**Just wanted to apologize for being gone so long. I've submitted my thesis and actually had some time to work. This will be a short chapter, but it sets the stage for a longer one to come.++

The Normandy's medical team was swarming around him, slinging medi-gel, yelling something about restraints. A little human female with close-cropped blonde hair was trying unsuccessfully to ready an injection of a sedative. They kept spewing meaningless words at him, things like 'wounded badly' and 'extensive burns' and 'have to lay still.'

Like Hell…Garrus thought. He lashed out and felt a bandage rip loose. Heat gushed down his side. He felt hands holding him down, and to his great shame, he couldn't pry loose from them.

"Where the hell is she?" He roared.

"Garrus Vakarian! Stand down!" Dr. Chakwas's voice overrode his. The injured turian looked up, away from the white-clad nurse, and towards the good doctor, who had burst into the medbay.

"Dr. Chakwas, I have to go find her..." He started. Spirits be damned, was that actually his voice? That pathetic mewl-growl. 'Ezmay'd laugh at me. She'd put her hand on me and order me to lie back down.'

Tali had been the one to give him the report, backed up Miranda, who'd actually been in the hallway by Life Support and the restrooms with Ezmay. Tali and Legion, with all their technological wizardry had patched into the communications channel for the Broker's command team on the boarding party. They'd allowed them to board the elevator, and then had forced a stop on the crew deck. From behind the debris slung about by the gravity failures, Miranda and Ezmay had done their best to give the boarding party hell.

"I'm so sorry, Garrus." Tali had said.

She'd let him see the video footage EDI had captured. He watched the whole fight while the medical team was trying to patch him up. He'd been calm, confident that Ezmay was somewhere on the ship. She was surely somewhere helping stabilize the ship, delegating tasks, sending people to various quarters to repair the hull breaches. He'd been calm through the entire damn vid, letting the medical officers staunch his bleeding and do their thing. He even took in a few breaths when he watched his mate plug away shots. Garrus would never get tired of watching her fight. He even had a brief, fleeting thought that she would have made a magnificent mother, if he could have given her a child. She would have guarded her children like rachni queen, all ferocity and blood-lust.

Then he saw the grenade fly past her. She had to get out of the way, out of the blast radius. But she didn't. He watched her flip off her helmet, toss it aside. Even though the resolution on the footage was pure shit, he could still see the tears on her cheeks. Her scream, her shots, and then the explosion from the grenade flinging her up and over the crate she'd been taking cover behind. What was left of the boarding party took that advantage to fall on her. They'd restrained her and carried her towards the elevator. A lucky shot brought down Miranda's shields, who'd had to drop down. He wanted to howl, felt hollowness in his chest. Surely that scream of rage from Ezmay had come at the moment that he'd been knocked unconscious.

His talons were shaking at that point, and he'd looked up at Tali and Miranda with a look that begged them to tell him that it wasn't what he thought it was. Perhaps Ezmay had just sent them down with the footage so he could see that she'd racked up more kills than him. Maybe she was going to come sprinting through the doors to the med-bay any second.

But Miranda had looked away, her bruised face stiff and betraying no emotion. Her bloody shoulder sagged underneath the weight of the news. It was impossible to judge Tali's facial expression through her helmet and the purple mask that blocked her face. But he knew then. He knew.

Yeah, that had been when he'd gone full rampage.

"They took her away, but their ships are disabled too." Dr. Chakwas said, her voice cutting through the chaos. Tali piped in too.

"We're going to get her back. I promise. We're going right now." She said.

"Then I'm going with you." Garrus was already swinging his legs over the edge of the cot.

"Garrus, you're hurt too badly." Tali already had her hands on his shoulder, shoving him back.

"I just need some medi-gel. I'm going." He insisted. Had she lost her mind? Did she honestly think there was any way that he was going to be kept away from this?

"Garrus, if you'll just calm down a second…" Dr. Chakwas said.

"Every second we waste, she could be dead. She could be dying." They could be doing Spirits-knew-what to her. His memory flashed back to the insolent C-Sec officer on the Citadel and how his eyes had raked over Ezmay. Rage boiled up inside him, and then subsided. Tali was suddenly in his face, taking up his vision.

"Garrus, listen to me." Her voice was calm; it bit through the panic and anger and soothed him just a bit. "We are going to get her. If you will let the medical team do their jobs, and rest up while we plan this attack, of course you can go."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Miranda bristle, but say nothing. In the chain of command, Ezmay had chosen to hand out promotions based on merit and trust. Tali fell higher in the hierarchy than Miranda did.

"When are you going?" He asked.

"As soon as we can put together a plan that has some chance of succeeding."

"They're just a bunch of mercenaries." Garrus started.

"But they're not. You saw that on the vid. This was precise, coordinated." Miranda cut in. Her voice went gentler. "EDI believes that this assassin that was chasing you planned this all. She thinks he's on the dreadnought."

This was worse. He felt his stomach lurch at her words. But Tali was right. He had to calm himself. He was no use to anyone, especially his mate, if he was insane with rage and fear. Garrus sucked in a deep breath.

"That's better." Tali said. He could hear a half-smile in her words. "Look, we're a tactical team. All of us were hand-picked by Shepard. But we are not an assault team. We'd need an entire platoon to take the ship. We have to find a stealthier way of doing this."

"And you're not going anywhere until your blood has decided to stay in your body." Dr. Chakwas said. Garrus realized that she'd slipped him an anesthetic while Tali was talking, and was stitching up the gash in his side. He'd never even noticed the needle in his hide. "You've got quite a lot of burns, which the medi-gel can repair in a relatively short time. You've cracked ribs, and a dislocated shoulder. I've got to at least fix that if you're going to running off to get killed."

"I'm not waiting long." He said.

Tali chuckled.

"No one expected you to, you stupid turian bosh-tet. Now if you will just lie back for a while, we'll get planning. The longer you fuss down here, the longer we have to wait to go get her."

A sigh went out of Garrus. This, at least, was the truth. He turned his attention to that little slice of his mind that Ezmay seemed to live in nowadays. She wasn't dead, and she wasn't terrified or in pain, so he could at least lean on that.

"Fine." Garrus let the combined hands of the medical team press him back on the cot. "If we're not out of here in an hour, though, I'm going. Even if I have to take the damned IV pole with me."

"There's a big surprise." Tali again laughed that soft, half-amused laugh of hers.

She'd fought hard, at least she had that. Not that it did much good when one was outnumbered. The Shadow Broker's mercenaries had come on sleek little ships through the Omega-4 Relay, which had distracted them from the appearance of an honest-to-God dreadnought when it had jumped through. And now here she was.

"Well, fuck me." Ezmay laughed inwardly. It was all she could do at the moment. She was starting to look like a real damsel in distress. Only problem was that her Prince Charming couldn't exactly storm the castle gates and rescue her this time. She curled her hands up into balled fists and tested her restraints once again. The jolt of electricity hit her. She breathed in a hiss of air in response.

So, they were serious about this whole prisoner thing. She woken up in shackles made of energy that had a delayed electrical shock. When she'd opened her eyes, her initial reaction had been to bolt up, to struggle. The blank room she was in had only the gurney she was on and a full wall mirror on the other side. The lights were harshly bright, and the walls and floor were stainless steel. Interrogation room. She'd never been in one, but then again, this didn't require a huge leap of logic. Ezmay was willing to bet the delay on the electric shocks meant there was a computer jockey on the other side of the mirror watching her and happily zapping her whenever she got too energetic with her restraints.

The way she saw it, if someone wanted to sign their own death warrant, then that was up to them. She'd always vowed to her captors that they'd die screaming when she got loose. There was no escaping from this room. Either she'd die here, or they'd move her to a cell. All she needed was a chance.

So she'd behaved. Slumped back on the gurney, which was attached to some sort of pedestal on the floor and was tilted up so that she was half-way standing on a little platform. She put on her best "I'm so defeated and broken" face. Now all she had to do was wait.

At least the reassuring hum of an engine told her she was on a ship. Though….it didn't sound quite right. Probably broken. EDI had fired some good shots into one of the dreadnought's flanks and brought down the ship's shielding. There had been a direct hit. If only she could get loose before they fixed the engines. Now how to play this…

She was deep in thought when there was a hiss of metal on metal from behind her. In the mirror, she caught sight of a trio of men entering her interrogation room. Her head lifted slightly, towards the sound. She heaved a deep breath, and watched them through hooded eyes. It wasn't hard to feign; one of her eyes was already swollen shut. Thank God this wasn't a repeat of Zael's interrogation; she didn't really want to spend six more months with a damned cane.

No one spoke. One of them was obviously in command judging by the way two of the three fell back behind him. They circled her, one of them tapping furiously on a datapad. The leader broke away from the two, and stood before her. He surveyed her. His eyes were grey. His hair, if he'd chosen to grow it out was black; as it was, it was close cropped. It was a non-descript face; He could have been anyone. The better to blend in with the crowds. Her gut clenched. This had to be Lightener.

She let the silence stretch out. If he wanted any information, he was going to have to work for it, dammit.

One of the other men was the first to break the silence, handing the datapad to Lightener.

"Genetic data was confirmed. If we had any doubts before, this is her."

Lightener's eyes went over the scrolling letters. He seemed to skim the information, and then handed the pad back.

"Ezmay Gabrielle Shepard Vakarian."

Ezmay looked at him blankly. Come on, you bastard. You can open this interrogation better than that.

"You have something that belongs to me." His voice was as bland as his face.

Again, she said nothing.

Lightener made some impossibly small movement, perhaps the flick of a finger as he crossed his arms over his chest. The electricity jolted through her stronger this time. She jumped in her restraints, her body arching painfully. When it ceased, she sagged for real. Air couldn't get into her lungs quick enough. She gasped. In the back of her mind, there was a bloom of anger. Part of it was hers, part of it the phantom emotions that came fleeting through when Garrus was feeling something.

"Don't have anything of yours." She bit out, licking her lips. "Even if I did, you're not exactly asking nicely."

"That time is past." Again, Lightener's finger went up. Ezmay was prepared for the shock this time, but it didn't make it any easier to deal with. Her muscles clenched up and her back spasmed once more. The shock was longer, and when it was over, she was grateful that the gurney was inclined. At least she didn't have to support herself.

"I can have them turn the setting up, if you like. All you have to do is tell me where the data is, and this ends."

"I don't have your data. It's been destroyed." She said.

"For your sake, I hope you're lying." This time, Lightener turned his head towards the mirror.

It wasn't electricity that went through her; instead it was just raw pain. It overloaded her nerve endings and sent her head reeling. Vertigo came and went. Ezmay's shriek echoed off of the steel walls of the room. When the pain ceased, tears came streaming down her face from the blessed relief.

"I can't give you what I don't have!" She doubled over. For a moment, she thought she was going to be sick. Please, God, don't let me puke in front of these assholes. What she was saying was technically true; the data was stored safely away in her quarters on the Normandy. It was wedged in between the lacy underthings that Garrus liked to strip off of her at night.

Lightener's eyes narrowed on her. He stepped closer, slid fingers through the hair hanging in her eyes. Funny. She half-expected him to smell like gun oil and cigars. Most of the mercenaries she had encountered had smelled like a mix of the two. Instead, he smelled like cedar. He balled up his fist, yanking her head up by her hair.

"Maybe you're telling me the truth. Maybe you're not. I have other ways to make you talk."

Ezmay snorted, smiled at him.

"You sound like a bad movie."

"Do I? What if I told you that one of my team blew a hole clean through your turian husband's heart? Should I have him fetch XO Vakarian's head in here for you to look at?"

For a moment…for a sheer moment, her heart lurched. She'd already been through that once today. She didn't want to hear it again. But she knew better. She knew. But he didn't.

It wasn't hard to cry. She let the tears well up and spill over, the combined stress of thinking the Normandy was lost again, thinking Garrus was lost forever, and worrying about the Reapers killing every damn thing in the galaxy. Ezmay let the tears fall and did her best to look at Lightener as if he'd broken her world.

"He's not…"

"He very well is. It was a blood bath. Him and your drell. At the end of the day, we couldn't tell where the drell ended and your turian began." When Lightener let go of her, she let her head drop.

The anger….it was all she could do to hold it back. The thuds of footfalls told her that Lightener was moving away, that his toadies were following.

That's it. She thought. You're going to die screaming.