Chapter 2: Back Again

Unlike the last few times she had managed to swim back into wakefulness, this most recent try was met with little resistance. However, unlike the times she remembered this was not the slow pace of someone waking from a deep sleep.

Shepard was jarred awake when she felt a massive explosion go of in an area near her. She was brought fully awake by a combination of the shaking of the entire facility around and finding herself thrown to the floor as the medical bed she had been on tipped and fell over from the force of the vibrations.

"What the hell is going on?" Shepard asked aloud to herself as she scanned the room she was in.

The last thing she had remembered from before was the pain from hitting the planet. Was this reality and that just a dream? Or was this the hell that everyone spoke about? Whatever this was it certainly wasn't Heaven, not that she expected to go there anyways after some of the things she'd done.

A voice came over the speakers hidden in the room forcing Shepard away from darker thoughts. Shepard vaguely recalled the voice from the last time she woke up. Miranda she thought her name was.

"Shepard! Good you're up. Listen. We don't have much time, this station is under attack we need to get you out of here."

Ok definitely not an enemy, if she was I'd be dead by now. Whatever might as well humor her. Shepard thought to herself.

"Shepard, there's a set of armor for you in the locker nearby along with a pistol. Get suited up and follow the green lights. My position is not secure I need to move. I'll meet with you in the hanger." Miranda spoke again her tone more hurried this time. Gunfire rang out over the speakers before they fell silent.

Well that can't be good. Looks like I need to play hero again if I want some answers. Shepard thought moving to get suited as instructed.

The armor was a nice thought, but Shepard hated it. It was heavier than what she was used to and too restrictive for her tastes. The only part of the armor she liked was the Kuwashii Visor that took the place of a traditional helmet, she was instantly reminded of Garrus and the custom version he owned while putting it on. The pistol in the locker wasn't anything to write home about. It was a simple M-3 Predator, durable and reliable, meant to take a beating and still work but it lacked the punch that she liked in a Carnifex or a Phalanx. There was one major flaw though with the contents of the locker.

"There's no clip. What the hell do these people think I'm going to do? beat people to death with this? It's not even heavy enough on it's own to do that!"

Shepard holstered the gun and made her way out of the lab that she was in. Once out of the lab on the wall to her left was a set of shelves full to the brim with thermal clips.

"You have got to be kidding me. They couldn't just keep the gun and clips in the same goddamned place?"

Shepard grabbed as many clips as there was room in her armor for, including one for the Predator. She found the green lights that Miranda had told her about and started to follow them. She hadn't taken more than a dozen steps when a combat mech spotted and started firing at her. The mech was an odd looking metal plated human skeleton with a comically over sized head. The head held only one "eye" in the center of it's boxlike face.

Instead of taking cover and taking the mech out with no risk like a typical marine would Shepard did one of the most reckless things people would ever see, one of the things she had gained a reputation for doing. Shepard, wreathed in biotic energy, launched herself at the mech. For the half second it took for Shepard to reach the mech before slamming into it she was only a blur of azure light. The mech went flying as she slammed into it with enough force to break through a reinforced steel wall.

"Holy crap that was awesome! Did these people upgrade my implant of something?" Shepard mulled this over while continuing past the now scrap that was a combat mech, still following the green lights.

Shepard spent a good five minutes following the green lights that marked her path. She made sure that any rooms she passed were clear of potential threats. In some of these rooms she even found open data caches that she proceeded to copy onto her suites omni-tool, maybe something in them could tell her what was going on later.

Eventually Shepard heard the sounds of combat coming from up ahead of her. Shepard moved up to the door where the sounds of gunshots and flaring biotics were coming from. She double checked to make sure she had her warp ammo loaded. Upon checking the room from behind the cover of the door frame Shepard was greeted by a group of combat mechs on the opposite side of the room firing on a man in cover not far from the door.

"Keep your head down!" Shepard called out rushing forward, sending a biotic shockwave into the mechs. The shockwave caused some of them to stumble and she dropped one mech with a double tap headshot.

"Shepard! Figures Miranda has you up and about already. I'm almost out of clips and my head is pounding from using my biotics. With you here we should be able to get out of here in one piece." The man's voice was deep and had the air about him of a professional soldier. Whether he is or was Shepard couldn't tell.

"Got enough in you for a few pulls?" Shepard asked glancing over their cover of crates seeing there were only a few mechs left standing.

The man nodded. "Yeah but just barely."

"Good. Pull the front two on my mark. I'll make short work of these."

The man nodded again, the azure glow of biotics springing into his hands.

"Alright. 3…. 2…. 1…. Mark."

The man leaned out of cover to pull the two mechs as asked.

Once they were in the air Shepard jumped completely out of cover and charged the closest mech. The resulting biotic explosion of the colliding mass effect fields was near deafening. Even more so when the explosion triggered the same effect on the other pulled mech. The combined effect was astounding. Not only were the pulled mechs tossed about like rag dolls but the other three mechs were slammed into the wall behind them. The mechs all but shattered like broken glass.

"Alright I saved your skin, now I need some answers." Shepard spoke turning around and walking back of to the man, fully taking him in and seizing him up.

He was dark skinned and average in height and looks. His build, from what Shepard could tell from beneath the strange cloth/armor suit he wore, was muscular and lean. He carried himself with the air and posture of a soldier as his tone had pointed out. As Shepard walked up he broke into a grin, from his body language Shepard could tell he was the straight forward kind of person especially in showing such raw emotion to a near stranger.

"Haha. Fair enough. Name's Jacob Taylor. I'm the head of security on the station and Miranda Lawson's second in command. If you're up and kicking ass like that I take it you have at least heard from Miranda. Knowing her she probably told you to go somewhere. So, what do you want to know?"

Shepard noted Jacob's easy stance that was both relaxed and ready to strike at a moment's notice.

"What is this place? Last thing I remember was hitting an ice planet after the Normandy was attacked. Was I dreaming that? or did that really happen?"

A grim look crossed over Jacob's face.

"You're remembering right. Last thing that happened to you before Miranda got to you was that the Normandy was attacked and destroyed. All but some of the crew from the bridge made it out alive. You made it off the ship but impact on the planet Alchera did you in. You died due to severe internal bleeding caused by your shattered skeleton. For the most part your hardsuit kept you in one piece. That was just over two years ago, for most of that time Miranda has been rebuilding you, using the best biotech available."

"Two-two years?" Shepard choked out.

"I'm sorry Commander, this can't be easy to hear but it's the truth." Another explosion rocked the station. "Shit, we need to get you to wherever it is that Miranda had you headed in the first place. She'll be able to give you all the details. Lead the way."

Shepard nodded and glanced around quickly finding a door lit in green lights. A few minutes and another pack of combat mechs later and there was static coming over Jacob's omni-tool.

"Check….Check…. Is - one on this- quency?" the voice was vaguely familiar to Shepard.

"Wilson? Is that you?" Jacob replied to the voice pulling out his omni-tool, likely to try and get a better signal.

"Jacob?" the man came in again, this time clear of static "Where are you?"

"I'm in D-wing with Shepard. You know what's going on?"

"Shepard's alive?! How..? Nevermind we need to get out of here. Wait… SHIT!" Gunfire rang out over the connection. "The mechs! they're trying to kill me! Help!"

"Wilson! Where are you!"

"Server room B! Hurry!" Wilson's voice was laced with pain.

"Come on! It's not far." Jacob called out to Shepard taking the lead.

Shepard followed Jacob as they quickly made their way to the server room. Sure enough the bald man that Shepard had glimpsed earlier was on the floor behind the cover of stacked crates. A nasty gunshot wound just above his knee was leaking blood onto the floor. A lone mech was on the other side of the cretes slowly moving over to finish the job it had started. It never had the chance as Shepard quickly squeezed off a few rounds into the mechs head taking it out before it could react.

"Quick! there's some medi-gel in the first-aid station!" the man on the ground, obviously Wilson, called out after hearing the mech drop.

Shepard rushed over and grabbed all the medi-gel she could and quickly went to applying it to Wilson's wound.

"Ha" Wilson chuckled nervously, tension still in his body but the pain was visibly fading as Shepard applied the medi-gel. "Never thought you'd save my life Shepard. Guess this makes us even."

Wilson, with Shepard help, stood up, a bit unsteady at first but nothing he apparently couldn't handle.

"I came over here soon as I could once they started attacking. Thought I might be able to fix this." Wilson told Jacob nervously. Shepard could tell he was hiding something and didn't trust him, he seemed the type that was likely to put a knife in your back if he could gain from it.

"We didn't ask what you were doing here. How do you even have mech clearance? You were in the bio wing." Another explosion this one not as large as the ones before but they reminded Jacob that this wasn't the best time. "Whatever we can figure this out later. Let's get out of here. the hangar bay is close."

Shepard lead the way again. They only had to take a few sets of stairs down until they found themselves at the hangar bay.

Surprise surprise, more bloody mechs. What is with these people and their love of mechs? Too cheap to hire mercs? At least mercs are a challenge.

Shepard once more charged into the mechs sending two of them flying over the hangar edges. She made quick work of the rest with quick kicks and punches, all powered with biotics, sending the rest over the closest edge.

"Come on, the shuttles are just over here." Wilson called out hobbling over to a door on the far side of the room.

The trio reached the door and as Wilson began attempting to unlock it, the door quickly opened. The open door revealed the same woman Shepard had seen standing over her one of the times she had tried waking up.

"Miranda? What..? You're supposed to be.." Wilson never got the chance to finish his thought. Miranda quickly pulled her own pistol on him and shot him, square between the eyes.

Shepard's own pistol was drawn and trained on Miranda without any thought as the other woman proceeded to holster her own gun.

"Miranda?! What the Hell did you just do?!" Jacob voiced his surprise, both shocked and alarmed that this happened.

The wires in Shepard's head clicked, What with Wilson's tension at herself and now Miranda being alive, the dots were all connected for her. Shepard holstered her gun but kept her eye on Miranda she was still an unknown to her.

"Isn't it obvious? Wilson caused all this. I gave him what he had coming." Miranda turned her attention to Shepard. "Commander. My boss would like to speak with you, just not here we should leave now before anything else happens."

Shepard nodded. "Fine but I expect some answers to all this. I think I've had enough of this place to last a life time."

Miranda smirked. "Or two in your case."

Nothing ever went as planned. Garrus Vakarian learned this the hard way and not for the first time. It seemed that for Garrus the universe had it's own plan for him that never lined up with his own plans. Everything from his leaving C-sec to hunt down a rogue Spectre, on a human ship no less, to his leaving civilization behind to become a scourge to the wicked on Omega. Even his stay on Omega for the last year wasn't even close to what he expected.

Over the recent months Garrus had spent his time hunting down and devastating or even outright destroying entire criminal operations stationed on the lawless space station that was Omega. The locals that didn't face the brunt of his wrath had taken to naming him 'Archangel', some even had the guts to join up with him to try and make a difference on their home. This "team" that had formed around him was what had been throwing wrenches into his system the last few months. Now was no different.

A few hours ago one of his team, a turian named Lantar Sidonis, contacted him saying him had a job and it was big. Sidonis had asked to meet with Garrus to talk about it in depth and sent him the location and time for the meet up. The meeting was supposed to happen well over an hour ago and Garrus was getting impatient. He had a nagging feeling that something was very, very wrong.

Before Garrus could start treading down the dark path of thoughts of betrayal, his omni-tool beeped at him, notifying him of an incoming call. He only needed a glance at the name of the caller before he answered. As per the norm for his team it was audio only.

"Vakarian where are you?!" the frantic voice of Melanis called out over the com connection. The sounds of gunfire nearly drowned out the female turian's voice.

"Mel! What's going on? Where's Sidonis?" Garrus replied, anger and concern both managing to be mixed in his voice. He may not have wanted a team that followed him in his acts of "justice" but he had grown to care for them all the same.

"Erash! keep your head down damn it!" Melanis paused and Garrus heard gunfire over the comm. "I don't know where he is, we thought he was with you. Listen we need your help, the Blue Suns are attacking our hide-out and have us pinned down. Get here quick." The com line went dead before he could respond.

Cursing under his breath Garrus ran back in the direction of his team's hide-out. It wasn't much but the apartment they had taken as their own was in a good defensible position. The building had four entrances, but only one of them was easily assessable. Said entrance was a long wide bridge with absolutely no cover. The other three were all back doors from the allies on the level below the building. All three of them funneled into a choke point in the building's basement. Garrus prayed to the Spirits that it would be enough for his team to hold out until he got there. Garrus ran faster than he ever had before in his life, adrenaline filling his veins and increasing his already fast run into a near all out sprint.

When Garrus turned onto the boulevard that his team's base was off of he was met with a startling surprise. Mercs were swarming the street. What was even more astounding and frightening was the fact that it was not only the Blue Suns there. The street was filled with members from all three of Omega's major merc groups. The Blue Suns, Eclipse and Blood Pack all had members there. Garrus dived back around the corner he had just turned before anyone could potentially spot him.

Son of a bitch. Alright looks like I need to use plan B.

Garrus always had a backup plan. Since starting his time on Omega those plans formed into backdoors and escape routes to and from nearly every level on the station. This was a major reason in choosing the location he did for his base of operations. It would take him much longer to use one of the routes through the back doors but it was the only way in that wouldn't be swarmed in mercs.

It took Garrus much longer than he had thought it would to reach the closest backdoor. Time seemingly crawled by for the near thirty minutes it took him to maneuver around groups of mercs so as to not be caught before he could do anything to help his team. When he reached the entrance however, he found he was not the only person that knew it was there.

Upon turning the last corner to the hideout Garrus was greeted with a group of Blood Pack. Ducking back around the corner he counted at least half a dozen vorcha and at least one krogan that he could see.

Blood Pack, why did it have to be Blood Pack?

To most of the galaxy the vorcha and krogan where the scum of the universe. In most cases they were right about the plated reptilian race known for their rage and brutality The krogan earned that reputation time and time again. As for the vorcha it was always true. The rat-like race that was known as the vorcha were every bit like their Earth counterparts. As Shepard had explained to him before, rats, like vorcha, liked anywhere and everywhere, and the vorcha breed even faster. The vorcha were barely evolved enough to comprehend anything more than instinct, and their primal nature showed in everything they did, even their appearance showed it.

Garrus unslung his Vindicator Assault Rifle off his back and flipped on it's armor piercing ammo. Not wasting a second Garrus leaned around the corner and began firing into the vorcha in front of him sweeping the Vindicator in an arc at head level to the vorcha. Three of them went down each taking a round to the back of the head as the burst caught them unawares. Another two fell to Garrus' deadly aim as they turned around to engage him. The last two vorcha and the lone krogan began charging him, but not before Garrus felled another vorach and caught the last in the shoulder briefly staggering him. Garrus fired a final burst at the last vorcha catching it center of mass before diving away from the krogan that crashed into the space he'd been in not a second before.

Garrus fired off a burst at the krogan who was now turning to face him again, probably for another charge. Garrus caught a glimpse of the other side of the krogan and his eyes widened. From the way he had just come a horde of vorcha were rushing towards him and the krogan.

Damned vorcha. Kill one and a dozen take its place.

Garrus fired a burst from his Vindicator into the krogan's knee temporarily crippling it. Garrus ran into his base from the alley. When he reached the door he slammed it shut and triggered the locks. With vorcha however, it was only a matter of time before the sheer number of them would break the door down. Garrus pulled up his omni-tool and triggered the explosives planted along the alleyway. He set the timers on them for sixty seconds before heading deeper into the base. One minute was plenty of time for him to be out of the blast radius and to catch as many of the Blood Pack vorcha as he could.

Garrus sprinted for all he was worth to the main floor of his team's base. He sent a silent prayer to the Spirits that he wasn't too late. Before he reached the main floor Garrus heard sporadic gunfire and the solid thumps as armored bodies fell to the ground above him. The thumps served to both give him hope and fear. He hoped that the thumps were those of mercs falling to his team's fire, he feared that it was just the opposite. Everything went silent after a muffled explosion rocked the floor below him.

When Garrus finally reached the main floor of the apartment this team used as a base, he was met with a gruesome sight. He entered the room that had once served as the main living space for the building, it was now covered in blood and gore. The floor and walls were covered with the reds, blues, purples and oranges of the various bloods of different races. The ground was littered with bodies. He spotted humans, turians, salarians, asari, vorcha and even a few krogan. Garrus felt his eyes widen and his mandibles go slack when he spotted a familiar form amongst all the carnage.

He felt an emptiness he hadn't felt since the night he heard of Shepard's death as he gazed around the room. Dread, sorrow and rage filled his being while he slowly picked out the still forms of his team. Garrus' rage grew as he slowly found eight still forms, each in various states of dismemberment. He was brought out of his rage filled daze by a familiar voice.

"G-Garrus…?" He knew the voice even though it was laced with pain.

His eyes snapped to the owner of the voice and quickly rushed over to the form of one of his team. Meirin, the only asari on his team, was backed up against the wall to Garrus' left near the apartment's stairs. Garrus took in the state of the asari once he reached her. Meirin's armor had a dozen holes in it that he could see, her purple blood flowing out of them. Meirin by asari standers was still young, only in her early two hundreds in a life span of nearly a millennia.

"Wh-what happened?" Garrus asked unable to keep the grief from his sub-vocals.

"S-sidonis…. He b-betrayed us. T-they... wanted us… gone." Meirin coughed out gesturing to the mercs littering the floor around her.

"Listen….. I know… I'm gone for… Mel…. last Isaw…. she wasn't…. hurt that bad. Go… take her… and leave. Don't… don't die… like…. us." Garrus felt the life slipping from his friend and comrade with every word.

"Find peace in the embrace of the Goddess, Meirin. You didn't deserve this."

"Heh… won't… have changed…. this for…. anything."

Garrus watched as Meirin went limp, a small smile on her face.

Heeding Meirin's words Garrus went in search of the last member of his team. Garrus didn't need to look far. Sitting at the top of the stairs was Melanis' still, cold form. Three mercs lay at her feet. She had gone out swinging as any tuarin would, fighting to her last breath. It wasn't enough, the tight grouping of rounds in the dead center of her chest was testament to that.

Garrus fell to his knees at the sight. Rage overcame him. Partially not caring and partially hoping any nearby mercs would hear, he yelled out in rage. He yelled in a deep primal rage. The very sound would have unnerved even the most strong willed soldiers.

A/N: And second chapter down. Thank you for the reviews, follows and favorites, all are very much appreciated.

I'm currently working on chapter 3. I'm about half done with it now and I have off of school for winter break for the next couple weeks. That being said I'll try and have chapter 3 up next week or early the week after.

I know that other authors do this so I may as well do this too. I plan on updating this with a new chapter every week or every other week. My updates will depend mostly on how much work I end up with for my classes and if my beta reader is able to read them over in a timely fashion. Collage may be worth it in the long run but it sucks hard on free time.

So please let me know what you think. and again any and all comments are welcome. Anything to both improve my writing and to improve the quality of the story are much appreciated. If you have anything you'd like me to touch base on, or even write as a chapter if it's big enough, please let me know and I'll see what I can do.

PS. Sorry about the long note. I'll keep them shorter in the future updates.

PSS. I went through and fixed some things that I didn't catch in the first chapter. Nothing changed, just formating and some spelling/grammar errors fixed.