"So, you were doing maintenance outside the Rayya? What the hell, Tali? You were what? Like 16? 17?"

The young quarian giggled at him. "Keelah, Shepard! It's not like that. We're very careful, and it was an emergency. If we let it go any longer, we could have suffered a hull breach; on a live ship, no less!"

John Shepard, first human Spectre (he still had trouble believing it sometimes), was strolling through the markets in the Zakara Ward with his brilliant young engineer Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. It wasn't so long ago that he'd managed a timely rescue, saving Tali's life and giving himself a chance to track down the rogue Spectre, Saren. She'd since joined his crew, and his whole life seemed to have changed.

She was smart, a little sassy, and nervous in a cute and endearing way that he found a joy to be around. On top of that, she listened to him. Not in the "she takes orders in the field properly" kind of way, either. Though she did that well, too.

He'd been having trouble sleeping recently, after the incident with Toombs and the biotics. It'd ended in disaster – the biotics were dead, but so was Toombs. The insomnia had set in almost immediately after, fueled by bitter guilt. Worse still, he'd taken it out on Tali because it was her voice that constantly assailed him in the dark corners of night.

Her gasp at his failure was the sound that forced his mind from rest. Wrapped up in that awful, dreaded sound was every failure he'd ever had, every mistake he'd ever made.

It was the sound of his guilt, and to him, the loss of innocence. He was aware that it was stupid, but emotions cared little for logic. And Tali had a way of piercing through his hardened veil of cold control.

So, she'd forced him to talk about it after she'd come to him, thinking that she'd done something to offend him. She'd pierced through the guise of the Commander, the Spectre. Instead, she'd forced him to see that he was just a man - flawed but inherently good. And then they'd talked until their duty shifts had begun. That night was the last night that he'd lost sleep.

That was three weeks ago.

"Right, I get that Tali. But come on. There weren't any other crewmembers to do the job? You were just a -"

She stopped him immediately. "Shepard, if you say 'kid' to me, I will hack your omnitool and go through all of your private files." She crossed her arms in front of her. "Then I might -"

He raised his hands in defeat (and mild panic if he was honest). "Okay, okay Tali. I get it. But seriously – you were outside?"

"Of course, Shepard. It's not like we never have to do external ship maintenance on the Fleet. Most systems won't let us dock, or they charge ridiculous fees just to do repairs. So mostly we have to do them in a fly-"

Shepard started laughing – but not in a demeaning way that she was used to from others. It was the laugh of a friend. Her friend, she reminded herself. "I think the phrase you're looking for is 'on the fly'."

Tali rolled her eyes. "Keelah, Shepard! You knew what I meant, you bosh'tet!"

She punched him lightly on the shoulder before growing more serious.

"Just because I'm an admiral's daughter doesn't mean I get to shirk responsibility. If anything, it -"

"Makes it worse, right?" His expression was one that she had learned was one of seriousness. The joking had ceased, at least for now.

She nodded, suddenly a little self-conscious. "Yes…" was all she could muster as a muted, somewhat defeated reply.

He offered her a reassuring smile. "Well, you're not royalty with me, and you're 'just' an engineer, a part of my crew, Tali. I expect you to do your duty, and nothing less." She blinked at him a few times, uncertain of what point her goofy human friend was trying to make. "But," he continued, "nothing more, either. You understand what I mean? You can just be yourself, okay? Just be 'Tali'. That's all you need to be, and I promise it's more than enough."

She swallowed hard. "I-I'll do that."

"Good. Now c'mon, we should be almost there."

He switched to a full smile now that he'd made his point. He wasn't expecting anything more from her than her best.

Tali's face flushed. There were so many times when she could scarcely believe her good fortune. How had she, the daughter of a quarian admiral but an absolute nobody now that she was away from the flotilla, get so lucky as to stumble into a life with this human who already seemed to care so much for her?

All he asked for in return was that she give him her best effort on this mission. It was something that she was more than willing to do for him.

It was a fair exchange.

The Citadel, for it being a technological marvel, was still subject to such archaic tropes as back alleys. Indeed, dark corners of the world existed here as well, and there were scant few outside of C-Sec or the likes of someone like Fist that were even aware of their existence. They were forgotten or overlooked by most of the oblivious people that strode their ways in nonchalance through their lives. How close the ignorant masses were to rubbing shoulders with thieves, murderers, and worse would have - had they known - undoubtedly upend the rosy view of the world.

It was in one of these dark alleys that was not too dissimilar to the one in which Shepard had rescued his engineer, that a man watched them from afar. Scoffing at the scene playing out, he continued to watch for a few seconds more.

"Yeah, that's her all right, and he's with her."

His hands – one gloved, the other gnarled and grimy – set the binoculars down, satisfied. He lit up an old cigarette from a brand that very few people would recognize. Certainly no one on the Citadel would recognize it.

Well, that wasn't entirely true.

On the Citadel, there was at least one man that would.

"Good, tell him he'll get his payment."

A drag on the cigarette, a long breath, a trail of smoke.

"Tell McKinnie that we're a go."

"…and then we'll stop at that asari-run restaurant after we get your omnitool. I checked the extranet and they have dextro stuff on the menu."

"They do? Is it…is it, you know, quarian-friendly?"

He stopped her with a hand on her shoulder – he thought he felt a slight shudder, but she didn't pull away – she looked up at him.

"Tali, I checked. Do you think I would have taken you to a place you couldn't even eat at? What kind of monster do you take me for?"

Her eyes widened – had she really offended her friend?

"Monster? Keelah, no! Shepard, you're great! I didn't mean -"

His smile returned.

"I wasn't serious about the 'monster' thing, Tali. It was a joke. I do that sometimes."

Tali shook her head, feeling like an idiot. "I'm still not used to your…way of talking, Shepard."

"Don't sweat it. We'll have plenty of time for you to figure me out."

The quarian simply looked at him blankly.

"Don't…sweat it?"

"Yeah, you know -"

A man from seemingly out of nowhere bumped into Shepard. Far from it being a simple "bump" that commonly occurred in the crowded thoroughfares of the Citadel, this felt intentional. He was clad in all black, and as soon as Shepard turned to look at him, the man began running through the crowd. Shoving people aside as he went, the man did his damnedest to get away from the Spectre. Shepard gave Tali a simple order as he tore off after the assailant.

"Tali, stay there!"

Shepard figured that it would be bad enough that he would be trying to slalom through the crowd himself, he didn't need Tali trying to motor through it, too. First, she would likely breeze past him at a canter, but it was also just as likely that some C-Sec asshole would see a quarian running through a crowd and immediately assume the worst. Then he'd try to arrest her. The Spectre would rather avoid that if he could.

Shepard began his pursuit.

Tali didn't know what she was supposed to do exactly. Shepard had told her to stay where she was, but she was worried, nervous, and uncertain in equal measure. Should she really stay here? She thought it would be more suspicious – a quarian just standing idly in a promenade on the Citadel? By herself? – to simply stand where she was. For a moment, she thought of heading into the nearest store – conveniently it was the tech store they'd been heading for – but thought better of it. That was a surefire way to get into trouble. All in all, she was left with no good options.

"Excuse me, could you help me?"

A little startled, Tali looked to her left, in the direction of the modulated voice that she would recognize coming from any of her people. As expected, it was a fellow quarian that had gotten her attention.

The quarian had a dark green realk which, based on the haphazard look of it, implied that she too was on her pilgrimage. She was tapping at her omnitool angrily, muttering the occasional bosh'tet. She was standing in an alley, a few feet from the main thoroughfare.

Tali took a few nervy glances around, looking for Shepard. She didn't see him, but she did see movement from the throng of people that could only be people turning their attention to see some kind of chaos. That chaos, she reasoned, was probably Shepard. She really should just go over to the railing on the other side of the promenade, admire the view and wait for –

"Yes, I have a few minutes." Tali found herself walking to the quarian despite herself.

"What's the problem with your omnitool?" The other quarian at first held it up to Tali for inspection, before the blasted thing just winked out of existence.

The other quarian lowered her arm and looked in Tali's eyes.

Tali's pulse raced and her breath caught in her throat. This was going to end badly.

"Keelah, I'm sorry about this. But I needed the credits."

"Wait. What -"

That's when she felt two strong hands grab her shoulders just as she saw her own omnitool's display spark, then wink out of existence. Those hands pressed painfully into her flesh and pulled her further into the darkness of the alley. Immediately, she used her powerful legs in an effort to break free, but as she reared up, she felt a hard pain in her abdomen, knocking the wind out of her. The only reason she hadn't simply crumpled to the floor was the other set of hands that now also restrained her.

She screamed out, but her voice only echoed around inside her helmet. Whatever had happened to her omnitool had also disabled her vocal emitters. She was as mute as if she had had no mouth, no vocal cords at all.

That's when Tali felt a pinch in her arm that she knew all too well to be an injection of some kind. Before succumbing to the darkness, the last thing she saw through the tears in her eyes was a human man giving what she assumed to be a credit chit to the other quarian, who immediately ran off. She did not look back.

"Clear the way! I'm a Spectre! Damn it, get out of the way!"

Shepard was trying to motor his way through the crowd. After that asshole bumped into him and took off running, he'd feared the worst. He wasn't sure what he'd taken – he hadn't bothered to check to see what was gone. The fact that this asshole was running from him was evidence enough.

He'd left Tali, but he was sure she was fine. She knew how to take care of herself – he was certain. He just hoped that she wasn't going to laugh at him too much for taking this long to come back to her.

The assailant looked back at him and…smirked.

"What the fuck…?"

The man in black slowed down and…stopped where he was.

Shepard flew into him with a lunging tackle. They tumbled to the ground, rolled over each other a couple of times and then came to a halt. When they did, Shepard was on top of the bastard. Unbelievably, he heard laughter.

Indeed, the red-headed man under him was laughing – at him.

"Heheheh. Hey, Shepard. Good tackle. Nice form."

The accent was American.

He wasn't sure if he heard him correctly.

"All right, fucker. Hand it over."

A disgusting grin drew across his pocked face. "Hand what over?"

He scowled at this asshole.

"Don't fuck with me! Whatever it is that you took!"

He gestured toward his chest. "Moi? What did I take of yours?"

Shepard's pulse was beating loudly in his ears. Something was amiss. He couldn't help but think that he was being played somehow.

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"I took nothing of yours." He paused long enough to crack a sinister smile. "Say, Johnny, where's your little friend?"

Panicking, the world stopped around him – realization rolling over him like icy water running down his back. The hairs on his neck stood on end. Shepard grimaced.

"What…what did you do?"

"Like I said: I didn't do anything. But the clock is ticking."

Shepard stood up over him, turning to leave. He had to hurry back to Tali. He had to motor back to her.

"She's waiting for you, Johnny. Tick tock tick tock tick -"

He couldn't stop himself, and one biotically charged punch later, the fucker became much quieter.

She wasn't there.

He stood where he had left her, hands on the side of his head and thumbs pressing into his temples.

"Fuck. Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck."

Her omnitool wasn't responding to his call requests, and her location beacon wasn't active. Then he had checked everywhere: near the railing overlooking the promenade, the nearby stores – including the tech store that they were ultimately heading to – everywhere. No one had seen a purple-clad quarian anywhere. He was about to contact C-Sec for a video trace when his omnitool pinged with an incoming call from a scrambled number.

"Damn it. Tali would have been able to run a trace…"

Angrily, he accepted the call.

"Well, well. Hello there, Johnny-boy. Long time no see."

The first thing Shepard noticed was the smoke and the sunglasses. Then he heard the name.

Johnny-boy.

It was a name he had not heard in a long time. Not long enough, it would seem.

"Speechless, eh? How unlike you."

Why now? After all these years?

"What do you want, Garland?"

The man chuckled "Straight to the point? I like it. It's smart. Coming from you, it's kinda refreshing. But me? What I want is quite simple."

Beads of sweat pooled on his forehead. Shepard glared at the image.

"Which is?"

"You. In exchange for your little girlfriend."

Shepard was seething – boiling – at the asshole, but he let the barb pass. A reaction was probably what he wanted from him in the first place.

"She is cute, by the way. Those hips, that ass. It's a shame she's quarian though, you know? They're so damn fragile."

Shepard couldn't help but think that he was dead wrong – Tali was one of the toughest people he'd ever met.

But the comment chilled him just the same.

The image panned to the right, and he saw the slumped form of said quarian – his best friend – lying crumpled on the dirty floor of wherever it was that she was being held. Tali was facing the camera, and he could see her shaking. He was sure it wasn't from the cold.

Shepard's teeth hurt; his jaw was clenched with monstrous rage. "Garland, what the fuck did you do?"

"Who, me? Nothing. Yet."

Shepard could only watch as this bastard stalked toward her. He bent down, running his hand along her side, down her ribcage. He reached behind her, and with a sick smile at the camera, groped her backside.

"Mmm. Johnny-boy, you sure know how to pick 'em. This…this is the best ass I've ever seen." He took another drag on the cigarette. "Now, I'd really like to see what's under the suit. But…I'll forego that – if you hurry. But you know," he pulled a knife from his holster, "I think you might need a little incentive."

He held the knife inches above her, lowering the blade, he slithered the dull side along her ribs. As he continued down, he gave the camera a disgusting smile. He slid the blade across Tali's belly before moving down to her groin. She instinctively tried to move away – to protect herself – but the bastard's hand held her in place. He tapped the side of the blade there a few times. Seeing the quarian twitch and shiver, he gave Shepard a little smirk.

"Hmm…I wonder…"

"Damn it, Garland, stop!"

He smirked at him again.

"Awww, no fun for me? Fine."

In a flash, the figure in the image took the blade and sliced at least a two-inch gash along Tali's thigh.

Crimson blood poured from the wound as she writhed on the ground in obvious pain. The light of her eyes was wider than Shepard had ever seen them.

Shepard grimaced in rage, in shame. How had he let himself get played like this? How had he allowed them to take her – hurt her – so easily?

He thought that he'd left that life behind, but it sure seemed like that sumbitch wasn't quite ready to leave him behind. And it was ready to extract an unforgivable price from him.

"Okay, Johnny-boy. Mmmm. That's gonna be one hell of a problem if there's an infection, I think. I mean, I'm no doctor, but I've known a few quarians in my time. And if you just expose them to a little dirt, some stray bacteria, well…you get the idea. And honestly, I can't quite remember where this blade has been – I mean it's certainly not sterile." The man known only as Garland stood up. "Now, you've got the location. Bring only yourself. If you don't, I'll know. And then I won't be so kind to your friend here." He stalked toward him, his grizzled face mere inches from the camera.

"Clock's ticking."