17 Days ASR

Garrus watched the tarin sitting in front of him for a moment. Thanks to their sudden wealth of bodies, Archangel needed instructors. A hierarchy-trained biotic who possessed both leadership skills and a working knowledge of the gangs on Omega would prove extremely useful.

"You brought us most of these bodies," he said at last. "Would you be willing to help us get them organized, billeted, and trained?"

Kandros's brow plates raised, but she straightened in her chair a little—the reaction he'd been looking for. "That's a lot of trust for someone you just met and still suspect might be an infiltrator," she replied. Her head cocked and her eyes narrowed as if either sizing him up or deciding how big an idiot he was.

"True, it's a lot of trust, but it's not that great a risk, and if you're even half the soldier you were back when we were teenagers, the reward will far offset it. My best people will be here, helping you settle into your new position." He chuckled to ease back the threat implied by his words before he said, "If you or any of the people who came with you pose a danger to the organization or other recruits, you'll be removed."

"Removed?" She bristled, apparently not set at ease. As she tensed, the air began to snap with biotic energy. "How final a removal are we talking?"

Garrus managed to stifle his smile, but one brow plate escaped his control. He stood. "We're an army created to defend the galaxy against a coming storm, we're not mercs and we're not murderers. We tend to let people go using paperwork rather than bullets."

"Body disposal is a bitch," Martin added, earning himself a glare even as Garrus's smile escaped, his mandibles flicking once.

To his surprise, the kid's easy grin settled the tarin back into her chair, and the charge faded from the atmosphere. Defensive but reasonable … that he could work with.

Garrus leaned back against the edge of his desk. "None of you are in any danger unless you shoot first." His chrono chimed a fifteen minute warning for the briefing. "I need to tie up some loose ends before I head down, but I'd like you to sit in on our department briefing in a few minutes. I have just over sixty frigates gathering dust in my dry dock. They need crews and ground assault teams. A lot of your people are External Forces and Alliance veterans. I want a list of your most experienced, most able to train in the fly, most trusted."

She nodded and pushed out of her chair. "I'll do that now, General."

"Excellent." He stepped past her to open the door. "Vortash, please show Instructor Kandros to the briefing room and supply her with a datapad."

The batarian grumbled, but stood and started gathering materials off his desk.

Garrus held out his arm, ushering Nyreen from his office. "You're dismissed, Instructor."

"Sir, yes, sir." She stood, gave him a rigid turian salute, then strode past him.

Garrus lingered in the doorway for a few seconds, watching after his newest instructor as Vortash led her out into the corridor. He got a good, solid feeling from her despite what she must have been through after being sent to the cabals. Not to mention whatever had transpired there to bring her out to Omega, living like an outlaw.

Martin walked up behind the general, leaning to look around him, and whistled. "Man, her eyes are … ."

"Beautiful," Garrus finished, then realized he'd said that outloud and cleared his throat, returning to his chair.

"I was going to say different," the kid said, a wide grin splitting his face, "but sure, beautiful works too."

Garrus rolled his eyes and picked up the first datapad. "Don't grin at me like you think you've discovered something." He cleared his throat, shifted in his chair a little and redirected the conversation. "Eyes like Nyreen's run in families, a rare genetic branch as old as the turian people. There are all sorts of ideas and tales about them … that they are people destined for great things, or destined for great sacrifice. Nyreen's family definitely lived up to the whole destined for great things promise. She was set to follow in some very big footsteps when her biotic talents manifested, and she was sent to the cabals."

Martin scowled. "Cabals?"

"Biotic units." Garrus quickly scrawled his approval across the bottom of the datapads, hoping that he wasn't authorizing Vortash's new aircar and mansion on Khar'shan. "We're a rigid, traditional people. That comes with a lot of good, but it also comes with a lot of distrust and backwards ways of doing things. My people are suspicious of biotics." He slammed a palm up in the face of Martin's comment. "I know, it doesn't make any sense. It's just the way it is … for now." Hitting the bottom of that stack, he moved onto the second. "So biotics are kept separate, trained with brutal discipline. Some don't even survive it. Nyreen did, of course, but then went UA."

"Huh, brutal." Martin perched on the arm of the chair Nyreen had vacated. "So, about her beautiful eyes … ." He grinned. "You were tripping over yourself there at the beginning. You have a thing for her once? She is beautiful."

"No, I did not. She came from an impressive family … was everything I wasn't. I admired her skill, nothing more." Garrus gestured to the datapads. "Put these on Vortash's desk." He stood, picking up what he needed for the meeting. "You know that I'm bonded, even though I never got a chance to place my coillasi around her wrists. This is the last I want to hear about it."

Martin sighed and picked up the stacks of requisitions, following when Garrus strode out of the room. "You know she'd never want you to—"

Garrus spun around, cutting him off with a razor-edged glare. "This is the last I want to hear about it," he repeated, pausing between words to let them hit home.

"Yes, sir." Martin ducked past to open the outer door and muttered, "You're hearing the last of a lot of things today."

Garrus chose to let the grumbling go unanswered and pushed on to the elevator and the administration floor.

The rest of the team awaited him, most busy tapping away at omnitools or datapads. Garrus made his way over to one of the QEC pads where Nihlus was speaking to Anderson.

"General," the Normandy's captain greeted him, an easy smile belying the depth of the crap piling up around them. "You're looking better."

"Recovering according to plan, Captain, unless Dr. Chakwas has her way. I think she's actually accepted a contract from one of the gangs." He grinned, then glanced over at Nihlus. The Spectre didn't look all that steady on his feet, but resolute. "You're going to head back out on the Normandy?"

"Yes. I want two frigates as escort if possible." The Spectre turned to look over his shoulder at Nyreen. "We're trusting the Talons?"

"Yes, we're trusting the Talons, and you can have three frigates if you take Chakwas with you."

"I heard that, General," the doctor called from the doorway. She shook her head and strode across the room to take the seat next to Mordin. "I should have listened to my father and become a pediatrician."

"Patients much the same," Mordin chimed in.

Garrus grinned at the salarian and shook his head. "You really miss that vorcha infested dunghole you called a clinic, don't you?"

Mordin let out a long, over-emotive sigh. "Clumsy, veiled threats only prove allegations of childish behaviour."

Garrus chuckled and turned to the rest of the group as Sidonis and Melanis appeared on their QEC pads. "All right, settle, and let's get this done. First of all, I'm sure you're all familiar with Nyreen Kandros. I've asked her to join us as an instructor, and help us get her people settled." He pointed a talon at Butler. "I'll leave it to you and Vortash to help her settle in." When Gabe nodded, Garrus let his hand fall back to his side. "Even looking past our current state of emergency, I can see us needing to deal with more and more recruits as this issue with the human colonies comes to light, so lets start preparing for that. If you have promising senior cadets to second you, start working to bring along our next rank of instructors."

"What word about the colonies? Bloody Alliance and council are lying their asses off," Zaeed grumbled, casting a snarling nod toward Anderson. "Nobody's going to know any fucking thing. People out there have lost whole families, and what do those bastards tell them? Pirates. Slavers. Fucking Santa Claus needing new bleedin' elves to make his toys."

Garrus nodded, and stepped toward the merc, easing him back with a placating gesture. "We'll get the word out. I'm going to assign extra bodyguards to Miss Wong and have her head out to the site of the next attack when it happens. If we get enough people asking about all those missing families, we can apply pressure on the council and the Alliance from behind the scenes."

Anderson nodded and stepped forward to lean against his console. "They're scrambling. They don't bring any of it too close to me, because I'm too tightly tied to Archangel, but Hackett says they're on the verge of panic back on Arcturus. Someone out there has plans for humanity, and the Alliance knows it. Hackett keeps asking them open-ended questions about the Reapers, but they aren't desperate enough to acknowledge that we're being harvested. Yet."

When the captain stepped back, Garrus raised a hand to forestall any replies. "Okay, we've jumped ahead of my agenda here, so let's table this for a few minutes. We'll come back to what's going on with the human colonies after we address attacks taking place a lot closer to home." He turned to Sidonis. "What happened at Enoch?" Moving off to the side, he opened the floor. As Sidonis told the others about the destruction of the facility, Garrus watched Nyreen out of the corner of his eye.

She continued to key information into her datapad, but he didn't doubt for a second that her attention remained on the report. The slow sweep of her mandibles gave away the wheels turning in her head. He could see her drawing threads together and knotting them into a web. He should recognize it, he'd watched Shepard do it often enough.

"We don't have the ships or the bodies to sufficiently cover all our holdings," Grundan Krul said, his deep, broken voice like listening to boulders slide down a mountain. He shook his head, cheek folds and jowls rippling like living things held captive on his face. "Even with these new people and the ships in dry dock, we'll spread ourselves just thin enough to lose even more assets in their attacks."

"We won't be trying to cover them all," Garrus assured him. He shrugged when bodies stiffened and mouths opened around the room. "Krul is right. Between trying to cast a wide enough net to respond to the colony attacks and defending all our bases, mines, and manufacturing … we'd just lose more in the attacks. We have to use our heads."

"They're drawing you out and spreading you thin." Nyreen's voice cut through the swell of protest that followed Garrus's words. She cleared her throat. "And you're too close to see that you aren't fighting two enemies: the ones taking the human colonies and the ones attacking Archangel. You're fighting the same enemy on two fronts." She met his eyes for a moment, then looked back down at her datapad. "And they've got your back chasing your front just like they want."

Her softly spoken words drew every eye to her.

Garrus walked over to his chair and sat on the edge before nodding at her. "Elaborate."

She shrugged as if the problem were plain. "It's a distraction. I'll grant that it is a damned good one, because even as they pull your ships and your focus away from the colonies, they're weakening your infrastructure, but it is still just a distraction. You've got them scared. They can't take you on if you bring your power to bear against them."

"So they distract us away from the colonies and whittle us down a little at a time," Nihlus said. He chuffed, but his eyes stayed riveted on the tarin for nearly a minute before he looked over at Garrus. "I'm going to tell myself that we would have seen this if we hadn't been abducted and dissected."

"Dissections performed on the dead," Mordin offered helpfully.

Garrus raised a brow plate at Nihlus then shook his head. Kandros had it dead on. The surety of that settled in his gut. He stood and paced across to circle behind Mordin's chair, patting the scientist's shoulder as he passed. Hunching against the growing pain in his chest, he paced a slow circle around the perimeter of the room. "Not just distraction, though," he said, talking mostly to himself as he sorted through the implications. "If it was just about pulling our attention away from the colony attacks, they wouldn't take our ships, they'd just destroy them."

"Yes," Nyreen said, "the stolen ships are our biggest clue as to their intentions."

"No one has ships as advanced as our fleet," Sidonis argued. "They could be reverse engineering them."

"No." Garrus beat Nyreen to the punch. He stopped and rested his hands on the back of his chair as he looked over his gathered people. "There are far easier ways to do that. Cerberus proved that. So why are they stealing the ships?"

"Infiltration," Mierin spoke up for the first time. The salarian munitions expert nodded and then shrugged. "Camouflage. Use our own tech against us. Stealth frigates not only get them close, but can locate all other Archangel vessels, running silent or otherwise."

"Exactly," Nyreen replied, "so they're planning on going after a high value target, one they think will be heavily defended." The ex-Talon leader shrugged and looked from Garrus to Nihlus and back. "They plan for it to be a crippling blow, maybe even fatal. What target would hurt the most to lose?"

"The Zaherin facility," Sidonis replied. He paced the two strides across his pad in an endless cycle. "If we lose our weapon testing capability against the Reapers, it'll set us back cycles. It's also the easiest to infiltrate."

"Sidonis is right." Krul shoved his bulk up in his chair, bracing one hand against the arm as if he intended to leap up. "Mines, factories, even shipyards, can be replaced. We lose the remains of that Reaper, we're well fucked." He curled his lip to bare his teeth and shook his head. "But, if we fill Zaherin with our ships, the enemy will just go to ground."

"Or go around," Mordin added, sitting perfectly still for the first time since Garrus had met him. "Choose other target."

Garrus continued watching his newest team member as his veterans broke into debate about how best to approach defending their weapon testing site. He could see that she didn't agree about the target, but also that she held her peace for a reason. Why? What would an outsider see that they might miss? He swallowed hard as his gut answered with a sick twist as it turned to ice.

What would he miss?

Betrayal from within.

Letting out a long, slow breath, Garrus looked over his people, all of whom had been with him from the start. Chakwas, Mordin, Anderson, and Nihlus he trusted beyond reproach. They weren't just his people, they were hers.

The others, Butler, Sidonis … all of them … in the early days they'd all had each other's backs, raiding the gangs, thinning the herd of greedy, bloodthirsty, and stupid. The only people in the room who hadn't saved his life at least a dozen times were the heads of operations and facilities. Not to underestimate the power of a well balanced budget or clean buildings and well maintained vehicles, but he just couldn't see how those two could access the information they'd need.

He shoved that concern aside for the time being. He'd speak to Nihlus and Kandros before he left for the Citadel, see who they suspected, if anyone. In the meantime, they needed a plan to put themselves in the best position to deal with whatever attack came. They needed to draw the enemy in. Of course, that would be impossible if what he thought he read on Nyreen's face proved to be fact.

Making a decision, he stood and waved everybody back to silence. "Okay, here's the plan. We're going to give them what they want and place as many ships as we can out there in groups of ten to defend our highest value targets: two Stingers, two cruisers, six frigates. That should be enough to take out even the dreadnought providing you tear down their Stinger's shields and disable it first. One frigate goes in cloaked and sits in orbit of the facility. Maintain constant contact. If they call for help or their comms go down, you go in."

He looked over at Nyreen. "In order to do this, we're going to need take the list of recruits that Instructor Kandros has given us, and team them up with our most experienced officers and crews." A dangerous scowl greeted the outburst of complaints that exploded around him. "Enough! Yes, it's a huge reorganization, but that's why I put credits in your accounts every week, so just get it done. We need our ships out of dry dock, and I don't want new people placed with inexperienced commanding officers."

Turning to Nihlus and Anderson, he said. "You're going to keep your ships in place and set up a schedule of constant check ins with the colonies. I don't care if they squawk about it being a pain in the ass. You ping them every half hour. If they don't ping back, assume that they've come under attack and investigate. Do not engage the enemy."

"Excuse me, General," the head of Operations, Naran, called. "Opening the third building, getting all those ships operational and supplied, outfitting and paying so many more people is going to bankrupt the budget."

"I understand." He returned to his chair and sat, feeling as though his every body part had been assembled wrong, all poorly angled and grinding against each other. "I leave for the Citadel to meet with Barla Von in a couple of hours. I'll ensure you get the necessary increase. Forward your numbers to his office."

Looking around the room, he met every set of eyes gathered there. "Anything further on these matters?"

An hour later, Martin was the last to leave the conference room, escorting Nyreen out with a promise to show her around if she would tell him stories of when Garrus was young. The tarin paused at the door, looked back, her mandibles flicking once as she replied, "Honestly, I can't recall noticing him. A great many cadets attended our academy, and he was two cycles ahead of me."

Nice. Low blow … point to Kandros. Garrus met her gaze and tilted his head in a slight, sardonic bow, then turned to gather his materials.

He'd just registered that his father had yet to catch up with him when the door opened and Herros stepped through. He started to tease his father about taking so long to find him over an urgent matter, but then he met his father's stare and his jaw snapped shut. Dread—cold, raw dread bordering on terror—stared back at him.

Garrus stepped forward, one rigid stride. "What's happened?"

Herros took a couple of gasping breaths as if he'd run the length of Omega, then nodded toward Garrus's seat. "We don't have long. I received word last night from the hierarchy about a … " He shook his head and braced his hands on his hips as he searched for the word. "... defensive measure taken by our government at the end of the krogan rebellions."

Garrus stumbled backward until the edge of his chair impacted the back of his knees and he folded down onto the leather. Defensive measure? Krogan rebellions? Did everything need to go to shit on the same day? Hig guts turned to gellid sludge, and he dragged the words from his mouth kicking and screaming as he asked, "Defensive measure?"

"Yes." Herros paced a few strides then turned back. "Massive bombs buried near heavy population centers on Tuchanka."

Garrus pushed aside all his other reactions and leaped up. Only one thing mattered. "Does Wrex know?"

Herros pressed a hand against his son's shoulder as if trying to guide him away from the ugliness of the truth as it asked him to be patient. "The hierarchy notified me last night because someone has dug up the bomb next to the Urdnot clan holding."

"Who dug it up?" Garrus demanded, fury sparking to drive back the cold, brittle dread. One possibility ignited, flaring with a sudden rage. "Is it us? Did the turian military do it in response to Wrex's building projects?" He strode toward the QEC console. He needed answers, and he needed to talk to Wrex.

Herros followed, stepping around him to block his path. "The hierarchy is denying any involvement, and I believe it. With everything else that's going on … ."

Garrus nodded, the gesture constituting a lie so great he had to fight back nausea. Nothing had ever felt so wrong … he had never felt so wrong. What the hell was going on?

You know what's going on, Callor. They're ready, and they're starting to make their move. That means eliminating Archangel. You're the only threat to them in the entire galaxy. They're going to try to rip you limb for limb. Are you prepared for that?

He shoved Shepard's voice aside and forced himself to police up his fear and denial, saying, "Someone is trying to tear it all apart. The Reapers … it has to be. They have agents."

"Yes, but that's academic at this point, Garrus. Wrex knows about the bomb, and he's furious. Understandably, granted, but if he goes out there … if he attacks, they'll detonate it, and that will be the end of Urdnot, and very likely the start of another war against the krogan."

Garrus started to answer, but the QEC chimed, cutting him off. He spun to stare at it for a second. "Wrex?" Sidestepping around his father, he reached out to answer it, scowling when his pari grabbed hold of his wrist, the ice creeping back in. What was his father hiding from him?

Herros nodded, just holding Garrus's wrist, not trying to pull him away. "Yes. That's why I ran." He stepped between Garrus and the console once again, his mandibles low and spread, his eyes and subvocals earnest. "You must calm him down. If you … we … can't convince him to see reason, he's going to get all his people … all the clans gathering around his banner … killed."

Nodding, Garrus twisted his wrist free and stepped up to activate the QEC. Spirits, he'd give anything for Shepard to be there. She could wrap Wrex around her finger with a single grin.

The krogan clan leader appeared on the pad, the very embodiment of rage. He lunged forward with such force and deadly intent that Garrus flinched away from the hologram. The general's rage and indignation at what his people had kept hidden on Tuchanka for centuries evaporated, cooling into a helpless despair. He'd never stop Wrex from charging off.

"Vakarian!" the krogan roared, "did you know about this?"

"No." Hands lifting like shields between them, Garrus took a half step forward. "You know I'd never keep something like this from you. I'd have been there to help you get rid of them." Closing his eyes, he shook his head, clearing away as much of the fear and frustration as he could. "We need to get your people out of there, just in case they set it off."

"If it's not the turians, it's the salarians, or the council." Wrex reached behind his back pulling his shotgun. "It will never end, Vakarian. Not for the krogan. It's come down to kill or be killed, and I won't let my people die out, even if I have to tear down the whole bloody galaxy to save them."

Herros pushed in. "Wrex, you know peace is still the way forward. Let's get your people to safety, and then we can move in and take custody of the bomb. I have three platoons of special forces awaiting my orders … ."

Wrex roared and slammed the butt of his shotgun down on the console. "I'm not letting turians anywhere near that bomb. I've gathered a platoon of warriors all two seconds from going into a blood-rage. We'll kill everyone between us and the bomb, and I swear that if we see a single turian, that bomb will go off on Palaven. You won't know where, you won't know when, but it'll leave you screaming for all your dead children."

Garrus's heart stopped, collapsing into a singularity. "This is exactly what the Reapers want, Wrex. Of course you'll find turians, and salarians … humans … probably even asari. They want you to take those bombs, detonate them on the homeworlds … fuck, they want you to threaten another krogan rebellion. Turn everyone against each other." He flung himself forward, leaning against the console. "You can see that. Tell me you can see that, Wrex."

"All I see is that the genophage wasn't enough. You had to make sure that the krogan people never recovered … that if your plague didn't kill us off, we'd all die in fire. I won't let you do it."

"Wrex! No! You go out there, you'll get yourself and your entire clan killed. They'll detonate that bomb. With you dead … all those krogan dead ... there will be nothing to stop the rest from going out and starting another rebellion." Garrus grasped his hands and held them out, past threatening or reason … left resorting to pleading. "Please don't do this. You'll get all your people killed."

"Then we take as many of the rest of you with us as we can," Wrex replied, his voice cold and flat. He glared at them for a second, then the QEC went dark.

"Damn it." Garrus slammed his fists down on the console. "That stupid, arrogant … ."

"We need to get there, and now," Herros said, chuffing a little as he stated the obvious. He pressed up behind Garrus. "You know we can't allow Wrex to bring his entire people crashing down on the galaxy and themselves."

Garrus spun toward his father. "I can't go. There's nothing I can do to stop him." He threw up his hands, a small explosion of helplessness detonating behind his keel. For a second it felt as though it would blow straight off. "I have an entire base full of new recruits who all need supplies, quarters, and then to be assigned to ships and sent out to guard facilities we can't afford to lose. Human colonies are vanishing at a rate that shouldn't even be possible … and Wrex chooses now to lose his mind." He stabbed the air, punctuating his words with frustration. "What the hell?"

Pacing to the door and back, he tried to think of some way to be everywhere at once, but he couldn't, and as much as losing Urdnot would hurt the war effort, losing Archangel would end the war effort. Maybe if he could get out of the Citadel right after meeting with the financiers, he could still make it to Tuchanka in time to stop Wrex from doing something stupid. Damn it.

He stopped, punching the console again then leaning into his fists. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't put a few thousand krogan ahead of the whole galaxy. "There's nothing I can do. I need to go to the Citadel first."

Herros stepped around Garrus. Laying a hands on his son's shoulders, he said, "I'll go to Tuchanka. General Victus is leading a combined forces exercise in the DMZ. " He shrugged. "Dranek, I believe. I'll meet him at the Aralakh relay, and we'll get Urdnot evacuated with or without Wrex. Can you contact the shamen of both the male and female clans?"

Garrus's frustration transformed into thoughtfulness. Yes, the shamen would probably prove more amenable to evacuation, particularly the females, but … . He shook his head. "I don't want you between Wrex and that bomb." He reached up, closing his talons around his father's forearms as if determined to hold him there.

Even though you know it's the best chance Urdnot has of survival? You're prepared to sacrifice the krogan for the galaxy … what are you prepared to sacrifice for the krogan?

"Trust me, I won't be anywhere close to that bomb if I can help it." Herros smiled, a gentle flutter of mandibles, then released him and took a couple of steps toward the door. "I'll have Victus send in a covert team to delay the digging and try to take custody of the thing before it can be detonated." He nodded, one sharp, decisive jerk of his head that declared the topic closed. "You get Nihlus and the others the resources they need to protect Archangel." He palmed the door and stepped through, but then turned back. "Please make sure your mari and Sol get on a ship home before you leave."

"Yes, sir." Garrus nodded and strode across the room, hesitating only a second before he embraced his father, gripping the elder torin's shoulders. "I'll get them on their way, and then I'll be right behind you." Pulling back, he stared into his father's eyes. "Be careful, Pari." He stepped back and opened his omnitool. "I'll assign the carriers Trimeri and Istal'an to your command. Their crews are in place, but their fighters aren't aboard, so we'll load them with all the shuttles we've got." He sent orders to the captains and department heads before turning his attention back to his father. "You should be set to go in a couple of hours."

"Thank you. I'll get them back to you in one piece." Herros turned and strode to the outer door, calling back over his shoulder, "I'll contact you as soon as I've got eyes on."

Garrus watched after his father for a few seconds, the hierarch striding down the corridor. The set to his spine, the strength through his shoulders … his every step screamed veteran leader in command. If anyone could save Wrex's people from their leader's damned short-sightedness, Herros Vakarian would.

"General?" Martin's voice came through his radio.

His hand lifted to his implant even as he turned back toward his desk. "Go ahead." Time to get moving. He still needed to make an appearance in the sublevels.

"Zaeed and I are headed over to the docks with the senior flight cadets to oversee loading those shuttles. We'll have the carriers ready to depart at 1500 station standard. Butler, Kandros, Meirin, and Krul have the engineering and the special recruit units "

"Very good. When you're finished there, head over to the Passch. We'll escort the carriers to the relay. Actually … ." He grinned as an image formed in his mind. "Why not make a show of it? Contact Nihlus and have the Normandy delay its departure. We'll all move out at once, make sure it's recorded … give the galaxy a glimpse of what it faces if it crosses Archangel or its allies. Vakarian out." He gathered up his datapads, tossed another long glare at the QEC, and then set out.

Five minutes later, he slumped against the elevator wall as he rode it down the first floor.

"General Vakarian?" a call came through on his radio.

He let out a long breath and lifted his hand to open the channel. "Yes?"

"The prisoner wishes to speak with you, sir. She's being quite strident about it."

Garrus smirked as he heard Daro'Xen's voice in the background. Strident indeed. He swallowed and stretched his neck, making sure no smile would bleed into his voice. "I have more pressing concerns at the moment. Our guest will have to wait."

Mumbled conversation went on long enough that he considered closing the channel as his elevator arrived on the main floor. He heard Daro'Xen again, loud enough that he made out her words even before the guard returned.

"She wishes me to pass along a message, General." He paused, no doubt waiting for Garrus to ask what it was. After a moment, he forged ahead. "She said to tell you that they're coming for you, sir. She says that you're already dead."

(A-N: This is a 'had no sleep author's note and update', so forgive any glaring errors, but I wanted to get the chapter up before I succumbed to sleep. Will repost a corrected version once my betas smack it around. Thanks so much all those who reviewed the last chapter. You know I always enjoy hearing from you. So, yep, this is the second half of the last chapter. So much going on ... dang Reapers. ;) What will they get up to next? See you in a couple of days and thanks for reading.)