I'll follow you down as we're passing through space…

Shepard sat at her desk, finishing her report of what happened on Tuchanka. Miranda was probably in her quarters, doing the same. The Cerberus XO would pass hers onto the Illusive Man, but Garrus knew Shepard was Alliance military through and through, no matter what colors she wore. She would forward her report on to Admiral Hackett, but through a secured network, of course.

As Garrus walked through the door of Shepard's cabin, she tapped 'send' on her omni-tool, and sighed heavily, spinning her chair around to face him.

"What's up?" she asked. He paused before speaking, thinking carefully how he would word this conversation. He didn't want to sound as if he was questioning her motives, but he wanted to know why.

"Shepard…," he began slowly. "You know that I trust you above anyone else and I respect your decisions on a mission… but… I'm trying to understand why you let Maelon go, when he admitted to the war crimes he committed..."

She chuckled, a thin smirk playing across her lips, "The same reason Sidonis was able to walk away from our little encounter."

Garrus furrowed his brow plates, "But he lived because you stepped in my way…"

"No… Sidonis could have died if you really had wanted it," she said confidently.

"But-"

"But nothing Garrus. You had plenty of time to take the shot if you had wanted to. You could have also shot through me to get to him." Shepard said, leaning heavily in her chair.

"I couldn't have-"

"No," she interrupted. "You could have, if you had truly wanted him dead."

He scratched his unscarred mandible thoughtfully, his back against the fish tank. Before he was able to think of anything to say, Shepard spoke again, "Garrus… you and Mordin are both good people that have had a multitude of bad things happen to you… I… As I said before… revenge… it can change you…"

Her voice trailed off as she stared down at her hands laying her in her lap. Garrus glanced at the desk behind her, waiting for her to speak again. The desk, he noticed, was in an unusual state of disarray with datapads strewn across it. A small pile of used dishes stacked haphazardly on top of one another, lay forgotten in one corner. Among the mess and disorder, Garrus realized, with a swelling of his heart, the frame that had once held a picture of Kaidan was lying face down.

"I just wanted you both to see there are options other than revenge…" Shepard said. "And who knows… maybe somewhere down the line, Sidonis or Maelon could have some bigger part to play in all of this," she said, gesturing in the air. "And remember we did them a favor by sparing their lives."

"Or it could turn around and come back to bite us in the ass…" Garrus muttered. Shepard snorted, "Always the pessimist… And you've been spending too much time among humans… You're beginning to pick up on some of our sayings."

"So let me get this straight… What you're saying is that we could have killed them, had we wanted it badly enough… You interjected just to show us there are other options, but not to necessarily stop us from going through with it… That was ultimately our decision?" he said, frowning.

Shepard stood up, nodding slowly, "Yes… we always have a choice… I'm beginning to understand that is what separates us from synthetics… from the Reapers…"

Garrus unfolded his rifle and flicked on its flashlight, pointing it at the spooked salarian. And sure enough, he recognized Maelon's scrunched up features, his shifty eyes and slicked back horns.

"What the hell are you doing here Maelon?" Archangel growled, gun still pointed in the salarian's face.

"I- I can explain!" he screeched, wincing as Garrus' rifle inched threateningly closer to him.

Liara pushed her way toward Garrus and placed a hand tenderly on his shoulder, in a very Shepard sort of way.

"Garrus…," she said gently. "He knows something… You saw him in the security vid. We can't kill him yet."

Maelon nodded his head eagerly against the floor, "Yes… YES! Listen to the asari!"

Archangel groaned and moved his booted foot to the salarian's throat, his subharmonics teeming with an underlying rage and frustration, "I'm going to let you up… for a chance to explain yourself. Try to escape, and I will kill you. Lie to me, and I'll kill you. I want to know everything you know. Understand?"

"Y-Yes…" the salarian croaked.

"Satisfied?" the turian said to Liara, releasing Maelon. Liara nodded, but removed her pistol from its holster and pointed it at Maelon, just in case.

Javik stood up, rolling his four eyes, mumbling, "Stupid primitives."

Maelon got to his feet, hands rubbing together nervously and knees quaking. Wrex shifted in front of the only exit, blocking the escape, if Maelon decided to run.

"I- I remember you," Maelon said, pointing a finger at Garrus. "You were with Shepard and Mordin on Tuchanka!" He turned to Wrex, saying, "And you're the leader of clan Urdnot. Congratulations on finding a cure for the genophage… something I wasn't expecting to happen any time soon…"

He paused and looked around the rest of the group, frowning when someone he expected wasn't among them. "Where is Mordin? And Shepard?"

"Mordin died curing the genophage… He was willing to give his own life to save all of Tuchanka, rather than subjugating countless to death and torture," Wrex growled.

"Oh… Uh… I- I'm sorry hear that…," Maelon said, hanging his head and wringing his hands more uneasily than before.

"As for Shepard," started Archangel, crossing his arms in front of him. "We were hoping you could tell us that…"

Maelon scrunched up his face, disgust and confusion overtaking his features.

"I can't- Why- What would make you think I know where the Commander is?" he stammered.

"We saw the security vid. You were doing something to Shepard," Garrus said. "And I want to know what."

"N- No. I can't!"

"Enough of these games, salarian!" Javik shouted, his hands flaring to life with green biotics. Wrex stepped forward to intercept the prothean, hands on his shotgun.

"The pyjack knows something, and I'll be damned if I let you ruin our chances of finding Shepard," rumbled Wrex menacingly. Javik glowered at the hulking krogan, staring up the barrel of his gun.

"Knock it off! The both of you!" shouted Garrus to Wrex and Javik. He turned to Maelon "I'll ask you again. Where is Shepard?"

"I- uh- I- I can't!" Maelon clawed at his own face. "You don't understand! I can't tell you! They'll kill me!"

Hannah Shepard approached the terrified salarian, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. Javik groaned irritably, shaking his head and muttering under his breath. Maelon jerked under the Admiral's touch.

"Maelon Heplorn is it?" she asked quietly. Garrus was taken aback by the tenderness in her voice, as if she was speaking to a small and frightened child. After a brief pause, Maelon nodded slightly in response.

Those present grew quiet, watching the scene before them, unfold. Genuine concern was etched upon Hannah's face.

"What is it that you're doing here, Maelon?" she whispered.

He rubbed the back of his neck, breathing heavily, "I- uh… They sent me…"

"Who, honey? Who sent you?"

"Um…," was all he could manage.

"It's okay. You're safe here. You can tell us. You can tell me," Hannah said softly. Javik snorted in his corner, scoffing at the conversation. Garrus shot him a threatening look, silently advising him to keep his thoughts to himself.

"Was it Cerberus?" the Admiral said.

"No! I mean… yes! I mean… sort of!" Maelon squawked, rubbing his eyes furiously. His behavior was becoming increasingly more erratic and odd, unsettling Garrus with every broken sentence. Maelon breathed deeply through his tiny nostrils, in an attempt to regain his composure.

"Ugh! I'm dead already… I might as well tell you… They'll find out what I did… Th- They won't like it one bit…," he began. Over the next fifteen minutes, the salarian recounted his tale of what happened after he left Tuchanka. "I returned here, to Omega… to continue Mordin's work in this very clinic, hoping I might one day forgive myself for what I had put those female krogan through. I wanted to do anything I could to right the wrong of the genophage. So… I spent the next year or so here, helping those less fortunate than I, un- until Cerberus came.

"They overthrew Omega, shut down my clinic and captured me, with the intention of killing me, because I was salarian. I managed to talk them out of it… telling them I could help… I knew genetics... I knew genocide… biowarfare… I knew war… and how to play the game… They allowed to me live, so long as I helped them with what they asked of me…

"I'm ashamed to admit it… b-but I helped them create the adjutants…" he said, hanging his hand and looking at his feet.

Liara frowned, shaking her head, "The adjutants were Reaper foot soldiers… Cerberus didn't create them…"

"True… they were originally Reapers… until Cerberus… or rather… the Illusive Man… found a way to overwrite the Reaper code and create their own to control the adjutants, making them obedient slaves… They were the perfect killing machine… capable of wiping out an entire, unsuspecting colony of aliens. The Illusive Man was searching for a way to overwrite the code in the Reapers themselves… to control them. His ultimate goal, as crazy as it sounds, was to become an entity, shedding his human visage, and bending organic life to his will… like... like a god."

"Impossible," spat Javik from his place among the shadows.

It was Maelon's turn to scoff, "You obviously have no idea what Cerberus was… is capable of, or of what sort of power they wield… I- It's not of this realm..."

A sudden thought occurred to Garrus… something he had not thought of in a long while… something he never imagined he would repeat… There is a realm of existence so far beyond your own, you cannot even imagine…

Garrus was unaware he had said it aloud, as the others turned to him, confusion written upon all their faces, except Liara's. Her eyes widened in understanding.

"Soveriegn," she breathed. Turning to Maelon, and shaking with anticipation, she said, "This galaxy… this universe… exists on a single plan? Th-there are others?!"

The salarian twisted his face, nodding slowly, "There are only several beings that are aware of this… The Reapers, the leviathan, and a handful of others across time… The exposure of other realms would cause the entirety of existence to unravel."

"If this were true, salarian, my people's scientists would have discovered these realms long ago…" Javik hissed angrily.

"No… they would not have… You don't get it!" Maelon shouted. "Ugh! I can't speak of it! They will hear me… They'll know, the moment I speak of them."

Garrus was convinced the salarian had lost his mind, but Liara seemed inclined to believe him. Glancing toward the others, he spotted Wrex yawning, by the door and Tali cradling her shotgun loosely in her hands, helmeted head leaning casually against Wrex's arm. Neither seemed too interested in this… other worldly crap… Hell… he was beginning to grow tired of this guesswork and nonsense. His father's brow plates were arched, seemingly unimpressed as well.

Hannah Shepard massaged her temples with her index fingers, attempting to sort through this mess. "Okay…," she said finally. "Tell us of my daughter."

Maelon puffed out his chest, gathering his courage to continue with his account. His features had softened and it no longer seemed as if he was contending with himself.

"She's being held at the new Cerberus headquarters…," he held up his hand just as Garrus was about to ask where it was. "I can't tell you where it is because I am unsure of its location myself, but it's not a far journey between here and there… a few days… perhaps…

"I don't know what they want with her… but they made me surgically implant a mind control chip to the base of her brain… I tampered with it the best I could… to make it not function properly… she was able to fight it for some time… but I fear they're doing a number of other things to her… to crumble her resolve… to bend her to their needs… I-I've seen weaker people succumb to their torture quicker than she… Shepard's strong… but everyone has their breaking point…"

Garrus' insides twisted into angry knots as Maelon recounted his story. He wanted to throttle the salarian for all of Cerberus' misguided deeds. Admiral Shepard fought off tears of her own as she listened, wiping them away furiously with the back of her hand. Other than a slight, uncomfortable shift, Tychus gave no indication of his skepticism.

"I don't care who you are… Shepard doesn't deserve this… any of this… she never did…," Maelon continued. "I came back to Omega because Cerberus thought you might be coming here… They asked me to spring a trap to kill you... to end your plight once and for all… but I followed you, after I set it up… to make sure it was never sprung while you were here… I left her omni-tool for you to find it, in case something should have happened to me… I had hoped it would allow you to find her somehow."

"What sort of trap?" Garrus asked.

It was Maelon's turn to chuckle derisively, "A bomb."

"What is it with bombs these days? First the one on Virmire, then the one on Tuchanka… and now this one…," groaned Wrex.

Maelon shrugged and pulled up his omni-tool, "It's set to go off in exactly 11 minutes and 53 seconds. You better get the hell out of here… I-I can try to disable it, but I'm not promising anyth-"

He was cut off by a deep, guttural scream from outside the clinic door, followed by another a bit further away.

"Of course…," groaned Maelon, rolling his eyes, exasperated.

"Spirits!" whispered Tychus.

"What the hell was that?!" Garrus demanded, unfolding his rifle, and signaling the others to do the same.

"What else… but adjutants," said Maelon, ripping up a loose floor tile, opposite the door. Garrus swore under his breath, and then shouted "Where is this bomb?!"

"Right here," said Maelon, looking quite pleased with himself. Garrus looked into the space below the floors, and sure enough, there was a five foot around, metallic sphere, with a timer on it that read 9:47, 9:46, 9:45… "There's a vent above us that leads out of here. You should-"

Wrex interrupted the salarian, "We all won't be able fit through there!"

"And I'm not leaving anyone behind!" shouted Garrus. Glancing at the heat signatures on his visor, he noticed at least half a dozen adjutants beyond the doorway. Turning to Maelon a final time, Garrus said, "You're not coming with us, are you?"

The salarian snorted, "Plans change… I need to make sure this bomb goes off as scheduled. Hopefully I can get these damn things to pay attention to me after you ambush them, and destroy them once and for all. I pray these are all the adjutants that are left."

8:58, 8:57, 8:56…

Maelon stood up, extending his shaking hand. "Good luck," he said. "And remember… don't go towards the light. It can be deceiving."

Garrus nodded, and slowly, skeptically, said, "Uh… To you as well, Maelon… Thank you."

8:44, 8:43, 8:42…

"Ready?" Archangel said, charging his Overload.

"Ready!" came the response of his six companions.

"And Vakarian?" Maelon said, drawing his own pistol. "If it's any consolation, she spoke of you often… Even under extreme… err… circumstances… she called out for you…"

And with that, Archangel surged ahead of his comrades, with all the fury of hell, and kicked open the clinic door to face an onslaught of hideous creatures.

Updated 6/7/14