Hello dear readers, welcome to the new year! Let's see how our story continues.

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Garrus fell down on his couch. He had the feeling that something significant had happened but he hadn't been told what. He sat in a daze, his thoughts twisting around itself. His family, Shepard, the flower, that moment where they had hummed their love. After brooding for what seemed like hours, he flipped his omni-tool on and sent Shepard a message.

'Where are you? Why didn't you say goodbye? -Garrus.'

A second later he received an automated reply.

'Participant has temporarily been removed from the message system. Addressee did not receive this message.'

Garrus snarled in frustration.

He got startled by his omni-tool chiming, announcing an incoming call. He acknowledged and the semi-translucent display opened to Nihlus's face, looking at him angrily.

"You pyjack-eating-fucking-crestless-boshtet-bareface!" Nihlus cursed loudly at him as soon as the connection was established. "What by the damned Spirits have you done?"

Garrus just knew that Nihlus was talking about Shepard and he sighed. "Nihlus, please tell me because I swear by all ancestors, I don't know."

"You little pyjack... I just saw Shepard as she arrived for her transport and ancestors damn you if she didn't look like her Spirit had been killed. All she told me was that you said it was just a fling, not serious and I can't believe I even encouraged..."

"Spirits, no! This is all wrong!" Garrus finally understood what had scared her away and his insides clenched at the realization. He was losing her because of some stupid misunderstanding. "Nihlus, I told my father that I knew that that was what he wanted to hear, but that I could never say it because it's not true."

Nihlus spat out another impressive array of curses from all species and from the tilting and shaking picture it was clear that he had begun to run. The camera turned itself off after a few seconds but the audio connection stayed on. Garrus heard Nihlus muttering to himself and at people he passed while running.

He was slightly out of breath but kept talking to Garrus. "So, I bet your father was really happy about that, huh?" Nihlus asked.

Garrus sighed, "He made it his decretum that I never see her again."

He heard Nihlus breathing, his feet stomping on metal ground. "And what did you say?"

"I denied."

"Spirits."

Garrus felt the revelation sink in as he said it. He groaned, "Wouldn't it be just the greatest irony of my Spirits-forsaken life if I not only lost my family today, but Shepard as well."

Nihlus was talking to a human who apparently didn't want to let him through. "I am Spectre Nihlus Kryik. I have information for Lieutenant Shepard that she needs to see immediately."

"I'm sorry Sir, but Lieutenant Shepard is already under communications ban. You can queue up the message for her, and she will receive it when the ban is lifted after the N7 exam."

Nihlus was growling with authority but the human was unimpressed. Garrus could see in his mind's eye how he raised himself up to tower over the human. But the human didn't budge. "Sir, I can not let you through, no one is allowed to contact the examinees." This human sure had a quad to stand up to an enraged turian like that.

"Lieutenant... Martens, you are interfering in an ongoing ANIS-Spectre investigation and I will hold you personally responsible for any unpleasant outcome of that. You are endangering innocents by withholding this from her! It is vital for this investigation that I get this to her."

Lieutenant Martens was impressively calm and fearless and didn't move from his stand. Nihlus growled with barely contained rage but a hint of respect. There was surely something about human stubbornness that a turian could respect. Nihlus changed his tone, humming friendly, almost seductively. "Lieutenant Martens, could you just give a note to Lieutenant Shepard? Please, this is really important."

The Lieutenant finally seemed to waver as he mumbled something quietly to himself. Then he seemed to have come to a decision because Garrus heard him sigh and then speak to Nihlus in a confidential whisper. "Okay, Spectre Kryik -" Nihlus interrupted with a low purr, "Call me Nihlus."

Garrus heard the Lieutenant gasp for a breath. His voice was a bit hoarse when he continued to speak. "Alright, Nihlus, put the information on this pad here and I will make sure that Lieutenant Shepard will get it."

Nihlus purred in a low register in a way that made Garrus's gizzard vibrate. He couldn't hear what Nihlus was doing but he assumed that had written something on a pad and handed it back to Lieutenant Martens. Nihlus's voice was humming low, "Please make sure that only Lieutenant Shepard receives this pad and that she reads it right away. If she has a message in return please send it to me, here is my contact." His growl turned downright sexual. "Thank you so much, Lieutenant Martens." The human answered with a whisper, "Please, call me Leo." Nihlus answered in an equal whisper, probably with his head right next to the human's ear, "Alright, Leo, thank you for your help. I owe you a drink, call me when you have delivered the message, alright?" Leo's answer was just a hitched breath.

Garrus was very impressed, Nihlus clearly was irresistible for everybody. He heard Nihlus walk and the camera turned back on as Nihlus as spoke to him again. "You had better be worth it, wet painted youngling," he growled, "Stay where you are, I'm coming over."

Nihlus arrived at Garrus's apartment together with Frank Johnson; they had brought beer, whiskey, and turian brandy. They stayed on Garrus's couch, listening to his story. Garrus was pacing, unable to sit still. Talking about it made him finally realize that he had broken with his family. He might not have talked to his family every day, but he spoke to either his mother or his sister at least every ten or twelve days. Now, none of that would happen again.

Frank rolled his eyes and shouted "Stop!" at him. "Garrus, seriously, you have to sit your ass down. You're driving me crazy." Garrus fell down on his armchair and keened quietly. Frank looked from him to Nihlus and back. "Guys, you need to explain this to me."

Nihlus looked at Garrus with pity and then turned to Frank. "Turians are not meant to be alone. We need a clan, we are conditioned to always be surrounded by friends or family. There is a reason why turians tend to join groups, such as the military, C-Sec, or if social standing doesn't permit that, mercenary groups are also an option. It is not healthy for us to be alone." He handed a new bottle of beer to Garrus. "Turians can get quite desperate without friends, and alone they will develop problems."

Frank took another sip and looked on in worry at Garrus. "What kind of problems?"

"Paranoia, insomnia, depression, self-hatred. Every psychological stercus that can make a turian lose his or her mind." Nihlus looked over to Garrus. "And our friend is also in love. That's an emotion turians don't really deal with all that well. Didn't your father tell you that nothing is more pathetic than a turian in love?"

Garrus nodded at that. "He called it "stupid asari love". Good turians don't love, they develop affectus after they have entered the praecipit collocatiothat their clans have agreed upon." Another desperate keen that he couldn't stop left his throat. "I may have lost everything today. I'm such an idiot."

Frank put a hand on Garrus's knee. "Hey, birdy, I saw you two and I'm sure she is just as crazy about you as you are about her."

"But humans are different." Garrus sighed. "She might change her mind, this could all be too much for her. She already heard the hatred from my father and now with what I said... Even if she gets the message, she has enough time to think about it and decide that this is all not worth the emotional stress, and I can't join her team and..."

"Good god, Garrus, stop before I punch you in the face!" Johnson yelled at him. He was about to yell some more but was interrupted by a chime from Nihlus omni-tool. They all stared at him as he opened the interface. Nihlus quickly read the message and a trill of relief left him. He had obviously been more worried than he had let on. "Leo relayed a message from Shepard. It says: Sorry for not saying goodbye, misunderstanding. I'm coming back to you, I promise."

Garrus trilled loudly, allowing himself to hope again. Nihlus was typing on his omni-tool, his mandibles spread in a smile. When he shut down the interface he noticed that the other two were staring at him. He grinned, "I sent a message to Leo, thanking him for his effort and asking him to meet me at Chora's Den tonight." He trilled excitedly. It was very clear what Nihlus had planned for that date.

Frank stared at him. "So you're planning on seducing the poor guy?"

"You have to try everything at least once, I always say." Nihlus purred, scooting closer to Frank, "You could have been my first human male, pretty little monkey-man, but you refused me... such a shame..." He was breathing down the side of Frank's neck and Frank's face turned deep red.

Frank was wincing. "If he's your first you might want to look up on lube and preparation, and that's all I'm ever going to say about this. Can we focus on Garrus here? Are you okay now, birdy?"

Garrus nodded, the relief enclosing him like a warm blanket. "I'm better now. Thanks for being here." He settled the underside of his fringe against the roll on top of the backrest, consciously relaxing his shoulders. The beer and two glasses of turian brandy he had had also helped to finally get him to lose some of the tension in his body.

Nihlus poured another brandy for him and Garrus, while Frank poured himself another whiskey. He sighed, "I'm going to be so drunk when I get back to Sarah tonight, I hope she won't kick me out."

Nihlus laid his head back in the same manner as Garrus did, smiling. "If she accepts you as a drunken fool, you have found yourself a woman to treasure. You better hold on to her." Frank nodded at that, breathing in the aroma of the whiskey.

Garrus felt utterly exhausted. He closed his eyes, trying to call up the memory of Shepard in his arms, lying on top of him. Her smile, her hum. That reminded him of the red flower and he opened his eyes to look for it. He couldn't remember what he had done with it after picking it up from the floor. He found it on the drawer chest on the wall and he got up to get it. As he held it between his fingers, the soft scent yet again came back to him and he breathed it in deeply.

Frank looked up and pointed to the flower. "Where did you get that flower from?" Nihlus looked up with interest and sniffed the air. "It smells nice."

Garrus nodded, "Yes it does, and it has thorns. It's like a combination of beauty and prickliness. Shepard gave it to me, she had it tied to a scope she gave to me as a present."

Frank looked seriously at him. "Shepard gave it to you?" Garrus nodded. "Huh." Garrus felt that he could have said a lot more, and he wanted to hear it. "How do you humans say? Spit? Spill? Whatever, you're thinking of something, tell me, what is it?"

His friend let out a sigh and sat up. "Red is a significant color for humans, do you know why?" Both turians shrugged. Frank shook his head. "Imagine the flower would be blue, what color would you associate with that?" Garrus thought that was a stupid question, "It would be blood-blue of course... oh!" he realized with a start. Red was the color of human blood.

Frank grinned. "Now you got it. Red is the color of blood. It is also the color of danger and warning, but more importantly, it is the color of love!"

Nihlus snickered at that. "Now that is a weird combination: danger, warning and love, all for the same color."

Frank snorted at that. "Honestly, looking at our friend here earlier, the combination doesn't appear all that far fetched." Nihlus's eyes met Garrus's in a startled realization that they had to agree to that.

Frank kept on talking, "In human stories and mythology, love is the strongest emotion one can possibly have, so strong that it can destroy you but it's also stronger than hate and other stuff. There are millions of stories about love overcoming all obstacles or about love leading to devastation. It's true that love can also die or get forgotten but if it stays strong, nothing will keep the lovers apart. So the stories say. Strongest emotion and all that also means that people sometimes go batshit crazy about it, I'm sure turians can relate to that. Anyway, red is the color of love, usually used with a heart as a symbol of love. But the rose is the flower of love." He leaned forward and took the flower from Garrus's hand. "This, my friend, is a red rose. This is theflower of love, it doesn't get more symbolic for love than this. I don't know how romantic Shepard is but I'm sure the significance of this is not by chance."

Garrus was stunned. He hadn't even realized that the flower had meant something. The moment where they had hummed together over that flower now became so immensely symbolic in his mind that it hurt to think about it.

He wondered how many signs they missed from each other, like her not knowing what that hum meant and him not knowing what that flower meant. How many other things did they not realize because of cultural differences? Doubt was creeping up inside of him, could this even work? They were from different species, they had completely different cultural backgrounds, they couldn't talk to each other without translators.

Garrus let out an embarrassingly shrill keen, panicking. "Spirits, what am I doing? I didn't even know what that means. What else have I missed? This can never work, we are so different..."

Frank couldn't help but laugh. "Geez, Garrus, do turians self implode when they fall in love? It's a wonder you guys even managed to procreate." He clinked his glass against Nihlus's, "You weren't kidding when you said that turians don't deal with love well. We should put this guy into a coma for the next three weeks. Here, have another of that vile smelling stuff you guys drink." He poured a glass of turian brandy and handed it to Garrus. "Sit down and try to relax, birdy."

Garrus let himself fall down in his chair. The brandy burned it's way down his throat, spreading a welcome warmth in his gizzard. He was feeling sufficiently drunk now to finally relax. So many pictures and words in his head swirling in the drunken sea of his mind. "I need to learn more about humans, I want to understand her. I will buy her roses, lots and lots of red roses, I bet that will make her smile. I love her smile so much. She shows her teeth, and there are these lines on her cheeks like she spreads her mandibles and her eyes shine like the sun..."

Frank whined, "Good god, somebody shoot me. I don't think I can deal with romantic turians. Fucking hell, it's always the tough guys who are the biggest saps. All hard and armored on the outside, but on the inside..."

"That's what she has said too, how turians appear so hard with our armor but in truth we are sensa... sensitive all over..." Garrus felt that he had a stupid smile on his face that just wouldn't go away.

"Nngahh!" Frank covered his ears, "I don't want to hear that, spare me your sex stories." He pointed at Nihlus. "Coma, I'm telling you, either him or me." Nihlus was shaking with laughter.

Garrus felt that he could say something to that but his mouth was not cooperating with his mind. The words were swimming, swirling, and they came out in a skipping song. Frank stared at him and then threw up his hands. "I'm out. My translator is not even trying to make sense of that. Come on birdy, let's get you to bed." Nihlus and Frank appeared on his sides and pulled him upwards. He wanted to tell them that this was really not necessary, he was fine, he could use another drink though...

The room was tilting awkwardly and then went dark.

He woke up to a pounding headache and his mouth tasting of something rotten.

"I have to stop waking up like that." He mumbled to himself, carefully bringing his head into a position above the rest of his body. Untangling from the sheets he swung his legs out of the bed. His left foot bumped against a bucket and he vaguely remembered hearing Nihlus and Frank talking while they put him on his bed.

"Do turians vomit?" "Vomit if we drink too much? Yes, we do." "We should put a bucket next to him." "Good idea." "Geez, he's heavy..." "Fragile little human..." "Shut up, lizard."

Garrus began shaking his head but stopped when it almost made him turn to the bucket for it's intended purpose. He looked around and gratefully took the glass of water on his bedside table and drained it in one go. He slowly laid back against the headboard, putting his feet back up. Closing his eyes he let the happy memory of the last time he sat like that with Shepard warm himself.

Spirits, I could use some sex right now.

His omni-tool pinged quietly, announcing a call. He opened the interface to Frank's face, who looked about as hungover as he himself felt. Frank's voice was hoarse, "Hey, you're up early, birdy."

"How do you...?"

"I had your omni-tool ping mine when your vitals would change significantly. Don't worry, the ping's deactivated now, just wanted to make sure that you're okay." Frank yawned and drank some water. "I put a glass of water and some pills on the table for you to help against the worst shit from all the brandy you drank. There's also a bottle on the floor with more water, next to the bucket. Did you have to use the bucket?"

Garrus flinched at the thought, "No, thank the Spirits, I hate having to vomit. Thanks for taking care of me."

Frank smiled at him through the screen. "Hey, it's okay, that's what friends are for man. And it wasn't just me, Nihlus helped too. He stayed with you a bit longer until he had to leave for his rendezvous... man, I hope he didn't traumatize the poor guy."

Garrus wondered about that rendezvous too, just out of curiosity. Personally he had never gotten far with a human male.

Frank had emptied his glass of water, it looked like alcohol was just as dehydrating for humans as it was for turians. He looked back at Garrus, "So, are you okay now? We can't keep you drunk forever and you still have work to do, you know."

"Yeah, I think I'm okay for now." Garrus stretched and took the pills from the table, swallowing them with some water from the bottle.

"Okay, I'll see you later then at C-Sec." Frank suddenly looked thoughtful and then stared at him seriously. "Listen, something else. I'm no expert but from what I read you turians get all horny under pressure and have sex all the time for stress-relief." He raised his hands. "I'm not judging, just saying. Here's the thing though, if you're serious about that human girlfriend of yours you shouldn't have sex with another... person."

Garrus sighed, "You know, I've heard almost the same thing about humans, sex-crazy all the time, unsatisfiable..."

His friend laughed, "Yeah, not surprising, I guess there are sex stories about all species going around. So it isn't true? The thing with sex for stress-relief?"

"No, well, I guess it is true in a way. But it's not like we lose our mind if we don't nail someone against the wall after a stressful day." Garrus said. "So you're saying that humans don't have casual sex?"

"Oh hell no, of course we have casual sex!" Frank laughed out loud. "If the relationship is casual, everybody can have sex with everybody, happens all the time. But if the relationship is serious, well... then humans believe in monogamy. If you are serious about your woman, and after last night I'm sure you are, then you better not fuck around."

"Spirits, thanks for warning me." Garrus had a short burst of panic. He had just thought about sex, and he might have fucked it all up for some asari fringe in his face. "I guess I have to use the workout room a lot during the next days."

"If it helps." Frank yawned again. "Other than that, we have enough work to do to bury ourselves under it. This case with the turian liver and all the other organs is giving me the creeps. You have to find out something about that, I'm heading to my next cleaning shift at Everest Artifics, maybe I can find out something too."

Garrus nodded, "Alright, I'll see you later then." He closed the interface and laid back with a sigh. Now that the headache had mostly disappeared, he just wanted to fall asleep again.

His thoughts went back to Shepard and it amazed him again how the mere thought of her made him light up in desire. Just thinking about her smile and her soft skin made his erection poke out between his plates. He touched himself, imagining her fingers stroking him, gripping him, pumping. Her breath on his neck, her tongue on his mandibles, just the memory was enough for him to moan. He worked his hand up and down his erection, thrusting into his hand as if she was on him again, molding against him, taking him in. It took very little time for him to arch his back and come all over his hand.

His seed dripping from his hand, he keened quietly. He missed her. After this short time he really shouldn't, but he did.

The next few weeks were going to be hard.

Garrus stretched in his office chair and contemplated once again if he could take another sick day. He knew full well that he had done that too much lately and it wouldn't help with his immediate problem anyway. Frank had been right, the case with the transplants was creepy.

Garrus was checking the DNA profiles of the other samples he had the doctor make. Instead of embarrassing himself once again by asking the family about someone who should be dead but wasn't, he checked the background first. Tax notifications, work permits, anything he could look into without getting a warrant first. A very simple pattern became obvious. Every single one of the organ donors was still alive. Every one of them worked at Everest Artifics.

A chill crept up his spine. He sent a quick message to Frank, he had been right, Sarah shouldn't work there anymore. Neither should Frank.

Despite the fact that organs donors normally did not continue to live, it also couldn't be a coincidence that they had all the same employer. This should warrant a closer investigation, it should even convince Pallin. He got up and gathered his findings on a datapad to talk to his boss.

Garrus made his way over to Executor Pallin's office, nodding at people he came across along the way. A few turian colleagues asked him about Frank, showing more interest towards his human friend than ever before. He wondered what Frank had done after Batius's accident to get on everybody's good side for a change. He made a mental note about that, his friend must have neglected to tell him a few things.

Having arrived at Pallin's door, he rapped his knuckles along the frame of the already open door. One of the very few nice qualities of Pallin was that he truly had an open door policy, his door was never closed. He said he liked hearing his people work, but Garrus suspected that he just wanted to stay on top of the gossip.

"Executor? Do you have a minute?"

"Vakarian, yes, come in."

Garrus stepped in front of the desk, facing the dark turian with the white markings. "Sir, Johnson and I have further investigated the findings from the warehouse. As you have seen in our report..." Garrus was pretty sure that Pallin never read that report but he couldn't let that assumption show, "...we found organs for transplant in cold storage, complete with life support systems. I have reviewed the donors and found some disturbing things."

Pallin trilled in surprise. "You found something that is disturbing you? You have me intrigued, Vakarian."

Garrus laid out the facts, getting the expected disbelief from his boss at first, but he couldn't deny that this needed some further investigation. Pallin read through the report from Dr. Kaltkan and the report of the questioning he did of Titus Kerdotus with Peters and Lerv.

Pallin looked up to him. "These two new recruits, Peters and Lerv, what do you think of them?"

"They are good officers. Peters reacted much better than me in this weird situation with the undead donor. I saw them again later, when Shepard and I had busted the salarian slaver down in the ward. As far as I know they did good work there too."

Pallin hummed angrily. "About that, how did you end up with this human Lieutenant in an ANIS investigation? I like to be informed if one of my officers runs around with another agency."

Garrus stretched his throat, what exactly could he tell Pallin? His sexual escapades were hardly a reason he wanted to tell Pallin, and somehow his mind was completely blank about anything else when it came to Shepard. "I... I met her through Spectre Nihlus Kryik. They had worked together before." Pallin trilled annoyance at that, it was well known that he disliked Spectres.

"Me meeting her later was... just a coincidence..." Garrus held tight control of his subharmonics to not release more information about that meeting than he wanted. He had to stomp down on those memories with force. "Lieutenant Shepard had received information about the slaves from a krogan battlemaster who worked as a mercenary for the salarian. We had very little time to react. I didn't even have armor, we had to borrow that from a weapons dealer." A startled trill left him, he still needed to return that armor along with his endorsement.

"A krogan mercenary gave Lieutenant Shepard this information? What did he want in return?"

Garrus avoided an annoyed trill, Pallin really didn't read any reports. "Nothing. Apparently he wanted to save the children. He is a friend of Shepard's."

Pallin trilled in astonishment. "She is friends with a krogan battlemaster? And he just wanted to save the children? This story is almost stranger than the one you have told me before, Vakarian." Pallin shook his head and then pinned Garrus with his eyes. "Your stint with ANIS had annoyed me a lot, you know?"

Garrus trilled an apology but Pallin stopped him with a reassuring trill. "It's alright now. I had an interesting conversation with the head of the first interspecies ANIS group, a turian named Jentarius Keggs. Seems to be a very capable man and I find it much easier to agree with ANIS than with the Spectres."

Now that - Garrus had not expected. Pallin was always so sure that he was the only one who knew the rights and wrongs around the Citadel. Hearing him talk about someone else as capable, Garrus never would have thought it possible. Especially not involving a human organization. But if they had appointed a turian to lead the first ANIS group, the organization clearly wasn't that human centric.

Pallin kept on talking. "Agent Keggs has asked me about you Vakarian, and about your connection to Lieutenant Shepard. I couldn't say anything about that, care to enlighten me, Officer?" Garrus couldn't help himself, he stretched his throat in embarrassment. Now was certainly not the time to make whatever kind of relationship he had with Shepard public.

He made his subvocals sound secure when he answered. "We are friends, Sir. As I said before, I met Lieutenant Shepard through Spectre Nihlus, who I am friends with. I had gotten to know Spectre Nihlus when I applied for the Spectres." No need to clarify that he hadn't really been friends with Nihlus before Frank and him had met him on the Presidium three days ago.

Three days? When has my life started to get so futuo eventful?

"Vakarian, you don't exactly play by the rules all the time, don't think I don't notice that. But you are a good investigator and C-Sec is your home. Think about that if you get another offer." Pallin's tone was unusually friendly.

Garrus hummed, confused. "Sir? I don't know what you are talking about."

Pallin snorted, "Don't play dumb with me, Vakarian. If the top agent of ANIS is asking me if he can get you and Frank Johnson for a new ANIS group, then I'm sure you know something about that."

"Sir, I swear, I had no idea. Shepard talked about recruiting for a team at some point in the future but as far as I know that was all just speculation." His thoughts were reeling, it was actually happening, Shepard had already put things in motion. He would be on a team with Shepard. Galaxy-wide investigations, making a real difference. It was like a dream come true.

Garrus straightened his back. "Sir, I will think about any offer seriously. I know that C-Sec has a lot to offer but ANIS sounds very interesting."

Pallin leaned back and studied Garrus for a few seconds. When he spoke again, his voice was still friendly. "When you came here, your father had asked me to take care of you, did you know that?"

Garrus growled quietly. "No, I didn't, but it sounds like something that my father would do." He looked straight into Pallin's face. "The situation has changed, Sir, you have no more obligation to my father now."

Pallin trilled a question but Garrus decided to ignore it. "Sir, I'd like to go now and continue with my investigation. If you could sign the necessary documents..."

His boss looked like he wanted to say more but only nodded and typed something on his terminal. Garrus's omni-tool pinged with the receipt of data from Pallin. He turned around and left the office. It would have been more polite to wait for Pallin to dismiss him but he didn't really care about politeness.

Back in his office he decided to type a message to Shepard. He knew that she wouldn't receive the message until she came back but he felt that he needed to communicate with her, even if it was delayed.

'Hey Shepard. My boss just asked me why ANIS wants to recruit me. You don't waste any time, do you? Now this sounds more annoyed than I meant, I'm very excited about it and I'm looking forward to working with you.' He hesitated, so far this letter didn't really tell anything about his emotions. Just thinking about her made his gizzard clench in longing. 'I'm not very good with this but I want to tell you that I really miss you. I hope you are well.' He groaned and closed the message, queuing it up. A poet he was not.

Garrus waited in his office for Titus Kerdotus. He had sent Lerv and Peters to pick him up after his shift at Everest Artifics. He needed to know more about this company and maybe someone from the inside could actually tell him something. He looked over the file on his omni-tool again; Titus Kerdotus was a normal citizen, without any criminal record. He was only on file at C-Sec because he had made a statement as a witness once.

The door opened and Kerdotus stepped inside, accompanied by Berdin Lerv. The young salarian freed two chairs from some datapads and sat next to Garrus and set up his omni-tool to record. Garrus stated their names and the date for the record. Titus Kerdotus looked very confused and trilled in panic. "Am I arrested? What for?"

Garrus hummed calmingly. "No, Mr. Kerdotus, you are not arrested. I just have a few questions concerning your employer, Everest Artifics. Please, sit down." Kerdotus sat down, wringing his hands. He looked pale, his plates were dull and cracked. His fringe looked soft and wrinkled, Garrus was sure that he had looked much better the last time they had seen him.

"Mr. Kerdotus, could you tell me what kind of work you do?" Garrus watched the other turian. He was very nervous and he wondered what he was hiding.

Titus Kerdotus suddenly coughed violently and then leaned forward. "Officer, I don't know what you have heard but this company produces skin grafts, artificial skin to replace injured skin. I work in a research laboratory under Dr. Saleon. We try to find new ways to preserve skin and other organs. I..." He coughed again into a piece of cloth. Garrus noticed some faint blue specks appearing on the white cloth. "I always thought we did good work there, we are helping injured people. But lately..."

He stood up and began pacing back and forth in Garrus's small office. His posture was hunched over as if he was in pain. He kept on talking, his voice rough. "Lately strange things have been happening. I don't know what made you think about questioning me but I do have something to tell. Many of my colleagues had accidents, and would spend some time in Dr. Saleon's care. That happened to me too. I fainted at work and Dr. Saleon said he had to clean some poison from my system. I don't know what he did, I was sedated. I woke up, felt fine and the doctor told me that I could get back to work. All I noticed was a little cut on my abdomen. Something like this happened to many of my colleagues. But now I'm getting sick again and I have seen that happen to others too. Dr. Saleon takes them and..." Another violent cough was shaking him, "...they don't come back. Nobody knows what happens to them."

Kerdotus fell back on his chair as Garrus was checking the database for notices of missing persons. "Nobody has filed any missing persons reports, why not?"

The sickly turian was coughing again. "I don't know. They say that they have been sent on a business trip but why would anybody do that with normal lab workers?"

Kerdotus was coughing again, spitting big blots of blue blood. He tumbled over and fell to the floor, convulsing in pain. Garrus stumbled down to him, trying to lift him up. Lerv ran out, yelling for a medic. Kerdotus's eyes locked on Garrus's and he keened in pain. "Tell my mate... she will forever be my sun." He convulsed in pain again, blood appearing all over his clothes from the inside. With a scream he spasmed once, his talons slashing the air. He was breathing in, once, twice, fluid gurgling in his throat, and then he stopped.

Garrus stared in disbelief at the limp body in his arms. Blood was seeping out of him everywhere, forming a big pool of blue around him. Garrus messaged Dr. Kaltkan to come up to his office, he needed to know what had happened to the man.

A few minutes later Dr. Kaltkan pushed through the crowd in front of Garrus's door and knelt down beside him. He put on fresh gloves and carefully cut open Kerdotus's tunic. Garrus felt nausea creeping up in him, the whole body was covered with incisions. Dr. Kaltkan shook his head and motioned for his assistant to transport the body. They carefully took the body out of his arms and placed it in a bag.

Soon after that Garrus was left alone, sitting dazed in a pool of turian blood. He barely felt that Berdin Lerv was helping him up, cleaning some of the blood away as best as he could. Another guy, a turian, was helping him down to the changing rooms, taking off the bloody armor. Someone was shoving him under the shower and the water pattering down on him finally woke him from his daze.

He ran out of the shower, grabbing a towel and opening his omni-tool at the same time. He was about to open a call to Frank when his omni-tool announced a call from him. He opened the call as he grabbed a spare armor-set.

"Frank, get Sarah out of the lab. Something is seriously wrong there, my informant just died on me, bleeding all over."

Frank's face stared back at him, horror etched in his features. "Garrus, Sarah isn't in the lab anymore. They tell me that something happened and she fainted. The doctor took her."

Garrus didn't suppress the loud keen of panic from his subvocals. "Frank, you have to find her, get her away from this doctor, hurry! I'm coming to help you. Find Sarah!" Frank just nodded and ended the call.

Garrus latched on the last pieces of armor, jumped into a pair boots, and grabbed a rifle and a pistol. He turned on his omni-tool, ordering a full team to Everest Artifics.

And then he just ran as fast as he could.

()()()

I know, a bit of a filler but sometimes you just have to go from point A to point B to get to C eventually.

Big thanks to everybody who has been reviewing this story, reviews make me so happy. Also thanks to everyone who put this story on alert, sorry that you all had to wait so long for an update.

Credete has once again almost killed himself editing this, thank you.

Next chapter will be out in a few days. See you all then!

Translations for the latin words (does not contain real latin):

stercus = shit, bullshit

consilium = purpose

affectus = love, passion but more formal

decretum = ruling, decision

futuo = fuck