A/N: Well, other fanfic projects aren't going too great, so I've just been writing a few one-off oneshots as a sideline; this is actually something I wrote as a prologue to an idea which has been rattling around in my head in order to give a feel as to where that idea might actually be going.

R&R this. R&R my other work(s; hopefully sometime in the near future). It's the positive and constructive comments which keep me going :)

I own nothing. Bioware owns everything. Even your immortal souls.

PROLOGUE

Despite the rocket which he somehow managed to miraculously dodge and - even though his hands were shaking profusely – the near perfect headshot he landed, Archangel knew he was screwed.

He threw a quick glance over to the door of his apartment which had started clanging mysteriously. The adrenaline was flowing through his veins, heightening his senses; yet he knew that glance wasn't enough, already far, far more than he could afford to give. It seemed the rockets had only been a decoy so the mercs could sneak a bomb across the room without being scoped.

Well, the idiots had to use their heads eventually. He had masked that door with layers upon layers of encryption, always taking care to always change random amounts of the code whenever he had a spare moment: There was no way anyone other than a hardcore tech expert was getting through. Still, he hadn't exactly had much time to reinforce the door; if that bomb didn't obliterate it completely, brute force alone would have finished the job. That door had been a lifesaver, forcing the mercenary groups to attack from below, forcing them to play his game:With no door there, who knew how many men they would use to bombard him?

He didn't care; he'd already made peace with death. He turned his head slightly towards the bomb which he had installed discreetly in the corner of the room, the final precaution. The bomb placed where Sidonis always used to stand. If he was going to die, he was taking as many of those damn bastards with him as he could. He retook cover in order to reload his rifle. Funny, this wasn't the way he always used to imagine his death, the way in which he was always taught to imagine his death rather: Ripe old age after a long career at C-Sec, surrounded by a wife, by children, by grandchildren. Not here. Not like this. He wanted it all to just stop, stop so he could think about those he would be rejoining; dead friends from the military, the ten good men who lay down their lives needlessly for his cause, Commander Shepard...

"THEY'RE WITH ARCHANGEL!"

Garrus snapped straight back into action, scoping the area to identify his new comrades; probably just some kids who had gotten some crazy idea into their heads about how great it was to swoop in at the final hour and be the hero.

Hero. The word made him feel physically sick.

The leader of the group, female, cocked her shotgun and effortlessly butchered an advancing freelancer with a blast to the face. Shepard?

It couldn't be. Not after so long. Not after 2 long years grieving her; long years of trying to follow her example, even longer years of trying to bring back some good into this universe. Maybe his mind was playing tricks on him; seemingly endless days and nights had already merged into one, why wouldn't a ghost from the past appear to take him away from this godawful place?

A particularly large clang emitted from the door; Shit, the bomb. Half to hurry her up - and half to check that she was actually there - he fired a concussive shot at her: In response, Shepard threw a filthy glare in his direction.

Yes, that was Shepard alright.

The moment he locked eyes with her everything stopped making sense. He didn't know what to think; all he knew now was that he had to survive. Survive, so that he could meet his grandchildren one day. Survive, because every nerve pulsing in his body was telling him to do so. Survive, so that he could see his long lost friend, even if only for one more time. With one final lingering gaze up at him, Shepard and her team raced up out of sight to the door of the apartment. He closed his eyes; he could see her towering above her foe, body shimmering with a blue mist, a slight smirk playing on her lips; he could now hear the startled yells of the mercenaries as she greeted them, a piecing scream, a loud crash and then-

Silence.

He opened the door to let them in.

Reckless and idealistic, those were the words that Aria had used to describe Archangel. He held up one talon at them, a signal for her to wait. There were now only mere metres between Shepard and the masked legend.

Smart, resourceful, dangerous: That was how the head of Eclipse in Omega Jaroth had profiled him. Shepard had seen Archangel as he spectacularly evaded a rocket and fluidly moved straight into position to score a perfect headshot. The guy obviously knew what he was doing.

Garm's words: A pain in the ass. Brave. He fired off his sniper rifle at a stray freelancer who thought he could get the better of him by hiding until the fighting died down. Who the hell would shoot at the people trying to save their lives anyway?

A mystery, Jentha from the Blue Suns. Shepard didn't know who this Archangel was, nor did she particularly agree with the observations of others; she had long since made up one of her own which overruled anything she'd ever heard about him: Crazy. She eyed him wearily as he stood up, reaching for his helmet to unmask himself. Never before had she met someone insane enough to come to a shithole like this and piss off one major crime organization, let alone three-

Her thoughts were stopped straight in their tracks: Archangel was none other than Garrus Vakarian, her best friend back on the original Normandy.

"Shepard." He made no attempt to conceal how much his tired voice had aged in the past 2 years. "I thought you were dead."

A/N: And there we have it! I can't say too much about what this will turn into to, but I can say there's going to be a lot of Garrus POV in it (scream "yey" now if you are a Garrus fan). If you read something which seems OOC or can think of a way to make it more Garrusy (pretty sure that's not a word) feel free to say it in a review or PM me (but not, obviously, for the sake of it). Also, I am beta-less, so general help with things like grammar/punctuation/writing style would be apprieciated. kthx.