Zigzagging through the crowd of patients waiting to be cleared at Huerta's lobby, Garrus recognized Andromeda's friend, Sh'sk, standing impatiently at the elevator. His demeanor seemed to change after their conversation in the room that Andromeda was at following the attacks on the Citadel. He wasn't sure what caused the sudden change. Sidestepping around people limping in, he managed to catch up to the distraught Batarian. "Excuse me," He called out to grab his attention. Sh'sk turned around to see him but then looked away as if he was troubled to even look at him. This guy sure was acting peculiar. It made Vakarian even more uncomfortable.

"I just wanted to thank you again for what you did. This war is tough and putting a strain on everyone. I haven't been able to come to the Citadel to check up on her as often as I would like."

"Glad to help," The Batarian muttered coldly with his back still facing him.

The more Garrus looked at him, the more he realized that Sh'sk looked familiar with him. Even though he had his share of run in's with Batarians, this particular one stood out. "I'm sorry," He laughed a bit trying to lighten up the mood that was present. "This is going to sound crazy, but have met before?" Then it dawned on him. It couldn't be. Was this the same Batarian on Terra Nova? The terrorists that were planning on slamming the asteroid into the colony?

"Don't think so."

"Are you sure? Ever been to Omega?" Garrus noted that this guy really was trying to avoid his questioning. He decided to play along some.

"Not for awhile." Sh'sk's voice trailed off as if he was thinking about a private memory.

"An asteroid on Terra Nova?" Garrus tossed out casually.

Sh'sk turned his head sharply to address him. "That was a long time ago." He hissed dangerously.

The front confrontation gave Garrus a closer look at him. He recognized this guy from more than Terra Nova. It was way too much of a coincidence. There was no way this guy was more involved in his life than a simple run-in on the asteroid. He had to chance it, but he had to be careful. "You a biotic?"

Sh'sk took a second to answer the question. The inquiry was very random and he couldn't understand what he was getting at. "What of it?"

"Have to be careful." Garrus stiffened up more as he addressed him. He could see the image of a biotic Blue Suns Batarian merc hitting him surprisingly with an attack. He barely got away that day and he could still hear the merc screaming out his code name, "Archangel." Those days on Omega were over, but the bounty on his head remained open as far as he was concerned. Luckily for him, his face was masked so unless he pretty much confessed to it, this guy would have to get more facts than he was going to let go. Still, a known terrorist and Blue Suns lurking on the Citadel and close to Andromeda was nothing he wanted to chance while he couldn't be around to protect her. "I'm grateful that you saved Andromeda's life, but I don't trust you and I may never."

Sh'sk held his accusatory gaze. "I shouldn't be trusted, turian." He spat as he spun around on his heel to move into the elevator.

Garrus allowed himself to take a breath after the elevator's doors closed. "That was very interesting."

**************************
"Garrus?" Liara's voice caught him off-guard as he sat at his workstation, modifying his sniper rifle. It had been about a week since they left the Citadel. Shepard, Vega and Liara went to Eden Prime to investigate a signal and found out even more than the colony was under attack by Cerberus. However, they brought back something interesting from the last mission. It was a Prothean. A breathing, living, Prothean and apparently his name was Javik. Though after overhearing several conversations with crew members, the alien was not too fond of his presence among them.

"Liara," Garrus sighed as he looked up from his gun. He knew what this conversation was about. Soon after their arrival back on the SR-2, Liara advised him of the colony attacks and urged him to tell Andromeda because she still had family there. Garrus was against this recommendation since he was afraid that more than likely she would want to go there to help them. He wouldn't be able to go with her and he didn't want her to go up against Cerberus alone.

Sensing the tone of his voice, Liara, looked a bit puzzled then shook her head. "No. It's Javik."

"Heard he was quite charming."

"He's a little rough…around the edges, but he could tell me so much about the Protheans. Information that I would have never learned from just my research. This could be a turning point in all of our history." Her voice peaked with excitement.

"Do you really want to know everything? What if it's something you are not ready for?" Garrus pointed out, playing devil's advocate.

Liara blinked, "I'm sure I could handle whatever it may be. It's worth the risk. He seems a bit uneasy right now with all the questions. I hope he will be less resilient after we give him some time to get settled in."

"I don't think he will ever be 'right at home', Liara. Waking up fifty thousand years to find out your entire race was wiped out and you're the left one left of your kind. Plus after facing the Collectors, I am not sure I can get their image out of my head when I see him."

"I can't even imagine what he faced," Liara looked back towards the way she came as if she was wondering what their new alien friend was up to.

"Probably what we are facing now," Garrus held the rifle up to check out the scope. "I just don't want end up like his kind."

"Well this conversation has gone grim," Liara playfully looked back at him. "You should know that we have another important person coming onboard shortly."

"The Salarian Dalatrass?" Garrus glanced over. "Finally changed her mind after trying to dissuade Shepard from curing the genophage?"

"No. Apparently, we may get the Quarian fleet, but there's one slight problem…."

"What's that?"

"They are in the middle of a war right against the Geth to take back their homeworld."

He looked at her in disbelief, "You can't be serious. Of all times, now?"

***************
The Geth Dreadnaught was taken down thanks to the help of Shepard, Javik and EDI. They picked up another old friend of theirs, Legion. The Geth advised that despite destroying the Heretics that followed the Old Machines, his people were being controlled by the Reapers now. Shepard had to infiltrate the Geth consensus with Legion's aid to disrupt the control of the Geth fighter squadron. That meant he had to have a hard wire connection. After Shepard's long discussion with his crew, Garrus didn't like the idea of syncing up. He tried to trust Legion, but what if this was a trap to get Shepard? Tali assured him that she and EDI would go to make sure nothing would happen.

After several long hours, the mission was a success and the Geth Fighter squadron was brought down, but not in time for them to take down Admiral Koris' liveship. Apparently, the liveship had launched a distress beacon and the Geth were surrounding it. Admiral Koris managed to escape to try to lure the Geth away to save his people but the foot pursuit was long and now he was too far to double back to check on them. Shepard had to decide to save the Admiral first or the stranded Quarians below. To get him acclimated better and see how he reacts in combat, Shepard brought Javik along to help he and Garrus.

Javik stared hard at him as he sat across Garrus in the shuttle. His multiple eyes made the Turian feel uncomfortable. Garrus cleared his throat as he decided it was best to break the silence. "Glad to be working beside you."

"I can't believe I'm still working side by side with primitives," Javik shot back unfeelingly. "In my cycle, your kind did not even achieve spaceflight."

"Well, I guess we proved your species wrong," Garrus responded back defensively. He looked back at where Shepard and Cortez were. Obviously, idle conversation to get to know his teammate was not going to work. "Any news from Admiral Koris?" He remembered the Admiral when he had to go to help Tali with her charge of treason. Koris seemed very outspoken about the war against the Geth. Too bad, the other admirals didn't agree with him.

"Negative, but there's a jamming tower that's blocking all communications. It's defended heavily by AA guns. I won't be able to get in there until the guns are taken offline." Just as Cortez spoke, the shuttle rocked from ground fire.

"We could always just drop an asteroid down on the towers," Garrus joked.

"Don't let Tali hear you say that," Shepard smirked back at his compatriot.

"Javik, can you take down the last tower?" Shepard ran up to the remaining AA gun.

"This is beneath me," The Prothean grumbled as he walked up to the platform to activate the console.

"Garrus, on point with me. We need to keep the Geth back to give Javik time," Shepard ran over to a turret.

Seeing him, Garrus called over as he got into a ready stance, "That's not fair."

"Pyros!"

The yellow paneled Geth walked towards them with their flamethrowers in hand. Garrus switched to his sniper rifle and directly aimed at the tank that was connected to the wand. After a few well-placed shots, the tank sprang a leak and then seconds later the pyro exploded and took out another that was walking beside him. "Scratch two!"

Shepard made short work of the approaching Geth troopers. The large rounds decimated them. Before the Commander had a chance to celebrate, there was an inbound Geth Prime. "Shit! Prime!"

"I see him!" Garrus ducked down as the Prime shot at him. Shepard took the opportunity to fire at the large Geth.

Seeing their foe redirect his attention to Shepard, Garrus rose up and fired a concussive blast that took down a good portion of its shields. The Geth Prime seemed to release a metallic roar of aggravation. It deployed its drone. "Please," Garrus shot at the drone and it disappeared. He returned his fire back on the Prime and with he and Shepard flanking it on both sides, it didn't have a chance and was brought down.

"That should be the last one of them," John turned back to the Prothean. "Javik?"

"Already done." Just as Javik announced, the shuttle flew past them and opened fire on the tower. Seconds later the tower came down to a crashing thud.

"All clear, Commander. I now have radio transmissions from the admiral," Cortez came in through the radio.

"Then let's go get him."

"Admiral Koris, this is Shepard. Give us your coordinates. We are inbound to get you."
"No, leave me," The Quarian replied back sadly. "My crew will soon be overrun."
"So will you."
"My people are noncombatant. They will be slaughtered. Rescue them," His voice pleaded. There were sounds of gunfire in the background. The admiral had to have been in a firefight of his own as well.

"Shepard, we can't lose the civilians. There are innocent lives at stake," Garrus spoke up. He didn't like the idea of choosing someone of significant importance over hundreds of Quarians that were not even soldiers. That included women and children.

"They are useless against the Reapers," Javik argued. "But what does it matter?"

"You're optimistic," John shot back at the Prothean sarcastically in frustration. He returned his focus back to the admiral on the other end. "Admiral, I need you leading the civilian fleet if we are going to end this fight." With the Quarian's fleet tied up with their own personal war with the Geth, it would deplete resources that could be used against the Reapers. This is probably what the Reapers wanted. They were using the Geth to divert the Quarians away. Divide and conquer. Didn't the Quarians know that even if they managed to somehow take down the Geth down the road that by that time, the Reapers would have destroyed the other opposing forces and they would be on their own?

"The civilians…our entire race took up arms for this silly war. It's too late for us."

"It's only too late if you die down here," Shepard gazed over to Cortez to see how much closer they would be at Koris vas Qwib Qwib's location.

"We can't stop this war!"

"I don't know," John sighed hard as he looked over at Garrus. "What I do know is that I need your help.

There was a long pause on the other end. Garrus began to think that perhaps the Geth got to him before he had a chance to respond. Then he spoke once more in the same sad tone, "Ancestors, forgive me."

"Cortez?" Shepard called back to their shuttle pilot.

"We're here, but there are approaching Geth!"

"I'll clear a path, just stay hovered," John jumped behind the shuttle's turret as the door lifted open. He began to open fire on the Geth forces as the admiral jumped up from his location and ran towards them. Garrus ran over to the door and hid from Geth opposing fire till the admiral was close enough to grab onto. Once he was onboard, Cortez quickly jerked the shuttle up away from the Geth's range.

Without a thank you, the Quarian ran over to Cortez. "Shepard, my crew! Save them!"

Cortez did a scan and then looked back up at them in despair. "Scans are not showing any organic life forms…."

"No…." Koris hung his head as he sat down in the seat nearby. "I hope they found comfort in the homeworld skies…"

"Do not hope. They are dead," Javik looked his way. "Seek revenge. That's all you can do."

"Well that's putting it nicely," Garrus muttered under his breath as he rolled his eyes. How was he ever going to work with this guy?