MASS EFFECT: WINTER EYES

CHAPTER 11: YOU FIGHT ME II

Quickly jerking his body to the right, Garrus avoided the deadly blow as the omni blade scraped against the ship's floor beneath him. Sparks flew from the contact, heating up his skin. He ignored the pain and used the element of surprise by firmly grabbing Raven's arms, throwing her to the side away from him. Liara's voice crackled in his ear comm, "Garrus, are you there?" There was a sense of urgency in her tone.

"I'm kind of busy right now," Garrus gritted through his teeth as he stood back up quickly to confront Raven. He couldn't let the conversation distract him. His adrenaline pumped from the flight or fight mentality. Using his species' famed flexibility skills, he delivered a swift right upper kick that knocked the omni blade off Raven's wrist. The weapon clanged to the floor beside her.

Yelling out, Raven lunged at him again, tackling back to the ground. Her hand grabbing his disclosed pistol out of its holster. Eying the move, he reached out with his arm and grabbed onto the omni blade from the floor beside them, slipping it on. Raven held the pistol barrel at his torso as her thighs pressed down on his body to pin him. Garrus held the point of the blade against her chest, but not firmly enough to do any considerable damage. His breath was rapid as he stared at her in fear. There was so much look of hatred in her eyes. Macha's familiarity was absent. "Shepard, snap out of it!" He strained his voice as he felt the blunt hard weapon against his armor. Even with his kinetic barriers, the proximity of the shot still could do moderate damage to his shields. If she shot, would he dare pierce her with the blade? Would he even have a choice? Did he now?

"This will be for Anderson, you turian bastard!" She hissed through her teeth as daggers seemed to leer at him from her eyes.

"Anderson?!" He gaped at her as he shook his head in disbelief. "Shepard…what are you…. we are on the same side!"

"No, we're not!" Raven jabbed the pistol against him harder.

"I don't know what kind of crap that Charon has been telling you, but it's not true! You are better than that." He kept his blue avian eyes sternly upon her. "You know me, Macha…" His voice softened. "I'm Garrus Vakarian…you and I…we're a team. There's no Shepard without Vakarian. Remember that?" He noticed the pressure from the pistol loosened slightly. Was he getting through to her?

"Macha? Who the hell…" Raven shook her head. "I don't go by that. I've never worked with you." She felt herself struggling to pull the trigger. In the back of her mind, she knew that the conversation was delaying her mission and putting her further at risk. Her body remained frozen. Why couldn't she be done with it already?

"Yes, you have." Garrus slowly inched the blade away from her in an act of good faith as his eyes stayed on her. He gulped slowly, wondering if it was the risk he truly wanted to take at his current predicament. If he was wrong, he was good as dead. "We defeated Saren. You found me on Omega…" He laughed softly. "You have to remember, Archangel. Right?"

Raven lowered her pistol as she moved off him. "Archangel? I…" The name did resonate in her memories, but the meaning eluded her. It felt like a block. Where did she hear that before? How could she? Even if it meant something to her, how did he know? Was it a trick?

"Garrus?!" Liara's panicked voice came through the ship's radio and intercom system. "Are you alright?! I'm sending C-Sec your way."

"Fuck." Disgruntled at another failed mission, Raven delivered a hard kick at Garrus' center, catching him off guard, sending him reeling across the room. His back struck the wall hard and the impact dazed him. This gave her time to move quickly out of the ship and back onto the port. Her eyes darted quickly to gather her surroundings. She ran out of time and now the clock was ticking against her. She had to make it to her designated getaway before the entire place was on lockdown. Ignoring the idea of being discreet, she shoved bystanders out of the way that were busy doing their own business among the docking area and darted towards another ship. Luckily, the New Citadel was still a large vessel to where it could have several smaller ships docked at one time.

Garrus regained his composure and darted in the same direction she went out of the ship. A few startled dock workers were grumbling by the sudden discord, but he couldn't make out where she went. "Where did she go?!"

"The C-Sec officer went that way!" A green tone salarian thumbed away from their location. "I'm going to report her!"

Garrus shoved him to the side, ignoring the salarian's protest and moved through the crowd. "Out of the way!" He tapped his ear comm. "Liara!"

"Garrus, what is going on?!" His friend replied on the other end.

"Shepard is here! We need this place on lockdown! I can't lose her!" He screamed as his eyes darted desperately around the area. There were several ships docked with workers nearby. No sign of any disturbance. Did she sneak on board? Did she make it to the elevator to leave the area to another part of the ship? How far out did she plan this? He needed more bodies to aid in the search. With her tactical cloak, she had the capability to sneak past others without detection. "Hey! Did a female human with purple hair come by here?" He stopped a turian worker.

The worker shook his head. "No."

Garrus eyed the ship suspiciously. The ramp was open, so it didn't mean she couldn't get onboard. "Crap. Don't take off as scheduled. Watch the hatch. If you see her, alert the authorities."

"We are on a schedule. I can't- "The turian protested.

"Just do it!" Garrus yelled back as he moved onto the next ship. His breath ragged as his anxiety was through the roof.

"About damn time you showed up." The Asian descent male greeted Raven as she raced up to his vessel. "We almost left."

"Go now!" Raven shoved him inside as she moved to quickly get out of sight. She engaged her cloak to move through the crowds until she reached the designated vessel on the last berth. "They are going to lock this place down!"

"Shit!" The man raced to the pilot's chair. He put on his headset as he warmed up the engines. "C-Sec Control, this is Eden Delta. We are behind schedule. I'm departing now."

Raven anxiously listened in as she stood at the doorway. Her heart raced in her chest as she glanced out the viewport to the dock workers below. There was no sign of Garrus or any others looking for her nearby. They had to leave…and they had to do it now.

"You are clear, Eden Delta." A turian officer's voice came back seconds later. "Safe travels."

"Omega. Fun place." The pilot sarcastically said. A ploy. Their destination was not the asteroid station, but it would be in the books should any investigation look into their departure. "See you on the flip side." He severed the connection before any communique came through. A human joke would be missed by the turian and he didn't want to try to explain it to their species.

Satisfied that they were leaving, Raven settled down in the passenger hold and restrained herself. Her eyes still worrisome glanced over at the hatch. "Come on, damnit…" She huffed under her breath as she felt the ship break away from the magnetic hold. The engines roared louder as they began their ascent away from the ship and towards the relay. One of the few that was salvaged and repaired after the catalyst's effect. Their true destination after the relay would be to jump to Amaranthine. A planet located in the Fortuna System of the Horsehead Nebular cluster. Its frozen surface discouraged any travelers, but its rich deposits of thorium and other heavy metals made it perfect for mining camps and smugglers. She would be dropped off at one of the ports until her connection back to basecamp arrived. Despite the relay, the journey would still take several long hours and would have given her time to rest from her mission. Instead, she needed the time to reflect upon her incursion with Garrus. His words seem to haunt her. Who exactly was he? A knot formed in her stomach. Were pieces of the puzzle missing?

"What is going on?" Sparatus finally asked as he watched the troubled asari in his office as she contacted Garrus. "Is he still on this ship? I thought you said he went to Palaven."

"Goddess…" Liara could hear the sense of urgency in Garrus' tone. Something must have happened. Was he alright? Was Shepard truly there? "We need to get C-Sec to lockdown the ship!"

"What?! I just can't-," Her vagueness frustrated him.

"Charon is here! They tried to assassinate Garrus!" She turned on him sharply. "If you want the war with the krogan to end, we need to keep Garrus alive!"

The councilor remained still as he pondered what she told him. "Charon? What are you talking about?"

"Fucking sake…" Kaidan grumbled under his breath as he moved closer to approach the troubled councilor. "It's Cerberus! Just do what she says!"

Eying the Spectre, Sparatus swiftly moved to his desk and paged Kandros. "This is Sparatus. We have a situation onboard. I want the entire place on lockdown right now! No ship is to leave."

"Understood, sir." Kandros responded punctually. "I'm on it. I'll dispatch officers to the docks right now."

Liara looked at her team. "I think the ambassador will have to wait. Let's get down to the dock." She purposefully hid that Shepard was the one who attacked their friend. She couldn't divulge this until they got the situation under control. She knew that Weyrloc Pandok would not be pleased to know that she was once against pushed aside, but the alarm on the ship could give them some leverage in keeping her calm. The krogan were irate enough and a hostile one onboard the station was out of the question.

Destitana greeted them after they met up with Garrus down at the dock. "All ships have been instructed to halt their departure. I have a lot of angry merchants. What's going on?"

Garrus looked at his friends before saying anything. "It was Charon. A group behind several recent assassinations."

"We think they are behind the attack on Korlus." Liara added.

"What do they want here?" The C-Sec Captain inquired.

"Apparently to take me out." Garrus muttered. "Are you sure all ships are accounted for?" Did he manage to keep Raven on the New Citadel? If it was, it would be to their advantage. She had nowhere to go and eventually could be found. The New Citadel was not riddled with Keeper tunnels like the old station. Not many hiding places.

Destitana pulled up her omni tool. "One merchant ship did manage to leave but they were scheduled to do so. A few minutes late, but not out of pattern for merchant ships."

Garrus silently cursed. One did slip away… "Where was it heading?"

"Its manifest flagged it for Omega."

"Thank you, Captain." Vakarian motioned Liara with his hand at his side. He needed to speak with her and the others about what really transpired.

"Alright. I need to follow up on a few things and report back to Sparatus. As if an upset krogan on here was bad enough…" Kandros moved away to address her fellow officers.

"Keelah, Garrus, are you alright?" Tali finally asked after she was sure that Kandros could not hear their conversation. "Was it…Shepard?"

"Yeah…the reunion was not pleasant." He winced from his body aching after the tumble. "I think I got through to her."

"What do you mean? Was it her?" Miranda looked at him.

"It…has to be. Her name eludes her, so they must have changed it. She hesitated on killing me." He allowed himself to sigh in relief. "Thankfully."

"Wait…how it can be possible? The reports said she was dead after the destruction of the Citadel. We all know she went into the beam after Harbinger's attack." Miranda shook her head in disbelief.

"Of all the people, you Miranda, should know it is quite possible to resurrect her." Liara smiled slightly to her. "I obtained Shepard's body to help Cerberus achieve the feat before. If Charon is a branch of Cerberus, they would have all your data on the Lazarus project."

"What if it's another clone?" Tali asked, recalling their entanglement with the rogue clone on the Citadel prior to their defeat of the Reapers. "That was Cerberus as well."

"Two clones?" Miranda asked incredulously.

"Even you didn't know about the clone, Miranda." Liara pointed out. "It seems that the Illusive Man was hiding more than he shared."

"I wonder what else he hid from me…" The ex-operative seethed. "Maybe, I should reach out to Jacob and Brie. See what they know."

"Good idea. With being an ex-Cerberus scientist, she may know more about this." Garrus looked over to the asari once more. "We should hit up Omega. See if we can find what happened to the ship."

T'Soni facepalmed. "That means dealing with Aria again."

"Hold it." Kaidan broke into the conversation after sitting back to think on the matter while they talked. He was out of the loop for most of their dealings with Charon, but he remembered the legalities of the situation when Shepard was determined to track down the rogue agent, Saren Arterius. The search called for a greater amount of resources than what the Alliance had. It required the aid of the Council to have some sort of authority. C-Sec only reached within the boundaries of Council Space. "What if we do find the ship on Omega? We can't simply just detain it. Omega is part of the Terminus systems."

"He's right." Miranda agreed. "Aria won't care for what's going between the krogan and turian, much less than the attack here.

"Council law cannot invoke its rule there." Alenko continued. "You're talking about sparking another war with the Terminus systems. We don't need another open war. We're four minutes to midnight now with the krogan."

"I just can't let her go back to them!" Garrus felt his emotions rushing out of his mouth before he had time to think about what he was saying. He needed to find Shepard. He needed to get through to her. They couldn't hide her allegiance to Charon much longer. If it came out that the ex-Commander of the Alliance and former Spectre was now working with a terrorist group, the Council would quickly label her as a traitor. Even more so if she did manage to finally assassinate someone. She faced trial before on Earth for her crimes against the batarian race after the destruction of the relay in the Aratoht system. He had to remain on the sidelines while she faced judgment. He wasn't about to let it happen again. Admiral Hackett backed her, which helped her. He was retired, and Anderson was dead. No one was there to truly have her back in the Alliance.

"I'll talk to the human ambassador to see if the Council will grant me permission to head to the Terminus system to investigate this further. I won't mention Shepard. I promise." He pleaded to his old comrade gently. "It's better than the alternative."

"Good idea, Kaidan." T'Soni smiled at him warmly. "Thank you."

"I'll go with you. "As part of the Admirality Board of Rannoch, I still have some push on this station." Tali stepped forward to take his side.

"In the meantime, we will find passage to Omega. We'll wait for your signal." Liara ushered Garrus towards the merchant ships. "We can get Kandros to clear one for us."

"I'll go find Jacob." Miranda waved to them as she took down the corridor towards the public terminals.

Garrus stood there as everyone parted their own way. He sighed sadly and shook his head as he looked at the blue asari. "Heh, I hate to say it. This almost seems like old times."

"What do you mean?" Liara asked as she led him towards the row of ships.

"Heading to the Terminus systems to track down a rogue agent…needing the Council's help."

"Just never thought the rogue agent would be Shepard."