Continuing from the last log entry…
Now, with Garrus, we asked Bailey about a criminal named "Fade", and he said that he could be found in a storeroom a couple of levels down. Once there, we were met by a volus and two heavily armored krogan bodyguards, and the volus asked which one of us wanted to disappear. Garrus asked if he'd make someone reappear, and of course, the volus said that wasn't a service they offered. And then Garrus drew a gun on him.
The volus shouted for his bodyguards to shoot us, but I drew my Carnifex on them, aimed it right at the head of one of the krogan. I glared at them and asked "Do you REALLY want to get killed by a Spectre today?" Now, due to their helmets, I couldn't see their faces, but their body language showed that they recognized me, and lowered their weapons. The volus then told them that they weren't getting paid before Garrus got in his face.
The volus started babbling out ways to save his ass; he admitted that he wasn't Fade, that he only worked for him. He did clue us in onto who and where Fade was: he was in a dock nearby, and he was surrounded by a small army of Blue Sun thugs, but who Fade was is what interested me; it was Harkin, that piece of trash ex-C-Sec agent who gave me a clue on where to find Garrus two years ago.
Now, as we took a car down to the dock, I thought about how glad I was that Garrus waited at the C-Sec station when I was helping Thane; that some of my actions would be hypocritical when compared to what I was going to have to do with Garrus. I mean, with Thane, I had to cut through red tape due to how time critical things were, but with Garrus, even though this was a quest for revenge, I had to make sure Garrus was doing the right thing for the right reason. He wasn't acting like the Garrus that I've come to care about, and I needed him to remember who he is.
Regardless, we set down where Harkin met all his clients, and he immediately recognized Garrus and me. So he ran, and we had to fight through his Blue Suns and mechs to get to him. And as we fought our way through, Garrus got more and more angry and frustrated; he wanted Sidonis, and he wanted him badly. And between skirmishes, I was thinking about what I needed to say to Garrus to remind him of who he is.
I finally got the chance when we entered a loading area; it had a room with a crane above us, and Garrus, Thane and I were forced to duck down and discuss the tactical situation. And while we did do just that, I took the moment to attempt to calm Garrus' anger, to remind him of who he truly is. And for his part, and while he admitted that yeah, this wasn't him, but he had to do it.
Anyway, we made our way through the loading dock, having to fight through the Blue Suns and mechs that were left, before being stopped by a couple YMIR mechs that were dropped right in front of us, a mere hundred meters away from Harkin's location. Garrus dropped the shields, and Thane and I dropped them with our sniper rifles, leaving only a few more mechs between us and Harkin, which were quickly dispatched.
Harkin, though, thought that he was one step ahead of me when Thane and I entered the door, but Garrus went in through the other door to prevent escape. Garrus smacked Harkin in the chin with the butt of his rifle, and immediately started beating Harkin up for information. I played good cop in that situation, half-heartedly appealing to Harkin's "better nature" and actually trying to cool Garrus off. We convinced Harkin that it was in his best interest to help us, and he called Sidonis to a meeting area. From there, Garrus shot Harkin in the knee to prevent him from running on our way out, and I called him out for it; I mean, yeah, Harkin deserved jail time, but damn, Garrus.
During the drive to the meeting point, I once again reminded Garrus that he wasn't acting like himself. He said something along the lines of "I know, but this has to be done, and you're not going to change my mind." That was the point when I realized that Garrus' drive to get revenge was both the fact that the betrayal got his men killed, but also, Sidonis' actions were a failure on Garrus' part. Turians don't put other turians into situations they can't handle, so Garrus' recruitment and trust in Sidonis is a failure on Garrus' part, according to his upbringing.
Anyway, Garrus showed me where he'd be, and said what needed to be done. And as I took the car down, I figured that the only way to prevent Garrus from committing murder would be forcing him to shoot through me. And I knew that he would NOT do that. Hell, he wouldn't risk shooting around me, due to him not wanting to chance killing me.
So that's why I did when I called Sidonis over; I stood right in Garrus' sights, not allowing him access to Sidonis as I acted as a relay between the two turians. Sidonis tried to run away, but I grabbed his arm to stop him, stating directly that I was the only thing between him and a hole in the head. Sidonis resigned himself, and I started the slow process of using Sidonis' own words to convince Garrus that what he was doing was wrong.
Sidonis had no excuse; he felt great guilt for selling out his team on Omega, but when the gangs caught him, he was afraid. Afraid for his life. And this illustrated once again that, before our genders, species, sexual preferences or cultural identities, we were people first. And this turian, raised in a military culture, taught to put his unit before himself, was as afraid for his life when he was helpless as any human, quarian, salarian or asari would be. But because he was turian, because of his cultural upbringing, he felt the weight of their deaths on his conscience. He couldn't sleep due to the nightmares of their accusing fingers, their eyes burning with rage over his betrayal. He was already dead inside; he knew it, I knew it, and Garrus knew it. Like I told Garrus, there was nothing left to kill. And to put a point on it, Sidonis didn't even try to justify his actions to Garrus when I stepped away, to let Garrus see the man that Sidonis was right now.
Garrus let him go. I smiled slightly before turning my attention back to Sidonis. I said, in no uncertain terms, that he was being given a chance, and to NOT waste it. Sidonis thanked Garrus, promising to make it up to him, to make it right, before thanking me for talking him down.
Addition by Liara T'Soni: I sent Sidonis a message later, informing him of the Reapers, and told him that, if he wanted to make things up to Garrus, he should prepare to fight them. And while he never saw Garrus again, he was one of the many mercs to flock to my banner when they invaded.
Garrus didn't want to talk about thing at first, but I said that what happened was for the best. He wasn't sure, and I knew that he needed me to be his conscience in this moment, to remind him of the man I helped him become. I said that the line between good and evil blurs when it's people we know, and Garrus admitted that yes, there was still good in Sidonis. He then asked if he did right by his men, even though they deserved justice for what happened. I said that he had to trust his instincts, and he curtly replied that his instincts got him into this mess. I put my hand on his shoulder and reminded him that his instincts got him out of this as well, that they got me involved and reminded him of what the right thing to do was.
We went back to the Normandy after that, and as I was heading up to my quarters to change, Kelly told me that both Mordin and Grunt wanted to talk to me. Both had a loyalty mission to do; Mordin's former apprentice had been captured by the Blood Pack and brought to Tuchanka, and Grunt was feeling off, and needed a krogan opinion on what was going on. And the only people who knew anything about a krogan his age would be on Tuchanka.
After I talked to Mordin but before I talked to Grunt, I went down to see Thane, and he opened up to me a bit about what happened between his wife, his son, and himself. He mentioned how Irikah, his wife, had awakened him from his battle sleep, helped him see the world for the first time, and eventually loved him. They eventually married and had a son, but since Thane had no other skills other than assassination, he had to freelance to make a living. Which, unfortunately, was the cause of his family's downfall.
My heart broke as Thane told me some batarian slavers paid off the Shadow Broker to find out who was stopping their operations, but didn't target him directly, instead, killing Irikah. When Thane found out what happened, he went on a years long rampage, killing the slavers and ringleaders slowly, making them suffer as Irikah and Kolyat had suffered. When he went home, Kolyat was older, and Thane knew he had failed as a father. And then he nonchalantly said that he hadn't spoken about Irikah in years, and I reminded him that he still had his son, and to focus on him.
As I left the room, I was hit with a great deal of indecision; I've connected with Thane like no one else. Both of us have dealt with such pain and tragedy, and both of us have taken solace in our faiths and families. But I can't build a life with him, due to his expected life span.
It was with this mindset that I spoke to Garrus. He was in a good mood, thanking me for my help with Sidonis, and started making jokes about the Collectors and the Reapers. He even remarked on how different it was to deal with a suicide mission on a human ship. I asked him to elaborate, and he told me how turians dealt with stress; PT, gambling and supervised fighting. He told me about another soldier, a female scout, that he had an issue with on a mission before, and how, after 9 rounds of fighting, they finally got rid of their stress back in Garrus quarters; he had reach, but she had flexibility, turn of phrase he had used earlier about their advantages in their fight. I half joked that he was carrying some tension, and I could help him relieve it. The look on his face was "Is she suggesting….no, she can't be." And he stammered out something about sparring. I said, in the most seductive voice I could muster up, said that I was, indeed, talking about sex. I used the same metaphor he had before; that we could test his reach, and my flexibility.
And God bless him, he actually stood there and considered it. He said, if we could make it work, then yeah. He said that he'd do some research, and that he'd figure out some way to make this work. And as I left to go speak to Grunt, I realized that, if we could get past the biological issues, we could have a life together. But those are thoughts for later.
Right now, we're prepping to help Mordin and Grunt. I think I'm going to bring a full squad of 5, both as a show of force to the krogan, and as a means to protect Mordin from any krogan who got dumb ideas. EDI says that the best place to send down the shuttle is in Urdnot territory. And that gives me hope that I'll get to see Wrex again.