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Chapter One

A vivid dream

2185 Fall: Omega.

It had been days since Garrus last slept. The ongoing attacks from the mercenary groups outside of his base had kept him on edge. He scanned the surroundings through the scope of his sniper rifle on the balcony, checking for potential assaults. So far the situation seemed to have quietened down for the moment, apart from the occasional pathetic attempts from the Eclipse snipers who tried to aim their gun at his forehead. After he finished checking over the situation, the turian reached out for stims pack and injected into his system through his omni-tool. As he felt his body rejuvenated from the effects of the stims, he glanced over the corpses that were laid out neatly nearby him.

They were his former squad members, who all living, breathing and fighting for their beliefs before, were now all cold and lifeless in front of him. Garrus felt he had failed them. Two years ago, when he decided to disappear from Citadel Space by relocating himself to Omega, he met them at their worst hour when the unjust acts tormented them. He made a promise to them that he'd make a difference to Omega by bringing retribution to the thugs that tormented the weak. In return, these people followed him and became his crew. As time went by, they repaid him with an undying loyalty, as they were willing to fight for him until the end.

However, there was a traitor in the mist of the crew that shaken his trust lately. A turian named Sidonis, betrayed them by giving away their hideout to the Mercenary groups. He trusted with that turian unconditionally because he was part of his crew at the time. He trained him, they fought off the thugs together and he even saved his pitiful life. For all the things he had done for Sidonis, this was his repayment? Garrus gave out a low growl as he cursed him for not only betraying him and killing off their team but also breaking the unspoken turian code that was empathise within their society: Never abandon your band of brothers at any cost. He gave out a small bitter chuckle at the irony that while other races mistrust humanity greatly, he was betrayed by his own species that were renowned for their loyalty, bravery and honesty.

Garrus shook his head while he blinked his eyes slowly. He felt lost with his life now, unsure about his place in the galaxy. Ever since the news of Commander Shepard's death two years ago, he began to question himself about system as the Council were covering up the real story behind the Citadel attacks. When both the Alliance and the Council slandered her posthumously, by announcing that her testimonies about the Reaper threat were nothing more than her delusions from a psychological trauma episode to the public, he just couldn't take it anymore. He refused the idea of falling back in line and listen to those political airheads bickering over small trivial things while being forced to turn his back against other people who were in dire need of help.

As the result, he decided to disappear from Citadel Space and start up his own team to clean up the unruly thugs in the rough streets of Omega; hoping to make a difference, while attempting to ignite that small flame just to keep the memory of her alive. With all the good deeds he had attempted in the past two years, along with instilling her fighting mantra and idealism into his crew, he was quite proud of his work. Garrus wondered what Shepard would think of this if she was still alive. He knew she'd be slightly unhappy with him back-pedaling his word, since she's the one who encouraged him to rejoin C-Sec in the first place. However he's convinced that he honoured her memory well enough by having zero civilian casualties during their assault on the mercenaries. As she always empathised him many times before, civilians first...

Then he heard more angry shouts from the other side of the boulevard. He knew that he would not be making out of this assault alive, he was outnumbered heavily. Three major Mercenary organisations and a large horde of freelancers versus one lone turian. Despite the grim situation, Garrus didn't care about saving his own life anymore. With crew all dead because of his fatal mistake, he felt that his own death was the only way he could make up for them. Besides, he was willing to see Shepard again when they reunite together in the void, if the turian religion was true to their words. However, before he was willing to let himself go into the cold void, he wanted to bring these mercenary bastards along with him, for wiping out his team.

He loaded up his sniper rifle with heat sink cartridges before scanning the surroundings, looking for a target that he can vent his anger with a bullet between their eyes. Soon enough, he saw a human scout from the Eclipse faction, who was shooting at him with her assault rifle at the distance. He quickly ducked behind the barricade, waiting for the human to give up. As soon the shots were died down, he peeked over the barricade, looking for an expose weakness. Fortunately, the human was inexperienced enough that she carelessly exposed her upper body to his view through the scope. Without wasting a second, he looked through the scope and pulled the trigger. A few seconds later, he heard a painful squeal echoed into the distance. His mandible lowered down, revealing a satisfying smirk behind the intimidating sharp fangs. As he continued to look in the scope, double checking to make sure the human is dead, all of a sudden his body twitched nervously, as he saw a familiar face that he least expected to see.

Commander Shepard.

Garrus shook his head in bewilderment. Shepard was dead. He was sure of it, especially with Joker being the witness to her final moments before she went down with the Normandy. However, in his own sight through the scope, the esteemed human woman was right there, still breathing and glowing with health as if she never died. Garrus shook his head hard again before taking another look, he was expecting that his delusional imagination would fade away. However the image of the long dead Spectre were vivid and lifelike in his eyes, much to his confusion.

The Commander lifted her head up high, her amber eyes glimmered with warmth as she locked her sights to meet his eyes. He loaded up a concussive round into gun and was about to shoot at her when he started to hesitate. Garrus realised that he was afraid to face the cold hard truth as soon he pulled the trigger, that Shepard was nothing more than a vivid dream. Hallucination or not, the sight of her gave him some solace. Especially for the past two years, he felt lonely within the galaxy. From the day the he left Citadel Space to his current predicament, he had missed his human friend greatly, the only person who knew him well. He relaxed his grip on the trigger, he couldn't push the illusion away from his mind and face bleak reality. Even if the hallucination would be the death of him, Garrus was more than happy to let his wishful imagination to continue to mess with his mind.

Then all of a sudden a mercenary climbed over the barrier and tried to shoot him with a grenade launcher, the large blast just narrowly missed him through his own luck. Garrus peeked over the balcony and quickly retaliated back by shooting him between the eyes. Unfortunately, after he got rid of the mercenary, Shepard disappeared from his sights. He was deeply disappointed, his good friend was merely a dream and the real Shepard was still dead within the cold void. He about to lament when he heard more angry cries from the other side. The freelancers were storming towards his base.

He quickly got up from his hiding spot and took a few more freelancers out on the boulevard. His senses with the surroundings became a blur as he continued to snipe the opposition, each trigger he pulled became second nature to him. Garrus set his sight to another human freelancer through the scope when he heard a dull painful snap, just before freelancer slumped down into the pavement like a heavy sack. He didn't need to find the person who killed the unfortunate man, as Shepard appeared again, this time looking down at the corpse while cracking her knuckles. Now he knew why some of the human civilians still believe angels, those superstitious beings that they tend to blindly place their trust onto. When he saw Shepard gracefully walk down the boulevard, her body being shrouded by her biotic aura, giving her an ethereal appearance; Garrus was convinced that she was an angel, who was coming for him in his darkest hours. He felt refresh again and continued to snipe the freelancers mercilessly.

The Commander continued to stride through the boulevard with two other human companions following behind her, watching her flank. Garrus couldn't recognised them but he's wasn't going to complain if they were on Shepard's side. Then she waved her arms casually in the air, grabbing another freelancer that was separated from the pack. Her eyes turned darker with subtle rage. As she tighten her fingers into her palm before crushing his spine with her biotic powers. The rest of the infiltration team looked at her in horror as she tossed the lifeless corpse aside like a rag doll before glowering at them. While they started to circled around Shepard and her recon team reluctantly, Garrus twitched his mandibles anxiously for her safety and lowered his eye towards the scope quickly. However, a few seconds later, the freelancers were dead before he could pull the trigger. Their corpses looked mangled, being twisted violently by a singularity that the Commander summoned it in the middle of the boulevard. When the dark violet whirlwind faded away, Shepard and her companions continued to walk down towards his direction calmly.

There was a small chill in his veins after he watched her killing the freelancers mercilessly. Garrus remembered back then during their hunt for Saren, her eyes were revealing all sort of emotions whenever they were in a fight, ranging from her irises turning dull from remorse to them being brightened by her anger. Despite the violent situation at those times, it revealed that beneath a stoic Spectre, she was just a normal human being. Now, she seemed to look cold and almost emotionless, unmoved by the sight of their painful death by her own hands, the warmth inside of her irises faded away along with her humane heart. He wondered she was still the human that he knew her two years ago, but her ruthlessness made him think otherwise. He started to think of her as a deathly phantom, who waited for him to die so she can lead him into the void.

He pondered though about Shepard's sudden change when he saw a freelancer sneaking around the boulevard, ducking behind rubbish bins, looking nervous and jittery. He carefully realigned his rifle, using the cursor in his scope to aim at the unlucky freelancer's direction. While he waited for him to expose his head in clear view, the door opened behind him, revealing Shepard and her companions, pointing their guns at him. While her companions circled around him, the Commander step forward, still pointing her sub-machine gun cautiously at him.

"Archangel?" Shepard asked.

Garrus felt his heart beating faster, his illusion of her became more vivid as she got closer to him. As he was about to take off his helmet to reveal himself when he heard a tiny whimper down below the level. Then he remembered about the freelancer. Garrus lifted his talon close to his face, gesturing her to keep the noise down. She nodded quietly at him and waved her hand back at her team to lower their guns. He turned back towards the scope and quietly watched over the balcony.

The unfortunate freelancer was peeking around the corner, exposing his head to Garrus' scope. He quickly lined up the cursor at the freelancer's throat and pulled the trigger. A few seconds later, the bullet slammed into the freelancer's neck, spurting out blood like a small, deep red fountain as he gave out a small agonising choking sound before collapsing to the ground. Garrus watched over him cautiously until he was sure that the stray freelancer had died, in a quick, clean, merciful death. After the freelancer was dealt with, Garrus laid his sniper rifle down gingerly and then slowly approached Shepard, trying to get a closer look at her.

He felt Shepard's eyes tracing every movement from his body, giving him an uneasy look as she took a few steps towards him. He knew her cautious nature too well, so as a small gesture of trust between them, he took his helmet off to reveal his face. As he gently sat on top of the supply crate nearby her, Shepard's eyes were widened in surprise at the reunion. The cold pragmatic mask faded away when her mouth twitched into a joyous smile.

"Garrus!" Shepard cried out loud at him.

The turian watched her with weary eyes as she opened her arms wide while quickly walking up to him. Shepard was about to give him a hug when she realised that her team mates were behind her, watching their conversation. In her attempt to re-establish her Commanding Officer stance, she relaxed her arms and refrain herself from embracing him. However she couldn't hide her delight at seeing her old friend. As Garrus watched her grinning childishly at him, he almost felt at peace and content with the galaxy once more, if it weren't for them being stuck in the middle of a war zone. Still he didn't care about the current situation nor did he feel silly if he was talking to himself, as long this vivid dream would continue to linger in his sight.

"Shepard... I thought you were dead," Garrus remarked.

"I was Garrus, but they booted me out of hell because I'm too much trouble for them."

The turian chuckled at her snide reply. He was glad that Shepard didn't changed much as he thought she would be, especially after seeing her ruthless streak a few minutes ago.

"So what are you doing here?" Shepard asked.

"Just keeping my skills sharp. A little target practice."

Garrus lost track of time as he continued to chat about the events that happened during the past two years with Shepard. He noticed that she seemed to be more quiet and evasive about her 'death' whenever he tried to pry into her story, instead Shepard gently bit her lip while shifting her eyes away from his. Probably a part of the imagery illusion going through the motions, due to the lack of explanation of her 'absence' in the past two years, but he didin't mind. With lack of interaction in the past couple of days and constantly hearing the ugly hostile growls coming from the mercenary faction leaders barking orders to their lackeys; hearing Shepard's voice was like music to his ears, soothing enough to peel off the tensions from his shoulders.

However, their warm heartfelt conversation came to a sudden stop when the yelling from the enemy lines came to a deathly silence. Garrus felt unnerved by the sudden silence, which usually meant that they are about to prepare for another assault to his base. He quickly hopped down from the crates and glanced over the balcony while clutching his sniper rifle tightly with his talons.

He configured the settings for his gun, when Shepard asked him gently, "How did you get into this mess?"

Garrus frowned. He wasn't emotionally ready to answer, with the death of his crew and Sidonis' betrayal still fresh in his mind. Garrus had lost his words with guilt and grief. He wasn't sure how he would answer to her, without revealing his vulnerable side to her. While he tried to think up an evasive reply, at the corner of his eye sight, he saw the first wave of mechs marching towards their base. The sight of those hostiles made him feel exhausted. He look back her with his tired dull blue eyes. Still unsure if it's a illusion, Garrus decided to test this image by making a small plea, he hoped that this human being is really an actual spirit entity that appeared to save him from the worst hour of his life.

"I'll tell you what Shepard. Help me to get out of here alive and I'll explain the whole thing."

His plea worked.

While Shepard's companions went down to the ground level to cover flank, the Commander stayed behind with Garrus on the balcony, sniping the incoming mercenaries that were rushing onto the boulevard. The turian took a quick peek at her, as she continued to snipe at them relentlessly, he could not helped but stare at the small soft patch of hair on her head. Unlike the head fridge on female turians or the asari, that small patch seem to be delicate and fluttery, which seem to be alien to his aesthetic senses.

Then a stray bullet just narrowly missed the right side of Garrus' face, instead it hit the steal part of the barrier, the high-pitched metallic ringing sound waking him out of his musing haze.

"Garrus, pay attention! If you were that distracted during the Skyllian Blitz, you would be dead by now," Shepard snapped at him, before tossing a singularity sphere in the middle of the boulevard.

A small chuckle came out Garrus' mouth involuntary. Ironically, her fiery headstrong personality didn't match her delicate appearance, with her flimsy hair and transparent skin. As he gunned down a few more unfortunate faceless thugs, Shepard twitched her right hand, casting a biotic bolt at the singularity vortex. The turian shielded his eyes behind his arm as the singularity combusted into a one spectacular violet ball of light, after the bolt got into with the central vortex. Garrus raised one of his eyelids at her.

"Is this how you deal with the pirates when they tried to raze Elysium back then?"

"Sort of, except over here, I'm only doing half the effort of it. That other effort that I've slacking off, you've picked it up for me."

Garrus shook his head. It was typical with the Commander, even in the middle of a heated battle, she still kept her cool while throwing a few sarcastic quips once in a while. Something he admired in her in the first place, most turians he worked for during his time in the military in his youth tended to be serious within the battlefield. While they normally took a stern, grim approach to a mission, she preferred to face the impending dangers with 'gallows humour', a human term for being whimsical within a hazardous situation. Despite being inappropriate during those missions, he was glad that she approached it in a sardonic way. It helped him to feel at ease at times like this.

Then a buzzing emitted into the air as Shepard's radio interface came to life, she gently pressed the tiny earpiece with her index finger. There was an uneasy look on her face as they both heard gunshots firing rapidly, like hail in the background of the transmission, as one of her companions quickly called in frantically.

"Shepard! Do you read me? It's Miranda, we're taking heavy fire down here by the Blue Suns mercs, we're going to need back up from you soon. Come down here asap."

All the sudden, Garrus started to feel a little sad. Like every reoccurring dreams he had with her for two years, it always ended with her leaving him, just before he woke up back to reality. A part of him wanted Shepard to stay with him, since he wanted the dream to continue, but his subordinate instinct kicked in as he quietly forced himself not to express his wishes, since the turian upbringing taught him listen to his superiors and fall back in line without question. Unfortunately, he still looked up to her as his commanding officer.

Shepard gave him a worried look. "Garrus, I hate to leave you alone like this but there's too many mercs from the Blue Suns downstairs..."

"It's ok, Shepard. I understand... Just go and help them."

The human woman bit her lip gently as she reluctantly nodded back at him before quickly rushing to the door. Before she left the room, she looked back and gave him her parting words.

"I'll be back as soon these mercs are dealt with. I promise."

Then Shepard disappeared, the dream had finally come to an end once more.

Garrus shook his head, trying to remind himself that he still had a job to finish, he continued to gun down the mercenaries from above while he pushed his personal feelings behind him. A few minutes later after he killed all of the team who tried to rush through the boulevard, he ran out of thermal clips for his sniper rifle to his dismay. He started to search frantically around him, looking for a spare clip, when all the sudden a gunship appeared out of nowhere outside of the base. A familiar voice that he despised was heard over the gunship's speakers.

"Archangel, this ends now!"

He tried to dodge the incoming rocket but the blast radius managed to knock him into the air, before landing back on the ground hard. The surroundings became a blur to his sight as he was about to pass out from the unbearable pain, before the world became darker to him, he heard another familiar voice, this time a soft feminine tone calling out to him.

"Garrus!"

Then everything went black.

A small purple light blinded his eyes. It took him a moment before his perception became clear again. He was back at Citadel Station, at one of the docking ports where the SSV Normandy was parked. Garrus saw a familiar human figure who was leaning on the rails at the top of the ramp, watching over the ward's arms silently. The turian approached the figure nervously, carefully treading his footsteps without making a slightest noise. As he took a step closer, the figure peeked over her shoulder at his direction, it was Shepard.

She was still wearing her standard Alliance naval uniform, the usual clean and professional look, except for her hair. It was usually tied up neatly according to military procedures, but tonight Shepard didn't bother to tied her hair for some reason, instead she allowed it to flow down to her shoulders. The stray gentle curls on her cheek, the soft dark eyes and the purple ambient light that was gently cast over her pale skin. It gave her an air of bittersweet grace, which is something he hasn't see with the Commander before.

"Commander?"

The human Spectre smiled gently at him, "Garrus... I've heard that C-Sec accepted you back into the force, Am I right?"

Garrus quietly answered back with a slow nod. Shepard nodded back in acknowledgment before walking towards him, while trying to hide something behind her back. As she took a few steps closer to him, he noticed her eyes twinkled as if she's trying to suppress her true feelings.

"Well... I wish I could celebrate with you down at Flux... but it's closed now and I'll be leaving in a couple few minutes, " Shepard frowned.

"It's ok, Commander. No need to do that. I didn't really quit C-Sec for good or anything like that... it's more a long term leave."

"Well, there is something I could give you... it's not much but it did help me make it through the tough moments."

Shepard took his talon into her hand and his flipped palm upwards. He watched in curiosity as she placed her steel chain necklace that was intertwined with her dog tags.

And the silver rose ring.

When he realised she's giving away her treasured ring that she'd been keeping close to her since childhood, he tried to give it back to her but she quickly closed his talons and held it back away from her.

"Shepard... I mean, Commander! I can't exactly take that! This is the only thing you have left from Mindoir," Garrus protested.

"And it's been keeping me safe since then. It's just... I want give you something to remember me by, in case we might not be able to see each other again."

"Don't say that! I'm sure we'll see each other again soon."

Despite Garrus' attempt in trying to give her a positive outlook, Shepard just put a brave smile on her face while shaking her head. They both knew their dedications to their own duties would keep them apart.

"I'll be too busy fighting down the front line to watch over you. That's why I'm giving you this."

"You're sure about this, Commander?" Garrus asked.

"Garrus, don't make me pull rank again. You know I hate doing that," Shepard chided him, before clasping his talons that held her gift with both of her hands.

The awkwardness between them grew while the human woman looked away from his eyes for a moment, trying to brush off the pink hue on her cheeks. After to she managed to recollect her composure, Shepard continued, "Besides, it would be insulting for the both of us if you died from a robbery heist, at some convenience store on the Citadel. So take it with my blessings. You'll need it."

Then Shepard heard the Normandy's VI announcement. She quickly turned away from him while rushing towards the ship's airlock. As Shepard was about to close the door, she gave Garrus one last look.

"Goodbye, Garrus."

With a bit of struggle, Garrus barely managed to say his farewell to her, "Goodbye... Shepard."

As the door closed front of him, he held the neckpiece tightly into his talons while waiting for the Normandy to unlatch itself and leave. As the ship start up its drive core engines, there was a flash of light blinding his eyesight again.

The strong sharp pain woke him up. Garrus was gasping desperately as he clutched his sniper rifle tightly with talons. He wasn't sure how long he was knocked out but the pain, it was so unbearable he wanted to howl, but he could only give out a weak pitiful rumbling moan. It took him a few seconds to realise that he was surrounded by humans. He tried to gather up his last strength to lift his rifle and attempt to attack these unknown visitors, when one of them took the gun away from him. He felt helpless as someone turned his body over, forcing him to face the unknown visitor in plain view. His vision was blurry as he can only see a human woman in red armour. As his visions became slightly clearer, he started to recognise her.

It was Commander Shepard. Not only she came back for him, but she was really alive and breathing. He tried to speak to her but she placed her hand on his mouth, ushering him to keep quiet.

"Garrus, we're going to get you out of here, just hold on," Shepard gently whispered to him while holding his left talon.

A human male gave her a grim look, "Commander, he's in a bad shape."

"I already know that, Jacob! Don't just kneel here, get me that first aid kit box behind you!"

Garrus was trying to keep himself awake, while the Commander tended to his injuries. He didn't want to loose sight from Shepard again but his body was shutting down. He gently pressed his talons against her hand, trying to get her attention. When Shepard looked down on him, he tried to give her a reassured smile, hoping to ease her fears away.

Then he closed his eyes and allowed himself to fall into a deep sleep.