She didn't remember the times when the reapers were around, Mila was only five when they left. Things in the Galaxy went sour quickly and they had to leave Palaven just two years after that. Actually Garrus was given a choice to give up Mila, just a stupid hobby as everyone saw her, or leave with her. There was nothing to choose in his mind, Mila was rooted deep into his heart, there was no way he would give her away. To him this wasn't a game, from the moment he had found her from the ruins of the Citadel he had fallen for her and to him there was no difference between Mila, his father, his sister and her kids. More than that, Garrus would have given his life for her and that wouldn't have been enough. This was a father's love for his daughter, regardless of their origin species.
Garrus would have preferred to move to the Citadel for Mila's sake, but only rubble remained from it. And after defeating a common enemy all of the races lowered back to fighting between each others, the voices that called out for peace and unity again would be silenced by the overpowering roar of everyone from themselves. There was one place in the Galaxy that had never exactly belonged to anyone, who would have predicted that the most renegade corner of the galaxy would become the neutralist in the end. He almost had not chosen to go to Omega, for he knew too much how life there was, but Garrus learned that an old friend he trusted was there trying to keep it organized. That gave him hope, he knew that with Zaeed Massani, then a self proclaimed sheriff of Omega, they could make it halfway decent to live in, even good enough for Milagros. And as far as Mila herself saw it, she had a totally normal childhood and upbringing, well as normal as one could have in that kind of a world.
She wasn't the only child in Omega, but she was fearless and never let herself be in debt with saying something witty back, especially when organizing Garrus and Zaeed safely home after they had "a few" drinks. She had to be like that, Mila thought, she had no chance with her looks, she thought.
"If I was fifty years younger," Zaeed used to say her, "I would make Garrus my father in-law in a week."
"I would let him," Garrus did not argue.
Mila wanted to slap them both but instead said; "We'll just have the ugliest kids, haven't you heard, I'm the ugliest turian in Omega," and then she was only about fourteen. She never took any of that seriously, she knew well they were only joking. Zaeed was almost like Milas second father, he had kind of unofficially adopted MIla to fill a gap in his life. After returning to Omega he learned that he had a son, almost eight years by that time, from a fruitful one-night-stand. He was famous now, so she looked him up and for some time they even tried to have a life together. Unfortunately he wasn't what she had hoped him to be, so she returned to Earth with their son. Zaeed couldn't never had pictured himself as a father but after the loss he couldn't picture himself not being one, becoming forever broken in a whole new way. Feeling guilty for not being able to provide everything to his own son, he directed all these feeling towards Milagros.
Only flaw Mila might have had was a sense of positivity, she believed that everyone was good inside and trusted a bit too much , a trait she herself would have never seen as a flaw. Well no one in Omega dared to even touch her, it would have either been Garrus or Zaeed, one would shoot right away and the other would tortured at first, no one was certain which one would do which.
Sometimes she even forgot, that almost everyone else wanted to have a piece of Omega and it was under constant attacks, mostly the outer defenses could eliminate the danger to the station but sometimes, someone got in and things went to hell. It was one of these days, she had seen the attacks before, but that one changed her for forever.
Mila was sixteen then, she had left her gun home and went for a late evening walk. She got a gun pulled at her head, Mila had never been in that kind of a danger before, she held her breath trying to wrap her thoughts around being dead.
"Hey, assholes, I wouldn't do that," unexpectedly Zaeed appeared from around the corner, having a gun in both hands, "You okay, Mila ?"
She reacted with a delay,"Yeah."
"Walk here," he ordered her. She bit her lip, signaling that she was unarmed and started slowly step towards Zaeed.
"I have you in sight," he growled to the attackers, "One move and you'll be picking your entrails from the floor."
"What if we shoot ?"
"Dumbasses, she's the only thing keeping you alive right now."
Mila walked carefully pass Zaeed and hid behind his back, she knew he will have some firepower strapped to his armors back-plate.
"So what are you going to do now," he almost yelled out, giving her a cover noise to unstrap and arm the gun. She peeked out from his side, sliding the gun out along his arm, working the shadow perfectly. A little trick that Mila had invented during her self-defense training with Zaeed. He aimed the gun with his arm and bend it towards himself, signaling Mila to shoot and also removing his hand from the firing zone. The impact blast took the attackers off their feet and gave Mila and Zaeed a window to escape.
They got ambushed from another corridor, in the last moment Zaeed covered Mila with his body, protecting her from the shot that now landed into his back, tossing them into a dark corner. Zaeed cradled Mila under himself, he had a plan.
"Play dead," he ordered her, "Live another day."
"What about you, Zaeed," she wanted to cry out and get help but she knew if she would make a noise or moved, they would find her and surely kill the both of them.
"It's fine," he tried to lift her spirit, "This'll be a good death."
"No," she felt the warmth of his blood on her skin, soaking through her clothes, she pressed her head next to his elbow and tried not to cry.
"You were wonderful, darling, made this old soldier's last year's worth living."
"Why can't you live more years, my wonderful is just starting up."
"I bet," he smirked through pain, that had a oddly calming influence, "Maybe in next life."
"Never figured you'll believe in that."
"In a situation like this anything is possible..."
"Could you possibly continue living then," she started to haggle.
"Can't have it all, sweetheart," he took her hand and wrapped his fingers between hers.
Suddenly it dawned to Mila, what he was referring to. She had noticed how he looked at her lately, not as a kid anymore, definitely not as the ugliest turian, like the ugly duckling, she had grown into a beautiful swan.
"You could, Zaeed," she said sincerely and squeezed his hand, "I mean it."
"Could you really picture us together," he rested his head above hers, "I'm ancient, ruined by every-fucking-thing in this world, and you are still just a rosebud."
"I can be ruined too, uknow," she could be as stubborn as he was, "We could retire to somewhere warm, we'll roll our wheelchair down to the beach and we'll get drunk and shoot at things."
"Wheelchairs ?"
"Uknow, when we're old and infirm, and we'll piss off our kids with talking embarrassing stuff about them to our grandkids."
That made him laugh, and hurt, "Girl, you are unbelievable."
"Damn right," Mila raised her head and kissed Zaeed on the cheek.
As much as Zaeed didn't want to change the topic, he lost ever more feeling in his body, the end was nearing.
"Milagros, tell Alexander that I'm sorry for the way I let things to go and I am proud of him, always kept an eye of the man he has grown, promise me you'll live to do that."
"You can tell that to him yourself, Zaeed."
"And tell Garrus, I'll be waiting at that bar."
"I promise," she could not disobey him.
"Milagros, stay the goddamn fearless like you are," he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer, "I'll be with you always..." he couldn't take another breath.
She felt him twitch and life leaving his body, his blood slowing down and his last heartbeat, Zaeed's lifeless body collapsed over her and Mila channeled out all other thoughts besides staying alive, her brains last line of self preservation.
It must have been a million years, so it seemed in her head, when the shooting stopped and a familiar voice called out, "Mila !" Finally she dared to move, Mila pushed Zaeed's body off of her and placed it gently to the floor, her hands stayed on his bloody chest, their fingers still locked around each others.
"Milagros ?" the voice called again, it was Garrus. Mila felt safe enough to return to the moment, tears started to pour out of her eyes, she would have signed Garrus but he already saw her and rushed to her, she was aware of that. Garrus would have stopped with terror seeing his old friend's motionless body but there was someone even more important to him there, he knelt next to Mila and wrapped his arms around her.
"Are you okay, Mila ?" he asked with fear of it not being so.
Mila wanted to reply that she was fine but all she could do was to sob and cry. Garrus pulled her even closer to himself, "I'm here, I'm here now," he tried to console her whilst still trying to figure out what had happened.
The light were turned low and everything was so silent, an eerily unfamiliar sight for Garrus, usually when Mila was home there was life with her everywhere, light and noise. Right now she was just sitting there, on the floor, quietly and stoically, he wasn't surprised about that. Garrus sat next to Mila and took her into his caring hug.
"Milagros," he sighed heavily, Mila snugged into the safest place she knew, into his embrace.
"Daddy," she said quietly, "The more I think about it, the more I feel that it's okay.
Mila took it upon herself, that Zaeed got a farewell he deserved to, she organized the whole thing almost singlehandedly. She almost told, not asked, to Aria, what she needed, the atrium and everything else, she send a note everyone she could think of, a special one To Alexander, his son.It had been a long time when she had worn her most formal clothes, she even had her Vakarian-tribe facepaint on. When everyone else had finished their speeches, she knew it was her turn and even though just a few people were still paying attention . Almost reluctantly, to believe that this was the final goodbye, she approached his casket. Mila knelt next to the meaningless box, holding Zaeed's lifeless body, in some way it meant nothing to her.
He looked so peaceful in there, like sleeping, a part of Mila wanted to rip open the lid and wake him up and all would be as it was again. All she could do was to place her hand on the glass over his face.
"Goodbye Zaeed," she said calmly, "we can only hope that one day we'll become smarter, stronger and better and earn to follow you on this new journey.
She noticed him from across the room, he looked exactly like she had pictured Zaeed had looked when he was younger. Younger and handsomer, as Zaeed liked to say, now he was just too handsome to be young.
Mila approached him, she had seen him in the past, but had no idea how he would react.
"He wanted you to have these," she said and handed out a piece of armor, "the rest is in my place."
"Thank you,"he replied and took the piece.
She stood next to him and rested her head on his shoulder, "He wasn't alone you know, I was there," she smiled, a surprise to herself, "I was there, it was a good death, he told me and I didn't believe him, now I do," Mila's tone turned to a numb one, or she would have started to sob again, "I'm glad you came, I promised him that I will tell you that his last thought was of you, he loved you a lot, always."
"I almost didn't, I was afraid he didn't like me," he replied with sadness in his voice, "I wish I had the courage to come here earlier and get to know him."
"You two are so alike, he thought you didn't like him, I hope you don't mind...when I found the vids he made for you, I couldn't but to listen to them."
"I don't mind," he took a hold of her hand, wrapping his fingers between hers,"And thank you for doing all of this, Mila."
"It was the least I could do," she closed her eyes to try to hold her tears back, "I wish this nightmare will end and Zaeed will walk in the door and complain about me not showing up at training again, I would never miss ever again."
"Some things we can't change," he clenched her hand a bit stronger.
"I know," she raised her head and looked him straight in the eyes, "And damn if I'm gonna make it be a waste," she chuckled a bit and looked away.
"What ?" he knew it meant something else. She looked back, "You have his eyes...eye..you have both of 'em." and drowned into these. Quite unexpectedly Mila stopped seeing them as two broken people, a new feeling crawled into her, like a thousand butterflies hatched in her stomach, she had never felt that way before.
"Don't ever look straight in these emerald eyes of her's," Zaeed had warned Lex from one of the last vids he had recorded, "it's not her goddamn fault, that's just how she was born... it's like a sweet fucking poison, you'll drown in it and it'll kill you and you'll let it...you'll fucking love it..." unfortunately he forgot that warning before it was too late.
Mila wanted it to feel weirder, he even smelled like Zaeed, but she let it happen, let him lean closer and kiss her. It was her first kiss ever, she didn't know exactly what to , so she just let him explore her, feeling her knees go weak and a tingling sensation grow all over her body. Instincts took over and she replied to the kiss as her body dictated. Lex pulled Mila tightly next to himself, lifted her up and pinned against a wall nearby, she wrapped her legs around his waist. Their kiss lasted for about five minutes, he sided his hand down to her waist, then he remembered that she was only fifteen. He put her down and let go of her, "I'm sorry," he said, "I don't know what came over me."
"Just don't tell my dad," she didn't know what else to say, "He tends to be a bit over protective."
And just as quickly as Lex Massani appeared in her life, he also disappeared from her life. Leaving Mila unable to sleep or think straight for the longest time, she was fifteen and in love. On one hand he had only a memory of Lex, but a lifetime of memories of Zaeed, and they looked so much alike, Mila also had pieces of Zaeed's belongings, she held these close. on the other hand she had her logical thinking, and she was torn between feelings of with who exactly was she in love with. She wanted it to be Lex but in the corner of her mind she was afraid that he was only a substitute.