Thank you for reading!
To no surprise of Shepard's, the trip to turian space was nowhere near as simple as get in, grab the Primarch, and get out. To be fair, the turians were in the midst of the same chaos and nightmare she had left Earth in—the difference being that the turians with their more powerful military and more militaristic culture had been able to mobilize faster. They, at least, had a set-up on one of their moons and were fighting back. She hoped Anderson had been able to create something similar on Earth, some kind of resistance that would hold until she could bring back the galactic fleets to help. She continued to believe that the Collectors' obsession with her, the fact that they had been creating a Reaper out of humans, meant that the Reapers would focus their energy on humanity, which should give the galaxy an edge if they could come together rapidly enough.
To her great relief, her guide to find the new Primarch in the midst of the chaos of battle was none other than Garrus. Looking at the mess that was Palaven, Shepard had been certain her old friend must be dead, and to find him here in one piece, acting as the turians' Reaper advisor, was the first piece of really good news this war had brought her yet.
As they jogged across Menae, Garrus kept up a rapid fire of questions, most of which she couldn't answer. She didn't know where Tali was, or Grunt, or Kasumi, or … anyone, really.
"But you've seen Thane?"
"Yes. He's … well, he's still Thane, but he's fading."
"I'm sorry, Shepard. That has to be hard."
"I knew it was coming."
Garrus squeezed her shoulder. "Doesn't make it easier."
"No. And Kaidan—he's in the hospital on the Citadel."
"He went head to head with Cerberus's robot," Vega put in.
"Robot?"
Shepard shrugged. "Never a dull moment."
"I guess not. Kaidan going to be all right?" Garrus asked.
"The docs think so, but they're not sure. I want to get back to the Citadel as soon as I can to check on him." She stopped, looking up at her old friend. "You'll come with me, right? I'm going to need people I can rely on if I have to fly all over the galaxy talking people into not being idiots."
"Of course. Nothing I like better than watching you try not to hit someone who's standing in your way."
Shepard rolled her eyes, and Garrus laughed.
They finally found the Primarch and got him to agree to come on board the Normandy and chair the summit—but only if they got the krogans to come fight on the side of the turians. Since the turians had been behind the genophage, there was really no race in the galaxy the krogans were less likely to want to help, so Shepard was going to have her work cut out for her.
"You know," Garrus told her as they climbed onto the shuttle, "if I hadn't already agreed to come with you, this would be enough—I can't wait to watch you try to convince Wrex to come save our turian asses."
Shepard grinned at him. "I thought I'd let you do that."
"Great. Maybe I should have stayed after all."