AN: The plot thickens! Thanks for reading, especially to those of you who are reviewing :) Lots more to come, so stay tuned!

What Doesn't Kill You

After what seemed like an eternity to Shepard, but was really only about an hour and a half, the krogan finally stopped beating her with the makeshift mace. He set it back on the table behind her, and left through the front door. Once he was gone, Shepard hung her head, staring down at the drain below her. Two little splashes of salt water landed in one of her open wounds, but somehow, it didn't sting as badly as it should have. She sighed, finding it a little difficult to draw breath in the position she was in. The good thing about being hung by her arms was that she had lost almost all feeling in them. Either that, or she'd grown numb from the beatings.

But Shepard barely had a moment to collect her thoughts before the door swung open loudly. It was the turian, Varick. He greeted Shepard with a polite nod after activating the door lock. "Still hanging in there?" he inquired.

Shepard chuckled at the pun. "You know it."

From one corner of the room, Varick dragged a table with two chairs to right in front of where Shepard dangled. He pulled at the lever, and the chain loosened suddenly. Shepard collapsed into the ground, banging her knees on the metal grate. When she didn't rise to her feet, Varick approached her. He bent down to grab her arm and hoist her up.

He was met with Shepard's fist in his teeth. Varick staggered back, slightly surprised at his prisoner's audacity. She was still handcuffed, but that hardly made a difference to her. She revved up her biotics, scraping together just enough energy for the smallest of throw fields. But before she could unleash her attack, Varick retaliated. He swung hard at her face. She couldn't dodge it. His blow threw her off balance, but Varick didn't let her fall. He jerked her by the handcuffs and dragged her over to the table, forcing her into one of the chairs. To make sure she stayed put, he drew a slim knife from its sheath and stabbed it into the wood of the table. Straight through Shepard's left hand. She bit back a scream, but couldn't prevent the sound from totally escaping her.

Varick seated himself across from her. "I suggest you don't try that again." Shepard didn't seem to hear him. With her other hand, she was reaching across to pull the knife out, but before she could do anything about it, there was a knife through her right hand, too.

She started crying quietly. Blood was pooling beneath her palms.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," Varick said, as if he regretted stabbing her twice through her hands. The tears continued to run down her face. She let her hair fall forward to shield her from the turian's view as best as she could. "Oh, hey, don't be like that."

"What do you want from me?" she asked him. If only she knew, she'd be able to defend herself better. But this mindless torture... it was starting to get to her.

"I have an idea," Varick said, as if he'd given it a lot of thought. "How about this: you will ask me one question, and I will answer you to the best of my ability. Then, I will ask you a question, and you will give me your honest answer." He gave her what seemed like a genuine smile, his mandibles flaring out slightly. "Sound fair?" Shepard gave two sullen nods. "Okay. Good. I'm glad. You go first."

There were a thousand things she'd like to ask, but Shepard went with, "Who do you work for?"

"You mean, who ordered all of this?" Varick asked, gesturing at the area around him. She shrugged, felt the knives bite into her hand. "It was the Shadow Broker."

It didn't make sense to Shepard. "The one time I've ever been involved with the Shadow Broker was years ago." It was back when Shepard wasn't even a Spectre yet. She'd only just teamed up with Garrus and Wrex to take down Fist in their search for evidence against Saren. "Hell, I even killed one of the agents that betrayed him." Surely the Shadow Broker appreciated that. "What can he have against me?"

"This isn't about anything as petty as revenge. Don't you see, Shepard? You've always been involved with the Shadow Broker. You're far too important, far too powerful to go unnoticed. Even when you were dead, we were interested in you." Her eyebrows furrowed. "Yet still, there is so much potential."

"Potential? What are you talking about?"

"Soon. You'll find out very soon, Commander."

Shepard got the sense he wasn't going to answer any more of her questions. She raised her head, jerked her chin at him. "Fine. Your turn with the questions."

Varick gave her a smile that set her hairs on end. His eyes drifted down to her neck, covered in sweat and a few splotchy purple marks. "I already know all there is to know." He pulled his knives out of her hands one by one, Shepard wincing each time. He lead her back over the dangling chain, and though she resisted, it didn't take Varick long to string her back up. "Nice chatting with you, Shepard. We'll talk again later."

Shepard had sixty seconds exactly to mull over her thoughts before the door opened once more. It was Tayir, the krogan. He circled around to the back table. He returned holding a long whip with tiny barbs at the end.

Outside the room Shepard was being tortured in, the lilac-skinned asari awaited the return of her accomplice. When Varick approached, she asked, "Well?"

He took his place at her side. While his eyes were focused on the one-way mirror, Kamala watched his face intently.

"She's right where we want her." He gave her a sidelong glance. "I hope you're prepared for what you have to do, Nasar."

"Of course," Kamala replied.

"Good. Because I don't want what happened to the last candidate to happen with this one."

Kamala snorted, a little insulted. "The fact that his organs were liquified during the process was hardly my fault. You know that only the strongest of minds can resist the effects of the Ardat-Yakshi." She looked smug. "He was a poor candidate. Shepard will not break so easily, I think."

"Our purpose is not to break her," Varick said icily, eyes narrowed. Kamala flinched back. He remained silent for a moment, waiting for some sign that she understood that. She nodded, suddenly very interested in Varick's boots. Satisfied that she comprehended the message, Varick continued, "Our goal is to make her stronger."

"Try telling that to Tayir," Kamala retorted snarkily. Varick shot her another cutting look.

"It's not the physical damage that will last. It's the mental kind that will undo her." A short pause, then, "Which is not our purpose."

Kamala dipped her head slightly, leaning a bit to the left. "It is as you say."

She watched him move silently down the hallway, turn a corner, and disappear. Hands clasped behind her back, she watched unblinkingly as Shepard was whipped mercilessly by the krogan. Our goal is to make her stronger. Well, it was a well known fact that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Back on the Normandy, Tali and Jacob greeted the ground team's return with cautious hope.

"What did you find out?" Tali blurted out immediately, not only because she was going to relay the message to the rest of the team, but she had to know that they were getting closer to finding Shepard.

Liara gave her a quick run-down of all the facts they had up until then. When she was finished, Jacob asked, "So you think that by finding this... Ardat-Yakshi, you'll find the commander?"

"Either that, or she'll be able to tell us exactly where to find her," Kaidan affirmed.

"Okay," Jacob said, "How do we find the asari?"

"I know someone downtown who can help us pick up her trail. Someone as notable as an Ardat-Yakshi could not have passed through Illium without attracting attention," Liara said.

"Are we going to have to beat up this one, too?" Miranda inquired caustically.

"No," Liara snapped back defensively. Then, with more civility, "But he will require payment."

"What's his price?" Miranda asked. Money really wasn't an object to them. Miranda herself knew exactly how much Cerberus had spent on the Lazarus Project, and they were willing to spend quite a bit more to get the commander back.

"I... he's a bit strange, I admit. He won't accept credits, but he is interested in rare, beautiful things. Something aesthetically pleasing," Liara said.

"This is ridiculous. We hardly have time for Kasumi to rob the nearest museum." Miranda had begun to drum her fingers on her thigh. "Isn't there someone else you know in this city who can give us information?"

Liara shook her head. "He's the best, and also the closest to where Shepard was taken. If anyone can help us track down the Ardat-Yakshi, it's him."

While the two of them were debating, Garrus had been thinking. "I think I know what we can give him," he spoke up. Both Miranda and Liara looked perplexed that he'd come up with something so quickly. He ignored their bewildered expressions and said, "Thanks for your help, Grunt. We'll come get you when there's more stuff to shoot." That satisfied him. Grunt decided that, for a turian, the blue soldier wasn't so bad. He tromped off in the direction of the cargo hold. "Tali, could you go grab Samara? Tell her to bring her weapons." Tali nodded and headed out to summon the justicar. Garrus, too, left to locate the object that was to be their tribute.

"Where are you going?" Liara asked, one eyebrow raised. She still had that disconcerted look on her face.

Garrus stepped inside the elevator. He made a circling motion with his hands, like he was tracing the outline of a ball in the air. "I have to get the thingy."

He was unsurprised to find that Shepard's room was a bit of a mess. The sheets of her bed were twisted and tangled from their last encounter, and her desk area was nearly overflowing with junk she had planned on sorting through, but never got the chance. Don't worry, Shepard. I'll make sure you get home so you can clean your messy room. He felt the urge to tidy a few things up, but there were more pressing matters at hand.

He did end up grabbing one of her sweatshirts off the ground, holding it to his nose for a second and inhaling her familiar scent, before tossing it onto the couch.

"There you are," he muttered under his breath, catching sight of the object he'd decided to use as payment. It was a silver sphere that contracted and expanded on contact. Garrus thought he remembered Shepard telling him it was Prothean. She didn't seem particularly attached to the object. He figured she wouldn't be too angry at him if they gave it away.

As soon as his fingertips brushed its surface, its size fluctuated rapidly, rolling off the table. Get back here, dammit. He spent the better part of the next five minutes chasing it around her room, touching it but not quite grabbing hold. After circling her room about a thousand times, the sphere finally rolled towards the stairs at the front of the room, wedging itself at the base. Garrus was about to dive for it when the door slid open.

"Oh, hey, Kaidan," Garrus said. His knees were tensed, ready to spring. Kaidan gave him a questioning look, and he stood up straight, trying to look casual. "What's up?"

Kaidan shrugged. "We were just wondering what was – aww, a space hamster! - what was taking so long."

A little embarrassed, Garrus explained the situation. "And now it's right there," he finished, pointing to where the elusive sphere rested in the corner of the stairs.

Kaidan thought for a moment, his forehead creasing in concentration. "Do you have something we can carry it in?" Garrus fished an empty duffle bag from the bottom of Shepard's closet. "Good, that'll work. Hold it open." Drawing a deep breath, Kaidan levitated the silver object biotically. It quivered, seemingly sensitive to the dark energy, before it dropped into the bag.

Garrus zipped it up. "Thanks, Kaidan."

"No problem." The two of them stood there for a moment. Kaidan rubbed the back of his neck. "So, uhh, is she usually this messy?"

What would you care? You're not part of her life any more. The spike of jealousy that arose in Garrus shocked him. He knew that Kaidan was probably going through hell, swimming in guilt from the fact that Shepard had been taken on his watch. Garrus wondered if he'd gotten the chance to tell her whatever it was that he called her to Illium for. She could be sitting in a cell somewhere, still angry at him. And that would be her last impression of him if she died there. I guess I should give the guy a break.

"No. Most of the time she's kind of a neat freak. It almost never gets like this," Garrus said, gesturing at the area around them.

Kaidan laughed. "That's the Shepard I remember. She only ever used to wear her uniforms, like, twice before she washed them."

"Yeah. She was always anal like that." Oh, Spirits. Did I really just use that word?

But before Garrus could hear what Kaidan had to say about that, their conversation was interrupted by the intercom. "What are you two doing up there?" It was Liara. Then, "Get down here or we're leaving without you." That one was definitely Miranda.

"Coming!" they shouted in unison towards the receiver box near the door. The two of them left Shepard's room and made their way into the elevator.

Liara inspected Garrus's gift choice, giving a nod of approval. "It's definitely Prothean. Look, you can tell when the material expands that it -"

"We don't really care what it does, as long as it gets us the information we need," Miranda cut her short.

Garrus was ready to quell another argument, but to his surprise, Liara didn't look too offended. "We do have very little time to waste. Nevertheless, it is a very valuable artifact."

"Well," Garrus said, zipping up the duffel bag and slinging the strap over his shoulder. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained."