When she finally awoke, she felt Garrus' hard talons against her hand. She took the chance to study them: he hardly ever took off his gloves, and seeing these predatory markings up close was...fascinating. Hard plates acted as knuckles, though the palms were a softer, tan leather. An image of those leathery hands caressing her cheek suddenly invaded her. What the hell kind of pain killers did they give me? As her eyes darted up in an effort to snap back to reality, she finally got a look at the turian sitting beside her. He wasn't asleep as she had first thought, rather, he was very much awake and drilling through her with a ferocity she had never seen before.

"Damn Vakarian, you look like you need whatever they're giving me more than I do," Shepard stumbled through her words, the red sand still clouding her mind and making her lips heavier to move.

"One of us has to remain with reality, and it certainly isn't going to be you," he almost hissed through his teeth, some rage flashing in his piercing blue eyes. God she never noticed how...blue they were before. Comparing them to earth's oceans always felt like a corny cliche, particularly since she had never been there to see them, but she imagined that large bodies of water could never compare to the depths of this turian's gaze. But his words were fierce, masking a bitterness that she had to investigate.

"Ouch, and where did this come from?"

"Do you even realize how incredibly lucky you were back there? That crate could have easily crushed you, Shepard," his eyes were unrelenting, holding her hostage.

"Oh Garrus," she smiled, "Why would I ever need luck when I have a turian at my 6?" her head cocked in coyness.

"A turian can only do so much...can only lose so much…" the last part was whispered as he turned away from her briefly, stroking her hand under his, "You have to be more careful. If nothing else, then for my own peace of mind. Please," the last plea was coupled by his hand squeezing hers and the return of his deep gaze.

"I can't promise to be careful when it comes to defending my team. I don't know, when I go into these fights, I just see blue. My biotics take control of me, and I cut loose. You know, sometimes I don't even remember how I got to one end of the battlefield to the other. There's pieces of the fight that I just don't remember...Have I ever told you that I don't have an implant?" her words were flowing uncontrollably. Her brain still in a haze, she couldn't get her slurred words out fast enough.

"Wait, what? How is that even possible?" he let go of her hand, studying her.

"When I was on Mindoir, the batarians didn't just single me out for my hair color. I was born with biotic abilities, but they didn't manifest until I was 15, in their camps. One of the nastier of the bastards had me and my little sister in a cage….

The electric bars swung open, footsteps echoing nearer. She wrapped her arms around a sleeping Irina, praying she could stay asleep for what she was sure would come next. They hadn't had any contact with anyone since transferred to this new pen, which almost never boded well.

A whistle, a tune she did not recognize. Footsteps louder, closer. Her arms squeezed tighter.

"I don't remember giving permission to sleep," the voice came from the footsteps, a Master appeared.

"Please, she's been sick. I'll do whatever you need me t-" a slap silenced her and knocked her grip from Irina.

"Animals don't speak! And useless animals get put down," his footsteps got closer to Irina, now awake and terrified. No, she shouldn't have woke up. He pulled a knife from his side. She jumped on his back, tackled him but the knife did not come free from his grip. A pain in her leg. Rage.

She took the knife from her leg and slashed the Master's face, nicking an eye. But she wasn't fast enough. He reared back, and a full fist knocked into her face. She was on the ground and dizzy. Too dizzy to get up as the Master moved to Irina. She moved to stand, but her leg gave out from under her. It was too late. The knife made its way to Irina and it was over.

Blue haze.

A force came from her skin that blasted the master through the bars, breaking him. She crawled to Irina, holding her, blue, crying.

"They caught me like that, and seeing the biotic field still around me it didn't take long to put two and two together. I was in an observation room from then on, until the Alliance showed up and got me out. When I went through training and I finally used my biotics again, I could do everything I needed to without an implant, so they just assumed I already had one," she felt her mouth moving but didn't even realize that she told Garrus her most private memory until it was too late.

"So your biotics automatically send you into a battle rage? Like your body is trying to protect you from the pain of your memory of Irina?" she was shocked to see how calm he was, how unrepulsed his reaction was.

"A battle rage?"

"Our ancestors had to deal with something like that. Before modernized weapons, turians fought mostly with our natural weapons," he raised his hands, twiddling his talons, "This made most go into a battle rage, that left them a terror on the field but with little to no memory of what happened afterwards. Once those became obsolete, we mostly evolved out of it. Except for the ah...exception," he glanced down, remembering his own story he shared on the SR-1.

"Well then the answer to our little problem is easy, isn't it?" he raised a brow curiously at her response, "I just need to evolve out of it!" He couldn't help but to chuckle at the direction she took.

"Yeah we'll have Mordin harvest some of my tissue and make a 'cure' for you. Hell, it might even make you better looking and your jokes more bearable," that shit eating half grin came over him.

"Someone has to make you look good," Shepard tried to laugh, but a new round of painkillers were flooding into her system, her eyes no match to the weight they brought.

A more turian Shepard...now there's a thought. Garrus slunk back into his chair, his dreams venturing to places that left his mandibles sore the next morning from grinning.