Chapter 2

She watched the merc in front of her fly back into a shipping container that had been left haphazardly on the warehouse floor. She saw the impact of the bullet tearing through his barriers and armor. Easy pickings for Shepard as she finished him off. Nine mercs were left out of the original group. She and her team were coming up from behind and were considered part of the merc infiltration team, so the mercs never knew what hit them. It was like a count down…4…3…2…1 and then none. She couldn't take credit for more than three though. Whoever this Archangel was, he was a hell of a shot. They were over 1000 meters away from his nest and to take out this many mercs with barriers and shields who were firing back at him was pretty damn impressive. Looking at the dozens of bodies littering the bridge, Shepard could see now why the merc bands were working together. Even her two squad mates, Miranda and Za-eed, didn't have a chance to do more than take out two or three before all they had left to do was to advance to their primary target. Archangel.

Mercenary? Do-gooder? Whoever he was, he had pissed off the bad-asses of Omega. Big time. Now three of the major merc groups in the galaxy, the Blood Pack, the Eclipse and the Blue Suns were gunning for him and working together to do it, which was pretty damn impressive. It told her that they knew that individually they couldn't take Archangel down which seriously increased his threat status while making them a laughingstock.

Was this really somebody she wanted on her team? Well she couldn't afford to be picky she thought as she stepped around a merc with a new hole in her head. No, she couldn't. Not now. Dead two years and everybody moved on. It was still a bit difficult to wrap her head around. She had been clinically dead, for two years. She knew logically that her old team had to move on with their lives when she died, but still…hell. What was done was done.

Shepard had never really cared for mercenaries. To go into battle with someone you had to trust that they had your back, as you had theirs. That they wouldn't run or, her lip twitched, suddenly switch sides. Her mouth tipped into a self-depreciating smirk as she acknowledged her own hypocrisy. Her reservations about this new recruit were typical of an Alliance soldier because that is what she was. What she would always be. Working with Cerberus didn't change that. Even dying, hadn't changed that. But she needed to find the Collector's and destroy them. In order to do that with no help from the Alliance, was forcing her to think way outside her box.

Her box had been nice. She had liked her box damn it. But Saren, Sovereign and the discovery of the Reapers heralding Armageddon had blown that stability all to hell. Then her dying and losing her allies had re-enforced the understanding that safety came at a price. Apparently it was one she was willing to pay because here she was on fucking Omega. A former Alliance soldier, commendations on her chest for valor above terms of service, now surrounded by the dregs of races whose discovery had blown apart humanity's own box 29 years ago. Moving to try and recruit for a check "yes" suicide mission, another dreg of this wasteland that was filled with souls bought and sold every day.

Great. Shepard thought. I'm so damn cheerful right now, I could right greeting cards. But she was there to do a job, and she would do it. No matter how many mercenaries she had to take down and no matter that she didn't completely trust those following her lead. She was here for Archangel. She signaled for her team to move up the steps and down the corridor to the room where Archangel waited. She would bag him, tag him, and take him on this suicide mission even if it killed him or her…again. Lives depended upon that. On her, and as her old commander Captain Anderson, once threw at her, determination was her greatest strength… and weakness.

She and her team moved slowly into the room, weapons at the ready in case Archangel was a shoot first, ask questions later kind of guy. What she saw, was a Turian staring down the scope of a sniper rifle, facing away from them. As though they were no threat. Okay this was not something she was used to, she admitted to herself. Now a days, when she walked into a room even with her weapons put up, respect and a healthy dose of fear was apparent.

"Archangel?" she asked. Her voice echoed strangely in the warehouse. All was quiet. The Turian moved slightly. Never taking his eye from his scope, his off-hand showed us a single digit. And then the quiet was broken by a single shot and a lone mercenary that had been hiding behind a column downstairs kneeled on the floor, and then face-planted. Gray matter, dripped from the hole that now graced his head.

"Think we could get his share?" Za-eed drawled in his low country Aussie accent. Shepard could tell he was asking seriously. She shook her head. "Damn."

The Turian, decked out in blue armor with silver borders turned towards them, his movements slow and measured. Shepard could see the weariness in his body as he used his rifle as a lever to rise from the hard floor. Tucking his rifle under his arm, he reached up and removed his helmet as he moved to take a seat on the back of a chair.

"Shepard. I thought you were dead."

Shepard felt her heart beat fully since her re-birth. Her full pink lips moved into a delighted smile as she took in the gray-blue spikes that led down to laser light blue eyes that zeroed in on her. The tactical monocle over the turian's left eye was a welcome and comforting site. Always present, even from birth, the turian had once mocked, the monocle signaled the constant state of readiness and the willingness to shoot a target at 1500 meters on the fly. Shepard's eyes followed the turian's face down to the navy blue clan markings that ran over the turian's mandibles down to the fringes that dropped from his jaw, at the corners of his chin. She felt her smile widen into a grin.

"Garrus!" Shepard's head went back and she laughed. She threw her arms wide and stepped towards him. "What the hell are you doing here?"