A/N: Hey thank you to the person who reviewed! I appreciate it! Rated M. I own nothing. Please let me know what you think.

OoOoOO

He came to, skull throbbing painfully, and for a split second he imagines he's had too much to drink. That it was all some strange alcohol induced nightmare that he's glad to wake up from. Until his avian eyes crack open slightly to stare at the inside of one crappy hunk of junk they likely had to nerve to call a cargo ship. What new sort of torment was this? Had he been sold to slavers? No, Shepherd would never…

But she wasn't the girl he had known now, was she? Garrus felt the rumblings of fury building inside of his chest. What had happened? She had been safe when he left, untainted by the apathy and false care of the Citadel. When? When had she even come here? When had Omega changed rulers? That sort of thing was usually well known.

She must have lied to him, but to what end? Shepherd would gain nothing from lying to him. Then again he and his team had come to kill mercs and they worked for Aria in a sense. His team. Garrus allowed a single groan of despair to work its way through his vocal cords. Their faces, splattered with blood and the light dying in their eyes came unbidden to his thoughts. If what Shepherd said was the truth, she had killed them. Perhaps not outright, but she'd had a hand in their demise and as a turian he was torn; honor dictated that she had to pay for what she'd done. Yet, some deeper part of him could still see the wounded look in her eyes when he'd told her things could have been different. And, they could have been if she'd been nearly anything but young and so very human.

Humans could lie, and steal, and cheat, and betray. However, perhaps it was sheer denial, his old C-SEC persona kept making him turn over Shepherd's words with a proverbial fine tooth comb. 'I'm not 'working' for Aria.' She'd said, but she'd never denied working for someone other than Aria. The tang of stale blood in his mouth reminded him she'd also told him she was Omega. The very words Aria had been known to tout on occasion.

He moved a taloned hand to his aching head, minimizing excess movement because everything hurt too much. The feel of cold metal against his plates was almost too much to bare. Quickly, he scanned the tiny hold they had confined him in. A dextro bar had been partial unwrapped and laid near his face. The scent was enough to make him want to gnaw his own arm off. Combined with the obvious trauma to his head, the last thing he wanted was food.

The echo of footsteps approaching had him warbling a warning out of instinct; semi-close to a hiss.

"You will not be harmed further," a decidedly male voice with tell-tale quarian filters responded to his non-verbal threat. A purple visor and red suit filled his vision, and Garrus took note that the male stood well outside of his reach even without him confined to this make-shift cell.

"Forgive me if I don't find that believable." Garrus growled lowly.

"It's okay. I wouldn't trust it either, but she paid me to get you off of the station."

'She' was likely Shepherd. Her name made him furious and gave him a pang of longing all at once. Garrus was confused, disoriented, and hurt. The last thing he needed was to analyze some foreign feeling that he shouldn't have in the first place.

"What else did 'She' tell you?" He tried to seem aloof, but he was already mentally disarming the lock mentally. Preparing for the moment where he could actually leap into action. His azure eyes looked behind the quarian to note that there didn't seem to be anyone else aboard this scrapheap of a ship.

"She said you'd be angry, but not to worry, you wouldn't hurt someone like me." The quarian answered quickly, and Garrus could tell he was nervous.

"Someone like you?"

"Someone who hasn't done anything," he clarified gently.

"Hm," Garrus warbled a non-committal tone. His sharp eyes narrowed in on the quarian's nervous eyes. "And how, exactly do you know Shepherd?"

Perhaps, if he was incredibly lucky, he could dig to the bottom of this betrayal. Some small part of him silently prayed to the spirits that Shepherd hadn't really done this, but experience told him that she had and she was to be the subject of his wrath.

The quarian shifted away at the question, "That's not really important, is it?"

"Just making friendly…conversation," Garrus rumbled nearly off handedly.

The glowing eyes behind the face mask squinted at him in disbelief. "Right. Look, I lived on Omega for a while. 'Friendly conversation' doesn't happen without a gun to your face."

"Would you happen to have a gun to spare?" Garrus quipped lightly.

The lines of the suit relaxed, and a filtered chuckle floated between them. "I think a gun is the last thing you need."

It was the only thing Garrus needed right now. A gun and some ammo. Possibly a grenade or two wouldn't hurt either. Well, it might hurt someone, just not him.

"Who is to say?" Blue eyes raked over the red suit without misgivings. He was going to get out of here, but he needed the kid to keep talking.

"Well, either way, you're safe now."

What is it Shepherd had said? "Nothing gets past you, does it?"

The quarian hummed and bounced on the balls of his feet for a moment, a nervous twitch perhaps?

"So, Shepherd runs Omega now?"

His captor gulped and scratched at his suit. "I don't think we should talk about this."

Well wasn't that just too bad. But, he needed to take his time and ease the quarian into talking.

"So Shepherd and you knew each other before this?"

"I really don't want to talk about this."

"Alright," Garrus muttered as he inclined his head. "Then just tell me about you."

The quarian was eyeing him a little hostilely.

"It must be hard being away from the Flotilla," Garrus prompted in a nearly brotherly fashion.

A deep sigh was his response. "I had thought that I would see wonders beyond my imaginings. However, all I found was treachery, misfortune and deceit. I must confess, I do not know how you species live like this."

Garrus voiced understanding in his sub-harmonics. "It certainly is a challenge from time to time."

"You do not joke! Even the Elcor are without mercy! " His glowing eyes dimmed as the quarian was lost in a haze of memories. Garrus knew the look well.

"Obviously someone showed you a bit of kindness… a drell, an asari, or a human perhaps?" He dug a bit deeper.

The gaze that met his was rueful. "I had always heard such different things about the humans. That they were younger than my own species and granted a place on the council! The very spot my people had be so harshly evicted from. Outcasts are we, and treated worse than thieves or garbage."

Outcasts. Like the Duct rats. Seen but everyone pretended they never existed. Life and bureaucracy was easier that way.

The quarian rubbed the back of his head the suit squeaking against itself. "She'd never looked at me like that. She always treated me, as if I… as if one lone quarian mattered. This was not a kindness I expected."

Garrus had to stop the threatening deep rumble that emanated from the center of his chest. The quarian sounded half-love sick over Shepherd and that for some strange reason was unacceptable. He convinced himself it was because of the callous thing she'd become.

"I…I ran into a bit of trouble, you know, on my pilgrimage," he answered looking away in abject shame, "I was working, doing some salvage on the side, to get off Omega and return to the Flotilla. But, Omega is… there were complications and I…"

Garrus closed his eyes briefly. It was too much like the Shepherd he'd known. Stretching out her hand to help what others considered the dregs of society. In his mind he sees her lips twisted into a sarcastic sneer. Her strange eyes that stared at him once so openly had seemed so cold to him. Yet, here was a quarian, a lone male, nearly singing her praises as if she was some grace-born spirit and Garrus did not know what to make of it. It did not add up with the venomous creature that had forcibly removed him from Omega.

"-And now here I am… taking you back to the Citadel."

He opened his eyes so quickly the quarian backed up with fear flashing across his purple face-shield. His mandibles opening in a threatening display.

"That's funny." Garrus said with his usually charming demeanor. "But, I am not going back to the Citadel."

The quarian deflated a bit, "I was hoping you wouldn't say that." He supplied honestly.

Garrus snorted in amusement. Shepherd was right, in a sense, the old Garrus would never have touched the kid, but he was someone different now too. He pushed himself up onto his knees and stood to his full height. He loomed near the door to his impromptu prison.

"Open the door, because if I have to do it for you, you really won't like it." Garrus commanded.

The quarian sighed deeply. Garrus felt his eyes widen when the little pyjak had the nerve to pull a gun out and shoot it at him. Garrus attempted to doge but due to his already weakened state, it proved ineffectual. The sting of something burying beneath his plates had him clenching his mandibles in reflex.

"My name's Kenn," the quarian continued conversationally, "in case you were wondering. And she told me to use this in the off chance she was wrong."

Garrus felt the room was spinning, and he heard himself fall to the floor as he stared at the metal, but did not truly feel anything.

"Don't worry," Kenn said soothingly, "it's just a sedative. When you wake up, we'll be at the Citadel. For what it's worth, I am heartily sorry, but taking you back was part of the bargain."

Bargain? Garrus, felt only the more curious… and very tired. What could she possibly have had to bargain for? She owned Omega after all, wouldn't that simply be a matter of an order given here or there?