He awoke when the calm voice of EDI called to him. "Officer Vakarian, Commander Shepard is on her way to your quarters."

"Thank you, EDI." Garrus said, sitting up. He groaned, as his muscles struggled to support him.

"Dr. Chakwas also requests that you see her at your convenience." EDI said. Garrus grunted in response and the blue orb by the door faded. He rubbed his head as he began to take a look at the controls in front of him. He saw a few errors, but everytime he tried to type, the gnawing pain in his chest stopped him. He was actually glad when the doors behind him opened up, hissing.

"Shepard. Need me for something?" Garrus said as he turned.

"Got a minute?" Shepard asked. Garrus shrugged.

"Sure. I was just checking the weapon's system. You can never be too careful." He watched as she strolled across the room to the railing beside the main station. "I thought I had seen every weapon in the galaxy in our fight against Saren. Mercenary work showed me otherwise. And now Cerberus rebuilds the Normandy with a few upgrades to boot."

"Speak of, have they given you any trouble?"

"Who, the crew?" Garrus said. "No, no. I think working with you to take down Saren made them respect me a bit more."

He lifted the right side of his jaw, an inflection which Shepard took as unbearably cocky. "You know they made a few vids about that already, right?"

"I hadn't heard." Shepard said. "They any good?"

"Only saw one. They got my voice all wrong." Garrus said, shaking his head regretfully. "Can't recommend."

"Right, cause if they get your voice wrong they'll never get the correct story."

"Nevermind the fact that they gloss over the Reapers. I knew you'd understand, Commander." Garrus said. "I was the most important part of the whole ordeal."

"Right." Shepard said. "And we beat Sovereign with the power of friendship."

"How did you know?"

"Lucky guess."

"Ha." Garrus said, "As if Commander Shepard was ever lucky."

"Don't push it with your back talk, Garrus. I'll kick you seven ways to Sunday."

"What?"

"Nevermind." Shepard said. They say not a word for a moment or two.

Garrus shook his head. "I guess you didn't just come down here to exchange witty remarks and talk about our collective fame and glory."

"You're right." Shepard said, standing straight as well. "I wanted to talk to you about what happened down on Omega."

"Straight to the point." Garrus nodded, turning to the workstation for a moment. He touched a few buttons and corrected a small error. He looked back up at the commander. Her eyes were piercing.

"What do you want to know?"

"How did you wind up on Omega in the first place?"

"Damn you're just going to jump right in, aren't you?" Garrus said.

Shepard gave him a look that said, I'm Commander Shepard, what did you expect?

"You remember I went back to C-SEC, right?" Garrus said, "Well, after the Normandy was destroyed it all fell apart for me. There was too much red-tape, and too much injustice being let free. So I followed a shipment of Red Sand to Omega."

"What happened then?"

"Omega was filled with criminals nobody else could touch and there was no red tape to slow me down. It was a perfect fit. People needed someone to believe in, someone to stand up the local thugs." Garrus said. He punctuated his words with bravado, grand sweeping gestures and movements. He turned away from her, as if an actor, performing before the invisible audience to their side. "I had set foot on the station for less than fifteen minutes and I saved an old human couple from some thugs. They called me their angel. It felt...right. I knew I had found where I was needed."

"Alright, how'd you end up with a squad?" Shepard asked, leaning back onto the railing.

"Not too different from how you formed your squad to fight Saren, actually. You prove that you get things done and people join up." Garrus said, "Mercs who wanted to atone. Security consultants tired of playing by the rules. I gave them hope." He pounded his chest once, his hand staying there, talons clinging to his armor before it fell to his side once more. He looked down at the floor as the memories of ten yellow body bags resurfaced into his mind, before lifting his gaze with a shrug."And now they're dead. Shows what I know."

She let that linger in the air, as Garrus began to tap away at the console again. Shepard licked her teeth, fiddling with her hands. She reached up as if to grab him, but pulled back. Instead she moved beside him, looking up at his face as he continued to type away.

"What were they like?" Shepard asked, in a soft tone. Garrus continued to type away.

"There were twelve of us, including me. Former military operatives, C-Sec agents, the usual. Had a salarian explosives expert. Pretty sure he'd spent time in the Special Tasks Group." Garrus said. He chuckled under his breath, tearing himself away from his work."My tech expert was a batarian, believe it or not. Not the friendliest guy, but he could hack any system ever built."

"What were you all doing down there?" Shepard asked.

"You saw Omega. It was full of thugs kicking the helpless. I formed my team to kick back. Every member of my team had lost someone to Omega's gangs. We were out to make those bastards think twice before murdering someone in the street. " Garrus said, "We weren't mercenaries. At least, no one was paying us. We made due by taking down slavers, pirates, or gangs that went too far."

"They must have hated you."

"I got three separate merc bands to work together to take me down." Garrus said. He flashed a smile. "My manager at C-Sec would be impressed."

"Hell, Garrus, I'm impressed. How'd you do it?"

"It was simple. We'd hit their shipments, disrupt activities. Get under their skin. Make them angry." Garrus said. He puffed out his chest as he said, "They'd come charging right into our well prepared kill zone. Crossfire and snipers, clean and surgical. They never stood a chance."

"How many did you all kill?" Shepard asked.

"More than three thousand in about six months." Garrus said.

"Holy shit, Vakarian. I knew you were good, but damn." Shepard said, "It sounds like you guys were winning. How'd they get to you?"

Garrus shook his head, gnawing on his tongue as he turned away, the cloud of venom and rage rising in his blood. "It was my own damn fault. One of my people betrayed me." He said, as he stomped down the hall, practically twitching. "A turian named Sidonis. He asked for my help on a job. When I got to the meeting point, nobody was there. By the time I got back to our hideout, the mercs had killed all but two of my squad."

He stopped, back still to Shepard as she followed him out. She could see him look down for a moment before he spoke. "They didn't last long….Everyone except me is dead because of him. And because I didn't see it coming."

"Are you sure it's a betrayal? Maybe they took Sidonis out first."

"No." Shepard was taken aback by the poison in his words, the deep rumble of thunder that echoed in his chest, reverberated through the hall. He paced over to the wall."I put out some feelers with some old contacts. He booked transport off Omega just before the attack. The bastard also cleared out his private accounts before he left. He sold us out and ran!" Garrus said, slamming his fist into the wall. Shepard saw some crewmembers get startled behind him, clutching their plates, eyes wide, staring at the turian. The turian's head bowed, as he ground his teeth together.

"I lost him after that. But I'll hunt him down." Garrus said. He pulled himself back up, standing tall and straight, not an inch of emotion, except for the quiet tremors of latent rage. "I lost my whole team except for Sidonis. One day I'll find him...and correct that." He finished his sentence with a confident nod. Shepard took a step back, and Garrus looked back down at the floor.

"Sorry about that. Thank you for stopping by, Shepard. I...I've got some things to take care of." Garrus said, before walking by her. She watched him take his place at the console once more. The door didn't close and he just kept working, typing away. He was pressing the keys so hard that his fingers tapped on the metal below the haptic interface.

"Garrus?" Shepard said, walking up behind him. He barely recognized it, just looking over his shoulder as he continued. "I'm really sorry. I wish I came a day or two earlier."

He sighed, stopping his work. "I do too, Shepard." He said, turning to her with a blank stare and a little nod. "I do too."

"Don't blame yourself for this. You did nothing wrong." Shepard said.

"Did I?" Garrus said, "I thought I was better than this. I was lined up to be a Spectre. I was in a squad with the great Commander Shepard and look what happened when I tried to follow her example."

Shepard took a step back, her gaze suddenly shot downward.

"Shepard, I-" Garrus said, taking a step forward, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't-"

"No, it's alright, Garrus." Shepard said, as she rubbed her arm, looking off to the side, "If I hadn't have died two years ago you'd never have been in this position. If I had just woken up a few days earlier, then all of this would have been averted. If I went after you instead of after Mordin, if-"

Garrus reached out a hand and grabbed her shoulder. "Maybe...maybe not. But you and I both know it's not healthy to get caught up in 'what-ifs'. I'm just glad you're back and alive."

Shepard's smile finally returned, but her face was turned down. He thought he should fix that, bringing his talon up to raise her chin. It was a bit warm in here now, he realized, and Garrus removed himself from her bubble of personal space. He repositioned his weight, leaning back and crossing his arms.

"You're right." Shepard said, "Even if that is my line."

The turian smirked. "Not to change the topic, but if I remember correctly, you said you'd tell me your story too."

"Kinda hoping you'd forget that, Garrus." Shepard said.

"Well, I haven't." Garrus said, "What happened to you? Last I heard you were dead"

"I got spaced." Shepard said, "Cerberus found me, and put me back together."

"That's...fascinating." Garrus said, looking to the side and twiddling his fingers together. "Not sure how to respond to that. You actually died?"

"Yeah." Shepard said, "Trust me, if I was alive, you would have been the first to know."

"Not Kaiden?" Garrus said. He regretted it as she winced. "Sorry."

"I...it's not a problem. But yeah." Shepard said, "I guess so. Seems so. He's not here, is he?"

Guess not. Garrus thought, pausing for a moment. "So, what was it like?" he said.

"What?"

"Being dead." Garrus said.

"Don't remember much of it."

"Oh. That's...disappointing." Garrus said. "Thought you'd know if God was real, what heaven was like, write some books, collect the credits that pour in and retire somewhere nice."

Shepard leaned back and laughed. "I wish. I just actually don't really have a lot of memory of being dead. At one moment I was gasping for air, freezing to death and boiling all at the same time, and next thing I know I'm waking up on an operating table god-knows-where." Shepard said. "Hell of a time."

"Sounds like. What happened then?"

"Well, I wake up to the sound of explosions and gunfire. Miranda is yelling at me to get up and I have to fight my way across a mech filled space station, and I have no idea what's going on until they whisk me to another station where I meet the Illusive Man." Shepard said, "Then, he tells me I've been dead for two years and that human colonies are being abducted. They've rebuilt the Normandy and they want me to build a squad and stop them from killing all the humans. "

"So your average day?"

"Yeah, just about." Shepard said with a chuckle. "That was about five days ago."

"You've been alive for five days?" Garrus said, mandibles spread wide in shock.

"Well, conscious. I've been alive for about three, four months as far as I've been told. In a coma for the most of it." Shepard said.

"Does your mother know?" Garrus said.

Shepard looked down, wringing her hands. "No, and I've been told that it's not a good idea to contact the Alliance right now. They'd probably bring me in for questioning, no matter what."

"Makes sense. Last thing you need is all that political bullshit and red tape stopping you from getting the real work done." Garrus said, as he offered a stiff pat on her shoulder.

"But, Councilor Anderson did contact me. Says he wants to see me on the Citadel when I have the chance." Shepard said.

"That'll be fun." Garrus said. "Have...have you told Alenko?"

Shepard froze, looking up at Garrus. "No...I haven't." She said, rubbing her hands together, "I-Have you heard from him? Or anything about him?"

"Not in a long time, no." Garrus said. "You?"

Shepard sighed, rubbing her face as she walked back to the railing and leaned over it. "The Illusive Man told me about some of the old squad. Wrex is on Tuchanka, and Liara is on Illium. Kaiden's files are classified."

"How about Tali?"

"I actually saw her." Shepard said. "Three days ago we went to a little colony called Freedom's Progress. Like the others, everyone was abducted, but there's something different. A Quarian survived; he was on his Pilgrimage. Tali and her team were there to extract him."

"How is she?"

"She's good. She said she'd be willing to join us, but she has some work to do. She just had to get her people back to the Migrant Fleet. We'll pick her up when she sends the signal."

"At least there'll be a few old faces then. Or, suit masks, I guess." Garrus said, before joining her at the railing. "How'd she react to you being alive?"

"She was surprised, but we had bigger things to worry about." Shepard said, "She wasn't a big fan of the fact that I was with Cerberus, but was glad to see me. She said she was glad that I was still in control."

She was biting her lip. Garrus raised a browplate and said, "What's on your mind, Shepard?"

"I just…" Shepard sighed, "I want my old crew, my old friends back. I know they'd come back if I asked. Especially Kaidan. What was the last you'd heard of everyone else?"

"I haven't kept up a lot of contact with the old squad, Shepard." Garrus said. Shepard's face fell, and he tried to regain his footing. "After you died, we sort of fell apart."

"I guess that makes sense."

"Tali was on the Migrant Fleet, and Wrex dropped off the radar. Liara seemed the most okay, but she went off into the Terminus Systems." Garrus said, "And Kaiden? Last I heard he was still with the Alliance. He took it hard, Commander. We all did. But he was a soldier, and kept going."

He shifted his weight. "I saw him once about eight, nine months ago. told him I was going to Omega, and he said that it was a death wish."

"He didn't follow you?" Shepard said, "Or even try to stop you?"

"I think he might have come if he knew it was a suicide mission." Garrus said, with a shrug, "I..I've seen a lot of broken people in my time, Shepard. I know when to, what's the phrase? Let sleeping dogs lie? I left him in the seedy bar that I'd found him."

Alison stood up straight again, shaking her head. "I tried to ping him at his old address, but I haven't heard anything back."

"The Illusive Man did say what he was doing was classified, right?" Garrus said, "He might be in deep cover-if so, then there's no telling when he might be reachable."

Shepard sighed, running a hand through her hair."I miss him. I miss everyone."

"I know." Garrus said, "I miss them too."

"At least I have you, Garrus." Shepard said, "I don't know what I'd do without you."

"I know I'd go crazy and try fighting an entire space station by myself." Garrus said.

Shepard smiled, "Seems we never get a day to rest, do we?" Shepard said.

"No." Garrus said, "Besides, it's better this way. Have you ever seen a fat turian? Not a pretty sight."

Shepard smiled, and started to walk for the door. "I guess I'll just have to run you often. I have some other things I have to do, sadly. But, we have a lot of catching up to do, Mr. Vakarian."

"Yes, we do." Garrus said, "You know where to find me, Shepard."

She hummed in affirmation as the doors slid close. He turned back to his work. Shepard, like always, was a nice distraction. The pain was still there but right now it was hidden beneath the small joy he got from being near Shepard. He was very glad that she was alive.

They were forced to stay on Omega for another few hours. Shepard had noted that they had to install some new parts on to the ship and then test them. Not that Garrus minded-Omega was comfortable, in a weird, gross, and terrible way. He liked and hated the dirty air, the contagious smell of refuse, pollution and poor hygiene. It had been home for almost a year. Well, not exactly home. It was somewhere he had inhabited, but definitely not home. But, the turian liked the poor people here. They were kind, washed up sorts of souls that drifted here by fate, not by choice. Just like him.

Shepard had decided to go ashore, and brought him with her, alongside Zaeed. Garrus could smell the alcohol and moral ambiguity waft of the man like sweat. He'd briefly read his files, and was impressed with his records. He was the real deal, a real glorified badass that had seen more than his fair share of combat, judging by the scars that marred half of his face. Reconstructed, of course, but it was still evident. It reminded him of the scars his father had.

Scars that he too had, which burned themselves into existence once more when a twinge of pain shocked the side of his face as he smiled at the Commander as she disembarked from the ship. He couldn't help but remember the original Normandy and its VI. The Commanding Officer is ashore. XO Pressley has the deck. Except, now it'd be XO Lawson, wouldn't it?

That would take some time getting used to. It was so common. It was like losing a random color. He realized that scars were just part of the job, physical and mental. He pushed the thoughts aside as Shepard nodded at him, and he began to follow.

They walked through the streets, before winding up in the trade district. Garrus watched carefully as the stream of Batarians, Humans, and Vorcha all milled about. They approached a little shop, the words HARROT'S EMPORIUM emblazed in massive angry orange letters above the door. He knew of the place, during his days as Archangel he'd seen a few shipments directed for him, and his low prices had to be linked to either the black market or an extortion ring. He would have had a civil discussion with him at some point, but it was very low on the list of things to make better here in Omega. One despotic merchant was nothing compared to child slavery rings. He was knocked out of his reverie when Shepard spoke.

"See anything good?" Shepard asked, browsing the kiosk. Garrus diverted his attention on to it, peering through the random salvage and tech that was far beneath usable, even if he was on a budget. Low rate firearms, weapon mods that were more likely to kill you then help you and-

By the Spirits. A Kuwashi Visor. For 2000 credits? And for Humans?

"Um" he coughed, "That Visor looks good."

Shepard pressed a button and it was displayed before her in all of its pristine, clean and tactically advantageous glory. He saw a smile tug at the side of her lips as she looked over her shoulder at him, specifically at the piece of equipment over his left eye.

"Oh really? What makes you think that?"

Garrus shifted his weight. "Just take a look yourself, Shepard. Target tracing, wind and gravity compensation algorithms, and it has biofeedback at a range of 10 meters. Thermal, LADAR, sonar; It's a must have for a sniper."

"You know, Zaeed, Garrus and I worked together back in the day to take down Sovereign." Shepard said, turning to him. Garrus' eyebrow plates narrowed down in mock anger.

"Got any good stories?" Zaeed asked. Garrus narrowed his eyes. Bastard knew to play the part.

"One. Garrus plays – I mean, played –" She put a great deal of emphasis on the word. "-music through his visor back then. And-"

"Shepard." Garrus said.

"-And, he would always do better with it. It was fine, until he played it through the open comms."

"Heh." Zaeed chuckled, looking up at the Turian.

"Shepard is this really-"

"You know annoying it is to kill Geth with the Turian Imperial Anthem playing in your ear on repeat?" Shepard said. "Had to spend at least six or seven minutes fighting before we had a break enough for me to tell him to shut it off. He swore he'd not do it again."

"Die for the Cause is a very respectable and-"

"On that note, how long have you been wearing that visor for?" Shepard said, "I don't think I've ever seen you take it off."

Garrus dug his foot into the ground, feeling the blood rise to his face and neck. He was very, very glad that his face paint was blue too, because he was certain that the ability for Turians to blush was still a secret to Commander Shepard. He did not want to be the one who let that slip. He was looking to the side when he felt a small jab at this arm. He looked to see Shepard at his side with a toothy grin. He shook his head. "You asked for my opinion. But if we're done here, I think I'll go wait outside." He turned and left, thumbing the controls for his visor, turning on some music to blast out all his thoughts.

"He's like a goddamn kicked puppy around you." Zaeed said.

"It's adorable, isn't it?" Shepard said, as she looked back at the kiosk.

"Sickening more like. Those upgrades shouldn't take too much longer. Let's get the hell off this rock, Shepard." Zaeed said as he followed Garrus outside. They stood side by side in silence, watching the people mill about.

They did not speak. The silence was enough for both of them. Trained killers, side by side.

"It's a really good visor for a sniper." Garrus coughed, loud enough for Zaeed to hear it, but low enough for no one else.

Zaeed didn't move a single muscle, just staring straight ahead before Shepard stepped out from the shop and in between them. Garrus turned to her, only to see her arranging the visor on her head. She looked up at him and smiled. It grew even larger as he realized she was reading his biometrics. His mandibles shuddered, and one of her eyebrows cocked up in an interesting, if not almost flirtatious manner.

He coughed, looking away. Shepard laughed. Maybe it wasn't a good idea suggesting that for her after all.

"I didn't know Turians could blush, Mr. Vakarian." Shepard said, as if it were a simple observation, before finally walking past him without another word. Zaeed tried, and failed, to hold a laugh.

Spirits, kill me, he thought as they walked back towards the ship. How did he ever get pulled into all of this mess?

Just never gonna stop writing. Well, as long as I'm free from responsibilities. Hope you had a great holiday season, and I'll see you soon. As always, please review, favorite, etc, anything. Always looking for criticisms and advice. Have a good one!