I'll follow you down…

Illium looked just the same as it ever did, nearly untouched and unsoiled by the Reapers. Skyscrapers stretched off into the horizon as far as the eye could see, reaching high into the heavens, and caressing the soft clouds, like fingertips entwined in hair. The neon lights of the skyline and passing cars glittered in the evening haze like stars from a far off galaxy.

Rumor had it, that due to the large amount investors wanting to protect their assets, the leaders of Illium were able to procure a considerable sized defense fleet and an excessive number of fission weapons to assault the Reaper ground transports, rather than launching an offensive against the larger Reaper ships. This tactic had slowed the attack on Illium to nearly a halt, leaving the planet and a large portion of her cities unscathed.

The Nos Astra shipping port bustled with throngs of people, despite it being nearly midnight Alliance Standard Time. Several long lines of travelers stood impatiently in front of even longer information desks, shouting complaints to exasperated attendants. The trading floor was alive with vendors and prospective clients bartering over items and their prices.

All the while, Garrus shifted uncomfortably in his asari sized chair, his body screaming at him to find a larger place to sit. Sighing and leaning his head against the cold, hard wall, he scrolled through his omni-tool aimlessly, his mind elsewhere.

Being here, on Illium, made his insides twist and writhe. He despised this place nearly as much as Omega. Beneath the glitz and glamor, behind the flashing lights and the luminous billboards, and between the ritzy vacation destinations and wealthy corporations, lie an even more sinister underworld than one could imagine. Secrets, and greed, and death littered every street corner as a whisper spoken in dark shadows, or a briefcase traded in the soft, orange glow of omni-tools, or the flash of a knife moving swiftly enough for it to be missed before a target fell to the ground, silenced forever. Fraud, slavery, drugs, theft, and sometimes murder were all welcomed in this hell hole. Garrus could taste the deception of this place on the air, and it left a bad taste upon his tongue. It took every ounce of his being to not unleash Archangel on Illium, and spend the next six months ridding this world of its evils and vices.

But as it were, he had more pressing matters at hand.

Garrus waited for Liara to finish her meeting with Feron and a mysterious associate. "I have a very important colleague to meet with... Wait for me here," she had said, pointing to the desk outside her office, and looking more distracted than usual. That was two hours and three minutes ago.

The other crew members were presently gathering some much needed supplies to restock the ship with essentials. Hannah Shepard was somewhere on the docks helping Lt. Vega and Alenko take inventory as provisions and materials were brought back to the Normandy. Garrus could hear the Admiral barking orders to the junior crew members, "Be careful with that!" or "Put it in the cargo hold!"

When the Normandy had docked, Javik had been the first one to the airlock and had disappeared into a horde of joyful and babbling tourists, vanishing completely from view.

Traynor and Joker had ordered some much needed retrofits and repairs. When the workers arrived on site and began to question why this particular Alliance ship was out of dry dock, Garrus had interjected, flashing an ID and a copious amount of credits if they did the job without question and kept their mouths shut. Understanding he was Palaven's newest primarch, they nodded enthusiastically, accepted the credit transfer and began working almost immediately.

Garrus looked up from his omni-tool just in time to see his father round the corner and limp his way up the stairs to where Garrus was seated.

"How's your quarian friend doing? Tali?" Tychus said, as he finally reached the top of the stairs and sat down in a chair next to his son, breathing heavily.

"Still in the medbay… She'll be out the rest of the night, but Chakwas assures me her fever broke and she'll be fine by morning," Garrus sighed, rubbing his eyes from exhaustion.

"Still waiting for Liara to come out of her secret meeting?" Tychus asked, changing the subject.

"Yeah,"

"Any idea what it pertained to?" said the elder Vakarian.

"No," came the short reply

After several moments of silence, Tychus continued, suspicion echoing in his subharmonics, "Can you really trust the Shadow Broker, son?"

Garrus slowly turned to his father, mandibles flared in exasperation. "You can't be serious?!" he breathed, a hint of anger on the edge of his voice.

"Sorry Garrus… Old habits die hard, I suppose…," Tychus said slowly. "Something I learned as a detective… 'Everyone's a suspect'…"

Another hesitation before he continued to press the issue, "How can you be so sure though? I mean, really sure? Of any of them?"

Garrus buried his face into his hands, pushing his closed eyes into the calloused heels of his hands, hardly believing what he was hearing from his father.

"Because Shepard trusted them," he said, his anger rising quickly.

"Garrus, please understand…," Tychus began, trying to rationalize his thought process. "I'm just trying to see this… situation… from all angles… Like any good cop would…"

"Don't, dad…," he said, jumping to his feet, infuriatedly. "Just… don't go there."

"But… Maybe she could have been wrong… Maybe she placed her trust in the wrong people… From everything you've told me… It seems as if Cerberus has always been one step ahead of the game. What if there was… or is… a traitor amongst those you call 'friend'?"

"These people are more than just friends to me… to Shepard," growled Garrus, as he began to pace furiously. "They helped us take down Saren and Sovereign. They followed us to the very core of the galaxy to defeat the Collectors. They were all there when the Reapers were defeated… And I would do it again in a heartbeat. Shepard trusted them with her life… and so do I… So if you can't accept that, dad, or you distrust even just one of them, then I suggest you hitch a ride on the next shuttle back to Palaven."

Tychus shook his head wearily. Garrus could tell his father was disappointed with him, but he didn't care. Garrus knew who his friends were; he knew who he could trust.

"Don't you see, Garrus? This is the same position you were in when you called me on Omega… One of your allies betrayed you," Tychus reached out his hand and touched Garrus' blemished mandible, eyeing the scars that ran the length of his neck and disappeared underneath the cowl of his armor. "And you almost died because of it."

Garrus jerked his head way from Tychus' outreached hand, and scowled at his father.

"Why did you come with me then?" he snapped. "To criticize me? To tell me you don't approve? Is that it? I thought we were past all that!"

Tychus' demeanor changed almost immediately. The elder turian rose up to full height, puffing out his chest and squaring up his shoulders. His mandibles flared at his son and his hands clenched into fists. Had Garrus been just a few years younger, he would have cowered at how intimidating his father was at the moment, but he was older now. He knew better...

"You make too many rash decisions," Tychus growled. "If you knew any better, you would open your eyes and consider the possibility there may be a traitor in your midst. But you're blinded by-"

"Blinded by what, exactly?!" Garrus shouted interrupting his father, whirling around to face Tychus. He was heated. He knew every single one of these people Tychus was speaking of. He had fought alongside them for over three years. You don't win friends and influence people, and forge alliances to win a war, without learning a thing or two about the character or personality of someone.

"Blinded by love? By loyalty? By guilt?" continued Garrus. "You're damn right I am! I swore on my own life I would protect Shepard, and I failed! Not only myself, but I failed her as well! And now… now she's captured by Cerberus, being used in brutal experiments to do spirits-know-what, and there's not a damn thing I could do to stop it all from ever happening!

"But I promise you this, I-I will find her… I'm bringing Shepard home, with the help of this crew… her crew… and my friends… Be them krogan, quarian, asari, or human, it doesn't matter… I would stand by them through another Reaper war without hesitation. And as I said before, you are more than welcomed to tag along, but if you can't accept this, then I'm not going to tolerate anyone harboring doubts aboard the Normandy, even if that person is my own father."

Tychus slumped in defeat, his head hanging between his shoulders. He knew he was never going to get through to his son, but he prayed to the spirits that Garrus was right… that there were no traitors… But this whole ordeal didn't sit right with him.

Updated 6/7/14