A/N: So... um... Hi. hope you enjoy this AU story. yea... i got no idea what to write up here today... eventual Shakarian... rated m for the probability of things not being kept at a rated:t level...and stuff in the process of being planned up there... So, i had this idea then I found there was a story that sorta had the same plot that i thought of already in existence, so i went and modified that idea and now i have this... and a sorta "too many ME ideas fanfic ideas" problem, so I'm posting this... working on a third idea now. anyway please review...I really like feedback. :) oh and just in case it wasn't clear, this archangel isn't garrus...

On a side note, I'm still working out finer plot ideas. I'm not sure when I'm going to introduce Garrus... but I have an idea of how...hopefully soon though... and I hate coming up with title names for these stories... may or may not change it in the future...if you have any ideas please. LET ME KNOW.

Chapter 1: Archangel Rising - The Beginning

Shepard sighed. Her eyes were trying to keep up with the information that was streaming down the large computer screens in front of her. She was tired and angry but at the moment, sitting with some of her only friends in the galaxy helped her as she tried to forget the day's festivities.

The galactic power had violently shifted when the batarians, who had somehow created a weapon of mass destruction of completely unheard of, and unbelievable technology, had fired it at the planet Halegeus, a salarian colony, when the salarians refused to disband the STG and unconditionally surrender to the batarians, as they "did not negotiate with terrorists." In retaliation, the batarians fired their weapon, and it resulted in the destruction of all life on the planet, as well as the removal of two its moons that were caught in the blast. Ultimately, the salarians surrendered and agreed to the batarians' demands then began pushing towards the legalization of slavery within Council space.

It had been a tense day on the Citadel. Shepard remembered her frustration upon hearing the news reports when slavery was legalized. Both the turians and asari had relented to the batarians, even welcoming them as a new-Council race and giving them a seat within the Council. Shepard knew blaming them was pointless though... self-preservation usually triumphed over making nice and the batarians were still harbouring a grudge against humanity for the Skylian Blitz and their expansion in the Kelper Verge.

Most species had agreed to allow slavery, but not humanity... unofficially anyway. The majority of human colonies were relocated so that humanity could still protect their own, but other colonies that were located further away from Alliance-patrolled space, and colonies located further out in the Traverse and the Terminus systems, often found themselves attacked by slavers or pirates... usually resulting no survivors... Since the Systems Alliance lacked their own seat on the Council, they were powerless in the decisions being made within Council space, and they were eventually forced to disband the Alliance by the batarian military. All that was left of the once great Alliance became known as Terra Firma Protection, whose primary focus became protecting its own colonies, and was an overly glorified version of security.

The other races suffered from the same effects, though not as harshly. There were no real changes to the other non-Council races, but salarians became more hostile and there were less and less salarians seen beyond their region of space and it was rumoured that the Special Tasks Group would eventually do something about the batarian menace. Remote asari colonies were encouraged to return to asari space, and if an asari ever went missing, they would have been forgotten. The turians, who had made up most of the galactic peace-keeping force, had to content themselves with busting pirates and illegal slavers, as they slowly began to look down on outer colonies and those with poor social standing – which usually included the majority of those outside turian space and those without colonial markings.

Space travel had also been reduced greatly as security everywhere increased. Sympathisers were reported to have gone missing and smuggling was near impossible with both the turian and batarian military, and Spectres enforcing Council law. Escapees (if there were any) usually ended up in Omega, and either were recaptured or declared missing. The remainder of the real Alliance was stationed on Omega and operated mainly out of the mines. It was built up of the hardiest soldiers and some of the highest ranking members of the former Alliance, as well any volunteers from the humans who were captured by the Alliance and granted a safe haven from the slavers and streets of Omega. Although they were technically a group that that didn't exist, they maintained an extremely discreet relation with the Terra Firma Protection and every now and then, the agency would send the Alliance a new recruit who was technically "killed in action" who was either the best of the best, or had important information that needed to be relayed to Admiral Hackett.

"Commander Shepard." A feminine voice called out to her. "Are you all right?" The asari shifted uneasily in her seat as she turned her attention to her companion to her left who was looking slightly exhausted.

"I'm... all right LIara..." Shepard mumbled. "Just tired... of shooting things...today." The two heard slight laughter coming from behind them. They were sitting in fairly large room with two sofas surrounding a table with Liara's computers set up at the end of the room.

"No kidding Commander..." Ashley Williams flashed a winning smile. "You helped free about a dozen people today... broke up another slave ring... and once again have proved you're one of the only people that you do not want to fuck with on Omega."

Shepard laughed lightly at the comment as Kaiden Alenko rolled his eyes. "Well, it isn't bad to go busting up slave operations on Omega..." He crossed his arms over his chest and huffed. "But it certainly does feel good to help the oh-so-mysterious vigilante Archangel with cleaning up this station."

"Tell me about it!" Tali'Zorah stood up with a drink in her hand. "If it weren't for Archangel, I'd probably be dead by now! At least coming to Omega guaranteed that I'd at least reach station before something bad happened unlike that at the Citadel... or Illium!"

Shepard smiled. Her name as Archangel was known to nearly all on Omega. She was a saviour and peacekeeper to the residents, one of the best agents to the Alliance, someone who could be counted on for favours by Aria T'Loak, nuisance to the slavers and pirates operating in the Terminus systems, but more importantly she was one of the small beacons of hope to her friends and allies who trying to do their part in helping out the galaxy. They were all lounging around in their casual clothes and drinking to celebrate Archangel's latest victory, and she to make it even better, she had stolen a bunch of decrypted information from the slavers' captain.

"So, you found anything new today Liara?" Liara was hooked up to Omega's entire network and they used it to coordinate their movements on the station. She was working at becoming an information broker to help the Alliance after an incident that nearly got her captured by batarians. It was strange though. Liara was researching Protheans when the batarians had attacked her and it was only by coincidence that Shepard's crew, which was returning from a mission that took her off Omega, had stopped on the planet after receiving a distress signal.

Liara nodded as she directed everyone's attention to the large screens that were hooked up to her computer. She spoke in a cool and collected voice as images and data ran across the large screens. "The information you obtained this time includes... names and dates of slave auctions... ship names... cargo manifests... identities of prisoners... looks like they're starting to turn slaves into drug addicts to keep them in line..." The room seemed to darken a bit. Kaiden and Ashley had obtained information that hinted to addicting slaves to drugs like red sand to "promote" obedience... "... And new bounties of high-value targets... Oh."

Everyone's eyes were focused on the screens. They were all looking at a list of the most wanted criminals within Citadel space – themselves. Everyone's bounty had gone up significantly, and they were only identified by their aliases and species, but there was a new image attached to Archangel's name. Somehow someone had managed to get a badly captured image of Shepard wielding her sniper rifle. She let out a small sigh of relief as whoever had taken it didn't get an image of her right side. On the right side, her armour was easily identifiable through a small yellow symbol made up of two lines with and what resembled an upside-down triangle – Archangel's symbol. It was easily one of the most recognizable symbols on Omega that all humans and aliens alike, respected or hated with a vengeance. Many of her group's rescues had their own versions of it on their arms and armour. Shepard however, was the only human who bore it on her right arm, while other humans it had it on their left. The symbol represented the justice that she and the Alliance that was brought to the station and wished for the rest of the galaxy, and Shepard didn't want it being slandered by some newscaster. "I'll do what I can to remove that from their databases again... like I did with the last one..." Liara forced a smile.

"Thanks Liara." Shepard turned away from the screens and sat down in the lounging area. "Well I guess I need a new sniper rifle now... and a new set of armour...again. How the hell does someone manage to get a picture of me every time I finally get to liking a set of gear?"

"Well... I suppose that means we'll need to call in a favour from the pirate queen of Omega for some new ones...again..." Ashley gave a sympathetic smile. "You do know there are worse alternatives, skipper."

Liara turned away and shut down the screens. "I'll let you know if I manage to find or learn anything else... and in the meantime... I need a drink." The mood considerably lightened as sat in pulled up a chair. They had only been sitting down for a few minutes when the alarms went off.

The only time they ever went off was when there were intruders heading towards the mines..."Grab your gear everyone." Shepard ordered as everyone nodded in assent. "Either it's a new package... an intruder... or bad news..."

Shepard was putting on her gear when her omni-tool pinged and turned on the audio. "Commander Shepard." The admiral was sounding more tired than usual. "Today's codes are Jon Grissom, and Elysium."

"Understood, admiral... but are we expecting anyone?" Usually guests were members of the Alliance... or the Terra Firma Protection...and the occasional the bearer of extremely bad news... but they usually knew someone was coming beforehand... so anyone coming without prior knowledge smelt of trouble. Occasionally, it would be someone who was told to head toward Omega's mines by Aria, who she believed that had information important to the Alliance or needed sanctuary. Tali was one of the Alliance's latest guests granted asylum after they found that she had an unusual recording of a conversation, captured by a geth, although they hadn't been seen beyond the Veil within the past 300 years, between three individuals, and was being hunted for it. The conversation had been heavily encrypted and Tali spent most of her free time working on analyzing the message. Since then, she had proven herself to be a valuable member of Archangel's team.

"Not to my knowledge... contact me if they give a name or you suspect they have information... I'll leave you to your methods...but expect the worst. Hackett out." Shepard and her team had come to expect the worst every single day on Omega after fighting at the station for so long. Her team was also one of the only few groups that interacted with outsiders on the station to minimize human presence as much as possible, since it couldn't be known or suspected that the Alliance was biding its time.

Shepard met her team at the lowest entrance. Anyone coming into the mines would have to take a certain not actually deactivated elevator up to even come close to the labyrinth of darkness that eventually led to the mines' entrance. Just outside the elevator's exit was a small lit area where one's fate was determined... Everyone had their guns trained at the area as Shepard stepped into the light. Whoever was coming, was coming soon... and making their way up the elevator.

A lone figure stepped out into the light. If it was a batarian, everyone would shoot on sight, no questions asked, but this was a human... female. The Alliance made it a habit to wear headgear, but this location was the only exception. Most humans didn't take kindly to having guns pointed towards them by masked individuals. Shepard had her gun pulled out and directed at the intruder's face. There were definitely more people in the elevator, as she gave Kaiden and Ashley a small nod to focus their attention on the woman's companions. Shepard refocused her attention towards the woman. She had blond hair and blue eyes and was most definitely older than her. "Identify yourself, state your intentions, or you will unfortunately be shot. Make any sudden moves, and we will be forced to shoot you."

The woman gave a small nod. "He'd told me to expect you..." The woman raised her hands into the air slowly, surrendering. "My name is Kahlee Sanders... I have a message from David Anderson... and I believe the code words today are Jon Grissom... and Elysium..." She smiled weakly as Shepard lowered her gun and told her companions to do the same. "There's been a problem..." Kahlee waved to her companions as they stepped into the light. There was a krogan, a bald woman decorated in tattoos, and another woman but she was wearing a black hood. "I need to see Admiral Hackett... and these individuals... are with me."

Shepard nodded as she hid the surprise beneath her poker face. She, and by extension, the Alliance, hadn't heard from Anderson in months... "I'll need you and your companions to surrender your weapons to my team for security's sake if you want to see the Admiral." Kahlee nodded as waved over to her companions as Shepard's own teammates did the same and took their weapons. The krogan however, seemed reluctant to hand his shotgun over to a human. Shepard smiled and turned his attention to him. "You do not want me to come over there and head butt you."

The krogan flashed a large smile and let out a laugh as he handed his weapons over to Ashley. "You've got a quad human... I like that."

Shepard rolled her eyes as she activated her radio. "Admiral, you have some visitors. A woman named Kahlee Sanders and her companions... My team will be escorting them to you now." She turned her attention over to Kahlee and her companions. "Follow me."

After about a twenty-minute walk, Shepard and her team escorted Kahlee and her companions towards the upper levels of the mine to a small room that was referred to by everyone as the conference centre. The room was fairly large and the tables were set up in a in a circle formation. Hackett was sitting at the opposite end when Shepard's party arrived.

"Admiral Hackett..." Kahlee saluted the elderly man before she pulled up a chair and motioned for her companions to do the same as Shepard's team leaned agains the walls. "I wish we could be seeing each other under better circumstances..."

"Agreed... but it's nice to know that you're alive..." Hackett brought his hand over to his chin and gave the impression of one in deep thought. "...But we both know that you'd only risk contact if something big came up..."

Kahlee nodded silently and nodded to one of her companions – the woman who was pretty much wearing nothing above her waist but tattoos. "... Jack and I managed to escape but I think they sent that turian spectre after us again..." Her voice trailed off.

"Every freaking time we end up doing something, or attempt to contact the turian resistance, that asshole always finds us..." Jack growled, "I swear to god if I ever see him again I will fucking rip his face off." Her biotics were flaring as she spoke.

"Wait, you mentioned something about Captain Anderson?" Ashley interjected, hoping that Jack would not go making things float around. "You said you had a message from him Ms. Sanders..."

"David...He... got caught when we tried to contact the turian resistance..."Both Jack and Kahlee hung their heads. "We were being followed by a turian spectre..." She pulled out her omni-tool, clicked a few buttons, then a broken message played.

"S-fzt, he's might be on to us, Ka-shrk- i'll do my best to –fshh- him off... Hierarchy is going to start coming after –shrnk!- theif's –zztt- need to contact resistance.. get to Hack-zzzz- and promise me you'll stay safe..."

The conference room was silent for a moment when Jack slammed her fists against the table. "Someone tipped that bastard off..." She sighed as her biotics died down. "Dammit... that should have been me."

"Anderson probably wouldn't have forgiven himself he allowed you and Ms. Sanders to get captured..." Kaiden sighed. "He's always been willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good... and he probably didn't want to blame himself for getting you either shipped to prison... or worse..."

Shepard smiled. Kaiden usually knew what to say in these situations. "In the worst case scenario, whoever wanted to capture you three either suspected or knew about the Alliance... and in the best case: he was capturing a known fugitive who had left the Terra Firma Protection who has a bounty on his head for the attempt and success of freeing countless slaves..." Hackett nodded at the ideas as she continued. "But our priorities now should be locating Anderson... contacting the turian resistance... and find that thief he mentioned..." It would be difficult to find Anderson... Anderson, like everyone on her squad was on the Citadel's most wanted list, and if he were captured, it was very likely he would either end up in a high secuirity turian prison, or being sold off as a slave to some batarian warlord or some xenophobic turian who harboured a grudge for the First Contact War to be put through countless forms of torture. If that were the case, it would be easier and less risky to contact the turian resistance, though they operated within Council space and rarely sent agents into the Terminus systems...

"I guess that's my cue..." The woman wearing the hood spoke up. "I'm Kasumi... Kasumi Goto. I'm the best thief in what's left of the galaxy...and I'm doing my best to make sure I'm not the most famous..." Her voice trailed off. "Anyway, Anderson contacted me and my... former partner, Keiji Okuda. He had hired us to obtain information from what's left of the STG...regarding that batarian super weapon..."Kasumi shook her head. "The information is encrypted into my partner's greybox... and when he was killed... the turian military took his greybox. The only plus side is that no one can access the information without my greybox, but since I was at Keiji's side when he died, the turians are convinced that I have the key and have pushed for the Council to declare me wanted criminal...and as a result I've been forced to go into hiding... but not before I managed to hook up with Kahlee's group."

"We were trying to find Kasumi when she found us after she investigated why we were looking for her." Kahlee let out a small laugh. "And she managed to convince Wrex here to serve as a bodyguard..."

"Urdnot Wrex..." Tali looked over at Shepard. Stories of his adventures have even reached the flotilla..." She shot a look over to Shepard. "He's the best of the best, a battlemaster, and the easily most recognizable krogan in the galaxy..."

Shepard nodded. "So. Wrex. What does a krogan want with a nonexistent organization? Or do you want something from the most wanted yet unidentifiable humans, quarian and asari in the galaxy?" Krogan were known to takes jobs for a challenge, but it was unusual for a krogan battlemaster to agree to providing security without some sort of ulterior motive.

"Haha. True. I wouldn't agree to doing any sort of bodyuard business unless I got the chance to see the infamous Archangel." The krogan shrugged as Shepard's eyes narrowed. He obviously knew who she was... "Moving on... I want what's best for the krogan people and I've heard some chatter about backroom alliances being made to take down have the batarian warlords overthrown... and I want in but I need a favour."

Admiral Hackett and Shepard's team were shocked. Archangel's identity was known only to her team and a few of her superiors and close firneds, and only a few select individuals had ties to the STG or the turian resistance, and even fewer had spoken of taking down the batarian Hegemony to bring back peace to the galaxy...Other than that, there were no traces of alliances between the three races...

Shepard was about to speack when Hackett raised his hand. "What exactly do you need Wrex? Commander Shepard is legally dead within Council space while Archangel is a valued member of the Alliance as she plays a vital part in helping human escapees and covering up our operations on Omega. For you to request her assistance... I will need a little more information than what you've given before we can simply let one of our best operatives work with a krogan mercenary without a good reason and an accurate assessment of the danger, and if it isn't good enough..." The admiral's eyes gazed over to Shepard and her team, then narrowed in on the krogan. "Dead men tell no tales."

"I take all my secrets to the grave..." Wrex grinned and gave out a hearty laugh. "I pulled in a favour with some high ranking C-sec officer to get information on Commander Shepard when she was declared a threat to "galactic secuirity" or at least to the batarians... I wanted to tangle with humanity's best myself..." He let out a loud disapointed sigh. "But then a short while later I heard some spectres had blown you up and you were dead...and somehow when I ended up on Omega for some jobs when I found Archangel." He let out another laugh again. "You shot me a few times when you were busting up some guys... and let's just say I have my own ways to figuring out her identity... as well as some of the Alliance's... Anyway, I'd like Shepard's assistance with getting rid of a certain warlord." He pulled out his omni-tool and hit a few buttons as the image of a krogan materialized. "Warlord Okeer is creating an army of krogan and is somehow bypassing the effects of genophage."

Ashley raised her brow at that. "Um, isn't that a good thing? I mean I thought that the krogan wanted a cure."

"True, but I'm going to kill him and take anything he has of value." He snarled. "Before Okeer disapeared, he experimented on a few females... They all died because of him." He stood up and slammed his fists together. "Their blood demands his death."

Shepard nodded in understanding as Kaiden turned to her with a face of mixed emotions. "Shepard, this is Archangel's call. How do you to do this?"

"We'll probably end up doing this, Kaiden... but one thing Wrex... if it was just killing a krogan, you wouldn't need our help..."

"The problem I have with him... is this." Wrex hit some more buttons on the omni-tool and another face appeared. A turian. Shepard raised an eyebrow immediately and Jack shot up out of her chair. "Saren Arterius."

"That's the bastard who got Anderson!" Her biotics were flaring up again.

Wrex snorted as he focused on Shepard. "Okeer is breeding his army for him.... and is technically under his protection on the planet Korlus..." Tali and Liara groaned as they heard the planet's name. Korlus was a known mercenary training ground and what made it worse was that the planet was within the Atican Traverse, Council space. "Which is why I'd like Archangel to come, given the commander's previous experience with him..."

Shepard studied the Saren's image closely. She didn't know who he was until now. All she knew was that this spectre was a ruthless killing machine who had taken down Anderson and inadvertedly allowed her to fake her own death. "Fine we'll do it." She headed toward the room's entrance as the room fell silent. "Liara, you are staying here with Kasumi. Found out everything you can about her partner's greybox. Kasumi help Liara and give her as much information as you can about the squadron that was hunting you down. With luck, you can narrow down where the greybox was taken." The two woman nodded and Shepard glanced over at Hackett. He was going to approve of this mission. "Ash, you and Kaiden go do a weapon's check on our gear and make sure everything is prepped within an hour. Tali, I want you to create some hacking program or something to extract data from omni-tools in case we do encounter Saren." She honestly hoped though that they wouldn't. The three saluted Shepard as they all left to complete their assigned tasks. "Jack you wanna come? We could use another biotic since Liara's benched."

"Hell yeah." Jack excitedly got up. "I'll do an amp check then find the others... they still have my shotgun..." She headed out the door and glanced over at Shepard. "Thanks."

Shepard let out a large sigh. They still needed a ship that could get them to Korlus that didn't fly Alliance blue...and if she asked Aria for a ship to borrow it would end up with her doing more favours that she was not looking forward to. "Wrex do you have a ship?"

"That won't be necessary commander." Shepard turned to Admiral Hackett with a slight smile on his face. He nodded to Kahlee who was also smiling.

"I'm giving you the Normandy. Its... was... Anderson's ship. He always meant for you to have it."

She could hardly contain her surprise. "The Normandy SR1?" It was the last ship that anyone would ever expect, and was rumoured to have disapeared, gone missing, and destroyed more than several times. It was also forgotten symbol of what races could accomplish if they worked together...

The admiral stood up and handed Shepard a datapad. "Take who you need. This mission, and Archangel require the best." Shepard immediately looked and began to study the available crew list. "She's all yours Commander. Good luck."

Oh and this is the longest chapter I've EVER posted. So... don't expect long ones all the time...sorry!

And I didnt really edit this... much. so... tell me if you spot any errors.