Chapter 37: Guarding Archangel

A heart is only whole if it knows love
Love that yields but does not break
Love that defends and does not falter
For those we love, we would face any enemy
For only love can conquer death itself

When Garrus had found himself pinned in his own base by a seemingly unending assault, he had known it was the end. He had accepted it with alarming ease. Accepted it but not given up. True to his mission, he had resolved not to go down without a fight but rather to take as many of them with him as he could. He had held out as long as possible before exhaustion and hopelessness started to set in. He had only turned on his COMM ten minutes ago to call his father, holding onto the responding plea to make it home. He had promised he would try. Two seconds after he hung up, he'd seen her. Looking through his scope and seeing Terra Shepard on the other side two years after her demise, he had been convinced it was the end and her spirit was coming to take him back to her. Instead, she'd looked at him with the same astonishment and fought her way up to him. Now she was clinging to him again. It was so familiar, her voice in his ear as soothing and musical as ever, and he knew to the depths of his soul that it was real.

She was back.

"How did you find me?" he asked when she finally pulled away to simply look at him again.

She almost laughed, somehow having managed not to cry. "It's kind of a long story." Then she seemed to remember where they were. "What are you doing here?!"

He suddenly realized that she had, in fact, caught him in the middle of Omega. It had never occurred to him he might have to explain himself to her one day. "I…" He sighed. "Things changed on the Citadel after you were gone. I couldn't stay there anymore. I just thought I could do more good here."

She scoffed. "Here?"

"…let's just say I filled a position the station didn't have until then."

"Right. And how exactly did you manage to tick off every major merc organization in the Terminus Systems?"

"It wasn't easy. I really had to work at it."

She actually did laugh now. Briefly, but it was enough. She hadn't done it at all since her restoration. Five seconds with him and it was all too easy.

He smiled at the sound of it. Again, briefly, but it was enough. There was something about her that gave him back the hope that had been slowly drained from him over the past…well, two years. "I am surprised they teamed up to take me down. They must really hate me."

"Clearly." Then something else occurred to her and she looked at him with a sly smirk. "And since when did you start calling yourself 'Archangel'?"

He winced. "Uh, I didn't. The locals came up with it. For…all my good deeds."

She smiled, somewhere between amused and proud. "It fits. Not that you're gonna hear the end of it."

He groaned. He could already hear the teasing. Then again, he had been missing that teasing for a while. For a moment, he simply looked at her, the best friend he'd been denied for so long… He smiled. "I've missed you."

Hearing the words struck her. To her, it'd only been a few days since she last saw him. He'd been without her for two years. She couldn't imagine what that must have been like. "I—"

"Commander?" Miranda hesitantly stepped back in, "I hate to interrupt, but those mercenaries will be sending in the next wave soon."

Oh, yeah. She'd almost forgotten they were still in a base that was under siege. "Right. Well, we got in, but I doubt getting out will be as easy."

Garrus shook his head. "No, it won't. That bridge has saved my life, funneling all those witless idiots into scope, but it works both ways. They'll slaughter us if we try to go out that way."

Terra nodded. "Then we hold here. You'll stand a better chance with the three of us backing you up."

"Shore up, wait for a crack in their defenses, and make a run for it?"

"You got a better idea?"

"No. But it's a plan." He grabbed his rifle back. "Let's see what they're up to." He looked through the scope toward the barricade. "Looks like they know their advance team failed. They're sending in scouts. Eclipse, I think."

Terra drew her own rifle and followed his gaze. She could see mechs being deployed. "That looks like more than scouts, Garrus."

"Yeah. We should probably get ready."

"Or…" She took a shot, taking the head off the first mech to step onto the bridge.

Garrus smirked. "I really missed you."

They used the balcony as cover, sniping down every target to so much as poke their head over the barricade. Jacob and Miranda were essentially reduced to fire support and wearing down defenses while Terra and Garrus tore through the opposition. It was only when the mercs stopped coming and the heavy mech came out that Garrus outright ducked down.

Terra merely gave him a smirk, gesturing for him to sit back and enjoy the show. "This problem should take care of itself."

Curious at first and then outright laughing, he watched with her as the mech turned to start firing on the Eclipse behind it. The mercs were confused for about three seconds before they started accruing casualties and turned individually terrified or furious. Jaroth himself fell in the latter camp, coming out to open fire on the mech as his forces diminished around him. The mech finally set its sights solely on him. When his attacks wore down its armor, it closed on him and grabbed him to either shoot his chest cavity open at point-blank range or slam him into the ground. Before either could happen, he hacked in to freeze the mech in place so he could shoot out its internal circuits, leaping back before it blew. He was now free to set his sights on Archangel.

He didn't make it one step over the bridge from the remains of the mech before Terra and Garrus both at once fired a sniper round into his head.

Garrus smirked. "I see you haven't lost your touch."

Terra shrugged smugly. "Yeah, well, like I said, you're a good teacher."

"Goes both ways, Shepard."

Terra scanned the bridge and the barricade as they regrouped. "Looks like the Eclipse are taken care of. Think we can fight our way past the other two?"

"Seems risky," Garrus said as he scanned the other side with her, "Maybe…" He started looking more closely, once again using both his scope and his visor to get a better view. "Something's not right. They're not mobilizing. What are they waiting for?"

As if in answer, the foundation of the building seemed to shake, the sound of an explosion going off some ways below them.

"What was that?" Jacob asked.

Garrus quickly used his omni-tool to check the internal security on the building, finding the lower levels breached. "Crap! They're trying to access the tunnels." He sighed as he turned off his omni-tool. "Guess they had to start using their brains sometime. Someone's gonna have to go down to close those shutters."

Terra gave him a look as if to say Yeah, right. "If you think I'm leaving your side now, you've got another thing coming, Vakarian."

"It's that or let them sneak in behind us," Garrus countered.

"No, it's really not." She turned to Miranda and Jacob. "Get down there and cut them off. Both of you."

"On it, commander," Miranda nodded, leading Jacob down to the lower level.

Once they were gone, Terra drew her rifle. "Care for a challenge?"

Garrus shook his head with a smirk. "Against you? Too many draws."

It was just the two of them now, but she had long ago discovered that was more than enough. What's more, they had every advantage. They were nestled in a perch on the high ground with a perfect view of a long-ranged, bottlenecked area with limited cover. It was a sniper's paradise. No wonder Garrus had held out for so long.

The Blood Pack forces were tough, but no match for them. They were essentially just buying time for Jacob and Miranda to handle things down below. There were three different tunnels the operatives needed to shutter, and it took nearly five minutes for them to announce over the COMM that they'd cleared the first one. Worrying, but she could handle things up here. She wasn't letting anything get through to her turian.

"Getting low on ammo," Garrus eventually said.

Terra ducked down to pull out her pistol and take the thermal clips from it, tossing all but two to Garrus before locking those two into her own rifle. "Never thought I'd miss when weapons overheated."

Garrus scoffed. "You still don't."

"No, but that doesn't mean I like feeling limited."

"You're telling me. I had a month's supply of thermal clips in here when this mess started."

That set off a red flag in her mind. She suddenly realized she had never asked any of the mercs how long they'd been assaulting the base before getting through. "Wait, how long have you been up here?"

He hesitated to answer. That was only making it worse, though, so he caved and checked his systems. "…just 56 hours."

"Straight?!"

"That's what stims are for!"

"Well, it's no wonder they were wearing you down!"

"You're not about to suggest I should've tried to sleep while I was being shot at, are you?"

"No, but I expect a full explanation for how you got into this mess and two nights' worth of rest after I pull you out of here."

He gave her a look. "Since when do you worry about me?"

"Since this! Now get down!" She all but shoved him to the side to reload as she tossed a grenade into the fray and shot down anyone who tried to escape the blast radius. Then she realized that was the last of the grenades in the stockpile and Cerberus hadn't given her any. With a groan, she turned to her COMM. "How much longer, you guys?"

"Sealing the second shutter now, commander," Jacob answered.

"Well, hurry up. They're starting to get serious."

"'Starting to'?" Garrus retorted as he got back up and readied for the next wave.

She wasn't wrong, though. This wave proved harder. Apparently, vorcha were more effective when they hunted in packs. With such limited supplies and more waves on the way, Terra and Garrus had to resort to more sneaky tactics, like setting each other up for trick shots, having Garrus sabotage their weapons, and even using one of them to draw fire so the other could line up headshots in a chain. It was only when Garrus overloaded a pyro to explode on its entire unit that they realized the assault was slowing down.

"What are they up to now?" Terra questioned. She turned to her COMM. "Are you guys OK down there?"

"Last shutter's closed," Miranda answered, "We're on our way back."

"Then what…?" Then she listened. She could hear a sound like welding metal. Under these circumstances, that was not a good sign. "Garrus?"

He looked at her, his eyes reflecting her concern. He heard it, too. He led her across the room to peer over the railing at the main floor.

She immediately hit her COMM again. "Get back here now! They're breaking through the door!"

She hadn't even finished giving the warning before the door was thrown open and an angry krogan led a squad of vorcha through. "RRRAAAHHH! Rip them to shreds!"

Terra and Garrus answered that by shooting the vorcha on either side of him in the head. Garm himself raced around to charge up the stairs at them. Terra distantly noted a couple more of the vorcha suddenly going down when neither she nor Garrus fired, so Jacob and Miranda must already be nearly back on the main floor. So she put aside the sniper rifle that was about to become absolutely useless and drew her shotgun. She had just enough time to mod it with incendiary rounds before the krogan battle-master charged through the door into the room with them.

"Therum?" Terra asked Garrus.

He nodded. "Therum."

So they ducked to either side when Garm charged and started employing some of the tactics that took down the krogan who had gone after Liara, right down to Terra tackling him to send three shotgun rounds through his face-plate. Unfortunately, Garm regenerated faster than the battle-master this previously worked on and was able to throw Terra with full biotic force into the wall. She put her trust in Garrus to blindside Garm while she recovered, but it wasn't that simple. She was a nuisance, Garrus was the target. Garm immediately turned all his focus on the turian he'd come to kill. Garrus barely had time to dodge the worst of it, the tight space leaving him no room to maneuver around the lesser shots. His shields took the brunt of the damage, but his armor couldn't hold the rest. Right when he had the chance to start firing back, a Claymore round went through his carapace. He stumbled back from the force, clutching the wound in pain as bright blue blood started leaking over his talons. Garm took this opportunity to line up a kill shot…

…and Terra immediately threw herself at him, slamming her entire shotgun into his face. He somehow managed not to lose his footing, but this just gave her a chance to start tearing into him. Not giving him a second in which to recharge his barrier or regenerate, she fired until the trigger clicked then fired a concussive shot into his skull at point-blank range. Even a krogan couldn't recover from that.

Garrus watched in amazement. "You do care."

She ignored the comment, stowing her gun before rushing over to check his wound. "Don't worry, I—" Then she actually checked her medi-gel supply. Stupid Cerberus had apparently neglected to account for the fact that one of the potential recruits they sent her after was a turian and had only bothered to equip her with levo-grade medi-gel.

"There's some in the room down the hall," Garrus informed her when he saw the problem.

She turned to see Jacob and Miranda coming in from dealing with the last of the vorcha. She sent Jacob to grab the medi-gel while she applied pressure to the wound to keep him from losing too much blood. When Jacob came back and tossed one of the packs her way, she immediately started applying it, sighing with relief when the wound almost immediately sealed. "OK. The Blood Pack's finished. It's just the Blue Suns left. I say we make a break for it while we still can."

Garrus nodded as he repaired his armor and checked his rifle. "Tarak's got the toughest group, but it's nothing we haven't faced before. We can probably make it if we—"

That's when the gunship came, shooting out the window on the far side of the room.

"I thought I took that thing out already!" Garrus exclaimed as they took cover.

"They fixed it," Terra informed him, "but not completely."

"They're dropping in reinforcements!" Miranda declared.

Terra quickly drew her assault rifle and shot three of the mercs off the ropes before they could come through the broken window. She tried to get a few shots on the gunship while she was at it, just to wear it down, but it flew out of her range too soon, forcing her to focus fire on the foot soldiers.

"Watch out!" Garrus called, peering over the railing again, "They're dropping reinforcements on the lower level!"

"I'm on it!" Terra responded, leaping over the railing to drop in for herself. She could hear Jacob and Miranda rushing to follow her down (presumably with the stairs since they didn't have cybernetics reinforcing their skeletons) while Garrus finished off the troops dropped on the upper floor, but she didn't need their help to make these mercenaries regret coming near her turian. Four headshots in quick succession and one shotgun incapacitation with only peripheral aim did the intimidation for her, though none of the mercs actually ran, so it was just a matter of time before they all went down. Her shotgun was empty by the end of it, her pistol having been emptied earlier, but she was still certain she had enough left to finish this if they moved fast.

She was certain, that is, until the gunship came back. "ARCHANGEL!"

Garrus had cleared the upper floor by then, but he was straight back into combat mode when he heard that, turning to face the gunship with his rifle armed. He didn't even get the chance to take aim before it opened fire on him.

Terra didn't have a good enough angle from the lower floor to see if he was injured or not, but she wasn't about to wait to find out. All but shoving Jacob and Miranda aside, she rushed back up the stairs.

Garrus was on his hands and knees to take cover. He wasn't bleeding, just winded, so he readied to move in. His shields had been overloaded by that onslaught, though, so he had to be careful. When the shots died down, he rolled out of his hiding place to counterattack right as Terra rounded the corner.

Neither of them so much as raised their weapons before the gunship fired a rocket straight into Garrus' face.

Terra had died before, but she only felt like it when she saw her turian go down. "GARRUS!" She started running to his side without giving herself a chance to think, only remembering to duck down when the gunship started firing again. The fact it was keeping her from his side when she could see him lying there, not moving, azure blood leaking from his side…

This monster had to die.

Tarak was still skirting her range, dropping in reinforcements to take fire for him, but it did nothing to deter her. She took all of one second to order Jacob and Miranda to watch her back because Tarak was hers. Then she drew her sniper rifle and took aim. The gunship itself was already slightly damaged, a fact she capitalized on. She shot through every last one of its most weakly armored points every time it stopped firing for even half a second. As soon as she could, she shot out the glass on the cockpit to expose it. Tarak saw what was happening and started trying to back out. There was no backing out. With one shot, his lower right eye burst open and he lost control. That was the end of that.

Terra didn't allow herself much time to admire the grandeur of the satisfyingly cathartic explosion. The second she was certain it was clear, she was on her knees beside Garrus, checking on him. Please…please don't leave me, not like this. I just got you back, I can't lose you. I can't do this without you. "…I love you," she whispered without realizing it, reaching anxiously for his pulse.

Before she even touched him, his eyes snapped open and he started gasping for breath.

"Garrus!" she gasped, carefully turning him to check the wound. Just at the sight of it, she almost broke down in tears and panic. His armor had fractured under the shot and exposed the entire lower right of his face to it, leaving a mess of broken plates, torn ligaments, and blood. It was too much for medi-gel. He needed a doctor. Suddenly, she remembered Miranda and Jacob were there and turned to them. "Call the Normandy, tell them to prep the med bay."

"Commander, I don't think we should move him—" Miranda started.

"NOW!" If they said one more word, she thought she was going to end up shooting them. It occurred to her that she wouldn't care if she did; she figured she needed Garrus more than she needed either of them and she was more than willing to drag him back to the docking bay all by herself if she needed to.

Luckily, it didn't come to that. They both saw it was best not to argue with her and stepped aside to make sure the ship was ready for them.

Once they were out of earshot, Terra turned back to her turian, cradling him where she could tend the damage. "I'm right here. Stay with me. Just hold on."

He was struggling to stay conscious, fighting pain, his straining vision locked on her. Weakly, he clutched her hand, leaning on her for strength. Reminding himself she had really come back to him. He wanted to say something, though he wasn't sure what he could say at a time like this, but just trying sent flares of pain and heat through his injured right side.

She didn't need to hear it, though. She knew. She held onto him, determined not to let go this time. "…just hold on…"