"What were those things?" Kaidan asked, frowning.

I crouched, reaching out and touching one. "Rachni."

"They're extinct."

"So was my aunt." I countered, shrugging.

"Shepard, there's coordinates to another facility over here." Garrus called out.

"Send them my way." I murmured, before slipping into a vision.

My heart stopped. Kahoku, trapped behind a similar barrier to the one here.

"We need to hurry." I bolted from the room, both of them rushing to catch up.

...

I saw red.

Kahoku was lying, unmoving, in the middle of a group of Thorian creepers.

"Hi ahraan dii fahdon! Bolog pah hi laan zu'u fen bolaav hi nid aaz! Zu'u fen al hi yol!" I shouted, the facility beginning to shake. Calling forth protection. "Spaan mu." Returning my focus to the commandos and creepers. "Toor! Strun!"

Wind whipped around the room, flames dancing. Igniting everything in the space, except us. the screams died out quickly as the heat turned up, reaching its zenith, melting everything it touched.

After several minutes, it died down.

I ran toward Kahoku, who'd been counted among us for protection. "Zu'u los het. Zu'u loost hi. Arkay, ofan dovah mulaag."

Stealthily as I could, given my blind panic, I pulled the necklace with the crystal from under my suit, ripping the chain from my neck and placing the crystal over his chest.

"Kos pruzah, dii fahdon."

The seconds ticked by, the crystal being absorbed into him right after my prayer. Slowly, his chest started rising. A few more minutes, and he opened his eyes.

"Shepard?"

"We made it in time." I wove the story together for him. "You were unconscious, but alive. Though just barely. We pumped a lot of medigel into you." A pause. "I'm glad you're alive."

The guys helped him to his feet and half-carried him between them to the mako. Then, to the med bay.

Loud raps sounded on my door a few minutes later, and I called out for them to enter. I'd been expecting them. The door hadn't fully closed yet, when Kaidan started.

"What happened back there? What language was that? Was that magic? Wasn't he dead?"

"Slow down." I motioned for him to calm. "Thu'um. It translates to Dragon Shout. No, it wasn't magic. Just the power of my voice. I was gifted the power of Thu'um, along with my dragon blood, from Akatosh. The same as my mother." I sat on the floor, digging under the desk for my other crystal. Affixed it to a new chain and clasped it around my neck.

"Shepard."

I looked up at him.

"Wasn't he dead?"

I swallowed hard. "You haven't unlocked that dialogue option?"

His expression told me he was far from amused.

Garrus moved one of the chairs closer to me, sitting. "Viridian." My eyes widened. "We just want to understand what happened."

Him playing good cop was certainly interesting, and not something I thought I'd see.

I let out a noisy gust of air. "Okay. This is-"

Another knock on the door.

"For the love of Meridia!" I shouted. "Come in!"

Liara cautiously stepped into the room. "Am I... Is this a bad time?"

"No. No, I was just. You're right." To the guys. "I brought Kahoku back from the dead. With the aid of Arkay. The god of the Cycle of Life and Death." I held my breath, unsure if they'd noticed the necklace's role.

"You... brought someone back from the dead?" She looked like she was about to faint dead away.

"Sit down, before you hurt yourself." I frowned, concerned.

"Will he be okay?" Kaidan asked.

"Yeah, he'll be fine. No long term effects or anything like that."

"What did you say?" The turian's head was tilted, curious.

I let my head fall back against the bed, so I was staring up at the ceiling. "'You hurt my friend. Beg all you want, I will grant you no mercy. I will destroy you with fire.' And then, I shielded us and summoned a firestorm. When I reached Kahoku, I said, 'Be well, my friend. Arkay, give me strength.' And that's when I revived him." My cheeks pinked. "It's rare, but sometimes, I'm so overcome with emotion, that I just slip into it."

I distracted myself, and them hopefully, by rattling off the things Liara hadn't known yet, that I'd filled the guys in on earlier.

It worked. Neither one mentioned the crystal, if they'd even seen it at all.

"You look exhausted." The asari approached, laying a hand on my forehead. "You're a little warm. Perhaps you should sleep. It has been a long day, for you."

I waved her off. "This is nothing. I've gone through far worse."

"You brought a man back from the dead, Shepard." Kaidan was joining in on it, now. "You should probably get some rest."

"There's too much to do."

"Like what?"

"For one, one of my contacts let me know there's a patrol from the Alliance saying they found some strange activity out in the Hydra system. Another one let me know of a probe housing a nuke in it that's been discovered in the Amazon system. Alliance. They're supposed to send someone out, but haven't had the time yet, I guess. Also, there's that thing I found on Feros. ExoGeni gave Cerberus some samples from the Thorian. Should probably check that out. Probably just be us clearing out husks, but all the more reason. And, on top of all of that, Hackett wants to talk to me about doing something on behalf of the Alliance. I suppose I have the time now." I mused, shooting him a quick reply.

"You're always keeping yourself busy." Liara shook her head. "I worry about you."

I could feel my frustration rising. I- I needed air.

"I'm a little tired." I acquiesced, more to get her, them, to leave. "I'll take a nap or something. A walk, maybe."

She and Kaidan left without much trouble, both of them voting in favor of sleep. Not that they had a say.

I looked at the turian, who hadn't budged. "Dollar for your thoughts?"

"Isn't it 'a penny for your thoughts'?"

"They're worth so much more, after you're a goner." Nothing. "It's a song, sorry. Anyway, what's on your mind?"

"When I was in C-Sec, I investigated a salarian geneticist. The case was a bit... disturbing. I was tasked with tracking black market trade on the Citadel. Most of it was harmless. Nothing I needed to purse. But during the course of my investigation, I noticed an increase in the trade of body parts. Organs, mostly. We usually get a few of those, but not the numbers I was seeing. We weren't sure if there was a new black market lab or if some freak was harvesting organs from citizens."

"What did you do?" I asked when he paused.

"Well, first, we got a hold of a sample and ran DNA tests. The weird thing was, the match led us to a turian who was still alive and was very convinced he'd never lost a liver. A bit of digging, and I discovered this turian worked briefly for Dr. Saleon, the geneticist." He paused, mandibles moving slowly. "Do you know him?"

"I- No. But I've come across that name before. Sorry. Go on, go on." I wondered where, while he talked.

"So I went to his lab, hoping to find evidence of cloned organ development. But there was nothing. No salarian hears, no turian liver, not even a krogan testicle. I then brought in some of his employees for interrogation. To see if I could get them to talk. While I was interviewing one of them, I came across something suspicious. One of the detainees started bleeding profusely during the interview. We offered to patch him up, and he got frantic. Freaked out. I ordered a full exam, to find out what was going on. Our medics found incisions all over his body. Some of them fresh. That was our big break. These people weren't just Dr. Saleon's employees. They were test tubes. Walking, living test tubes." A pause. "Shepard?"

"Sorry. I just remembered where I'd heard about him. A close contact of mind, her son worked for him. He eventually died from all of the experiments. Her grief was so strong, she killed herself."

"I'm sorry for your loss."

I gave myself a shake. "Sorry, sorry. Anyway, continue."

"All that's left to say is that we never caught him." My eyes tightened, and I started sending out messages. "He ran. Blew his lab, grabbed some of his employees, and headed for the nearest space dock. By the time I found out, his ship was already leaving. He threatened to kill his hostages if we tried to stop him. I ordered Citadel defense to shoot him down, but C-Sec headquarters countermanded my order. They were worried about the hostages. Worried about civilian casualties if the ship was destroyed so close to the Citadel. I told them those hostages were dead anyway. He'd just use them to make more organs. But they wouldn't listen. They sent the military after him, but he got away just the same." A shake of his head. "I went to Pallin and told him what I thought of him and his policies. He said if I didn't like it, I could quit. I almost did. All they had to do was disable that ship. Stop him from running. Maybe the hostages die, maybe they don't. but at least we stop the bastard responsible for it all." He growled out, taking a moment to compose himself. "I sent out feelers from time to time, hoping to find something. I thought I'd found him a while back. He-"

The mass cacophony of pings from messages pouring into my omni-tool gave us both a start. My eyes scanned them all, searching for what I needed.

There.

"Dr. Heart."

"Yeah, that's his alias." He leaned forward, gaze intense.

"Last seen in the Herschel system of the Kepler Verge. On the MSV Fedele." I raised my eyes to his. "Yesterday."

"Shepard-"

"I know. We'll head there right now." I pressed a button on my omni-tool, having linked it to the map days ago. "Joker has the coordinates, so all we can do now is wait."

"Thank you."

I cracked my knuckles. "He's had this coming for a while." I raised an eyebrow. "What got you thinking about this?"

"You mentioning selling your blood on the black market, when you told us earlier, reminded me."

"Oh. I'm sorry. At least with me, you know it's victimless."

"You help people, without hurting anyone. That's enough for me."

He still made no move to leave, seemingly hesitating over something.

"Garrus?"

"Ah. Sorry. I was just. You're really not what I expected."

I raised an eyebrow. "So, you'd heard of me before?" Not surprising, considering he was C-Sec, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious about what he'd heard.

Wait. He had commented how I'm the human always hanging around Nihlus when we first met. I was dumb.

"Are you kidding? Everyone in C-Sec has heard of you. The human that runs with a Spectre? Everyone talks about it. And about the unclassified missions you two go on." He paused, letting out a thoughtful hum. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure. Go for it." I wondered if it followed the same vein of conversation or if it was a different topic.

"Well, it's more of an observation. I've noticed you're... more lenient- I think that's the right word- when it comes to a lot of things that not many people would let slide. You also always somehow find a way when there is none. In C-Sec, we all thought you were the cold one, not Nihlus. So, I wasn't expecting you to, well, be the exact opposite."

I tilted my head, mulling that over. "Makes sense. People want their heroes to be good. To be role models worthy of looking up to. To model their lives after."

"So, what is he like? When you two were working together."

"At first, he was ruthless. Thought I was too soft. Eventually, he realized that there were other ways of doing things and, more importantly, that it didn't make you weak to show mercy." I explained. "He used to just kill everyone, without listening to their story or digging deeper into things. I was always the good cop, between us. Now, that's not to say that there aren't times where being ruthless isn't necessary, of course."

"Like with those ExoGeni scientists." Another observation.

"They weren't genuine in their apology. You get to recognize their type, the more you come across them. I'm sure you get it. Besides, they offered money as a get out of jail free card. And it's rare that I'll do that."

"Were you ever conflicted by his decisions? Like, if he went against your morals. How did you handle it?"

"Well, I'm a very tolerant person, being my mother's daughter. So, it wasn't really a big deal, for most situations. There were a few instances where we got into it because of a decision he made." I laid my head back against the bed again. "There was one time he opted to blow up a facility, with so many innocents in it, instead of infiltrating it. I didn't speak to him for a week. I only did, because he assured me he'd never do it again. That was after we'd gotten to really know each other and had worked with each other for two years? I think? Anyway, from the first time he made a ruthless call, I told him there was always another option. If you are faced with two choices, there's always at least one more, a third you haven't considered yet. He realized he'd only been seeing black and white for years. He'd always dismissed other ways of doing things, without even trying. After he started trusting me more, he started letting me do more. He said it really opened his eyes, to see what I preach in practice. As for how I felt... Well, I already said I went a week without talking to him. I also had stints where I refused to even work with him. Not as punishment, but because I didn't think I could be around him without screaming or going dark, myself, and I work very hard to stay in the light. There's a lot of things he's done that have left a stain and, while I have some of my own, I didn't want to take on his, as well." I blinked, lifting my head slightly to give him an apologetic smile. "Sorry. That became a long-winded thing. I don't even know if it makes sense."

"No, no. It did."

"Was there anything else?" I asked when he fell silent.

"Shepard, we're getting close." Joker's voice called over comms.

"Ah. Duty calls." I stood, stretching to shake off the exhaustion. "I assume you want to be there, so c'mon."