Summary: Garrus had hated Omega the instant he arrived. It had one good thing going for it, and only one: lots of things to shoot. He'd needed lots of things to shoot over the last two years. And now he was dying, he was back to hating it again. Shepard picked up the first dossier and rolled her eyes, what kind of name was Archangel, anyway? Pre-Shakarian.

Garrus was dying, and it wasn't going to be the death he'd envisioned. He'd seen a death in battle on some war-torn planet. Or, when he was in a better mood, something a little more heroic; sacrificing himself to save another? That would have been a good death. Forget dying of old age, the idea of that had gone out of the window a little over two years ago. Basically, he'd envisioned the exact opposite of this. Those deaths he thought he'd be OK with, but not this. He was most certainly not OK with going out like this.

The death of a caged animal was a different kind of death, but just as inevitable.

He was still bleeding, but it wasn't blood he was losing. It was energy, ammo, supplies. Hell, even the will to fight. The food he'd gathered was long gone, he had water left for another few hours at best. He couldn't remember how long he'd been up here without sleep and he was down to his last two stim packs. His rifle was getting so heavy he didn't think he'd be able to resist the call of those stims for long.

Yeah, a different kind of death.

It wouldn't be so bad if he was expecting a quick, clean end to this, but the spirits never had been that kind to him. He'd done too much, caused too much trouble. The merc bands that had teamed up to bring his reign of terror to an end would see him suffer. Just as they'd killed his team to see him suffer. Shit, Sensat was barely older than Tali, she didn't deserve what they'd done to her. None of them had. All he could do now was make sure he took as many of those bastards with him as he could.

No matter how many he killed it wouldn't be enough, could never be enough.

He peered through his scope, looking down the long bridge, the only reason he was still alive. The latest wave of cannon fodder the mercs had sent after him were retreating back over their barrier and into cover. He fired a few more shots at their feet for good measure. It did the trick, he could practically smell their panic from his sniper perch on the balcony. He saw one man actually throw one of his fellows aside to propel himself over the barrier faster. Garrus shook his head; alright, forget the bridge, that was the reason he was still alive. They were only out for themselves, for credits. No team-work, no cohesion or communication.

Hell, if they worked together they'd be over here in no time, Garrus thought. Shepard would have her team of three on his ass in a heartbeat.

The last merc vanished from sight. Garrus lowered his too-heavy-weapon, and sank to the floor. The proximity alarms that the mercs hadn't (thankfully) found would alert him when they tried another push.

He gave himself a few minutes to rest, just a few minutes. He let his eyes slide closed and his head fall back against the post he was leaning on with a heavy sigh.

He'd thought about Shepard a lot since being trapped in here. It was almost as though his mind was trying to cram in as many thoughts of her as it could before his time ran out, as though it was trying to make up for lost time. After all, he'd spent the last two years trying his damnedest not to think about her. To not think about Anderson turning up at his old place on The Citadel, in his dress blues and miserable expression. To not think about the farce they called a funeral. Or think about The Councils actions afterwards. To not think about the fact if he'd been on The Normandy when she'd gone down then his best friend would still be alive. But he hadn't been there, in the same way he hadn't been there when the mercs had attacked the base and slaughtered his team.

Guilt churned his stomach, turning it into a lead weight.

Maybe it wasn't so strange he was thinking about her after all.

Even after all this time the old wound still stung.

Mind you, it was hard to forget with her voice still chirruping away in the back of his head. He'd talked back to that voice in the first few, dark, months. Never out loud of course, that would be too much like admitting he was losing his mind. When he'd begun to fear for his sanity he'd started to ignore it all together. It hadn't made it go away, by now Garrus was pretty sure it never would. He still hadn't decided if he was relieved or not. He was feeling pretty damn resentful toward that voice right now. It was Shepard's voice in his head that had convinced him to take on a team in the first place. And now they were dead. Couldn't blame Shepard for that one though, that wasn't her fault,

Not yours either, the voice said quietly.

He ignored it, instead wondering what the real Shepard would think of his current situation. She'd probably kick his ass for getting here in the first place. Mercs straight ahead and collapsed tunnels behind him.

Caught between a rock and a hard place, big guy.

OK, that one was enough to make his mandibles twitch a little, humans and their damn idioms.

Yep, she'd kick his ass. Or, more likely; hug him, tease him mercilessly about having to come to his rescue, load her shotgun and thrown herself at the mercs. Probably via the balcony if she had her way

I always did like to make an entrance.

As I recall, your fondness for dramatic entrances got us in trouble once or twice. Garrus said back. Hey, what was a bit of insanity if he was dying anyway?

Only once or twice?

I'm being generous here Shepard, don't push your luck. He could hear her laughter ringing around his head. Tell me a story, Shepard.

Did I ever tell you about the time I hunted down an ex-spectre that was trying to bring destruction to the entire galaxy?

I think I remember that one, didn't you have a rather dashing turian helping you out?

There MAY have been a turian fitting that description. Bit of a hot-head, not a fan of rules, had a thing for justice and shitty turian whiskey.

Sounds like a pain in the ass.

You have no idea! He was alright though, I guess.

Thanks Shepard. Garrus thought.

Shit. How'd he get here? Trapped in his own base talking to ghosts?

As it was the case with most stories involving destruction, it had started with a bar. One of the few quiet ones on Omega, no asari dancers, no blaring dance music, but they did carry Garrus' favourite (shitty, thanks Shepard) turian whiskey. He'd just had to stop in that night, just had to sit and talk to the burly human at the end of the bar. The only person in there who'd looked anywhere near as miserable as Garrus had felt. The human introduced himself as Butler. Butler had refused to pay the mercs extortionate "protection" money. In retaliation they'd fire bombed his business, taken the man's livelihood. So Archangel had gone hunting. He'd tracked the mercs that had taken the sad human's business and made damn sure they wouldn't do it to anyone else. The credits he'd salvaged had gone back to the human. All in all, Garrus had considered it a good days work. Until Butler reappeared and, instead of spending the money on re-building his business, he'd spent it all on new weapons and armour. Butler was smarter than he looked. And a damn sight tougher. He'd put two and two together and figured out who Garrus was, the next time he'd gone to the bar, Butler was waiting for him. He'd told Garrus he wanted to join him. Stubborn bastard wouldn't take no for an answer. It reminded him of another human he'd known, in a different life. And now Butler was dead, along with-

Time to get up, big guy.

He pushed the voice away, he was tired. A little longer. Just a little longer.

Vakarian! Wake up, on your feet solider!

Shit. His eyes popped open. His heart hammering in his chest. He'd almost been asleep. He grabbed a stim pack, pulled the cap off with his teeth and slid the needle between his plates.

I owe you one, Shepard. He said to the voice, already feeling the stims going to work in his bloodstream. He pulled himself to his feet, lifted his rifle to his eye and peered down the scope. A head appeared in his sights.

"This ones for Butler," Garrus muttered aloud. He inhaled, squeezed the trigger, exhaled.

Time for the next wave.

He ran through their names; Butler, Monteague, Grundan, Melanis, Sensat, Weaver, Vortash, Ripper, Krul, Mierin, Erash, Shepard, inhaled, squeezed, exhaled.

This wave was by far the longest. He'd repositioned at some point and knocked his last stim pack out of reach. It sat just over an arms length away, mocking him as the light caught it's packaging, sending twinkling spots of light into his eyes, making his already painful headache throb in time with his heartbeat. The reflections of light were too bright to be natural. His thoughts were cloudy, muddled. Was he starting to hallucinate? Were those little spots of light in his eyes real? Or part of too little food and rest and too much artificial stimulant?

Focus Vakarian! The Shepard in his head demanded, You've got this. Inhale, squeeze, exhale. Remember?

Were you always this bossy? He tried to joke, even in his head it fell flat. He didn't have much time left.

Not much longer big guy, I promise...Inhale, squeeze, exhale.

Hey, Shepard? Is human heaven and turian heaven the same place?

She didn't answer. He ran a hand over his face.

He hoped it was.

Garrus turned his scope back to the bridge. A new group was clambering over the barricade. This group was smarter. A little. They kept low, darting into cover. His eyes scanned the usual mixture of ill-fitting, probably stolen, armour until he stopped on a man that was better kitted out than anyone he'd seen so far. Garrus focused in on the humans face, he was older, heavily scarred. Garrus was surprised, they were sending seasoned veterans over the bridge now? And the man wasn't alone, a dark haired human woman in white armour was with him, shielded with a biotic barrier. OK, this was new. They spilt onto opposite sides of the bridge but didn't move up. They hung back, letting the other mercs move ahead of them. Garrus picked off a few of the more confident ones before moving back to the veteran and his partner. They were both looking in the same direction, but not at him. The veteran made a gesture towards someone that was out of Garrus' line of sight, they were taking orders from someone else? He followed the gaze of the scarred veteran, trying to see who their leader was. He caught sight of a flash of red, what he thought was a small human, before they were gone. Garrus blinked, what the hell? He pulled back from his scope, zoomed out a little and surveyed the bridge again, taking out a few of the idiots mercs that were hanging out of their cover. His eyes flicked over the bridge before he spotted the new-comer again, he just registered that she was a smaller than average human female, when, an instant later she vanished with a flash of red and the unmistakeable violet flare of biotics.

Impossible, no one moved like that! It was too fast. No, Garrus corrected himself, No one ALIVE moved like that.

A split second later and the human reappeared in the centre of a knot of mercs. With a roar she leapt into the air before slamming her fist into the ground, with an explosion of her biotic barrier she threw the knot of mercs into the air, sending some tumbling off the bridge.

Garrus' hands fumbled, almost sending his rifle toppling off the balcony. He'd only ever seen one person do that...

Shepard?!

Maybe he was losing his mind after all!

With a thumb that was shakier than he'd like to admit, he flicked his rifle to concussive rounds and lined a shot up with her shoulder. Not enough to do any real damage, just enough to take her barriers down. Just enough to be sure he was seeing what he thought he was seeing. He couldn't be seeing what he thought he was seeing. It wasn't possible.

It can't be her! She'd dead, no amount of wishful thinking is going to bring her back! He told himself firmly, You're seeing things Vakarian, hallucinating. Just like the light on the stim pack. You're seeing Shepard because you've been thinking about her, that shot is going to hit nothing but empty air, you just watch!

He squeezed the trigger.

The shot connected.

Her biotic barrier winked out and she rolled into cover before sticking her head out to look up at him. Same bright green eyes, sharp and narrowed in anger. A hand came up to push the same red hair out of her face in a gesture he'd seen her do a hundred times,

"Hey, asshole! We're on your side!" She shouted at him, Garrus smiled, same attitude too.

Same eyes, same hair, same attitude. But the scars. The scars were different; splitting the skin on both cheeks.

Shit Shepard, what happened to you?

He watched as she sent a shockwave down the bridge, it had barely left her hands when she was running in it's wake, spinning her shotgun in her hands, waving her team into cover while she nimbly danced and span across the battlefield, drawing the mercs attention. And their bullets. That was the same too, Garrus guessed some things never changed.

Shepard and her team vanished from his field of view and into the ground floor of his building. He could still hear them fighting, he'd been so distracted by Shepard that some mercs must have gotten past him and into the base. He didn't doubt that she could handle it, and instead focused on keeping the bridge behind them empty. Only a few minutes passed before he heard the door open behind him, he still hadn't gotten his head around the situation, still hadn't figured out how the hell Shepard was here. But his time was up,

"Archangel?" She asked from behind him. He held a hand up, one last pesky merc was on the bridge. He would probably retreat but Garrus needed one more second to gather his thoughts. The mercs head appeared from behind his cover and Garrus took the shot. With no excuses left he pushed himself to his feet. His legs were a little shaky. A combination of shock at Shepard standing in front of him and exhaustion. He turned a well practised, C-Sec trained eye on her properly, scanning her from head to toe.

The armour was new, not the set she'd worn on The Normandy. It wasn't the same old, well loved, krogan shotgun she was pointing at him. But the grip? The grip was right. Fingers slightly splayed to compensate for her smaller hands. Her hold firm but careful; she really did love her shotguns.

The expression was all her too, meticulously rehearsed to look neutral. That expression said she could either kill you or befriend you, and she didn't care which you picked. Except Garrus knew she did care, more than anyone else he'd ever known. He knew that look, even if it did come from a face that was covered in scars he didn't recognise. A faint red glow was just visible underneath.

Even with all that, it was the eyes that truly convinced him.

Even after two years he'd know those eyes anywhere.

Humans have large, expressive eyes as a general rule, but Garrus had yet to see the eyes that rivalled Shepard's. The same shade of green as some of the grasses that grew on Palaven. Emerald lightning, sharp and quick witted: eyes that never missed anything. Garrus had seen them glitter with trouble, humour and curiosity. They weren't glittering right now, they were sharp, focused, the eyes of a hunter. She could school her features all she liked, Garrus could read those eyes, as Shepard would say, like a book.

He headed for the couch, perching on the arm before pulling off his helmet,

"Shepard. I thought you were dead."

"Garrus!" She cried, the sharp look disappeared as her face split into a huge smile. The skin around the new scars pulled and creased. The skin looked tight, almost painful, and very much as though it wasn't used to being pulled into this particular expression.

Seriously Shepard, what THE HELL happened to you?

The unfamiliar shotgun vanished and she threw her arms wide as though to pull him into a hug, she took a few steps toward him before her foot stopped almost in mid-air and her head jerked slightly to her left, towards the woman next to her. Her smile slipped a little and her arms dropped. Garrus looked at the woman in white properly for the first time and saw the sigil on her arm.

Cerberus? Shit.

The woman was looking between himself and Shepard with an interest he wasn't sure he liked,

"Garrus, what are you doing here?" Garrus turned his attention back to Shepard, he tilted his head to one side in silent question, she did the tiniest little head shake that practically screamed Not now at him, the Cerberus woman didn't seem to notice. They hadn't been working together long then, he noted.

"Just keeping my skills sharp. A little target practice." He tried to quip, though even he could hear the exhaustion in his voice. Shepard knew him better than anyone, she'd hear it like a damn foghorn. Right on cue her brows furrowed, pulling down in concern,

"You OK?"

"Been better." He shrugged, "But it sure is good to see a friendly face, killing mercs is hard work. Especially on my own." It's good to see you was what he wanted to say, the small nod and softening of her eyes told him she understood. She opened her mouth, clearly wanting to ask him more questions, he had one or two for her come to that, but after a quick glance at the Cerberus agent she seemed to think better of it, she bit her lip instead before gesturing back to the window,

"Well we got here, but I don't think getting out will be as easy."

"No, it won't." Garrus said, dragging himself back to his feet, "That bridge has saved my life, funnelling all those witless idiots into scope but it works both ways. They'll slaughter us if we try to get out that way."

"So we just sit here and wait for them to take us out?" The Cerberus agent asked, Shepard rolled her eyes, it was so familiar that Garrus could have gone back in time two years. They could very well have been discussing Wrex's suggestions on ways to improve the Mako, the three of them hanging out in The Normandy's shuttle bay. Not in the ruins of his base on Omega.

He still couldn't believe she was here, he half expected her to vanish if he turned away. He shook his head a little to bring himself back into the present and cleared his throat,

"It's not all that bad, this place has held them off. So far. And, with the three of you, I suggest we hold this locations, wait for a crack in their defences and take our chances. It's not a perfect plan, but it's a plan."

"And here I had reservations at Afterlife." Shepard tutted dryly, joining him at the window. "I guess I'll have to settle for killing mercs." It was Garrus' turn to roll his eyes,

"Nice to see you haven't changed. Let's see what they're up to." Garrus held his rifle back up to his eye, focusing in on the barricade. They'd apparently used up their latest batch of cannon fodder, the steady stream of mercs making their way over the bridge had ceased. Now it seemed Eclipse we sending their mecs over instead, "Looks like they know their infiltration team failed." Garrus muttered, "Take a look." He handed his rifle to Shepard. She looked a little unsure, her eyes flicking from the rifle up to meet his. Her head tilted at an angle he interpreted as are you sure? She knew he wasn't one to give his gun to just anyone, hell on the SR-1 he'd refused Ashley's offer to clean and maintain it, keeping that job for himself. As Shepard had done with her own weapons. But she wasn't just anyone, she was Shepard. He half shrugged, half nodded and pressed the gun into her hands, she took with what was almost reverence before bringing the scope up, "Scouts, Eclipse I think."

"Looks like a lot more than just scouts." She said, passing him back his gun, "They've got a small army back there, but most are just walk-ins. If we work as a team we'll hold them off."

"Indeed. We better get ready. I'll stay up here, I can do a lot of damage from this vantage point."

"I'll bet you can." His mandibles flicked out into a smile,

"And you? Well, you just do what you do best," he winked at her, "Just like old times, Shepard."

"By "old times" do you mean me pulling your ass out of the fire? Because if you did, then yes, Vakarian, yes it is." She grinned back at him and returned his wink. He opened his mouth, a retort on his tongue when she called, "What? Sorry, can't hear you over the sound of me saving your ass!"

And vaulted straight over the balcony.

"She did not just-" Cerberus agent said, starring at the spot where Shepard had vanished with her mouth slightly agape,

"You don't know Shepard very well, do you?" He asked, trying, and mostly failing, to keep the humour out of his voice. She gave him a less-than-pleased look before hurrying out the door with the veteran, who also looked like he was trying to hide is amusement, in tow. Garrus tuned his comms into their frequency before opening a second, more secure line, using the frequency they'd used back on The Normandy,

"I think we've pissed off your Cerberus friend." Garrus chuckled,

"Miranda?" Shepard scoffed, "Nah, bitch is like her default setting or something. How'd you let yourself get into this position, Garrus?"

"My feelings got in the way of my better judgement. It's..." He really didn't want to get into this right now, "It's a long story."

"Yeah? I've got one of those myself."

"I'll make you a deal; get me out of here alive and we'll trade over a bottle of ryncol."

"Working on it." He couldn't see what she was doing, he was focusing on the other end of the bridge, picking mecs off as they came over the barricade, but he could hear the frequent blasts of her shotgun and the sound that accompanied her biotics, "Trust you to somehow piss off every merc in The Terminus system."

"It wasn't easy, I really had to work at it."

"Somehow I doubt that." The heard two shots from her gun in quick succession, "This is much easier now I've not got a sniper shooting at me. You nailed me good a couple of times, by the way."

"Nailed you, Commander?" He coughed,

"Oh? We're starting the innuendo early?" She laughed, "You shot me, Vakarian! You know? With bullets?"

"Concussive rounds only, no harm done."

"Uh-Huh."

"If I'd wanted to do more than take your shields down, I'd've done it." He let some of his usual cockiness seep into his voice, "Besides, you were taking your sweet time, I wanted to get you moving."

"Gee, thanks."

The barricade was clear for the moment, Garrus dropped into cover to reload,

"Have you run into anyone else?" He asked. For a moment he thought he'd lost the connection, Shepard hesitated that long before answering,

"Tali."

"Tali's with you? Where is she?"

"No. Tali...declined my offer to join us." Even through the comms, and with the roar of Shepard's shotgun, Garrus caught the catch in her voice,

"I'm sorry, Shepard."

"No, no it's good, she has her own mission. I've been gone for two years. It's not like I expected everyone to just drop everything and come back. It's good." Garrus let the painfully obvious false cheer in her voice go, knowing he'd have dropped everything in a heartbeat if Shepard asked him to. Instead he joked,

"She probably just didn't want the competition for close quarter combat."

"Oh, please," Shepard snorted, "like I have any competition."

"Easy to say when you have a sniper backing you-" A heavy mech landed in the middle of the bridge, "Heads up! Heavy mech, fall back!"

"That problem should take care of itself actually."

"What do you-" The rest of his question died off as it was answered for him by the mech targeting the Eclipse mercs, "How'd you pull that off?" Garrus laughed,

"I did occasionally pay attention when you were explaining tech, you know."

"Oh? So the glazed looks were..."

"That's just how I look when I'm concentrating!"

"Shepard, you fell asleep! Twice!"

With the mech on their side they soon cleared the last of the mercs.

Garrus switched to the other channel so the others could hear,

"Alright, we're clear. Come find me before they re-group."

Garrus tossed one of his few remaining bottles of water to Shepard as she led her team back up to the balcony,

"You're kicking ass, Shepard."

"No so bad yourself, big guy." She replied, taking a mouthful of water before passing the bottle to Miranda, "Only the Blue Suns and Blood Pack left, think we can make a break for it?"

"Maybe, let's see what they're up to." Once again Garrus turned his scope to the barricade, but this time it looked different, they'd raised it and built more guard posts, "They've reinforced the other side." As he was speaking Garrus saw a pair of engineers setting up turrets, "Heavily. What are they waiting-" An explosion under their feet quickly followed by his proximity alarms cut him off.

Damn.

"What the hell was that?" Miranda asked,

"Dammit, they've breached the lower levels. Well, they had to use their brains eventually."

"Want me to head down there and clear them out?" Shepard asked, already reaching for her shotgun,

"We can-" Garrus caught movement out of the corner of his eye, the mercs were taking no chances, another large group were assembling at the barrier, "On second thought, you take the tunnel, I'll keep the bridge clear?"

"Sounds like a plan. You wanna keep one of my team with you? Two and two?"

"You sure? Who knows what you'll find down there." She just gave him a look, the oh please left implied,

"Zaeed? Keep his bony ass alive, would you?"

"Got it, sweetheart." The gruff veteran chuckled.

Zaeed? As in Zaeed Massani? His name had crossed Garrus' desk a few times back on The Citadel.

"Thanks Shepard," Garrus said, making a mental note to get her back for the bony ass comment, "Head behind the stairs and through the doors. There's three shutters you need to close. I'll give you directions if you get lost but you better hurry."

"We're on it. Keep your heads down, and don't die."

"You too."

The door had barely closed behind them when Garrus was reaching for his last stim pack. He was on his feet purely due to adrenalin and will power, but it didn't last forever. As he withdrew the needle he looked up to see Zaeed watching him,

"Garrus Vakarian, right? Might'a heard a thing or two about you."

"Yeah? I might'a heard a thing or two about you as well, Zaeed Massani." Zaeed chuckled again,

"Don't suppose you go from C-Sec to being the most hated vigilante on this god-forsaken station without hearin' some shit, huh?"

"The same could be said for a hired gun going to work for Shepard." Garrus fired back,

"Don't see how it's any of your fuckin' business, but the kid and I go pretty far back. And even if we didn't, The Illusive Man's got bloody deep pockets."

"The Illusive Man?" Garrus asked in surprise, "Shepard's working for Cerberus?" He'd thought maybe Miranda was a defector, he guessed he was wrong.

"You'll have to ask your girlfriend about that, Vakarian."

"Shepard isn't-"

"I've known Shepard for a long time, too god-damn long, I know just about everything there is to know about that girl. Right now only two of those thing are important: one: she's hard as fuckin' nails, and two: she cares about your turian hide for some bloody reason. And she'll damn well kill me herself if she comes back here and you're fuckin' dead."

"That's three things." Garrus dead-panned,

"We gonna kill some god-damn mercs or sit here like a fuckin' sewing circle?" Garrus laughed and picked up his rifle, "One other thing I know, if you're done being bloody clever; she finds out you've been using that shit," Zaeed nodded at the empty stim pack, "she'll kick your ass."

"It's a good job nobody's gonna tell her then."

"You're god-damn right."

It turned out that he and Zaeed worked well together, arguing about the best gun and armour mods between head-shots, Garrus already found himself liking the old scarred veteran. The fact that he knew Shepard so well surprised him, she wasn't the type to hang around mercs and bounty hunters, even if Zaeed was one of the good ones. He should have known it was going too well. Just as Shepard came over the comms to say they'd hit the second shutter there was a sudden flurry movement as Blood Pack members swarmed toward the barricade,

"Pissing hell." Zaeed hissed,

"Erm, Shepard?" Garrus asked into the comm unit, "How are you coming on that third shutter?"

"Almost got - Miranda! Get down!" Shepard's shout crackled with interference before her voice almost became a coo, "Aww, varrens!"

"Shepard! The shutter?!"

"Almost got it, another minute."

"We don't have a god-damn minute!" Zaeed barked into his headset, grabbing handfuls of ammo,

"What?!" The alarm in her voice coming through loud and clear,

"Yeah, no pressure." Garrus said mildly, throwing proximity mines over the balcony.

"Screw it." She growled, "Miranda, throw that vorcha in front of the shutter, I need a charge target."

"Shepard-" Miranda tried to argue,

"Miranda, now!" Shepard barked, "Give me thirty seconds, tops." Shepard said, he could hear her shotgun fire in quick succession before it went quiet again.

"That woman's fuckin' insane." Zaeed said, a hint of admiration in his voice,

"You'll get no arguments from me."

"Aww varrens?"

"Pretty much anything from Tuchanka really." Garrus said with a fond smile, "Wrex always said she was part krogan. Alright, here they come!" The Blood Pack members surged over the barricade. They couldn't even come close to keeping up, Garrus' proximity mines and Zaeed's grenades thinned their numbers a little but they were outnumbered at least a dozen to one. Even so, Garrus didn't start to get really concerned until he heard the unmistakeable sound of a blowtorch on his sealed ground floor doors, swiftly followed by the muffled voice of Garm, the Blood Pack leader, just on the other side. Shit. That krogan was a damn freak of nature, he could re-gen faster than any krogan Garrus had ever seen,

"Head downstairs, give Shepard back up when she comes through the door, we're gonna need all guns blazing." Zaeed nodded and ran for the stairs, Garrus watched him take cover as the door opened and Garm came through. Garrus lined up a head-shot at the vorcha at Garm's side, he took the shot, gaining Garm's attention, hopefully Zaeed had gone unnoticed. His ploy worked, the krogan turned to head for the stairs to his balcony just as Shepard and Miranda came sprinting through the doors, the four of them attacked from three angles, dropping vorcha and varrens left and right, but Garm kept coming. Damn. This wasn't good. Garrus' strength was sniping, working in shadows, in the silence. Close quarters with Garm? He could hold his own, but not for long.

The hulking krogan took up half the doorway,

"Archangel, alone at last." Garm grinned, shotgun in hand,

"Garm, did you miss me?" Garrus asked, weighing his options, the sounds of raging battle coming from below them,

"I'm gonna rip your plates off, turian."

"You can try."

Before Garm could move Garrus had fired a concussive round into his barriers and leapt into cover, exchanging his sniper for his assault rifle. He rolled, popping up at the other end of the sofa he'd taken refuge behind, peppering Garm's barrier with bullets. Garm roared and charged at Garrus, but he was ready, turning on his knee at the last second before firing another burst into the krogan's back. Garm fired his shotgun wildly, hitting where Garrus had been just seconds before. Krogan were tough, but Wrex had taught him a few things; like taking out the secondary organs first. He flicked a proximity mine at Garms feet, momentarily sending him reeling, just enough time for Garrus to fire at where he knew Garm's secondary heart was. He didn't think he'd gotten through the armour but he'd definitely weakened it before he was forced back into cover as Garm threw warp after warp at him.

Shit, Garrus thought, he's just giving himself time to re-generate!

Knowing that didn't help, leaving his cover was suicide. Garm was in a rage, throwing biotics powers and firing his shotgun while roaring in anger. In a burst of inspiration Garrus threw another mine, this time towards Garms face, the mine was caught in the crossfire, exploding in mid-air, temporarily blinding him. Garrus emptied his clip into Garms second heart before diving to the other side of the room, scrambling behind one of the large planters. He didn't quite make it before Garm's vision cleared. Shit, now he was screwed, out of ideas and with nowhere to go! Garrus' nimble fingers reloaded his assault rifle as Garm's heavy footfalls cleared the room. Damn krogan knew he had him trapped, bastard was enjoying taking his time. Garrus ground his teeth together to stop himself from popping out of cover and empting another clip in Garm's sneering face. He shifted his weight to the balls of his feet, Garm may be stronger than he was, but Garrus was a damn sight faster, he just needed a-

"Is this a bad time?" Shepard asked from the doorway, "I can come back if you're busy."

I just needed a distraction, thank you Shepard.

Garrus rolled away from the planter, skirting behind the furthest sofa,

"This doesn't concern you, human." Garm growled,

"I beg to differ." Shepard unloaded her shotgun from the front, Garrus his assault rifle from behind. Garm roared his displeasure before throwing a warp at Shepard, she dodged out of the way, reloading her shotgun with practised ease,

"Hey, Garrus?" Shepard called across the room, sounding so casual they may as well be in a noisy bar rather than a damn fire fight, "Remember the krogan when we rescued Liara?"

"Dammit." Oh yeah, he remembered that tactic alright. He reached for his sniper rifle again, "I hate that one."

"Yep." Was her only reply as she jumped back to her feet, dodging Garm's wild attacks, his rage making him unpredictable but no less dangerous. She threw herself into open ground, between him and Garrus; Garrus gripped his rifle tighter, they'd only get one shot at this, he had to make it count.

"I thought krogan were meant to be tough? I've seen salarians with bigger quads ." Shepard taunted, it did the trick, Garm bellowed at the ceiling before charging her, she launched herself right back at him with her biotics, they collided with a crash of armour on armour as Garm overpowered her, sending them both tumbling to the ground with Garm on top, his hands going for Shepard's throat,

"Garrus?"

"Now!" He jumped to his feet as Shepard pushed Garm as hard as she could, his head came up and Garrus took the shot. A large sniper bullet in such close quarters does an incredible amount of damage, and this particular bullet hit the mark, right between Garms eyes. It travelled right out of the back of his head and lodged in the wall. Orange blood splattered everywhere as the krogan collapsed in a heap. With a grunt of effort Shepard pushed the heavy body off her and looked up at him from the floor,

"I think we ruined your carpet."

He laughed, as much from relief as Shepard's joke, and reached a hand down to pull her to her feet,

"I hear orange is in this season." He quipped, stepping back a little as Shepard activated her comm,

"Miranda, Zaeed? We all clear down there?"

"All clear Commander. We're making our way back."

"Roger that." She deactivated the comm before turning back to Garrus, "Just Blue Suns left, wanna make a break for it?" He opened his mouth to answer when his superior hearing picked up an usual sound, was that...gunship! His mind screamed at him, he turned toward the window just as it appeared. He didn't think, just reacted as the weapons came into view. He pushed Shepard over, knocking her back behind cover as the gunship opened fire. His shields didn't stand a chance, the gunship's weapons tore through them and into his armour. He heard Shepard shouting his name as heat and pain ripped through his shoulder, chest and both arms as he dropped to the floor, scrambling behind a planter for cover. His suit could barely keep up, flooding his body with medi-gel. It wasn't going to be enough. Fighting for breath and vision already wavering he glanced to the side, a stricken looking Shepard was on the balls of her feet, ready to run to him, he waved her down. He had to get to her cover, he gathered the last of his strength, pulling himself up to a crouching position to make a break for it when the rocket hit in an explosion of light, sound and fire.

Blackness surrounded his vision, shrinking light down to a pin prick. Everything felt far away and unimportant. Almost peaceful. Until he realised the sound he could hear was screaming. Was he making that noise? No, it was too high, there were no sub-harmonics, was that...

Shepard?

He clawed back at the darkness,

Shepard didn't scream, Shepard NEVER screamed!

But he could hear her now, she was screaming his name. Darkness was dragging him under, drowning him. He fought back, if nothing else, just to make that sound stop. Shepard shouldn't scream. It was wrong. He had to make it stop. She was just about the only person left in the galaxy he cared about, and she'd been dead for two years, and now she was screaming. But it was no use, weights dragged at him, pulling him down into darkness.