Chapter 14

The elevator was moving down slowly, Shepard was standing in the middle of it, tapping his foot impatiently. Tali did not integrate into the new Normandy well, for starters it was a Cerberus ship, she and Shepard had their fair share of encounters with them during their chase for Saren, plus it seemed that Cerberus had some bad history with the Migrant Fleet, on top of that, Tali was "thrilled" to learn that there was an active AI on board. The doors opened and Shepard walked out on the engineering deck, he quickly took a turn and walked through the door and into the sub engineering area.

"Shepard." the voice resonated from below.

John stopped, "Yes Jack?"

"Come down, I need to talk to you." Jack spoke from the maintenance area of the Normandy.

Jack was, a special case in Shepard's crew, she was an extremely powerful biotic with a very messed up mind. Shepard didn't really see eye to eye with her, but she went on missions when asked and obeyed orders when told, aside from that Shepard never really talked to her, this was, unusual. John turned right and went down the stairs, the lighting was dim and Jack was sitting on her bed, holding one of the many data pads, scattered nearby.

She put down the pad and looked at John, "Hey."

"Something you wanted to talk about?" John asked, leaning against a wall.

"Thanks for giving me that data from Cerberus, Shepard, I've learned a lot about me, and more." she walked up to her bed and sat down, "Your friends at Cerberus are into some nasty things, Shepard."

"Anything in particular?"

"Nothing you haven't heard of, I've read your file. As for me, I got some names and places, when this is over, I will find every single bastard that did something to me and kill them, their friends and family." Jack smirked.

John frowned, "I won't let you go on a killing spree Jack."

Jack let out a laugh, "You can try to stop me." she stood up, causing Shepard to move away from the wall and take a more firm stance, in case she tried something, "Don't worry, I'm here for your mission. But after that, what I do is my business."

"You shouldn't let your past haunt you Jack." John relaxed a bit, but still kept Jack in his sights.

Jack walked up to Shepard, staring at him angrily, "Don't try to preach to me Shepard, you have no idea what they did to me, and for that they must pay." she turned around and walked back to her bed, "If I find anything else, I'll let you know. Now leave me alone, boy scout."

John turned around, "Talk to you later, Jack." and walked back up the stairs.

Talking to Jack was always difficult, you could cut the tension with a knife. Shepard knew, what Cerberus did to her was unforgivable, but murdering everyone involved wasn't the answer to that problem. He will definitely try to convince her not to go around killing everyone, he was just hoping it wouldn't come down a biotic duel, because he wasn't sure if he could win. Shepard reached the top of the stairs and walked into engineering, he greeted both engineers, Donnelly and Daniels, and went over to Tali.

"Hey Tali, how are you settling in?"

Tali stopped performing manipulations on her console and turned to him, "Hey Shepard, with all things considered, not bad actually. Cerberus really pulled through with the ship, it is a huge improvement over the SR-1." She walked around Shepard and walked towards the drive core, waving Shepard over.

John followed Tali to the drive core, the noise was making it a bit harder to hear, but the conversation would be private. Tali spoke again, "Shepard, first of all, thank you for helping me on Haestrom, if it wasn't for you and your team, Reegar and I would probably be dead by now."

"No problem Tali, you helped me catch Saren, if it wasn't for you I wouldn't even be here in the first place, Saren would have won, Sovereign would have taken over the Citadel and the Reapers would be here already. So helping you out was the least I could do." John replied.

Shepard couldn't see it, but somehow he knew that Tali was blushing, "Thanks Shepard, it really is good to be back on the team." she lowered her head, "But I wanted to apologize to you."

"Apologize? For what?" John asked, surprised.

"When the SR-1 went down in flames, and you were pronounced dead, I left. I just took it as a fact that you were gone and not coming back, yet, here you are, alive and well." Tali looked up, "Keelah, I still can't believe Cerberus brought you back."

"Don't blame yourself Tali, there is no way any of you could have know about this. Hell, I still find it hard to believe myself. You completed your pilgrimage, there was nothing holding you back." John smiled.

Tali seemed to cheer up a bit, "Thank you Shepard."

John quickly switched topics, "So what do you think of the crew?"

"It was nice seeing some old friends, Garrus, Joker and doctor Chakwas, but I was surprised that I didn't see Liara on board. I thought she would be the first one here, I actually thought it was her on Haestrom with you until I got some better footage of your team." Tali replied, leaning against the railing.

John sighed, "She couldn't come, it's a... long story."

Tali nodded, "I'm sure she had her reasons. What about Ashley?"

John shook his head, "You remember Ashley right? She was always an Alliance-first kind of person. So you can imagine me asking her to join me on a Cerberus vessel."

Tali replied, "She will regret it. She might be an Alliance junkie but you were like a role model to her, Shepard. As for the rest of your crew, they are... interesting. The Cerberus couple is just what I expected, uptight and act like they are superior."

John smiled, "They'll come around, they can't ignore Cerberus' darker side for too long."

"The salarian scientist is hyperactive, to say the least, asked me if he could run tests on my suit's internal conditioning, while I was still in it." Tali placed the palm of her hand on her face mask.

Shepard smiled, "Mordin does that. The important part is to distract him with some other topic. He is a brilliant scientist though, we couldn't have gone as far as we did without him."

Tali continued, "I have no comment on Jack, Zaeed or Grunt, I have to share a deck with them and I would like to stay in one piece."

John let out a laugh, "I can't blame you. Are you sure you don't want to stay somewhere on the crew deck? Kasumi's room for example?"

Tali shook her head, "No, Shepard, the engineering deck has always been my home on the Normandy and it will stay that way, plus you do know that I like the noise." Tali continued, "Samara was interesting, I've met plenty of asari while on my pilgrimmage but none like her. That being said, her biotic power is downright scary."

John replied, "Scary is an understatement."

"Thane didn't talk much, but was very polite. Not sure if I am comfortable sharing a ship with an assassin, but he doesn't seem like the typical kind. I heard about his condition though, Keelah." Tali shook her head again.

"It's hard to imagine a person living in solitude for as long as he did, and doing the line of work that he did. And now that he is faced with Kepral's syndrome by himself... I just hope that he will be accepting of our crew, for his own sake." Shepard replied.

"Kasumi was very friendly though, I really liked her… that is, until I realized that she downloaded almost a quarter of all the data on my omnitool, now I feel like I have to change passwords and change user restrictions on all of my things."

John smiled, "I'm sure she was only kidding, I am yet to find out if she actually stole anything from the ship. Wouldn't be surprised to wake up one day and find out that the drive core is missing."

Both Shepard and Tali laughed for a bit, "And finally Shepard, that AI... I have to admit, wasn't as bad as I initially thought. I still have my concerns about it, at least it's shackled."

"EDI has been very helpful, but she does have cameras everywhere. The constant surveillance is irritating."

"Let me know if you want me to sabotage the AI core, Shepard." Tali replied.

"Tali..." John raised an eyebrow.

Tali giggled, "Relax, Shepard, I was just joking. Anyway, I should probably get back to work, it's been nice talking to you."

"You too Tali, I will see you later." John replied and both of them left the drive core premise. Tali returned to her station and John went back to the elevator.

Liara was sitting at her desk, the day was slow, she has dealt with all the customers for the day, replied to all the e-mails and the search for Shadow Broker agents has turned up a whole lot of nothing. She considered to just go home, but kept remembering her promise, forcing herself to get back to the search. The quiet of her office was interrupted by her internal communications channel lighting up and making noise, indicating an incoming call. Liara tried to identify the source, but to her surprise it was heavily encrypted, she hesitated for a moment, but then decided to reply. "This is Liara T'Soni speaking, who is this?"

"Hey Liara, long time no see, or talk." a filter augmented voice resonated in the comm.

"Tali?" Liara asked surprised, she quickly got up and walked over to her vid. comm., switching it on and transferring the call to it. The hologram generators powered on and Tali appeared in front of Liara, "How are you? We haven't spoken in years."

"Not bad, considering the fact that I am on a Cerberus ship, surrounded by Cerberus agents, a full fledged AI and a talking geth." Tali replied irritably.

Liara smiled, she missed talking to Tali, back when she just joined the crew, Tali was the first of the Normandy's crew to accept her as a friend, "I am sure it is not all that bad, Tali."

Tali shrugged, "I guess, Shepard and Garrus are here at least, Joker and Doctor Chakwas are here as well." Tali placed her arms on her hips, "So tell me, why aren't you here? Too busy digging up protheans?"

Liara smiled. but hesitated to answer, "It is a long story Tali, the circumstances won't let me leave Illium at this time."

"Are you in some sort of trouble? You know we can help you."

Liara paused for a second, that was the same question Shepard asked her, "No. No trouble, just work."

Tali shook her head, "Liara, just tell me what really is going on? Garrus and Shepard won't tell me, and I want to know why one of my friends is avoiding her old crew."

Liara lowered her head, "It's... complicated Tali."

Tali crossed her arms, "Liara..."

Liara gave up her struggle, "Alright." she sighed, "I owe a huge favor to a friend, he sacrificed himself to save my life and now the Shadow Broker has him."

Tali's eye widened, "The Shadow Broker? Liara this is serious, if you get on Broker's bad side..."

Liara cut Tali off, "I know what the Broker is capable off, that's why I need to be here."

Tali squinted her eyes, "That's not the real reason Liara. Are you and that friend of yours..."

Liara gasped, "No! Goddess, no! It's not like that." Liara bit her lip in frustration, "I can't be with Shepard right now."

"What? Why?" Tali asked surprised.

Liara wanted to avoid this conversation but there was no turning back now, she decided to come clean with Tali, "For two years... Goddess, two horrible long years, I mourned him, Tali, I am just not ready to be with him again, I need more time." Liara replied, holding back the tears.

Tali lowered her head, "Keelah... I am sorry Liara, I did not mean to..."

Liara took a deep breath and shook her head, calming herself down, "No, it's alright. At least you know now, just please, don't tell Shepard. I don't want him to worry about me."

Tali placed the palm of her hand on her helmet, "Liara, the fact that you are not telling him everything is making him worry more."

Liara frowned, "Tali..."

Tali nodded, "Alright, alright, don't worry, I won't tell him. You know, he really misses you, every time any of us talk to him he will mention you in some way. He still has a picture of you in his quarters."

Liara was surprised that Shepard still kept a picture of her, "I had no idea... Thank you for telling me, Tali, that really means a lot to me."

Tali replied slightly more cheerful, "No problem, just be careful, Liara."

Liara smiled, "Thank you Tali, I will."

The holograms powered down and the comm. went silent. Liara took another deep breath, the call was unexpected but she was glad that Tali called, she didn't have any friends on Illium and talking to Tali filled a bit of that void in her life. Liara wished she stayed in touch with Tali for these past couple of years, perhaps they would have not been as hard then. She decided to have frequent chats with Tali now, that way she could be close to the Normandy in some way, and closer to Shepard too.

Shepard sat up in his bed, he couldn't sleep, so many things happened over these past couple of weeks. Ever since the Normandy acquired the Reaper IFF, every one of Shepard's squad was asking Shepard for help, some to get some closure, some to get revenge, to finish what they wanted to do before they could head through the Omega 4 Relay. John tried to honor every single one of those requests, even though it was no easy task. On top of all the extra missions, when Shepard's team recovered the Reaper IFF they also recovered a peculiar geth unit. The very first time they met, it spoke Shepard's name, John never heard a geth speak before. It was later overpowered by husks and Shepard's squad had to pull it out from a dead a reaper with them. The crew was weary of a new guest and Miranda suggested selling it to the Illusive man, but Shepard refused for two reasons. First being the fact that it was the first speaking geth ever encountered, and second being the piece of Shepard's old armor welded on to the geth unit itself. Finally, when Shepard activated it, it offered to join the crew, Shepard was hesitant at first, but ultimately accepted. Tali was furious and refused to speak to Shepard for a couple of days. "Legion" is the name EDI suggested for this new member of the team and everyone just rolled with it.

John pondered on all those thoughts for a bit, before getting up and getting dressed. He walked to the elevator and took a trip down to the crew deck, he took a right from the elevator and headed over to Kasumi's room where the bar was situated. The door was unlocked, meaning Kasumi was either awake or not in her room. Shepard walked in and took a look around, at the bar was sitting a turian in blue shining armor with a large blast mark on the back of it. John walked up to Garrus and sat down next to him at the bar, "You should get that armor of yours fixed, Garrus. Vacuum isn't exactly rupture friendly."

Garrus looked at Shepard, it seemed like the turian had a bit to drink already, "I can't get it fixed Shepard. It is a reminder for me."

John leaned on the bar and turned to Garrus, "A reminder of what?"

Garrus took a sip of purple looking liquid from his glass, "A reminder of what an idiot I was."

Shepard reached for some whiskey, "So are you going to tell me what happened?"

Garrus turned to Shepard, "We aren't going to have that talk are we?", but John just poured himself some whiskey, without saying a word, Garrus sighed, "So we are going to have that talk.", he took another sip from the glass, "Alright Shepard, I will tell you what happened, if you tell me what happened to you on Akuze."

It seemed the turian got the desired reaction, as Shepard stopped mid drink and placed a glass down, half-finished, but much to Garrus' surprise, he spoke, "The Alliance lost its contact with the colony on Akuze. Back then I was stationed in the twenty-third marine unit and they sent us to investigate what happened. We landed no problem, standard procedure, left the shuttles and quickly reached the colony, it was devastated, all the living prefabs destroyed, torn to pieces, no survivors, no bodies, nothing. It was getting dark fast, the cycle there is much shorter than on Earth, so we quickly set up camp, set up our patrol routes, and had hourly watch of the area, but the main part of the unit was ordered lights-out. Toombs and I were on patrol early, that's what probably saved us both from the initial strike. The maws hit the main camp while we were out patrolling the furthest route, most of the marines died right there, thirty or so people. We heard screams and gun fire, so we ran back to camp, as we approached camp, we saw it all, people getting slaughtered, crushed, melted by acid and devoured by the maws. We opened fire on them, but what is a rifle to a maw? One by one, Toombs and I watched our unit disappear. We helped some of the marines up, that were able, soon we had a small group of eight, scared, but all willing to do what it takes to survive. I assumed command, I lead those men from cover to cover, from one rock to the next to get back to the shuttles. By the time we got close enough there was only two of us left, Toombs and I. We ran for it and that's when one of the maws attacked us, burst out of the ground right beneath us. Toombs opened fire, I didn't. The Maw slammed into the ground between us. When I came to, I had to dig myself out of rubble, that's what probably saved me, Toombs was nowhere to be seen, the maws were gone, and the camp was destroyed. I checked the area for survivors, but there were no bodies, still think it was a miracle the maws didn't find me. There was nothing I could do at that point, so I headed for the shuttles." Shepard sighed, poured himself more whiskey and then downed it in one go. "I promised myself two things after that day. One is that I would not leave another friend to die. Two is that sometimes victory demands a sacrifice." Shepard fidgeted with a glass, "Conflict of interest is a bitch."

Garrus seemed shocked at first, "Shepard you… didn't have to tell me that."

Shepard looked up at Garrus from his glass, "Garrus, you are my best friend, and I have no secrets from you."

Garrus, still surprised, replied, "Does Tali or Liara know about it?"

"Liara does. The very first meld we had is how she learned of it." Shepard smiled briefly, remembering of what happened back then, "I will tell Tali if she wants to know, but I doubt she does."

Garrus nodded, "Yeah, I guess you're right", he paused for a minute, collecting his thoughts, then began. "After you died, Shepard, I tried going back to C-Sec, your body was missing, so I tried pulling some of my contacts to see what happened to you and why your body wasn't recovered. But I was being bound down by all the red tape bullshit, I didn't find any information on you so I left the Citadel. I knew that in the aftermath of Sovereign's defeat I would do more good somewhere else. I've traveled through several places before I eventually ended up on Omega and I was in for a nasty surprise. I've never realized just how shitty some people lived until I saw it on Omega, crime wasn't just occasional, it was a day-to-day occurrence. The place needed some justice and nobody was giving it." Garrus slammed his fist on the bar table, quickly took another sip from his glass and continued, "So at first I started doing some solo work, but that didn't get me far, working alone never does. However that work attracted some willing individuals, soon I had a team: ex-C-Sec officers, old military guys, people that were just fed up with it all, you name it. Even had a batarian demolitions expert, not the most charming guy but he could hack anything. So we started raiding the merc group's supply lines, they tried it ignore us at first, but then we would hit their most valued supplies, get them pissed off real good. They would come after us into a well prepared kill zone, there under heavy sniper fire we would dispatch of them. It went well until that one day... It was my own damn fault, one of our own, a turian named Sidonis, lured me away from my group. He said he needed me to meet for some business, when I got to the place, nobody was there. By the time I got back to our safe house, the mercs have already hit, there were only four of my group left alive, and they didn't last very long. And you know the rest."

John took another drink from his glass, "Are you sure it was Sidonis' fault?"

Garrus nodded, "I checked Sidonis' activities before he disappeared, the bastard cleaned out our account and booked a ticket off Omega a day before this whole mess happened too.", Garrus finished off the drink in his glass, "My whole squad is dead except for Sidonis, one day I will find him and correct that.", Garrus stood up from the bar and started walking towards the door to the main hall, "And that day is close, Shepard, because I tracked Sidonis to the Citadel. He contacted some guy, named Fade, and that's how I find him.", he opened the door and almost walked through it.

"Garrus." John spoke, before the turian left the room, "We'll go tomorrow."

Garrus nodded, "Thank you, Shepard."

"Ugh!" gasped the man clutching to the wrist of a turian, pinning him against the wall.

"So, Fade... couldn't make yourself disappear, huh?" Garrus eased the grip, allowing the man to breathe easier.

"Come on Garrus. We can work this out. Whaddaya need?" the man smiled.

Garrus released the man and stepped away, "I'm looking for someone."

"Well I guess we both have something the other one wants." the man replied with a smile.

Garrus was in no mood for games, however. He quickly walked up to the man and punched him in the stomach.

Shepard shook his head, "We're not here to ask favors, Harkin."

Harkin stumbled to his feet, "You don't say."

Garrus continued, "You helped a friend of mine disappear. I need to find him."

"I might need a little more information than that." Harkin quipped.

Garrus ignored it, "His name was Sidonis. Turian, came from the..."

"I know who he is, and I'm not telling you squat." Harkin interrupted.

"Is this information really worth all the trouble?" John asked.

Harkin replied, "I don't give out client information. It's bad for business."

That was the breaking point of Garrus' patience, he kicked Harkin in the stomach again, dropping him on the floor. Garrus then stepped on Harkin's throat with his foot, "You know what else is bad for business? A broken neck."

Harkin squirmed, but couldn't break free, "Alright! Alright! Get off me!"

Garrus was keeping the pressure, Shepard walked up and nudged the turian a bit. Garrus reluctantly removed his foot from Harkin's throat.

Harking sat up, coughing, "Terminus really changed you, huh, Garrus?"

"No, but Sidonis... opened my eyes. Now arrange a meeting."

Harking got up, Garrus nodded towards the nearby console, Harkin gave Garrus an angry look, but proceeded, "I'm going." he walked to the console and called the client, a few minutes later the meeting was arranged. Harkin turned back to Garrus and Shepard, "It's all good. He wants to meet you in front of the Orbital Lounge. Middle of the day. So if our business is done, I'll be going..."

Garrus lunged forwards, grabbing Harkin by his shirt, "I don't think so. You're a criminal now, Harkin."

Harkin tried to stay cool, but Shepard could see that he was panicking, "So what.. you're just going to kill me? That's not your style, Garrus."

Garrus let go of Harkin, "Kill you? No. But I don't mind slowing you down a little." Garrus pulled out his pistol and aimed it at Harkin.

Shepard quickly stepped up and placed a firm grip on the gun, lowering it down, "You don't need to shoot him. He won't be able to hide from C-Sec now."

Garrus pulled the gun out of Shepard's grip, clearly unhappy, he turned to Harkin, "I guess it's your lucky day."

Harkin grinned, "Yeah. I hope we can do this again, real soon."

Garrus waited until Shepard turned around then quickly head butted Harkin, no doubt breaking his nose and sending him down on the floor, unconscious.

John gave Garrus a stern look, Garrus shrugged, "I didn't shoot him."

The two left, the warehouse area and headed for the Orbital Lounge to meet Sidonis. It seemed that the closer Garrus got to meeting site, the angrier he got. The car landed not too far from the Lounge, they got there a bit early, so they had some time to talk.

Garrus was agitated, "Harkin is a bloody menace. We shouldn't have just let him go. He deserves to be punished."

John replied, "Getting a little worried about you, Garrus. You were pretty hard on Harkin."

Garrus mandibles twitched a bit, the turian was on edge, "You don't think he deserved it?"

Shepard shook his head, "This is not like you, Garrus."

Garrus turned away, "What do you want from me Shepard? What would you do if someone betrayed you?"

Shepard could only imagine the feeling, "I don't know Garrus. But I wouldn't let it change me."

Garrus turned to Shepard and looked him in the eye, "I would have said the same thing, before it happened to me."

"It's not too late." John replied calmly, "You don't have to go through with this."

Garrus clutched his rifle, "Who's going to bring Sidonis to justice if I don't? Nobody else knows what he's done. Nobody else cares." Garrus sighed, "I don't see any other options."

Shepard was running out of options, "Let me talk to him."

"Talk all you want, but it won't change my mind." Garrus replied coldly. "I don't care what his reasons were. He screwed us, he deserves to die."

"I understand what you are going through, but do you really want to kill him?" John looked at Garrus.

"I appreciate your concern, but I'm not you." Garrus shook his head.

"This isn't you either." John replied.

Garrus stopped fidgeting with the rifle and looked at John, "Really? I've always hated injustice. The thought that Sidonis could get away with this... Why he should go on living while ten good men lie in unmarked graves? I'm sorry Shepard. Words aren't going to solve this problem." Garrus opened the door, "I need to set up. I can get a clear shot from over there."

John sighed and got out of the car, "You just want me to get him in position?"

Garrus nodded, "Basically. Keep him talking for a minute. When I got him in my sights. I'll let you know. Give me a signal so I know you're ready, and I'll take the shot. You better go, he'll be here soon."

John closed the doors of the car and headed for the Lounge. once he got inside, his comm. spoke, "Shepard. Can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear." he replied.

Garrus continued, "Alright. There he is... wave him over and keep him talking."

John saw a sickly looking turian sitting on one of the benches in the Lounge. They made eye contact and Shepard waved him over. Sidonis walked up to Shepard, his hands were shaking a bit, "Let's just get this over with."

As soon as Sidonis walked up to Shepard, Garrus spoke, "You're in my shot. Move to the side."

But John decided to try and work this out, "Listen Sidonis, I'm here to help you."

The turian's eyes widened, he hushed at Shepard, "Don't ever say that name aloud."

John ignored it and continued, "I'm a friend of Garrus', He wants you dead. But I'm hoping that's not necessary."

Sidonis started looking around franticly, "Garrus? Is this some kind of joke...?"

Garrus growled through the comm., "Damn it, Shepard. If he moves, I'm taking the shot."

Sidonis stared Shepard in the eyes, "You're not kidding, are you? Screw this. I'm not sticking around to find out. Tell Garrus I have my own problems..."

The situation was deteriorating quickly, Shepard lunged forward and grabbed Sidonis by the hand, "Don't move."

"Get off me!" the turian panicked.

Shepard forced Sidonis closer to him, so that Garrus couldn't get a clear shot, "I am the only thing standing between you and a hole in the head."

"Fuck." Sidonis lowered his head, realizing his situation, "Look, I didn't want to do it. I didn't have a choice."

"Everyone has a choice.", Garrus spoke to Shepard.

Sidonis continued, "They got to me. Said they'd kill me if I didn't help. What was I supposed to do?"

"Let me take the shot, Shepard. He's a damn coward." Garrus said irritably.

John wasn't too happy about what the turian just said either, "That's it? You were just trying to save yourself?"

Sidonis started moving towards the nearby railing, Shepard followed, he grabbed the railing and looked down, "I know what I did. I know they died because of me, and I have to live with that. I wake up every night... sick... and sweating. Each of their faces staring at me... accusing me. I'm already a dead man. I don't sleep. Food had no taste. Some days, I just want it to be over."

"Just give me the chance." Garrus said coldly.

John spoke to Garrus, "You've got to let it go Garrus. He's already paying for his crime."

But Garrus wasn't budging, "He hasn't paid enough. He still has his life..."

John turned around and looked at Garrus' sniper position, "Look at him, Garrus." John pressed more, "He's not alive... there is nothing left to kill."

Garrus' resolve shook, "My men... they deserved better."

Sidonis realized that Shepard was talking to Garrus through the radio, "Tell Garrus... I guess there is nothing I can say to make it right." he closed his eyes, no doubt preparing for the shot.

There was nothing else Shepard could do for Sidonis, he moved away and let Garrus decide, the silence lasted for a long couple of seconds before Garrus spoke again, "Just go... Tell him to go..."

John turned over to Sidonis, "He's giving you a second chance Sidonis. Don't waste it."

Sidonis opened his eyes and looked in the same direction Shepard did earlier, "I'll try, Garrus. I'll make it up to you, somehow." he then turned to Shepard, "Thank you, for talking to him." and quickly left for the exit.

John turned around and headed towards the car, he stood near it, waiting for Garrus. The turian joined him shortly, his face displayed mixed emotions between wanting to punch Shepard and thank him. Before Shepard could say anything Garrus spoke, "I know you want to talk about this... but I don't." he took a long breath, "Not yet."

"I know it didn't go the way you planned, but I think it's for the best." John replied.

Garrus shook his head, "I'm not so sure..."

"Give it time."

"Yeah. Maybe that'll be enough." Garrus looked at Shepard, "I want to know I did the right thing. Not just for me - for my men. They deserved to be avenged, but when Sidonis was in my sights... I just couldn't do it."

John knew that the decision was not easy for Garrus, "The lines between good and evil blur when we're looking at people we know."

Garrus nodded, "Yeah. There was still good in him... I could see it." He paused, "It's so much easier to see the world in black and white. Gray... I don't know what to do with gray."

"You've got to go with your instincts." John replied.

"My instincts are what got me into this mess."

John patted Garrus on the back, "Don't be too hard on yourself."

Garrus cheered up a bit, "Thanks, Shepard. For everything." he turned around and looked at the Lounge one more time, "Let's get going. I need some distance from this place."

John nodded, "I'm with you." they got into the car, "Let's go visit Chora's den, for old time's sake."

Garrus grinned, "Sounds like a plan. I could use a good drink."