The rain slowed and finally stopped, dropping their discomfort only a little bit. Amala and Garrus sat off to one side while they watched the krogan finally make some headway at clearing the entrance into the underground bunker. Garrus looked at the horizon and then back to Amala.

"The sun will be up in a few hours."

"I know. Even if they find my helmet, I doubt it would be in any kind of shape to use."

Garrus gestured with his one good hand towards a stand of trees. "The rest of the injured are over there, and under the trees will give you a little more protection."

Amala groaned. "That entails moving again. I swear everything hurts now that we are finally out."

He snorted a small laugh. "I know. When we were trapped and trying not to think of all the rocks on top of us and how we didn't even know if anyone was still alive to look for us, the pain didn't seem so bad. But now that we are out, I don't think there is a part of me that doesn't hurt."

Amala struggled to her feet. Garrus sighed before he pushed himself upright. Amala gave him a grin.

"I did learn one thing underneath all that rubble; I had no idea turians had such a bad sense of humor."

He shook his head with a laugh. "Oh, you can't blame that on being a turian. My sister will tell you I have the worst sense of humor ever."

"I guess that doesn't say much about mine, since I laughed anyway."

They stumbled through the mud until they reached the grove of trees where a lone guard stood watch over his fallen comrades. She dropped down next to one with a familiar face.

"Crap. What happened to Nihlus?" Amala asked.

"We found him under the wreckage of one of the gunships."

"Hold on, Nihlus. If the krogan are here, the Alliance can't be far behind," Amala said, laying a hand on his arm.

The rumbling sound of vehicles getting closer had everyone scrambling for cover, well, except the krogan. They pulled their shotguns out and stood like a wall between this new threat and their new allies. Hands pointed out the team of makos coming up the path that had been created earlier. The vehicles didn't open fire though, and stopped on the edge of the clearing. The hatch lifted on the foremost vehicle and a human popped out of it. Saren strode forward to meet the newcomer, Wrex right behind him.

"You are with the Alliance, correct?" Saren asked.

"Yes, sir. Wait, I met you on Arcturus. I was one of your escorts, Lt. Vega."

"General Arterius," Saren said with a nod of his head. He had thought the human sounded familiar. "Do you have any medics that might be able to help our wounded? We are currently digging out the entrance to the rest of our people, but we have some in need of immediate assistance."

Vega nodded and activated his comm. "Admiral Hackett, it's Vega. We've joined up with the krogan and turians. No sign of the asari, so far. They've got wounded, but can't reach their own medics at this time."

Vega listened for a moment before turning his attention to those before him.

"Medical personnel and supplies are en route."

"What about gunships for support?"

"Ah, well, we had some with us, but now they are busy chasing down some asari ships that were heading this way."

Saren looked past the makos, hoping to see some sign of the ship bringing medical help, but even the sun coming over the horizon didn't show him what he wanted most. His eyes drifted over to where Nihlus lay, several other familiar figures keeping him company at least. He wished he could do the same thing, but he was still needed to be the leader in the middle of his people working with their new allies. Sighing, he turned and headed back to continue working on clearing the rubble from the cave entrance.

The krogan seemed to thrive on the challenge of moving huge pieces of rock, as they challenged each other to who could move the most. It was a competition that Wrex encouraged, since it kept the fighting to a minimum. Saren almost wished the asari would show their faces now; killing a few would only begin to pay back what he owed them.

The hum of a shuttle as it approached their location brought all their heads up. The logo on the side of the vessel proclaimed it Alliance; he had seen it many times while they were on Arcturus station and even on the Normandy. It dropped gently down towards the ground, but the doors flew open even before it finished landing. Several humans and salarians jumped out of the vessel, carrying supplies of some sort.

Saren was in motion as soon as he had spotted the vehicle trying to land. A human female (his best guess as they were all in environmental suits) was the first out of the vehicle and he took her as the one in charge. He gestured with one hand to where Nihlus and the others were.

"Our wounded are over there."

"I'm Dr. Chakwas. Dr. Solus forwarded to us all his data and is available for consult as well."

Saren's eyes drifted to gaze at the mixed group. "He didn't come with you?"

"No, he felt he could be of more use at the Council meeting."

They reached the trees and the doctors spread out amongst the fallen as they tried to establish a triage order. A shout brought Saren's attention back towards where the others were working. A turian waved urgently at him.

"Sir! The entrance is uncovered!"

The human looked up at him. "You have a hospital inside?"

Saren shook his head. "That would be overstating it by a lot. We have a place set aside for our wounded, but regardless it would be safer in there than out here."

"Agreed. We have gurneys in the shuttle. We can use them to transport them inside."

Saren uttered a whistle that drew the eyes of the turians. As soon as he had their attention, he pointed at the shuttle.

"In that shuttle there are some stretchers, get them and bring them here. We need to get our wounded into the cave."

The turians leapt at his orders and between the doctors and his own people, a line of the injured crawled towards the entrance. A blanket had been thrown over Shepard's head in a bid to protect her from the sun that was beginning to blaze across the sky. Vakarian was beside her, trying to help her navigate across the terrain as best as he could with his one good arm.

Vakarian, Spirits, it was probably a good thing that he was so taken with the human because he was a wreck now. Shepard didn't seem to care about his now rather ragged fringe. Some traditions were harder to break than others, since in times long past when turians had gone to war on each other, breaking the fringe of their defeated enemy had been the cruelest humiliation they had routinely used on each other. Even then, it was considered better to die than to admit defeat. Although his fellow turians would look on him with pity, they would never say anything to him directly. He had proven himself a survivor, a capable soldier, and a friend to the human who had turned the tide of war for the turian people. But it would take some time for them to get used to the sight of his fringe.

Saren's thoughts were disrupted by the groan of the occupant of the stretcher he was walking next to: Nihlus. He looked down, his breath caught in his throat as he dared to hope to see those green eyes open once more. His breath left him in a whoosh when he found that they were.

"Saren?" Nihlus asked, his voice soft and filled with pain.

"Shh, you'll be okay. The Alliance is here and they brought supplies and doctors. You're safe now."

Nihlus closed his eyes with a soft sigh. Saren tore his eyes away from watching him when he heard his name rang out. He looked up to find his brother heading towards him. Desolas clapped him on the shoulder and then noticed who was on the gurney.

"Oh, no. Spirits, what happened?"

"Gunship crashed on top of him," Saren said, trying not to think about the fact that by his own orders he had had the others lower the ship back down on him again.

"Go with him. The Primarch is ordering all of you to stand down anyway. I will take the watch now."

Saren nodded gratefully. "The large human over there, he is the point of contact for the Alliance - Lt. Vega. The large krogan in the red armor over there, the one with the large scars running down his face - he is Urdnot Wrex, the leader of the krogan."

"I will talk with them. Go, rest."

He wasn't sure when he arrived inside their makeshift hospital, but suddenly they weren't moving anymore and all he could do was drop to his knees beside Nihlus. The doctors quickly set about making a section of the area into a clean room, sending others to fetch yet more equipment from the shuttle. Once the little area had been curtained off, Chakwas came for Nihlus.

"How bad is he?" Saren asked, his talons gently tracing the back of Nihlus's hand.

"He has internal bleeding and some broken bones. I'm optimistic he will make it, though. Does he have any family?"

"No, yes - he has me."

"Fine, I'll ask you then. We have an experimental technique we think will help him heal faster. If it works, his bones should mend faster and they will be stronger than before. Are you okay with us using this on him?"

"What are the risks?"

"Worst case, his body rejects it and we have to go in and remove the weave. Otherwise it should have minimal risk."

It only took a moment for Saren to answer. "Do it."

"We've lost all contact with our ground teams?" Tevos exclaimed at the hologram before her.

"Yes, Councilor. The Alliance has deployed comm buoys of their own, but I have no doubt that if we try to use them they will be able to intercept any messages on them. Especially since it seems the salarians have deployed their STG to that system as well."

Tevos rubbed her forehead. "What is the wish of the Matriarchs?"

"You must make formal statements saying that the asari people were trying to help the turians utilize their artifacts to their fullest, but a misunderstanding caused this terrible mess."

Tevos looked at her contact in disbelief. "You honestly think anyone will buy that load of varren shit?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "Tell the same story enough times and it will put a seed of doubt into the minds of the common people. That's all we need. Extend an offer to the Primarch, goods and technicians to help him rebuild his world. That will give us a second chance to try and find their artifacts."

"I doubt he will want any asari on his planet."

"Sell it to him. Our people are some of the best artisans in the galaxy, doesn't he want the best?"

Tevos paced back and forth for a moment.

"If you can't do this, the Matriarchs will replace you and the blame will be placed firmly on your head."

"My fault! You were tasked with eliminating Shepard, and you failed. If it is anyone's fault it is yours," Tevos said, one hand waving at the hologram.

"Spectres are hard to kill for a reason; they are chosen from the best. Finding mercs who are willing to take one on are in short supply. And trying to track her movements was nearly impossible. Her transmissions are routed all over the galaxy; I had to wait for visual confirmation for her actual location and by the time we got there, she would be gone again. I hired some of the best to hack into her ship and they couldn't."

"You should have given the assignment to another Spectre then," Tevos growled out.

"It wasn't my call. The Matriarchs felt that adding another Spectre to the equation might give Shepard another ally. And if she survived then she could call the Council out on sending a fellow Spectre to take her down. No, it was better to have as little a trail as possible back to us."

Tevos hung her head. "I'll begin the damage control at once."

The hologram before her nodded and then fizzled out, leaving the asari alone once more.

~Thanks to Mordinette for all her help, thank you! And I'm happy the readers are still enjoying this, so thank you as well!~