2: Awkward

Alice looked back and forth between Garrus and Sidonis. The trip from the spaceport to the hotel Garrus' family would be staying at had been long and silent; the tension between them was so thick you would have needed a high-precision laser to cut through it. Neither Garrus nor Sidonis had spoken a word, or even looked at each other for that matter. Minera, trying to ease the tension, asked Alice a bunch of questions about what she did in the Alliance, what she liked, details about her life, etcetera, etcetera. Seeing as Alice lacked her brother's fame, she gladly decided to answer all her queries. When they finally arrived at the hotel, Garrus grabbed Solana's arm and lagged behind.

"You go on ahead," he told his parents "I need to have a word with Sol."

Alice noticed how Sidonis lingered until he received an encouraging nod from Solana.

Garrus glanced at Alice "You can go on in; we'll just be a minute." Alice crossed her arms over her chest and cocked an eyebrow. Garrus sighed "Fine, you can stay."

Solana chuckled "Wow, someone who can actually get my thick-headed brother to stand down. I'm impressed"

Alice smiled at Solana and opened her mouth to make some clever reply when Garrus growled out "Don't you act like nothing's wrong! You're not slipping out of this."

Solana cocked a brow-plate at her brother "Slipping out of what? Is there some stupid rule that says I can't have a boyfriend?"

"When that 'boyfriend' happens to be Lantar Sidonis then yes!" Garrus growled "What the fuck do you think you're doing with him?"

Solana cocked a brow-plate, her mandibles twitching into a faint smirk "What do you think I'm doing with him?"

Garrus was clearly caught off guard "What- that's not- You know what I mean!"

"No, I don't." Solana said sharply, all humor gone from her. "I fail to see the problem with my dating Lantar."

Garrus' eyes narrowed "You 'fail to see the problem'?! Do you have any idea what he did to me?!"

"You mean the whole 'getting captured by the Blue Suns and being tortured until he agreed to help them' thing?" Solana said, crossing her arms over her chest "He might have mentioned it once or twice."

Alice blinked, she hadn't heard about him being tortured. Garrus however, seemed to ignore this new information as he snarled "Then why are you with him?"

Solana stood her ground. "Why are you with Alice?"

Garrus' eyes widened, surprised "What's that supposed to mean?"

Solana turned to Alice "Lantar told me what happened, how you pushed him out of the way when Garrus tried to kill him and how you were hit instead. So why, after he nearly killed you, are you dating my brother."

Alice crossed her arms over her chest and met Solana's gaze "Garrus hitting me wasn't his fault. He didn't know I was there when he pulled the trigger. And besides," Alice smiled at Garrus "I love him, and love sometimes means you have to forgive."

Solana nodded and turned back to Garrus "There's your answer."

Garrus bristled "You LOVE him?!"

"Yes, I do." Solana said sharply "And if you can't accept that, then we have nothing more to talk about." With that she turned away and marched into the hotel.

Garrus just stood there for a moment, fuming before turning to Alice "Can you believe her?!" He raged "She loves him! She loves Sidonis! Doesn't she even care that he almost got me killed?!"

Alice grimaced "Uh… sorry to point this out to you big guy, but you almost got Sidonis killed too."

"He deserved it!" Garrus snarled "He betrayed me! He's the reason ten good men are dead! DEAD!"

"He's also the reason I'm alive." Alice pointed out "If he hadn't led you and John to that clinic and helped stabilize me, I'd be dead right now."

Garrus seemed to deflate. "But…"

Alice didn't let him finish. "Look, you're obviously a little stressed out right now. I'll go and tell them you need some time and that we'll meet them for lunch tomorrow. You go and wait in the car."

Seeing that this was a fight he could not win, Garrus' shoulders slumped and he walked away towards the car. Alice sighed and headed into the hotel. Solana had gone straight to Sidonis and was currently talking to him in hushed tones. Vakarian was at the manager's desk, getting their room keys with Minera at his side. Taking a reassuring breath, Alice made her way over to the elder Vakarians.

"Hey, Minera, Vakarian?" She said causing them to turn to her "Garrus is a little… tired so we're heading home."

Vakarian eyed her suspiciously "Is that so?"

Alice nodded "Yeah, how about we meet up for lunch tomorrow?"

Vakarian continued to study her for a moment before speaking "Dear, do you mind waiting here for a bit? I need to speak with Alice."

Minera nodded knowingly. "Of course."

Vakarian placed a hand on Alice's shoulder and led her to an unoccupied corner of the lobby "This is about Lantar isn't it?"

Alice nodded "I'm sorry, I thought Garrus had finally moved past it. I guess I was wrong."

Vakarian nodded, looking away "He always knew how to hold a grudge, Garrus never just 'moves on'." He turned his gaze back to Alice "He called me you know. When he was trapped on the end of that bridge." Alice's eyebrows rose; she had not known that. "He told me everything that had happened to him, including Sidonis' betrayal." He shook his head "Imagine my surprise when I learned who Lantar was."

Alice hesitated "If you don't mind me asking, how did you meet Sidonis?"

Vakarian glanced in the direction of Sidonis and Solana "He saved Solana…"

…

Vakarian dragged Solana up the stairs. "Come on, we need to get to the evac!"

"I'm hobbling as fast as I can Dad!" Solana snarled cursing the Brute that had broken her leg. "Where's the shuttle?"

"Just up ahead." Vakarian said as they reached the top of the stairs. Pushing open the door at the top, they stumbled into the ruined street. They were assailed on all sides by the sounds of gunfire and screaming, as the Reapers burned the city. There, in the center of the road was the shuttle, refugees already piling into it.

"Come on," Vakarian said, pulling Solana along toward their escape. When they reached the shuttle however, a turian soldier stopped them "I'm sorry, there's no more room."

Vakarian snarled "You're just going to leave us?! My daughter's hurt!"

The soldier shook his head sadly "We're pushing maximum capacity as it is, we won't be able to take off if we let you on. There's another evac shuttle on the way. It should be here in a few minutes."

Vakarian was never one to plead, but he refused to just give up "We won't last a few minutes, the Reapers are almost here! Please, at least take my daughter."

The soldier looked like he was about to protest when someone spoke up from inside the shuttle "She can take my spot."

Vakarian looked up to see a slim light-plated turian with lavender markings on his mandibles shove his way out of the shuttle. The soldier smiled faintly at the man willing to sacrifice his spot for another. "Alright, get her aboard."

Solana stared to protest as the soldier took her from her father. "What? No, Dad! I'm not leaving you behind!"

Vakarian smiled at his daughter as she was lifted into the shuttle "Give your mother and Garrus my love. Goodbye Solana."

Solana continued to protest as the shuttle doors started to close. The soldier tossed Vakarian his gun as he climbed into the shuttle. "There's another evac not far from here. If you run you might still make it in time!"

Vakarian nodded and watched the shuttle lift off. He turned to the turian who had given up his seat for Solana. "Thank you,"

The turian glanced away "It was the least I could do." He mumbled.

Vakarian looked back to the shuttle as it started to shoot off into the sky…

Then a Reaper's beam struck it.

It had been a glancing blow, but it was enough to knock the shuttle around, damaging the engines. Vakarian watched in horror as the shuttle spun out of control and crashed further down the road. "SOLANA!" Vakarian cried as he rushed to the wreckage of the shuttle, the turian with lavender markings trailing behind him.

When he got to the shuttle, several people who had survived the crash were climbing out, nursing their wounds. Vakarian didn't see Solana among them and turned to the wreck. The shuttle had flipped over, landing on its top, and crashed into a wall, covering half of the wreckage in rubble with its engine on fire, ready to blow at any moment. Vakarian climbed into the wreckage, dropping the rifle the turian soldier had given him, freeing his hands to pull rubble aside while frantically calling Solana's name. He lifted a large piece of rubble aside and found the crushed body of the turian soldier.

"Hey!" Vakarian turned to see the turian with lavender markings pointing back the way they'd come where a swarm of husks was rushing toward them. "We got company!"

Vakarian snarled but continued his search. He was about to move another piece of rubble aside when the other turian grabbed his arm. "I'm a medic, let me find her! You keep those husks off of me!"

Vakarian growled but let the younger turian take his place. He picked up the rifle and started firing at the husks, his anger fueling every shot. Nobody harmed his family. Nobody. He didn't know how long he had kept the husks at bay, some of the less severely wounded soldiers and refugees picking up firearms to help him, all he knew was that Solana depended on him, and he refused to fail. Wave after wave, he fired at the husks, every shot a kill, and the husks just kept on coming.

Suddenly, a roar tore through the gunfire "I. AM. KROGAN!"

Vakarian saw a white blur as a young krogan in white armor charged past them and into the hoard of husks, shotgun blasting away. Vakarian watched in amazement as the krogan almost single-handedly drove back the husks, roaring taunts and challenges all the while. Vakarian turned back to the shuttle to see Solana held in the turian with lavender markings arms.

Rushing to his daughter, Vakarian pulled her into a hug. "Sol, are you alright? Are you hurt? Spirits I thought I'd lost you!"

Solana lightly punched her father "Dad stop it, I'm fine."

Vakarian released Solana and turned to the turian who had saved her "I cannot thank you enough."

The turian fidgeted, not meeting Vakarian's eyes. "W-We should get these people moving to the next evac."

Vakarian nodded "What's your name son?"

The turian visibly hesitated before responding "Sidonis, Lantar Sidonis."

…

"… He tended to Solana's wounds and carried her all the way to the next evac. We managed to get off-world and spent the remainder of the war on a quarian refugee ship. During that time, despite his attempts to avoid us, Solana continued to try and talk to Lantar. She knew about what he'd done to Garrus and wanted to know why he did it and then turned around and saved her." Vakarian shook his head "I'll admit, when I learned who he was I had almost wanted to shoot him myself on the spot. I'm glad I refrained from doing so. Solana managed to get him to open up and he told us in… vivid… detail what the Blue Sun had done to make him cooperate with them."

"And you just accepted his word as truth?" Alice asked.

Vakarian shook his head "No, of course not. But I'm an experienced old C-Sec officer, and I like to think that I know when people are lying, and Lantar… he most certainly was not." Vakarian turned his gaze to Solana and Sidonis who were still deep in conversation "He's stronger than he looks, even when they… he refused to give in, not even when they started scaling him did he submit."

Alice's eyes widened and she looked at Sidonis. She may not be a complete expert on turian physiology, but she knew enough to know that scaling a turian was the equivalent of skinning a human. "What broke him?"

Vakarian's eyes darkened "Sometimes, the worst sort of pain isn't purely physical. At C-Sec I saw a lot of cases like what happened to him and it still horrifies me."

Alice didn't need any more explanation. She decided to change the topic "How did he and Solana…?"

"Become a couple?" Vakarian finished. "I'm still not sure. I don't believe it came about because Lantar saved her, nor do I think it was a result of pity on her behalf, I think it just… happened." Vakarian smiled wistfully "That's often seems to be how love comes about isn't it?"

Alice nodded, her thoughts immediately drifting to her and Garrus. She looked back at Vakarian "Why haven't you told Garrus about the torture and how he saved Solana?"

Vakarian sighed "Lantar asked us not to. I don't know why but for some reason he doesn't want Garrus to know."

Alice frowned "Odd,"

Vakarian nodded "I know, that's why I'm telling you, not Garrus. I'd appreciate it if refrained from telling him. I believe Lantar wishes to do it himself when he is ready."

Alice nodded "Of course." She said, though deep down, she knew that this would only make things more difficult between Garrus and Sidonis.