Hello, dear readers!

I'm trying to speed up the story a little but I'm also replaying Mass Effect 1 and holy hell is there a lot of stuff going on! I think I just have to skip a few things, it would turn into a terrible mess otherwise.

As she leaned against him on her omni-tool, he was engaged on his own terminal. As he looked through reports, he found that Berdin and Katrina had already thoroughly scanned through everything that looked like it could be in any way connected to someone who was on the run.

A message ping on his omni-tool interrupted their work. Garrus did not recognize the sender and was still confused after he had opened the message. Some doctor from a small clinic had contacted him about a quarian that she had treated. He showed the message to Shepard who jumped up and dragged him towards the wards as soon as she had looked at it.

As they approached the clinic, they could hear the voice of a man, clearly threatening a woman who cried in distress. He looked over to Shepard, who was already armed and completely focused on the situation. She made some sign with her hands that indicated that he was to take the left side and Shepard would go for the right.

With quick steps they entered, both aiming their weapons at a man who held a pistol to the head of a small human woman. She was crying and struggling to get away but she was not strong enough. Nothing happened for a few seconds and Garrus noticed that Shepard looked at him expectantly. He had no idea what she expected of him. Finally she stepped forward, her pistol loosely in her hand. "Who are you and what do you want from the doctor?" She asked, her voice firm.

"None of your business!" The man yelled out, partially hidden behind the hostage.

Shepard played with the pistol in her hand. "Well, I'm here and your head is still attached to your neck. That might change any second." Her pistol was still just loosely in her hand but somehow she looked even more threatening, relaxed like that. "How about you let her go and we talk a little?"

The man looked over to his two partners, who had taken cover behind a table and a storage box. He seemed insecure about his situation but felt in control with the hostage. Garrus had used his short distraction to take up a good position and took aim with his rifle. He could see the panic in the face of the man and how his finger twitched on the trigger. If he got any more nervous, he might even shoot the woman by accident.

Shepard called out to the man again to let the woman go but he pressed his gun even harder against her head. Garrus slowly drew in air, waiting for an opportunity to shoot the hostage-taker. He waited for that one moment where you had no choice but to pull the trigger to prevent worse. Shepard took a few steps toward the man hiding behind his human shield, drawing his gaze to her and Garrus took the shot.

The man's head exploded in a red mist, and at the same time Shepard dove into cover and took out one of the remaining two men with two shots. The last man was hiding behind a large container, shooting blindly in their direction. Shepard pointed towards the farside of the room, where a long counter stretched along the whole side of the room. She rolled over and scooted along the floor behind the low cover to get closer to the remaining thug while Garrus kept his attention by shooting at him.

The familiar rich bang of Shepard's pistol rang out and the last attacker stopped shooting. Shepard walked back to the human woman, asking her if she was well and helping her to sit down on a hospital bed. When the woman was taken care of, she turned sharply to Garrus and he suddenly knew that he was in trouble.

Shepard pulled him aside. "Damnit, Garrus, that was reckless! Reckless and dangerous!"

"I had a clear shot and his finger was twitching on the trigger." Garrus growled back defensively.

"You had a clear shot? Apart from the information one of them could have given us, you endangered the hostage." She stepped up closer and the coppery smell of human blood hit his nose. "And your partner in the field." Her eyes were hard as she stared at him. "This will not work, Garrus, if you act reckless like this. We don't risk lives like this."

How dare she? How could she criticise him like that? Shouldn't she be on his side? He was a cop, she was a soldier, of the two of them he should be the one to know how to handle a situation like this. He knew how a hostage situation was handled, he had been trained for that! He had been trained to... never risk the life of a hostage like that. He had been trained to negotiate, to diffuse a situation, to minimize the risk. How could he have forgotten all that?

He suddenly noticed a thin trail of blood that dripped from Shepard's shoulder. A shot must have scraped her and he realized that it very well could have been his own shot that had hurt her. He took a shaky breath. Outside of their personal relationship, he had to accept criticism from her to be able to learn and that turned out to be the hardest part for him to swallow.

"I'm sorry, Shepard, I think I misjudged the situation." He managed to say.

Her face turned softer and she let her hand rest on his for a second. "Maybe it was the right decision to take the shot but we have to communicate about that. Didn't you see my sign?"

"What sign?"

"I made the sign for you to talk to the hostage taker and that I would try to get behind them."

"That was all in your hand movement?" Garrus wondered.

Shepard looked genuinely confused for a second. "I guess that's one for the file, we have to get those down between us later on." She turned to the woman. "Are you alright?"

Garrus stepped up to her. "Are you hurt, doctor?"

She looked at him with a wide smile and said, "I'm fine, thank you Officer Vakarian, thank you very much. I'm also glad to see you well again." She took his hand and shook it. He finally recognized her as Dr. Michelle from the hospital, who had treated him and his colleagues after the explosion at the warehouse.

Shepard went over to the other dead bodies and searched them, he saw her look over and raise an eyebrow at him. He wasn't sure what she meant but she looked mildly amused so he felt safe for now.

"Dr. Michelle, what do you know about these men?" He asked the tiny woman, who looked shaken but seemed to calm down.

"They asked me about a quarian I had treated yesterday." The doctor answered, wringing her hands. "She had been injured and had an infection, and her suit needed to be repaired. I had to keep her in a sterile field for a day until she was well again. I urged her to go to Huerta Hospital, they have sterile rooms especially equipped for cases like that but she was very afraid."

"Why didn't you report her to C-Sec?" Garrus asked, he would have heard about the quarian a day earlier if she had.

The tiny woman raised herself to her full height. "That's not what I do here. People come here because they can't or don't want to go to one of the main hospitals. I don't report them unless I feel that someone's life is in danger. That is why I contacted you, Officer Vakarian, and then these men showed up..." She took his arm and leaned slightly against him, as if she needed his support to not fall down.

Garrus held her arm and helped her to one on the hospital beds to sit her down. She held onto his arm, even when she was already sitting. Garrus wondered what was wrong with her and Shepard's smirk told him that he was missing something. He turned back to the doctor, who looked at him with a smile on her face.

"She said that she had something," the doctor continued, "something that some people want, and she wanted to sell it to the Shadow Broker. She said that someone named Fist would get her in contact with him."

"Fist?" Garrus did a quick search on C-Sec files. "He is not listed as a Shadow Broker agent. It could still mean that he is one but I've met Fist, I think he's just a smaller light among the shady businessmen on the Citadel." He looked over the most recent entries. "He owns Chora's Den, that's probably where we're going to find him."

Shepard had come back to his side and asked Dr. Michelle, "These guys, did they say anything? Mention who they work for?"

Dr. Michelle thought for a little while. "They talked about 'the boss' and one of them said 'the turian'. But they never mentioned a name."

Shepard threw him a meaningful look before she asked the doctor, "How long ago did she leave to find Fist?"

"About three hours ago."

Shepard turned around with a short nod to the doctor and ran to the exit. Garrus ran behind her and heard her mumble to herself. "I think I owe Chakwas some flowers for forcing me to wear armor." She initiated a call on her omni-tool. "Kaidan? Meet me in the lower markets, armed and armored."

She ended the call and turned to Garrus. "You know, I was sceptical first but now I'm convinced. All geth are connected, right? If Saren works with geth, and Eden Prime certainly looked like it, then that geth could have known something. Whatever the quarian girl has downloaded from the geth memory core, it has something to do with Saren."

Garrus nodded. "We have to hurry. We have to get that file." He looked at her and noticed the trail of blood again. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine, it's just a scratch." Shepard smiled at him and he took her arm to stop her. He had to talk to her, just for a second.

"Shepard, I'm sorry." He knew that he should say more, that he would accept her criticism, that he would adapt to her way of doing things because it felt right. But Shepard stopped him with a finger to his lips.

"Shh. It's okay, we will work this out. We're good." She made a little kissing motion with her lips, a promise for a later time. They jogged over to the door that led to the market and towards the stairs to the lower markets. A reporter stopped her for a short conversation and a strange fan tried to approach her, calling her the hero of Eden Prime, but Shepard dismissed him with an embarrassed smile and ran even faster down the stairs.

"That reporter's name was Emily Wong, ever heard of her?" She asked him over her shoulder.

Garrus thought the name over. "I think Frank mentioned working for her."

"I normally don't trust reporters but she seemed like a good person." Shepard said. "She asked me to give her info on this Fist guy if I found anything. Looks like he is more interesting than we thought."

She looked at a map on her omni-tool, apparently waiting for a marker to appear that showed Lieutenant Alenko's arrival. She broke the silence with a smirk on her face. "So..." She spoke down towards her arm, "are we going to meet anymore of your girls?"

Garrus had turned to his own omni-tool, as it was his and everybody's habit as soon as free time presented itself. He froze in his movement, his hand hovering over his tool arm. "What?" His mandibles fell open. "What girls?"

Shepard looked up to him with a bright smile. "Oh, that doctor was completely smitten with you," she laughed out. "Did you not notice? How do you know her?"

"She treated us, me and my colleagues after that explosion in the warehouse caught us." He stretched his throat in embarrassment. "I spoke to her maybe twice? I'm not sure how..."

Shepard stepped closer to him and her hand brushed lightly over his mandible. "Well, you see," she whispered, "your sexiness is irresistible for women."

Garrus leaned into her touch and mumbled, "I take no responsibility for that, I'm just glad it worked on you."

Shepard bit her lip and whispered, "Oh boy, did it ever." She looked at him from under the hairs she had on her eyelids which made her look like a predator, ready to attack. He wanted to pull her closer to him, closer until not a single molecule of air would dare to stay between them.

Heavy footsteps approaching them let them step apart and Kaidan Alenko walked in front of Shepard with a salute, and a little smile playing on his lips. "Ma'am?" He said and held her gaze.

"Don't you 'Ma'am' me, Alenko," Shepard grunted at him, "you know how I hate that!"

"Yes, Commander." Alenko's face was blank.

"Really? You can't call me Shepard anymore?" She shook her head at him.

Lieutenant Alenko relaxed his shoulders and the little smile was back on his face. "No, I can't. We are Alliance, this is an Alliance investigation and you have a higher rank than me. On a mission, it would be inappropriate to call you by your name without your rank." Garrus did not miss the meaningful look that Kaidan gave him over that statement.

Shepard scratched the back of her neck. "Damn," she murmured, "I'm still not used to that." She straightened her back. "Fine, on a mission, it's Commander but outside of a mission I would prefer Shepard."

Alenko nodded and threw another look to Garrus. He flexed his mandibles back, he knew very well what Alenko talked about and it would not be a problem for him. He had worked with Shepard before and calling her Commander on a mission she commanded, was natural for him. He was a turian, after all.

They fell into a light jog towards the bar, while Shepard briefed Kaidan on who they were trying to find, and that the file the quarian had could be a link to Saren. On their way through the shady market, Shepard stopped so suddenly that Kaidan bumped into her and Garrus had to jump to the side, to avoid tumbling them both over.

She stood still, staring at a huge krogan in red armor and then walked over to him with fast steps. "Wrex?" She called out, as soon as she was close enough for him to hear her over the chatter in the hall. The krogan turned and Garrus recognized him by the three scarred slashes on his crest.

"Shepard!" The massive krogan spread his arms and pulled his huge mouth into a terrifying grin. Shepard was unfazed by that and hugged the krogan, almost disappearing in his massive body.

"Wrex, what are you doing here?" Shepard asked, pulling out of the embrace.

"Sniffing the air, looking for some backup." Wrex rumbled. "I have a contract on some local flatface and... well, you know."

Shepard pulled the krogan to the side, out of earshot of Kaidan. Garrus could still understand what they said. "Flatface? That a new word for human?" She said quietly. Wrex nodded, showing his grin once again. Shepard's eyes narrowed. "Assassination, Wrex, really?"

"A krogan's got to make a living, Shepard."

Shepard sighed and scratched her neck in that familiar quirk of hers. "That flatface, who is that?"

Wrex turned his head to each side, taking in almost the whole room with his wide-set eyes. "His name is Fist, he runs a bar down here..."

"You don't say." Shepard interrupted. She grabbed his arm and pulled him over to Kaidan and Garrus. "You are coming with us. We need to talk to this Fist, we need some information from him. I can't let you shoot him before we have that information."

Wrex' red eyes turned to slits, staring her down. Shepard remained standing before him, her arms crossed and her hip cocked out to the side, completely unimpressed. After a few seconds of intense silence, he nodded and stepped to the side to take a place to her right and slightly behind her. Garrus placed himself on her six, guarding her back, leaving Kaidan her left hand side.

With a nod from Shepard, they walked out of the market hall, over the construct that bridged the breathtaking chasm and skycar path in front of the bar. As soon as a human guard at the door had spotted them, shots greeted them from the inside, forcing them to dive for cover next to the entrance.

Shepard's voice was an angry hiss over the comm. "Now, why the fuck are they expecting us? How do they know?" She leaned forward on her knees and peeked around the corner, Kaidan shooting over her, Wrex and Garrus on the other side. "I see three humans and two krogan, right side."

Garrus noticed that Wrex had built up a barrier that allowed him to take a step next to him and aim with his rifle. He activated his comm. "I'm counting four humans and two krogan." On his right side, Wrex's shotgun bellowed out. "Make that three humans, no, two..." He held his breath and pulled the trigger on the krogan who had placed his head right into his aim, "and one krogan."

"Fucking alien showoffs." Shepard grumbled, her voice making the grin audible that he could not see. "Come on, Kaidan, humanity has to keep up." A blue glow grabbed one of the humans and threw him against the wall, the sound of his bones cracking drowned out by the sound of Shepard's heavy pistol taking out two other attackers.

"Moving!" Shepard called out, sprinting across the room and onto the counter. Garrus took out the last human on his side and followed her with Wrex, while Kaidan took a position behind a small wall, catching and throwing the remaining humans in biotic fields. Shepard had her eyes on the last remaining krogan, a huge fighter, his armor and helmet scratched and patched. He looked like not even a clawhammer could take him down.

Garrus had to fight the urge to call Shepard back, to stop her from attacking this battlemachine. That was not his place, so he did the best he could do and shot the remaining mercs and the krogan as much as possible. The krogan moved with surprising grace, sliding in and out of his aim and he was a good shot himself. Garrus had to roll behind an overturned table, to give his shields a chance to recharge and he felt the floor shake from the heavy krogan running towards him. A biotic warp from Wrex slammed into the krogan, momentarily stopping him and Shepard took her chance and jumped on his back, her hidden knife extended from her gauntlet. She rammed the knife into a gap between the helmet and the armor, ripping it out, and then with her other hand, slammed a smaller object into the gap.

The krogan roared, his arms desperately trying to grab the small figure on his back, but Shepard had already pushed herself away from him, flipping over backwards and was on her feet and dashing away before the krogan had realized that she was gone. "Pyjack!" He yelled after her, his massive frame sluggishly turning and in slow motion tipping forward and crashing to the floor.

It was suddenly very quiet. Most of the guests had fled, the other mercs were dead and the remaining guests and waiters stared at the krogan, lying on his stomach, with their mouths open. Shepard sauntered back, a satisfied grin on her face. She checked on the krogan. "That should keep him asleep for about ten, fifteen minutes. Do you know him, Wrex?"

"You think I know every stinking krogan?" Wrex growled back.

"I was just asking, he looked like an experienced fighter, maybe you've met him. Probably better if we're not around when he wakes up again." She turned to the girl behind the bar and asked in her friendliest voice, casually wiping krogan blood from her face. "We are looking for Fist, where can we find him?"

The girl stared at her and just pointed over Shepard's shoulder to a small hallway. Shepard smiled and thanked her. With a circular wave of her hand, she called her team together. They all took their old positions behind Shepard and walked into the hallway.

Two guards, without armor and their ancient guns trembling in their hands, stepped in front of them. Shepard looked from one to the other, slowly. She let her pistol hang loosely in her hand and it had once again the effect of making her look more scary because she seemed so relaxed. With a sarcastic grin she looked at the taller one. "Really?" She said.

The guards exchanged a look, dropped their guns and hurried past them into the bar. Shepard chuckled and stepped around a corner towards a door. She raised her hand and tipped her head to the side. Garrus found that oddly endearing, she looked like a turian baby, trying to hear where it's mother was. He couldn't stop his mandibles from forming a grin.

Shepard raised an eyebrow in question at him and asked, "Do you hear anything?" Garrus concentrated but the room behind the door sounded quiet. He shook his head and Shepard palmed the opener and stepped to the side. Not a second too soon, because two turrets started shooting straight at them, peppering the walls to the left and right of the door.

Kaidan leaned out and placed a Throw over one turret, crashing it against the wall. Wrex stepped out at the same time, a blue barrier waving around him and shot the turret with his massive shotgun. When it stopped shooting to recalibrate it's angle, Garrus aimed and ripped it apart with a shot from his rifle.

With the noise of the turrets gone, it was easy to zero in on the desk, where a human man was hiding. Shepard and Garrus aimed at him while Wrex just stood there, fixing the human with his red eyes. The man pointed a pistol at them but let it drop as soon as he realized that he was outnumbered. Holding his hands above his head, he crawled out from under the desk.

"Take everything I have," the man whined, "I have credits, I have drugs, you want something special? I can get you whatever you want!"

Shepard tipped her pistol up to indicate that the man should get up and he pulled himself up on the desk, nervously looking over his shoulders. Wrex moved closer to him with a low growl but took a step back when Shepard gave him a look. Garrus almost held his breath, expecting to receive this look of doom himself but it seemed that he was safe.

She looked over to Kaidan. "Alenko, guard the door and the hallway, I don't want any surprises." Kaidan looked like he wanted to protest but he nodded and left the room.

Shepard turned her attention back to Fist. "We want some information from you." She said. "A quarian has contacted you and we want to know where she is now."

Fist's eyes kept flitting around the room. "I don't know what you are talking about."

Shepard took a step closer and punched the man in his face. Red blood gushed from his nose. He screamed like a beaten pyjack and Garrus trilled out his disgust at him. Shepard pressed her pistol under the man's chin.

"Don't bullshit me." Fist tried to get his cries under control. Shepard's eyes fixed him with a cold stare. "Do you work for the Shadow Broker? Where did you send the quarian?"

"I'm not... I don't work for the Shadow Broker anymore." He muttered, bending his head back to move away from Shepard's pistol pressing into his chin.

Wrex chuckled loudly, an alarming sound, coming from a krogan. "That's why I'm here, the Shadow Broker has simple rules when it comes to quitting."

Fist tried to look at the krogan but Shepard forced his attention back to her with a snap of her fingers. He was sweating and the knuckles on his hands were white as he held onto the desk. "But the quarian didn't know that, so I set up a contact and she thinks she will meet the Shadow Broker."

Wrex snorted. "No one meets the Shadow Broker, nobody has ever seen him. Even I was contracted through an agent." His shotgun steadied in his hands, aiming at Fist.

Shepard studied Fist's face with a scientific calmness, but Garrus also noticed how she looked at Wrex. Garrus was getting worried about the krogan too, he had an assassination contract with the Shadow Broker, he would want to fulfill this contract.

"So, where is she trying to meet this contact?" She asked, her voice cold and calm.

"I won't tell you, you have to promise that you won't kill me." Fist cried out. "I only tell you if you promise..."

"I won't kill you, I promise..." Shepard said. Garus snatched a quick look of her face to see if she was really serious about letting this coward go.

"You are Alliance, you have rules, you can't kill me!" Fist screamed at her.

Shepard sighed. "As I said, I will not kill you if you tell me where the quarian is." She said and there was that smile that made the room colder on her face again. Garrus aimed his assault rifle anew, he had a feeling that things were going to get bad soon.

She took a step back, leveling her pistol at his chest but leaving him some room to move. The man rubbed his jaw and glared angrily at her. "There is an alley next to the transport hub by the markets." Fist said. "She is there now, waiting for the contact. My new boss will send some men to welcome her." A sickening grin spread on his face and Garrus itched to shoot his head off. But Shepard had promised him his life. He would not have done that but this was her mission, not his.

Shepard took breath to ask another question but Fist's head exploded in red mist. Wrex had shot him.

"What the fuck, Wrex?" Shepard yelled out, wiping blood and brain matter from her face and armor.

Wrex snorted. "He gave the information and I had a contract to fulfill."

"Maybe I wasn't done yet? We don't know who he works for now!" Shepard shouted back.

There was a glimpse of remorse on Wrex face before he stared back at Shepard. "You said you wouldn't kill him."

"Well, I didn't, did I?" Shepard said. "I never said he would leave this room alive." She stepped in front of the krogan and jammed her finger on his breastplate. "When you work with me, you don't kill captives without my explicit permission, is that clear? Don't ever pull a stunt like that again!"

There was a short silence, where the huge krogan and the slim human were sizing each other up. It looked ridiculous but there was a strength radiating from her that made her appear more impressive. Garrus had never felt more proud of her than in that moment, when Wrex nodded and called her, "Commander" for the first time.

Shepard turned away from Wrex, and Garrus saw a tiny smile play on her lips. But he also noticed the narrow frown that had settled on her forehead, and decided to ask her about it later. "We have to hurry, but let's do a quick search." She searched through the desk and Garrus looked through the lockers on the wall. Wrex smashed some boxes and returned with a few weapon mods. Garrus found nothing useful, but Shepard found a datapad and an OSD in a drawer.

"Maybe we'll find out who Fist worked for from these files." She shoved the things into her pack and jogged towards the door. "Let's go, we have a quarian to save."

She fell into the familiar jog and Garrus fell in step with her. Behind him he could hear Wrex's heavy steps following them. Kaidan had set up a position at the entrance of the hallway, overlooking the inside of Chora's Den.

Apparently a new batch of mercs had arrived and awaited them in the bar. The shootout was over quickly, their position was covered and they had developed an efficient routine in dealing with the attackers. As soon as the last merc had fallen, Shepard broke into a fast run out of the door and over the bridge.

Kaidan ran up to her. "What about Fist?"

"He is dead but he told us that the quarian thinks she will be meeting the Shadow Broker in an alley over there." Shepard said. "Since Saren is probably his new employer, that will not go well for her."

Kaidan looked at her questioningly but did not say anything. They had arrived at a narrow door, and Shepard made a hand movement that left Garrus confused again. But then he saw that Kaidan and Wrex settled back into their fighting position to the left and right of her so it probably meant that they should form up. He moved to her six and aimed his rifle over her shoulder.

Shepard opened the door and stepped in with slow, quiet steps, watching the quarian talking to a turian. Garrus recognized her purple suit, she was indeed Tali'Zorah, the girl they had found on the husks-ghostship. A sigh hissed through his mandibles, if she had just stayed with C-Sec, this would have all been much easier.

Another turian and a few salarians in armor were mingling about, trying to look inconspicuous and failing. The quarian became quickly aware of her situation. Just as the the mercs closed in on her, an explosion took out two salarians, and she dove behind a container for cover. Shepard opened fire and Garrus took out the turian that had spoken with the girl, and the rest of them dropped just as fast.

Shepard stepped forward, ignoring the corpses on the ground and spoke to the quarian. "Are you hurt? Is your suit alright?"

The girl shook her head. "I can take care of myself. Not that I don't appreciate the help." She tilted her head to the side. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

Shepard gave her a small nod. "I'm Commander Shepard of the Alliance Navy. We were looking for you, that file you took from the geth could be essential for our case against the Spectre Saren."

Tali'Zorah dipped her head. "Then I can at least repay you for saving my life." She raised her arm and typed on her omni-tool. "If this evidence is worth killing me for..."

Garrus worked on his own omni-tool, scanning the area. It looked quiet but you never knew around these parts. "This area will not remain safe for long." He said to Shepard. "We should take her to the boss, or Anderson."

Shepard nodded. "Let's get the file to Pauly first, see what she can do with it. Afterwards, we show it to whoever wants to hear it. I'll announce it over the Citadel comm, if I have to." She turned around with a grin and walked towards the door that led to the transport hub.

A Keeper was quietly working in a corner, not acknowledging their existence like all Keepers. When they walked past him, Shepard suddenly slumped as if she had been hit, her hands pressing against her temples. Garrus rushed to her side, beating Kaidan to catch her before she fell forward. He pressed her against him, terrified by her stillness. Her body was rigid, curled up, her face was pale and he wasn't sure if she was even breathing.

"What happened?" Kaidan asked, kneeling beside him and feeling for her pulse on her throat. Garrus remembered that Kaidan was a field medic, and he was grateful for his presence.

"I don't know," Garrus said, "the doctor had cleared her but who knows what that beacon on Eden Prime did to her."

Kaidan looked up with a frown. "She has a pulse, it's very fast. I remember that it was very fast after the beacon had dropped her too."

"Maybe it's the Keeper?" Tali'Zorah asked from the side, her omni-tool bright in scanning over the Keeper. "I'm not getting any readings from it but..."

"Let's get her away from it." Garus decided and picked her up. With three long steps, he brought distance between them and immediately felt Shepard relax in his arms. She breathed in like a drowning person, her eyes wide open but unseeing. After a minute of Garrus's heart not beating, her eyes focused on him and a tiny smile crept on her lips. The relief rolling down his spine was tangible like an ice cube sliding down his plates.

"Hey, Angel, what happened?" She asked, taking in the position she was in.

Garrus nuzzled her forehead, not caring that Tali'Zorah or Kaidan saw it. "You held your head as if you were in pain, and then went rigid and fell forward." He pointed over to the Keeper. "It happened right over there, next to the Keeper."

"I have never had a reaction to a Keeper." Shepard mumbled. "They don't emit anything, I have scanned them before."

Kaidan chuckled a little while he scanned her vitals with his omni-tool. "I thought you were not supposed to do that?"

"Like I care."

Kaidan gave another chuckle. "They do feel strange though, I can feel when one is close." He shut down his omni-tool, apparently satisfied with the readings.

Shepard raised herself up and came to a stand, holding on to Garrus arm for support but visibly getting better by the second. "You feel them?"

"Yes?" Kaidan raised his eyebrows in confusion. "You don't? I thought everybody did, I heard others say it too."

"Maybe you have to be a biotic for that, I don't have any eezo nodules in my body." She said. "Do other biotics feel them?"

Kaidan raked through his hair. "I'm not sure, I can ask around."

"Discreetly, Kaidan," Shepard said, "the Citadel people are very protective of the Keepers, I always wondered why. It's like they don't even want to know what they do and how they work."

Garrus had to grin, of course the endlessly curious humans would want to know what the Keepers are and how they worked. On the Citadel it was against the law to disturb the Keepers, and nobody did any research about them. They had kept the Citadel intact for thousands of years, and the people of Citadel trusted them to keep doing that.

Shepard straightened herself up and the skin of her face returned to it's normal color. She eyed the Keeper with a frown and kept herself at a distance. "Alright, people, time to go and get this evidence into the right hands."

She stepped over to the quarian, placing a hand on her back. She peered into the helmet and smiled at her. "You are safe now," she threw a look back towards the Keeper, "at least as long as those creepy-crawlers leave me alone. But even then," she swept her arm around to include Kaidan and Garrus, "those guys will protect you too. You are safe."

The quarian girl tilted her head and her body language showed her confusion. She probably was not used to being treated in such a friendly way, knowing the normal hostility towards quarians. Maybe she even wondered if it was just an act on Shepard's part but Garrus knew that it wasn't.

It was never an act with Shepard.

Hey, I actually like that fight scene!

Those creepy keepers... I don't trust them.