I know I'm playing kinda freely with existing canon/dialogue, but this wouldn't be any fun if I just rehashed what we all already knew. To that end, I'll be ignoring Garrus' chat with his dad in the comics for the sake of flow. R&R, everyone! I miss reading opinions on my stories.

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Garrus

If he was going to die, this wasn't a bad way to go out. He'd lost track of how many mercs he'd dropped, and of how long he'd been awake. Emptied stim packs and spent thermal clips were scattered across the floor, fresh ones in two tidy piles within arm's reach, and the difference in the two had become his only means of telling time. His stocks were running low. He wouldn't last much longer. Soon enough, he'd join his team.

Soon enough, he'd join Shepard.

It was a bad time to think of her. There was another wave coming. Jabbing the syringe end of another stim pack into his neck, he shuddered at the jolt of energy, even if he knew he'd need another one to last out the wave. They were losing their potency the longer he stayed awake.

He shook his head, not really clearing it of the sleep-deprived ache that was a constant companion now, and put his helmet back on to protect himself from the chance of a miracle shot by one of these rookies.. His rifle butt found its place at his shoulder, and he focused down the scope. A too-eager asari dropped like a rock, blood leaking from her crest. The sight danced to the next sign of movement, and a human who wasn't quite all the way into cover fell. More jumped the barricade, and he raised his gun to drop them before they made it to cover—

His breath caught. His heart skipped a beat. He almost dropped his gun. The sight trembled and he clenched his hands to steady it, stared through the scope again. Was he seeing things? It was her. The short, black hair kept out of her face and ready for action. The dark blue eyes, focused and blazing. The splash of freckles across defined cheekbones, the determined, sloped jawline... but spirits! Her face was criss-crossed with scars that looked... downright unnatural. Even her pupils had an odd red gleam to them, as if by some electric light. It was Shepard, but it looked like she'd been through hell.

He'd forgotten the other freelancers coming towards him. He had to be sure. One finger tapped the settings of his rifle, dropped the slug size to a concussive shot. He fired. Her shields sparked to life and she moved to one side, into cover. Hallucinations didn't have shields. Ghosts could not be shot. But how? She'd been dead. Gone. For two years!

His focus was shattered. He knew a few of the mercenaries had gotten out of his line of sight. But he also knew it didn't matter, because he watched Shepard make a familiar gesture to the two humans who'd jumped the barricade with her, a human brunette and a grizzled older man, and then all three of them opened fire on the rest of the freelancers. She moved like lightning, overloading the shields of a salarian with a tech attack and then flinging him into a crate with a biotic blast before he even knew what was happening. That was definitely Shepard. Despite his exhaustion, despite everything, he smiled inside his helmet as he took out a human who'd been behind Shepard and was stil too confused to start shooting.

The other mercenaries were on to her, and he saw one duck into cover just beyond his line of sight. Did Shepard see? He switched back to concussive rounds and took another shot at her. Her shields deflected it, but she whirled, first aiming her pistol at him before noticing the threat and dropping her aim. He saw the shot, didn't see the asari fall, but he knew she was down. Then Shepard and her new squad, neither of whom he recognized but for a symbol on the woman's clothes looking familiar, were moving forward out of his sight. More gunfire below him, and he managed to put his focus back on the mercenaries still crossing the bridge. A few of them took shots at him or towards where Shepard had gone, but he dropped them.

The door at the back of the room slid open. It took all his effort to keep focus on the mercenary man who'd managed to elude his sights.

Then a voice he'd never forgotten. Her voice. "Archangel?"

Spirits, it was a good thing he had his helmt on. He had no idea what she'd have said if she knew it was him right off. He managed to raise a hand in greeting, and then his target's head poked out. A single shot dropped him, and Garrus turned to face the ghost that stood behind him. The scars stood out more starkly from this distance, but it was still Shepard. Not just her face, her voice, but the way she held herself: confident, ready, knowing she'd proven herself an ally and waiting to see if he would do the same. He almost looked forward to her reaction as he pulled off his helmet, set it aside, and rested back against a chair, propping one boot on the table next to it.

"Shepard. I thought you were dead."

And he wasn't quite 100% convinced he hadn't somehow joined her and was delusional before death, but he would hold on to this for as long as he could.

Shepard

Archangel was a turian. She recognized the distinct helmet design, made to accomodate the crests of turian males. So Garm had been right when he said the turian he'd tangled with was Archangel. Having seen what had become of the other freelancers, she was glad she'd ordered Miranda and Zaeed to start attacking them early, or the three of them might have lost more than their shields crossing that bridge. "Archangel?"

A hand was lifted to acknowledge her, and then she watched a bullet whiz throught he air and take the last mercenary in the heart. An excellent shot. She looked back at Archangel just in time to see him remove his helmet.

And her heart damn near stopped.

"Shepard. I thought you were dead."

It took her brain a split second to reset, but the shock was replaced by happiness once that was done, and she smiled. "Garrus! What are you doing here?" And in the middle of a standoff with a mercenary army, but she figured that part went without saying.

"Just... keeping my skills sharp. Bit of target practice." He shrugged, and she saw for the first time just how worn out he was. How long had he been at this, to sound so exhausted? What had he been through over the last two years, to have that look in his eyes?

"Are you okay?" A woefully inadequate question. He broke eye contact for a moment.

"Been better, but..." And he looked back at her. "It's sure nice to see a friendly face."

He had that right. Hell, she didn't think she'd ever been happier to see someone in her life, even when she was reunited with Joker. Here was someone she'd fought alongside before: not Cerberus or an unknown, but a trusted friend. She would have hugged him if not for their current situation and the fact that her squad was with her.

Back to the matter at hand. "Likewise, Garrus, but why are you out here on Omega?" It wasn't the first place she'd have thought to look for him, but then... given the reasons he'd had for joining her in the first place, maybe the lawless station wasn't really that odd a fit for him.

He leaned on his rifle, which she noticed had seen better days despite obvious and careful maintenance, along with his armour. "Got sick of Citadel bureaucracy. Figured I could do better on my own." He glanced out the window, over the bridge they'd crossed to get here. "Not hard to find criminals out here. All I have to do is point and shoot."

"Ain't that the truth." She barely heard Zaeed's mumble, and didn't acknowledge it, still focused on Garrus.

"And I notice it's earned you a new nickname, huh, 'Archangel'?" She'd thought the name a bit melodramatic when she first heard it, but now that she knew it was him... somehow, it fit.

Again he shrugged off the question. "Just something the locals started calling me... but it's just 'Garrus' to you, Shepard." He said her name with a degree of awe. Not that she blamed him. She'd heard the same awe in Tali's voice and, she suspected, would hear it in the voices of any of her old friends she ran into. Miracle revivals tended to have that effect, she supposed.

"Well, don't I feel special." She looked out over the bridge herself. "Though by the way, you shot me. Nailed me good a few times." The shots had still pinged her armour even with her shields deflecting them.

His mandibles twitched, though she couldn't quite place if he was amused or nervous. It took him a second or two to answer her. "Concussive rounds only. You were taking your time, and I had to get you moving. Didn't want the mercs getting suspicious."

"Right... and speaking of that, how did you manage to piss off every major merc group in the Terminus Systems?"

This one he answered without missing a beat. "It wasn't easy. I really had to work at it." He leaned back. "I am amazed they teamed up to fight me... they must really hate me."

Now she really wanted to reach out to him, but again she stopped herself. They had bigger problems. "I'd say so, given the number of people they were willing to throw into your line of fire. Made it easy to get here, but getting out..." She shook her head, let out a little hissing sigh. "Probably not gonna be as easy."

"No, it won't. That bridge has saved my life, funneling all those idiots into scope... but it works both ways. We try to get out that way, and we'll be slaughtered."

"So what do we do, just wait for them to send another wave?" Miranda spoke for the first time since their arrival, and Shepard spared her a glance, but Garrus beat her to answering as he got to his feet, moving to stand at her side overlooking the bridge.

"It's not really that bad. This place is defensible, and with the three of you... I suggest we hold position, wait for their defenses to crack, and then take our chances." He glanced down at her. "Not a perfect plan, but it's a plan."

She shrugged. "We've had worse plans in our time." She looked back over the bridge, though still addressed him. "How'd you get yourself into this mess?"

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him flinch. "My emotions got in the way of my judgement. It's a long story." Then the grimace was gone. "Tell you what: you get me out of here alive, and I'll tell you the whole damn thing."

Oh, there was no question of that. She nodded, smiled at him again. "It's a deal. No mercenary army's gonna be able to deal with us if we fight together." Again, she ignored Zaeed, who was pointedly clearing his throat from over her shoulder.

He and Miranda counted, but right then her only thought was getting her old friend out of this mess in one piece. No way was she losing the one comrade she could completely trust at her back.