1.

Concern eats away at him. They have picked up T'Soni and investigated Noveria and are en route to the Citadel to pick up supplies. He hasn't had another blackout, but it weighs on his mind. He can't do anything about the lost time at this moment, so he goes to take care of the problem he can handle.

"Commander, I'd like to have a moment of your time."

"Vakarian, I always make time to listen to my crew's concerns. But if this is about releasing the rachni, I assure you the turian councilor has already raked me over the coals about it."

His mandibles flutter in annoyance, and Shepard shoots him an uneasy glance, his visor showing him all the markers of a human in fight-or-flight response. Dilated eyes. Increased heart palpitations. A rising body temperature. But the only sign of her discomfort is the glance. He tilts his head. "That's not a human expression I remember hearing."

Now she shifts from foot to foot, crossing her arms. "It means he's already reprimanded me about it."

"Ah," he says. The awkward silence grows, maddening. "Why do you hate turians?"

She swallows, her face otherwise impassive "What makes you say that?" She lowers her arms to the side, her posture deceptively open. Garrus has worked long enough in Citadel Security to know human body language. Tension thrums through her. She hides it well enough, but part of the job was learning the tells of other species.

He ticks them off on his talons, another human gesture. "Well, lastly singling out the turian councilor. Councilor Sparatus is an old shantha, but Tevos and Valern would have things to say. Valern especially, since the salarians uplifted the krogan specifically to fight the rachni."

"He did," she allows.

"You were harsh with Qui'in and the mechanic. The few missions you take me out on, I'm on point. Except for Noveria, Liara and I were never on the fire team together, and even then, you took Wrex to Peak 15. You made it clear you didn't trust her until now, and it stands to reason you wouldn't put two squadmates you didn't trust together. You're good, but not that good. You wouldn't give two potential enemies even the slightest chance to overpower you. So something she said changed your mind about her, but you still don't know about me," he says.

"You're not wrong," she says, crossing her arms again.

"Shepard," he says, using her name for the first time. "I was an investigator, a good one, despite the Saren fiasco. For all we get along and work well in combat together, you don't trust me. Don't get me wrong. You're professional enough on the surface. Something tells me it's not about me. Why?"

He sees her teeth clench, her face flashing anger and annoyance and hurt. "Shanxi," she grinds out.

"It's more than that," he presses.

"My mother was an officer aboard one of the ships guarding the expedition at Shanxi-Theta. She died defending the ship from your unprovoked attack."

"Oh," is all he can say.

"My father worked as a teacher." Shepard's eyes narrow. "When you began dropping pieces of orbital debris—on a garden world no less and against your own damn laws—your people took out the whole city block where he and the children he taught were hiding. If they hadn't left me with my grandmother in Atlanta at the time—" She swallows. "Excuse me, Officer Vakarian. I should go."

No small wonder she hated turians. But something about her dismissal of humanity's part makes him speak. "There were losses on both sides. It was just a misunderstanding. It was illegal to activate that relay—"

She pivots on her heel and stalks into his personal space, cutting him off. Even though he towers over her, even with all his training, he can't help but take a step back. "A misunderstanding? A misunderstanding doesn't kill people. Poor impulse control does. Leaping into a situation before you have all the facts does. And to think your people pride yourselves on being more disciplined than us reckless humans."

He feels like a ship that flew too close to the sun. She peels layers off him, raw. How many times has his father scolded him for that very same thing? "I see," he says, chastised. I didn't think—"

"No, you didn't."

She strides forward, intent on the door. He has to stop her, to make her see. "Just give me a chance! I want to take down Saren as much as you do. You can't judge an entire people for the action of a few."

She stops. "You're right." she says softly without looking back. "Prepare to be part of the landing party on our next mission. One chance, Vakarian." And the door shuts behind her.

They dock at the Citadel. As he steps out of the airlock, his vision turns blue again. An admiral immediately blindsides Shepard with a surprise inspection and she lets him view the ship, arguing passionately about different aliens learning to work together. He's a little surprised. That happened differently last time. She didn't let him tour the ship. Another change, though not as big as Arcturus.

And there are plenty. She's colder. Harder than he remembers. Not as forgiving. There are times he hardly believes this is the Commander he knew from before.

And yet, there's no denying she is who she says she is. Her way of walking, her manner of speaking…It's all her. He'd know her anywhere.

Even if so many things are different. As they go through C-Sec, that reporter corners her again. He sees her jaw working and the anger shining out of her eyes, but she keeps calm, answers her questions without giving away classified information. Or punching her.

His mind races as he tries to figure out what's going on. Why is he here? A hallucination, his mind whispers. A delusion. A dream. But that can't be right. Did he make to the beam in time? But why are events from two years ago replaying? He'd say it's memory, but some things are different. Different enough to give him pause.

Did everyone die? Is that why they're all here?

Was it something here on the Citadel? Should he attempt to search for the Catalyst? In the little time he has, he searches seams. Looks around Citadel Control and Citadel Tower and anywhere else he can think of for anything that could fire the Crucible.

Nothing on his omnitool's scans. In fact, everything looks like it did before Sovereign's attack. Eerie. He investigates Chora's Den a few hours before they're supposed to meet up since that's where he appeared the first time, only for a dizzy spell to nearly tip him over. He staggers against the wall, placing a hand over his eyes.

Garrus can't remember how he got here or what he is supposed to be doing in the first place. He straightens, dusting nonexistent dirt from his armor. His stomach curdles, but he takes a breath and moves on. He stops as he hears Shepard shouting at a human man.

"I don't care, Finch. I'm not letting him go. I don't condone genocide. You attack the people responsible. You don't fuck around with medical supplies or food, Finch. Not even turians. We never did that. Not anything that hurts kids like we were."

"Well, look at you. All high and mighty Spectre bitch. On your back for the aliens, now. Jay was right about you."

"Fuck you and fuck the Reds. I don't owe you anything."

"Is that really the way you want to handle it, Nightingale? You don't want us as an enemy. When we post those vids about you killing turians with a smile on your face," he trails off, smirking. "Got ten people right here who'll swear up and down it was you."

"That ain't my name," Shepard takes a deep breath. "That is not my name anymore. My past is a matter of public record. It's funny you would try to blackmail me when you forget what I can do. Especially when it involves killing." She draws her pistol and looks at it with hooded eyes, her smile a deadly promise. "And I'm a Spectre," she says in a saccharine tone. "Look at that. No consequences. I could kill everyone in this bar right now and the Council wouldn't even bat an eye." She giggles. "Spectre business."

"You wouldn't," Finch says, but Garrus sees sweat beading down his brow, a sure sign of human nervousness.

Shepard aims her pistol at his forehead. "Try me."

Finch must see something in her eyes that Garrus doesn't because he pales and backs away slowly, running as soon as he reaches the door. Garrus has seen the face she wears when she kills. That doesn't even come close. It's also the first time he's ever seen her flaunt her Spectre authority. It's unlike her.

"You should have shot him," the Maitrum CO grumbles at her. "What kind of Spectre does that make you?"

She clenches her teeth. "A good one," she says to the turian, after taking a moment to force her anger down. "I'm not that person anymore. And you're drinking on duty. I'm not here to do your job for you." She turns and sees him and her eyes widen. It's almost endearing, how flustered she is to see him there, if what just happened hadn't been so serious.

"Vakarian."

"Commander."

"How much of that did you hear?"

"Enough." Enough to know his intuition is right; the Commander Shepard he knows would never participate in hate crimes, much less free a man accused of one. He's seen Curt Weisman's rap sheet. He's been on the run from the turian armed forces since before Garrus left C-Sec. Maitrum with its maximum-security prison and deadly heat is going to be far too kind to him.

"Vakarian, I—"

Garrus holds up his hand. "You don't owe me an explanation." And she really doesn't; her actions speak for themselves. He smiles, and this time she doesn't jerk back, so he puts his hand on her shoulder, and heads to the bartender to order some horosk, not seeing the bemused look she sends after his back.

After that, he needs the good stuff.

Things start to change. On Feros, she runs ahead with her pistol leaving her back open. It's a shocking display of trust, the first time she's ever taken point with him on the team, so he does her a favor and drops the Shock trooper trying to flank her. She grins and throws a sloppy salute in acknowledgement. As they run and gun the geth, he feels something he hasn't felt in a long time. Not in the military or at C-Sec.

::Peace::

With "Bang Bang Boom!" blasting through his visor, he takes out the geth with ruthless proficiency, even while his mind is distracted. They kill the geth and help the colonists and move through the skyway.

He's not really surprised when she convinces Jeong to turn Feros into a marketing ploy, nor when she leaves the thorian asari alive.

Though she eased up on him personally, she still takes issues with some of the way he handles things. She doesn't let him shoot Saleon, but she kills him right after as the salarian draws his weapon and attempts to shoot them. "You can't control people's choices, but you can control your own." Red tape's just a different type of battle, but the rules still apply. She still plays by them even as a Spectre. "Do things the right way, not the fastest."

It's frustrating, at first. It takes him a while, but he gets it, and even thinks she sees a little of herself in him. She's atoning by helping him make better choices. It makes sense. With her history, he wonders sometimes how she can stand to be in the same room as him, how she can be so professional, even as she's cold.

But like ice, she thaws towards him, little by little.

And then Virmire comes with the sound of thunder and cool rain against his fevered plates.

The whole time Wrex fires his shotgun, Garrus is on edge, blue playing at his vision, a song curling at the edges of his mind. His hand is on his rifle; he watches Ashley place herself in a position to kill, and amazingly, amazingly Shepard talks him down. Wrex puts down his gun before any of them can shoot.

He's with the ground team this time, with an alive Wrex. He cuts the alarms. She knows the salarians are compromised. She watches as one beats himself to death on the window of his cell. She summarily executes another cell of drooling empty husks.

It's cold. Cold in a way he's never seen Shepard be, not towards him, not even towards Finch.

Indoctrination. The word makes him shudder as it plays in his mind. She kills the asari researcher too, and they're off to Ilos with an explosion that kills Ashley. They manage to save Captain Kirrahe and a few of his men, though.

The Council grounds them, and he makes sure the Mako is in perfect condition. They're going to need it.

They make it through Ilos alive. He blacks out once—Garrus mines all the data he can from Vigil, saving a local copy using techniques learned from Vendetta, though so many files are corrupted, puzzling him later when he returns to himself.

They go through the Conduit, and battle through the Citadel. And then Saren is gone, and they split ways, though not before she sacrifices Alliance ships to save the Council over his protests and appoints Anderson over Udina.