildly around the place by now without the leadership of the mother hen.

The fourth group was moving around from side to side with Ashley as the mother hen while Nihlus was being the eagle. Somehow Ashley managed to keep Nihlus away without making any efforts in which Pearl was shouting out at Nihlus.

"Trying to be a gentle eagle? Are you?"

In which Emily chipped in as calling Nihlus being a "spoilsport!" where Lantar was circling around her group. Lantar knew he could not touch Emily so it will be hard for him to catch any chicks. So he pretended that he tripped while Emily was squatting beside him to see if he was alright. He then makes his moves and grabbed as many as he could possibly carry in his arms. While Emily was jutting her lower lip out in a pout.

"Dammit, you bastard eagle!"

Nyreen was struggling with Decian in the fifth group since Decian was a stronger hand to hand combat than her being biotic. He managed to catch one when Nyreen lost the grips on both arms of Decian.

James was moving fast to and fro in the sixth group while Niria was the mother hen. Her chicks could not follow the mother hen led fast enough when James seized the opportunity to group hug a total of fifteen chicks with his arms. Reckoning Niria being the first in history to lose the most chicks in the first round of play.

"Great Spirits of Palaven!"

Niria proclaimed in defeat.

Solana was guarding in the last group where Galus was the eagle. Both of them fought hard as if they were sparring and Solana managed to pin Galus down. Until Galus moved his head and sniffed at her. Solana froze and Galus took the opportunity to pin Solana down while grabbing three chicks and ran to the base.


They played until the children were tired and led them to rest while the adults pondered in their own thoughts. Adrien had informed Hannah that their reinforcements will be reaching here the day after tomorrow and suggested Hannah, her teams, and their allied Batarians, to start leaving immediately or latest by tomorrow. He did not trust his own people for not attacking the Batarians or the humans on first sights. However, he makes a promise to end this war if Saren or himself managed to be the next Primarch.

Before leaving Hannah gave Adrien a firm handshake while Bemis make the arrangement with Anto Korragan to leave this colony once Joker discharged the hold on their frigates and gave him the location coordinates to head towards the main base station where the freed slaves were now hiding. Hannah decided to leave those slavers and the slavers' bodyguard, slave torturers, Turian pirates, the traitors Kuril and Vyrnnus behind to be prosecuted as deemed fit according to the Citadel Council laws. She also passed Adrien a copy of the holographic video footage which contained the goriest shreds of evidence of the attacks on Mindoir. The footage was captured on Emily's surveillance drone while Mindoir was under attacks by the Batarian Slavery Rings.

Garrus, Jane, Nihlus, Ashley, Jack, and Tarquin took their moment together to bid their last farewell before they meet up with Lantar, Emily, Karin, Nyreen, Galus, Niria, Decian, and Solana.

Karin briefed Solana on the conditions of the twins, in which both her and Lantar assured Karin that they would do their best to care for the twins.

Solana then touched her forehead with Jane's after the two shared the news of their bonding to her. She was happy for both Jane and Garrus but was worried at the same time since Castis Vakarian, their father was not an easy man to deal with. She also hoped that Jane could visit their mother and grandmothers and assured her that all three of them will acknowledge the outcome guided by the gemstone of bonding.


Tarquin then took Jack and meet with Adrien who was pleased and greeted Jack warmly. When asked will Jack accepted Tarquin as her bond-mate. Jack replied honestly that she was not ready yet, in which Adrien assured her, he will respect her decision, agreeing with her that Tarquin was also too young to start a family as he was only sixteen years old.

"Sixteen? He is only two years younger than me..."

Jack gasped in amazement.

"He probably older than you in Earth's time..."

Adrien chuckled.

"According to calculation... I should be twenty-one years old..."

Tarquin cooed.

"That would make me thirteen in Palaven?"

Jack chuckled.

All three of them laughed at that and Adrien finally let the two to rejoin with Nihlus and the rest, while he headed toward Saren who was leaning against a wall. Adrien also noticed that Saren was eyeing toward Nihlus and those gathered around Jane and Garrus. However, Adrien decided to keep this to himself and tapped Saren on his armoured shoulder before signalling Saren to walk with him. Saren, in return just nodded his head and followed Adrien toward one of the buildings.

When Jack shared what she had known now with the rest of the people around her. Nihlus almost dropped his mandibles when he realized he will be in his thirties according to Earth's time. Whereas Karin was at least happy that she will be younger in Palaven.

"Great Spirits of Palaven! That makes me sounded like an old man..."

Nihlus deadpanned.

That would also make him twelve years older than Ashley which Ashley almost choked.

"Oh... yeah... that sounded creepy..."

Ashley narrowed her eyes.

Nyreen just joked that Jane will be seventeen according to Palaven the perfect age for the female to get marry. In which Tarquin and Nihlus envied Garrus as both of them needed another four years before they could marry their bond-mate. Everyone laughed while Emily was proclaiming that she will be also thirteen years old according to the Palaven's cycle, being the same age as Ashley and Jack. This almost caused Lantar to choke on that and cursed silently, since not only would he needed four years as well, he has not even confessed his feeling to Emily yet. All eyes were now eyeing at Lantar with sympathy while Emily was tilting her head looking confused.

"That would make you Lantar being seven years older than Emily."

Decian cooed while Lantar snapped his eyes at him.

Emily was looking all over the place suddenly except at Lantar when she felt her cheeks getting warmer. Feeling nervous, she excused herself and exited quickly heading toward the Mindoir.

The rest of the people were focusing on Emily's departure while Garrus placed one of his gloved hands on Lantar's armoured shoulder.

"At least you get four years as well to work on the relationship with Emily."

Lantar nodded his head in return and smiled.

"I'm going to look for her after the war or maybe get a job on the Mindoir?"

Jane pondered for a while before answering Lantar.

"Probably not since Emily is the war journalist currently on Mindoir. After the war, she probably would return to Earth and continue her studies."

"Oh...damn..."

Lantar responded with disappointment.

"Don't worry! We'll keep you updates and you can come to find her then.."

Jack chuckled.

With that everyone laughed before leaving Garrus behind with Jane.

"So this is going to be a long time?"

Garrus touched his forehead with Jane's while cupping his gloved hands on her cheeks.

"Yeah... I'm going to miss you..."

Jane raised both her gloved hands to cup Garrus's gloved hands while stopping the urge to kiss him.

They stayed like that for a very long time before breaking the contact. Garrus switched Jane's translator off and humming his affection for her while stepping further away from the love of his life.

Jane took few steps backwards while watching at Garrus. Both of them were afraid that they would end up unwillingly to leave each other.

Jane switched on her translator and soon Garrus's humming could not be detected anymore and she slowly turned around and headed towards the Mindoir while Garrus was still watching Jane, humming with a low rumbling until Jane was no longer in his view.


End of chapter 7