Author's Note (16 Dec 2012): I wish to offer my apologies to my readers. I made a mistake in several of my earlier chapters, calling Shepard a marine, rather than a naval officer. I have updated the chapters, making some minor adjustments to dialogue in Chapter 1. Future chapters will not make the same mistake. Thank you for your attention, and enjoy this week's chapter.

Chapter 5

"Witnesses saw you making threats in Fist's bar. Stay away from him." A human C-Sec officer was lecturing the huge krogan.

"I will kill him." Was the krogan's simple reply.

"Damn it Wrex, this is your only warning!" The C-Sec officer insisted. "You want me to arrest you?"

"I want you to try." Wrex answered with a deep, rumbling laugh.

As the krogan walked away from the C-Sec officer, Shepard stepped into his path.

"Do I know you, human?" Wrex asked.

"My name's Shepard. I'm going after Fist. I thought you might want to come along." Shepard answered.

"Shepard? Commander Shepard? I've heard about you. We're both warriors, Shepard. Out of respect, I'm telling you: I will kill him." The krogan's deep voice was full of menace.

"Fist knows you're coming. You'll have better luck if we go after him together." Garrus pointed out the strategic benefits of an alliance to the red-eyed krogan.

"My people have a saying: Seek the enemy of your enemy, and you will find a friend." Wrex said.

I'm gonna take that as a "yes." Now I'm looking forward to going back to Chora's Den. This poor Fist bastard isn't gonna know what hit him. He better hope he has the answers I want to hear, or his life is gonna take a drastic turn for the worse. "Glad to have you on the team, Wrex."

"Let's go. I hate to keep Fist waiting." Wrex's reptilian features crinkled into a wicked smile.

"Sounds good." Shepard agreed. Looking at Garrus and Ashley, he nodded to Ashley. "Ash, you're relieved. Make sure to check your omni-tool periodically, if I need you I'll let you know with a message."

"But Skipper-" she started to protest, looking wildly at Wrex, her mistrust of the krogan mercenary written all over her pretty features.

"No buts, Ash." Shepard interrupted her before she could get into stride. "There's no way Fist can stand up to me, a turian, and a krogan. He'd have to recruit every piece of merc trash on this station to even slow us down. It'll be fine. Now go." He put steel into his voice as he made it clear this was an order, not a suggestion.

Quailing under his intense gaze, Ashley gave him a salute and headed for one of the elevators.

"Well men, let's go find us a quarian." Shepard said, motioning for his team to move out.

"And kill Fist." Wrex added.

"And kill Fist." Shepard agreed.

Fist cowered on the floor, pleading for his life to the three heavily armed intruders that had decimated his security and destroyed his office. Unfortunately for him, none of the three were in any mood to listen. Shepard was angry because one of Fist's thugs had punched a round through his armor, preventing him from using his left hand to hold any of his weapons. It is really hard to shoot anything but a pistol with only one hand. I need to get some better fucking armor. Whatever mods those bastards were using went right through my shields.

Garrus was upset because his AR had overheated in the middle of battle, forcing him to shelter behind a table while Shepard and Wrex laid waste to the rest of the mercs in the main room of Chora's Den. You're better than this, Vakarian. Pulse your shots; you learned that in basic training. Shoddy, shoddy, work. What would Dad say?

And Wrex didn't feel like listening because he hadn't earned his money until Fist was dead.

Fist eventually gave Shepard everything he wanted.

"But when he shows up, it'll be Saren's men waiting for her." Fist told the Commander.

"Give me the location. Now." Shepard's eyes were hard, and his tone told Fist he would brook no evasions.

"Here on the wards, the back alley by the market." Fist babbled. "She's supposed to be meeting with them now. If you hurry you can stop them."

Suddenly Wrex pulled out his shotgun and put a round through Fist's chest, ending the man's life.

"What are you doing?!" Garrus yelled.

"The Shadow Broker paid me to kill him. I don't leave jobs half done." Wrex said with a half-shrug.

"A lot of people died because of him." Shepard agreed with Wrex. "He had it coming. Now let's move! We gotta save that quarian!

Stopping only to grab an OSD that had fallen out of Fist's pocket during the fighting, the three men ran for the door. Shepard was the first one to reach the door leading out of Fist's office into the bar. As soon as he went through the door, he ducked back inside. "More mercs." He said, in answer to Wrex and Garrus's questioning looks.

On Shepard's movement, the team ran through the door and headed for the first available cover. Shepard crammed himself into a corner made by an upturned table and the wall, Wrex went over the bar, and Garrus took cover just outside the bar, covering Wrex. Looking up, Shepard saw a merc's shadow moving across the wall towards him. Ah, hell. Garrus and Wrex are busy, looks like this one's mine. This is gonna hurt. Shaking his head at what he was about to do, he pulled his shotgun off the back of his waist and extended it. Half a second later, a merc came around the corner, right into Shepard's line of fire. The "thoom" of the shotgun echoed in the small space, and Shepard bit back a grimace as the shotgun's recoil jarred his good arm. Yep, that was dumb.

Opening and closing his hand to get some feeling back into it, Shepard collapsed the shotgun and pulled out his pistol. Moving around his cover, he directed Wrex and Garrus to circle the bar in one direction, while he took the other. Shortly thereafter, the remaining mercs were caught in a crossfire and exterminated. Keeping his pistol out, Shepard recommenced running, skidding out the door and high-tailing it towards the back alley Fist had mentioned.

As they blew through the doors and up the stairs, they came upon a quarian standing between a turian and two armored salarians.

"Did you bring it?" The turian asked.

"Where's the Shadow Broker?" The quarian demanded. "Where's Fist?"

Oh ho, that sounded like a female voice. The body looks female too. A very nice body, actually. Maybe she'll need- What are you doing, Spike? Focus, dammit!

"They'll be here." The turian purred, reaching out a hand to stroke the quarian's helmet. "Where's the evidence?"

"No. I don't like this. The deal's off." The quarian replied, smacking the turian's hand away.

And she's got some spunk, too. I like her a lot, and we haven't even been properly introduced. Unfortunately, this probably means that the turian is- yup, that nod to the salarians was the signal. Time to go to work.

Before the salarians could take two steps towards her, the quarian acted. She sent out a techmine that blasted them aside, and then dove for cover.

She's a tricky one. Daddy likey. But there's shooting to be done now, so lecherous thoughts will have to wait for later.

Charging forward with his pistol, Shepard started shooting at the nearest salarian assassin. Two shots destroyed the target's shields, and the next three shots tattooed a hole directly between the eyes of the salarian's armor. Checking the other salarian, Shepard saw Wrex standing over him. The salarian had a new hole in the middle of his suit, courtesy of Wrex's shotgun. Looking the other way, Shepard saw that Garrus had pinned the enemy turian behind some boxes. Motioning to Garrus to keep up the covering fire, he motioned for Wrex to join him in charging the other turian.

As he sprinted towards the camped turian, Shepard cued up a techmine of his own. Coming around the corner, he launched the mine at the turian. As soon as it hit, it exploded in orange electricity, instantly overheating the turian's shotgun. With no weapon to shoot back with, the turian took a swing at Shepard. Shepard ducked the punch, but before he could counter, a speeding hulk of red armor picked up the turian and slammed him into the wall. Shepard heard the turian's spine crack, but just to be sure, he placed the barrel of his pistol against the turian's head, and squeezed the trigger twice. Satisfied, he turned towards the quarian.

"Fist set me up! I knew I couldn't trust him!" She shouted.

"Were you hurt in the fight?" Shepard asked, concern etched onto his face.

"I know how to look after myself." The quarian replied with more than a bit of pride. "Not that I don't appreciate the help. Who are you?"

"My name's Shepard. I'm looking for evidence to prove Saren's a traitor." He said, holding out his hand.

"Then I may have some way to repay you for saving me." She answered, shaking his outstretched hand. "But not here, I want to go somewhere safe."

I could think of a few ways to be repaid, the horny part of Shepard's mind said. You realize she would die if she were outside that suit, right dumbass? The critical part of Shepard's mind had a scathing retort. And if you don't mind, we have business to attend to right now.

"We could take her to the human embassy." Garrus suggested.

"Good idea." Shepard agreed. "Let's move out. Garrus, Wrex, keep your weapons out. I don't want any other would-be assassins making an attempt on the quarian's life."

"My name is Tali'Zorah nar Rayya." The quarian pouted.

"Ok, nice to meet you Tali." Shepard said. "The big krogan is Wrex, the skinny turian is Garrus, and they are both responsible for your continued well-being until we get you to the human embassy. Understood, you two?" He finished, checking the krogan and the turian for nods. Once they had nodded, all four moved out for the nearest elevator.

Back in Udina's office, Shepard's patience was beginning to wear thin.

"You're not making my life easy, Shepard. A firefight in the wards, an all-out assault on Chora's Den." Turning around, Udina stopped talking momentarily as he saw Shepard's company. "Who's this? A quarian? What are you up to, Shepard?"

Forget feeding this asshole to a thresher maw. I want to feed him to a Sarlacc. His frustration boiled over into his answer to Udina. "This quarian can help us bring down Saren. I would've told you that, if you hadn't jumped down my throat."

After Udina's hasty apology- Not that he meant it, the lying sack of shit, Shepard thought to himself- Tali was able to speak.

"I was on my Pilgrimage, my rite of passage into adulthood."

"I've never heard of this before." Shepard said questioningly.

"It is a tradition among my people." She answered. "We leave the ships of our parents, and our people, behind. Alone, we search the stars, only returning to the flotilla once we have discovered something of value. In this way, we prove ourselves worthy of adulthood."

"What kinds of things do you look for?" Shepard asked, fascinated.

"It could be resources, like food or fuel. Occasionally someone will bring back a ship. Sometimes it is knowledge that will make life easier for the flotilla." She said in a patient tone. "Through our Pilgrimage, we prove that we will contribute to the community, rather than being a burden on our limited resources."

"Thank you." Shepard said politely. "Please, tell us what you found."

Tali nodded, and began her story. "During my travels I began hearing reports of geth. Since they drove my people into exile, they have never been seen beyond the Perseus Veil. I was curious. I tracked a patrol of geth to an unsettled world, and was able to kill one, capturing its memory core."

"I thought the geth fried their memory cores when they died. Some kind of defense mechanism." Anderson interjected.

"How did you manage to preserve the core?" Shepard asked Tali directly.

"My people created the geth. If you're quick, careful, and lucky, small portions of data can be saved." She shrugged modestly. "This time, I was able to secure a small bit of the geth's audio logs." Activating her omni-tool, a recording began to play.

"Eden Prime was a major victory! The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit!"

"That's Saren's voice. This proves he was involved in the attack!" Anderson exclaimed.

"He said Eden Prime brought him one step closer to finding the Conduit." Shepard pointed out. "Any idea what that means?"

"The Conduit must have something to do with the beacon. Maybe it's a piece of Prothean technology . . . like a weapon!" Anderson answered.

"There's more to the recording." Tali interrupted the two humans.

"Eden Prime was a major victory! The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit!" The recording repeated. "And one step closer to the return of the Reapers." A chilling female voice followed Saren's.

"I don't recognize that other voice. The one talking about Reapers." Udina said, crossing his arms.

"Are they some kind of new alien species?" Shepard asked. Why does that name sound so familiar?

"According to the memory core, the Reapers were a hyper-advanced race of machines that existed 50,000 years ago. They hunted the Protheans to extinction. At least that's what the geth believe." Tali said with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Sounds a little far-fetched." Udina, as always, was willing to be the voice of the pessimists.

"The vision on Eden Prime – I understand it now. I saw the Protheans being wiped out by the Reapers." Now I know why "Reaper" sounded so familiar!

"The geth revere the Reapers as gods." Tali added. "They believe that Saren can bring them back."

"Oh, the Council is just going to love this!" Udina said sarcastically.

"The Reapers are a threat to every species in Citadel space." Shepard pointed out. We have to try to warn the Council.

No matter what they think about the rest of this, the audio file proves Saren is a traitor!" Anderson's voice was excited at the thought of finally bringing Saren down.

"The Captain is right." Udina, for once, was agreeing with Anderson. "We must bring this information to the Council."

"What about the quarian?" Wrex spoke up from the back.

"My name is Tali!" Tali said angrily to Wrex. Turning her attention to Shepard, she said, "You saw me in the alley, Commander. You know what I can do. Let me come with you."

A hot new alien friend? I'll take one. But wait, isn't she trying to become an adult? Does that mean she's still a "child?" Children should not be allowed to have bodies that look like that. How old is she, exactly? I should ask her later. Back to the matter at hand, though, I don't want to lose her, but I don't want to keep her from being able to rejoin her people. "I thought you were on your Pilgrimage?"

"The Pilgrimage proves we are willing to give of ourselves for the greater good. What does it say about me if I turn my back on this?" She asked incredulously. "Saren is a danger to the entire galaxy. My pilgrimage can wait."

Well, I guess if she's sure. And maybe she'll come across something she can bring back to her flotilla while tagging along. "I'll take all the help I can get." He said aloud.

"Thanks." She said, moving to stand beside him. "You won't regret this."

Udina once again made himself the focus of attention. "Anderson and I will go ahead to get things ready with the Council. Take a few minutes to get yourself ready, then meet us there." Then he walked out of the office, leaving Shepard, Tali, Garrus, and Wrex standing there. He is such a huge dick. Shepard thought to himself. Who am I gonna bring with me to the Council? I don't think we need four people, plus Udina and Anderson. Actually, this is an easy decision.

"Wrex, I'm gonna take these two with me to the Council. I figure Tali found the data, so she should definitely be there, and Garrus is a turian, so he has a personal stake in this. But stay in touch, because I have a feeling I might need someone with your special talents later."

"Shepard." Wrex turned and walked out the door.

"Come on, you two. Let's go get Saren kicked to the curb." Shepard and his team walked out of the human embassy, and headed for the Citadel Tower.