WARNING: Sensitive readers may find aspects of this chapter disturbing.

FOUR

'Ripper' and 'Butler' were a pair of aging merc brothers. Human. Grey of hair and wrinkled in the face. They wore Blue Sun's armour with the iconic logo scratched out. Both were silent as I led them through the hidden passage. We lingered a moment, holding steady in the near darkness…

Ripper's omni-tool lit up. Archangel's signal came through. I opened the hatch and ushered them over the threshold. Their weapons were drawn; their knees bent in low crouch. Business hours were over, so the shop we arrived in was shut up. The men took left and centre point at the windows while I handled the console to open the shutters and doors on the right.

The street was wider than most back alleys. A small parking lot left room for a large cargo truck to pull in alongside a marked van…

My stomach turned over. Two agents in black and yellow suits and two armoured guards. Cerberus.

My hands clenched against my pistol. Breath became a little harder to draw. Heart thudded frantic against my ribs. Archangel's graveled voice echoed over the comm, warning to hold position.

The slavers – baterians all – got out of the cargo truck and sidled over, weapons at the ready. Hands were shaken. The cargo truck was opened. Children were lined up. Nausea threatened to undo me.

"Shit…" Ripper hissed, his brow wrinkling in disgust.

The agents inspected the merchandise. Scanning with their omni tools. Grabbing heads and turning them this way and that. One of the younger girls started to cry. The batarian standing closest backhanded her so hard she fell -

I moved. A single shot rang out and the slaver crumpled, a smoking hole going clean through his nose. Fury was one hell of a focus.

Agents yelled to abort. Cerberus scurried back into their transport. The marked truck – better kept than anything usually found on Omega – fled.

The batarians pointed their weapons towards where I'd shot from. The leader grabbed the girl that had been hit and held her in front of himself, his pistol tight against her head. She sobbed, shaking in terror.

"Get out here now, or I'll shoot!" he ordered.

Archangel's fury hissed in my ear. "What the hell, Maggie?!"

"I'll fix it," I murmered.

"Don't-"

I stepped out from cover and moved into the street, hands over my head, pistol aimed towards the sky.

"Who the fuck are you?!" The batarian demanded.

"Someone worth a hell of a lot more than her…" I nodded towards the girl he grasped. "Especially if you have contacts with Cerberus. They like to call me 'Priority Target', y'know?"

Whether I told the truth or not didn't seem to matter to him. His chilling overabundance of eyes looked me up and down, a grin spreading over his sagging face. Either way, I was walking, talking credits. He gestured his weapon behind himself, shouting orders for the kids to be put back in the transport. Two of his goons did as they were told while three others moved forward to join their boss, their weapons taking better aim at me.

"Drop your gun and get over here… Very. Slowly."

"Let her go," I nodded at the hysterical child. "And I'm all yours, daddy."

The batarian snorted. "You think she'll survive a day on Omega on her own?" He shoved the kid forwards. "Fine."

I lowered my pistol to the floor and moved closer. As the girl approached, I dropped my hands just a little… slowly… carefully… towards the knife in my pocket. The other children were almost loaded into the transport. One of the slavers was getting into the front of the vehicle –

A shot and a scream. My heart leapt in alarm as the lead batarian's head exploded. The girl yelled as a shower of his blood rained over her head. Snatching her arm, I dragged her against me and pulled her down, covering her body with my own.

Ripper and Butler opened fire, their assault rifles echoing, bullet's ricocheting. Krul charged with a roar and took them on from behind. Monty jogged to keep up with him.

The transport's engine fired up. The vehicle began to lift! I glared at it, teeth clenched, growling in rage. Raising my hand, I mustered all the red-hot biotics I could and 'pulled' the engine.

The truck swerved as a heavy explosion went off under the batteries. My eyes flew wide. The girl screamed. The truck went over and crashed into one of the side buildings. A barrier! I tried to keep one up, to hold back the inferno that threatened to ignite the fuel. I could hear the prisoners inside yelling… crying… Oh gods!

Mierin, the old asari commando, dashed out from the warehouse opposite. She rushed across the field and reinforced my feeble attempts with a powerful biotic field of her own.

Eresh and Vortash were stuck too far behind her to help the kids. Batarian slavers crawled out of the woodwork, alerted by the commotion in their alley of business.

Fuck!

Ripper and Butler managed to advance ahead of me and the girl. I pulled her up under their covering fire and, snatching at my gun, I threw her into the shop we'd emerged from. "Stay down!" I left her there, rushing towards the burning truck and using the butt of my weapon to smash open the lock.

They poured out, clutching their faces, choking against the smoke. "Into that shop!" I commanded. "Go! Go!"

Two were stuck in the back. An older boy trapped under some fallen cargo – unconscious – and a girl refusing to leave him. She heaved his arms. Shoved at the boxes. But she was so small…

"Leave him!" I half clambered into the truck to try and get at her. "Get out! Get out now!" I could feel the flames. They licked close to my skin and blocked the path between me and the children.

Mierin's arm looped about my waist and dragged me back.

"No!" But my stunned shift in focus was all the weakness my barrier needed. The flames caught the fuel tanks. The asari and I were thrown so far we slammed into the opposite wall. I felt the jolt in my spine. My neck snapped back with the force. My head hit something all too solid -


Consciousness came with the mother of all headaches. It sure as hell wasn't helped by the bickering just on the edge of hearing. The more awake I got, the louder and more venomous the argument.

"She didn't mean anything by it-"

"She fucked up, Sid!" I recognised Mierin's voice angered over the rest. "Two kids are dead and five more are in Mordin's clinic because she got trigger happy."

Fuck. I tangled a hand into my hair as the image of the children, cowering at the back of the truck, haunted me. Eyes squeezed shut. Nose wrinkled as I fought a wave of horror, wrestling it into the rage I was more comfortable with.

"What was Cerberus even doing there?" Melenis asked, trying to draw the conversation to something more constructive.

"The same thing that everyone does here," Krul's rough tones insisted. "Something illegal and seriously screwed up. They're infamous for that, right?"

I'd heaved myself onto tired feet and, ignoring the bruised protest of my body, I made my way down the stairs to where they'd congregated in the main room.

"Where else is Cerberus gonna get biotic potential lab rats from?" I growled. "If not in the bowels of a mob-run eezo mine?" I leaned heavily against the banister and glared them down. My arrival was met with a mix of fury and disappointment. My stomach squirmed in a way I was entirely uncomfortable with. Fuck them. I didn't ask for their approval!

Melenis got up to greet me, though she wouldn't meet my eye. "Maggie, you should be resting."

"Screw that. I have better things to be doing."

"Like getting more kids killed?" Krul challenged.

I pointed a furious finger at him. "You wanna know why those kids died?!" I turned my accusing gesture on their great paragon, who had been sitting silent in the midst of their argument. "He triggered it! I had their full attention. I was in the best spot to take out their leader and, if I'd been allowed to do that, I'd also have been able to disable their vehicle with a flame-warp before the engines started and made it volatile. But no!" I glared at the turian in blue armour. "Archangel just had to take the shot!" I shook my head at him, brow furrowing. "I told you I'm a melee specialist. I kinda have to get in close for that to work!"

But Archangel was shaking his handsome head, rising to his full height and glaring down at me with shocking blue eyes. "You're the one with the itchy trigger finger," he blamed. "If you'd stuck to the plan none of this would have happened."

"Yes, I fucked up!" I admitted. "I lost my temper. But I had it under control! I told you I could give a krogan a run for his money-"

"Every drunk in Omega makes that claim!"

I grit my teeth, hissing words through pointed canines. "I am not like the rest of Omega's trash. Haven't I proven that already? If you don't believe me, put it to the test! I'll show you just how much you fucked up!"

Turian heads knock back a fraction when they're taken by surprise. Then their eyes narrow as they consider it, as they size up whether or not it's truly a threat. Archangel did both. He regarded me for a long, silent moment. His team looked on, holding their breaths, none daring to speak.

He took a step back and gestured to a door under the stairs. "The basement is big enough for a match."


AN: Thanks for all the love! ^_^ Come find me on Facebook & DeviantArt for the rest of my work.