The turian officers, knowing how the krogan felt about them, normally wouldn't care but this krogan was different. Wrex was a krogan battlemaster … not only strong but extremely lethal and biotic. He had more kills under his belt then the whole of the current C-Sec. So they gladly stood back as they let their human colleague talk to him, "intimidate him". That last part was a joke that was on the human ... No turian would try and intimidate Wrex but a human ... the turians knew this might be interesting to watch.

"Witnesses saw you making threats in Fist's bar," Officer Lee stated, adding, "Stay away from him!"

Wrex looked at the soft human and moved closer, "I don't take orders from you."

The officer could feel sweat rolling down his back but with the two turians watching he pressed on, "This is your only warning, Wrex!"

"You should warn Fist," Wrex said, knowing that he could handle the entire room if needed. "I will kill him."

The officer felt his balls roll up into his stomach as Wrex moved even closer, but if he moved away he could lose his job, "You want me to arrest you?"

Wrex laughed, "I want you to try."

As Wrex contemplated crushing the man's skull he turned and saw the human from the bar approaching. He forgot the officer and even ignored him yelling, "Go on, get out of here!" as he met her halfway.

As they stood facing each other, Wrex looked at her closely, "Do I know you, human?"

Shepard looked back at the krogan and remembered the long deep scars on the right side. How many krogans could look like him? She wondered to herself. This had to be Beast, but since she wasn't a 100% sure she simply introduced herself, "My name's Shepard. I'm going after Fist … thought you might like to come along."

Wrex looked at the female. He had read about her on Elysium and had noted from that same article that she had come from Mindoir, the planet that his warrior pup had been on. Looking at her now he saw the same dark hair, same colored eyes, but that was a pup and this was an adult. Are you that warrior pup? He privately thought to himself … He wasn't sure, so he simply responded. "Aaaaah, Shepard. Commander Shepard. I've heard a lot about you. We're both warriors, Shepard. Out of respect, I'll give you fair warning … I'm going to kill Fist."

Garrus wasn't sure this was a good idea anymore as he saw that the krogan might be trouble, "Fist knows you're coming. We'll have a better chance if we all work together."

Wrex ignored the turian and said to Shepard, "My people have a saying, seek the enemy of your enemy and you will find a friend."

Shepard extended her hand as she smiled, "I like that … I think we're gonna get along just fine, Wrex."

Wrex knew that he could crush her hand if he wasn't careful so he put his hand out, letting her hold his in the shake. "Let's go … I hate to keep Fist waiting."

The turian, Antanius, had awakened bound to a chair, blood all down the front of him. As his eyes began to clear he realized that he was in a kitchen and as he looked around he saw that an asari was leaning against the counter. He groaned, causing her to look up at him and call out, "He has awakened."

I'm alive? He thought. But why? Antanius was confused. There had been four of them in the alley waiting for the signal to be given by their leader, Cronus, who had went to the entrance of Chora's Den with another member. The plan was to attack the Commander and her two Alliance soldiers from both directions. It was a good plan … Except that they had not planned on the two asari commando shadowing the human. Just as the voice of Cronus was heard coming over the comm. He felt extreme pain and then nothing until now. As three asari appeared from the other room he looked at the wound in his right side and wondered again why they had left him alive.

As he shifted in the seat, about to ask where he was he saw movement to the left and as he turned she came out of the shadows. In that moment, he knew that his life was about to end. He quickly turned away from her and said to the asari directly in front of him "I don't know anything!", hoping that if he didn't seem to recognize the asari Councilor he might be spared.

The Councilor looked at the dying turian … Tevos hated to get information this way but sacrifices must be made. She didn't regret this because of the turian but because it required one of her own to meld with him. "Psyria," Tevos turned to her executive assistant, "Please forgive me for requesting this of you."

Psyria looked at the Councilor and bowed her head, "No, Councilor … it is an honor."

Antanius looked around for tools, weapons, anything but all he saw was the asari coming towards him as the others moved away. Had he known what was about to happen to him ... he might have realized that those things would be easier than what the asari was about to do to him.

Psyria was already feeling his mind, as if peeking into a window of a home. But this part was easy … peeking. What she was about to do was break down the door, go through every article, every piece of furniture, every drawer, every corner of the house as she blew out the windows, the roof, stripped off the wallpaper, ripped up the floor … this would be a search and destroy melding. When she was done all the asari would need to do is wait until his dying body matched his empty mind.

This was a necessary evil as the Councilor needed to know who had sent these assassins to kill the Commander. If it was Saren then she would need to get a private word to Valern. While Sparatus was not corrupt, as Psyria's meldings had confirmed, he had shown instability to the Council by his previous actions. Allowing Saren to see the files of Nihlus and the call to the Executor Pallin made his judgment questionable. Yes, she knew about the call … the asari had spies and monitoring devices everywhere. But having this network of information was a burden as the Councilor also knew that there was a spy for the Shadow Broker in her own staff. Instead of bringing this to the light, she gave just the right amount of "information" to the individual. Better to know the snake in your garden then not.

The turian began to scream as Psyria invaded his mind and Tevos thought of her talk with Tatiaria earlier. She knew that her ex-lover was hiding something and that it had to do with the Matriarch but at the time she had pushed it to the side … Now that she was not looking into the eyes of her beloved it mattered. The request to get the Matriarch's daughter to safety told her that whatever it was could have far reaching consequences. Tevos began to smell a foul odor and realized that the turian had released his body fluids as Psyria continued to pull away the layers. Urine was running down his legs and onto the floor while she knew that he had also defecated based off the odor. Tevos sighed as she prayed to the Goddess that this sweep of the turian's mind was worth it.

It had felt wrong from the moment they approached her and as the turian asked if she had brought the data, she cursed herself. How could she be so stupid? She looked around to see if there was anyone else arriving and then asked, "Where's the Shadow Broker? Where's Fist?"

"They'll be here," he had answered her as he put his hand on her, "Where's the evidence?

"No, wait," she stopped him as she slapped his hand away from her, "the deals off!"

She felt the turian start to pull at her and as she began to run she tossed a tech mine more for distraction than damage. Tears were threatening to fall and this would not do … if she could not see then she was dead. That's when she heard the first shot. She jumped behind a crate, pulling out her knife that had been strapped on her boot when she felt someone push her farther down from behind. She quickly turned to stab the person when she saw a female human protecting her as she returned fire on the turian.

Shepard and Alenko upon hearing the blast had run ahead of the team and when Shepard saw the quarian pinned behind a crate it angered her. She saw the turian, pistol drawn, approaching the defenseless thing and she knew that he would not leave this alley alive. Tali kept a hold on her knife but she crouched smaller behind the woman. It was then that she saw a turian, krogan and another human come down the alley and as they worked together to quickly put down the assassins she couldn't believe her eyes. She had never seen such a mix of races together.

As the dust settled, Wrex began to take what valuables he found on the bodies as Garrus pulled out his badge as he greeted the C-Sec officers who had just arrived en masse to the alley, guns drawn. "Detective Garrus Vakarian, C-Sec Presidium … It's okay … put your weapons down!"

"Are you okay?" Shepard asked, as she helped the quarian up. She had never seen one of them and she found the suit to feel sturdy like heavy tapestry. "You weren't shot were you?"

The quarian angry shouted, "Fist set me up! I knew I couldn't trust him!"

"Don't worry about Fist," Shepard said as she looked over at Wrex. "He got what was coming to him."

"Then I guess there are two things I need to thank you for," she said as the human put her firearm back into its holster. "Who are you?"

"My name's Shepard," she answered, hoping that this quarian could help her.

Wrex, done with collecting his spoils of war, looked over at Williams. After he had completed his contract and Fist lay dead in his office, she had pulled her rifle on him. Him! He still heard the words, "Drop the gun, krogan!" and it made him glad. This female had quads and as he saw her staying close to Shepard this was the way it should be. The warrior would need strong support and both humans had impressed him. The male human displayed amazing biotic abilities and control, hitting one of the assassins so hard that he had pushed a portion of its insides out through the mouth. Yes, they were a good choice for the warrior woman. He walked over to Shepard and asked if she needed him any further.

Shepard looked at the krogan, fighting from asking if he had ever let a kid crawl all over him, and shook her head, "We should be okay. I appreciate your help, Wrex."

"Good," he answered, wishing that she had said yes instead. "I'll be at a place called Flux if you need a real warrior … unlike this weak female." Wrex looked over at Williams who was gripping her rifle, ready if he made a move against Shepard.

Shepard looked back at Williams and then smiled at Wrex, "Flux, huh? Well, if I need someone taken down I'll give you a call … Just promise me that if you are approached to kill me that you won't take the contract."

Wrex laughed as he walked off causing the C-Sec Officers to jump. The quarian had jumped as well and looked at Shepard. She had never known that the krogan actually laughed and wondered who this woman really was. She had all these people following her, could make a krogan laugh and now standing relaxed she saw that the human was also beautiful. Shepard having watched Wrex until he was no longer in sight turned to the quarian who hidden behind her mask was looking at Shepard's lips, "May I be honest with you?"

"Sure," Tali could not imagine this person being dishonest. She knew that looks could be deceiving, knew that beauty was not a recipe for honesty but it was in Shepard's eyes. The way that they could smile made you trust them.

Shepard wished that she could look into the quarian's eyes, be able to connect visually, but instead she saw her own reflection, "I'm looking for evidence to prove that a SpecTRe named Saren Arterius is a traitor."

"Then I have a chance to repay you for saving my life," the quarian loved that she could repay this human and after being on the run for so long, she would have kissed the human if she could. But then as she relaxed under Shepard's smiling eyes she thought of the bullet in her pocket and said, "But not here … we need to go somewhere safe."

Shepard looked around at the area crawling with C-Sec Officers and before she could comment Alenko suggested, "The Ambassador's office. It's safe there … He'll wanna see this anyway."

Garrus hearing that they were about to leave said that he would stay behind to file the necessary reports, "But I'll meet you later?" He did not want to miss out on seeing Saren exposed.

Shepard nodded, "If we see the Council again, the Lieutenant here will send you a message."

"Promise?" Garrus looked at Alenko.

"You have my word," Alenko promised.

The human ambassador's office had been fielding calls shortly after Shepard had entered the med center in the upper ward. Udina's executive assistant, Antun Obradovićo, had even joked with the senior secretary that they could just track the Commander's path by bodies. Sparatus had called Udina and demanded that the Commander be returned to the Normandy.

Udina had informed both the turian Councilor and the C-Sec Executor that the Commander would continue her investigation and if they tried to stop her there would be repercussions. He had put his neck out and hoped that she turned something … hell, anything up. It had taken two diazepam followed by bourbon to calm his nerves and when the Commander finally showed up, he snapped, "You're not making my life easy, Shepard. Firefights in the Wards, an all out assault on Chora's Den … do you know how many …" and then he saw her. "Who's this? A quarian? What are you up to, Shepard?"

Shepard could see the stress on Udina's face and smiled, "Making your day, Ambassador. She has information linking Saren to the Geth."

Udina looked at the quarian and back at the Commander, "I apologize Commander … this whole thing with Saren has me a bit on edge. Maybe you should start at the beginning, Miss …?"

The quarian moved forward, "My name is Tali. Tali'Zorah nar Rayya."

Udina was partial to the quarian race as he felt that they were like his own people throughout history. Misunderstood and ostracized. He put out his arm for Tali to take it and then he escorted her to the sitting area. As he passed his assistant he instructed for him to bring a tray with tea and a tube of Vergil, a slightly sweet and light alcohol from Palaven. Had Tali's face been visible he would have seen her grin as Vergil was her favorite. Anderson rushed in after hearing that Shepard was back and arrived just in time to hear Udina ask, "We don't see many quarians here, why did you leave the flotilla?"

Tali found Udina to be nice, a lot nicer than the turian clerk, and as they sat down she began to explain how she was on her pilgrimage to him and Anderson. Shepard heard Williams' stomach growl for the umpteenth time and realized that she was famished herself now. "Dinner once we get out of here," she whispered to Alenko and Williams.

Shepard then moved closer to where the others were sitting and heard Tali saying, "During my travels I began hearing reports of geth … since they drove my people into exile the geth have never ventured beyond the veil. I was curious. I tracked a patrol of geth to an uncharted world. I waited for one to become separated from its unit. Then I disabled it and removed its memory core."

Anderson found that hard to believe and said, "I thought the geth fried their memory cores when they died … Some kind of defense mechanism."

Shepard saw the quarian start to wring her hands and thought of her childhood friend, Ewald. He had done the same thing when he got nervous and it touched her heart. She moved closer to the quarian, sitting next to her, "How did you manage to preserve the memory core?"

Tali turned to Shepard on the couch and continued, "My people created the geth … if you're quick, careful and lucky small caches of data can sometimes be saved. Most of the core was wiped clean but I salvaged something from its audio banks."

The quarian began fiddling with her omni-tool until the voice of Saren was heard … "Eden Prime was a major victory. The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the conduit."

"That's Saren's voice!" Anderson yelled out, causing Tali to stop the recording. This is what he had been dreaming of for years, to defeat Saren. To see Saren brought down as he had been … "This proves he was involved in the attack."

"He said that Eden Prime brought him one step closer to finding the conduit," Shepard looked at Tali, "Any idea what that means?"

Anderson, so excited about this moment of victory answered, "The conduit must have something to do with the beacon. Maybe it's some kind of prothean technology ... like a weapon!"

Tali could see that this human hated Saren, "Wait! There's more … Saren wasn't working alone."

She re-started the audio … "Eden Prime was a major victory. The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the conduit." Then a female voice followed, "And one step closer to the return of the reapers."

"I don't recognize that other voice," Udina said. "The one talking about reapers."

Reapers, Shepard heard in her head, "I feel like I've heard of them before."

"According to the memory core," Tali explained, "the reapers were a hyper advanced machine race that existed 50,000 years ago. The reapers hunted the protheans to total extinction and then they vanished! At least that's what the geth believed."

Udina furrowed his brow, "Sounds a little farfetched."

The vision, or snatches of it, ran in Shepard's mind. "The vision on Eden Prime," Shepard looked at Anderson, "I understand it now ... I mean, part of it … I think. I saw the protheans being wiped out by the reapers."

Williams and Alenko looked at each other worried as did Udina's staff. The looks were caught by the Ambassador and all he needed was for rumors about this information on the streets. So he got up and dismissed his staff as he poured himself bourbon. "Would anyone like anything to drink besides tea?"

As the room poured themselves drinks and Williams raided a candy dish, refusing to share with Alenko … Udina sent a request for another hearing with the Council.