Garrus and Zaeed were providing sniper support to Six who was decimating the Suns before they could get the chance to fight back. At this point Tarak was just throwing his men away just to try and reach Garrus now. As Six finished off the last of the Suns, the gunship flew off, disappearing from sight. Six was expecting a surprise attack from her flank, taking cover behind a pillar. "Keep your eyes open and watch your radars."

Garrus and Zaeed were watching the windows now, waiting. Zaeed was the first to find the gunship as it moved to the bridge side, "Get down!"

"Archangel!" Zaeed tackled Garrus to the ground as Tarak tore through the area with the gunship's machine gun. They dragged themselves to better cover as Tarak continued to yell, "You think you can screw with the Blue Suns!" Garrus heard the pause in his attack and knew what was coming next. In a desperate attempt to move, Garrus and Zaeed jump out of cover, jumping away from the window. Tarak fired a missile into the room throwing the pair even further, "This ends now!"

Six just got back up to the area now as she slid to cover next to the couch. "Garrus! Massani!"

Garrus was coughing, "We're fine. Armors are a bit crispy, but nothing we can't repair!" Garrus glanced to the gunship, but quickly dove back down. "Six, aim for the hinged joints!"

Six had Dot feed her as much intel as Cerberus had on the gunship, and there was plenty. Originally constructed by humans fourteen years ago, this versatile gunship has found its way into multiple fields under many banners. While true these well-built crafts had few weaknesses, though not so easily exploitable for ground soldiers. The joints that connect the thrusts to the wings were well protected, although they do have a small opening that exposes the weaker internal components but with all of the moving and gunfire it was putting out it was going to be difficult to say the least.

Six detached her helmet's side camera, rolling it out of the immediate combat zone and the gunship's expected firing range. It was still live and giving Six exactly what she needed to see. "Garrus!" She threw out her arm and he slid his sniper rifle to her.

Tarak was completely focused on putting Archangel down, just asking for Six to put him down. Tarak was chipping away at the furniture Garrus and Zaeed were behind, and that will be his folly. Six used her active camo to recover her camera as she set up with the perfect shot.

Her shot manage to cause the stabilizer to completely become unresponsive and sway with the movement of the ship, screwing with its flight even more. She quickly popped the spent clip before loading one of hers into it before the gunship began moving erratically. The reason Six wanted the sniper was because she saw Vakarian augment it with armor-piercing rounds, and she wanted to make sure this batarian wasn't walking out of the wreckage. She waited until the gunship spun toward her again before firing the second shot, penetrating the canopy's glass and his head.

Now the gunship was spinning even wilder without Tarak to control it as it descended down until it crashed and exploded. Six had watched from the window to make sure nothing managed to crawl its way from the smoldering metal. Clear, she grabbed her special thermal clip before giving the rifle back to Garrus.

Garrus caught it, though he fell to the ground and was using it like a crutch. "Garrus?" As Six helped him, she found that he didn't get away from the gunship's attack with just burns. He had a few holes in his armor and blue blood dripping out each one. Six helped Garrus back down, "Massani, help me patch him up."

Back on the Normandy, Six was waiting outside of the med bay waiting for news on Garrus' condition. Shepard hadn't returned with the salarian yet. Dot would have told her the moment Shepard returned. Six was rather distant with the old Normandy's nonstandard crewmembers, but it was comforting to know more familiar faces were with them. Six knew she'd have to explain herself about Cerberus soon enough as well, but she respected Garrus for his skills with a sniper rifle and she hoped that this mutual respect still held even after the Cerberus revelation.

Chakwas finally unlocked the doors to let Six enter, "How is he, doctor?"

"You managed to stabilize him before any internal damage became life threatening. Minor scaring around the face too. I tried to convince him to get new armor, but I don't think he wants to."

Garrus walked out from behind the curtain around the table he was on. "She wouldn't give me a mirror. How bad is it?" At most, his right check tattoos were worn away by three large streaks but his mandible wasn't touched.

Six looked him over, "I'd recommend new armor. But you still look as alien as ever. Cover up that bit with face paint, or whatever you turians put on your face. I think you'd look normal."

Garrus smiled, or what a turian might consider smiling while masking his obvious pain. "So doc, I'm ready to fight. Can I go now?"

Chakwas smiled, "I'd prefer to keep you under observation for the rest of the day, but if I didn't know you better that would be an order."

Garrus looked out the window to a passing crewmember, "I still can't believe it. Cerberus, Six?"

She turned away, "I can explain…"

"No need. Chakwas and I had an interesting chat while she worked on me. Besides, after seeing the Covenant, I can't really blame you for painting all aliens as bad news. So, mind bringing me up to speed on what's going on and why you were looking for me, or rather Archangel?"

Shepard returned to the Normandy with Dr. Solus in tow. As the salarian got situated in his new lab, Six was waiting outside of the briefing room for her. "Six, did you manage to rescue Archangel?"

"He's currently under Dr. Chakwas observation for injury recovery. Though that isn't the news you need to hear." Six guided Shepard to the med bay to see.

Six used her greater stature to obscure Shepard's view until the door to the med bay opened. "Garrus? What are you doing out here? What happened?" turning to Six for an explanation of Garrus' new scars and holes.

"Long story. But I'm more concerned about you. How are you holding up? And Six got me up to speed about what's happening, at least for you…" Six diverted her eyes away from him. "Still kind of weird seeing underneath the armor. You'd expect a bit more cyborg."

"So you know what we're up against?"

Garrus nodded to Shepard, "The Collectors and a ride to hell and back, or so I'm told."

"It was a coincidence that Garrus happened to be Archangel, ma'am." Six moved to a panel, activating it as the shutters around the med bay closed and the door locked. "Dot, Oly Oly Oxen Free." Power to the med bay cycled to emergency lighting. "We can talk freely now."

Garrus looked around, "I figured Cerberus was paranoid, but I didn't expect them to bug a med bay."

Shepard pat Garrus' shoulder, "It's just good to have another familiar face on the ship."

Six looked to them, "Just don't fall for this illusion."

"Illusion?"

Six still had her gauntlets on as she pulled up the crew roster, "Taylor, Chambers, Gardner, Daniels, Donnelly, Goldstein, Rolston, to name a few, they aren't really what Cerberus operatives are like. Those you fought against while hunting Saren are what real Cerberus operations are like. The crew here is a front cover to blind you to Cerberus' coarser activities. Lawson is more along the lines to what Cerberus operatives truly are; hypocritical, humanity-centric, dismissive of all non-humans and general distrust anyone who doesn't agree with them. Cerberus can't be trusted or allowed to obtain any of the Collector's technology, even if they claim they plan to use it against the Reapers."

"Well, good to know where you stand." Garrus looked around, "Since I haven't seen the others, O'Brien, Cortez and Jorge, I'll assume they're still with the Alliance…"

Six turned to Shepard, "We were trying to escape Cerberus. I only returned to save you… So far this wasn't how I was hoping things would turn out…"

"Relying on a terrorist organization bent on human domination and willing to kill their own kind, yeah I can't see that as a bad thing." Garrus could see that that wasn't going to help things. "So, what's the plan now?"

"We continue to gather this team and stop the Collectors. We play along as the Illusive Man wants us to, but at some point, either when we destroy the Collectors or soon after, we need to break free for good."

Garrus gleamed to the closed window, "And the Cerberus crew? I doubt they'd break away from Cerberus so willingly."

"There are shuttles they can get in. Others will have to be 'persuaded' to leave. Anyone who doesn't agree we may have to eliminate."

"Six…" Shepard looked to her, giving her a distinct glare.

"As a last resort. We shouldn't have to worry about the people we're recruiting."

Garrus was curious, not having seen the dossiers yet, "So, besides an 'Archangel', who else are we supposed to get to join us on this crazy mission?"

Shepard glanced up toward the lab, "We have Mordin Solus, our salarian biologist and a bounty hunter, Zaeed Massani."

"We're also supposed to acquire a Master Thief, a Convict currently being held on the prison ship Purgatory and Warlord Okeer. Depending on how things go against the Collectors, we might be given more potential recruits before we end their threat."

"Purgatory…" Garrus looked a bit worried now.

Shepard knew to worry when Garrus had that look, "Something wrong, Garrus?"

"If you don't count a prison run by the Blue Suns, rumored to sell prisoners to slavers or anyone else willing to pay for them, and threatening to leave prisoners on their respective homeworld if they weren't financially supported than not really." Garrus looked to Six, "Did Cerberus say how they secured this individual?" Six just gave him that glare of 'seriously'. "Right, just checking. So, what's our next move?"

Six turned to Shepard, "This is your ship, ma'am. However, might I suggest finishing anything you might want to resolve on Omega before we head to the Citadel? Councilor Anderson might want to be brought up to speed on what's going on. Also," Six had a datapad to give to Shepard, "This might interest Aria enough she might trust us. The mercs were talking about tackling her in a combined assault, assuming there were enough of them left after dealing with Archangel."

"Bold, but stupid. Aria would have known about this little coup attempt, or at least her Kig-Yar."

"It wouldn't hurt to see if she does. No harm if she did, an interesting surprise if this slipped her network."

While Shepard returned to Omega to inform Aria of a few things, Six looked around the Normandy, seeing how Zaeed and Mordin were situating themselves. Opening the door to the cargo hold Zaeed claimed for himself, a knife flew through the air before her stabbing the wall that looked like a bull's eye.

"Next time you should knock before entering a room. It'll get ya killed."

Six looked to the five knifes already dug into the wall, "If you want a dart board, it can be requisitioned."

"Outta my pay no doubt." Six wasn't in much of a mood to argue about it and she could see he wasn't really one for conversations. As she turned away to leave however, Zaeed stopped her, "So, you knew Archangel?"

"He was with Shepard when she was hunting for Saren."

"Good for the lizard. Suppose she'll need as many friendly faces around while working for Cerberus. Though I suppose your 'Illusive Man' must be big on forgiveness if he's willing to overlook the body count we have against you guys."

"I couldn't say."

"Speaking of. You're not Alliance and you're definitely not Cerberus. Where the hell do they teach ya to fight like that? Coulda used someone like you back in the day."

Six wasn't going to give an answer, leaving things at that and moving on to the elevator. Reaching the CIC deck Six was 'ambushed' by Kelly Chambers. "Ah, Noble Six, I wished to talk to you about something regarding your mission on Omega."

"I will in a moment." Six stepped into the decontamination screening that led to Mordin's lab. The process was longer than enter the ship, but only because of the number of chemicals and dangerous items to fight the Collectors.

Just as the doors opened to the lab and she was about to walk, Mordin was already waiting for her. "Abnormal genetic markers, enhanced skeletal and muscle structures, unknown cybernetics implants… Military trained, but not Alliance, neither Cerberus. Interesting…"

Six looked to a wall panel that looked to have been removed recently, "So you found the surveillance devices."

"Yes. Returned expensive ones to Miranda. Destroyed the rest." Mordin got back to work on his next experiment.

Six could see that Mordin has already acquainted himself with the lab, already running at least five different tests simultaneously. Six continued to look around, trying not to look the salarian in his face. "Why would you say I'm not Cerberus."

Mordin stopped for a moment, "Too many discrepancies. Not in Cerberus uniform. Atypical reaction to aliens. Ready for fight, not fearful. High level of combat training and experience. Have military stance, but different as well. Subtle nuances. Such as combat knife. Not standard issue from Alliance or Cerberus, placement also strange. UNSC etched onto scabbard."

Six rubbed the worn out scabbard, surprised he could even read it. She finally turned to face Mordin, "I doubt you have any love for Cerberus. Given its history."

"Had a few run ins. Will spare details. However, feelings irrelevant. Collectors are common enemy. Will fight with them despite past. But not reason for visit. Wish to discuss future when Collectors threat is over."

"I do. Six looked up, though you didn't remove all of the recording devices." Six was checking on the counter for something. "Oly Oly Oxen Free," none of Mordin's current experiments were affected as the room temporarily shut down and swiftly came back online. "You missed a few," Six pointing out one of them. "Now that all remaining cameras are disabled we can save the pleasantries. Other than a few crewmembers and one AI, Cerberus doesn't have control of the ship. Shepard is an Alliance soldier, so it would be appreciated if you help things move along smoothly between Miranda and the others should things get a bit confrontational."

"Yes. Can set up traps in quarters or slip slow reacting sedative into food. Less of a chance for unintended mix-ups. And cook not always through with hygienic requirements."

Six turned toward the decontamination screen toward the armory, "Have either one ready as soon as possible." She stopped, turning back to Mordin, "Just so you know, one of the other individuals we're supposed to recruit is a krogan warlord named Okeer."

Mordin looked up, "Heard of him. Many bad things. Name drop to incite reaction, hoping to see my response?"

"No. I thought you should know. The salarians developed the genophage to combat the krogan birthrate. How you deal with this news is up to you. However I'm sure Shepard could use your medical knowledge and expertise on the krogan during that mission."

A/N: I am sorry, I thought I had uploaded this chapter, but apparently not. I am sorry for the confusion that this had led to some of you, and will be getting this 'skipped' chapter up.