Chapter 10: Mistakes Were Made

Miranda wandered through the crowded streets of Omega wondering how Aria kept so much control. Most people here literally lived along the sides of the roads in their own filth. If they rose up together, they could easily take out the pirate queen and make a better life for themselves. Hell, since the gangs were blowing each other up right now Aria would have even fewer soldiers protecting her, so, the question became; why wasn't the populace snatching up this opportunity? Did they all truly believe Aria's freedom was the best way to live? If that was the case, Miranda had inherited yet another catastrophe from her dear old friend Cora. Luckily, The Illusive Man wanted her to focus on the mission with Shepard before dealing with this mess.

She followed the marker Feron had provided to Cora's old safehouse with a strong sense of caution. While The Illusive Man insisted Cora had been dealt with for her betrayal, he refused to say how. Miranda would've been a fool if she didn't assume Cora was still out there and plotting against her. Walking around the corner, Miranda saw the supposed safehouse still had a small fire coming off the roof from the Archangel raid last week. Miranda couldn't help but smile looking at the destruction of the base. Even though she hadn't been responsible, it was still satisfying imagining what that bitch's expression was when everything went to shit here. The door was blown off it's hinges so, Miranda just started to walk in.

Feron approached her carrying some omni papers, "That was quick, The Illusive Man claimed you'd meet me here soon but-"

She cut him off feeling like she needed to hurry back to Shepard, "I need a situation report and the Collector data. Then I'll be on my way and you can continue with whatever The Illusive Man has you doing here."

Normally in a meeting like this, Miranda and Feron would talk for several hours developing plans for what should come next. He had proved himself many times over as an asset to the organization and so, he was the one man Miranda felt like she could trust completely. However, with Cora still on the loose, she didn't exactly feel safe in Cora's base. There could still be recording devices in here just waiting to catch her say something incriminating against Cora. As far as Miranda knew, The Illusive Man knew nothing about their feud for the past two years and she wanted to keep it that way. Also, as much as she trusted Jacob, it was a bad idea to keep him alone on a mission with Jack for too long.

Feron leaned back against the couch that had been tossed on it's side during the fighting, "The short version then. Cora was able to manipulate the leader of the Talons into thinking Aria kidnapped her little sister. Feeling desperate, she turned to Archangel to make a move on Afterlife. At the same time, Cora planted information here suggesting Aria knew something about Shepard's disappearance, that he was still alive and a trophy for Aria. Naturally, the two groups teamed up to make a move on Aria. Cora gave the mercenary groups a tip and it was a war for Afterlife. It's been a bloody retreat back to Archangel's base for the past twelve hours."

Miranda was very disappointed at how sloppy this plan seemingly was, Leng supposedly taught Cora better than that. Her 'genius' plan to kill Aria was based all around people taking the bait. What if neither group had bought that Aria was the mastermind behind all of their problems? Cora should've known that Aria's now most assuredly ex-lover wouldn't have the guts to kill her, even for her sister. If she had actually been serious about killing Aria, Cora should've been in her office and taken the shot herself. The way Miranda saw it, all this plan did was weaken or eliminate all of Aria's enemies, only making the Asari's grip on Omega stronger.

Miranda folded her arms and her brain raced trying to think out the next few steps, "So is Archangel dead in the water then? Do we know what he has left?"

Feron shrugged while biting his lower lip, "Unfortunately, the Blue Suns have his base blockaded so I couldn't get a current head count. However, when they were cleaning bodies away from Afterlife, I only saw Talons and Blood Pack bodies. If I had to guess? Most of Archangel's core group is still alive along with Talon leadership. They won't last long though with the combined assault of all three of the other gangs."

Another failing of Cora's popped into her mind, because of this deception, Kal'Reegar knew there was a possibility of Shepard being alive. The plan once she knew he was alive was to keep them as separate as possible. His relationship with the Batarian would've eventually turned into something, and her hope was Shepard would decide to stay in the shadows with Cerberus to not mess that up. Now, the best case scenario was Kal was still alive in the fighting and she would have to swallow her pride and save him for the good of the mission. The worst case scenario was Kal was already dead and Shepard would find out leading to an inevitable downward spiral of depression. Either way, even with Cora out of the picture, she was still finding a way to screw up Miranda's mission for her own motivations.

Miranda shook her head trying to contain the urge to lash out, "I need to get to Archangel's base then as soon as possible. Where's the Collector data you said you found at Lazarus station?"

Feron put his webbed, green hand on his forehead, "About that..."

_o0o0o0o_

Kal punched him again hearing the opaque red glass from the visor crack from the force of his fist. Unlike Kal, Golo was going to die in a few hours from exposure to the outside air. Someone had sold out the location of their base so, when they retreated, the gangs were already waiting for them. While he was confident Golo hadn't known where they had been hiding until last night, he was sure Golo knew which member of their team had flipped on them. If he had to make a guess, Kal was leaning towards Jax. The Salarian bosh'tet had sold them out before for credits.

Golo laughed and howled at the same time, "Oooh, look at you go! Now that Archangel doesn't have his leash on you, your finally able to show your true colors!"

Kal hit the visor again to make sure there was a break in the seal, "Who told Tarak where we were staying?! I know it wasn't Mandaria so, who?!"

The other Quarian crawled backwards towards a corner, "Haha, hehehe... I told you Kal that we weren't that different the last time we met... You didn't believe me, well let's look at what you've done tonight-"

Kal cut him off and pulled him to his feet, "Quit stalling! Your little white haired biotic bitch friend isn't going to save you! So, who sold us out?!"

Instead of answering, Golo tried to throw a fist at him, Kal dodged the strike and used his knee to hit him in the gut. Kal then grabbed the other Quarian's free arm and snapped it backwards from the elbow. He couldn't help but smile from the satisfying cracking noise it made. They had been chasing the Quarian slave trader for awhile now, it would be good to finally kill him. In response, Golo tried to use the gun that was up the sleeve of his good arm but, Kal let go of the arm he was breaking to spin away from the shot. He then grabbed the gun and used his grip to flip Golo back on the ground.

Kal stood over him now with his own gun drawn, "Last chance Golo, who sold us out?"

Golo was panting and clinging to the bad arm, "Maybe you should look at your lovely Batarian protector... I'm sure he would do anything to keep you safe and happy."

Kal stepped on the other Quarian's neck and pulled back the safety on his gun, "Your lying, Erash would never do that. He didn't have any debts with the Blue Suns."

Golo started laughing again, "You still think that the base you raided was Blue Suns? Hahahaha... It was a Cerberus base.. You've all been tricked by the daughter of The Illusive Man. Hahahaha, hehehe. You can bet everyone has a price that Cerberus was willing to pay."

Kal pulled the trigger blowing Golo's brains out, he wasn't going to have a repeat of what happened on Noveria. His immediate hope was that Golo was lying to create division in the group in their darkest hour but, too many things made sense. Despite the very complicated set of emotions he had with Erash, the Batarian told him it wasn't going to work out, not the other way around. After the raid on what they thought was a Blue Suns base, Erash was the primary motivator in getting him to believe Jack could be still alive. At the time, Kal just believed the hacker was just extra confident in the data but, what if he had extra information from the source?

He was about to comm Garrus with the news when he heard the sewer alarm go off. Shit, the gangs had found the back entrance and were coming in. Kal leveled his shotgun at the door and slowly approached hoping it was just a few scouts. It would be best to just kill them and then tell Garrus they needed to leave. If the back entrance was truly compromised, they were all going to die in here with no way to get out. The footsteps towards the door he was watching suddenly stopped and Kal tensed, something was wrong.

The floor beneath him slipped out from under him and Kal slid across the ground. Great, biotics from a large distance, that meant Eclipse. Aria really did have it in for them if she had hired the Asari gang for this mission. On second thought, it was probably Tarak that paid them, Aria didn't actually want to kill Mand tonight. The two could deny it all they wanted but, Kal could see Aria and Mand had feelings for each other. However, his thoughts were thrown for a loop when a male Turian with blue eyes and dark gray armor stood over him.

The Turian's voice was cold and commanding, "Where is my brother? You have three seconds."

He hadn't actually seen Saren in his journey on the Normandy but, he recognized Saren Arterius standing above him now. Garrus watched a video recording of the pair at his military graduation for months after arriving on Omega. Kal wasn't sure how it was possible since he had been killed by Garrus but, there wasn't another explanation. All Kal knew was that if Saren was here, it definitely wasn't for anything good.

Kal luckily kept a hold of his shotgun in the fall, "Keelah you too?! The Blooys must be getting really desperate." He took a shot hoping to surprise him.

Saren ducked away from the poorly aimed shot and lifted him against a wall with biotics, "Two!"

Kal saw another Human sprinting down the sewer tunnel towards them and so, he took a shot over Saren's head at him, "Go to hell bosh'tet!"

The Human scrambled for cover avoiding the shot because of the distance before yelling, "Jesus lover boy, cool it would you?"

Saren snarled grabbing Kal's ankle and started twisting it, "I'm going to kill each and every one of you until you take me to my brother." He put his own pistol to Kal's faceplate with his free hand, "I believe that was one."

The Human yelled to Saren, "Freeze all motor functions! Put him down, he's not our enemy."

Kal groaned when he fell to the floor on his ankle, it was surely broken, "What the hell is going on here?"

He could tell Saren was fighting with himself, wanting to pull the trigger, "This filthy, idiotic, pawn of a Human thinks I can be controlled.." Saren looked at the Human, "I swear to the spirits that if you cause the death of my baby brother, I WILL break these restraints and end you."

The Human shook his head and approached Kal, "I didn't put that chip in ya amigo, I swear.. Names Arnold Vega, we're here to save you and Garrus."

Kal blinked staring up at Arnold, "Jack still has nightmares about Akuze. Why should I trust you?"

Saren seemed free to move about and stormed past Arnold, "Because we're the only ones that can get you out of my brother's mistake..."