Garrus's fingers danced a practiced symphony across the holographic interface as he touched down the skycar. Despite the black tint of the windows, the artificial white light was still a shade too harsh, or maybe he had just become too accustomed to the dark corners of Omega's streets for too long. He scowled, an expression that had become all too familiar on his face, or at least what was left of it after his near fatal extraction courtesy of Shepard. He mentally batted away his thoughts, returning himself back to the mission at hand but on the Citadel, the simulated sunlight pretending to shimmer though LCD-screen generated clouds and the trees taken from half a dozen different worlds that couldn't possibly coexist without specific nutrient plans, everything was too perfect to ignore its hypocrisy. He had learned that during his C-Sec days, but it had only been thanks to his time on Omega that he had learned to hate it, at least there they stuck the gun in your face rather than drawing on your back. Unconsciously, his hand fell to his pistol strapped his hip, making sure it was loaded and ready. There was one shot missing from the clip, he knew exactly where he had fired it. "Harkin's a bloody menace" he growled at Shepard in the passenger seat to his right. "We shouldn't have just let him go, he deserved to punished." Sure, in truth he had put a round through his thigh and he had made sure to miss the femoral artery present in most species but Harkin should have been forced to endure some true pain, Garrus knew a lot of families who had been denied justice because of Fade's actions. Harkin had squealed and swore but he didn't know pain, not true pain, one you can't hide, swallow or bury, something inescapable that waits at the fringes of your brain to strike when you let your guard down, distracted, happy or near slumber.
Pushing the skycar as fast as it could go, feeling the bodywork warp around a pipe that he cut too close. The gravity was less finely tuned than that of the Citadel and it showed, the car was harder to bank, the inertia of shifting the car upwards and down again lasted that extra half second longer. "This is Archangel" he shouted into the comm again, for what had to be the fifth time. "Anyone respond!" The comm didn't answer, not even static broke the silence. "If any member is hearing this, prepare for imminent attack!" He was virtually screaming now. The pricks of silence were now nails, inching further and further under his plates, his doubts and fears virtually ripping them out of his flesh and bones. First Sidonis hadn't arrived, then he received the report of heavy Blood Pack troop movement, and not just a routine patrol they had instigated out of necessity since he had began raiding them. Then comms had gone dark altogether, enough question marks had stacked up for him to worry, C-Sec, Spectre training, his father's teachings, they had all contributed to the clockwork of gears ticking in his mind, and now all of them screamed that they were all in danger. He had run back to the skycar and was flying back as fast as the engines would allow without blowing a repulser. He flashed back to the moment as the car's display flashed red with heat warnings as he flew straight through the flames of excess gas burning off from a complex. He had been forced to park a short distance away due to his fears that they would be waiting for him, rocket launchers at the ready and again, he was horribly right. His eye narrowed behind his visor as his trigger clenched, and a vorcha's brains painted the wall behind its head. He loosed two more shots, one punching through a krogan's eye and the other blowing off a vorcha's leg, leaving it helpless as it toppled off its platform and began a long fall to find out how quickly the gravity generated by the mass effect fields would bring him face to face with the meteor's surface. With the Boom Squad disposed of, he rushed into the complex to find it awash with blood. His team's blood. By the lay of their bodies, he could picture exactly how the breach had occurred. The Blood Pack had kicked down the front door first, employing the straight forward approach that had been so bloodily successful in the past. Butler had been the first, he had assumed a relatively solid cover position in what had been an obviously sacrificial bid to give the others time to scramble but the sheer numbers had overwhelmed him, and a shotgun blast to his left side off his chest had put him down. Butler was always that stupid sort of honourable that martyrdom appealed to, though this way was nothing he deserved. Vortash had been next, it was good he was face down, a krogan obviously in the throes of a blood rage had gotten him next as he had fled and there wasn't a lot left, his limbs were scattered. Monteague and Ripper had been gunned down from behind going for the back door, their backs were peppered with submachine gun fire, cheap rounds from an old tempest. Melenis had reached the door, only to find a squad of Blue Suns waiting. The turian-made shotgun had taken most of his face off and pasted it to the ceiling, blood was still dripping onto the floor. Erash, Grundan Kul and Mierin had actually managed to get into a position, two couches had been flipped over and there was a number of popped thermal clips still on the ground. Indeed, they had made a few fight back, Garrus examined an orange blood smear on the wall, from the looks of it a krogan had been shot through the bicep twice. However, that's when Eclipse would've began rappelling down from above, dropping in a grenade to announce their arrival. His eyes lingered over the black scorch mark where it had detonated behind them, they had never seen it coming. Sensat was trickier to find, his omnitool had been cloaking him from the foot soldiers but when the Blood Pack had loosed a varren, its sense of smell had run him down where it had proceeded to kill him. At least it had been quick, the slim Salarian frame under the pressure of a varren bite had made it fracture like glass, what hadn't been shredded by teeth had certainly been perforated by bone shards. Weaver was the last. He remembered seeing the body slumped at the end of the hall, the front of his shirt soaked red, he hadn't even had his armour on. The youngest had been last, and Eclipse had used him for target practice to calibrate their mechs. Then there had been the explosion, and smoke and troops began pouring in. They had been tracking him from the moment he had raced back from the Kenzo District. This was a trap for both his team, and now him. Ten bodies, he recounted quickly, Sidonis obviously must have been killed elsewhere. He had leaped out the window, killed two Blue Suns for their vehicle and had taken off, very aware that in half an hour, the months he had dedicated to this crusade clearing Omega of the scum of the galaxy that kicked the little people had come crashing to an abysmal wreck. He looked at the gunships hot in pursuit behind him, but his mind was too consumed by the bodies of his men. Garrus took a few gulps of oxygen, his visor's readings blurred behind a tear. Garrus opened the door despite the breakneck pace of the car, pointed his pistol backwards over the roof, and emptied the clip, using the gunfire, howling engine and roaring wind to mask his anguished scream of loss.
"Don't waste your time with him" came Shepard's voice, cutting through the haunting vision and wrenching him back to the present. "Let C-Sec deal with him."
"Yeah, I suppose you're right," Garrus mumbled, masking his emotion. He gripped the pistol again, he wanted to leave a hole through Sidonis' naval cavity for what he had done to their team. The thought brought a macabre smile to his mandibles. "Thanks for helping me with this Shepard."
"Have you thought this through?" Shepard asked, a touch of concern in her voice. "Do you know what you're doing?"
Garrus paused for a moment as ten bodies flashed through his mind. "No" he answered, burying it, the less he thought about it, the better. "But I'm not turning back now."
"You don't have to go through with this" Shepard told him softly, laying a gloved hand on the talon clenched around his pistol.
"Who's going to bring him to justice if I don't?" Garrus returned rhetorically. "Nobody else knows what he's done, nobody else cares." Everyone else who knew is dead. Except one.
"This isn't you Garrus" Shepard said, not caring that Tali was a party to all this in the back seat.
"Really?" Garrus said again. "I've always hated injustice, and my problems with the red tape of Citadel-approved policing procedure, this is called a permanent solution because it works, it solves things."
"Fine", Shepard breathed, sensing that this argument wouldn't be resolved here. If she could get Sidonis talking though… "What do you need me to do?"
"I'll set up there," Garrus told her, pointing to a vantage point. "Get him to come to you and stay out of my firing line."
"Understood" she acknowledged.
Garrus touched a command and the doors popped open at his prompt. The trio dismounted from the vehicle, Garrus moving to his porch and two females heading to the forecourt of the plaza down below. "I found him" he told the girls, "one hundred metres at your one o'clock, on the bench. Wave him over to you."
Shepard spied him easily enough and with a gesture, he came over with, Shepard didn't fail to notice, a few looks over his shoulder. Tali was standing removed from Shepard, scanning the crowd for anything out of the ordinary.
"Are you one of Harkin's people?" He asked.
"Don't worry Sidonis," she assured him, "I only work with the best."
"Don't use that name!" He hissed, fear evident in his eyes. "Harkin said you'd have instructions for me?"
"You seem jumpy about your past life" Shepard said with a casual confidence, even knowing that Garrus' scope was trained on the back of her head as they spoke. "What did you do?"
"Dammit Shepard, what are you doing?" Garrus hissed in her earpiece but she ignored him.
"Betrayed a few friends a few months ago" Sidonis admitted, walking over to the railing. His shoulders sagged as he took a long exhale, "they're dead now."
"I'm sorry" Shepard replied.
"Don't be," Sidonis told her, the fear was gone from his stance now, now he was purely resignation. Shepard didn't know if he was even still talking to her as he continued. "They're dead because of me. Blue Suns got to me, threatened to kill me unless I told them where we were hiding out, then they said if I was left on Omega when they were done, I would be next. So I ran. And now they're all dead."
"Not all of them" Shepard told him, "Garrus survived."
"I heard Archangel died" Sidonis said, genuine surprise in his voice. "Did anyone else…"
"No" Shepard said, not unkindly.
Sidonis again fell into his resigned expression. "Then he's coming for me. It was my fault, I see them when I try to sleep, their voices screaming louder the more tired I get. Food has no taste. I'm not doing any living anymore, I just want this to be over."
Shepard tore herself away him for a moment. "You can't still want to go through with this" she said to Garrus through her earpiece.
"He deserves to die" Garrus growled. He lined up the shot through the scope but only found her eyes staring defiantly back.
"If he's coming for me, he'll find you as well" Sidonis said absentmindedly, interrupting her. "When he does find you, tell him I'm sorry… and that until he does catch up to me, not that I'll ever see him with that sniper, that I'm going to do everything I can to make it right." And without bothering to continue their business they had met up to do, he walked away. Shepard stood still, waiting for a shot to ring out but it never came.
Finally, she heard an exhale through her earpiece. "Let's… just go Shepard, I need to be away from this place."
Shepard felt herself smile inside. "I'm proud of you Garrus" she said, and began to walk away.
"Shepard wait, something is wrong" Tali suddenly said, her voice alert. "There's a figure, black hood, light armour, ten o'clock, making straight for Sidonis." She paused as she ran through spectrums on her suits visor. "He has his shields up."
Shepard wheeled around and looked. She could see the figure and she followed his direction toward Sidonis' back. Her attention was suddenly diverted, as she noticed a package beside the wall he was about walk past. "Sidonis!" She roared, running for him. "MOVE!" Both Sidonis and the figure looked at her, neither slowing down.
Sidonis barely had time to register confusion before the package beeped and exploded, shrouding him in a thick black smoke. Shepard coughed as she forced herself through it but as it cleared, both the turian and the figure were gone.
"Garrus," she said, pressing a hand to her ear, do you have a visual?"
"Negative" came the reply. "But I did get a glimpse of our hooded guest." Shepard waited as he scrolled back the images on his visor. "Human, male" he said quickly. "Approximately twenty to twenty five, just under six feet tall and weighing possibly one hundred and fifty pounds."
"C-Sec trained you to identify people quickly," Tali noted as she and Shepard still stood looking fruitlessly.
"He turned when you yelled at Sidonis, Shepard" Garrus said, going through the images by freeze-frame. "I got his face but only for a moment." As the images narrowed in, they revealed a blur. "Enhance" Garrus ordered his hard suit computer.
Shepard looked at the image on her omnitool but it registered no recognition. "Any hits on C-Sec's database?" She asked.
"EDI says negative" Tali replied but suddenly the sound in both their earpieces was Garrus gasping.
"Garrus, what's wrong?" Shepard asked, turning back to where he was situated.
"I know this man," Garrus told them. "Well, more boy than man."
"Who is he?" Tali asked.
"And why did he take Sidonis?" Shepard added
"His name is Jax Weaver" Garrus told them, stunned at the face in the image. "And he was one of my team members on Omega."